NexChangeNOW Daily Briefing – Wednesday March 25, 2020

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    What Moved Global Markets
    Coronavirus update:
    – Global cases cross 377,000
    – Global deaths: At least 16,000

    1. In Geneva, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said infections in the United States had greatly increased. Over the previous 24 hours, 85 percent of new cases were in Europe and the United States, and of those, 40 percent were in the United States. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday the government would impose a nationwide lockdown from midnight for 21 days. 
    2. Health researchers have warned that more than a million people in India could be infected with the coronavirus by mid-May, prompting the government to shut down all air and train travel, businesses and schools.
    3. Of the top 10 countries by case numbers, Italy has reported the highest fatality rate, at around 10%, which at least partly reflects its older population. The fatality rate globally – the ratio of deaths to confirmed infections – is around 4.3%.
    4. Olympic Games would be rescheduled for the summer of 2021 at the latest – as proof of victory over the coronavirus. It was the first time in the Olympics’ 124-year history that they had been postponed, though they were cancelled outright three times during the two 20th-century world wars.
    5. Wall Street bounced from three-year lows and the Dow jumped more than 1,500 points as investors pin their hopes on the U.S. Senate passing a $2 trillion stimulus bill.

    Crypto Prices (from CoinMarketCap)
    Bitcoin: Up 1.20% to $6,579.59
    Total trading volume (24h): $45.77+ billion USD

    Ethereum: Up 1.54% to $136.67
    Total trading volume (24h): $14.32+ billion USD

    3 biggest movers 24 hours
    Biggest Mover 1: Custody Token (CUST) is up 159.38% to $0.002968
    Biggest Mover 2: Eureka Coin (ERK) is up 113.74% to $0.012686
    Biggest Loser: Bitball Treasure (BTRS) is down 52.25% to $119.08

    What Moved Crypto Markets (i.e. digital assets)

    1. Bitcoin (BTC) is up 7 percent as of 20:30 UTC. Over the past 24 hours it has been trading in a $5,600-$6,600 range coming out of a quiet weekend for the crypto market. Crypto asset performances to note on the day include bitcoin cash (BCH) up 13 percent, litecoin (LTC) in the green 7 percent and bitcoin SV (BSV) up 6 percent.
    2. Blockchain-based Internet browser Brave has partnered with Binance to let users trade cryptocurrencies on its new tab page. Brave is an open-source web browser based on Chromium. It blocks website trackers and malware and utilizes the blockchain technology to anonymously keep track of user activities. The firm has its own platform token, the Basic Attention Token (BAT), and built a cryptocurrency wallet for ETH. In a Tuesday announcement, the firm announced that it has integrated the Binance widget in the new tab page to grant users direct access to Binance and Binance.US’ sites.
    3. The People’s Bank of China is said to have moved one step closer to issuing digital yuan. A Global Times report on Tuesday, citing “industry insiders,” said the central bank appears to have completed the development of digital currency’s basic function. The PBoC is now reportedly drafting relevant laws to circulate its digital currency.

    Other Specialties
    Fintech: London-based fintech unicorn Revolut has officially launched the U.S. Revolut. It is said that U.S. users will now be able to send, receive, spend and manage money from a single app. Users will also be able to get their salary up to two days in advance via direct deposit at no cost, said Revolut. Those deposits are insured for up to $250,000 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
    Healthtech: Companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and WhatsApp are providing users with prompts and tools for authentic information about the virus. While Instagram and WhatsApp have already rolled out similar tools, Facebook is now opening up the Messenger to governments and medical agencies. As per Facebook’s announcement on Messenger News, government health organizations and UN health agencies will be provided with free developer tools to allow them to use Messenger to scale their response to the COVID-19 crisis. Facebook is also allowing government health organizations and UN health agencies to proactively send important updates related to COVID-19 to people already messaging them.
    AI: Researchers have used artificial intelligence (AI) to detect Vietnam War-era bomb craters in Cambodia from satellite images – with the hope that it can help find unexploded bombs in near future. The new method increased true bomb crater detection by more than 160 percent over standard methods, they said. The model, combined with declassified US military records, suggests that 44 to 50 percent of the bombs in the area studied may remain unexploded.
    Smart cities: Toyota Motor and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone have decided to sign a capital and business tie-up deal, Nikkei learned Tuesday. The companies, which will spend a total of some 200 billion yen ($1.81 billion), will bring together their respective technologies for a project to build a smart city to start in 2021 on a former Toyota plant site. Toyota aims to speed up the development of next-generation vehicles using the 5G, or next-generation telecommunication standard.

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