The price of Ethereum increased by more than 12% in the last 24 hours. In just one week, ETH went from $458 to more than $ 600.

As bitcoin rises in price, the rest of the cryptocurrency market has been increasing as well. And this November, the Ethereum cryptocurrency, ether (ETH), passed $ 600 in the price for the first time since June 2018.

In the last 24 hours, the price of the native Ethereum cryptocurrency has risen more than 12%, reflects CoinGecko. ETH passed the $ 600 mark, just after half of the funds needed for the genesis of the new version of the network, 2.0, exceeded in its proper contract.

This Sunday, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder and one of the most visible faces of the project, explained that already more than half of the 16,384 addresses gave their contribution of 32 ETH to become validator nodes of the new network.

Immediately after, came the rise of the cryptocurrency, as a percentage, the increase in other places it among the top 5 winners in the top 20 of the market. Only ripple (XRP), tezos (XTZ), Cardano (ADA), and stellar lumens (XLM) received the most appreciation in that period. The last time ETH was at the $ 600 level, it was still in full decline from its all-time high (ATH), above the $ 1,400 it reached in January 2018.

Ethereum remains far from its all-time high in price

Despite the rise and returning to levels that were not seen for almost two years, the cryptocurrency of Ethereum remains 58% below its ATH, in data from CoinGecko.

In recent weeks, the cryptocurrency market in full followed the rise of bitcoin. However, altcoins gained appreciation against the dollar but are losing value against the foremost cryptocurrency.

A sample of this is the closeness of the ATH for bitcoin (just over 5% below, at the time of writing this note). As in the case of ETH, most of the major cryptocurrencies are still far from their respective ATHs, reached after bitcoin’s maximum bull run.

Bitcoin exceeds traditional markets

 As reported in October, Bitcoin’s performance has not been remarkable at the time, clearly exceeding the major altcoins in the market. So far this year, BTC has also exceeded traditional markets, with a higher increase than equity indices, precious metals, and stocks. The closest thing to the increase in bitcoin in percentage terms has been the revaluation of Google. While BTC is up around 80% in 2020, the company’s shares are up 70%.

Gold and silver are up more than 50%, getting a bit close to BTC’s performance. But indices like the S&P 500, with just 6% appreciation this year; or the Nasdaq (30%) have underperformed the appreciation of bitcoin.

By Jenson Nunez

More than 60% of the volume of transactions is executed with the cryptocurrency. The price of bitcoin started 2020 at 7,200 dollars, today it is at 18,500.

A conglomerate of online casinos is buying more than 100 million dollars in bitcoin (BTC) monthly to service the payments of its players. The Costa Rica-based Winning Poker Network revealed that the uptrend of cryptocurrency is incentivizing withdrawals of funds in crypto assets.

Every day the company manages, through over-the-counter (OTC) platforms, the acquisition of bitcoins to meet the increasing demand of gamblers, according to a report by Bloomberg, the director of the betting firm, Phil Nagy, referred to this fact when saying:

“Right now 90-95% of our payments are from people asking for bitcoin because it is going up. We continuously have to go out and buy bitcoin in heaps, by heaps, more than we have had to do before, “said the representative who assured that this percentage was previously 60%.

The executive explained that more than 60% of the total volume of business transactions is executed in bitcoin, which speaks of the level of acceptance of the cryptocurrency in the world of casinos. The boom in acquiring BTC would also affect the commissions charged by brokers per operation for a figure of 1.5%.

Another reason bitcoin use is probably on the rise is that in the conglomerate punters are hoping not to pay taxes when using cryptocurrencies. According to Nagy, 60% of users are from the United States, a country that has made efforts to control the holding of cryptocurrencies.

As for the deposits of players in bitcoin, the Winning Poker Network clarified that it does not maintain positions in the cryptocurrency. The foremost reason is the volatility of BTC, so daily, they also sell large amounts to exchange for fiat currency.

The online poker industry has grown 43% since April thanks to the pandemic, according to research citing the report by The Business Research. The factors that are creating this behavior are the closure of traditional casinos and generalized quarantines.

The complicated health situation around the world is hitting economies and thousands of industries. In any case, the cryptocurrency ecosystem is attracting more and more interest, something that is directly connected to the price of bitcoin.

In January of this year, the price of the main cryptocurrency was 7,200 dollars per unit. Last March, and after the declaration of a pandemic, bitcoin reached its lowest price until now this year when it was exchanged on some exchanges for about $ 3,800. Currently, BTC is trading at $ 18,500. In April, members of the cryptocurrency community took part in a virtual poker game to raise funds in the fight against the coronavirus.

