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What Moved Global Markets
– Coronavirus update: Coronavirus is now spreading much more rapidly outside China than within the country. Almost nine times as many cases had been reported in the past 24 hours beyond China than inside. The global death toll was up to 3,044. However, the World Health Organization said on Monday that the outbreak can still be contained.
– Finance ministers of the G7 group were expected to hold a conference call on Tuesday to discuss measures to deal with the economic impact. World stock markets regained some calm as hopes for global interest rate cuts to soften the economic blow steadied nerves after last week’s worst plunge since the 2008 financial crisis.
– Oil prices rose over 5% on Monday.
– Shares in Apple surged 6.9% on Monday. The bounce put Apple’s stock on track for its largest one-day gain since December 2018. Oppenheimer upgraded its rating on Apple to “outperform” from “perform”, saying the company was more prepared than its competitors to absorb the impact of the global health crisis. Apple’s stock tumbled over 16% from its record high on Feb.12 through Friday.
Crypto Prices (from CoinMarketCap)
Bitcoin: Up 2.90% to $8,844.58
Total trading volume (24h): $43.13+ billion USD
Ethereum: Up 3.92% to $228.40
Total trading volume (24h): $20.31+ billion USD
3 biggest movers 24 hours
Biggest Mover 1: StakeCubeCoin (SCC) is up 6,356.88% to $0.971427
Biggest Mover 2: Acute Angle Cloud (AAC) is up 328.92% to $0.027385
Biggest Mover 3: Sirin Labs Token (SRN) is up 151.1548.32% to $0.017309
Biggest Loser: SWYFT (SWYFTT) is down 34.41% to $0.417984
What moved Crypto Markets (i.e. digital assets)
– After suffering a double-digit price drop last week, Bitcoin was flashing green on Monday. The top cryptocurrency is currently trading over $8,740, representing a 1.9 percent gain on a 24-hour basis. Bitcoin has also hit a new all-time high in terms of hash rate, data suggests. According to various resources tracking hash rate growth on the Bitcoin network, the metric was circling its highest value ever.
– A blockchain specialist at “Big Four” consultancy firm PwC and founder of crypto analytics site Digiconomist, said that 98% of bitcoin mining machines will fail to produce a block of transactions during their average lifetime of 1.5 years. Around 4 million machines are currently active and nearly 75,000 blocks are produced every 1.5 years – meaning less than 2% machines are able to produce a block to verify bitcoin transactions, de Vries tweeted Monday. The remaining 98% of machines never produce any blocks, he contended.
– U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase is yet to receive an operating license in Japan, but appears to have moved one step closer to get one. The exchange has joined the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA), the country’s self-regulatory organization for crypto firms, as a second-class member. Second-class members are those businesses that are “applying for or planning to apply for virtual currency exchange registration.”
Other Specialties
Fintech: FinTech Alliance has partnered up with FinTech Scotland in a bid to strengthen the UK’s FinTech ecosystem. The companies state that the partnership will enable the members of the FinTech Scotland community to avail services from FinTech Alliance as part of the agreement. Founded in 2019 in partnership with the Department for International Trade (DIT), FinTech Alliance has been signed up by companies including Revolut, Thought Machine, OakNorth and CYBG.
Healthtech: Qure.ai Technologies, a Mumbai-based healthcare-technology startup, has raised $16 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital. Singapore-based MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia also participated in the round, the company said in a statement. Qure.ai, launched back in 2016, says it uses artificial intelligence developed on a database of more than seven million scans to provide fast and accurate interpretation of radiology scans, reducing time to treatment. The health-tech venture says it has a presence in about 20 countries.
AI: Microsoft and IBM have signed up to an AI ethics code promulgated by none other than his holiness, the Pope. The Rome Call for AI Ethics was unveiled on Friday, courtesy of the Vatican Academy for Life at the conclusion of a three-day conference on “The Good Algorithm”. Rather than attempting to hold back progress – the Vatican arguably learned its lesson with Galileo here – the document notes that “AI offers enormous potential when it comes to improving social coexistence and personal well-being, augmenting human capabilities and enabling or facilitating many tasks that can be carried out more efficiently and effectively.” And, they add, “In order for AI to act as a tool for the good of humanity and the planet, we must put the topic of protecting human rights in the digital era at the heart of public debate.” The document goes on to define six principles for ethical AI: transparency; inclusion; responsibility; impartiality; reliability; security and privacy.
Smart cities: Citizens in Vancouver can now see how the city is performing via a new online dashboard. VanDashboard measures performance against 65 key metrics in six categories of core service delivery, affordability and housing, climate change, economy and finances, equity and social issues and vibrant culture. In a separate announcement, the City of Vancouver is calling on residents and businesses to provide input on 19 proposed actions in its Climate Emergency Action plan.
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