Another week in the crypto space has passed. Bitcoin still remained indecisive in its trend, and coin projects continued to move forward as February quietly faded into March.
Catch the details of this weeks action:
Bitcoin price action in a nutshell
Crypto’s largest asset had yet another indecisive week as far as a new trend is concerned. Sunday night showed promise of renewed BTC exuberance, as the asset sat at roughly $4,162, as recorded on CoinMarketCap. However, by the time Monday rolled around, bitcoin had fallen to the $3,800 range. The rest of the week saw the currency bouncing around the upper $3,000 range.
XRP finally listed on Coinbase Pro
On Monday, XRP fans finally received the much-anticipated news of a Coinbase Pro listing for the asset. Coinbase announced the event through a blog post which detailed the procedure.
Coinbase Pro started receiving XRP withdrawals after 10 a.m. Pacific Time, with trading commencement dependent on gathering liquidity. Order-books on the exchange were limited to only transfers for at least 12 hours. The following three stages included post-only mode, limit-only mode and full trading.
Swiss bank Julius Baer to offer crypto services
A statement on Julius Baer’s website revealed the bank “will enter into a partnership with SEBA to take advantage of their innovative platform and capabilities in order to provide Julius Baer clients with leading-edge solutions in the area of digital assets to meet an increasing demand.”
Updates from Cryptopia on January hack
In a series of tweets this week, Cryptopia showed a few further details into the hack it sustained earlier this year. In January, someone hacked 76,000 wallets on their exchange, stealing roughly $16 million in crypto funds, according to a blog post from Elementus.
A later article from Elementus revealed Cryptopia suffered a second hack, which affected 17,000 wallets and about $180,000 in ethereum (ETH). During the second breach, attacked for a second time, 5240 wallets saw an overlap, indicating unsuspecting users might have deposited further funds after the first hack.
February 14 saw Cryptopia regain its facility from the police (due to the investigation), with further inspection ongoing. February 26 posted several tweets of further clarity. In one of the posts, Cryptopia stated, “[c]urrently, we have calculated that worst case 9.4% of our total holdings was stolen. Please keep an eye on our page for further updates today.”
Casa introduces “Sovereignty-as-a-Service”
Facebook releasing crypto asset soon?
An article from the New York Times shook the crypto-space this week with news of a Facebook coin. The Times reportedly spoke with several anonymous individuals who revealed Facebook intends to build a coin for its subsidiary, WhatsApp.
Several other individuals have hinted to the publication that Facebook reportedly already has had talks with crypto exchanges regarding the coin’s listing. Nevertheless, The Times has received a statement which clarified that Facebook did not directly confirm the production of such an asset.
The social media company began its digital asset project in 2018, led by ex-PayPal brass David Marcus.
Three other individuals revealed to the New York publication that Facebook considers making the crypto asset a type of stablecoin, possibly having its value tied to a bundle of several different global currencies, as opposed to having just one currency like the U.S. dollar.
The New York Times stated the world might see Facebook’s digital asset as early as the first half of 2019, according to the conversations between Facebook employees and crypto exchanges.
Additionally, this week Crypto Insider interviewed R.L. Bryer, also known as the Pittsburgh Hodlr.