Crypto Market Update (19 February 2018)

Market Analysis Report
19 February 2018

MVIS-CryptoCompare Index

The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index has closed at 8,931.04 with a loss of 3.82% for the day.

See the live index here

Market Update

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is sitting at $10,810 representing a gain of 4.3% in the last 24 hours. More than $1.1B worth of BTC were exchanged in the BTC/USD market representing a 21% share of the global daily volume. The BTC/JPY pair that represents a 54% share.

The Ethereum price has risen 2.2% over the past 24 hours and is currently sitting at $940, with over $250M worth of Ether exchanged in the past 24 hours on the ETH/USD pair which has a 27.2% market share of the daily trading volume.

See live charts hereand here

White House Official: Crypto Regulation Not Anytime Soon

A White House official said last Friday that legislation around cryptocurrencies is unlikely to materialize anytime soon.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, White House cybersecurity coordinator and special assistant to the president, Rob Royce, offered the dour assessment amidst a recent flurry of discussion on cryptocurrency regulation, which is playing out between Senate hearings, enforcement actions and public op-eds, according to CNBC. The White House cybersecurity coordinator said:

"I think we're still absolutely studying and understanding what the good ideas and bad ideas in that space are. So I don't think [cryptocurrency regulation] it's close."
Read more here

Visa & Worldpay Take Blame For Duplicate Charges On Coinbase

Visa and payment processing company Worldpay issued a joint statement on the Coinbase blog, on Feb. 17, taking responsibility for charging Coinbase customers multiple times for the same transaction. Before admitting fault in the statement published by Coinbase, Visa had at first blamed Coinbase, telling the Financial Times on Feb. 16 that it had not made any systems changes that would result in the duplicate transactions cardholders are reporting. However, the latest statement from Visa and Worldpay reads:

“Worldpay and Coinbase have been working with Visa and Visa issuing banks to ensure that duplicate transactions have been reversed and appropriate credits have been posted to cardholder accounts”
Read more here

PC Giant Lenovo Seeks Blockchain Validation Patent

A new Lenovo patent filing suggests that the Chinese technology giant could be looking to use blockchain as part o a system for verifying the validity of physical documents.

In an application released by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last Thursday, Lenovo describes a set-up that utilizes digital signatures encoded in physical documents, which can be processed by computers and other machines, to verify the legitimacy of a document. The application was first submitted in August 2016, public records show. Lenovo describes its product:

"Using the security blockchain, anyone can validate that they have the current authentic physical document even if multiple paper copies exist and multiple people have made entries in the chain of modification. To validate a paper copy, a user of the electronic device takes a picture of the printed code on the physical document."
Read more here

HELBIZ: The Decentralized AirBnB for Transportation - Closes $5,5m Presale and Launches ICO Backed by AlphaBit

Helbiz, the decentralized AirBnB for transportation, closed its $5.5m presale early and partnered with two of the largest crypto funds AlphaBit and Binary Financials within the first day of its ICO.

Helbiz, and its proprietary smartphone lock technology are bringing Uber convenience to the peer-to-peer car sharing market. It allows renters to book and unlock any private vehicle on the platform directly from their phone and drive within seconds of seeing a car, with full insurance. Helbiz further enables owners to rent out their vehicles without any need for communication or key exchanges. Through a combination of blockchain and proprietary hardware Helbiz is able to automate the entire rental process thereby solving the key issues of today’s services, essential for car sharing to become an integrated part of our daily lives. The car-sharing platform will launch Q2 of 2018 in Los Angeles.

The ICO token, HBZ, is an ERC20 utility token aimed at all transportation services. It will be the preferred payment method of the entire Helbiz network already including 2000 yachts and 5000 planes through strategic partners Royal Yachts and Encore Jets. Funds raised via ICO will mainly be used for product and business development; including the installation of smartphone locks in participating vehicles, on-boarding car owners, users, and strategic partners and other blockchain players to increase token usability.

The ICO will distribute 480m tokens and end March 4th. Learn more here

Betting on Blockchain With Dragon Inc.

(ASEAN – January 22, 2018) Dragon Inc. is now officially ready to launch its Casino & VIP rooms blockchain-based solution after successfully raising more than USD $6 million in Pre-Token Sale funding for their project in December 2017.

Together with the $265 million already raised from institutional investors, and the USD $48 million raised from the Pre-Token Sale stage, Dragon Inc has now raised USD $320 million in capital before the Public Token Sale opens – already making this the biggest crowdsale to-date.

“With the start of 2018 we must look back at 2017 and give heartfelt thanks to our supporters, both internally and externally. Dragon would not be where we are today without the on-going sharing of knowledge and amazing support they have received to create a truly remarkable Dragon community and allow Dragon to rise across the international stage,” says Paul Moynan, Co-Founder of Dragon Inc.

With the momentum growing across the Blockchain and gaming industry related sectors alike, the company finds the Dragon Blockchain ecosystem becoming the entertainment token of choice.