Citing data from BTC.com, as of 19:36 UTC on August 20, the number of unconfirmed transactions on the BTC network marks 6,648. In addition, Bitcoin's mining difficulty marks 10.18 T and is estimated to increase by 2.53% to 10.44 T. The 24-hour transaction rate (txs/s) marks 3.56 txs/s, with the network hashrate reporting 73.5 EH/s.

According to Bloomberg, the European Commission, an EU antitrust regulator, is investigating "potential anti-competitive behavior" in regards to Facebook's Libra, according to an EU questionnaire seen by Bloomberg. According to Bloomberg Law, the document suggests the EU is exploring whether the proposed Libra Association, and its new payment stack, could prevent peers from being able to compete.
The questionnaire also suggests regulators are investigating the governance and membership of the Libra Association, while EU officials also expressed concerns over the competitive restrictions on the exchange of consumer data.

As of 19:00 (UTC) on August 20, the global index of Bitcoin (BTC) price has reclaimed the $10,700 level. Currently, it marks $10,742.63 with an increase of 0.19% in the past 24 hours.
The CoinNess.com Bullish vs. Bearish Indicator shows our four-hour technical bias on BTC is "Buy" with two indicators sending out selling signals, six showing neutral signals, and ten indicating buying signals.
The broad market is trading downwards, with only 18 out of Top 100 cryptos by market cap rising.
The global market cap reads $277.4 billion, and the 24-hour trading volume is $49.81 billion.
Major Coins
1. BTC quotes show 10,754.85 USDT on Binance, $10,763 on Bitfinex, and $10,740.2 on Coinbase Pro;
2. CoinNess.com Market Index presents quotes for major cryptocurrencies besides BTC as following: ETH marks $196.89 (-1.68%); XRP marks $0.274 (-1.84%); BCH marks $314.98 (-2.12%); LTC marks $75.47 (-1.45%); EOS marks $3.65 (-1.04%); ETC marks $6.04 (+9.34%).
Top 3 Gainers and Losers in Cryptocurrencies
1. Top 3 gainers among Top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap: ETC (+9.34%), XVG (+3.88%), and NRG (+3.32%);
2. Top 3 losers among Top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap: EGT (-12.72%), ABBC (-9.56%), and GXC (-8.53%).
Top 3 Gainers and Losers in Categories
1. Top 3 gainers among 24 categories: Content Copyright (+8.51%), Artificial Intelligence (+6.56%), and Authentication (+4.39%);
2. Top 3 losers among 24 categories: Cross Chain Technology (-11.87%), E-Commerce (-7.12%), and Data Service (-6.67%).
Cap Flows of Coins/Exchanges
1. Top 3 capital inflows within the last 24 hours: DASH (+$784.47 mln), BTC (+$317.23 mln), and XMR (+$170.09 mln);
2. Top 3 capital outflows within the last 24 hours: USDC (-$56.27 mln), XRP (-$27.25 mln), and EOS (-$22.41 mln); 3. Net inflows/outflows of exchanges: Binance (-$27.79 mln), Bitfinex (-$3.35 mln), and Coinbase Pro (-$1.67 mln).

As part of year-long commitment to support open source development of Grin General Fund, Poloniex announced on Twitter that the team has made the 6th donation, 0.2488 Bitcoin.

Citing information from whale-alert.io, as of 18:16:42 UTC on August 19, 1,001 Bitcoin have) been transferred from OKEx exchange to unknown wallet address. The transaction hash is 7ed95ac5aa22a094804beb2806fca037eb8f90d8e4a23292f4419dabcebf2071.

