The decline in the price of bitcoin over most of this year to date might be related to the launch of cryptocurrency derivatives, Yahoo! Finance reported. In the middle of December, when bitcoin reached its peak, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange started to allow the trading of cryptocurrency derivatives.
“The new investment opportunity led to a fall in demand in the spot bitcoin market and therefore a drop in price,” four analysts wrote in a recent policy analysis. “With offers of future bitcoin deliveries at a lower price coming through, the order flow necessarily put downward pressure on the spot price as well.”
And Kik is rolling out a blockchain to help boost its Kin cryptocurrency, Fortune reported. To make this happen, Kik plans to use a custom version of Stellar that will allow the company to make Kin payments faster. It will also allow users to pass tokens from the new blockchain to its current Ethereum-based version.
“Most crypto projects to date have been technology-driven first and product-driven second. Kin has always been the opposite,” Kik founder and CEO Ted Livingston said in a statement. “Our goal is for Kin to be the most used cryptocurrency in the world, and [the Stellar blockchain] will help get us there sooner.”
In other news, two PwC subsidiaries have teamed up with blockchain firm VeChain, Cryptovest reported. PwC Hong Kong and PwC Singapore both reportedly bought minority stakes in the company. PwC Asia Pacific and Greater China Chairman Raymund Chao said the move was an important strategic decision.
“We are glad to establish a deeper relationship with VeChain, which aims to build a trusted and distributed business ecosystem to help address long-standing challenges in supply chain management, food trust and anti-counterfeiting areas,” Chao said in a statement. “VeChain’s mission aligns with PwC’s purpose of solving important problems and building trust in society.”
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