The third week of March has been exciting for the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Perhaps the biggest news is CoinZoom launched its regulated exchange along with a crypto-backed Visa (NYSE: V) payment card. The Utah-based firm announced on Wednesday it will start adding new institutional and retail clients and will also offer a Visa payment card that instantly converts cryptocurrencies into U.S. dollars (USD). The exchange is registered with FinCEN and also licensed as a money transmitter in the US, as well as a digital currency exchange in Australia. CoinZoom supports most major coins in pairs with the U.S. dollar, providing a fiat gateway. CoinZoom founder and CEO Todd Crosland said: "CoinZoom is not only the first U.S. cryptocurrency exchange to provide a Visa card to its customers, but also offers industry-first features like ZoomMe, CoinZoom's free Peer-to-Peer crypto and fiat payment system." The exchange, which already has a trading app for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS devices, can also be used for remittances.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
The U.S. Federal Reserve signaled it would be ready to replace infected dollar bills with clean greenbacks in order to help contain the coronavirus pandemic, an action China's central bank took last month. According to Joey Lee, a spokesman for the central bank's Philadelphia branch, the Federal Reserve is prepared to flood the country with fresh virus-free banknotes if such a move becomes necessary. The Fed does not currently believe destroying bills is needed to stop COVID-19, but it has infection-free bills waiting in the reserves. Though for now, the Fed does not think "cash destruction" of banknotes from the worst-hit states will be necessary to stymie the spread of the virus. In addition to numerous recent macroeconomic policy actions, the Fed has also begun quarantining US dollars shipped from overseas.
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE) is resisting various calls for US Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) to resign and face investigation for insider trading. In Washington's latest big scandal, Loeffler and husband Jeffrey Sprecher, the founder and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange as well as Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives firm Bakkt, made 29 transactions in the weeks after a January 24 private Senate briefing on coronavirus risks. On Friday ICE stated the two "made clear that those transactions were executed by their financial advisors without Mr. Sprecher's or Senator Loeffler's input or direction," and argued the trades complied with company policies. Loeffler also rejected insider trading accusations as "a ridiculous and baseless attack," trying to explain she was not aware of the stock sales until February 6 because they were not managed by her or Sprecher.
Crypto prices fell to $129 billion this week. For the majors, Bitcoin SV (BSV), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Bitcoin saw outsized gains, while Tezos (XTZ), Litecoin (LTC), and Ripple (XRP) slipped. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR), down 17.3%, Bytecoin (BCN), down 16%, and DxChainToken (DX), down 13%. The biggest gainers were Swipe (SXP), up a whopping 147%, Numeraire (NMR), up 112%, and MCO (MCO), up 47%. Next week traders will see if crypto can break its streak of weekly losses in lockstep with equity markets.
The author owns a small amount of BTC and LTC.