Table of Contents
Ethereum Hard Fork
At the end of February, the Ethereum network hosted the Constantinople hardfork. After the update, the miners’ reward for the mined block was reduced from 3 to 2 ETH. The speed and efficiency of the blockchain have increased.
Constantinople is part of a global network upgrade, the first phase of Frontier was completed in 2015, after which Metropolis arrived. The next part, named Istanbul, took place in December. The update increased the security of the system and brought the altcoin closer to the transition to the PoS algorithm, the introduction of which will allow you to receive passive income for storing coins.
The launch of Facebook’s Own Cryptocurrency Announcement
In mid-June, Facebook announced the launch of the Libra cryptocurrency. The company has plans to make its token available to users of Messenger and WhatsApp, as well as its own Calibra application.
Immediately after Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement, the US government called for a suspension of development until all issues with regulators were resolved. The authorities of some countries, such as India and France, said that the project will be blocked on their territory.
These problems led to the fact that several Libra partners, such as Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, left the association at once to resolve all disputes. At the same time, Zuckerberg assured that the project would not be launched without the permission of financial regulators.
At the end of December, Libra board member Patrick Ellis confirmed that the launch of the payment system will take place in 2020. However, the scale of its implementation remains unknown. At the moment, the project does not have a clear strategy, which will depend on the communication with authorities.
Telegram Open Network Issue
The release of the TON blockchain platform and the Gram cryptocurrency was supposed to take place before the end of October. Otherwise, the project team had to return the invested funds, $1.7 billion, to investors. However, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had its own plans. It sued the companies that conducted the Telegram Open Network token sale and demanded to suspend development for the duration of the proceedings.
In mid-October, the messenger’s leadership obeyed and got involved in litigation with the financial regulator. The company has postponed the deadline for launching the blockchain project until April 30, 2020. Investors agreed to take these measures. Now the SEC will hold meetings with the organizers of the ICO TON, including Pavel Durov, and a court hearing on this issue is scheduled for February next year.
Launching of Bakkt Futures Platform
Bakkt, developed by the same company that created New York Stock Exchange, was launched in September. At first, its daily trading volume was less than 100 BTC, but over time, this figure increased significantly and reached a record high of 5690 BTC.
This platform for trading Bitcoin futures added BTC options and announced the development of a payment application. Its first partner will be Starbucks, a coffee shop chain, visitors to which will be able to pay for purchases with digital money.
Cryptopia Exchange Hack
At the beginning of the year, hackers broke into the New Zealand Cryptopia exchange. Initially, the damage was about $16 million, then the criminals made another attack and withdrew about $180 thousand from the accounts. The platform was planning to return to work after a certain time. However, it was impossible, so the company began the liquidation procedure.
There is still no information on whether the affected customers began to receive compensation for the losses. An international investigation into the incident remains inconclusive.
IEO
In 2018, investors were disappointed in ICOs. In the first few months of that year, such projects raised $118 million, 58 times less than in the previous similar period. IEO, which Binance successfully launched on its Launchpad platform, occupied the initial token offering.
Initially, interest in exchange offers was so high that projects collected financing in a matter of seconds, and almost none of the investors had time to buy new tokens. The solution was the lottery system, which is still in effect.
The IEO boom affected the Binance Coin rate in exactly the same way it did in 2017 with Ethereum and ICO. Altcoin BNB grew in the first few months of 2019 until it set a historical maximum value of almost $40. In less than six months, it has risen in price by hundreds of percent. As soon as the hype around the initial exchange offerings subsided, the cryptocurrency exchange rate declined. Now it is $13.3.
Interest in stock offers disappeared three months after its appearance. Already in August, IEO raised about $125 million, which was 88% less than in May, when the amount was at $1.2 billion.
Now the market is already looking for new ways to attract investors and financing that will replace IEO. Stock offers are not suitable for investors, because the chance of winning the lottery is too small, and during the time you hold the exchange token, you can lose more on the fall of its exchange rate than you can earn on new altcoins in the future.
Bottom Line
The events we considered above are not the end of the story. We still do not know the development scenario of Telegram Open Network. The cryptocurrency market is on its rise. In spite of the so-called bear market, blockchain technologies are being implemented in real-life cases. We hope that 2020 will give you a bigger crypto income and trading happiness. Changelly Team wishes you all the best in the next year!