eBay Not Accepting Cryptocurrency Payments
Earlier this week, there were rumors that eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) is going to start accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment. While the e-retailing giant did not confirm these rumours at the time, many thought it was true: the company’s banners at the Consensus conference indicated so. But it’s not true. And the company has now confirmed that.
Here’s everything we know.
eBay Accepting Crypto? Nope
It’s no secret that the list of companies that have started to accept cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, as payment is growing. And at a rapid pace, might we add. But not everyone is jumping on this train, despite rumours saying so. One company is eBay, which said yesterday, according to Bloomberg, that it is not accepting, nor is it planning to accept cryptocurrencies as a method of payment.
“Cryptocurrency is not accepted as a form of payment on the eBay platform, nor is it part of our payments strategy,” explained a spokesperson for the San Jose, California company.
Of course, this might come as a disappointment to some. When you combine this week’s increase in crypto prices with the company’s reach, in addition to its “Virtual Currency. It’s happening on eBay” billboards, one might have been convinced the rumors were true.
Then again, not everyone seems disappointed. After all, EBAY stock didn’t plunge on the market today. In fact, EBAY stock closed the day up 0.65%.
Never Say Never
Some companies don’t like to announce things too fast. Just because crypto payments are not part of eBay’s payments strategy right now doesn’t mean it won’t ever be. The company is clearly aware of the potentials of the industry, so we have to think it is not ousting the idea entirely.
What do you think? Do you think eBay should start accepting cryptocurrencies as a method of payment? Let us know in the comments below!
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Aura Blockchain Ready to be Unveiled
According to reports, the AURA blockchain—which was first mentioned in March—is ready for unveiling.
AURA is a blockchain-powered platform that allows customers to verify the authenticity of luxury goods.
The team behind its include ConsenSys, LVMH, and Microsoft.
The AURA Blockchain
Owners of luxury brands Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, LVMH, is key to AURA’s inception. The company is now hoping other luxury competitors will join the blockchain.
ConsenSys is a blockchain software technology company based in Brooklyn, New York. It teamed up with Microsoft to develop the technology that underpins AURA.
Now the group is encouraging other luxury designers to join the consortium saying AURA, is designed to “serve the entire luxury industry with powerful product tracking and tracing services.”
The group’s news release furthered:
“AURA makes it possible for consumers to access the product history and proof of authenticity of luxury goods — from raw materials to the point of sale, all the way to second-hand markets.”
The AURA blockchain works by storing unique information about every product stored on the decentralized ledger. Users can then use a brand’s official app to download a certificate which details the authenticity of the good.
Opera Adds Support for Tron
The AURA blockchain isn’t the only crypto news today.
Internet search engine, Opera, is adding support for Tron’s TRX and TRC-standard tokens in its browser-based crypto wallet.
Once the integration of the TRON blockchain is finished, users of the browser will be able to use those tokens within the browser.
The support from TRON also allows Opera’s 300 million users play Tron games and use its decentralized apps (dApps)—all within the browser.
Tron currently has over 400 dApps built on the Tron blockchain.
Opera launched its native crypto wallet in December of 2018 and already holds support for Ethereum and any ERC-20 standard tokens.
>>Bitcoin Price Jumps Again, Now Above $8K Mark
The web browser said that it has plans to add support for “multiple” blockchains in the coming year.
Do you think the Aura blockchain will help the luxury goods sector? Are you happy for Opera adding Tron support? Let us know your thoughts!
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Ripple Surges Over 20% | Months of Underperformance Over?
The past few weeks have been disheartening for Ripple (XRP) investors who have been watching as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to surge as XRP continues to experience a spell of sideways trading at $0.30.
Ripple Breaches $0.40 Mark
It seems the disappointed may be over as Ripple has finally managed to break out of the lower trading range by surging over 20% to above $0.40 mark. XRP is currently trading at $0.42, up 30% over the past 24 hours. Ripple has a market capitalization of $4.90 billion.
Before surging today, Ripple has underperformed for quite some time on the crypto market as it remained rooted in an indelible trading range of $0.30 to $0.34 that seemed hard to break away from despite the tailwinds caused by the upward surge of Bitcoin that has dragged other crypto to decent gains.
Despite its lackluster performance over the past few months, yesterday XRP underwent an incredible surge of buying pressure which pushed its price to near year-to-date high in the $0.40 region where it established some resistance level.
