n this last week, the crypto industry was flooded with assorted news. Unlike in previous weeks, the industry had more positive news in the past seven days.
Turkey is fast becoming the blockchain and crypto nation in the Asian region. Additionally, NEO is making history by joining the Microsoft.NET foundation. Is OKEx overthrowing BitMEX? Is Angelium’s a match made in hell? Did Bakkt come to ruin the price of Bitcoin?
Below, we cover the top 5 news making headlines in the last seven days:
1. A Comparison of BitMEX and OKEx Futures Contracts
Although BitMEX rules the crypto futures trading space, OKEx is coming in hot. Interestingly, OKEx is on its way to surpassing BitMEX. Notably, OKEx is being catapulted by its strong foundation in futures trading, a broader experience dating back in 2014, the availability of a wide array of leading virtual currencies, and its advancement in technology.
Compared to BitMEX, OKEX is offering extra trading markets such as over-the-counter (OTC), margin, and spot trading. Unfortunately, OKEx lags behind in offering cryptocurrency options. However, the exchange will rule futures, perpetual swaps, options, margin trading, spot trading, and OTC trading if it launches the missing markets by October 2019.
2. Angelium (ANL) and PlusToken a Match Made in Hell?
Could this match be negotiated and sealed in hell? After Plus Token was reported to be operating a Ponzi Scheme which made away with US$2.9 billion, Angelium, a blockchain-based cross reality platform, is reportedly seeking a partnership.
The Angelium blockchain is boasting of a Proof of Rendering consensus mechanism which helps the platform to harness excess hash power from crypto mining to render and stream graphics. Although Angelium has its eyes set on the adult content industry, it may as well be getting itself into trouble by engaging Plus Token.
3. NEO Makes History as it Becomes First Blockchain to Join Microsoft .NET Foundation
It’s a massive move by NEO to join Microsoft.NET as the first blockchain project. The coming together will see the .NET Foundation and NEO find ways to motivate millions of developers to develop the cornerstone for the next-generation Internet.
.NET Foundation’s Executive Director, John Galloway, noted that:
“The .NET Foundation is very excited to welcome NEO as the very first blockchain platform to join our community. NEO is a pioneer in adopting the .NET platform, and we support them building an innovative decentralized platform and developer community.”
To hasten the creation of innovative decentralized applications and to ignite the development of smart contracts, NEO released the NEO Smart Contract Debugger, NEO Express, NEO-FX Library, NEO Visual DevTracker, and NEO Smart Contract Compiler Enhancements.
After a long wait, Bakkt came. Unfortunately, the Bitcoin (BTC) futures platform did not drive BTC prices higher as investors would have hoped. Instead of the price of Bitcoin increasing, it took a nosedive from slightly over US$10K to the current slightly above US$8K price.
According to the CEO of Celsius Network, Alex Mashinsky:
“The disappointing Bakkt opening signals to the crypto community that institutions are less ready to invest in BTC at the scale that was supposed, which means the price was probably too high and due for a correction …What we’ve just seen is short-sellers and momentum traders piling on to make things worse, and now here we are back at support.”
5. Turkey is fast Becoming THE Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Nation of Asia
With cryptocurrencies being a hot topic in some major Asian nations, Turkey is taking an early lead. In July, for example, the country’s government released the “Eleventh Development Plan,” which constituted an economic map for the next four years.
Notably, the economic road map revolves around blockchain technology with the possibility of developing a state-backed digital currency. However, the plan omitted using Bitcoin as a point of reference in describing blockchain technology.
On September 18, Turkey’s Ministry of Industry and Technology released the Strategy 2023 forecast. Here, the Turkish government flaunted a national blockchain infrastructure to handle academic certificates, land registration, customs, among other government services.
Unlike in the July economic roadmap, the Strategy 2023 document makes reference to Bitcoin when discussing blockchain technology. According to the document, blockchain technology will help build a “new business model that will shape the future.” The Turkish government finds solace in the fact that Bitcoin has already used the technology successfully.
