Venture investor and well-known cryptocurrency enthusiast Tim Draper said that you should not succumb to despondency, because cryptocurrency has a great future - in five years digital assets can force out fiat currencies.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun the process of reviewing an application for a change in the rule that will allow listing Bitcoin ETF proposed by Bitwise Asset Management and the NYSE Arca exchange.

The proposal itself was published in the Federal Register on February 15, which leaves authorized personnel 45 days to make an initial decision on approval, rejection or further extension of the time frame for consideration of the application. The SEC has a total of no more than 240 days to make a final decision on whether to approve or reject the proposal.

The head of BK Capital Management and the popular cryptocurrency expert Brian Kelly expressed the opinion that Bitcoin is undervalued by 50%.

According to Kelly, the year 2019 will become more successful for cryptocurrency than 2018. However, before the courses go up, the price of the first cryptocurrency may drop to the level of $ 1.5 thousand. He noted that the market has repeatedly dropped to similar values.

Michael Novogratz, a well-known cryptocurrency enthusiast and founder of the Galaxy Digital investment bank, believes that large institutional investors will start investing in the cryptocurrency industry next year.

CFO and co-founder of Blocktower Capital investment company Ari Paul said that although people say that blockchain is not Bitcoin, he believes that the real turning point will come when people realize that Bitcoin is more than blockchain, and it can create a new wave of using cryptocurrencies in real life.

"Bitcoin blockchain is first generation technology with limited throughput and features.

BTC can be used on other protocols and networks. The Lightning Network is a layer 2 protocol that allows for numerous fast and cheap BTC transfers that settle to and are secured by the Bitcoin network. People may also use sidechains, drivechains, and other L2 or L3 solutions.

Dan Morehead, the founder and head of Pantera Capital, an American investment company, stressed that he no longer worries about the future of the blockchain technology, as he did during the fall of the market in 2014 and 2015.

"I think the underlying fundamentals are much much stronger than they were in the 2014-15 crypto winter," Morehead expressed his opinion in an interview with former Forbes editor Laura Shin.

The popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance is trying to enable every inhabitant of the planet to buy new rapidly developing assets. The first such initiative — the launch of a crypto-fiat unit in Uganda last October — was not particularly successful and raised a number of questions, but the second was much more convincing.

This week, Binance introduced a new trading platform on the island of Jersey, through which residents of the European island will be able to buy Bitcoins for euros and pounds. The new site based on the infrastructure of Binance, but framed as a separate company.

BitPay, one of the largest payment blockchain providers in the world, announced a new record reached in 2018. The company processed payments in the amount of more than $ 1 billion and again showed record income.

In addition, Dish Networks, HackerOne, and the Ohio State Government have joined the payment network. The B2B division showed record numbers and grew by 255%, as many law firms, data centers and manufacturers in the IT industry connected to bitcoin reception.

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume, launched a new exchange on the island of Jersey, a British self-governing dependency. On Wednesday, the company announced that thanks to the new exchange, users will be able to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum against the British pound and euro in Europe and the UK.

"Binance selected Jersey for its highly developed digital infrastructure, robust regulatory framework, and world-class financial services sector," said Wei Zhou, chief financial officer of the exchange.

Serbian startup accelerator Decenter reported that the Google Ads contextual advertising service blocked all advertisements containing the word "Ethereum".

Such blocking began on January 8, 2019. According to Decenter, only ads with the word "Ethereum" got under the blocking; all other words from the field of cryptocurrencies, including "Bitcoin", "ICO" and "EOS", were not blocked. At the same time, an advertisement with the word "Ethereum" is blocked with the wording "This advertiser has not been approved to place an advertisement in your location."