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According to a recent report, despite a lower price compared to
the previous year, bitcoin's total trade volume for 2018 is
$2.2 trillion, which is almost four times the volume of what was
traded in 2017. Another recent statistic states that BitPay, the
largest global cryptocurrency payment processor, processed more
than $1 billion in 2018 and grew its B2B business more than 250
percent. BitPay added new features in 2018, such as integrating its
wallet with major gift card brands and supporting new
cryptocurrencies such as the stablecoins launched by Circle, Gemini
and Paxos. BitPay's payment processing services could extend
even further if a proposed New Hampshire bill passes, which would
let state-level agencies – including the tax office –
accept cryptocurrencies as payment.
There were several announcements from major cryptocurrency
exchanges this week. Binance launched a crypto-to-crypto
over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk with access to more than 80
cryptocurrencies. Seed CX launched a bitcoin spot trading market
for its institutional clients and announced plans to add
cryptocurrency trading pairs and trading pairs with foreign
currencies, such as euros and Japanese yen. Cryptocurrency exchange
Bithumb is seeking to go public in the United States through a
reverse merger (also known as a reverse initial public offering),
where it would acquire Blockchain Industries, a U.S. public
company. The combined entity – Blockchain Exchange Alliance
– would become the first U.S.-listed cryptocurrency exchange.
And bitcoin wallet and cold storage provider Xapo announced that it
is transferring key operations from Hong Kong to Switzerland,
citing Switzerland's friendlier regulatory environment as the
driving factor behind the move.
According to recent reports, professors from seven U.S. colleges
have teamed up to create a digital currency that they hope can
achieve speeds bitcoin users can only dream of, without
compromising decentralization. The project, called Unit-e, seeks to
create a globally scalable decentralized payments system that
solves the challenge of blockchain scalability, which many believe
has hindered cryptocurrencies from achieving widespread adoption.
In another move aimed at solving the scalability problem, Bitfury
has released a suite of tools aimed at driving adoption of the
Bitcoin Lightning Network. The nascent Bitcoin Lightning Network
promises to enable bitcoin transactions with near-instantaneous
confirmation speeds without having to store information directly on
the blockchain.
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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other global taxing authorities are continuing to focus on bringing taxpayers who hold cryptocurrencies into compliance.
Three states recently enacted variations of the NAIC Insurance Data Security Model Law (MDL-668), based on the landmark cybersecurity requirements issued by the NYDFS in March 2017.
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