With cases of the deadly coronavirus still popping up at an unprecedented rate around the world, many prominent members of the blockchain and crypto industries have heeded the global cry for help and have swiftly engaged in meaningful action — be it in terms of direct research-related participation, or through the donation of funds or resource materials, such as masks, sanitization equipment, etc. For example, as early as January, premier cryptocurrency exchange Binance had already donated $1.4 million worth of medical supplies to Chinese authorities in a massive effort to combat the devastating effects of the coronavirus. Dubbed as the …

The coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis that it has brought along is the first of its kind in this generation. For weeks now, global equities markets have been swinging wildly due to the uncertainty. However, compared to the traditional markets, Bitcoin has been holding up quite well and its volatility has been gradually reducing in the past few days. Pantera Capital Founder and CEO Dan Morehead believes that the current crisis “is like no other” and it can “have a larger global economic impact than any downturn in recent memory.” However, Morehead believes that after the initial days of …

While Singapore recently adopted specific cryptocurrency legislation — the Payment Services Act (PSA) — in January 2020, it turns out that some crypto firms like Ripple, Coinbase and Binance have been exempt from the law since the beginning of the year. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country’s central bank and major financial regulatory authority, exempted a number of major payment services from holding a financial license under the PSA. According to a statement released on March 24, the listed companies are allowed to continue to provide specific payment services without holding a PSA license for a limited period …

There is new movement in a class-action lawsuit originally filed in May 2018, centered around allegations that Ripple violated the Securities Act through a 2013 initial coin offering (ICO) of the XRP token. On March 25, an amended complaint accuses Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse of touting the token to prospective investors while silently liquidating his holdings. Garlinghouse accused of liquidating 67 million XRP in 2017 The amended complaint also emphasizes that Garlinghouse represented himself as “very, very, very long” and “on the HODL side” with regard to XRP during 2017, suggesting that the Ripple CEO was holding his XRP for …

Ripple Labs announced a donation of $200,000 to two different non-profit organizations on March 25. These donations will aid in the fight to contain the spread of the coronavirus throughout the U.S. In a tweet published on Ripple’s official profile, the lab stated that $100,000 will go to the Tipping Point Emergency’s Response Fund and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s COVID Regional Response Fund, respectively. California’s non-profits favored by the Ripple Labs donation Tipping Point, which is a San Francisco-based non-profit organization, works to combat poverty in the California city thanks to a network of partners who support the cause. …

Bitcoin (BTC) has been showing strength recently, as the price surged from $3,750 to $6,650 in a matter of one week. Not only have Bitcoin and crypto been showing strength, but a similar move is also seen in the equity and commodity markets. The United States’ equity markets have seen a relief bounce of 23%, while gold and silver showed a bounce of 13% and 25% as well. However, altcoins have been showing weakness, as Ethereum (ETH) is back to the 0.0205 satoshis level, while XRP (XRP) is now sitting on a crucial level. What can the markets expect for …

The White House and Senate leaders finally agreed to a massive stimulus of $2 trillion to support the economy and Americans who are suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the equity markets are celebrating with a rally, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has projected a bullish figure of $100,000 for each Bitcoin. Zhao believes that with most Bitcoin in the hand of long term holders, even if a small portion of the new stimulus flows into Bitcoin, a market capitalization of $2 trillion is achievable. Trader Tone Vays sounded increasingly bullish on Bitcoin. He said that if Bitcoin breaks above …

A fraudulent Google Chrome extension has allegedly stolen as much 1.4 million XRP from users this month alone. In a series of tweets published on March 24, the research team “xrplorer forensics” claimed that fake Ledger Live extensions are being used to collect user backup passphrases: “They are advertised in Google searches and use Google Docs for collecting data. Accounts are being emptied and we have seen more than 200K XRP being stolen the past month alone.” Revising this initial figure, xrplorer forensics later amended its estimate to “close to 1.4M.” The fraudulent extension is still available on Google Store …

Amid the increasing adoption of blockchain technology in the gaming industry, some of the world’s biggest game developers like South Korean Netmarble are partnering with blockchain gaming startup Forte Labs to streamline blockchain-powered game experiences. Forte, a known partner of major cryptocurrency firm Ripple, has just tapped five new high-profile gaming companies in line with its mission to provide best-in-class gaming experiences based on blockchain technology. All five new partners will integrate Forte’s blockchain platform into their games According to a March 24 blog post, Forte’s new game developers include United States-based Hi-Rez Studios and nWay, Canadian social games provider …

Despite YouTube’s many aggressive actions against cryptocurrency-related content, the world’s most popular video-hosting website is apparently having trouble discovering a major scam account involving crypto. On March 23, the crypto community spotted a bogus YouTube account impersonating Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of major blockchain company Ripple, in order to promote a fake airdrop scam. Video containing fake XRP airdrop description was uploaded on YouTube on March 19 The apparent scam account has around 277,000 subscribers and contains only one video, which promotes a fake giveaway in the third-biggest cryptocurrency, XRP. Uploaded on YouTube on March 19, the video description promotes a …

In its March earnings call, U.S.-Latin American remittance provider, Intermex, revealed that it will not be using Ripple (XRP)’s technology in its major markets. Intermex chief executive Robert Lisv explained: “So, you won’t really see us leveraging Ripple in our core markets. I think it will bring us more growth in newer markets in places where we’re exploring going into ancillary products.” Intermex to use Ripple for "ancillary products" in "newer markets" Ripple announced its partnership with Intermex on Feb. 5, with its press release emphasizing that the deal would “enabl[e] faster cross-border payments between the U.S. and Mexico.” Despite …

Even after the announcements of massive stimulus by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the ECB, and several other central banks, the equity markets are still struggling to launch a sharp recovery from the recent lows. This shows that traders are not confident that the equity markets have bottomed out and possibly investors are slowly losing hope that the central banks can rescue them from any crisis. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market is showing a sharp rally from the recent lows. The total crypto market capitalization has risen from the recent low of about $118 billion on March 13 to about $191 billion …