Bitcoin rate keeps falling on June 7th, 2018.

Let us know that Bitcoin experiences a long period of stagnation after reaching its all-time high in 2017 – $20 000. In addition, the first cryptocurrency did not manage to exceed $10 000 in the first half of 2018.
However, Clem Chambers, CEO of ADVFN, believes that bitcoin is deemed to exceed amazing rates of 2017, but only after its cost drops even lower.

The head of ADVFN – a platform for handling financial data and services – and Forbes journalist equated blockchain and the Internet. He says that blockchain is the future now, as Internet was the future for the previous generation. According to him, bitcoin will become a part of this future in the long term run.
Speaking about bitcoin’s fate, Chambers predicted that the cryptocurrency would exceed its all-time high of 2017 and would move further to reach $100 000.

It was already sais that the governments of various countries are close to reaching consensus regarding the form of control over cryptocurrency.

Delivering his speech in Basel at the general meeting of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Hyun Song Shin, economic adviser and head of the research department of the bank, supposed that the cryptocurrency should have been regulated as shares or obligations. US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) believes that cryptocurrency should be regulated under the same standards as security trading. Japanese financial regulators tend to believe that cryptocurrencies meet definition of means of payment and they are subject to regulation by corresponding norms.

One of the largest exchanges of the world in terms of trading volume, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance is not afraid of cryptocurrency market drop and is planning to get from $500 million to $1 billion of pure income at a year end.

According to Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, the income of the exchange was about $300 million in the first six months of the current year. An average daily trading volume of the cryptocurrency platform which was launched just a year ago us about $1.5 billion, the number of clients exceeds 10 millions.

The figures given by Zhao are illustrative of how some cryptocurrency exchanges flourish regardless to the market drop – Bitcoin lost about 52% of its all-time high cost this year.

The Binance company which has already completed all the necessary negotiations with the governments of Japan and Honk-Kong is planning to introduce a service to convert virtual tokens to fiat in Uganda, Bermuda and Malta.
Binance exchange was launched in July, 2017, in 11 days after the end of the ICO within the framework of which $15 million were raised. As the hype around cryptocurrencies grew, exchange’s daily trading volume reacged $11 billion by the end of 2017.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Ethereum developers, including Justin Drake and Vitalik Buterin, spoke about the future solution for scaling Ethereum.

Buterin reminded that taxes on transactions in Ethereum were largely dependent on supply and demand. He admitted – if the developers had started the project again, they would have implemented many features that could have initially eliminate the scaling problem. In the current situation, when Ethereum has become a large and active platform, the solution turned out to be “fundamentally difficult”.

Justin Drake pointed out two priority areas for the Ethereum team: the Casper protocol, which should switch Ethereum from the PoW consensus to the PoS, and sharding, which will allow the blockchain to work smoothly with a large number of users and transactions.

The system updates were created separately. Moreover, the developers did not plan to implement Casper and sharding together. According to Drake, the improvements are now combined into one structure.
At the same time, the integration of the Casper protocol together with sharding will allow to “strengthen” checkpoints and create a more secure and scalable system.

The developers call the upcoming update “Ethereum 2.0” – this is an ambitious project which is likely to be implemented within a few years. By 2019, the team plans to launch Casper, after that the system will be ready for sharding. The process will take place in two stages, which should be completed by 2020.

Due to the negative attitude of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to this issue, many cryptocurrency businesses left Zimbabwe.

At the end of last year, we wrote that a high-ranking representative of the Central Bank of Zimbabwe announced the illegality of the use of bitcoin and promised not to allow its trading in the country’s financial market. Six months have passed. Now the RBZ intends to return to this issue and study the blockchain technology and its capabilities.

The head of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe John Mangudya at the Alpha Media Holdings Banks and Banking conference in Harare said that the regulator would study the technology regarding the possibility of its implementation on the model of other countries’ central banks.

Before Zimbabwe had a prohibition “We are against those things that cannot be regulated”. Now, according to the regulator, it is no longer possible to ignore this new phenomenon.

Zimbabwe is an example of a country that, when facing with a new technology, has taken the first measure that comes to mind when you don’t understand the essence – to ban. Because of this, for example, the cryptocurrency exchange Golix decided to move outside Zimbabwe.

How much time it will take the Central Bank of Zimbabwe to study the blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies is not specified.

Technology company Xunlei Limited, also known as “Chinese BitTorrent”, has announced the launch of a new distributed file system aimed at supporting blockchain platforms.

According to the company’s representatives, the ThunderChain file system (TCFS) will contribute to the development of blockchain technologies. In particular, it will combine some of the features of existing systems, such as the IPFS and filecoin, and a number of additional tools designed to provide the platform with flexibility and a high level of security.

Xunlei presented its new development during the event in Shenzhen, China. At the same time, the winners of the competition for developers of blockchain applications, which was held with the support of the same company, were announced.

The first details about the ThunderChain platform appeared in April this year. Then Xunlei representatives stated that the new solution is capable of processing “millions of transactions per second”.

