Binance Ties With Turkish Akbank, Ripple Innovates, Google Play Bans Crypto Apps While Coronavirus Threatens the Industry — Roundup #30

In this edition:

• Binance Partners Up With Turkish Akbank
• Ripple to Enable Launch of Stablecoins on XRP Ledger
• Google Play Store Removes Crypto News Apps
• Coronavirus Postpones Paris Blockchain Week Summit

Fellow Anchorians, let me start this Weekly Crypto Roundup epically. And I mean literally. Are any of you LOTR fans? If so, then you must know Galadriel’s prologue in The Fellowship of the Ring. Allow me to, khm, rephrase it a bit:

‘’The cryptocurrency world is changed. I feel it in the blockchain. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost; for none now live who remember it. It began with the forging of great Bitcoin…’’

Epic, yaass, but what’s the correlation? Well, I’m sure that many of you have already noticed, but cryptocurrencies are surely going beyond trading. The landscape of our industry has drastically changed over the years. Emerging projects are searching for real-world use cases, and even traditional, hierarchy-based bodies are looking to jump on the bandwagon. So, where does this leave us, crypto enthusiasts?

Information is key nowadays, fellow Anchorians. The more you know, the more you grow! And that’s exactly why we round up the latest news every week for you. Without further ado, let’s dive into this 30th jubilee edition!

Binance Partners Up With Turkish Akbank

A famous crypto exchange Binance enabled instant deposit and withdrawal with Turkish lira on its platforms by partnering up with Akbank, a commercial bank in Turkey! It has become normal now to mention Turkey along with crypto and blockchain adoption since this country had previously proved its openness towards technological innovation. A little rewind of the movie — the Turkish government is working on developing its CBDC, city of Konya announced ‘City Coin’ project and digitization of assets trend is ongoing, too.

CZ himself appreciated this phenomenon, but Binance took it a step further this time. The company teamed up with Akbank and brought another important fiat on-ramp. What is also significant is the fact that this is the first bank ever to integrate directly with Binance!

CEO of Binance made a comment following this event: “As part of our mission to continue working on increasing the freedom of money worldwide and notably in a country that is fast-adopting digital assets, we are expanding the available options to lower the barrier to entry.”

This is not the only news coming from Binance. Lately, they also presented a white-label solution for local exchanges to switch onto their technology. What can we say except — keep up the good work!

Ripple to Enable Launch of Stablecoins on XRP Ledger

Has anyone seen the recently-released Ripple’s video featuring its CTO David Schwartz? Well, I found it interesting and decided to share my discoveries with you since they could have influence on the crypto community.

Besides stating that ‘’PoW is a technological dead-end’’, Mr. Schwartz announced in the video the addition of some useful features on the XRP ledger. One of them is, simply put, enabling third parties to launch their cryptocurrency on the XRP system.

“One of the features that I think is very exciting is a feature that would allow people to launch — well, stablecoins are the obvious use case, but it’s not just stablecoins — it’s essential assets pegged to some external value.”

It is well-known, of course, that XPR is the third cryptocurrency by market cap, which proves Ripple must be doing something right. By focusing on the remittances sphere, Ripple found a lucrative real-world use case that continues to grow on a daily basis. It comes as no surprise that the company wants to innovate and improve its product because that’s the key to stay competitive on a market filled with new projects and ideas!

What do you think about this? Share your thoughts in the Anchor project community on Telegram >>

Google Play Store Removes Crypto News Apps

As of March 2nd, 2:00 pm EST, Google Play Store disabled cryptocurrency news apps such as Cointelegraph and CoinDesk. Though still available through the website, reading the latest crypto news is currently unavailable on Android apps. Bummer.

It is still unknown whether this ban towards cryptocurrency news providers is fully intentional and how long it will last. Cointelegraph claims that they tried reaching out to Google but received no response. Additionally, Google made no comment regarding this matter.

It is not the first time that crypto content has faced hurdles. Some social media channels haven’t been kind to crypto in the past, i.e. there was a brief period of time when YouTube was taking down crypto-related videos, and the community didn’t take it lightly.

Furthermore, Google Play had earlier removed various crypto mining apps, along with the MetaMask app. Why? A darn good question. My assumption is that cryptocurrencies are somewhat still legally undefined, or even vilified in some countries, and that makes big companies not want to stir the pot. Who suffers the most? Users!

Coronavirus Postpones Paris Blockchain Week Summit

Bad news alert! Paris Blockchain Week Summit has been rescheduled for December due to the Coronavirus epidemic. Originally, PBW was supposed to be held from March 31st to April 1st.

After the coronavirus outbreak in Italy, caution in other European countries was raised on a maximum level, so the French government issued guidelines that prohibit mass gatherings. Due to high danger to public health, many events were canceled or rescheduled, including the Paris Blockchain Week Summit. The conference will hopefully be held from December 9th to 10th 2020.

This, of course, is not the only consequence for the cryptocurrency industry. Many crypto events in Asia were also canceled or postponed, along with the crypto mining farms in China that were forced to shut down due to the notorious virus. Coinbase and Messari took safety measures, too. They recommended their employees to work from home until the crisis is dealt with.

Besides crypto, many industries and businesses have taken a hit due to the COVID-19, i.e. gold dropped 7% in five days after coronavirus sell-off.

Final Thoughts

Before we sum this up, let’s reflect on another key event that will go big in weeks to come — India’s Supreme Court decision to declare Reserve Bank of India’s ban on banks’ services to crypto-related firms UNCONSTITUTIONAL! The sweet taste of justice! Of course, we will do in-depth coverage of the following events in the next edition! #Blessed

The math is simple here — sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. In life, and crypto, too. This week’s Roundup brought us both good and bad news from the industry, yet I believe it’s very important to stay real!

I’m glad to see the industry leaders are willing to innovate and bring the world of cryptocurrencies on another level. Nevertheless, there will always be hurdles and difficulties but they are here to be overcome! Or, even better, let’s finish this 30th edition the way we started it — with epic LOTR quotes. Do you know WWGD (what would Gandalf do)? He would say:

“So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

I will leave you there, fellow Anchorians. You know the drill now… I wish you fair winds and following seas! Until next week!

Disclaimer: The information provided in this post is not legal, accounting, or financial advice. I am not a lawyer, accountant, or financial advisor. I am not registered as an investment adviser with any federal or state regulatory agency. The Information should not be construed as investment or trading advice and is not meant to be a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any cryptocurrencies.

Originally published at https://theanchor.io on March 5, 2020.