One week of silence was quickly followed by another week of a great lot of events, unfolding right now and triggering today's bull run
Bitcoin block size reached its all-time high
On February, 12th, Bitcoin block size has reached 1.3 MB surpassing all-time high of 2017 bull run. This means that there are more transactions than usual. In the same day, Bitcoin unconfirmed transactions grew significantly to approx 60,000,000. To conclude, this indicates considerable trading activities on Bitcoin Network.
NASDAQ adds two new crypto indices
On February 11th, Nasdaq released an announcement about adding two new financial products on Feb, 25th, they are Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX). Both indices are used to provide a real-time spot or reference rate for the price of 1 BTC and 1 ETH respectively, quoted in USD, and based on the most liquid ends of their markets and it will be calculated using a methodology that has been independently audited against key IOSCO principles.
Luxembourg passed a new bill recognizing tokenized securities as traditional securities
The announcement was published on Thursday with only two parliament representative vote against it. The bill legalizes securities token allowing investors and stakeholders to buy and sell, thus providing certainty and making the transfer more efficient.
Grayscale estimated that 66% of their capital inflow is from institutional investors
The report was shared on Feb, 14th showing that the company achieved a new capital inflows worths $30.1 million. Additionally, the full year inflow achieved $359.5 million which is triple compared to 2017 bull market. Furthermore, their Bitcoin Trust remains the most attractive product accounting for 88% of the total inflows.
Baidu launched their own blockchain engine
Baidu, the China internet giant has launched its own blockchain engine. According to their cloud Computing division, Baidu Blockchain Engine (BBE) is designed to resolve the current shortages of Blockchain. Additionally, the team also asserts that BBE is a “trusted computing environment, high performance and high throughput, scalable storage, cross-chain trusted interactions, smart contract support, and contract security audits”.
RippleNet saw a new participant
Kuwaiti bank, Ah Ali Bank of Kuwait (ABK) announced a partnership with Ripple. ABK said they would integrate Ripple’s technology into existing infrastructure to facilitate and speed up transactions time. Ripple is growing stronger and stronger each day. However, one should consider that JPMorgan already joined the game. A few questions have been raised whether JPMorgan will be the main competitor of XRP as they are issuing JPM Coin, a stablecoin for borderless payments and other cross-border payments.
BlockchainTransparency released the latest report about exchanges volume in December
Binance, Bitfinex, and Liquid are the most transparent exchange with zero artificial volume while the rest keep showing the sign of wash trading.
SEC starts reviewing rule changes for NYSE Arca's BTC ETF
In a recent notice, SEC has started taking further look into NYSE Arca's BTC ETF. Additionally, the general public can submit feedbacks, views, and arguments on the website. However, it should be taken into consideration that the decision still under thorough review and it can be delayed further.
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