The Week in Crypto 16th March 2018

Google ban crypto ads, Binance announce decentralised exchange, Coinbase receive UK e-money licence.

The News

• Google have banned advertising for ICO’s and cryptocurrency exchanges. google
• A bitcoin scaling technology called the Lightning Network has released a beta version, paving the way for faster and cheaper transactions on the bitcoin network. coindesk
• The world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, have announced they have built a public blockchain to enable the creation of a new decentralised exchange. cointelegraph
• A cryptocurrency self-regulatory organisation put forward but the Winklevoss twins has received support from Brian Quintenz, the Commissioner of the CFTC. techcrunch

ICOs

• OpenBazaar, the decentralised e-commerce marketplace raised $5M in series A funding. news.bitcoin
• MIT based, Endor raised $45M in an ICO to build a predictive analytics protocol. endor

Adoption

• Coinbase, the American cryptocurrency trading application has received an e-money license in the UK. techcrunch
• The owner of Anheuser-Busch has completed a blockchain pilot for global shipping. coindesk
• UK crypto exchange, CoinFloor is launching bitcoin futures. The futures will be physically settled, unlike the bitcoin futures on CBOE and CME which are cash settled. reuters
• The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information are looking at building national blockchain standards. gov.cn

Market:

• The market has continued its downward trend this week and overall has fallen 17% with the total market cap now at $317B. There was a congressional hearing in the US on Wednesday and regulatory fears have continued to push the coin prices down, especially with the cryptocurrencies that have conducted recent ICOs. Bitcoin is down 8% for the week and hovering around the $8,000 mark. Ethereum is 14% down and currently at $590.