Bitcoin Daily: Square May Bring Bitcoin To The Big Apple, IMF Calls For Bitcoin Crackdown

Bitcoin fell below the $9,000 mark on Tuesday (March 13), MarketWatch reported. With scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the market is looking bearish to some analysts. Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at OANDA, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the currency traded at around the $6,000 in mark in the future. Bitcoin was trading at $9,181.95 as of 7:09 p.m., according to CoinDesk.

And the Winklevoss twins – the founders of Gemini – are proposing a self-regulatory body for the cryptocurrency industry, they announced on their company blog. The group, which they propose to call the Virtual Commodity Association, would be “an industry-sponsored self-regulatory organization for the U.S. virtual currency industry, specifically virtual commodity exchanges and custodians.”

In Japan, Chubu Electric Power Co. is testing a new payment system that would allow customers to pay to charge their electric vehicles using the blockchain, CoinDesk reported. According to CoinDesk, the power company is working with Nayuta to see how customers could make bitcoin payments through the lightning network.

And the solution for regulating cryptocurrencies could be the very technology that is used to power them, the head of the International Monetary Fund wrote in a blog post, The Guardian reported. “We can harness the potential of crypto-assets while ensuring that they never become a haven for illegal activity or a source of financial vulnerability,” Christine Lagarde wrote.

In blockchain news, Ripple is gearing up to invest in startups and technology firms that create more uses for its cryptocurrency XRP, TechCrunch reported.  In an interview on the sidelines of Money2020, the payments conference currently being held in Singapore, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, said the company is focused on enabling banks to use its blockchain software offering, while also looking to invest in startups that could provide alternative uses for XRP.

And a calendar app that was on Apple’s App Store apparently had a feature that allowed users to access premium features by mining crypto, VentureBeat reported. While the developer of Calendar 2 – Qbix – said it would take away the feature in future versions, the app has gone missing from the App Store.

In Slovenia, drivers may notice a new monument in the middle of a roundabout – dedicated to, yes, blockchain technology – in the city of Kranj, Reuters reported. “We asked citizens on our Facebook page to decide what to place in the new roundabout and this was one of the first ideas we received,” said the town’s mayor, Bostjan Trilar. “Kranj has a lot of companies dealing with high technology.”

And Square might be working toward a BitLicense so that its Cash App could allow users to buy bitcoin in the Big Apple, CoinDesk reported. When a user on Twitter asked about the app’s expansion to New York, the company replied, “We’re working on it! Stay tuned.”