Bitcoin fell to a five-week low during this past holiday weekend, reaching $3,442.50, its lowest level since Dec. 17. By Tuesday (Jan. 22), the crypto was up 0.7 percent to hit $3,622.41 on the Kraken exchange, according to MarketWatch.
“Bitcoin keeps bouncing along in the upper $3K range, but it was unable to extend last week’s breakout above this level,” wrote Market Analyst Jani Ziedins. “Demand remains an Achilles heel for all cryptocurrencies because most people have soured on this investment class, and have no interest in putting in new money. Every bounce continues to be a selling opportunity.”
In other news, London Stock Exchange Group announced that its technology solutions provider’s Millennium Exchange has been chosen for ATOM Group’s new digital asset exchange venue: AAX. Set to launch this year, AAX will be the first digital asset exchange venue to use LSEG Technology’s matching engine.
“Trust is at the heart of ATOM’s philosophy, and we are delighted to be working with LSEG Technology to deliver a core part of our new digital asset exchange. AAX will leverage LSEG’s Technology to deliver a world-class exchange that ensures safe, trusted and secure digital asset trading for all. The AAX exchange will allow investors to trade all major digital assets with greater levels of fairness, transparency and performance,” said Peter Lin, CEO of ATOM Group, in a press release.
ING Bank has signed a five-year deal with R3 that will allow it to roll out R3’s commercial blockchain platform, Corda Enterprise, throughout the bank globally, as well as launch CorDapps across several business areas.
“Our long-standing joint journey with R3 has proven that this is the most mature enterprise [distributed ledger technology (DLT)] solution to serve the needs of the financial service industry. Strengthening our partnership, by signing this licensing agreement, marks a huge milestone [toward] empowering clients to transition to a distributed economy. We are one step closer to deploying live DLT solutions for our clients with the supported infrastructure in place,” said Annerie Vreugdenhil, chief innovation officer of wholesale banking at ING, in a press release.
Coinbase is focusing on expanding its trading platform throughout Asia. The company had been testing a new service to select customers, which allowed them to store vast amounts of digital currencies, as well as receive enhanced trading capabilities. It is now set to launch that service throughout the region.
“Asia is super important to the crypto ecosystem,’’ said Kayvon Pirestani, head of institutional sales in Asia for Coinbase, in an interview, according to Bloomberg. “It’s home to some of the most active retail traders in the world, as well as a lot of institutional investors.”
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