Is Bitcoin Nearing A New Bull Cycle?

The year 2018 has been incredibly difficult for most cryptocurrency traders, this is especially true with new investors in the space who has just entered during the astronomical highs of 2017.

However pundits are predicting that we might be on the verge of experiencing another epic bull run if history repeats itself.

According to a popular cryptocurrency analyst who goes by the name of Galaxy, there is a possibility of an immenent bull run based on Bitcoin historical records.

He stated that bitcoin is now approaching the 420 day mark which ended the 2015 bear market.

If history repeats there will be several months of accumulation and a new bull cycle might start in mid-late 2019.

He attributed his prediction due to the apparent similarities of the 2014-2015 bear market.

Although this can be seen as purely speculation, the theory seem to be supported by two technical indicators that are telling traders that bitcoin could be on the brink of making a massive price movement on the up side.

The GTI VERA Bands Indicator flashed a rare signal that the cryptocurrency is nearing an inflection point.

The other indication is the Directional Movement Index (DMI) which flipped positive for bitcoin for the first time in several months signaling that it is seeing growing buying pressure.

Huobi’s New Hire From Global Bank State Street

The third largest cryptocurrency exchange based on daily transaction volume has recently hired Elaine Sun Ye Lin.

She will be the compliance director of the exchange who will direct Huobi’s compliance effort globally.

Elaine is the former head of compliance for the Chinese Branch of State Street.

The exchange hopes to leverage Elaine’s experience and expertise in working with government bodies around the world.

According to the director of CryptoRecruit the headhunting firm that recruited Sun for Huobi, there is a growing trend of IT and finance professionals going into crypto space.

Niel Dundon said that they have noticed a huge increase in the number of people from traditional institutions that are eager on the prospect of working in the nascent industry.

He adds that IT professionals have been moving over since last year but to see bankers moving in the space gives additional reassurance for the future of the industry.

Neil’s assessment seems to be corroborated by several high profile hires of some Wall Street executives who has chosen to move in to the space, particularly in Coinbase.

Last year the crypto giant hired Brian Brooks from Fannie Mari, Chris Dodds from Charles Schwab, Oputa Ezediaro from JP Morgan, Eric Sco from NYSE and Christine Sandler from Barclays.

Industry Giants In India Exploring Blockchain-Powered B2B Payments

Despite the current hostile stance of the banking authority in India, cryptocurrencies and blockchain remains interesting particularly to large businesses and banks in India who wants to know if the emerging technology is a more reliable way to reconcile accounts, make payments, keep records and mange internal funds.

According to source these business entities are currently testing the applicability of blockchain technology for record keeping.

The said technology is widely known to increase the integrity of records as it effectively removes the possibility of discrepancies as well as having a security feature that is very useful for big companies with massive data flow.

While it is still in the early testing phase, the result has been promising according to one local news outlet that has information about the initiative.

If the project succeeds the corporations have no qualms in scaling up the project to cover a wider area of the business such as B2B payments.

Many pundits points out that the restriction of Reserve Bank of India can effectively be circumvented if companies keep transactions in house.

In fact company stakeholders are hopeful that they will be able to get regulators on their side despite the many challenges of the new sector.

Top Shipping Firm In Israel Launches Blockchain Platform

Zim the largest shipping firm in Israel has reportedly launched its blockchain platform for electronic bills of landing (eB/Ls) for all clients in some selected trades.

This was revealed by one of the local news outlet last January 14, 2019.

The blockchain-powered platform was successfully piloted for over a year with the company declaring that it can replace the existing system for a faster and more cost effective processing of eB/Ls.

It has been revealed that the new system is so effective that it only took less than two hours to process electronic bills of landing a process that usually takes several days or weeks to finish.

The blockchain platform will be opened to all customers but initiatially will be focusing on Asian, South African, North American and Mediterranean countries during Q1 2019.

According to the chief information officer, Eyal Ben-Amram, the initiative is part of the company’s strategy.

It seems that blockchain technology is slowly but surely beginning to disrupt industries aside from the traditional financial industry.

Other Shipping and transport groups have been also developing their own blockchain-powered application.

These transport groups includes United Arab Emirates seaport operator Abu Dhabi Ports, Port Antwerp of Belgium and Associated British Ports, a major United Kingdom port operator.

$250 Billion Worth Of Transaction Processed In Blockchain According To HSBC

Reports coming from major financial news outlets that one of the largest financial institutions in the world, Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC) have settled about $250 billion USD using blockchain technology in 2018.

This transaction figure came from over 3 million blockchain-based foreign exchange transactions using a system dubbed as the “FX Everywhere.”

According to the company, the FX Everywhere was able to help the bank to guide payments across HSBC’s internal balance sheets.

Reports also say that many of their clients are adopting to the technology in the duration of the year.

They have revealed that using the proprietary platform they have achieve better operational efficiency and the platform ensured payment confirmations did not require additional protocols.

The Acting Head of Foreign Exchange and Commodities at HSBC, Richard Bibbey reveals that the integration of blockchain technology has made the process of hosting thousands of FX transactions a lot smoother.

They are now exploring how the technology can help multinational clients to better manage foreign exchange flows inside their companies.

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