Currently, Ripple is proving a promising altcoin as most altcoins are drifting lower and lower in their price range. Bitcoin seems to be establishing a resistance level of $8,000 gaining more and more distance. Some altcoins have dropped substantially; Litecoin is down 0.8%, and Bitcoin Cash is down 0.70%. Ethereum is up about 6%.
Bullish News Fuelled XRP’s Surge
The recent upward movement of Ripple has been fuelled by an influx of bullish news surrounding the cryptocurrency. One such news story that preceded the surge was the Coinbase announcement that indicated that New York traders could now buy XRP on the Coinbase Exchange platform. Many investors saw this as a bullish sign while some even believed this was a sign of an impending institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies.
It is, however, unclear whether Ripple will manage to maintain the solid foothold in the $0.40 region or the surge will be fleeting and it will back to the $0.30 region.
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Bitcoin Price Plunges | Bitcoin Investors’ Joy is Shortlived
After trading above $8,000 less than a day, Bitcoin (BTC) price plunged on May 17 and it was trading at around $7,200 which is a 10% drop within a day.
Other cryptocurrencies have also experienced a price drop. Ethereum dropped 7.97% to around $240 while XRP lost 15.4% and it’s trading at $0.399. The cryptocurrency industry market capitalization fell by 8% which result in about $21 billion being wiped out in 24 hours.
Bitcoin Price Drop Triggered by Huge Bitcoin Sell Order
The sudden decline in Bitcoin price was prompted by the placement of a huge sell order on Bitstamp as well as other cryptocurrency exchanges which caused contracts on margin trading exchanges such as BitMEX to be liquidated.
Someone placed a huge sell order of 5,000 bitcoin on Bitstamp that BitMEX uses for about 50% of its feed and it seems like it triggered some kind of algorithm that impacted on BitMEX. Gnosis Developer Eric Conner said that the manipulation of the cryptocurrency market by a single sell order may actually hurt the possibility of the exchange-traded fund getting approval in future.
The 5,000 BTC Bitstamp sell resulted in a sell-off on Ethereum and Bitcoin on BitMEX which resulted in a drop in the valuation of the cryptocurrency market by almost $30 billon. In the past week, Bitcoin price jumped 26% from $6,200 to around $8,300.
Crypto Assets Far From Being Viable Currency Options
Analysts such as Alex Kruger of Global markets believe that the overnight 10% decline of cryptocurrencies indicates how the narrative of crypto assets being a viable option to global financial instability is far from being true.
Despite the short-term drop in bitcoin price and other crypto assets there is still hope that the market will pick an upward momentum in coming months. Although the drop is seen as a minor setback it nonetheless caught most investors by surprise.
If cryptocurrency markets were regulated with trusted platforms then it could have been difficult to manipulated prices of crypto assets and the market like what happened.
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Bitcoin Payments | AT&T Customers Can Now Pay with Bitcoin
Mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency is slowly growing with the latest development being from AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) which has indicated that from today they will be accepting bitcoin payments as an option of paying for mobile bills.
AT&T customers to pay bills in crypto
AT&T is the first major telecom company in the US to provide the option of paying in crypto. AT&T’s Communication Business Operations VP Kevin McDorman stated that the company is always looking for opportunities for improving and expanding its services. He added that cryptocurrency has become popular nowadays and some customers use it and thus the company is glad to provide them with a payment option of their preference for their bills.
Customers will be allowed to make their mobile bill payments through BitPay in the myAT&T app or by login to the online account. The company has not specified whether the bitcoin payments can be used to pay for purchases of phones and accessories in AT&T stores. BitPay will be processing the crypto payments and then give AT&T a conventional currency.
Although the adoption of cryptocurrency is a significant step, for Joe McCann Passport Capitals’ former hedge fund manager, the move may have come maybe as a result of the company having internal data that shows that more people are using Bitcoin payments nowadays. He added that AT&T did not have an upside to support Bitcoin payments.
Mainstream Bitcoin payment growing
BitPay’s Chief Commercial Officer, Sonny Singh lauded the move by AT&T and the job they have done to make it happen. He added that more companies will soon start the following suit because the adoption of crypto payment by such a big telecom company will motivate competitors to consider joining the trend as most companies are eager to learn.
AT&T follows other major corporation in the US that Accept bitcoin payments such as Subway, Expedia, Overstock, Microsoft, and Shopify. Most recently Whole Foods and a number of retailers began accepting bitcoin payments through third-party partnership.
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