COMMERCE GAINS: Although bitcoin adoption may move at a glacial pace, merchants are seeing sustained traction regardless of market dips. According to BitPay, the payment processor facilitated $1 billion in crypto transactions in 2019, while Coinbase said its commerce arm processed $135 million-worth – a 600 percent increase since 2018. Full story
WINKLEVOSS IP: The Winklevoss brothers, founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, won a flurry of U.S. patents related to a stablecoin they say could be used by commercial banks. The six patents, awarded between August 2019 and January 2020 outline a system based on the brothers' Gemini dollar (GUSD) stablecoin. Full story
BITCOIN BRANDING: Twitter founder Jack Dorsey announced Sunday that Twitter users now have access to a bitcoin emoji that appears automatically after "#bitcoin" or "#btc" are posted in tweets. Dorsey's message also tagged Unicode, possibly pushing for the introduction of a BTC emoji that can be used across all web platforms. Full story
GREEN LIGHT: The Monetary Authority of Singapore granted approval for tokenized securities trading firm iSTOX to operate in the city-state after the startup graduated from the central bank’s fintech regulatory sandbox. Full story
NO PLEA: Reginald Fowler, a former investor of the U.S. football team Minnesota Vikings, has rejected a plea deal with the U.S. government in an ongoing case that accuses him of operating "shadow bank" services tied to crypto exchanges. Full story |
|
|
|
|
| CROSS COMING: Bitcoin's spike to three-month highs above $9,600 early on Monday was quickly undone with a drop back to $9,300. The pullback signals temporary bull fatigue and a downside break at the recent price range of $9,200-$9,600. Further dips, if any, are likely to be short-lived as key averages are about to produce a major bullish crossover that’s appearing for the first time since March 2019. Full story |
|
|
|