By Jenson Nunez

The exchange is adjusting to new regulations that will take effect in January. The project seeks to eradicate manual processes and reduce operating costs.

The Colombian Stock Exchange (BVC) will use the so-called distributed ledger technology (DLT) or blockchain to register operations in its OTC derivatives market. The adoption is the product of an alliance between the financial institution and the fintech Framework Contract.

With the agreement, the exchange joins the Colibrí private blockchain consortium; this is an initiative that seeks to facilitate the exchange of collaterals in the OTC derivatives market, according to local Colombian media.

The adoption of distributed registries occurs before what will be the application of new regulations in the derivatives market in Colombia. The provisions will go into effect on January 1 of next year. The first tests for the OTC derivatives exchanges with Colibrí were executed in October 2019, according to a report released by the Framework Contract.

The evaluation consisted of an establishment that exchanges ownership of collateral with its counterpart using Colibrí, while the collateral always remains under the custody of a trusted entity.

“In a traditional settlement, the collateral is transferred between accounts. However, the operating model Colibrí allows its exchange through the registration of the property in a distributed, safe and resistant book, which works as a single trusted source about the ownership of the collateral ”, the fintech reported this on its website.

Only duly authorized participants can gain access to the records. Besides, thanks to the use of the new platform, the work times of the operations are expressed in seconds and not in hours.

The BVC’s interest in the use of blockchains appeared in October 2019. The institution convened startups with projects based on blockchains related to digital assets, smart contracts, document certification, digital signature, clearing and settlement of operations, administration of guarantees, transfers, and payments.

By: Jenson Nunez

The price of Bitcoin is in the vicinity of its all-time high. No one knows yet whether the pioneering cryptocurrency will remain stable or will experience a setback.

Once again, the principal cryptocurrency on the market has left investors speechless after reaching above USD 19,000 for the first time since 2017. No one knows yet whether Bitcoin will break its all-time high or whether a correction is approaching.

The Price of Bitcoin Soars

The price of the pioneering cryptocurrency remains above USD 19,000 at the time of writing this article. In this way, it has achieved a cumulative increase of 66% over the last three months. However, it seems to be showing signs of a setback.

Everything seems to have happened very fast, but the price of Bitcoin has been rising little by little since “Black Thursday” in March. Many investors are afraid that the history of 2017 will repeat itself, but the set of circumstances driving it are different.

At the same time, gold has been bearish since August and seems to be moving to a balanced relationship between buyers and sellers.

However, various data points on the blockchain indicate that a setback in the price of the foremost cryptocurrency on the market is quite likely.

Crypto Stellar and XRP Join Bitcoin in the Bullish Run

According to data from CoinMarketCap, Stellar (XLM) has risen by 58% and Ripple (XRP) has increased by 33.39% in a matter of 24 hours.

Other altcoins have been experiencing a rebound as a consequence of Bitcoin’s bullish run.

According to TradingView, the price of XRP recently reached USD 0.92 for less than a minute.

Bitcoin’s Trading Volume on Binance Reaches a High

Bitcoin’s bullish run has led the entire crypto community to seize the day. In this sense, both the total trading volumes and the open interest in Bitcoin futures on Binance have reached all-time highs.

Bitcoin’s daily trading volume on Binance has reached an all-time high, exceeding the previous one occurring between late 2017 and early 2018.

Coinbase also experienced a major boom, but it has not yet managed to break its crypto all-time high.

Decisive Moment in Bitcoin’s History

Christine Sandler is the head of sales and marketing at Fidelity Digital Assets. She recently explained that the COVID-19 pandemic and productive regulations, among other factors, have helped the pioneering cryptocurrency a lot this year.

Sandler considers that 2020 has been a key year for Bitcoin adoption. For that reason, Fidelity is planning to open its services to retail investors at some point.

“In 2020, we saw broader adoption of that narrative of digital gold. It began to resonate among other groups of institutional investors, namely hedge funds, ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and family offices,” according to Sandler.

Confirmation of the ETH 2.0 Crypto Update Launch

Developers have experienced difficult moments of tension since the launch of the ETH 2.0 deposit contract occurred on November 4^th. However, after meeting 94% of the goal, the confirmation of the launch of the crypto update took place on December 1^st.

Many noted the low level of participation of the crypto community for a few weeks, which led them to question the possible launch.

However, users unexpectedly sent more than 200,000 ETH in 24 hours.

