Japan's second-largest bank by assets, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), has completed a proof-of-concept (PoC) using blockchain consortium R3's Marco Polo trade finance platform. A press release confirmed the PoC completion on Feb. 18.
SMBC, which is the only Japanese bank participating in Marco Polo, said it had partnered with Japanese multinational Mitsui & Co. to enhance efficiency in trade processes.

OKEx announced that the redemption of ONG would be available from 08:00 on Feb 19, 2019 (UTC). Users may redeem on OKEx website by going in Account > My Wallet > ONG and select "Claim."
The redeemed ONG will be credited to the OKEx account directly. Airdrop claim is only available on desktop site. This redemption is for the ONG generated within Jan 1 – 31, 2019.

Crypto exchange BitForex now enables the deposit and trading of FiiiCOIN(FIII). The first batch of trading pairs includes FIII/BTC, FIII/ETH, and FIII/USDT.

Dovey Wan, former managing director of Danhua Capital and founding partner to Primitive Ventures, took it upon herself to address the Q3 2018 earning and call it "brutal."
Wan revealed that Bitmain lost $500 million which is equivalent to "the entire year's profit of Binance."
And thus, Wan drew a conclusion that Bitmain's application for IPO in Hong Kong is likely to "fail/expire." In the end, Wan cast her doubt over Bitmain's determination to go public in HKEX instead of NASDAQ with its "less conservative and loose agenda."

Bitbond announced that it has received regulatory approval from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), an independent German regulatory institution, to issue security token offering (STO).
The German regulator approved Bitbond's plea under the German Banking Act for its blockchain-based lending business. The peer-to-peer lender has become the first such blockchain-based financial services to be supervised by BaFin.

Citing statistics from Binance, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) is now reclaiming the $3,900 USDT level, and marks $3,906.03 USDT.
The global index reports $3,940.13, up by 5.16% within the past 24 hours.
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IBM plans to further expand its Stellar-based cross-border payment system, covering "a substantial portion of the world."
IBM has big plans for Blockchain World Wire, its Stellar-powered payment system that was launched in September. Jesse Lund, Head of Blockchain Solutions at IBM, has recently revealed in an interview that a "a lot of announcements are coming soon," but he already spilled the beans on some important details that might make the XLM price shoot through the roof.

Thailand has been ranked as the top country for mobile banking users and the second for ownership of cryptocurrency, a report conducted by social media management platform Hootsuite and global agency WeAreSocial has found, according to an article by the Bangkok Post. The Global Digital Report 2019, which was based on users aged between 16 to 64 during the second and third quarters of 2018, has found that in terms of internet users owning cryptocurrency, Thailand takes the silver medal.

Binance will open trading for a ZIL/USDT trading pair at 11:00, Feb 19 (UTC).

1. When using Cryptocurrency, it would need the wallet owner's authorization;
2. Credit cards are fundamentally susceptible to security breach and fraudulent tendencies;
3. Cryptocurrencies do not have downtime and time consuming registration procedures;
4. Credit cards require personal identification, relatively adds to the hassle of getting into;
5. Cryptocurrencies do not record your every transaction and sell it to advertising companies;
6. Peer-to-peer technology is something unheard of by the credit cards;
7. Majority of Cryptocurrencies have crazy low transaction fees;
8. Credit card companies can, at random update, increase fees;
9. Cryptocurrencies cannot be banned or quickly brought down.

OKEx will make the following changes at 08:00, Feb 19 (UTC):
1. Launch of spot margin trading for QTUM/USDT, QTUM/BTC, BSV/USDT, BSV/BTC, DASH/USDT, DASH/BTC, NEO/USDT and NEO/BTC (3x Leverage);
2. Support of QTUM, BSV, DASH and NEO for OK PiggyBank.

Huobi Global will adjust the leverage of ELF/USDT, BTM/USDT and HC/USDT margin trading to 2x, the leverage of LTC/USDT to 5x at 03:00 on February 20 (UTC).

Scientists have developed a new method based on blockchain technology to help verify and trace natural diamonds, and fully guarantee their authenticity. In a situation where natural, synthetic and fake stones exist in the diamond market, the system could protect the financial assets of market participants, said researchers from the National University of Science and Technology in Russia.

Joseph Young, a crypto analyst and investor, just updated a tweet, saying that "The bear market is far from over obviously. Bitcoin is down 80% from all-time high. But the recent short-term rally alleviated a lot of pressure from the crypto market."

According to the Yonhap News, the South Korean police conducted a search on the cryptocurrency issuer CoinUp, which is suspected of investment fraud. The police explained that they had received the information on investment fraud at the beginning of last month, and conducted an internal investigation.

Huobi Global will suspend ELA's deposit and withdrawal at 01:00 on February 20, 2019 (UTC).

Policymakers in India are being persuaded by a soon-to-be-held blockchain summit backed by the Indian government. The summit, taking place between 22-23 February aims to speed up the development of cryptocurrency regulations in India. Officials from the Indian Ministry of Finance and the panel drafting the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies are expected to attend the summit.
This summit is supported by the Indian government's Department of Science and Technology and the State Government of Uttar Pradesh. Apart from the aforementioned support, the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Ministry of Human Resources Development, and the Department of Information Technology are also participating as well. As per the summit's website, "The summit is targeted towards enabling Indian government and ministries to speed up the process of developing a flourished blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem."

