Binance Launchpad on a Roar, Anthony Pompliano Says the Next Bull Run Will be Bigger

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Binance Launchpad has so far done well to rekindle the flame between investors and token sales. The platform recently helped CELR network to raise $4 million in minutes. However, the platform is also developing a habit of facing technical issues. Anthony Pompliano of crypto investment firm Morgan Creek Digital believes that the next bull run will be bigger than what people have seen before. Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer claims that Bitcoin will be a better store of value than gold in the next two decades. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire does not feel threatened by Facebook’s upcoming stablecoin and is happy that the internet giant is exploring cryptocurrencies.

Binance Launchpad does it again: raises $4 million for CELER Network in 17 minutes

Binance Launchpad, the token sale platform for the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, announced that it has helped CELER Network to raise $4 million in 17 minutes via a token sale.

The CELER Network sold just a little under 600 million CELR tokens to 3,129 investors in a short session. Investors used the exchange’s native token, Binance Coin (BNB), to purchase CELR tokens. Individuals were only allowed to spend a maximum of $1,500 in purchasing CELR tokens.

The CELER Network claims that it is trying to build a fast and scalable payments solution that leverages smart contracts and facilitates zero-fee transactions. The project is built on Ethereum and has already secured financing through several seed and private funding rounds.

The CELER Network token was oversubscribed, something becoming more of a permanent feature with Binance Launchpad’s token sales. More than 39,000 investors wanted to take part in the token sale but only 10 percent of them managed to lay their hands on CELR tokens.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao explained that some would-be-investors were left disappointed because the platform experienced some issues.

“Still had capacity/caching issues with this “upgraded” version.  Will keep working on it for a better experience in the future,” tweeted Zhao.

This marks Binance’s third consecutive and successful token sale which has managed to raise millions in a matter of seconds and minutes.

Crypto exchange Binance launches fiat-to-crypto platform

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance continues on its path to simplify how people interact with digital assets. The exchange, which formerly functioned as a crypto-to-crypto exchange, announced that it is launching a new service that allows users to top up their Binance accounts with fiat at more than 1,300 points in Australia.

This makes it easy for the exchange’s Australian customers who had to use alternative platforms such as Coinbase to buy digital assets and then transfer them to Binance.

Dubbed Binance Lite Australia, this service marks the first time that the exchange has launched a fiat-to-crypto service on the continent and will use the platform to attract more users. The service currently allows users to buy only Bitcoin with AUD but is planning to expand the service to accommodate more digital currencies.

Binance CFO Wei Zhou remarked that the exchange is “excited to continue to roll out more fiat to crypto gateways around the world to support the growth of our industry.”

Hacked cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia resumes trading services

Hacked New Zealand exchange Cryptopia has resumed trading services and now supports 40 trading pairs. This comes after the exchange lost millions in at least two rounds of security breaches this year.

“Update: We have resumed trading on 40 trade pairs that we have quantified as secure. We will continue to expand this list as we clear more coins,” tweeted the exchange.

The exchange’s management recently announced that it is planning to increase the number of coins supported on its platform.

Japan set to cap crypto margin trading by 2020

Japan’s top financial watchdog set to implement new strict cryptocurrency margin trading rules starting next year.

The Nikkei Asian Review reported on March 19 that the country’s Cabinet has approved draft amendments related to digital assets, payment services laws, and financial instruments.

The amendments propose to cap margin trading at two-to-four times the initial deposit. This new rule is in line with the regulation for forex trading.

The draft also expects all cryptocurrency exchanges offering margin trading services to be registered with the government not more 18 months after the new rules come into effect in April next year. Those that do not adhere to these new rules will face closure.

Block.one CEO: Bitcoin will replace gold as a viable store of value

Bitcoin has often been referred to as the digital gold and some in the crypto community believe that the digital asset is a better store of value than gold.

The latest person to add his voice to the claim is Brendan Blumer, the CEO of Block.one, the parent company of the blockchain platform EOS.

