The last week of August was exciting for the cryptocurrency markets. Arguably the biggest news is that on August 31 Japanese messaging company Line announced plans for the release of its digital tokens, called LINK. The LINK token will be available to the public in September, and the blockchain network, LINK Chain, mined its first block on August 23. 1 billion LINK will be eventually distributed. Line envisions that LINK Chain will allow developers to build smart contracts and decentralized applications for everyday people to use.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
A Bitcoin (BTC) whale investor has begun moving over 110,000 BTC from a private wallet to the Bitfinex and Binance exchanges. The movements of the wallet, which has been dormant since 2014, has sparked curiosity in the crypto community. Many have speculated that the wallet address is associated with the Silk Road illicit marketplace that was shuttered by federal authorities long ago. The sign could be bearish if the owner wants to sell on the exchanges, or it could be bullish if they want to put up margin collateral for long positions. Whatever the direction, the whale's actions will likely move markets.
(ETH) hosted a meeting on August 31 to discuss the upcoming "difficulty bomb" that will facilitate the network's transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. The meeting confirmed a delaying the difficulty bomb by 12 months. An upcoming fork will reduce block rewards to 2 ETH. It will be harder to host mining pools as the transition process continues. Ethereum investors and developers alike hope that the evolution to proof-of-stake will go smoothly.
The startup MyCrypto raised $4 million in a funding round led by hedge fund Polychain Capital. MyCrypto plans to build a desktop app that helps investors secure their coins. The non-custodial app allows users to control their own private keys and provides precautions in case of loss. The startup's goal is to help investors control their portfolios through direct interaction with blockchains, as well as spur mainstream adoption of non-custodial, private key solutions.
Crypto prices once again ended the week in the green, up to the $235 billion level. BTC pushed through resistance around $7,000, and the other majors followed. In the top 100, the biggest losers are TokenPay (TPAY), down 31 percent, MOAC (MOAC), down 29 percent, and PRIZM (PZM), down 25 percent. The biggest winners are NIX (NIX), up 169 percent, Bitcoin Dark (BTCD), up 113 percent, and Dogecoin (DOGE), up 112 percent. Bitcoin still needs to test the 200-day exponential moving average around $7,700, while the other majors remain very far off from that key level.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.
