Prices of digital coins Ethereum and XRP surged on Mon. (Nov. 23), riding the wave of bitcoin’s recent shooting price.
Traders credit Ethereum’s rise to growing demand and a network upgrade expected in early December.
The upgrade will reportedly make the coin more secure and quicker, meaning “more people and businesses can use ethereum for economic activity, rather than just financial trading,” Ross Middleton, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange DeversiFi, told Reuters.
XRP rose to its highest price in over two years, according to Reuters, which did not pinpoint a catalyst for the rise.
Bitcoin rose above $18,000 last week for the first time since Dec. 2017
“Bitcoin skyrocketed, profits were taken, profits went back into altcoins,” which are more volatile than bitcoin, Joseph Edwards, head of research at crypto brokerage Enigma Securities, told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Ripple, which uses XRP as its native digital currency, recently published a job posting for a “senior director of central bank engagements,” according to Cointelegraph.
Ripple is looking to educate global central bankers on CBDCs and build working relationships and projects with central banks, reported Cointelegraph. This role will use XRP Ledger, a real-time gross settlement system, to support central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiatives.
In China, the city of Suzhou will hold a lottery for the digital yuan on Double 12 Day, the shopping festival that takes place on Dec. 12, CoinDesk reported, citing The Paper.
This will be the digital yuan’s second lottery, following one held in Shenzhen in October which gave away $1.5 million in the digital currency. 50,000 winners were selected, but the lottery attracted almost 2 million applicants.
Additional features of the digital yuan will be tested at the Suzhou event, such as the ability of users to transfer money offline by touching smart devices.
In preparation, many businesses in the city have installed near-field communication (NFC) tech and QR code capabilities to their point-of-sale systems, reported CoinDesk.
Meanwhile, Pickle Finance was compromised after a unknown user took advantage of a bug in the Pickle Swap Jar, removing almost $20 million, reported NewsBTC.
The news has sparked a mass movement to sell the cryptocurrency PICKLE, and has sent its price spiraling downward.
