The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has found regulatory gaps in the licensing regime for crypto-asset related activities, as well as in the governance processes associated with cyber security and cloud outsourcing.
Two surveys conducted by ESMA earlier this year gathered evidence from national competent authorities (NCAs) across the EU on the treatment of FinTech firms within their jurisdictions. The research confirmed that NCAs do not typically distinguish between newer FinTech and more traditional business models in their decision making, since they authorise a financial activity and not a technology.

Citing data by DApp Review, as of 09:00 on July 16 (UTC), there are 1,835 ETH DApps, 573 EOS DApps, 508 TRON DApps, and 27 IOST DApps.
1. Top 3 ETH DApps by user volume in the past 24 hours are: ARINA LAND TYCOON (3,027), My Crypto Heroes (2,353), and SuperPlayer (1,057).
2. Top 3 EOS DApps by user volume in the past 24 hours are: hashbaby (39,105), Endless Game (35,746), and WhaleEx (12,823).
3. Top 3 TRON DApps by user volume in the past 24 hours are: LIMITLESS (TRON) (14,376), PLAYFUN (TRON) (6,899), and TRONWIN (4,562).
4. Top 3 IOST DApps by user volume in the past 24 hours are: Endless Game IOST (11,914), IOSTPlay (1,267), and IOSTJoy (790).
5. New DApps: ETH DApps (0); EOS DApps (0); TRON DApps (0); IOST DApps (0).

With regulators not "nimble" enough to adapt to the fast changing world of technology, those concerned about maintaining their online privacy should consider turning to decentralized technology, according to a leading Republican politician.
In an op-ed in the New York Times, U.S. House of Representatives minority leader Kevin McCarthy argued that it's clear governments and regulators are not able to effectively protect citizens' from platforms like Facebook and Google "exploiting and selling our data."

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinone has shut down its offline trading service CoinoneBlocks, aiming to invest more funds in its main business.

In an article posted on Medium, the crypto author Colin Platt mentioned a computing method relating to the running cost of blockchain network. According to this method, the monthly running cost of Bitcoin is about $540 million, while that of Ethereum is $120 million and that of EOS is $28 million.
Platt also stated that the cost of maintaining the public chain is positively related to the ability to protect the public chain against external intervention. With the continuous advancement of technology, from Ethereum to EOS, the operating cost of blockchain system has dropped significantly.

According to the analysis of Aayush Jindal, Ethereum (ETH) price declined heavily after it broke the key $264 support area against the US Dollar. ETH price even traded below the $240 support area and tested the $203 level.
There is a major bearish trend line forming with current resistance near $240 on the 4-hour chart (data feed from Coinbase). The price remains at a risk of more losses as long as it is trading below the $240 resistance area.

The project head of Facebook's Libra, David Marcus, prepared his testimony to attend the Libra-focused hearing held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. According to ChainNews, a China-based blockchain news outlet, Marcus will use 'digital currency' to describe Libra, instead of terms such as cryptocurrency and cryptography. In his testimony, 'digital currency' has appeared for 11 times.

Click 'Read More' for details.

As of July 16 (UTC+8), the proposal on the step 2/3 of eosio.assert contract deployment on EOS mainnet has gained nine votes, short of eight BPs from Top 21 BPs.
The test environment of eosio.assert has been deployed on Kylin and Jungle test networks, and the system contract has been upgraded to 1.7.0. Bloks.io's online wallet function already supports EOS Authenticator.
Due to the frequent changes of node ranking recently, this proposal has included the top 35 nodes in the main network into "require auth," and called on the top 35 nodes to actively participate in the verification of the proposal.

Following a recent council approval, Canadian City of Richmond Hill will be exploring providing crypto asset property tax payments. Helping to provide the service will be the domestic digital currency platform, Coinberry.
The City of Richmond Hill is the second Canadian city to accept cryptocurrency for tax payments. Innisfil in Ontario was the first city to work with the trading platform and announced their own partnership in March of 2019.

Bitcoin price started a decent upside correction after trading as low as $9,784 against the US Dollar. The price traded above the $10,500 and $10,800 resistance levels to start the recent recovery. July 15's highlighted major bearish trend line was breached with resistance near $10,680 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
The price is now facing a strong resistance near the $11,000 and $11,100 resistance levels. Bitcoin price started a strong recovery above $10,500 against the US Dollar. However, BTC is still struggling to settle above $11,000 and it could resume its decline in the near term.

EOS NewYork today (July 16) in an article shared the intelligent permission management. They are in an attempt to make accounts more secure by creating secure mode permissions.
Click 'Read More' for details.

