Huobi Group has announced the expansion of its footprint in the MENA region, launching its white-label digital asset exchange services at its office in Dubai, UAE. Huobi is the latest firm to leverage the blockchain-friendly attitude of the UAE, where the government has committed to a strategic agenda for adopting the technology.

Two up-and-coming blockchain projects have partnered on blockchain scalability for businesses. The first is Elrond, a blockchain with a focus on fast value transfer. The second is Cere, a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that handles customer usage and activity data in addition to basic transactions.

The cryptocurrency markets are continuing a diversification trend whereby most altcoins are seeing moderate increases, with several strong outliers. Bitcoin has grown by $200 dollars in a sudden move, continuing to establish a descending triangle pattern on lower time frames.

There is a new exchange on the block, and it has some heavily pro-Bitcoin, anti-political ad supporters behind it. Jack Dorsey has simultaneously banned political ads from Twitter and invested in CoinList Trade.

Binance Launchpad pioneered the IEO, but it’s not the undisputed leader. Can high ROIs keep it on top?

Binance Launchpad is single-handedly responsible for popularizing Initial Exchange Offerings, or IEOs. This new type of crowdfunding has a lot of promise since it allows crypto startups to offload the challenges that come with token sales to exchanges. During IEOs, exchanges handle regulatory compliance, marketing, distribution, and other matters.

• Ethereum has a bullish short-term trading bias, but remains bearish over the medium-term
• The four-hour time frame shows that a bearish head and shoulders pattern has been invalidated
• The daily time frame shows bulls need to rally price towards the $240.00 level to ignite a large bullish pattern

Ethereum is consolidating above the $180.00 level after the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization pulled back from just below the $200.00 resistance level earlier this week.

While Hearthstone creator Blizzard has allegedly been busy selling its soul at the behest of Chinese market pressures, the blockchain-based Gods Unchained developer Immutable is busy selling out digital card packs instead.

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the world’s few (almost) trillion-dollar verticals, worth more than $900 billion annually, according to a recent report from the Business Research Company, and growing steadily. The market has been expanding by about 5 percent annually, driven by increased demand for medication among aging populations and in emerging economies.

The SEC has issued yet another ‘no action‘ letter. Was it Congressman Tom Emmers’ denunciation of the regulator, or was it simply a hat tip to the need to move forward to a more efficient future? Either way, the SEC has granted approval for equities trades to be settled using a Paxos-run blockchain.  

Travala.com has announced it has added Cardano (ADA) and Stellar (XLM) as accepted payment options for hotel bookings made on its website.