After remaining bullish for the past few days, the cryptocurrency market is undergoing price correction, with Bitcoin (BTC) losing 0.6% in the past 24 hours to trade at $9,240 levels.
Ether (ETH) has lost 2% to trade at $172.09. XRP has lost 2.1% to trade at $0.2322. Other major altcoins, which has lost in the past 24 hours include Tron (TRX-$0.0185, -2.5%), Stellar (XLM-$0.0602, -1.3%), IOTA (IOTA-$0.2820, -3.4%), Cardano (ADA-$0.0538, -0.8%), EOS (EOS-$4.04, 8.6%), Huobi (HT-$3.97, -1.0%), Cosmos (ATOM, $4.30, -5.7%), Binance Coin (BNB-$17.68, -2.8%), Litecoin (LTC-$58.93, -3.3%), OKB (OKB-$3.11, 0.5%) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH-$378.05, -1.2%).
The altcoins which have appreciated in the past 24 hours are Ethereum Classic (ETC-$11.93, 1.7%), Monero (XMR-$69.53, 3.3%), ChainLink (LINK-$2.75, 3.1%), Tezos (XTZ-1.60, 1.9%), Dash (DASH-$120.53, 4.0%) and LEO (LEO-$0.9036, 0.1%).
Government level initiatives
Draft document presented regarding the creation of a digital currency for the Indian Rupee
A yet-to-be-endorsed document outlining the government of India’s national strategy for distributed ledger technology and blockchain proposes the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) – Indian rupee in digital format – and a national blockchain. The National Institute for Smart Governance (NISG), a non-profit public organization set up by the Indian government, published the aforesaid draft document.
The NISG, as per the document, has suggested the creation of a Central Bank Digital Rupee (CBDR), the digital format of the Indian rupee, on a national level permissioned blockchain. The organization has “strongly recommended” that the CBDR be unveiled by India’s government and the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank. The NISG also highlighted the prevailing legal issues for the blockchain industry in the country, in addition to the inexistence of regulatory transparency.
The document recommends the creation of a national level blockchain as follows: “As an alternative to Public Blockchains that operate with native cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum, it is strongly recommended that Government of India along with RBI come out with a Central Bank Digital INR (CBDR) administered over a Public Permissioned Blockchain that processes transactions through a Turing Complete Virtual Machine allowing decentralized applications to run on its platform.”
Private sector initiatives
Saudi Aramco invests $5 million in Vakt
Saudi Aramco, which is Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil enterprise, has invested $5 million in oil trading firm Vakt. The blockchain-powered oil trading platform of Vakt was rolled out in December 2018, with the initial prohibition on North Sea markets. The company was established in 2017 by an association of industry heads, including that of Shell and BP. Notably, these two firms were the first to start using the platform on a commercial basis.
Vakt intends to use the investment to ameliorate the trading platform. In the months ahead, the company aims to expand to the Asian market. Aramco Trading, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, will also use the platform for oil trading. The platform is currently available for trading in Forties, North Sea Brent, Oseberg, Ekofisk, and Troll crude oil markets. Aramco commands considerable market shares in those oil markets.
The Vakt trading platform facilitates the post-trade management of physical energy trades. The platform paves the way for easy processing trade entries to a final settlement by removing paper-based procedures. Hans Middelthon, managing director of SAEV Europe, opined that: “VAKT has demonstrated that their platform has the potential to digitize what is currently a very manual process.”
Swiss regulators approve a compliant IPO on the blockchain
Swiss regulators have approved the country’s first-ever totally compliant initial public offering (IPO) on a blockchain. Overture, a blockchain firm headquartered in Switzerland, intends to run a compliant IPO and offer normal class-A shares using the Ethereum blockchain, utilizing smart contracts given by crypto valley city Zug-based EURO DAXX (the European Digital Assets Exchange).
Andriotto Financial Services, a financial advisory firm, and Overture, stated that the latest venture is clearly distinct from the rest of the security offerings because of the following reasons: “The company has approved the first Swiss articles of incorporation that directly states the digital nature of the shares (tokens) and the use of the blockchain as the technology to keep the shareholders registry […] transfer of the company ownership can be achieved only with a transfer of the tokens on the blockchain and only the ownership of the token can give the status of shareholder.”
Overture has pointed out that efficiency will increase with the deployment of blockchain technology in capital markets. Even cost, time, and other crucial factors will see an improvement, according to Overture. This is achieved by avoiding third parties such as broker-dealers, banks, notaries, central depository systems, and other financial intermediaries.
Miscellaneous
Allen Blue warns of possible gender bias in the blockchain and AI sectors
Professional social network LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue has warned of possible gender bias in blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors. On January 24th, he revealed his worry about employment inequality in sectors such as blockchain at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos.
The entrepreneur urged the international community to take steps to avoid the widening of the gender gap in high-demand jobs. “If we look forward and those are in fact the jobs of the future, who will have those jobs, we know for sure that if things don’t change men are going to have those jobs and women are not.”
Disclaimer: Any financial trading analysis offered here is our opinion and is not intended as advice or direction for investors. We cannot guarantee the success of any trades made as a consequence of this article, and we encourage traders to incorporate a strong money management strategy to limit losses when they enter the markets. Please use this article as part of your own research before formulating strategies prior to trading.