We remind that in May Chinese President Xi Jinping suggested that the blockchain would change the structure of the world economy and, in particular, would contribute to the prosperity of his country.

Cryptocurrency trading platform HBUS which is a strategic partner of a major cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has made registration available for US users.

HBUS American users already can deposit funds in Bitcoin and Ethereum. They will get access to crypto assets trading on July, 10th.

According to the representatives of the company which is based in San-Francisco, HBUS is aimed at development of an open and competitive market, offering traders to choose from a big number of “high-quality virtual currencies.”
The site of new trading platforms that HBUS will not provide an opportunity to trade Fiat–Crypto pairs so far because of difficulties associated with licensing procedures and need in strong partnership with American financial regulators.

HBUS will fully comply with all the combating money laundering and terrorism financing policy requirements. Personal identification is mandatory for every user of a trading platform.

Let us note that Huobi, the world’s third biggest cryptoexchange is promoting its services in the global market actively. It was reported recently that the company had launched a platform in Australia. It allows to trade 10 cryptocurrencies and provides direct AUD trading pairs. It became known in May that Huobi was planning to set up offices in Canada and Brazil.

A Japanese who lives in a campus of employing company has decided to use free electricity to mine cryptocurrency.

A man whose name is Sora set up a mining farm and has been receiving extra income for six months already.

First, he learned about the free electricity consumption limit. It turned out that it is equal to $200. Now his equipment mines 0,8 Eth monthly. After the withdrawal it is about $500, explained Sora.

As long as his business succeeds, Sora is planning to build mining farms in the rooms of his close colleagues. 100 employees of the company live in the campus. That is why he believes that no one will notice increase in electricity consumption.

Cryptocurrency exchange was launched Huobi in Australia. Initially, ten pairs are offered for Australian dollar. There are the most popular cryptocurrencies among them: Ethereum and Bitcoin.

The exchange representatives claimed that bigger number of currency pairs would be offered later. Adrian Harrison, CEO of Huobi Australia, believes that entering Australian market is a natural move. The company wants to ensure comfortable conditions for local investors.

It is known that the Huobi team is planning to work on popularization of cryptocurrencies in the country together with Blockchain Global.

Meanwhile, the team carries out expansion not only in Australia. An office the main task of which is to solve issues on European territory was set up in London last week.

According to the statement of the company, ThunderChain File System (TCFS), as well as three standards ThunderChain Request for Comments (TRC) will help to support development of blockchain. A new file system, in particular, is aimed to unify features of the existing platforms, such as IPFS and filecoin and to add new protection and flexibility tools.

This news was announced during the ceremony hosted in Shenzhen, China, right before company unveiled the winners of an international blockchain application competition which it sponsored.

Xunlei first announced launch of ThunderChain in April when the company claimed that its new blockchain technology can provide processing capacity in the millions of transactions per second.

New TCFS is build specifically for such platforms as ThunderChain. The TRC standards are aimed to help to create an ecosystem allowing third partoes to use the network of the company.

Xunlei CEO Lei Chen sstated that the company is eager to amplify the power of individuals via technological innovation.

A former leading engineer at BitGo Jameson Lopp told at the Building-on-Bitcoin conference that the users of bitcoin blockchain network have lost access to 6 million BTC by July.

According to Jameson Lopp, data on cryptocurrency is inaccessible and bitcoins cannot be tracked in the network, it means that their owners will not access them due to various reasons, for example, because of forgotten passwords or thefts.

Given the fact that the maximum possible number of bitcoins is 17 millions, the amount of lost coins is 35,29% of the total amount of cryptocurrency.

Only 11 million BTC are available and can be used, sent or received.

Most likely, 6 million BTC are lost forever because it is not planned to hard fork the blockchain in order to retrieve them.

The government came to agreement with THEKEY startup.

Blockchain-based apps aimed to improve the system of social insurance will appear in China. This was initiated by the government, as a result, it has partnered with THEKEY startup. The company has already announced creation of research fund worth of $20 million needed to support development and usage of blockchain in this field.

It is worth noting that Chinese government is not positive about development of cryptocurrency market and take hard line on investing in digital assets. However, it puts high hopes on blockchain. In particular, China’s President Xi Jinping calls blockchain a revolution technology.

According to experts, the government will keep interacting with the startups working on creation of blokchain apps. It is not unthinkable that the technology will be used not only for improvement of social insurance system, but also in other fields, for example, in agriculture.

Let us recall that Chinese government make big contribution in development of blockchain. The government of Hangzhou and Shenzhen launched investment funds to support blockchain startups this spring.

SIX, the main stock exchange of Switzerland, has announced its plans to launch SIX Digital Exchange — a cryptocurrency exchange fully regulated by country’s financial regulator and central bank.

The Swiss stock exchange introduced its new cryptocurrency incentive which, according to the exchange, will become the first infrastructure offering fully integrated trading, settlement and custody services for digital assets.

The SDX platform will use blockchain technology. This will simplify tokenization of the existing clients’ stocks and also allow to issue and sell digital assets.

