USA

The digital currency markets have been collapsing in terms of pricing restraints since the bubble of December 2017. The bear market is currently being in full vacillation, with the crypto ecosystem in awful need for some great news. Nevertheless, there might be a better situation after the long hardship experienced, with Robert J. Jackson Jr. -  the Commissioner US Securities & Exchange Commission, revealing that he is optimistic the Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) is “potentially inevitable.”

The CEO & Co-founder of Twitter and Square, Jack Dorsey, has predicted Bitcoin will become the native currency for the internet regardless of the monumental losses in its trading value. While on The Joe Rogan Experience, a podcast which attracts over 4.5 million subscribers on YouTube, the US entrepreneur made his bold prediction.

While new digital currency derivatives product such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and physically delivered futures are in a precarious situation with an unclear future in the United States, one big United Kingdom store has begun trading a new major financial product that is tied to digital assets.

The Token Taxonomy Act (TTA) is currently regarded as the heftiest pro-crypto bill of all the bills that have hitherto been debated. This is due to the fact that the bill will once again provide US citizens with the exemption to maximumly engage in digital currency markets by giving cryptos legal classifications.

It has been officially reported that the Japanese Yen (JPY) overtook the US dollar in the race for first place in Bitcoin trading volumes. The Yen has over 49% of the total Bitcoin trading volume in the world.

An updated ranking of nations by the largest number of nodes accessible was recently done by Bitnodes – a popular site covering nodes of the Bitcoin (BTC) network. At press time, there are more than 10,000 reachable nodes relatively spread across the entire globe. Nodes exist in two types, namely: accessible (reachable) and non-accessible (non-reachable).

Iran - a theocratic Islamic republic in the Middle East, is expected to declare a state-backed crypto at the yearly Electronic Banking & Payment Systems (EBPS) conference that will begin on Tuesday, January 29.

The Pennsylvania (PA) Dept. of Banking & Securities (DoBS) released guidelines on January 23, 2019, for cryptocurrency businesses operating within the state. The DoBS has decided a money transmission license for digital currency activities is not requisite.

Venezuela officially launched a complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, arguing that the current United States (U.S) sanctions on the nation violate a series of WTO rules and regulations.