TL;DR: Welcome to In Case You Missed It (ICYMI), a daily crypto news update. CoinShares finds 65% of Bitcoin hashrate comes from China. BTC longs reach all-time highs on Bitfinex. Binance and Bitmain expand into Latin America. Robinhood launches cash management features, and Travala starts accepting GUSD for payments.



CoinShares Finds China Controls 65% of the Bitcoin Hashrate

Research from CoinShares, a digital asset management firm, concluded more than 65% of Bitcoin’s hashrate comes from China. To be even more precise, half of this mining activity happens in the province of Sichuan due to the cheap hydroelectric power tariffs. CoinShares, holding more than 600 million in digital assets, also alerted users to worries about centralization of mining activity and how a natural catastrophe or regional power problems can potentially impact the Bitcoin network.

BTC Longs Reach All Time Highs Even With Market Uncertainty

The speculative market has not halted even with the seemingly bearish outcome for BTC prices predicted by certain analysts. BTC longs on the exchange Bitfinex have gone through the roof, reaching all-time high numbers, beating those of late 2017. In the last two weeks, more than 15K BTC were added to long positions already present in the platform, having reached 40K BTC total, betting the price will go up eventually.

Binance Launches Fiat Gateway in Latin America

Binance will launch a new fiat gateway for Latin American countries. The platform, called Latamex, will partner with Settle Network to allow purchases of cryptocurrency paid directly with fiat. Two countries will enjoy this service first, Argentina and Brazil, with more countries to be added later. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, explained, “There is a strong need for cryptocurrency in Latin America, especially for financial access. Building fiat gateways is what we need now to grow the ecosystem.”

Robinhood Launches Cash Management and Fractional Share Trading

Robinhood, the famous zero-fee trading app, launched two new features on its platform. Cash management will allow traders to put uninvested money in a brokerage account to gain a yearly interest of 1.80% or to be spent using a debit card. This account will be insured by the FDIC up to $1.25 million, and the funds will be managed by a partner bank. The other feature, fractional share trading, will let users invest in a fraction of a share, starting with just one dollar.

Travala Adopts Gemini Dollar as First Accepted Stablecoin

Travala, a crypto-related booking site, announced they included GUSD, stablecoin of the Gemini exchange, as a valid payment currency. The Gemini Dollar is a regulated and audited cryptocurrency, and ensures its parity with the US dollar in each audit. This is the first stablecoin listed as a payment method on the platform, hoping to help with price volatility.

Bitmain Starts Distribution Expansion to Latin America

Bitmain, the cryptocurrency mining giant, is expanding operations to Latin American countries, choosing two direct distribution partners for the region. Bit5ive, a mining company based in Miami, will be the chosen startup to distribute Antminers for most of the South American region, and Fastblock, a mining consultancy firm, will be the official distributor for Brazil. “South America continues to be an important region for the cryptocurrency mining sector,” insisted Irene Gao, Antminer Sales Director.

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