From the identity of a massive crypto whale to a new proposal on the future of the XRP Ledger, here’s a look at some of the stories breaking in the world of crypto.
Bitcoin
A mysterious crypto whale behind a series of huge Bitcoin transfers has been revealed.
On Monday, traders began noticing a series of Bitcoin transfers that moved close to $1 billion in BTC between unknown wallets.
One of the transfers moved 107,848 BTC worth $898.4 million, for a fee of about $194.
The crypto data aggregator BitInfoCharts eventually traced the transfers to the Luxembourg-based crypto exchange Bitstamp.
The exchange was apparently moving the funds to a cold storage wallet held by the institutional crypto custody company Xapo, which was recently acquired by Coinbase.
Ripple and XRP
Ripple chief technology officer David Schwartz is expanding on his proposal to add a stablecoin feature to the XRP Ledger.
According to Schwartz, the feature would allow people to issue stablecoins that are redeemable for XRP on the ledger.
“These assets have a backing asset, in this case XRP. That means that there’s something that is supposed to guarantee its value…
What’s interesting about this proposal is that the stablecoins are perfectly liquid to XRP at face value on the ledger. So in other words, if you have a dollar and a dollar stablecoin designed on this system, what you have is a $1 claim on XRP enforceable by the ledger’s payment mechanics.
And the reason that’s important is, with some other stablecoin designs, if the stablcoin isn’t popular it won’t necessarily be liquid. If it’s not listed on an exchange, if it can’t easily be deposited and withdrawn, it won’t be that useful. By the design of this system, the stablecoins can be offered through the on-ledger decentralized exchange, and they spend like XRP. So you don’t need to find some way to make them liquid. You can just spend them right on the ledger.”
Cardano
Cardano’s commercial development branch Emurgo is reportedly working to ensure that the blockchain’s next phase, dubbed Shelley, is compatible with hardware wallets.
In a recent AMA, the moderator of the Cardano subreddit said developers are working to provide Ledger hardware wallet support for Cardano’s native cryptocurrency ADA, but it won’t be up and running on day one.
“The Ledger integration takes some time which means that it wouldn’t won’t be ready before the snapshot. Ledger integration should definitely be available for Shelley mainnet.”
Litecoin
Litecoin creator Charlie Lee is celebrating the eighth birthday of the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
The network first went live on October 13, 2011.
“Happy 8th birthday to Litecoin! Litecoin network has been up and running continuously for the past 8 years with zero downtime.
And in that span of time, over $500,000,000,000 worth of LTC have been transacted. Looking forward to the next 8 years and more!”
Litecoin’s market cap is now at $3.6 billion.
The price of the coin has been especially volatile in 2019, beginning the year at $30.46 and rising to $143.58 in June before dropping to its current price of $56.86, according to CoinMarketCap.