Thomas Zeeb, the head of the exchange, describes the exchange as an “all-in-one” service which will allow the clients to trade and store digital assets in the way they are doing it in traditional financial sector now.

The stock exchange highlighted that the platform will comply with FINMA standards. FINMA is a financial regulator of Switzerland and Swiss National Bank. CEO Jos Dijsselhof says that this is a beginning of a new era for capital markets infrastructures when he was announcing launch of cryptocexchange. It will start operating in mid-2019.

On Friday Business World reported, citing a senior official’s statement, that the central bank of the Philippines, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), had accepted two new cryptocurrency exchanges.

BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier in the interview with the news outlet told that applications submitted by Virtual Currency Philippines and ETranss had been approved. Now the platforms are allowed to convert Philippine pesos into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). The two exchanges join previously accredited peers Rebittance, Betur (also known as Coins.ph) and BloomSolutions.

Friendly but cautious stance

The Philippines is progressively turning into a crypto-friendly region. Last year, the BSP officially recognized Bitcoin as a legitimate payment method. In February the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) – the government entity that runs the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport in the north-east of the Philippines – developed new regulations enabling cryptocurrency companies to establish offices and facilities in the region.
According to these new regulations, such companies ought to invest at least $1 million over a period of two years and pay up to $100,000 in license fees.

In April, the CEZA announced that it would authorize 10 companies working in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space to establish offices in the Cagayan Economic Zone.

It is worth noting that the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stated last year it was considering legalizing the use of digital currencies in the country by categorizing them as securities. However, this plan has not been developed since.

The Philippine government had also considered if the new exchanges should register as e-money issuers, since they offer wallet services.

In spite of the generally friendly attitude towards cryptocurrencies, the Philippine authorities remains cautious of the potential risks of crypto volatility, criminal involvement and cybersecurity.
The country’s Anti-Money Laundering Council will reportedly begin closely observing digital currency transactions as part of their broader effort to crack down on dirty money. Companies will be obliged to report secured transaction as well as any suspicious ones.

Crypto transactions on the rise

Crypto transactions have risen in the Philippines. Last month, Fonacier revealed that conversion cryptocurrencies into the local currency was $36.74 million on average each month in the first quarter of this year.

This figure dropped by $1,53 million in the last three months of 2017 when Bitcoin price reached the $20000 price.
Anyway, the amount has sharply risen from the estimated average monthly cryptocurrency transactions to approximately $8.8 million between January and June last year. The figure is expected to grow with more exchanges operating in the country.

Flow Traders NV representatives believe that cryptocurrencies are underestimated.

Many offline companies are showing interest in cryptocurrencies. Different service providers allow people to pay for goods and services using digital money. Financial institutions are trying to keep up with new trends as well. The Netherlands Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF), Flow Traders NV announced that Bitcoin and Ethereum notes were added to the listing.

Dennis Dijkstra, ETF CEO, stated that the fund is the first one to allow buying and selling cryptocurrency assets on regulated exchanges. According to him, people underestimate digital money but this market is extremely important so it has to be regulated.

The authorities are still hesitant regarding cryptocurrencies. The officials say that they do not encourage the use of digital money and do not consider it as an independent asset.

Earlier, we published the information about the software by MakerDao and TradeShift that allows business owners tokenize unpaid bills. Thus, companies are going to get cash money and crypto investors can count on getting income.

Mixed signals continue to be seen by Crypto markets, but same gains present today, July 6, according to data from Coin360. Only one out of ten coins on CoinMarketCap are seeing minor fluctuations over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $ 6,650 at press time and challenging $6,600, growing just 1% within the 24-hour period. The main cryptocurrency holding its price since June 30, continuously trading above the $6,300-6,400. Robert Sluymer, Market research firm Fundstrat’s representative, says the coin should to “rally through” to change its downtrend.

Leading altcoin Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $470 at press time and grew up over two percent. ETH is also remaining its gains made during the market uptick June 30, when the coin rose up from near $400.

At press time total cryptocurrency market capitalization at about $269 billion. It’s up from its intraday low today of $261 billion, but still lower than yesterday’s $273 billion.

The biggest losses over the past 24 hours were seen by NEO (NEO) and IOTA on CoinMarketCap.
NEO, had 8% growth yesterday but yet today it’s 7% down and so far trading at $37.54. The NEO network reported it’s decentralization of its Mainnet on June 4. Over the past week the coin has seen 33.5% growth even though it’s down today.
MIOTA has seen 17% growth over the last week but today it’s down 7% and trading at $1.06 at press time.
In terms of the top gainers, Tezos (XTZ) has seen the most growth over the past day. The coin gained 9% today and $1.81 per coin.
Ethereum Classic (ETC) has got 8% growth at press time and trading at $18.27.

Tom Lee, Fundstrat’s representative, reiterated his January prediction, yesterday, July 5 He claimed that by the end of 2018 Bitcoin could be worth between $22,000 and $25,000 by the end of 2018. His calculation is based on the cost of mining.