Economic crisis had been one of the biggest challenge the pandemic had brought up. Almost all countries are suffering from it right now. It had caused massive damages to financial markets, stock markets, businesses and industries worldwide.

Investors are now seeing an unclear future for the global economy. They are now looking for ways that will enable them to survive through this economic jeopardy. Cryptocurrency had been on rise in the market promising great deals, and also seen by them as a great business deal as of now.

Cryptocurrency is now on the limelight in the rise of this pandemic. This was due to interruptions and damages recorded in central banks that provides fiat traditional currency. Crypto such as Bitcoin (BTC) had been continuously gaining a lot of interest from investors in the industry.

The current pandemic had mainly brought damages to industries and business worldwide. But not in the case of cryptocurrencies such as BTC. This current pandemic had pulled people and investors interest to cryptocurrencies.

Financial institutions which includes banks had been suffering from the impacts of this pandemic. News bulletin revealing that central banks are now pumping cash towards listing economies had brought worry to investors. For this move is believe to trigger a sudden growth in the inflation rate.

Overseeing this incidents, platforms and investors are seeing cryptocurrency could be an effective guard against this inflation. After BTCs halving last week, they were flooded with appeals from future investors. These investors are seen to be fearing that traditional currency and money will lose its value due to inflation.

Crypto-analyst Simon Peters from eToro, stated that crypto tokens specifically BTC is gaining more support as the inflation hedges. Peters also believes that this will cause a new all-time high in tokens price within 18 months.

CEO Gavin Smith of cryptocurrency consortium Panxora, is seeing that while traditional markets is being uncertain, it can be expected that more investors will use crypto (BTC). This move by investors is to secure their assets against the possible inflation and currency depreciation.

First American Trust CEO, Jerry Braakman also stated that if inflation takes off, this will lead investors to look for things that keep a store of value. As to him BTC has this functionality that people are looking for.

As the threat of inflation in markets are present, it will lead investors to look for ways to ensure their assets. Currently they are seeing it on cryptocurrencies, leading crypto interest to rise as peoples trust to traditional currencies is eroding gradually.

Amidst this current economic crisis that fuels investors anxiety towards investing in business ventures. Crypto die-hards are still seeing a bright future for the crypto industry. This mind set was fuelled by continues plumping of cash in central banks worldwide.

Prominent mainstream backers such as Paul Tudor Jones, Mike Novoratz and Tyler Winklevoss, believes that the crypto BTC with its limited supply will be sought-after.

Crypto inclined platforms and companies is releasing statements that cryptos such as BTC will play a vital role in the economic recovery. BTCs halving last week had been a great pulling factor for investors to have interest in BTC and other cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency is now seen likely as fiat currencies. Amidst BTCs and other cryptos dropped in prices in these past few weeks. Crypto die-hard miners and investors still has the optimistic view towards cryptocurrencys bright future.

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Cryptocurrency Receiving Massive Favor Amidst Inflation - Move Your Money

After years of drama with the SEC, Telegram is calling it quits on its crypto-focused subsidiary, Telegram Open Network (TON).

Telegrams active involvement with TON is over, wrote Pavel Durov, founder and CEO, in an announcement on his channel. You may see or may have already seen sites using my name or the Telegram brand or the TON abbreviation to promote their projects. Dont trust them with your money or data.

TON was a blockchain platform designed to offer decentralized cryptocurrency to anyone with a smartphone, in a similar fashion to Facebooks Libra project (which has also faced significant scrutiny).

Last October, the SEC ordered Telegram to halt sales of its cryptocurrency (called Gram) after it failed to register an early sale of $1.7 billion in tokens prior to launching the network. The funds were raised in a series of what Telegram billed as pre-ICO offerings back in 2018, though the company ended up canceling the much-hyped ICO due (in part) to increased SEC scrutiny.

Durov spoke out against the ruling in his announcement, arguing that American courts shouldnt have the power to stop the sale of cryptocurrency beyond US borders, and he urged others to take up the decentralization fight in Telegrams stead. This battle may well be the most important battle of our generation, he wrote. We hope that you succeed where we have failed.

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Telegram shuts down its cryptocurrency operation - The Verge

Bitcoin, the first and leading cryptocurrency in terms of trading volume and market capitalisation, went through its third halving on May 11 2020. This major adjustment to how the cryptocurrency operates has only happened twice before and happens every four years. But what does this actually mean and what impact will it have?

