The Month in Crypto — March 19

Bitcoin bull run, Facebook coin rumours, Bithumb & DragonEx hacked.

The News

• A bullish price surge has just happened. At the time of writing, bitcoin is up 15% over the last 24 hours, rising above the 50, 100 and 200-day averages for the first time since December 2017. Many of the other large cryptocurrencies are showing double digit gains. coindesk
• Facebook has continued hiring blockchain engineers and is now reportedly working on its own cryptocurrency according to The New York Times. Facebook haven’t confirmed anything yet. nytimes
• Bithumb, the largest South Korean crypto exchange was hacked, with $13M stolen. It was reportedly an inside job. coindesk This came just days after the Singaporean exchange, DragonEx was hacked for $7M. coindesk
• A report produced by Bitwise Asset Management indicates that 95% of bitcoin trade volumes are fake. sec
• Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce giant, received a license from the Japanese Financial Services Agency for a new cryptocurrency exchange. medium

Capital

• Kakao, the South Korean messaging application raised $90M in a private coin offering. bloomberg
• Etoro, the social trading application, acquired Firmo for an undisclosed amount. Firmo are a smart contract infrastructure provider. techcrunch

Adoption

• LVMH, the parent company of luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, will launch a blockchain to track the authenticity of luxury goods. coindesk
• Avnet, the Fortune 500 electronics company is now accepting bitcoin as a form of payment. avnet
• UPS announced a blockchain-based platform to help businesses distribute their products online. ups

Market:

The positive uptrend in February has continued throughout March. As mentioned a price surge has occurred in the last 24 hours resulting in the market rising 25% overall this month. Bitcoin is up 24% since the 1st March with a global average of $4,760 USD. Ethereum is up 13%, sitting at a global average of $153 USD.