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What Moved Global Markets
U.S. stock indexes slipped on Tuesday amidst worries about the fallout from a deadly virus outbreak in China. Another cause for concern was the International Monetary Fund trimming its global growth forecasts for 2020 and 2021. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday that while a slowdown in global growth appeared to have bottomed out, there was no rebound in sight. All this paused a record-setting rally on Wall Street.
Crypto Prices (from CoinMarketCap)
Bitcoin: Up 0.68% to $8,722.41
Total trading volume (24h): $23.75+ billion USD
Ethereum: Up 0.81% to $168.73
Total trading volume (24h): $9.66+ billion USD
3 biggest movers 24 hours
Biggest Mover 1: Dynamite (DYNMT) is up 157.97% to $1.22
Biggest Mover 2: Vertocoin (VTC) is up 113.56% to $0.522027
Biggest Loser: adToken (ADT) is down 37.14% to $0.003108
What moved Crypto Markets (i.e. digital assets)
– The central banks of Britain, Japan, the eurozone, Sweden and Switzerland have grouped up to assess potential use cases for digital currencies. Talk of such currencies gained momentum after Facebook announced plans last year to introduce a cryptocurrency called libra. The new group will be co-chaired by ECB Board Member Benoit Coeure and Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe.
– Raiz Invest, Australia-based micro-investing platform that allows users to invest spare change from everyday purchases, is launching a fund with bitcoin exposure. The fund will have a 5% target asset allocation to bitcoin (BTC), and the rest 95% into stocks, bonds and cash, among other assets. Gemini will act as the custodian of the fund.
– Huobi, the fifth-largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume, is launching its first licensed digital asset brokerage, Huobi Brokerage. It will now provide brokerage service to its institutional clients. News was announced at the WEF in Davos. Since Huobi established the GIB division in November 2019, Huobi’s institutional business reportedly surged 400% to onboard 1,700 institutional clients.
Other Specialties
Fintech: The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is seeking to oversee stablecoin projects like Facebook’s controversial stablecoin Libra. In an official proposal to the Senate published on Jan. 20, APRA submitted a possible regulatory framework dedicated to fintech and regulatory technology (regtech) covering topics ranging from digital wallets to data protection. Overall, APRA admits that digital wallets are an increasingly important part of the financial system thanks to the growing popularity of mobile applications and online purchases. In the paper, APRA states that it would oversee digital currency wallets that are widely used for payments and value storage, such as Libra’s corresponding Calibra wallet, while excluding wallets that are mostly used to pass payments through, such as Apple Pay.
Healthtech & Al: A remarkable combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and biology has produced the world’s first “living robots.” This week, a research team of roboticists and scientists published their recipe for making a new lifeform called xenobots from stem cells. One of the researchers described the creation as “neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal,” but a “new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism.” Xenobots are less than 1mm long and made of approx 1000 living cells. To make xenobots, the research team used a supercomputer to test thousands of random designs of simple living things that could perform certain tasks.
The computer was programmed with an AI “evolutionary algorithm” to predict which organisms would likely display useful tasks, such as moving towards a target. After the selection of the most promising designs, the scientists attempted to replicate the virtual models with frog skin or heart cells, which were manually joined using microsurgery tools. The heart cells in these bespoke assemblies contract and relax, giving the organisms motion. The creation of xenobots is groundbreaking.
Despite being described as “programmable living robots,” they are actually completely organic and made of living tissue. The term “robot” has been used because xenobots can be configured into different forms and shapes, and “programmed” to target certain objects – which they then unwittingly seek. They can also repair themselves after being damaged.
Smart cities: Turkish city of Konya is setting up its “Science and Technology Valley,” under the umbrella of Konya Science Center, and building a team to apply blockchain to municipal services. First revealed by Konya Metropolitan Mayor Uğur İbrahim Altay during a local smart city congress in Ankara, this Turkish city is looking for ways to develop a “City Coin” and create a blockchain-based financial ecosystem around it.
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