China is building smart cities on the blockchain

JD finance, the financial subsidiary of a Chinese e-commerce company, JD.com, offers financial services to individuals and businesses. The fintech arm of JD.com, that deals mainly in financing loans, asset management, payment solutions, and crowdfunding, has opened a smart city research institute in Nanjing. By using blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, and big data, JD.com aims to ease the construction of a smart city with its latest research institute established at its headquarters.

Pay for your starbucks with crypto

New website that let's you buy your coffee up to $10 at starbucks with cryptocurrency. Coffee 4 Crypto is the new website that allows for this ease of conversion.

Ripple Officially Launches xRapid

xRapid Now fully Available for Commercial Use as Announced by Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse at the Ripple Swell 2018 conference in San Francisco.

Garlinghouse also made known that three financial firms are already set to first utilize this crypto product, Mercury FX , Cuallix, and cooperative financial firm Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union.

xRapid is Ripple’s product that will allow financial institutions to easily send cross-border transactions instantly with very cheap fees when compared to other traditional ways of transaction formats.

This Integration is the first time XRP is fully going out to the global market for widespread commercial use by financial institutions and is a huge development that will definitely take the crypto sphere for massive adoption and Part of financial Mainstream

Investors are getting too optimistic about AMD's prospects

AMD's stock is significantly outperforming the market this year. Its shares are up 213 percent year to date through Wednesday versus the S&P 500's 9 percent gain. The company's stock is the top-performing name in the S&P 500 this year.

Celebs that love cryptocurrency

Ashton Kutcher

That ‘70s Show actor, Ashton Kutcher, is a keen technology investor. He owns his own venture capital firm, A-Grade Investments, which has financed companies like Uber, Spotify and Airbnb in recent years. His company has invested in BitPay, the payment processor that allows merchants to accept payments in Bitcoin. Kutcher is also big on blockchain tech and the benefits of decentralised currencies, about which he spoke in detail at the 2012 TechCrunch Disrupt NY.

Mel B

The former Spice Girl, Mel B, has partnered with London-based CloudHashing, to become one of the first artists to accept payments for music in Bitcoins. She believes that the use of digital currency lets her fans from across the world unite, using one currency.

Jamie Foxx

Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx has been involved in promoting the cryptocurrency exchange, COBINHOOD, which allows investors to trade cryptos with zero trading fees. While COBINHOOD’s ICO launch practices were regarded as somewhat controversial, celebrity involvement helps to crease a buzz around crypto trading and investing.

Nas

Rapper Nas has a flourishing career in the venture funding sector. His firm, QueensBridge Venture Partners, has invested in many companies, including the digital-wallet company, Coinbase.

Lionel Messi

Football star Lionel Messi is the global brand ambassador of Sirin Labs, the creator of a blockchain-based secure smartphone and PC. As a star with more than 90 million followers on his social media channels, Messi helped in spreading awareness about the benefits of blockchain.

Mike Tyson

Speaking of sport stars, boxing-legend Mike Tyson got into a partnership with Bitcoin Direct to introduce Bitcoin ATM, including a digital wallet for Android and iOS. He is a firm believer in the “Bitcoin Revolution” and the huge potential of the underlying technology.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Renowned actress Gwyneth Paltrow is also an entrepreneur. Bitcoin-based wallet start-up, Abra, pitched an idea to her during the shoot of one of her movies, which she liked immensely. Paltrow joined the project as an advisor.

Rapper Ghostface Killah

Famous rapper Ghostface Killah has invested in Cream Capital, which is involved in building the largest network of crypto ATMs in the world. The company offers tokens, called Cream Cash.

The Game

Hip-hop musician The Game joined the team at ParagonCoin in its 2017 ICO, which aimed to create a cannabis revolution on the blockchain.

Richard Sherman

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman had announced on Facebook that his online store would start accepting Bitcoin payments, since it is the “currency of the future.” Sherman wanted to support an increasing number of fans who wanted to pay through this medium.

Argentina & Peru

Peer-to-peer market crypto trading hits record high in Peru and Argentina: P2P cryptocurrency trading activity has witnessed record highs in recent times in Latin American countries of Peru and Argentina following a lowly performance back at the start of this month.

In the previous week, Argentinian Peso (ARS) and Peruvian Sol (PEN) both experienced record activities in trading pairs with Bitcoin (BTC). The fragile economic condition and global interest in cryptocurrencies are seen as the vital reasons behind this sudden increase.

Could this be the running of the Bull for crypto?

Fingers crossed and my eyes are glued to the charts.