According to LEI Tianliang, chairman of Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), the regulatory "sandbox" for cryptocurrency trading platforms and exchanges is accepting applications. The number of platforms that will finally be included in the sandbox is still uncertain, and will be announced when the time is right. Depending on the situation, Hong Kong will decided whether cryptocurrency trading platforms will be supervised by the SFC or regulated by legislations in the future.

On Feb. 8, the chief executive of Nchain, Craig Wright, wrote a blog post that purportedly described his experience of creating Bitcoin. Wright's essay states "I was Satoshi" but throughout the story, he refuses to reveal his keys. It's not the first time Wright has claimed to be Satoshi, but in the comment section of his blog post, another character calls him a "liar" and claims that he is in fact the real Satoshi Nakamoto.

According to the report of local Chinese news outlet Jiemian.com, many people familiar with the matter disclosed that Bitmain had just completed a round of large-scale layoffs. Bitmain responded that the news is not true and it has no new adjustments in the near future.

According to the report of local Chinese news outlet Jiemian.com, many people familiar with the matter disclosed that Bitmain had just completed a round of large-scale layoffs. The layoffs include many departments such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and chips. The department of artificial intelligence, which was highly anticipated, became the hardest hit area for this round of layoffs.

Mining hardware giant Bitmain lost about $500 million in the third quarter of 2018 amid an overall bearish market for cryptocurrency. The Beijing-based company recently provided an update on its financial results to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx), which is reviewing Bitmain's application for an initial public offering (IPO) first filed in September.
Click 'Read More' for details.

On Feb 19 (UTC+8), the daily trading volume of the global crypto market has reached $34 billion, and now reads $34.04 billion, hitting a new high within the year of 2019. The activity of the overall market also shows an increasing trend.

As of 03:00 (UTC) on Feb 19, the global average price of Bitcoin (BTC) is trading above the $3,900, with the global index marking $3,917.27, with an increase of 5.39% within the past 24 hours.
The broad momentum shows a sign of a bull market, having 88 out of Top 100 by the market cap rising.
The global market cap reads $132.51 billion, and the 24-hour trading volume is $34.33 billion.
Major Coins
1. BTC quotes show $3,922.04 USDT on Binance, $3,969.80 on Bitfinex and $3,867.00 on Coinbase Pro;
2. CoinNess.com Market Index presents quotes for major cryptocurrencies besides BTC as following: ETH marks $146.92 (+7.89%); XRP marks $0.323 (+5.02%); LTC marks $47.56 (+7.12%); EOS marks $3.62 (+24.46%); BCH marks $146.79 (+14.74%); ETC marks $4.46 (+6.04%).
Top 3 Gainers and Losers in Cryptocurrencies
1. Top 3 gainers among Top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap: EOS (+24.46%), IOST (+17.26%), XIN (+16.65%);
2. Top 3 losers among Top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap: WAX (-21.97%), LRC (-2.58%), BAT (-2.30%).
Top 3 Gainers in Categories
1. Top 3 gainers among 49 categories: Supply Chain (+30.13%), FIFA World Cup (+10.42%), Forked Coins (+9.55%);
2. Top 3 losers among 49 categories: Community Concept (-11.3%), Time and Sale (-8.98%), Energy Service (-4.3%).
Cap Flows of Coins/Exchanges
1. Top 3 capital inflows within the last 24 hours: DASH (+$340.60 mln), BTG (+$99.12 mln), XMR (+$92.09 mln);
2. Top 3 capital outflows within the last 24 hours: BTC (-$175.86 mln), ETH (-$118.95 mln), EOS (-$112.16 mln);
3. Net inflows/outflows of exchanges: Binance (+$15.26 mln), Bitfinex (-$4.51 mln), Coinbase Pro (-$6.97 mln).

With the launch of EOSfinex right around the corner, EOSfinex released an article, giving a sneak peak into the mechanics powering the exchange.
EOSfinex is a high-performance decentralized exchange built on EOSIO which will run fully on-chain. Custody, order book, and matching engine are all part of the EOS contracts. EOSfinex is set for full launch in Q1 of 2019.
Click 'Read More' for the detailed introduction.

Thirty people have filed a complaint with the police after they were duped into investing in "CryptoMining.Farm", a blockchain-mining website, which allegedly resulted in losses of 42 million baht. The complainants are among 140 people the police believe have fallen victim to the latest Bitcoin-related scandal.

Monitored by CoinNess.com, from 00:00 to 02:00 (UTC) on February 19, EOS registered a net inflow of nearly $17.20 million in the past two hours.
1. The Top 3 net cap inflows in the crypto market are: EOS (+$17.19 mln), ETH (+$10.80 mln), BTC (+$7.65 mln);
2. The Top 3 net cap outflows in the crypto market are: OKB (-$16.73 mln), LTC (-$6.54 mln), XRP (-$3.68 mln).
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KuCoin exchange announces that its platform 2.0 upgrade has been completed and the trading and withdrawal service have been resumed now. The upgrade brings plenty of new features including advanced API, various order types, reliable security solutions and more attractive fee program.
To celebrate the launch of KuCoin Platform 2.0, the exchange initiatives a limited time campaign that enables users to enjoy zero trading fees for all trading pairs, expiring at 23:59:59 Feb 21, 2019 (UTC+8). CoinNess.com Market Index: KCS marks $0.52, up by 22% in 24h with a surge of 40% in 3 days.

BTC saw a continuous decline after it set a new 24h of $3,974.98 USDT on Binance at 00:44 (UTC). Now it marks $3,872.64 USDT(+4.65%) on Binance.
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