Summary:
- Santander is said to launch Ripple payment app today
- Bitcoin (BITCOIN on xStation5) hovers near $8000 mark after yesterday’s rapid advance
- Australian tech company reopens coal power plant to ensure source of cheap energy for mining operations
The cryptocurrency sphere as a whole experienced an abnormal jump in valuation over the past 24 hours with many of the coins being a subject to over 10% increase in price. For instance Bitcoin managed to surpass both $7000 and $8000 marks within less than an hour. Surge began around 12:00 pm BST yesterday and some name Santander’s plans to launch crypto payment app as a reason behind the move. We will also say a word about one of the India’s biggest crypto exchanges Coinsecure as it fell a victim of the digital asset heist. On top of that we will mention Australian tech company IOT Group as it is said to reopen coal-fired power plant in search for cheap sources of energy for mining.
After yesterday’s rapid surge BITCOIN price broke out of the downward channel and approached $8k mark. The technical situation seems to bode well for the market bulls and with the lack of game-changing news coin may be eyeing resistance level at $8300. However, a $8060 handle needs to be surpassed first and it may turn to be a hurdle as it was a subject to some price action in March. Source: xStation5
According to yesterday’s Financial Times report banking behemoth Santander Group is said to launch its Ripple payment app today. The app named One Pay FX is targeted at small businesses and is said to allow easier cross-border foreign exchange. Initially, the app will be available for bank’s clients in four countries – Brazil, Poland, Spain and UK. In case it turns out to be a success the Bank does not rule out expansion to the other markets in the upcoming months. On the other hand a less favourable news for the cryptocurrencies came from India where one of the major crypto exchanges fell a victim to the coin heist. Coinsecure lost over $3 million in customer’s Bitcoins. Amitabh Saxena, company’s Chief Scientific Officer, was accused of being guilty as coins went missing once he was extracting Bitcoins to distributed them to Coinsecure customers. The company said in a statement that it is working to recover coins while all the customers will be compensated from exchange’s funds. Moreover, Coinsecure asked local authorities to bar Saxena from leaving the country until probe is completed.
DASH managed to break of its downward channel even before yesterday’s surge took place. Coin is one of the top movers in the crypto space today. An advance towards $390 mark may be on cards as not a single resistance level can be found ahead. DASH still remains over 75% down from the December’s high. Source: xStation5
In Australia a technology firm IOT Group operating in the blockchain industry is said to partner with Hunter Energy to restore the Redbank power plant. The coal-fired power plant that was shut in 2014 is said to allow IOT reduce its energy bill on mining by roughly 20%. This is not the first time when a blockchain company decided to reopen a power plant to satisfy their need for energy thus it may be a part of a broader trend in the cryptocurrency sphere. Cryptocurrency miners’ margins fell significantly as a result of sharp drop in cryptocurrencies prices and blockchain network becoming more advanced therefore requiring bigger amounts of energy to maintain it.