Crypto weekly is authored by maaria

PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- BTC ($11,380): +17% WoW / -15% YTD
- ETH ($863): +4% WoW / +19% YTD
- LTC ($214): -2% WoW / -4% YTD
- XRP ($0.95): -11% WoW / -51% YTD

TECH SPOTLIGHT
- Have you heard of Stablecoins? Stablecoins are assets that aim to offer price stability characteristics. They aim to be immune to volatility and inflation, in contrast to the high volatility of major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

- There are different methods of creating price stability, each with its own pros/cons. Some methods rely on centralized, trusted parties while other models are decentralized but can become under collateralized in situations of extreme market volatility.

- Proponents of stablecoins believe that price stability is needed in order for cryptocurrencies to become widely used. Opponents believe supply and demand dynamics should be left to the markets, and stability can be achieved over time.

- Tether is one of the largest stablecoins and aims to track the value of a single U.S. dollar. Tether’s coins became a popular substitute for dollars on cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide, but in January Tether came under scrutiny when it failed to rpovide conclusive evidence that all of its coins were backed by U.S. Dollars held in reserve. Regulators issued subpoenas for Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange that is closely linked to Tether.

IN THE NEWS
- The SEC has sent subpoenas to as many as 80 companies involved with initial coin offerings in recent months, including lawyers who advised the projects.

- Circle, a cryptocurrency-focused financial services firm, buys cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex for $400 million. The acquisition makes Circle a rising thread to Coinbase’s GDAX, which is currently the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. Circle was valued at $480 million during its last fundraise in June 2016.

- Many publications including Bloomberg and Forbes reported a significant drop in Bitcoin’s daily transaction volumes, suggesting a drop in the popularity of bitcoin. However, the reports failed to mention that some of the largest exchanges such as Coinbase, Shapeshift, and Kraken recently implemented SegWit and started batching transactions. Batching transactions drastically reduces the number of transactions sent by exchanges to settle user payments.

- Germany issues guidance that it will regard bitcoin as legal tender for tax purposes when used as a means of payment. This contrasts with U.S. Policy, where IRS treats bitcoin as property for tax purposes and is thus subject to capital gains tax.

- Coinbase sends information on approximately 13,000 customers the US IRS. The IRS had initially asked Coinbase in July 2017 to hand over detailed information on its then 500,000 users but a court order in November 2017 reduced the number to around 13,000 ‘high-transacting’ users.

- Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com says it will roll out a blockchain system to track beef imports from a new meat supplier in Australia. This is part of an ongoing effort by JD.com to improve confidence among domestic consumers over the quality of products imported through e-commerce platforms in China.

- NEO, often called the Chinese Ethereum, came to a halt due to a network node crash. One of the consensus nodes was disconnected during the consensus process, and all remaining nodes were held up indefinitely. Many are wondering why this single point of failure wasn’t accounted for in NEO’s software deployment.

- Walmart files patent seeking to utilize blockchain technology for a smarter package delivery tracking system. The ‘smart package’ would include a device which would record information on a blockchain regarding the contents of the package, its conditions, location and more. Online shopping has created shipping challenges for retailers, particularly with regard to perishable products requiring temperature control.

- Coinbase, one of the largest US-based cryptocurrency exchange and wallet platforms, faces a class action lawsuit claiming that its employees and other insiders benefited from trading on non-public information that the exchange planned to introduce Bitcoin Cash support last December. The cryptocurrency soared from $1,865 on December 18 to as high as $4,300 by February 20.

- Louisiana’s attorney general is investigating a group of former staffers for using official resources to mine cryptocurrencies. The group came under scrutiny after officials discovered hardware that could be used to mine bitcoin. This isn’t the first time this has occurred - in January 2017 a staffer at the Federal Reserve’s Office was fined for mining bitcoins on a server owned by the U.S. Central bank.

- Australian cryptocurrency exchange Bitcoin.com.au has made buying Bitcoin and Ethereum for fiat possible in more than 1,200 newsstands across Australia.

- Blockchain-based credit score app Bloom experiences a 1,250 percent increase in signups after Equifax reveals its 2017 data breach affected 2.4M more customers than previously reported; the Ethereum-based decentralized app, which is less than two months old, now has about 3,500 signups.

- Liechtenstein lending institution Bank Frick now offers ‘direct investment’ and cold storage of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ripple, and Ether. Bank Frick is one of the few banks who can custody assets for institutional investors.

- Porsche is testing blockchain applications in its vehicles. Possible applications include locking and opening car doors via an app or providing access to the vehicle to a third party. According to Porsche, Blockchain features could speed up the process of opening and locking the car with an app by 6 times.

- Jack Dorsey, CEO of payment service Square, revealed plans to focus on developing increased options for Bitcoin use. “Bitcoin, for us, is not stopping at buying and selling. We do believe that this is a transformational technology for our industry, and we want to learn as quickly as possible,” Dorsey said.