Swiss watchdog expects details on Facebook's Libra by the end of August, said Reuters on August 20.
Facebook's plans to launch Libra next year have prompted warnings from politicians, regulators and central bankers that it must be closely regulated to avoid any disruption to the international financial system.
Facebook's Libra project head David Marcus told U.S. senators earlier this year he expected the Swiss authority to be Libra's privacy regulator, yet the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) had at that time yet to be contacted by Libra's organizers.
The FDPIC in July asked the Libra Association, the Geneva-based group which is to oversee the proposed digital currency, for further information.
A spokeswoman for the FDPIC said the agency had set a deadline of end-August for the Association to provide the requested information. She said the Association had in late July promised a response.
The Libra Association did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
A U.S. congressional delegation is set to visit Switzerland this week to discuss the project.

The former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Cyber Unit is moving to practice in the private sector. Robert A. Cohen will join the corporate law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP as a partner. The firm is known for representing several crypto firms including Coinbase, as well as large legacy financial institutions, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

In the crypto world, the most underestimated racetrack is stablecoins. Until 2018, insiders saw the light of this glistening “gold,” which makes it more appealing. On August 19, the global largest crypto exchange Binance announced to enable the plan “Venus” so as to create a regional version of Libra.
Being a means of payment was once the vision of Bitcoin. So far, stablecoins might be the one to realize it first. No matter Facebook, Walmart or JP Morgan, stablecoins launched by these tycoons all exist as the means of payment. The only difference is their objects.
Along with stablecoins, another eye-catching variable is that more and more public blockchains make their debut on stage in 2019. Before April, mainstream stablecoins in the crypto market were almost issued based on ERC20, namely, on Ethereum. However, after that, the situation changes: stablecoins were issued on other public blockchains.
As the public blockchain ecosystem developed, some applications on public blockchains need stablecoins to act as the media of pricing or a kind of currency pegged to the legal tender. Stablecoins are the bridge for users to enter the crypto world. Once a public blockchain has its own stablecoin, it will be more beneficial for developers to create new Apps on it.

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French hardware wallet producer Ledger will provide its asset management system to Estonia-based crypto exchange Rokkex.
Built by Lithuanian cybersecurity and fintech professionals, Rokkex will integrate its trading platform with Ledger's enterprise wallet management solution Ledger Vault to secure its crypto assets, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Aug. 20.
Lukas Krikstaponis, Rokkex's co-founder and CEO, said that the platform has successfully tested Ledger's technology on its platform to date.

South Korea's Prixbit cryptocurrency exchange has officially closed down.
In a website post dated Aug. 9 and entitled 'Prixbitend,' the exchange declared it would cease operations. The move was subsequently reported by local press.
"Due to negative internal and external influences, management difficulties could not be overcome and normal operation became impossible," the founder wrote.

The Saudi Ministry has warned traders in the nation against the use of virtual currencies. The ministry says the currencies are not recognised as legal entities in the kingdom and are outside the scope of the regulatory framework. One of the main concerns the ministry has is the association with fraudulent activities and attract the suspicion of use in illegal and illegitimate financial activities in addition to their high-investment risks related to frequent price fluctuations. It has to be said that jewellery and cash have been proven to be used in the past to fund illicit actions.

As observed by CoinNess.com, statistics by CoinTrendz.com show BTC was mentioned 173 times on Twitter in the last hour, holding the first position. The top 10 mentions of cryptocurrencies are as follows: BTC (173 mentions), ETH (49), XRP (40), LTC (35), BCH (26), LINK (25), TRX (21), ETC (20), BNB (18), NEO (17).

India's largest bank, the State Bank of India (SBI), announced an initiative on August 19 in which the state-owned financial institution seeks to eliminate debit cards to promote digital transactions. In light of the SBI's ambitious project, it has now become clearer that India's plans to ban all crypto assets which announced in July is total nonsense.

A 2019 report from the United Nation's Universal Postal Union (UPU) has surfaced, citing the potential adoption of crypto assets like XRP. The agency, which coordinates postal policies among member nations, highlights the increasing digitization of postal services around the world, and how digital assets can lower costs for consumers.
Click 'Read More' for details.