Q: how does bitcoin work?

Bitcoin is a digital currency that makes use of blockchain technology to store and record all transactions. First proposed in a white paper published online in 2008 by a mysterious person (or group of people) called Satoshi Nakamoto. The unique features of bitcoin compared to fiat currencies like dollars or pounds are that there is no central authority or bank. Each member of the network has equal power. This decentralised network is completely transparent and all transactions can be read on the blockchain. At the same time it offers privacy in terms of who owns the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoins are created (or mined) by so-called miners who contribute computing power to securing the network, as well as processing transactions on the network by solving complex mathematical puzzles through computational power. These miners are rewarded for their work processing the transactions on the blockchain with bitcoins. But to combat inflation, Nakamoto wrote into the code that the total number of bitcoins that will ever exist will be 21 million. Right now there are 18.38 million.

The first ever block recorded on the bitcoin blockchain was on January 3 2009 where Nakamoto received 50 bitcoins. In the white paper, Nakamoto specified that after every 210,000 blocks the reward for miners will half. So the first halving took place on November 28 2012 where the miners reward was reduced from 50 bitcoins to 25 bitcoins. The second halving was on July 9 2016 and the miners reward was reduced from 25 bitcoins to 12.5 bitcoins. And the third, most recent halving on May 11 2020 means bitcoin miners now receive 6.25 bitcoins.

Q: Why does bitcoin halve?

Nakamoto has never explained explicitly the reasons behind the halving. Some speculate the halving system was designed to distribute coins more quickly at the beginning to incentive people to join the network and mine new blocks. Block rewards are programmed to halve at regular intervals because the value of each coin rewarded is deemed likely to increase as the network expanded. However, this may lead to users holding bitcoin as a speculative asset rather than using it as a medium of exchange.

Q: What impact does halving have on bitcoin?

The obvious impact is that the amount of newly mined bitcoins per day will fall from about 1,800 to 900 bitcoins and the daily revenue of miners will reduce by half. This decrease in the rate of bitcoin creation tightens supply and some argue will lead to a bullish market and an increase in the price of bitcoin.

Meanwhile, the reduction of revenue for miners may squeeze out miners who are least efficient and therefore the computing power connected to the Bitcoin network may fall significantly.

The previous two halvings led to the most dramatic bull runs in Bitcoins history, although initially there was a brief sell-off. Marcus Swanepoel, co-founder and CEO of Luno, a cryptocurrency wallet which lets you store and carry out bitcoin transactions, believes that bitcoin may achieve a growth of 270% between this and the fourth halving in 2024.

Q: How is coronavirus affecting things?

Although bitcoin has gained more than 20% since the beginning of the year, where this halving may differ from its predecessors is the volatile and uncertain economic environment that it has taken place in. The International Monetry Fund predicted a 3% shrinking of global growth in its April forecast and this is expected to fall further. In the UK, the Bank of England has projected a decrease of 30% in the countrys GDP during the first half of 2020.

Some argue that bitcoins scarcity makes it a potential hedge against fiat currencies that are vulnerable to devaluation in times of economic crisis. But others believe the halving wont necessarily boost its price as people knew the halving was going to happen so it should be already priced into the market activity.

The only certainty is that the growth of new bitcoins has halved. It remains to be seen what impact this will have on the price and interest of this cryptocurrency.

Correction: a previous version of this article incorrectly said Michael Dubrovsky speculated the halving system was designed to distribute coins more quickly at the beginning to incentive people to join the network and mine new blocks.

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Bitcoin halving Q&A: what it's all about and what it means for the cryptocurrency - The Conversation US

As of June 2020, it will have been one year since the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published Recommendation 16; it will also be the deadline for when countries should have entered the process of making these guidelines into laws.

The Most Diverse Audience to Date at FMLS 2020 Where Finance Meets Innovation

However, each country will have its own iteration of what those laws will look like; as such, the respective cryptocurrency industries in each of the countries that makes the decision to comply with the FATF guidelines will have its own unique set of regulations.

Recently, Finance Magnates sat down with Elsa Madrolle, General Manager of blockchain security company CoolBitXs International department, to speak about the effects of the possible effects of implementing the guidelinesspecifically, in Canada.

In many ways, Canada has sort of flown under the radar when it comes to the crypto world. While countries across Asia and Europe, and certain parts of the United States, have earned recognition as cryptocurrency hubs, most people in the cryptosphere primarily associate Canada with the QuadrigaCX scandal that came to light in early 2019.

