The second half of January was not a great time in the life of cryptocurrency markets. Bitcoin lost over 60% of its value, the overall market cap more than halved and mainstream media was once again filled with doom and gloom. Stories of bubbles and tulips and Ponzi schemes were regurgitated and circulated by the legacy press as they desperately tried to kick crypto while it was down .... and hopefully so hard it never got back up again.
Meanwhile back in the real world, a world where facts and rationality are given precedence over gossip and ignorance, there was actually a lot of very good news for Blockchain, Bitcoin and all things crypto. News conveniently buried by the mainstream in order to mindlessly pursue their prejudged political narrative and maintain the low standards of never being impartial when it comes to these paradigm changing technologies.
With this in mind here is a quick catch-up on some of the positive, progressive and factual news you may have missed due to the torrent of propaganda spewing out of the mainstream.
Bitcoin ATMs Sell at Record Rates
Suppliers of Bitcoin ATMs (BTMs) are one of the industries that will not be worrying about the drop in the markets recently as installations of their machines continues to surge. The global total of BTMs is presently 2,191 with around 43% able to support alt coins as well. New machines are being installed at an average rate of 5 per day. In 2017 the number of BTMs went up over 100% from 954 globally on Jan 1st to 2,028 on December 31st. That trend looks set to continue in 2018 with US, Canada and the UK leading the way.
Find a BTM near you .... https://coinatmradar.com/
Canada Launches Blockchain ETF
A little over a month after the first US launched its first Blockchain ETFs on Nasdaq Canada has followed suit. The Ontario Securities Commission gave the go ahead for investors to participate in Blockchain Technology sector with the Exchange Trading Fund (ETF) launched on the Toronto Stock Exchange today.
Ebay and Starbucks both considering Cryptocurrency Payments
As cryptocurrency moves more into mainstream adoption major retail companies are being forced to take notice. Two recent names linked to accepting cryptocurrency payments are Ebay and Starbucks. Ebay has recently ended its 15 year relationship with PayPal and is said to be looking for alternative payment methods. Crypto payments may not yet be the first choice for the online auction site but given the advantages of blockchain technologies its only a matter of time.
Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz has recently made some very positive comments about crypto leading to many believing the company, which was an early adopter of mobile payments, may in the near future move towards adoption of Blockchain technologies. He did however say that if this were to happen it would not be Bitcoin that would be considered, good news for Alts nevertheless.
Two Major airlines Integrate Crypto
Peach Aviation, japans number one budget airline has recently announced plans to start accepting Bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies for ticket payments. Peach is said to be looking forward to creating cryptocurrency tie-ins with regional governments and corporations in order to spread wider usage of the new payment technology. Not to be out done Singapore airlines is set to launch the first Blockchain based loyalty application. In a press release issued Monday the airline announced a Blockchain based app for its “Kris-Flyer program had passed a “successful proof of concept exercise”
Abu Dhabi National Bank Partners with Ripple
Last week cryptocurrency project Ripple paved the way for blockchain technologies when it announced it had partnered with the National bank of Abu Dhabi to provide a platform for payments. This news of integration with the United Arab Emirates biggest lender serves to further legitimise the use of Blockchain Tech within the banking and financial sector and also gave me the opportunity to make this meme ...... 🤣
SEC Meeting was surprisingly positive.
The SEC and CFTC met on Monday to discuss the future roles the commissions will play in the ever developing world of Blockchain, Virtual currency and initial Coin offerings. Unlike most authoritarian meetings this actually had a fairly positive tone and the participants didn’t trawl out the same tired misunderstandings of the technology but at least tried to be moderately impartial. Markets reacted well to the meeting and the future is looking bright for Crypto. Most in the community were particularly amused to see chairmen of the CFTC J. Christopher Giancarlo use the term “Hodl” and to express an overall enthusiastic stance on the Blockchain technologies.
So as we can see there is plenty on the horizon to be excited about, Blockchain and crypo are only just getting started and will change the world as we know, so why not take the advice of the chairman of the CFTC no less ........ and "HODL" 🚀
More Recent @Gamma-Rat Articles ..... https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@gamma-rat/the-10-best-crypto-bargains-get-in-now-before-the-moon-shot
Join my telegram Channel for Early News and Discussion on Promising Crypto's
t.me/gamma_crypto