Weekly CryptoReport: February 12-16

This week Bitcoin is climbing to $10,000. Let’s look if we have any other positive news.

South Korea is melting. The government officially answered to a petition in that citizens asked not to enact too strict regulation. It said that its aim is to ensure transparency of cryptocurrency transactions within the regulatory framework and prevent illegal activities in the digital currency industry. In early February, the Prime Minister claimed that cryptocurrency exchanges will not be closed.
Japan is loyal to cryptocurrencies. The Bank of Japan Governor said that cryptocurrencies are not a threat to the existing financial system. However, the government requires observing rules. For example, Blockchain Laboratory got a warning from the Financial Services Agency when it was trying to hold ICO without a license.
Citibank India became the first big bank to forbid its clients to purchase cryptocurrencies by both credit and debit cards. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and others banned only credit payments.
Another ban on payments by cards. The Thailand central bank does not allow state banks to work with cryptocurrency platforms. Clients aren’t allowed to buy cryptocurrencies by credit cards.
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex blocked margin trading for corporate clients from the United States without any announcement. Recently, it banned trading for private accounts.
During several hours after the lifting of the ban on withdrawal of the yen from the crypto-exchange Coincheck, site users took away the amount equal to $372 million. The withdrawal of cryptocurrencies is still forbidden, that is why the cryptocurrency exchange is being sued.
New hard fork. The hard fork Litecoin Cash is anticipated at night from February 18 to 19. Its developers promise to lower the price of transactions by 90%. However, the hard fork is not related to the Litecoin group, earlier Charlie Lee said that any Litecoin hard forks can be a scam.
A representative of Microsoft management Alex Simons said that any improvements by hard fork are ineffective. In future, such blockchains of the second level as Lighting Network will be the most popular. Also, he announced that Microsoft is working at its own blockchain protocol.
Usage of cryptocurrencies for offshores is becoming more popular. An appearance of such anonymous tokens as ZCash and Monero supports it because their technology does not let to track their movement.

Bitcoin $9800 (-0.05%)

DASH $682.45 (-0.42%)

Ethereum $918 (-1.95%)

LiteCoin $213.32(-9.10%)