Blumer tweeted that it will take Bitcoin two decades to dethrone gold as a leading store of value.

“Over the next two decades, Bitcoin will replace gold as the leading commodity to store value,” tweeted Blumer.

Bitcoin is widely regarded as an excellent alternative to gold as a store of value because it possesses unique and important features such as fungibility. Bitcoin is in infinite supply and has a hard cap of 21 million coins – after which no more coins will be mined. This is expected to happen in the year 2140.

Blumer has previously assured the crypto community that great things require a lot of time to mature and show positive results.

“Great things take time; parallel teams need to be built to deliver new products without sacrificing the progress of existing business units, and that means hiring new people which comes with time limitations that can’t always be shortcut with capital,” said Blumer.

Circle CEO adamant that his firm has managed to weather the crypto winter

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire has openly spoken about the impact of the protracted crypto winter but is adamant that his firm will sail through the storm.

Allaire said that the bear market has reduced investors’ interest in the crypto market and has affected the firm’s over-the-counter business which has traditionally served as the company’s biggest source of income.

Speaking to Fortune in an interview published on March 18, he admitted that business is down due to a number of factors.

“Well, [business] is down. When there’s not volatility, or prices are down, then volumes are down,” said Allaire.

However, Allaire highlighted that his firm is doing just fine and has made significant inroads despite the prevailing unfavorable market conditions.

“We had very significant growth year last year, even though there was a crypto bear market,” he said so before adding that the firm has managed to grow its customer base and revenue.

Circle has so far raised more than $135 million from an A-list of investors that include Goldman Sachs and China’ Baidu Inc. The company was recently valued at more than $3 billion after its last round of funding led by cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain.

Reports surfaced that the firm is now valued below $1 billion but Allaire refutes the claims.

“I can’t comment on specific transactions or specific prices or things like that, but the way that was characterized was inaccurate,” he said. Just because someone lists shares on a market,” he said.

Circle CEO unfazed by Facebook’s rumored stablecoin

In October last year, Circle and Coinbase partnered to launch a stablecoin known as USD Coin (USDC) and pegged to the American Dollar. Circle’s stablecoin is currently the second most valuable stablecoin after Tether (USDT).

When Allaire was asked if he was threatened by Facebook’s stablecoin, he said he welcomes the competition as it a good sign that traditional internet companies are starting to appreciate the relevance of cryptocurrencies.

“I think it’s a great sign that major Internet companies are starting to look at issuing cryptocurrencies.  That’s very, very positive in our view overall,” he said.

Allaire believes that the stablecoin race will be won by those who use an open standards approach – something similar to what the payments firm in partnership with Coinbase is using.

Facebook is working on a secret stablecoin project and other large financial institutions such as JP Morgan Chase are already working on their own stablecoins or something very close.

Anthony Pompliano: Next Bitcoin bull run will be bigger and better than before

The protracted bear market has led to many believe the next bull run is a long way from home while some speculative investors and traders have already exited the market.

However, some still believe that good things are yet to come and the boom of 2017 was only a taste of what is yet to come.

One such person is Anthony Pompliano, the founder of Morgan Creek Digital, a crypto investment firm. He says that institutional capital in the crypto sector will trigger a bull run much bigger than what has been seen in the past. He made these claims in a recent post in which he says incumbent asset managers will bet on crypto.

Pompliano further says that it will come a time when it will be impossible for asset managers to ignore crypto.

“As these firms begin to enter the space, many of them will choose to either (1) spend ungodly amounts of money to hire talented and experienced crypto investors or (2) pay up to acquire asset management firms that specialize in blockchain and crypto,” he wrote.

He added that there will be two kinds of managers: those that drag their feet and adopt a wait-and-see attitude while others will grab the opportunity and have a significant advantage over the former.

He said what happened in 2017 is nothing compared to what is coming ahead.

