The State of the Market: Today, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization spiked $20 billion in just minutes — from $270 to just over $290 billion — earlier today. Likewise, Bitcoin (BTC) has experienced a shocking 10.59% surge in a matter of hours — climbing north of $7,300 for the first time in over a month. The exact reason for the precipitous rise is still unknown, but the jump is undeniably a positive sign for BTC bulls.

1) To promote the industry, IBM has now partnered with Columbia University to create a Blockchain Research Center located in the Manhattan Campus, New York. A dedicated committee will be formed later this year with representation from both Columbia University and IBM for curriculum development. Additionally, the Center will offer advice to startups on regulations and provide blockchain internships (read more).

2) IBM has collaborated with Stronghold to create USD Anchor; a digital currency pegged to the US dollar. The stablecoin, which uses its consensus tool to verify transactions, is backed by the Stellar blockchain network. According to Jesse Lund of IBM, the two firms are working together to tokenise fiat currencies in a bid to ensure faster and seamless transactions. Anchor is backed by the US dollars deposited with Prime Trust, a Nevada-charted trust firm. At the moment, Anchor is only available to institutional clients (read more).

3) Augur, an Ethereum DApps which enables users to predict and bet on real-world events by use of Ethereum has had a transaction volume of $1.65 million on its platform in the last one week, according to DappRadar data. Augur, which was launched last week has transacted 1777 ETH in the past 24 hours. A spike in interest of Augur saw it being listed among the top Ethereum DApps (read more).

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