Facebook’s Secret $1 Billion Crypto Project!! Ripple Wins Int. Award!
Today we have a Daily Token Review and three really awesome cryptocurrency news segments to share with you.
As seen on CoinMarketCap, we’ve got a mixture of greens and reds, with a majority of cryptos experiencing minor losses across the board. The world’s flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC) has decreased by 1.06 percent. Ether (ETH) still maintains its “second in command” status, but it’s losing by 1.42 percent. Ripple’s XRP maintains the number three position and has decreased by 1.70 percent. Other considerable movements in the market include Bitcoin Cash and Stellar which have decreased by 32.84 percent and 4.09 percent respectively. Now, if I scroll down to the top 20, we see almost the same scenario, but instead here it’s definitely a sea of red.
Now onto the news! According to a report by Cryptoslate, social media giant Facebook is now holding talks with large venture capital (VC) firms in a bid to get them to invest a whopping $1billion in its cryptocurrency project.
At a time when stablecoins are beginning to gain traction in the cryptospace, Facebook has reportedly hinted that its cryptocurrency will be designed like a stablecoin for its Whatsapp messaging app and will be backed by foreign fiat currencies, including the US dollar. It’s worth noting that Facebook which recently became a subject of criticisms due to its poor handling of users’ data, has been making active plans to join the blockchain technology and crypto movement since 2018. Though CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the entire Facebook team have remained tight-lipped about their cryptocurrency project, the firm has however shown its seriousness by hiring roughly 30 distributed ledger technology (DLT) professionals to man its blockchain department.
Interestingly, David Marcus, who previously served as the president of leading payments platform, PayPal, leads the Facebook DLT division as Director of Engineering, Blockchain. On April 8, 2019, New York Times reporter, Nathaniel Popper, took to Twitter to reveal Facebook’s top crypto secret, saying: “Sources tell me that Facebook is now looking to get VC firms to invest in the Facebook cryptocurrency project we reported on earlier this year. I hear they are targeting big sums — as much as $1b.”
With its multi-billion dollar valuation, it’s still unclear why one of the largest companies on earth is in search of VCs to invest $1 billion its new endeavour, but rumors making the round suggest the firm is looking to collateralize its stablecoin with the lump sum. Whether the Facebook cryptocurrency will turn out to be a game changer remains to be seen.
Now, onto the second news item for today! Per a blog post by Coinbase, a leading U.S-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase Pro has now added support for EOS, Augur and Maker stablecoin and users of the platform can now trade the digital assets. Specifically, the team has made it clear that EOS and REP are available in all regions where Coinbase Pro is present, with the exception of New York, while the Maker (MKR) stablecoin is available in all Coinbase Pro-supported jurisdictions outside the US. Cryptocurrency traders on Coinbase Pro will have access to several EOS, Augur and Maker trading pairs in supported regions.
Reportedly, the EOS-USD, EOS-EUR and EOS-BTC trading pairs will be available in all Coinbase-supported regions excluding New York. The Maker-BTC and MKR-USD Coin will only be available in Coinbase-supported jurisdictions outside the US, while the REP-USD, REP-EUR, and REP-BTC pairs will be available in all Coinbase-supported areas excluding New York.
Importantly, Coinbase has hinted that the newly added cryptoassets will not be available on Coinbase.com or via its mobile apps. The Coinbase team has increased its product offerings of late, in a bid to maintain its top spot in the U.S crypto ecosystem. Earlier in March 2019, Coinbase Custody launched its Tezos (XTZ) staking service to enable institutional investors to earn decent interests on their Tezos holdings.
Now, onto the third news item for today! According to a report by Today’s Gazette, xRapid, the DLT-powered cross-border payments solution from the stables of Ripple Labs, has been honoured in the Fast Company’s 2019 World Changing Ideas Award, for facilitating frictionless, cost-efficient and super fast international remittance payments. Notably, out of more than 2,000 submissions received across 17 categories, xRapid was given an honourable mention as a technology with great potentials, and it was also featured in the Developing World Technology category.
For those who are unaware, xRapid is powered by the XRP altcoin and is designed to help financial institutions and payment providers to facilitate near zero-fee transactions. Ripple, a San Francisco-based financial technology firm that is changing the face of global finance with blockchain technology, has been in the news for all the good reasons of late. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before Ripple’s cutting-edge products go entirely mainstream.
So what are your thoughts on this situation?
Are you confident about Facebook’s cryptocurrency project? Do you think that Facebook Coin will have true value to add in the future? What are your thoughts about the listing of EOS, REP and MKR by Coinbase Pro? Will it spur more institutional investors to enter the market? And what are your thoughts about Ripple’s xRapid, will it gain mainstream adoption soon?
Let me know what you guys think below.
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Disclaimer: Cryptopig content is written by a team of blockchain passionate people. We are not registered as investment advisors. Don’t take the information in this post as investment advice and make sure you do your own research before investing. Cryptocurrencies are a very risky investment, never invest more money than you can afford to lose.