“If you thought 2017’s bull market was big, just wait till the trillions of dollars allocated to alternative assets begin to roll in. The next bull market will be bigger than anything we have ever seen before,” he added.

Large Swiss online retailer now accepts cryptocurrencies

Digitec Galaxus AG, the largest online retailer in Switzerland has now begun accepting payments in digital currencies that include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ripple (XRP), Binance Coin, Litecoin, NEO, Tron, and OmiseGo.

The online retailer does not deal with digital currencies directly but has a partnership with Coinfy – which converts cryptocurrencies to Swiss Francs (Switzerland’s official fiat currency) and send it to the online retailer’s account.

The online retailer accepts digital asset payment worth $200 or more but there is no explanation why the firm has set a minimum fee. Digitec says that Coinfy’s fee is charged at 1.5 percent.

Digitec co-founder and CIO Oliver Herren acknowledges that cryptocurrencies are fascinating and wants his company to be at the forefront of promoting the new technology.

“Cryptocurrencies are fascinating and likely to become relevant in e-commerce – we want to support this development,” said Herren.

Bitmain launches Antminer Z based on a 12nm chip

Bitcoin mining giant Bitmain has launched a new cryptocurrency miner for mining privacy coins such as Zcash.

In an official statement published on March 19, the Chinese-based claim that the new mining equipment known as Antminer Z11 has triple the hash rate than its predecessor Antminer Z9, which was unveiled 10 months ago. The new mining equipment is said to be 60 percent more efficient than Antminer Z9.

The new equipment is based on an in-house 12nm chip.

The mining giant has priced the miner at $1,242 and is already accepting pre-orders which will be shipped towards the end of April. The new device is already sold out, signaling great demand for mining equipment despite the market downturn.

Crypto startup Bison Trail secures $5.25 million from Galaxy Digital and co.

Blockchain startup Bison Trail announced in a Medium post that it has secured $5.25 million in a seed funding round led by two early-stage venture firms Accomplice and Initialized Capital with participation from Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, Distributed Global, Notation Capital, Charge Ventures, Homebrew, and more.

According to the post, Bison Trails is “the world’s first infrastructure as a service company designed for next-generation blockchain networks.”

Blockchain think tank: The next cycle will come in May 2020

A blockchain think tank, DD Think Tank, recently suggested that the current will remain in place until May next year. The think tank arrived at the conclusion after analyzing more than 100,000 pieces of data in the crypto industry.

According to the think tank’s 2018-2019 Cryptocurrency Market Annual Report, the landscape is poised to continue developing in the near future but will only get a bullish break after the Bitcoin halving event which is expected to take place in May 2020.

Bitcoin halving has historically resulted in price spikes. The halving will see miners’ rewards dropping from 12.5 Bitcoin per block to 6.25.

The report said that there were 2,091 digital assets of Jan. 9 this year but they have lost more than 87 percent of the peak value in late 2017. Bitcoin was fingered as the digital asset that dropped the most value (97.3 percent from its high) while Bitcoin has shed off slightly above 81 percent.

Latin America’s eCommerce giant bans crypto

Mercado Libre, the largest e-commerce site with 267.4 million users has announced a ban on listings and payments related to cryptocurrencies. The announcement comes shortly after PayPal, one of the leading giants in online payments, invested $750 million in Mercado Libre.

The ban came into effect on March 19 and will ban users from engaging in transactions involving digital assets.

PayPal is using the investment in the new e-commerce to gain a large foothold in the South American electronic payments sector.

Last year, the e-commerce giant partnered with Ripio, a Bitcoin wallet and merchant processor with the aim of accommodating crypto holders on its platform.

PayPal has to fend off competition from new and increasing cryptocurrency payment platforms that include Square’s Cash App.

PayPal president Dan Schulman said that his firm is impressed with the work done by Mercado Libre.

“We see great opportunities to integrate our respective capabilities to create unique and valuable payment experiences for our combined 500 million customers throughout the region and around the world,” said Schulman.

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