Welcome to the daily crypto news :

• Fidelity Investments Fully Rolls Out Crypto Custody Service, Exec Says;

• With 18 Million Bitcoins Mined, How Hard Is That 21 Million Limit?;

• IBM, Raw Seafoods Collaborate to Use Blockchain to Help Improve Seafood Traceability and Sustainability While Addressing Fraud;

• Bitcoin Price Falls Under $8K With ‘Ugly’ Scenarios on All Timeframes;

Fidelity Investments Fully Rolls Out Crypto Custody Service, Exec Says

American financial services company Fidelity Investments has fully launched its cryptocurrency custody service.

Abigail Johnson, CEO of Fidelity Investments, revealed the development in an interview with the Financial Times published on Oct. 18. Johnson said that the company is ready to roll out its crypto custody business following a year-long preparation and accumulation of clients.

A nascent, but promising business

Last fall, Fidelity specifically indicated that it would provide an enterprise-grade crypto custody service to hedge funds, family offices and financial advisors. Johnson called that kind of service nascent and not developed, but noted its potential, saying:

“There are people out there with significant amounts of wealth in cryptocurrencies, probably Bitcoin, and they’re looking for somebody to hold those coins for them because in the event of their passing — which is going to happen at some point or another — you’ve got to have a plan to be able to get those coins to somebody else.”

Read more

With 18 Million Bitcoins Mined, How Hard Is That 21 Million Limit?

In a matter of hours, the 18 millionth bitcoin will have been mined and the world’s first cryptocurrency will draw one step closer to its hard-coded cap of 21 million coins.

“The pie is shrinking. This [milestone] gives people some simple math to raise awareness about where we’re at in the [bitcoin mining] process,” said Alex Adelman, CEO of bitcoin rewards platform Lolli, adding:

“It’s good for people to see the progress of bitcoin, to look back on everything that has been done and will be done for the next 3 million. … You should pay attention to the next 3 million.”

But don’t worry, you’ll have 120 years to do so.

The next 3 million bitcoins will be progressively slower to mine as a result of block reward halvings which occur every 210,000 blocks (or roughly four years) and reduce new bitcoin supply by 50 percent. The final bitcoin is expected to be mined in 2140.

Read more

IBM, Raw Seafoods Collaborate to Use Blockchain to Help Improve Seafood Traceability and Sustainability While Addressing Fraud

Raw Seafoods, Santa Monica Seafoods, and Regional Fisherman Will Digitize Their Supply Chain for Scallops Using the IBM Food Trust Platform

IBM and Raw Seafoods Inc. announce a new collaboration connecting global sourcing partners, retailers, and restauranteurs who will begin using IBM Food Trust platform to enhance seafood traceability. Built on the IBM Blockchain Platform, the initiative will start by digitizing the supply chain for scallops sourced from the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery.

Starting today, a fleet of scallopers owned by Capt. Danny Eilertsen of New Bedford, MA, will begin uploading data about their catch onto the platform, enabling distributors and retailers to identify exactly when and where a given lot of scallops was harvested. The platform will also track when the boat landed portside, and when each scallop lot was hand graded, selected, packed and shipped to its final destination. This information, as well as images and video, is uploaded via satellite while still offshore. Once it is uploaded, this information is then available to permissioned parties, including distributors, suppliers, retailers and their customers at point of sale.

Read more

Bitcoin Price Falls Under $8K With ‘Ugly’ Scenarios on All Timeframes

Bitcoin price (BTC) fell below $8,000 in fresh choppy trading action on Oct. 16, after several days of slow grind ended in a bearish turn.

Bitcoin greets midweek traders with $300 dump

Data from Coin360 shows the largest cryptocurrency put an end to its sideways trading style on Wednesday, falling several hundred dollars in minutes.

Markets at first rejected a more precipitous fall, with some exchanges showing Bitcoin reversing at exactly $8,000.

At press time, those levels had given way again, under pressure while fluctuating below the $8,000 barrier on local lows of $7,930.

Commenting, Cointelegraph contributors were unsurprised by the test of support, having warned of its arrival over the past two days.

For filbfilb and Michaël van der Poppe, the more significant lower boundary for Bitcoin lies closer to $7,400.

Current activity is thus dictated by buyers absorbing downward movements, only to increase sentiment to drive prices lower in return. Filbfilb added to Cointelegraph that all timeframes for Bitcoin trading now look negative.

“Bitcoin looking pretty ugly here,” popular Twitter trader Crypto Rand meanwhile added in further warnings on Wednesday, continuing:

“Not taking positions for now. But I would be looking to add shorts on the flag retest after the potential breakdown. Always plan in advance to avoid emotional decisions.”

Altcoins follow Bitcoin downhill

Bitcoin’s volatility meanwhile took its toll on altcoin markets. In the 24 hours to press time, many cryptocurrencies in the top twenty by market cap fell around 5%.

Leading the losses were Tron (TRX), EOS (EOS) and Binance Coin (BNB), all of which shed between 6% and 7%. Conversely, Bitcoin SV (BSV) delivered 1% gains.

Ether (ETH), the largest altcoin by market cap, traded 4.2% down at $176.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap likewise fell, this time to below $220 billion with Bitcoin’s share making up 66.4% of the total.

Read more