Bitcoin is currently down about $500, or nearly 17%, from its June 12th peak of $3,000 per coin. Essentially every other major cryptocurrency, including Ethereum and Litecoin, has seen similar declines. There have been fluctuations since the peak, but the overall trend has been steadily downhill for weeks. While it can seem odd to apply old-school…
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is ponying up $1 billion to boost its stake in Southeast Asian online retailer Lazada, ahead of Amazon’s much-anticipated entry into the region. On Wednesday, Alibaba said it will increase its stake in the company from 51 percent to about 83 percent, bringing its total investment to over $2 billion. The investment underscores increased…
Say what you will about the cryprocurrency market in the first half of the year, but give it this: it wasn’t boring. In contrast to the U.S. equity market, where a popular measure of volatility has been hovering near a multidecade low since May, there was nothing but volatility in the realm of digital currencies, underscored…
Bitcoin experienced a 20% down day this week after a bitmain blog post outlining a UASF/BIP148 contingency plan for a hard fork. The spot price has now recovered to previous levels, ending flat on the week. Currently, 85% of mining pools support “SegWit2x” which is taken from the New York Agreement, which states that SegWit…
At Facebook, the IT organization isn’t called “IT.” Instead, it’s referred to as the “enterprise engineering organization.” As Facebook client platform engineer Nick McSpadden told me, that’s because at a company that operates at the scale of Facebook, IT has to be about more than pushing buttons on a vendor product. And to emphasize this,…
AirAsia Group Bhd is waiting for approval from Bank Negara Malaysia for its new financial technology (fintech) programme, which is expected to be launched in three months’ time, said AirAsia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes. Fernandes said the programme, dubbed as “The Big”, would enable banking and financial services as well as serve as…
One of the government’s priorities this year is to make Singapore’s small enterprises more tech-savvy and get them to use online and tech resources to improve their business. Both the Committee on the Future Economy report and the 2017 budget announcement reflected that with a range of suggestions and initiatives toward that goal. To do…
A master policy written in the U.K. and three local policies in the U.S., Kenya and Singapore were written into a smart contract which provides a shared, real-time view of the policies’ data. The smart contract gives visibility of the coverage and payment at both the master and local policy levels, in addition to automated…
“We’re sure that blockchain will become as commonplace as the Internet and smartphones. The Organizer Smile Expo invites Blockchain-enthusiasts from business and government who are already aware of the benefits of new technology,” the event organizers invite the guests to the conference on its official website. Participating in the conference is not cheap though, a ticket…
In Bitcoin, it’s like every organic food store has someone out front, offering free samples. Also, there’s a library everywhere you look, but only a few of those libraries have any good information. The largest traders would benefit a great deal if everyone just jumped blindly into Bitcoin, investing large chunks of their life savings…
Amazon is the tech giant most likely to become a dominant player in fintech, predicted James Lloyd, Ernst & Young’s fintech lead, when speaking on stage at TechCrunch and TechNode’s event in Shenzhen, China on Monday. Lloyd told TechCrunch that he expects Amazon to expand further into payments, lending and credit scoring. “They’ll get into…
Powers planned by the Government aiming to pave the way for commercial space flights in Britain will be included in the Queen’s Speech alongside a raft of investments in transport infrastructure. The legislation, according to Department for Transport (DfT), will allow the launch of satellites from the UK for the first time, horizontal flights to the…
Apple Inc broadened a legal attack on Qualcomm Inc, arguing to a U.S. federal court that license agreements that secure the chip maker a cut of every iPhone manufactured were invalid. If successful, Apple’s attack would undermine a core tenet of Qualcomm’s business model. Apple sued San Diego-based Qualcomm in January, saying the chip maker…
NASA named 12 astronauts on Wednesday to the U.S. space agency’s first new class of space fliers in five years, chosen from a record 18,300 applicants, for a new era of space travel. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence welcomed the five women and seven men, aged 28 to 42, during their introduction at the U.S.…
Bitcoin’s Recent Correction On Thursday, all the top 25 cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple, experienced a huge price fall. The average value drop exceeded ten percent in almost all cases. Both Ethereum’s and bitcoin’s market cap fell by billions of dollars, with BTC dropping to $37.4 billion and ETH to $28.9 billion. However, one day…
Focus On Fintech 