Weekly Highlights: Crypto News

Published in

WhiteBIT

4 min readJun 19, 2020

It’s time for the latest updates from the world of crypto carefully selected and organized into one post. Stay updated with us!

What’s new at WhiteBIT?

Yay! The fees on deposits and withdrawals of RUB, USD & EUR via Interkassa just got lower;
find the exact fees on the Fees Schedule page;
please note that the deposits of EUR & USD from Visa to Interkassa are temporarily unavailable;
save even more with Interkassa!

We are happy to welcome ADK to our exchange;
Aidos Kuneen is an open-source project that focuses on privacy, decentralization, and scalability;
in order to address the issues of limited scalability, anonymity, and high transaction fees, they introduced a new cryptocurrency, Aidos Kuneen (ADK);
ADK is paired against BTC, with USD and EUR pairs coming soon;
trade like a pro today!

Our AMA session with Dash took place on the 16th of June in their Telegram chat;
lots of people took their chance to ask questions and the most interesting Qs were rewarded with DASH;
thanks for tuning in and sending us your questions;
we were really happy to chat with you!

Want to win a reward? Create content about MimbleWimbleCoin, and you’re in;
the bounty starts on the 22nd of June and will last for 3 weeks;
the prize pool is 350 MWC (~$6000);
both new & already registered users can take part (KYC is required);
we will post more details about very soon & you will be able to find them on WinPlay when the bounty starts;
good luck!

What’s new in the world of crypto?

China’s Center for Information and Industry Development, or CCID, revealed on June 18 that its 18th CCID Global Public Chain Technology Evaluation Index;
this index ranked 37 well-known global cryptos using technical specifications;
according to the table published by local media Chainnews, Bitcoin (BTC) was placed in the 12th place, with 106.2 points;
the criteria used to evaluate cryptocurrencies include basic technology, applicability, features, performance, safety, creativity, and decentralization;
at the top of the table, EOS leads the ranking with 156.1 points, followed by TRON with 138.43 points and Ether (ETH) with 136.4 points;
interestingly, Bitcoin was even lower down the list in a previous ranking, at 17th place.

after increasing more than 1600% between April 5 and May 20, Bitcoin transaction fees have now dropped to $0.56;
the average transaction fees for Bitcoin have dropped under the $1 mark, and are back to levels not seen since before the rewards halving;
according to data from crypto analytics website BitInfoCharts, from May 20 until June 14, Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees decreased by 91% from $6.65 to $0.56;
high transaction fees normally indicate network congestion, during which time users are likely to pay more to have their transactions processed.

President Donald Trump ordered Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to focus on a clampdown on bitcoin over negotiating a trade with China, former national security adviser John Bolton reportedly claims;
in a terse exchange about imposing sanctions and tariffs with China, Trump reportedly told Mnuchin: “Don’t be a trade negotiator,” ordering him instead to: “Go after bitcoin [for fraud]”;
the conversation is said to have happened in May 2018, around the time investors were cheering bitcoin on after it rose 33% against the dollar;
“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” he tweeted. “Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity….”;
the Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Bolton and has urged the court to stop the release claiming it contains classified information.

The Austrian government is taking a considered approach to COVID-19 tech solutions after an initial rush to get some kind of contact tracing app out the door;
the country’s Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs awarded a €60,000 ($67,600) grant to a project called QualiSig;
it uses elements of Austria’s digital identity system to create three COVID-related prototypes around fraud prevention, fake news, and health data;
The QualiSig prototypes use the Ardor blockchain built by Swiss firm Jelurida and its Ignis tokenizing system.

Bitcoin’s price rally has stalled since the cryptocurrency underwent its third halving on May 11, but investor confidence in the cryptocurrency’s long-term prospects remains strong, data shows;
the halving event on May 11 saw the mining reward per block on bitcoin’s blockchain cut from 12.5 BTC to 6.25;
the event was expected by many to accelerate the price uptrend from the low of $3,867 seen in March;
though, the leading cryptocurrency by market value has failed to pick up a strong bid and continues to trade below $10,000 — a level seen two days ahead of the halving;
as of Tuesday, the number of bitcoin whales, as represented by the tally of unique entities holding at least 1,000 coins, was 1,840;
that’s up nearly 2% from the level of 1,811 observed on May 1, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode;
the steady accumulation since the halving suggests investor confidence in the long-term bullish narrative surrounding bitcoin.

Stay tuned for more news!

WhiteBIT Team

Written by Anna Ratieva