However, the quiet North American country does have a considerable cryptocurrency industry: for example, the Canada Energy Regulator reported in February of this year that crypto-currency mining is booming in Canada.

How will the FATF guidelinesand the changes in AML laws that they will bringaffect the cryptocurrency industry in Canada and beyond?

This is an excerpt. To hear Finance Magnates full interview with CoolBitXs Elsa Madrolle, visit us on SoundCloud or Youtube. Special thanks to Elsa and to the CoolBitX team.

Elsa explained that her company, CoolBitX, has had its eye on Canada for quite some time; now that the FATF deadline is imminent, the company is hoping to become a go-to solution for the countrys crypto exchanges.

Essentially, CoolBitX is a blockchain security company, Elsa explained. Our mission is to grow mainstream and institutional adoption of the asset class. In order to do that, weve got two main lines of business: the first is a hardware, credit [card]-sized wallet that people can use to hold their cryptocurrency in, called the CoolWalletS.

The other line of business is more targeted toward institutions, Elsa continued. Its an investment sharing platform that we call Sygna Bridge, that allows exchanges to start communicating the data required by regulators. She added that this is particularly relevant in the current moment, as were seeing new laws across the world that govern crypto starting to be implemented.

Specifically, Sygna Bridge was built to address the Financial Action Task Force guidelines that were published last June in Recommendation 16, which recommend legislation that will require cryptocurrency exchanges to adhere to the Travel Rule, which states that inter-exchange transactions must include personal identity data about the sender.

CoolBitX is working on developing relationships with cryptocurrency exchanges around the world that may be interested in adopting Sygna Bridge as a compliance solution to get in line with the FATFs recommendations.

And theres one place that Elsa pointed to in particular: Canada is very interesting to us, Elsa said.

We have Canadian clients and targets for both lines of business, she continued. The CoolWallets been around for a while; this year is really the Sygna Bridge year, [and were] very interested in moving to North America.

But why Canada, say, before the United States? The US market has its own idiosyncrasies, Elsa said. However, [its] less onerous from a regulatory standpoint for Canadian firms to comply with regulation than for US firms to comply with US regulation, so its a good place for us to start.

There has already been some progress on the regulatory front in Canada ahead of the FATFs deadline: FinTRAC announced an enhanced AML regime in March that requires cryptocurrency exchanges to be considered henceforth as money service businesses (MSB).

That now requires registration as an SMBand thats not just any Canadian firm, Elsa explained; it also includes any firm globally that has Canadian clients. These firms will have to register as FMSBs (foreign money service businesses).

This effectively means that securities law applies, she continued; in other words, the Travel Rule isnt just a compliance recomme

ndation for Canada any longerits the law.

But it may be some time before FATFs recommendations are signed into law elsewhere in the world. FATF is a supranational organization that has countries [as] members; therefore, its audience is regulators, Elsa explained.

Therefore, the timeline that the FATF originally sent out for when countries should be compliant with its guidelines was for the regulators; Recommendation 16 set June of 2020 as an ostensible deadline for regulatory adoption.

On a practical level, this means that regulators have until June of this year to demonstrate the fact that if they want to remain a part of the club, that they are issuing regulations.

HYCM's Giles Coghlan Unveils What 2020 Holds For MarketsGo to article >>

Thats why FinTRAC went ahead with the crypto exchanges-as-MSBs law earlier this year: the Canadian government has to issue regulation ahead of that June deadline, Elsa said.

However, this doesnt mean that exchanges need to be compliant by June 1st, she continued. Instead, FATF is primarily concerned about regulatory actions: it wants to see that countries have complied with the timelines that they were suggesting.

Additionally, these werent necessarily hard timelines, because they will meet again to decide whether the timeline sticks, or whether that timeline could be moved back, Elsa explained.

However, Elsa doesnt believe that FATF is likely to kick the can down the road any furtherin other words, the original deadline is likely to stick.

I think FATF was very active in actually speaking to industries, speaking to regulators, getting feedback throughout the course of the year to make sure that the technology might be available, and that it wasnt too onerous for firms to start to comply.

When the FATF guidelines were released last June, there was quite a bit of a stir around the possible effects that enforcing the travel rule on cryptocurrency exchanges could have on the ways that exchanges operateand thereby, cryptocurrency markets.

