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Stellar
IBM’s Stellar-powered global remittance platform now has six banks on board. Today, the tech giant announced World Wire will power payments and foreign exchange services across 72 countries.
“World Wire provides a more straight-through model for cross border payments using the Stellar protocol that makes money transfers point-to-point in lieu of the complexities of conventional correspondent banking.
It reduces intermediaries and allows users to accelerate settlement time often in seconds by transmitting monetary value in the form of digital assets, commonly known as cryptocurrencies or ‘stablecoins.’ This simplified approach improves operational efficiency and liquidity management, streamlining payment reconciliation and reducing overall transaction costs for financial institutions.”
IBM’s platform is a direct challenger to the global payments standard Swift, which has over 11,000 banks and financial institutions. World Wire currently has Banco Bradesco, Bank Busan, and Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) on board. Three additional banks have also signed letters of intent to issue their own stablecoins on IBM’s World Wire, pending regulatory review. The network will utilize euro, Indonesian rupiah, Philippine peso, Korean won and Brazilian real stablecoins.
XRP
Wietse Wind, the head of Ripple-backed XRPL Labs, is lending his support to a project that brings XRP payments to Microsoft Outlook.
An independent developer known as SchlaubiD is integrating the XRP Tip Bot’s API into the mainstream email app as an add-on. This allows users to send XRP to anyone they want via email, even if the receiver doesn’t have an XRP address. The add-on is currently up and running on Outlook 2016, with support for Office 365 in the works.
SchlaubiD says he will also explore bringing similar functionality to Gmail via an extension.
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Crypto Markets
Bitcoin megabull Mike Novogratz predicts the crypto markets are gearing up for a rally.
In response to a crypto market-pulse poll from Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, Novogratz comments on the sideways price action, and says the market is primed for the “next move higher.”
Looks pretty sideways to me. But basing. Next move higher.
— Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) March 18, 2019
Fundstrat founder and head of research Tom Lee is also weighing in on the state of the market. Lee told Bloomberg he’s watching for Bitcoin to break above $4,000, and says further conclusions “can’t be drawn until Bitcoin recovers its 200-day moving average, or the $5,400 level.”
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