TL;DR: Welcome to In Case You Missed It (ICYMI), a daily crypto news update. Bank of England announces emergency interest rate cuts. Tether funds used for investments, according to their CTO. Fed injects more liquidity into the banking system. Bitcoin Cash City Conference tickets already available. Kraken launches FX trading, and Wrapped Bitcoin holds more funds than Lightning Network.

Bank of England Announces Interest Rates Cuts

The Bank of England, the institution that runs the economic and monetary policies of the UK, announced an emergency cut in interest rates just like the Federal Reserve did last week. The Bank of England decided to cut a half percentage point as an answer to the upcoming economic crisis derived from the coronavirus outbreak.

Tether Money Used for “Investments”

Paolo Ardoino, CTO of crypto exchange Bitfinex, revealed the ways in which their partner company, Tether, maintains profitability. In an interview with Decrypt, Ardoino stated Tether is a “huge money driver,” explaining its revenue comes from cash being put in “safe investments like treasuries.” Tether and Bitfinex are being sued by the NY Attorney General for covering losses suffered while giving more than 800 million to a third party. However, Ardoino said only a small amount of the funds are invested.

Fed Injects Billions in Liquidity to Banks

The Federal Reserve has injected more liquidity into banks, raising the amount of money provided to banks overnight to $175 billion from $150 billion set last Monday. The institution stated “these operations are intended to ensure that the supply of reserves remains ample and to mitigate the risk of money market pressures.” This is only one of the measures they are taking to try and stabilize market conditions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and according to CNBC more interest cuts are expected in short.

Bitcoin Cash City Conference Tickets on Sale

#CoinEx & @BitcoinCashCity together present you some benefits in this halving season! Benefit 1/2

Buy early bird ticket of Bitcoin Cash City Conference https://t.co/1bX7cdcEaC, grab a chance to win $3,000 toward travel! Detail: https://t.co/QezUlEobrI pic.twitter.com/F9hdXjj8CA — CoinEx (@coinexcom) March 11, 2020

The Bitcoin Cash City Conference, the first Bitcoin Cash themed conference held last year in North Queensland, Australia, has begun selling tickets for this year’s edition of the event. CoinEx partnered with them to reward early birds that buy tickets during this very early stage. To celebrate this new milestone for the Bitcoin Cash Community, CoinEx is offering prizes of up to $3,000 dollars. More information about the contest can be found here.

Kraken is Launching FX Trading

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is diversifying trading, and introduced fiat currency trading (FX trading) directly in their platform. According to a blog post, Kraken launched nine FX pairs, trading six different fiat currencies (CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, JPY, and USD). The minimum quantity of trading will be 10 units of each currency, an amount they declare is “substantially lower than many leading FX shops.” FX trading will be available globally, excluding the US.

Wrapped BTC Holds More Funds Than Lightning Network

👀 @WrappedBTC now has more BTC locked than ⚡ LN pic.twitter.com/dlCQj23ilz — DeFi Pulse 🍇 (@defipulse) March 10, 2020

Wrapped BTC, the Ethereum-based project that uses tokens to represent and transact BTC faster using the Ethereum blockchain, has more funds locked, according to information from DeFi Pulse, a decentralized finance index. The BTC second layer protocol expansion project still lacks adoption from big players in the market, and that’s reflected in the low volumes of trading. However, with the rise of DeFi protocols and decentralized exchanges, Wrapped Bitcoin is growing in volumes and importance.

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