How could the adoption of the FATF guidelines onto cryptocurrency exchanges in Canada and beyond affect cryptocurrency markets?

What were dealing with here are really institutions, or exchanges that should be deemed institutions, Elsa said. Youre not covering non-custodial wallets, which is probably where the majority of trading actually happens: it doesnt happen on an exchange, it largely happens on OTC [mediums] and between large individual [traders] transacting with each other.

Therefore, Elsa any regulation that only applies to transactions sent to and from cryptocurrency exchanges likely doesnt have a major impact on cryptocurrency markets, as most cryptocurrency trading volume arguably happens outside of cryptocurrency exchanges.

The guidelines dont capture all of that, she said, so, I dont think its going to hinder the growth [of cryptocurrency usage] specifically, because the part that it does capture was already pretty compliantthe large exchanges tend to already require advanced KYC and AML [checks], et cetera.

Therefore, in spite of the fact that the FATF guidelines received negative press at the beginning, Elsa doesnt believe that there will be a huge change in the way that people transact, or in peoples appetite for coming onboard.

Elsa also argued that theres one area in particular where adoption of the FATFs guidelines could result in greater usage and adoption of cryptocurrencies: institutional investors.

Essentially, the enhanced KYC and AML standards that the guidelines would support could potentially make it a more attractive environment for institutions to start considering the asset class.

This is partially because custody is a major issue, and regulation does start to cover custody, Elsa said. Once you start addressing the concerns that institutions may have, you stand more of a chance for longer-term, broader adoption.

By comparison, if institutional flows start to come into the asset class, those would be much larger than retail flows, she continued.

However, the fact remains that while more institutional traders may foray onto cryptocurrency exchanges for the first time once the FATF guidelines are implemented, the majority of cryptocurrency trading will still probably take place on OTC trading desks.

In other words, [] the entities that are being asked to comply probably were not the ones that FATF should have been worried about, Elsa said.

This is problematic for several reasons. In addition to the fact that implementing the guidelines will take time and money, and may sink some businesses.

This is particularly true for small businesses in countries that will design laws that will stringently apply the FATFs guidelines, as opposed to those who may leave a bit more flexibility in the ways that the guidelines are implemented. This is also true in countries that already have onerous regulations in place for cryptocurrency exchanges.

Each country has quite a bit of wiggle room to decide how they are going to implement [the FATFs] guidelines, Elsa explained, ranging from the very relaxed to the very stringent.

For example stating that everybody who deals in crypto is going to be an MSB, as Canada has done, is a pretty stringent application of that guideline.

However, that being said, to be an MSB in Canada is much easier than to be an MSB in a country like the United Statesso, you have to define what being an MSB is by jurisdiction, she said.

In any case, though, Elsa believes that the guidelinesand their implementationis [only] a first step.

This is just warming the industry upthere are further regulatory changes that are going to be imposed.

This is an excerpt. To hear Finance Magnates full interview with CoolBitXs Elsa Madrolle, visit us on SoundCloud or Youtube. Special thanks to Elsa and to the CoolBitX team.

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FATF: How Will the Guidelines Affect Canadas Crypto Industry? - Finance Magnates

The American president Donald Trump pressured on the FED to force the regulator to lower rates deeper into the negative territory. He believes the central bank should keep up with global trends and support the economy with negative rates.

The same views aired the former head of FED in Minneapolis Narayana Kocherlakota.

Bitcoin enthusiasts criticized this approach as it means that the citizens would have to pay for saving money. They believe that this policy would speed up the cryptocurrency adoption as people will seek for alternative ways to protect their wealth.

Bitcoin (BTC) has returned back on the recovery track. After hitting the low of $8,100 on May 10, the first digital asset got back above $9,000 to trade at $9,120 at the time of writing. A sustainable move above the thick layer of stops clustered around $9,000 improved the technical picture and opened up the way towards next resistance at $9,200. The volatility remains high.

Ethereum settled above $197.00 amid strong recovery from as low as $188.41. The second-largest digital asset gained over 3.6% since the start of the day moving in sync with the market. The next resistance is created by a psychological $200.00.

XRP/USD is changing hands at $0.2013 as the coin struggles to settle above the upper boundary of the recent consolidation channel at $0.2000. The next resistance is created by $0.2030 (38.2% Fibo retracement for the downside move from February 2020 high).

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Cryptocurrency market update: Donald Trump will send Bitcoin to the moon - FXStreet