By Alexander Salazar

Panelists believe that people will feel safer if banks sell and hold bitcoin. With PayPal’s precedent, it would not take long for this to happen.

 “I believe that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be introduced to the masses by banks and institutions,” said engineer Aníbal Santaella last Friday during his participation in a panel at the BlockDown LATAM 2020 conference.

This Venezuelan resident in Scotland gave arguments about his sayings: “The conventional masses, as I tell you, not to detract from the people, they have simply externalized the source of truth in leaders and institutions”.

Santaella imagined a possible family situation: “My father, a 50-year-old person, one day when he arrives at his bank they will tell him: ‘Now I am going to offer you bitcoin, and we can keep it for you.” Once this happens, according to the engineer, “the customer will feel comfortable”.

Santaella, who is an active disseminator of Bitcoin through his own YouTube channel, shared the BlockDown LATAM 2020 panel discussion with Alejandro Machado, founder of the Open Money Initiative. The moderation was in charge of the journalist Covadonga Fernández.

Machado also shares the idea that banks will become increasingly involved with cryptocurrencies and offer new services that include them. According to him, this will happen soon. “PayPal already did it, so from PayPal to a traditional bank, the missing trigger for this to happen is technological proficiency”, he said. For Machado, traditional banks will have no alternative but to modernize and upgrade their policies.

According to this Venezuelan graduate in computer studies from the Simón Bolívar University and who currently resides in Colombia, “the dividing line between cryptocurrencies and the rest of the forms of digital money will be blurred a bit.” “People are not very aware of what code is running behind what they are using on the phone,” he explained.

Machado mentioned what happens with the digital yuan, a currency that is under the Central Bank of China’s development and which is in an advanced stage of testing before its official launch: “Many Chinese citizens are going to think: ‘This runs on the blockchain, so it must be safe’, or ‘This is official state money and that’s why it is safe. ‘

Is Bitcoin a means of financial inclusion?

Both professionals also agreed on the relevance of Bitcoin as a means of financial inclusion. For this to remain a reality, they explained that they need bridges between cryptocurrencies and fiat money.

“We have already seen examples with companies that, thanks to technology and mobile telephony, allow unbanked people to exchange money as if it were a message,” said Machado. He then insisted on the need not to create isolated systems but to establish points of union between Bitcoin and the national currency of each country. “If there are easy ways to exchange them, you can get to the idea of ​​financial inclusion,” he said.

Finally, Santaella gave the reasons why he considers cryptocurrencies to be a means of inclusion. For him, “bitcoin is a tool that helps the individual to restore their financial rights.”

By: Jenson Nuñez.

The Bitcoin mining giant arranged its new director with an amazing institutional track record.

Last week, when stock prices rose more than 50% to incredible levels that once appeared during the bull run on cryptocurrencies in 2018, Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ: RIOT) scheduled the former head of the Stock Exchange’s listing committee, Toronto Securities, Hubert Marleau, to Riot’s Board of Directors.

The Colorado-based firm was looking for a new director after the departure of former Canadian cabinet member Remo Mancini. Marleau brings an expansive range of governance and regulatory experience to Riot and also played the role of governor of the Montreal and Vancouver stock exchanges. Marleau also possesses a solid academic background and currently serves as chair of a series of conferences at the University of Ottawa.

Marleau’s appointment comes amid an unusually strong week for the company’s stock price. RIOT closed at $ 6 even after opening the week at $ 4.10, easily outpacing Bitcoin’s nearly 20% rise. So far this year, RIOT is up almost 500% from $ 1.22.

Arranging a new director is not the only move in the mining giant made in recent weeks. Riot approve the purchase of a massive 8,000-unit, $ 17.7 million of new Antminer S19 Pro Bitcoin mining rigs to expand operations in August.

The purchase is an effort to create preventive measures about the attempting by rival mining company Marathon Patent Group to snatch the crown of “Best Miner in North America.”

 What is Riot Blockchain?

Riot Blockchain focuses its efforts on supporting the bitcoin environment through proof-of-work mining. They believe in and invest in the bitcoin opportunity and set solid strategies that aim to the growing of mining operation, and that demonstrates its compromise and commitment to the bitcoin network.

Riot is one of the largest U.S.-based publicly-traded bitcoin miners in North America, and they are continuously working to improve their efficiency and production.

Riot Blockchain’s investments in unique projects, decentralize markets; combining real-world applications with an active development team, strong fundamentals, and large addressable markets.

By: Jenson Nuñez.