EMURGO, the official Cardano partner and commercial arm, announced the formal signing of MOUs with the Korea Blockchain Contents Association (KBCCA) and Korea Mobile Game Association (KMGA) to mutually identify and explore potentially aligned synergies with integrating Cardano's blockchain-based solutions into the Korean digital content and mobile gaming industries.

Travelport, a travel industry tech company, is teaming up with IBM and travel management company BCD Travel to streamline the hotel commission process with blockchain technology.
Using a distributed ledger system, the partners aim to manage hotel bookings and commissions in a more efficient and unified process. It would enable simpler tracking and accounting for payments owed from hotel chains for services purchased by travelers via booking agencies.

tZERO, the global leader in blockchain innovation for capital markets, through its tZERO Crypto unit, announced today (Aug 20) its plans to offer to investors using both iOS and Android devices the ability to trade Ravencoin (RVN) on the tZERO Crypto App, in addition to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which are already supported by the App.

The SlowMist security team has captured a new way to attack the cryptocurrency industry. Attackers "hijack" some well-known crytpocurrency quote/navigator, replacing the main exchange websites with phishing websites. Many users often use these well-known portals to access exchanges' websites, but at this time these websites are fake.

A rag-tag team of Israeli entrepreneurs is looking to leverage Facebook's cryptocurrency project for profits, even without the $10 million required to join the Libra Association.
So far the newly established startup, Libracamp, has received more than 80 applications to participate in a virtual bootcamp for Libra developers starting in November. Libracamp co-founder Tomer Weiss told CoinDesk that Facebook's Calibra team is in touch with the new startup, but not officially sponsoring this program.

The chief defendant in an alleged $15 million initial coin offering (ICO) fraud case has submitted a formal reply to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
On Aug. 20, Reginald Middleton shared a copy of a memorandum of law against the agency's application for a preliminary injunction to continue a temporary asset freeze against him and affiliated entities.
As reported, the SEC's injunction implicated Middleton, together with the New York company Veritaseum Inc. and the Delaware-based company Veritaseum LLC.

Despite the cryptocurrency market recording all sorts of wild movements, XRP whales continued to carry out significant volume of transactions. Whale Alert, a popular cryptocurrency transaction tracker, shared the news of a significant fund transfer online. Whale Alert tweeted, "20,000,000 XRP [5,664,853 USD] transferred from unknown wallet to Binance."
The transaction took place in 10 drops between wallet address rs8ZPbYqgecRcDzQpJYAMhSxSi5htsjnza and Binance's wallet address rJb5KsHsDHF1YS5B5DU6QCkH5NsPaKQTcy, with a timestamp of 23:57:51 UTC on August 19.
Additionally, the hash for the transaction was 67725FA9880F7D7F391B5B58C3A411387D7C4C1FFB08EA02B6E9E9F9770AFAEF. This transaction was carried out over the Ripple blockchain for a transaction fee of 0.00001 XRP. The block height of the transaction was 49461801 and it was deemed a successful one.

Binance will list Cocos-BCX (COCOS) and open trading for COCOS/BNB, COCOS/BTC and COCOS/USDT trading pairs at 11:00 (UTC), Aug 21. Users can now start depositing COCOS in preparation for trading.

A division of Israel's Minister of Finance is looking to accelerate the procurement process for fintech and blockchain companies securing licenses in Israel, Calcalist reports.
The Capital Market, Insurance and Saving Authority division is dedicating industry teams, some of whom specialise in blockchain companies, to create local competition by increasing the number of licensed fintech companies across the country.
Around 2,000 fintech and blockchain companies are currently seeking licenses from the state regulator.

Bitcoin has created a rising wedge pattern on the 4-hour chart. A wedge breakdown, if confirmed, could yield a drop to levels below $10,000.
Bitcoin's recent recovery from $9,467 lacked high-volume support, so a rising wedge breakdown looks likely. The weekly chart is also flashing bearish signals.
A high-volume move above $11,000 would invalidate the bearish case and allow a rise to $11,500. A weekly close (Sunday, UTC) above $12,000 is needed for a full bullish revival.

