Crypto industry in May 2020: What happened over the month

As the month comes to an end, here is a list of top crypto news and stories that shaped the market.

As a trader, whether you are conducting technical or fundamental analysis, one critical element of trading is to have your fingers on the pulse of events happening in your industry.

Therefore, any trader needs to be alerted whenever there is news that can fundamentally or technically affect the price of an asset. It is no different in the crypto world.

Since the crypto industry is fast-moving, one of the best ways for crypto traders to stay at the bleeding edge of the industry is to get cryptocurrency news alerts straight to their inbox whenever an event or occasion is happening.

As the month comes to an end, here is a list of top crypto news and stories that shaped the market.

Bitcoin halving and its impact on Bitcoin’s price

The month of May started with a lot of excitement in the crypto space because of the Bitcoin halving event that happened on May 11th. The event is essentially a supply squeeze of rewards that miners get for validating transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. Even though past halving events have triggered a spike in Bitcoin’s price and therefore a bull run in the crypto market, this year’s event was met with mixed expectations due to the global pandemic.

Although some market analysts argued that incentive to mine Bitcoin would reduce, others argue that in the long run, it will result in a bull run.

Ethereum 2.0: Pushing Ethereum to 1000 TPS

Despite the delayed upgrade to the much anticipated Ethereum 2.0, this month saw crypto enthusiasts receive an array of hope as Vitalik Buterin (the founder of Ethereum) confirmed that plans were still underway and that the launch for ETH 2.0 would be in July. Plans to move Ethereum to a much more efficient consensus protocol kicked off as far back as 2015. Buterin confirmed to CoinDesk that the move to a proof of stake protocol would enable transactions on Ethereum to scale “above 1000 transaction per second (tps)”.

Ripple in Japan: Easy access to funds countrywide

On May 17th SBI Holdings, a company that has partnered with Ripple announced plans to use Ripple in ATMs across Japan. The purpose of the move was to give customers easy and instant access to funds. The integration of Ripple in SBI’s ATM will result in the integration of MoneyTap which is a Ripple-powered settlement application run by several banks in Japan. According to SBM, the integration of Ripple’s MoneyTap will facilitate instant money transfers via QR code or phone number. Even though Ripple’s XRP coin has a poor performance, losing its spot among the top 3 coins by market capitalization, it is the hope of many that such news will revive hope in the coin.

Progress with India’s crypto regulation

After the historic ruling by India’s Supreme Court in a move that struck down the crypto ban placed by the Reserve Bank India (RBI), a lot of excitement went through the country’s crypto community. However, despite the ruling, reports emerged that some banks were still denying crypto-related firms banking services as they had not received any guidelines and regulatory clarity from RBI. This prompted another series of court cases that led the government to discuss the prospects of regulating cryptocurrencies in the country.

Ethereum network use hit an all-time high

A report released by Delphi Digital revealed increased use of gas on Ethereum’s blockchain. Gas is the measure of fees on Ethereum. According to the report, the increased use of gas on the network stems from increased spending of Tether USDT (a stable coin built on Ethereum) and an increase in the number of Defi (decentralized finance) applications. Another survey complemented this report revealing an increased awareness and use of decentralized exchanges on Ethereum’s network.

Gemini partnering with Samsung Blockchain

As May came to a close, Gemini, an exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, partnered with Samsung’s Blockchain wallet in a move that will enable users of Samsung’s crypto wallets to buy and sell Bitcoin directly from their phones. The Samsung blockchain wallet is part of the South Korean smartphone giant’s experimentation with Bitcoin. According to reports, all new Samsung Galaxy models now come with Samsung’s crypto wallet as a feature.

Hackers use supercomputers for crypto mining

This month also saw hackers hijack multiple supercomputers from the UK, Spain Germany, and Switzerland to mine crypto. The first report was from the University of Edinburgh where an ARCHER supercomputer was exploited after SSH login details of authorized users were compromised. In Germany, supercomputers in 4 institutions were hit by the attack. According to reports some of the supercomputers hit by the attack were prioritizing research on COVID-19.

John MacAfee announces an airdrop

After launching his decentralized exchange last year, John McAfee has taken his reputation for preaching wealth distribution and his proclivity towards privacy-centric coins to a whole new level. On 25th May, the Bitcoin evangelist announced the Airdrop of a new privacy coin called GHOST. According to reports, GHOST will not be distributed through a token offering as has been the norm. Recipients of the airdrop will be required to hold a particular ERC-20 token and users of McAfee’s DEX will receive 25 percent of the supply.

Stay updated with cryptocurrency news alerts

Even though cryptocurrencies (unlike fiat money) are built on mechanical principles, they still strongly fluctuate in price according to news and events that affect investor’s perception of where the industry is going. What’s more, some reports show how news affects the valuation of cryptocurrencies. Therefore, it is very important to receive cryptocurrency news alerts if you are a trader in the crypto world. CoinMarketAlert offers traders and investors the coin news alerts app that delivers instant crypto news alerts to your inbox. Beyond receiving Bitcoin news alerts, you can also get notified with an airdrop and bounty alert, a new coin listing alert, and a market cap alert to mention only a few.

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