Crypto Today: Bitcoin breakout imminent

Here's what you need to know on Wednesday

Markets

BTC/USD is currently trading at $8,650 (+0.40%) in the afternoon in U.S. hours, the range continues to tighten, ahead of next explosive breakout. 

ETH/USD is currently trading at $168.25 (+0.30%), there is a lack of committed direction for now following the big pump last week. 

XRP/USD is currently trading at $0.2360 (+1.30%), price action remains very much narrow. The range to the upside of $0.2500 to the downside $0.2300.

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, the best of the day are GNT $0.043133 (+28.95%), KMD $0.712816 (+15.49%) and SXP $1.72 (+11.27%) and The day's losers are BCN $0.000272 (-12.50%), CENNZ $0.55991 (-11.49%) and BCD $0.588775 (-4.30%).

Chart of the day: BCH/USD weekly chart (price action moving within a bullish pennant pattern)

Market

Vitalik Buterin believes that Ethereum Classic can be merged into Ethereum 2.0 in the same way as a new shard-like ETH’s current Proof of Work (PoW) chain will be integrated.

Blockchain payments processor BitPay has added support for XRP, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. XRP has been integrated on BitPay's platform via Ripple’s open developer platform, Xpring. 

Regulation

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has created a Blockchain Expert Policy Advisory Board (BEPAB) to make it easier for governments and other stakeholders to tap the benefits of distributed ledger technology (DLT). BEPAB is made up of several heavy hitters in the blockchain space, including IBM, R3, and ConsenSys.

Industry 

British telecom giant Vodafone has become the latest member to leave the Libra Association.

The original consortium of 28 members supporting Facebook’s ambitious digital currency project has only left with 20 participants.

Huobi Group has announced the launch of Huobi Brokerage, a digital asset brokerage platform, during the annual Davos forum. As the global blockchain company’s first brokerage solution, Huobi Brokerage will provide digital asset trading products and services to institutional clients and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs).

Binance has announced the launch of its Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Merchant Program. The P2P program will allow merchants to provide fiat currency payment solutions to people around the world and earn revenue, according to a blog post.

The Blockchain Association has filed an amicus curiae brief in response to litigation against Telegram initiated by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The Blockchain Association, a collective of advocates involved with the blockchain industry, filed an amicus curiae brief with the court of the Southern District of New York on Jan. 21.

According to a former executive from the Bank of Japan, who made a statement on Wednesday, major central banks started to set up study groups into crypto shortly after Facebook’s threat was made clear.

Quote of the day

The biggest barrier to Bitcoin adoption is the lack of understanding about what money is and how it works.

Jimmy Song