As of 11:00 (UTC) on August 20, the global index of Bitcoin (BTC) price has decreased to the $10,600 level. Currently, it marks $10,680.27 with a decrease of 0.22% in the past 24 hours.
The CoinNess.com Bullish vs. Bearish Indicator shows our four-hour technical bias on BTC is "Buy" with five indicators sending out selling signals, four showing neutral signals, and nine indicating buying signals.
The broad market is trading downwards, with only 20 out of Top 100 cryptos by market cap rising.
The global market cap reads $276.46 billion, and the 24-hour trading volume is $49.18 billion.
Major Coins
1. BTC quotes show 10,639.26 USDT on Binance, $10,668.00 on Bitfinex, and $10,647.01 on Coinbase Pro;
2. CoinNess.com Market Index presents quotes for major cryptocurrencies besides BTC as following: ETH marks $197.44 (-1.63%); XRP marks $0.274 (-4.00%); BCH marks $318.35 (-1.14%); LTC marks $75.53 (-3.04%); EOS marks $3.64 (-2.93%); ETC marks $5.91 (+4.80%).
Top 3 Gainers and Losers in Cryptocurrencies
1. Top 3 gainers among Top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap: ETC (+4.80%), HEDG (+4.03%), and ICX (+3.78%);
2. Top 3 losers among Top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap: EGT (-18.63%), HC (-15.11%), and ALGO (-8.31%).
Top 3 Gainers and Losers in Categories
1. Top 3 gainers among 24 categories: Artificial Intelligence (+6.32%), Content Copyright (+2.79%), and Authentication (+1.49%);
2. Top 3 losers among 24 categories: Cross Chain Technology (-11.87%), E-Commerce (-7.12%), and Data Service (-6.67%).
Cap Flows of Coins/Exchanges
1. Top 3 capital inflows within the last 24 hours: DASH (+$634.90 mln), BTC (+$367.05 mln), and XMR (+$184.20 mln);
2. Top 3 capital outflows within the last 24 hours: XRP (-$31.46 mln), BNB (-$31.30 mln), and TUSD (-$24.54 mln);
3. Net inflows/outflows of exchanges: Binance (-$34.34 mln), Bitfinex (-$7.14 mln), and Coinbase Pro (-$1.11 mln).

LTC creator Charlie Lee joked on Twitter: "I have no proof of this, but I think the owner of @bitcoin must have had a romantic relationship with Roger Ver and recently broke up with Roger. That's the only thing that can explain why @bitcoin stopped supporting BCH."

Bitfinex (iFinex) and Tether are appealing yesterday's (Aug 19) decisions by the New York Supreme Court, according to a notice submitted later in the day.
The firms state in the document: "The trial court lacked personal jurisdiction because service was defective and because Petitioner failed to show that the Respondents engaged in purposeful activity toward New York. The trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the cryptocurrency that is the focus of Petitioner's investigation is neither a commodity or security, as required for jurisdiction under the Martin Act. The trial court incorrectly held that the Martin Act could be applied extraterritorially because the language of Gen. Bus. L. § 354 does not provide for extraterritorial reach. Respondents seek a reversal of the Decision and Order on Motion in its entirety."

Argo, a UK-based provider of enterprise scale cryptocurrency mining services (LSE: ARB), announces that it has entered into a new agreement that will increase its electricity supply by 357%.
Under the terms of the agreement with GPU.one, a leading Canadian data centre provider, the company's access to clean power supplies increases from 14 megawatts to 64 megawatts, on similar terms to its existing agreement, at its two data centres in Quebec and its new data centres in Eastern Canada.
The agreement covers a three-year period from June 25th, 2019, with an option to extend thereafter for an additional two years.