IOST Reveals Gaming Dapps, And Japanese Megabank To Launch Stablecoin Next Month

The State of The Market — February 22, 2019BTC: $3,996.01 (+0.99%)ETH: $148.18 (+1.63%)XRP: $0.321907 (-0.28%)

After struggling for days, Bitcoin touched $4,000 today. However, it has not comfortably cleared it yet and it is still trading below that point on many exchanges. Ethereum, on the other hand, has not touched $150 yet. Both cryptocurrencies are expected to go past their resistances in the weekend. Bitcoin could even test its resistance at $4,200, which could further push its price to $5,000. Most cryptocurrencies are in the green today, and the total market cap added $1.5 Billion in the last 24 hours.

In other news, Crypto-focused venture firm Pantera Capital has secured $125 million for its $175 Million fund before the March closing. While a bulk of the amount has been raised, the firm revealed in August last year that they had raised $100 Million. Therefore, they managed to raise only $25 million in the last 6 months. Pantera partner Paul Veradittikit blamed the bear market and said fundraising has slowed down for the entire industry. Also, the FBI in the US is investigating $2.5 Billion crypto Ponzi scheme Bitcoinnect and they’re now looking to talk to victims. The agency is taking public applications on its website and they will contact applicants that could help them with the investigation. Bitconnect was a popular ponzi scheme that promised 10% monthly returns to investors. At its peak in December 2017, it was worth over $2.5 Billion. The entire scheme came crashing down after two state-level regulators published letters warning investors.

1) The IOST team has provided a glimpse into the decentralized apps (dApps) that will be making their debut on the mainnet. IOST boasts “more truly playable dApps” for the community. To start, they have tipped their hand to six of these gaming dApps that will launch on March 10. These include: IOST JOY, from Team Joy, which is a multi-player “blockchain version of Glutton Snake”; Next is Liar Game, which is based on a popular Japanese television series; Realm X and IOST Game incentivize gamers to use their imagination to create content; Cell Evolution is a play on cell populations for survival; Endless Game boasts several games on its platform, including Endless Dice. The system distributes daily IOST dividends; CryptoNinja, as the name suggests, is a Ninja fighting game boasting treasuries and castles. IOST’s mainnet launch is taking place on Feb. 25 and will be live-streamed. (Read More)

2) A megabank in Japan, the Mizuho Financial Group, recently announced that it will launch its digital currency service and stablecoin on March 1st. The bank is partnering up with 60 other financial institutions throughout Japan, totaling 56 million user accounts, which will serve directly as digital wallets on the J-Coin Pay platform as the bank attempts to fight off outside players in the cashless payments market, like Line and Rakuten. The value of the J-Coin is fixed at a value of 1 yen (1 cent), and can be used to handle both payments and remittances. (Read More)

3) Banco BTG Pactual has announced plans to raise $15 million in funding through a security token offering. The Brazilian bank explained that it will back its blockchain-based token with distressed Brazilian real estate properties and it will also offer a secondary market after the sale in order to ensure the liquidity of the issued tokens. The offering opens the door for Brazilian and international investors to invest in Brazil’s real estate market and ReitBZ (RBZ) token will be available through a “low-cost, tax-efficient structure”. BTG Pactual CEO Roberto Sallouti explained that typically global retail investors experience difficulty accessing investment opportunities in Brazil and BTG Pactual is “constantly exploring innovative ways to promote, democratize and encourage the development of financial and capital markets.” BTG Pactual will partner with Gemini Trust Company to use the U.S.-dollar backed Gemini dollar stablecoin to accept investment capital. Dividends will be distributed over the Ethereum blockchain. (Read More)

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