As March became April, let's take a look back at this week's top news stories from the forex, fintech and crypto worlds, in our best of the week segment.
Bitcoin Supply Reaches the Lowest Level in 3 Months
The trading week started with news that Bitcoin supply had reached its lowest level in three months.
The supply of the world’s largest cryptocurrency at leading digital exchanges has reached its lowest level in 2 years. Glassnode data indicates that long-term Bitcoin holders who bought the cryptocurrency during 2018 are planning to hold the digital currency for massive gains.
Read more on the Bitcoin supply levels here.
XRP Jumps after Ripple Acquires 40% Stake in Tranglo
The XRP price jumped nearly 5% after Ripple announced that the company had acquired a 40% stake in Tranglo, one of Asia’s largest cross-border payment firms. The San Francisco-based Blockchain company is planning to expand RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service through the latest partnership.
According to the official announcement, Ripple aims to expand its services in Asia and the recent acquisition will play a major role in supporting the company’s existing corridors such as the Philippines. RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service uses cryptocurrency XRP to instantly send money and reduce working capital needs.
Read more on the Ripple Tranglo stake here.
ASIC’s Restrictions on Retail CFDs Trading Come into Effect
This week saw the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) start to enforce restrictions on the retail CFDs trading that limit the offered leverages by the brokers from as high as 500:1 to a maximum of 30:1.
Also coming into effect are imposing restrictions to protect the traders by mandating negative balance protections and marketing tactics of offering trading rebates and gifts to new clients.
Read more on the ASIC restrictions here.
ASIC Bans Binary Options for Australian Retail Clients
Staying with ASIC, this week saw the Australian Securities and Investments Commission announce that it has decided to ban the sale of binary options to retail traders in Australia.
According to the official announcement, the ban on the issuance and distribution of binary options to retail traders in Australia will take effect from Monday 3 May 2021.
Read more on the ASIC Binary Options ban here.
Bitcoin Whales Transfer 21,334 BTC in 2 Hours
After a volatile week's trading, Finance Magnates reported on large BTC addresses that moved 21,334 Bitcoin in three separate transactions in just two hours on 1 April.
According to the latest data published by blockchain tracking and analytics firm, Whale Alert, a Bitcoin whale address moved 12,000 BTC from cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to a digital wallet on 1 April at 18:40 UTC.
The total value of all the transfers stands at around $1.2 billion.
Read more on the Bitcoin Whales here.
Cryptocurrency Filecoin Beats Chainlink and LTC
Cryptocurrency Filecoin (FIL) has entered the list of top 10 digital currencies in the world after the digital asset jumped approximately 40% in a single day. Filecoin is the 9th largest cryptocurrency in the world with a market cap of more than $13 billion.
According to the latest data, Filecoin is now more valuable than digital currencies like Litecoin, Chainlink, Theta, Stellar and Bitcoin Cash. The cryptocurrency is now up by more than 150% in the last 7 days.
Read more on Filecoin here.
NAGA Group Reports Record Revenue in Q1 of 2021
NAGA Group reported its preliminary unaudited results of the first quarter of 2021 yesterday, and the company saw a massive jump in revenue as the total sales jumped by 69% to $13.7 million in Q1 of 2021, compared to $8.1 million during the same period in 2020.
According to the official announcement, the total trading volume crossed $70 billion, which is up by 155% compared to Q1 of 2020. Additionally, NAGA Group reported a significant jump in new accounts as the company added 93,000 accounts in Q1 of 2021, compared to 16,000 in Q1 of 2020. NAGA Group now has more than 1 million registered accounts.
Read more on the NAGA Group's Record Revenues here.
Latvian Airline Starts Accepting Payments in Dogecoin, Other Cryptos
Latvian airline, airBaltic has become the latest to take cryptocurrency mainstream as the company started to accept multiple cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin, as payments for ticket booking.
Announced on Monday, the airline added Bitcoin Cash, Ether and Dogecoin along with four USD-pegged stablecoins, GUSD, USDC, PAX and BUSD to its payments options. The airline has already been accepting Bitcoin since 2014, making it the first airline company to accept cryptocurrency.
Read more on airBaltic's cryptocurrency move here.
