Bitcoin clings to $4,000, Facebook building stablecoin for Whatsapp remittance

Bitcoin is struggling to make progress beyond $4,000.

Twice it has failed to breakthrough $4,200 (see chart) and is currently priced at $4,023, according to coinmarketcap.

Nevertheless, daily trading volumes remain high at $28 billion, more than twice the amount normally seen, with the exception of the period of the drop from $6,000 to the $3,000s

Altcoin have pulled from recent highs. Bitcoin cash was trading at $217 earlier today but is now at $180, down 4%.

Tron is a shinning star today among top alts, with a 20% gain, taking the 10th-ranked cryptoasset's value up to $0.0206.

Cardano (ADA) is also higher – at $0.0416, up 7% – in the aftermath of the successful update to its codebase, Cardano 1.4. Among the changes, it reduces blockchain storage from 1.3 million files to 44,000.

BTCUSD 1-day chart

Facebook stablecoin for Whatsapp remittance service

The big news today comes from a Bloomberg report revealing that Facebook's Whatsapp is planning to offer a remittance service in India that will use an in-house stablecoin.

Bloomberg says the service will not be launching imminently as Facebook has settled on the custody arrangements for the the fiat currency it is assumed it will be pegged to, or possibly some other asset.

Although there is no indication that Facebook is planning to use any crypto products currently on the market, the mere fact that Facebook is using blockchain technology in a remittance service is an endorsement of the technology that should be a lift for the industry as a whole.

The news hasn't helped Facebook's crashing share price which is down 5% today at $127.

However, the remittance move by the social network platform could herald the beginning of larger plans to get into payments. That urgency behind a possible wider payments initiative could be propelled by its need to develop income stream beyond the world of advertising.

A Facebook payments system could certainly take a chunk out of the businesses of Visa and Mastercard and could even threaten the banks, opening the way for crypto firms to rush through the breach.

Coinbase expands in Europe

Coinbase has opened shop in an additional six European territories, announced as the 11th day of its 12 Days of Coinbase promotion:

• Andorra
• Gibraltar
• Guernsey
• Iceland
• Isle of Man
• Lithuania

 

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Posted from Coinintelnews.com with SteemPress : https://coinintelnews.com/bitcoin-clings-to-4000-facebook-stablecoin-whatsapp/

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