Crypto 24 / 7 News

Please note: Information on this post should not be construed as personal investment advice. Prices were correct at the time of writing.
General
Across the board, cryptocurrencies have taken a significant hit today.
Korea . Today, South Korean news website Yonhap reported that Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon had told a local radio station that banning cryptocurrency trading was still a “live option” and that the government would be coming up with a set of measures to clamp down on the “irrational” cryptocurrency investment craze. In the same interview, he indicated that “we are also tinkering with the option of levying taxes.” This news comes after many investors and analysts had concluded that a ban was unlikely.

https://goo.gl/ihnE2y See also https://goo.gl/4bhP26
Declining Trading Volume in Korea and Japan . Mati Greenspan, an analyst at trading platform eToro, said declining volumes from Japan and South Korea appeared to be behind Tuesday morning’s sell-off.

“This morning,” Greenspan suggested, “the combined volume from these two top cryptotrading countries dropped below 30%. Looks like they’re tired of overpaying for cryptos and waiting for the market to even out”. https://goo.gl/1HkeAn
China .

According to a Reuters report published this morning (GMT), Pan Gongsheng, the People’s Bank of China’s Vice Governor, says authorities should ban centralized trading of virtual currencies as well as individuals and businesses that provide related services. In an internal memo detailing a meeting of PBOC representatives and policy makers, it was suggested that national and local authorities should ban venues that provide centralized trading of virtual currencies. The memo also indicated a commitment to banning individuals or institutions that provide market-making activities, guarantees, or settlement services for centralized trading of the currencies, such as online “wallet” service providers. Much of this news was reported by Bloomberg yesterday morning (see yesterday’s report), but Bloomberg did not include the PBOC as a source.

https://goo.gl/gMhcJf
France . January 15, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, announced his decision to create a “digital currencies mission” and a working group that will work towards regulating cryptocurrencies. In addition to the digital currency objectives, Le Maire appointed the former Bank of France (BOF) deputy governor, Jean-Pierre Landau, as the new working groups leader. https://goo.gl/Fi1bQs
deVere Group .

DeVere, one of the largest financial advisor organisations in the world, is in the process of launching a cryptocurrency app. https://goo.

gl/5jGUwF
Individual Currencies
Bitcoin (-15.88%)
(Negative) Bitcoin’s price fell by approximately 18% this morning. This dip appears to have coincided with news from Korea and China (see ‘Korea’ and ‘China’ sections above). https://goo.gl/ihnE2y
(Negative) Cboe’s bitcoin futures for January 2018 were trading at $12,080 Tuesday at 9:00 a.m.

EST, down more than 12 percent for the session, while CME’s contracts were trading at $12,040, down more than 13 percent. Analysts have speculated that this decline has been particularly associated with decreasing demand from Asia. https://goo.gl/V2gFb8
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/
Tron (-25.

56%)
(Negative) Hard Fork have published a critical review of Tron, based on an overview of its recent troubles. https://goo.

gl/S5ByBX
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tron/
Litecoin (-14.62%)
(Mostly positive) Seeking Alpha, a website popular with amateur investors, has published a review of Litecoin, which concludes that “Litecoin is a safe bet, but that it may not have the highest returns in 2018.

” https://goo.gl/2ny5Ne
https://coinmarketcap.

com/currencies/litecoin/
Stellar Lumen (-19.68%)
(Negative) Hackers stole approximately $400,000 worth of Stellar Lumen on Monday evening (GMT) through a cyberattack on digital wallet provider BlackWallet. https://goo.gl/mUh6sv
https://goo.

gl/EK9vxw
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/omisego/
Ethereum Classic (-19.15%)
(Positive) In an effort to improve its scalability, Ethereum Classic is looking toward the integration of a sidechain known as Callisto. This is a separate blockchain which will have its own currency known as CLO. https://goo.gl/TD9ktV
https://goo.gl/g5jNBx
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/nem/
Bitcoin Cash (-17.

51%)
(Positive) Bitcoin Cash now has its own Bitcoinj development branch. https://goo.

gl/79XEHF
(Positive) On January 15 the cryptocurrency media outlet and blockchain company Coingeek owned and operated by the financial tycoon Calvin Ayre announced funding an initiative called the ‘Terab Project’ with 3.6 million euro. Coingeek alongside its partners Nchain and Lokad, plan to massively scale the bitcoin cash blockchain to terabyte (1 million MB) size blocks which could allow 7 million transactions per second. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin-cash/
PivX (-18.67%)
(Unclear) Late last night (GMT), PivX announced the release of its iOS mobile wallet and the release of its new roadmap.

PivX’s price appeared to drop on the news of the announcements, perhaps reflecting investors’ disappointment. https://goo.gl/oWM6X6
https://coinmarketcap.

com/currencies/pivx/
Bitcoin Gold (-26.78%)
(Unclear, potentially positive) January 15, Bitcoin Gold released its strategic roadmap for 2018. https://goo.gl/wsX4NK
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin-gold/
Humaniq (-25.

50%)
(Positive) At approximately 9 am (GMT) Humaniq announced that they have released a new roadmap for the next three months. https://goo.

gl/CHMLpD