PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($8,661): +6% / +20%
- ETH ($165): +14% / +26%
- LTC ($57): +14% / +37%
- XRP ($0.23): +9% / +21%
- Crypto Market Cap ($237B): +9% / +24%
- BTC Dominance: 67%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- Bitcoin miners made $5 billion in revenue in 2019. $4.89 billion came from block rewards and $146 million came from transaction fees. Bitcoin rewards are set to change later this year during the 'halvening' when the per-block subsidy will drop from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC. Link. 

- Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis traced $2.8 billion in bitcoin being sent by criminals to crypto exchanges in 2019, with the bulk of those transactions going to Binance and Huobi. 75% of the illicit funds sent to those two exchanges went to 810 accounts. These large accounts likely belong to OTC brokers, which are often subject to lower KYC procedures. These OTC brokers will help criminals launder and cash out funds, usually first by exchanging Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies into Tether as a stable intermediary currency before cashing out into fiat. Link. 

- LinkedIn's 2020 job trends report showed that blockchain is now the most in-demand "hard skill" employers are looking for in 2020 in the US, UK, France, Germany and Australia. Last year, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and analytical reasoning led LInkedIn's global list of in-demand hard skills. Companies like IBM, Oracle, JPMorgan, Microsoft, Amazon, and American Express are all looking to make blockchain hires in 2020. Link. 

- Crypto custodian Anchorage made its first acquisition with Merkle Data, a crypto risk modeling company. The tech is intended to beef up Anchorage's trading platform, which will allow its customers to trade straight from custody rather than moving assets through multiple platforms. Combining trading and custody makes the platform more secure and cheaper than traditional trading platforms. Anchorage will charge its customer a transaction fee of a tenth of a percent. Link. 

- The SEC alleges that Telegram launched its $1.7 billion token sale in 2018 in order to pay for servers. Documents released by the SEC show Telegram CEO had been looking for ways to raise money to pay for equipment, including an equity sale before they decided to raise via token offering. The SEC is alleging that Telegram's tokens, known as grams, were unregistered securities. The SEC believes these documents show that the token sale was merely a substitute for equity financing, meaning they are securities. Link. 

- Binance is partnering with Yahoo! Japan subsidiary and local crypto exchange TaoTao to operate a licensed crypto exchange in the country. Earlier in the week Binance had announced it would stop supporting trading for Japanese residents. Binance had done something similar in the US last year - it stopped serving US customers and later opened a separate exchange for US investors, called BinanceUS. Link. Link. 

- Asset manager WisdomTree Investments plans to launch its own regulated stablecoin in the US; similar to Libra the stablecoin will be pegged to a basket of assets, such as gold, fiat currencies, or government debt. WisdomTree manages over $60 billion in client assets. Link. 

- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says that airlines flying from Caracas must pay for fuel in the countries native cryptocurrency, petro. Maduro did not specify whether the initiatives applies to Venezuelan airlines alone or international carriers as well. Maduro also said that taxes and utility bills would also be paid for in petros going forward. Link. 

- The Libra Association has set up a 5-member "Technical Steering Committee" to oversee the development of the stablecoin project. The five members are: Diogo Monica (Anchorage), George Cabrera III (Calibra), Joe Lallouz (Bison Trails), Nick Grossman (Union Square Ventures), and Ric Shreves (Mercy Corps). The group will direct the technical roadmap for Libra as it gears towards a mainnet launch later this year. Link. 

- Ripple-backed remittance services provider MoneyGram is expanding its services to India. MoneyGram has partnered with Indian money transfer firm EbixCash to serve millions of customers in India across 4,000 cities and over 75,000 villages. EbixCash dominates physical remittance distribution in the country, as it owns 80% of distribution outlets in the country. With the partnership MoneyGram aims to service inward remittance volumes of $3 billion annually. Link.