The market posted small gains today, with Bitcoin once again moving past $4,050. However, the total market cap added just $1.3 Billion in the last 24 hours. Most major cryptocurrencies are in green, gaining less than 1%. Meanwhile, Stellar (XLM) is up by 5% after announcing the IBM partnership. It overtook Binance Coin (BNB) to become the seventh largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $2.21 Billion.
In other news, IOST recently published a guide to creating smart contracts on the IOST platform that was written by a community member and submitted to the IOST Tech Article Contest. The user created guide covers how to build a smart contract and publish it via the command line on IOST, and is intended for developers who code in JavaScript. The guide utilizes iwallet, which is the command line tool for the IOST blockchain and can be used to connect to the IOST blockchain and transfer coins, create accounts, query balances or call contracts. Also, New Zealand-based crypto exchange Cryptopia posted an update informing users that it plans to resume trading by the end of March. Cryptopia co-founder Rob (Hex) Dawson said the company is committed to reopening the exchange and Hex discussed the ongoing rebate process and general recommendations for users on how to interact with their accounts. The platform reopened in read-only mode on March 5 and the exchange showed balances as they were on January 14, 2019, when the first $16 million hack occurred.
1) Yesterday, Coinbase announced that Stellar Lumens would be available on Coinbase.com and the Android and iOS App. Stellar Lumens (XLM) gained 5 percent off the listing news, and the gains also appear driven by IBM’s announcement that it had partnered with six banks to issue fiat backed stablecoins on the Stellar network. Last week XLM was listed on Coinbase Pro and today’s listing on Coinbase.com will make XLM available to more than 20 million customers in more than 42 countries. (Read More)
2) At the Money 2020 Asia conference in Singapore, IBM and Stellar announced that six international banks signed letters of intent to issue their own stablecoins backed by national fiat on IBM’s live blockchain-powered payment network called “Blockchain World Wire”. Blockchain World Wire (BWW) was launched in partnership with Stellar (XLM) in September 2018 and the platform currently hosts more than 44 banks and aims to use cryptocurrency to support real-time international settlements between banks. Brazil’s Banco Bradesco, South Korea’s Bank Busan, and the Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation are among the six banks that signed letters of intent. IBM also announced that it had partnered with Stronghold, a Stellar-based, USD-backed asset, and the partnership will see the formation of Stellar’s first stablecoin. IBM head of blockchain solutions, Jesse Lund, said: “We let the market drive the expansion and selection of the network incrementally [and] we are feeling excited that we are on a roll to build something that’s really going to change the landscape of cross-border payments.” (Read More)
3) Citygroup cancels its stablecoin plans. Citigroup’s innovation lab in Dublin has been working on a stablecoin called “Citycoin” since 2015. It was the first big institution to test a token for global payments. It was never formally announced by the bank. After months of experimentation, City has now concluded that the technology has the potential to live up to its promises. However, they will not be pursuing it right now as there are other more effective and efficient ways of making improvements in payments. The bank is looking for effective payment solutions with a short-term impact. Citi’s current blockchain strategy is to simplify legacy systems using the technology. In 2017, Citi partnered with Nasdaq to launch CitiConect to streamline payments around private securities. (Read More)
