PRICE CHANGE WTD/YTD

- BTC ($3,890): +3% / +4%
- ETH ($135): +4% / +1%
- LTC ($56): +17% / +84%
- XRP ($0.32): 0% / -9%
- Crypto Market Cap ($134B): +3% / +7%
- BTC dominance: 52%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- The "lightning torch," an ongoing experiment meant to showcase the power of the lightning network, was passed to Ziya Sadr in Iran despite the ongoing US sanctions. The 6 week experiment has seen the torch passed across 40 countries and has seen participation from people like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. The passing of the torch to Iran was a major milestone in the experiment, which is aimed at demonstrating bitcoin's power as a fast global payment system that can be sent anywhere. Link. 

- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced that the company is firing Neutrino employees who previously worked for Hacking Team. Coinbase had recently acquired the crypto security firm, but came under fire when news broke that some Neutrino employees were a part of the controversial Hacking Team, a company that provides tools to law enforcement and intelligence organizations including countries with poor human rights records. Coinbase reportedly paid $13.5 million to acquire the company. Link.

- New York lending firm BlockFi announced it was launching a crypto savings account with 6 percent annual interest, payable monthly in bitcoin or ether. The firm is targeting institutional investors and the Japanese market, where savings account earn 0%. Link.  

- The city of Denver plans to offer blockchain-based mobile voting in its upcoming municipal elections in May. The pilot program will allow 4,000 overseas voters, active-duty military personnel and their eligible dependents to vote using a blockchain-based smartphone app. The program is being done in partnership with Tusk Philanthropies, founded by Bradley Tusk, and Voatz. Voatz's blockchain tech has been used in more than 30 successful pilots and has recorded over 15,000 votes. Link.

- Crypto broker Tagomi announced a $12 million fundraise led by Pantera Capital and Paradigm. The firm offers trading services to family offices and crypto funds to make investing in cryptocurrencies less complicated; its core offerings today are best execution, custody and treasury management. The new capital will allow the firm to offer new services including margin, lending and shorting. Link. 

- A study by Cisco security researchers shows that college campuses are responsible for approximately 22 percent of cryptocurrency mining. This is likely driven by students capitalizing on the free electricity they receive in their dorms. The energy and utilities sector is the largest miner of cryptocurrencies, though the report speculates this is due to companies running old computers that can be easily infected with mining malware. Link. 

- Coinbase's director of institutional sales justified its acquisition of Neutrino during an interview with Cheddar by saying the exchange's previous analytics provider was "selling client data to outside sources." Coinbase later said Sandler misspoke and that the exchange "never shared customers' personally identifiable information with any third-party blockchain analysis vendors." Analytics providers typically collect anonymous transaction data and commercialize access to that information for customers seeking to investigate suspicious activity. Chainalysis and Elliptic both deny receiving or selling personal identifiable information from Coinbase. Link. 

- 73 percent of UK consumers don't know what a cryptocurrency is or are unable to define it, according to a new survey from the country's financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority. The research indicates that those who are most aware of cryptocurrencies are likely to be men aged between 20 and 44. Only 3 percent of those surveyed had ever bought cryptocurrencies. Link. 

- North Korea has been carrying out major crypto hacks to bypass economic sanctions, according to a UN Security Council expert panel report. It is estimated that North Korea stole $571 million from Asian crypto exchanges across 5 attacks between January 2017 and September 2018. Link. 

- Connecticut lawmakers filed a bill that would legalize the use of blockchain smart contracts for commerce in the state. Ohio passed a similar bill last August, while a Florida effort to legalize smart contracts failed to pass in October. Link. 

- US prosecutors in New York filed charges against the founders of the OneCoin project, saying it stole billions from investors through an alleged pyramid scheme. The company gave users a commission if they could convince others to buy OneCoin cryptocurrency; it claimed to have over 3 million members worldwide despite having no functional blockchain or public ledger. The charges allege that OneCoin made roughly $3.7 billion in revenue from 2014 to 2016. Link.