General Market Outlook

Total market cap for cryptocurrencies is up over $440 billion again with trading volume rising into the weekend, at around $27 billion. Bitcoin has risen back to almost $9,500 and Ethereum is up almost 10% to about $750. Social media and gaming blockchain project Loom (LOOM) continues to surge - up over 30% in the past 24 hours. Golem (GNT) continues to rise - test of their distributed supercomputer platform began last month and has been performing well.

Major Headlines

Goldman Sachs Takes on Bitcoin Futures

The first Bitcoin futures were implemented by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (cboe) in December 2017. Goldman has been helping clients invest via the Cboe, but will now launch their own platform. Banks cannot manage volatile assets - let alone assets that might be currencies, or commodities, or property depending on which governing body you ask. Futures allow banks to “hold” something without actually owning the thing itself. The choice has been made from client interest rather than internal excitement.  “I would not describe myself as a true believer who wakes up thinking Bitcoin will take over the world, for almost every person involved, there has been personal skepticism brought to the table.” - Rana Yared, Goldman Executive

Circle Payment App Adds Zcash

Circle is a peer-to-peer currency exchange app similar to Venmo. It was created in 2013, and received a Bitlicense from New York state to legally allow cryptocurrency transactions in 2015. From 2013 to 2016 the company was funded a total of $135 million, which included $50 million from Goldman Sachs. Zcash (ZEC) is a decentralised, open-source cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. However it is designed to provide strong privacy and enable shielded transactions that hide the sender, recipient and value on the Zcash blockchain ledger. Circle is making moves to become much more than app to pay your friend for lunch. In February 2018 they purchased the cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex. They plan to convert the exchange to CircleX, where trading of more than cryptocurrencies will be enabled.

Coinbase Opening Chicago Office and Block Trading

The company has been on a tear of expansion in 2018. They have hired several new executives with extensive wall street experiences, launched a venture capital platform and index fund program, as well as acquiring Earn.com. Coinbase is the most highly used platform to exchange fiat to Bitcoin, and other main coins (Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash). However, their exchange platform GDAX has not been extremely popular historically. By integrating block trading, the lure of high volume institutional traders could bring new excitement around the exchange.

Top 5 Gainers

BitcoinDark (BTCD) +132.14% at $235.39

Mooncoin (MOON) +105.95% at $0.000163

Bitdeal (BDL) +98.18% at $0.012012

Guaranteed Ethereum Token Extra (GETX) +% at $0.107761

ATB Coin (ATB) +% at $0.364798

Top 5 Losers

Bitair (BTCA) -28.61% at $0.000608

Minex (MINEX) -26.00% at $0.021403

Sfe Exchange Coin (SAFEX) -24.37% at $0.022341

TokenCard (TKN) -21.67% at $1.98

DIMCOIN (DIM) -21.00% at $0.010743

New Coins Listed

Consentium (CSM) listed to HitBTC

Dravite (DRV) listed to CryptoBridge

Artax (XAX) listed to CryptoBridge

EOS (EOS) listed to Cryptopia

Live Stars Token (LIVE) listed to Cryptopia
Decentraland (MANA) listed to KuCoin

WanChain (WAN) listed to Huobi Pro

By: BGN Editorial Staff