CoinNess Market Index shows that BTC dropped by 1.0% within 5 minutes. BTC currently marks $10602.01 on Binance.
For more alerts on real-time market changes, add your portfolio at "Watch List" to enable the Intelligent Market Monitor, seizing more investment opportunities.

BITPoint, a Japanese crypto exchange, revealed the details of the stolen cryptocurrencies at a press conference in Tokyo today (July 16).
The funds include 1,225 BTC, 1,985 BCH, 11,169 ETH, 5,108 LTC and 28,106,343 XRP, which are totally worth about 3.02 billion yen (approx. $28 million).

Citing data from DApp Total on July 16, EOS had the best performance yesterday (July 15) in the number of daily active users among the four main public blockchains, i.e., Ethereum, EOS, IOST, and TRON, accounting for 55.29%.
1. User number: EOS (126,675) > TRON (67,415) > ETH (35,001) > IOST (13,444);
2. Transaction number: EOS (4,800,052) > TRON (1,437,371) > IOST (186,750) > ETH (121,568);
3. Trading volume: TRON ($41,635,885) > ETH ($24,735,859) > EOS ($6,652,757) > IOST ($818,274).
In addition, the top 3 DApps by user number across the EOS, TRON, IOST and Ethereum chains are: TronOscar (TRON), Endless Game (EOS), and Hash Baby (EOS); the top 3 DApps by transaction number across the EOS, TRON, IOST and Ethereum chains are: Hash Baby (EOS), TronOscar (TRON), and Dice (EOS); the top 3 DApps by trading volume across the EOS, TRON, IOST and Ethereum chains are: TronOscar (TRON), LIMITLESS (ETH), and TRONbet (TRON).

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin replied to BullBitcoin CEO's query on Twitter: "We've backed down on lots of things. Hex Patricia trees (going binary in eth2), RLP (switching to SSZ in eth2). Gas repricings for opcodes due to new info on costs. 256 bit ints (going 64 bit in eth2). On-chain governance (initially bullish, now bearish)."

According to the report of IMEOS, BET (BOSCore executive team) held the first meeting to approve BOSCore's three referendum proposals on July 8. Three proposals of "BOS On-Chain Worker Proposal and Escrow system by EOS NATION," "Community Governance & Daily Operations by BOS Pacific" and "BOSCore WPS global promotion by BOS Pacific" now have been approved after voting, and then all funds started to be transferred by BOS multi-sig.
As of July 15, BET multi-sig transfers have been completed and all the proposers have successfully received WPS funds.

Bitcoin, the world's largest crypto, is trading around $10,800, marking $10,812.34 with a daily increase of 5.86%. According to the analysis by Miles W., the in-house cryptocurrency analyst at CoinNess.com, the trading volume of Bitcoin since price rebound yesterday (July 15) has been lower than that in the declining period on July 10, so this rebound could push the price to cross $11,200, with $12,000 still positioned as the resistance level.
The reversal last night is more likely affected by a hearing regarding Facebook's new cryptocurrency, Libra, held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. The U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated in a press conference that Facebook's planned digital currency "could be misused by money launderers and terrorist financiers" and that it was a "national security issue." "With regard to Facebook's Libra, our overriding goal is to maintain the integrity of our financial system and protect it from abuse," Mnuchin said. "We will not allow digital asset service providers to operate in the shadows."
Most of investors seem very optimistic in their way of understanding Mnuchin's word. "Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin basically told everyone to follow the rules and not doing illegal things with Bitcoin or crypto. Sounds like a green light for those who want to do things the right way," Morgan Creek co-founder Anthony Pompliano voiced on Twitter.
There is no doubt that the U.S. government's attitude towards Libra is tied with the crypto market. The next hearing held at 14:00 UTC on July 17 could exert an impact on movements of the prices in BTC and even the whole market. Therefore, investors need to be alert to the market volatility.

EOS Authority released the visualization process for EOSIO upgrade to help Voice go online, so that all nodes and the upgrade information can be informed in real time.

According to zdnet.com, the local construction giant Cyrela and startup Growth Tech completed the real estate sale under the project Notary Ledgers, which enables users to request and track notary services. By using IBM Blockchain technology, the time needed to complete the property sale process, a process which otherwise can take up to a month, was reduced to just 20 minutes.

When it comes to blockchain solutions, over two-thirds or 68 percent of Asia-Pacific companies lack understanding and education on its application, according to an Ernst & Young (EY) poll.
This lack of understanding and education is the greatest barrier for boards and executives when it comes to adopting blockchain solutions, the New York-based consultancy said on Tuesday, July 16.

Digital technologies such as cloud computing, big data, data analytics, IoT, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and blockchain are gradually being leveraged in the defense industry at both agency and operational levels as change enablers, according to Frost & Sullivan's latest analysis.

