The Crypto Refresh March 29th 2018

It’s been a busy week for Crypto-traders, fans, enthusiasts and observers this week with news pouring from every orifice imaginable. If you ask me which is the most important new piece of the week? I’d say all of them. Every move within the crypto-sphere needs to be reported. You can’t have any fear of missing out if you never miss out! However, here are some highlights to settle you in to the weekend, sit back and enjoy. Twitter to Ban Cryptocurrency ads Yes, you heard it here first, Twitter are banning cryptocurrency ads, that means no more coins, no more wallets, and no more exchanges to be advertised on Twitter. If you didn’t already know this, sorry for spoiling the surprise but this has been hitting the headlines all week. Twitter are following the footsteps of Google and Facebook in a bid lower the risk of the users falling for cryptocurrency scams. Interestingly, this announcement coincided with some very big movements on the coin markets. Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple Decline with Twitter News Announcement If you monitor the markets you’ll have seen that the majority of currencies continued their decline this week with Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple taking the brunt of the media attention. A lot of people are putting this down to the recent Twitter announcement as the troughs in currency prices did occur at around the same time as this. Whether its just a coincidence or an elaborate ploy to justify the poor performance of the major currencies this week, Twitter are getting the majority of the blame for it. Top performers Throughout the Week Despite the rough seas, a number of coins did out perform their expectations this week. First of all, Verge saw a huge spike midweek, this did coincide with the conclusion of their crowdfunding campaign and news of a big announcement, this however was delayed until the 16^th of April, leaving fans and traders waiting with anticipation. Ontology was another big performer this week, with significant gains over a few days. Obviously as the rest of the market seemed to be on a slippery downwards slope, Ontology’s large but short gains did stand out as something to look up for, unfortunately though by Thursday night this started to level back out. TRON, another silent creeper this week, other than a slight dip, TRON has been on a steady incline for a week now, this is one to keep an eye on for sure. Finally, Mithril, after a few consecutive days of constant gains, the 29^th of March saw Mithril on the verge of a sky rocket, unfortunately though it’s glory was only temporary, rapidly falling on Thursday afternoon through to the evening. Cryptocurrency Donations Rife There have been numerous reports of firms making big charity donations via cryptocurrency this week, Ripple for example have donated $29M XRP to fund the education sector with OmiseGO donating $1M towards refugee relief efforts in Uganda. Experts, everywhere There have been numerous reports out this week from experts in all sorts of industries discussing the future of cryptocurrency. The general consensus has been that we are on the edge of a great boom which will see rapid regrowth across the whole board. TO quote one article ‘all hell will break loose’. Verge Have Been Flexing Their Muscles I touched upon this earlier, but Verge have had quite a lot of limelight this week. They recently concluded a crowd funding campaign which promised to result in a most incredible partnership between Verge and a mystery organisation. Upon reaching their target, Verge promised to outline details of their next steps, during this time the value of the currency jumped up. Eventually, Verge Dev; Vendetta, took to Twitter in a video where he first joked about using the crowdfund donations to buy an island, then actually said there’s a partnership coming but you won’t find out about it till the 16^th of April. So yeah, basically we have to wait until then to find out more. It’ll be interesting to see how the currency performs in the days leading up to their announcement. Santander to launch app with Ripple, Ripple to partner with Western Union Once again, Ripples name and logo has been plastered all over the news. Both with their impending but unconfirmed collaboration with Western Union (rumours say there will be an announcement on the 18^th of April) and with interest from Santander who are looking at launching an international money transfer app. Two very big steps towards cryptocurrency adoption from both of these stories. Malicious Mining We have had endless reports this week detailing malicious mining, how it works, who does it, where it works and why it’s bad. On the flipside, there’s also been loads of news discussing how malicious mining can and should be clamped down on. Cybersecurity always makes big news because I think it is something we are all worried about. If this week’s news is anything to go by though, be sure that there are numerous organisations working together to combat these criminals. We have come to the end of the first quarter of 2018. For cryptocurrency specifically, it has been a bit of a rollercoaster. There have been some peaks, but very few, the general consensus overall, as it has been this week is a universal decline in value. What we must do now is hope that the next week, the next month and the next quarter really does see the rises that the experts are predicting. The industry is flourishing and its an incredible time to be involved in it. Featured Image Source: Pixabay