Cryptocurrency News Update: BTC, ETH and XRP hibernate in tight ranges, little-known CELO goes ballistic

Here's what you need to know on Wednesday

Markets:

BTC/USD explored the area above $11,400 during early Asian hours and touched the intraday high of $11,486 before the retreat started. At the time of writing, BTC/USD is changing hands at $11,385; however, the coin is still mostly unchanged both on a day-to-day basis and since the beginning of Thursday. The short-term trend remains bullish, while the volatility is low.

At the time of writing, ETH/USD is changing hands at $385.00. The coin has been range-bound after a sharp move below $400.00 at the beginning of the week. Now it is moving within a short-term bearish trend amid expanding volatility.

XRP/USD has been locked in a tight range since the beginning of the week. At the time of writing, the coin is changing hands at $0.2745 and it has barely changed both on a day-to-day basis and since the beginning of the day. The short-term trend of XRP is bearish, while the volatility is expanding.

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies Celo (CELO) $4.10 (+42.5%), bZx Protocol (BZRX) $0.8159 (+31.9%), Flexacoin (FXC) $0.0088 (+17.5%) are the most successful.  The day's losers are The Midas Touch Gold (TMTG) $0.0220 (-16.6%), Kusama (KSM) $29.37 (13.7%), Reserve Rights (RSR) $0.0248 (-9.5%). 

Chart of the day:
BTC/USD, 30-min chart

Market

A little-known token CELO jumped to an all-time high after a major US-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase Pro, said it would add it to the list of tradable assets. CELO, a native token of blockchain platform Celo, gained over 55% in the recent 24 hours. At the time of writing it is is changing hands at $4.10.

Industry
 
Cardano has started paying out staking rewards after a major mainnet upgrade that now supports the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. Users received their first rewards on Sunday and they seem to be happy with what they got. Commenting on the news, one of the stakes wrote on Twitter. 

First Cardano staking rewards are in! This is now the norm every 5 days. Pretty much every stake pool made +-5.5% (that made a block).

The preliminary calculations implied that the annualized return for the stakers would amount to 4.6%. However, now the Cardano staking calculator shows a return of approximately 5.1%.

Mastercard Asia/Pacific plans to develop a billing system based on IOTA's Tange technology, according to the patent application recently filed by the company. The application named “Method and System for Device Micropayment Aggregation based on Tangle Network” describes a storage system that will allow a transparent and cost-efficient approach to billing. The company plans to use Tangle technology, though the cryptocurrency will not be used. 

Binance activated an isolated margin trading for Polkadot (DOT) and ProjectSerum (SRM). The new functionality will be available for the following trading pairs: DOT/BTC, DOT/USDT, DOT/BUSD, SRM/BTC, SRM/USDT, SRM/BUSD. Also, the exchange announced that users may borrow DOT and SRM with zero-interest during the promotion campaign from 2020/08/27 6:00 AM (UTC) to 2020/09/03 05:59 AM (UTC).

 Regulation
 
The Central bank of Brazil has arranged a dedicated task group to explore the cryptocurrency technology and access the viability of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). According to the recently published statement, the team of 12 members will evaluate the risks and benefits and decide whether CBDC can be used within the national payments ecosystem.

The subject of digital currencies addressed by central banks has been on the research agenda of many central banks for some time. However, this year, there was a greater focus on a more practical approach, Rafael Sarres de Almeida, from the Information Technology Department, said in the statement.