Cardano CEO Charles Hoskinson tweeted, "I'm retiring my Twitter account for awhile to focus on some higher priority things. The @InputOutputHK account is the official source for Cardano and IOHK news. See you guys when I get back."

Citing statistics from alternative.me, the Fear & Greed Index currently reads 34, 18 units more than yesterday, indicating the crypto market is in "Fear."
As per the index, a value of 0 means "Extreme Fear" while a value of 100 represents "Extreme Greed."

The UK government has published its Economic Crime Plan to crack down on money laundering and illegal activities in the cryptocurrency sector. The plan involves creating a separate task force dedicated to the issue within the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
In a statement to the press, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said that despite the UK having "one of the toughest systems for combatting money laundering," too many people are still being defrauded. Overall, cryptocurrency crime impedes economic growth which is why the UK government plans to tackle it. As part of the Economic Crime Plan, the government wants to create a new regime within the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which specializes in cryptocurrencies. The UK's financial watchdog would be responsible for "going beyond international standards to create one of the most comprehensive global responses to the use of crypto assets in illicit activity."

As for the rumors that the Texas data center project of Bitmain has been stranded, Bitmain clarifies that this project is now in a normal operation.
WIRED reported on July 11 that Bitmain announced last year that it would build the world's largest data center in Texas, but that project has now stalled.
Besides, the source said that Bitmain is working with advisers to prepare the IPO, with plans to file documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse tweeted, "Just watched @stevenmnuchin1's press conference on regulating crypto and have personally spoken to him on this topic. I've also been ruminating on @realdonaldtrump's tweets on crypto last week. I agree that crypto isn't likely to replace fiat currencies - I have been very vocal that crypto isn't likely to disrupt the US dollar and other G20 currencies in my lifetime.
Click "Read More" for details.

As of 03:00 (UTC) on July 16, the global average price of Bitcoin is swinging around the $10,800 level. Currently, BTC marks $10,812.94, registering an increase of 6.41% in the past 24 hours.
The CoinNess.com Bullish vs. Bearish Indicator shows our four-hour technical bias on BTC is "Strong Sell" with 14 indicators sending out selling signals, zero showing neutral signals, and four indicating buying signals. The broad market shows an uptrend, with 87 out of Top 100 cryptos by market cap trading in green.
The global market cap reads $289.59 billion, and the 24-hour trading volume is $70.32 billion.
Major Coins
1. BTC quotes show 10,803.31 USDT on Binance, $10,772 on Bitfinex and $10,831.62 on Coinbase Pro;
2. CoinNess.com Market Index presents quotes for major cryptocurrencies besides BTC as following: ETH marks $230.09 (+4.60%); XRP marks $0.316 (+2.94%); LTC marks $89.44 (+1.33%); BCH marks $308.06 (+10.30%); EOS marks $4.31 (+2.15%); ETC marks $5.76 (+6.09%).
Top 3 Gainers and Losers in Cryptocurrencies
1. Top 3 gainers among Top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap: XEM (+23.82%), ZRX (+23.42%), and MONA (+18.80%);
2. Top 3 losers among Top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap: MKR (-11.55%), XUC (-10.95%), and KMD (-4.58%).
Top 3 Gainers and Losers in Categories
1. Top 3 gainer among 24 categories: Internet of Things (+10.91%), Forked Coins (+9.36%), Data Service (+9.08%);
2. Top 3 losers among 24 categories: Smart Economy (-4.31%), Content Copyright (-2.63%), and Asset Anchoring (-0.79%).
Cap Flows of Coins/Exchanges
1. Top 3 capital inflows within the last 24 hours: BTC (+$555.70 mln), XMR (+$268.51 mln), and DASH (+$80.25 mln);
2. Top 3 capital outflows within the last 24 hours: XRP (-$31.86 mln), TUSD (-$12.46 mln), and LTC (-$11.45 mln);
3. Net inflows/outflows of exchanges: Binance (+$8.34 mln), Bitfinex (+$9.68 mln), and Coinbase Pro (+$26.63 mln).

ANZ Bank has offered its opinion on Facebook's proposed Libra cryptocurrency and while the bank hasn't kicked holes in the idea it has identified some worrying weaknesses. The Bank's director for institutional portfolio management James Culham hit the Bluenotes blog and assessed Facebook's assertion that Libra will be more stable than other cryptocurrencies because it will be backed by real-world assets. His take is that Libra won't be able to deliver on that promise unless it works with the current financial system. "Those celebrating the end of the traditional banking system or government financial hegemony, hold on - the reserve of assets will include bank deposits and short-term government securities in currencies from stable and reputable central banks," Culham wrote. But he added his opinion that Libra's design doesn't make it immune from being buffeted by markets.