Today’s Top News
Tezos has become a top 10 cryptocurrency
Tezos rallied last week to enter into the top 10 club. Currently trading at $1.70, it rose to a high of $1.84 on Friday, December 13. The market cap is riding near the $1.12 million mark, putting it above Stellar, Cardano, Tron, and Monero. In other Tezos news, Coinbase has edged out Polychain Labs to be Tezos’ largest validator. — CRYPTO POTATO
Image from Crypto Potato.
Tether sponsors Bitcoin tokenization layer Omni
Tether is sponsoring the development of Omni Core 0.7.0, a system that allows for token creation on the Bitcoin (BTC) network. One of the features of the update includes a decentralized exchange that would allow users to trade any on-chain asset for BTC. Tether is also a target for a New York Attorney General legal action related to a $700 USD loan to sister company Bitfinex. — COIN TELEGRAPH
Ethereum still leads in smart contracts
Ethereum accounts for 72 percent of the smart contract market share, according to a report from TokenInsight. The blockchain’s market cap is down to 9.8 percent from 14.9 percent. Other prominent smart contract platforms include EOS, Cardano, Tron, NEO, Cosmos, Tezos, Ontology, VeChain, and Ethereum Classic. — BITCOIN EXCHANGE GUIDE
Image from TokenInsight.
XRP hits new record on liquidity
The XRP/MXN transaction volume jumped over $9 million USD on Mexico’s largest crypto exchange Bitso after the exchange added $1 million USD on its liquidity index. XRP’s daily progress is 42 percent. Western Union has run tests with Ripple technology and claims it is 5 times more expensive than its own money transfer system. Stateside, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) cites Ripple in its proposed changes to the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, which will raise the remittance requirement for defining services as remittance transfer providers from 100 to 500. — RIPPLE COIN NEWS
Image from @LiquidityB on Twitter.
Investors want to exhume the body of QuadrigaCX founder
30-year-old Gerald Cotten was the founder of Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX when he died of complications related to Crohn’s Disease last year. He alone held the keys to $137 million in cryptocurrency held in digital wallets for the exchange’s 115,000 customers. Rumors are now circulating that he faked his death and ran off with the money. Investors want his body exhumed. — NEW YORK POST
Today’s Bitcoin Chart
Today’s Most Interesting Content
Young Bitcoin millionaire space drops crypto into Ghana
Erik Finman made a bet with his parents in high school. He bet that if he became a millionaire by age 18, then he wouldn’t have to go to college. He invested $1,000 in Bitcoin and dropped out of high school at 15. Now 21, he is heavily invested in Metal Pay. He recently sent $1,000 in MTL, Metal Pay’s token, to a school in Ghana to repair the school’s roof and make other improvements. — BUSINESS INSIDER
16-year-old Syrian refugee teaches crypto basics in Iraq
Yousif Mohamed Nor Aldeen is a Syrian refugee in the Arbat refugee camp in Iraq. He’s also 16 years old. With his family still in Damascus, Aldeen teaches other refugees in the camp about cryptocurrency. He himself is an ether holder. — COINDESK
Image from Hello Future.
An in-depth look at stablecoins
This interview with Zilliqa Vice President of Growth and Strategy Arthur Cheong is a good introduction into the Zilliqa blockchain, the first project successfully built on sharded architecture. Recently, Zilliqa announced it will provide the infrastructure for stablecoin StraitsX. — VALUEWALK
Pomp celebrates 200 episodes of Off The Chain
Pioneer crypto investor Anthony Pompliano welcomes Polina Marinova on his 200th episode of Off The Chain. Pomp asked listeners to tweet their questions. — YOUTUBE
BitClub Network scams buyers for $722 million
Russ Medlin is a convicted child pornographer and sexual assailant of a minor, but he’s also the CEO of BitClub Network (BCN), which is being accused of running a scam. Interestingly, he’s not being targeted for the crime that bilked customers of $722 million. BCN allegedly charged $99 to join a mining pool, but the company didn’t own any mining technology. Three men have been arrested in connection with the crime while two more are on the run. Bitcoin Cash evangelist Roger Ver has distanced himself from the company. — THE DAILY BEAST
Allen Taylor is a veteran award-winning journalist and former newspaper editor. He is a freelance writer focused on fintech, including blockchain and crypto projects, and manages crypto blogs through CryptoBloggers. Follow me on Twitter and Steemit.