The most widely used messaging application in Japan with more than 80 million users is now waiting to receive approval from Japan's Financial Services Agency as early as June - and launch a crypto exchange. As Bloomberg reported, Line Messenger launched a crypto exchange called "BITBOX" in Singapore last year but now plans to do the same in Japan. BitMax, which is Line's new crypto exchange that awaits approval from local financial authorities, is in the news of many best cryptocurrency news sites. BITBOX has disallowed Japanese users from trading on it since the launch. A lot of big financial institutions in the world as well as technology conglomerates and corporations have introduced their plans to enter the crypto market. Line Messenger is one of them, following the steps of Facebook with its Libra Association (which is actually a partnership with Visa, Mastercard, Uber, Lyft and Booking Holdings) as a project that will be backed by a reserve of real assets such as reserve currencies. The altcoin news now show that the planned launch of BitMax by Line Messenger presents a new narrative - this time from a large-scale conglomerate to facilitate the growth of the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector. The CEO of Line Messenger, Takeshi Idezawa, spoke during the launch of BITBOX and said:

"LINE has built its reputation on providing a great social experience for our users, and now we intend to bring that know-how to the world of digital tokens with our BITBOX exchange. With BITBOX, we intend to have an exchange that is easier to use, while also ensuring we provide extremely strong levels of security."

As he also mentioned, BitMax will use the exact same technology that is used in BITBOX. His statement made the latest cryptocurrency news now that Line is expected to obtain a license and operate BitMax in Japan in the near term. The launch of a crypto exchange by Line Messenger, which is a major tech giant in Japan, definitely restores a lot of confidence - especially by local investors and users following the high profile security breaches and the names associated with them (Coincheck and Zaif). Native exchanges may definitely be the future of a new crypto revolution - and Line Messenger could definitely be pioneering it.

The year-to-date gains for Bitcoin (BTC) as the most dominant cryptocurrency out there are on the rise, the latest cryptocurrency news show. In fact, the Bitcoin YTD gains are now at more than 151% against the US dollar at $9,300, surpassing a lot of assets and stock indices such as Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 with ease in its six-month performance. With the block reward halving of Bitcoin which is on the horizon soon - as well as the inflow of institutional capital that is still on the rise - the sentiment around the Bitcoin YTD gains and the overall crypto market remains positive. Libra, which is the cryptocurrency asset developed by the Libra Association (a consortium based in Switzerland) founded by major conglomerates such as Facebook, Visa, Mastercard, Lyft, Uber, Booking Holdings and more, all dominating the headlines in the financial sector over the past two days. A lot of analysts are in the altcoin news for suggesting that the release of Libra, which is planned for 2020, may lead to a decline in demand for existing crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ether, which is the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum. Still, industry executives and traders believe that the Bitcoin YTD gains could extend mainly because of Libra and its catalyst to boost mainstream interest towards the asset class. The CEO of DCG, Barry Silbert, recently noted:

“The launch of Facebook’s cryptocurrency will go down in history as the catalyst that propelled digital assets (including bitcoin) to mass global consumer adoption. Will be remembered as just as important — and transformative — as the launch of the Netscape browser. Buckle up.”

Another crypto trader and real estate developer known as Satoshi Flipper noted that Libra will not replace Bitcoin nor compete against it in the same market.

"Once Libra goes live, nobody outside of the Facebook platform will care much for it. It’s another stable coin and it’s not replacing BTC. It will work in a centralized ecosystem. But it will bring awareness to BTC and altcoins. And I’m excited about the network effect it will have," he said.

One of the Winklevoss twins, Tyler Winklevoss, has also predicted a Bitcoin YTD gains, stating the possibility for Bitcoin to break through even more in the near future. https://twitter.com/tylerwinklevoss/status/1141387824379441152 His statement went viral on many best cryptocurrency news sites.

The owner of the now defunct cryptocurrency exchange from Canada, QuadrigaCX, was allegedly transferring user funds outside of the exchange and using them as security for his own margin trading on other platforms. The latest cryptocurrency news show that the QuadrigaCX co-founder was reported in the fifth report on a court monitor from Ernst & Young (EY) filed on June 19 with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Meanwhile, EY has outlined its principal concerns in relation to the exchange. They noted that its operations were “significantly flawed from a financial reporting and operational control perspective.” In addition to this, many best cryptocurrency news sites reported that the activities were directed by a single individual which is the now deceased QuadrigaCX co-founder Gerald Cotton. EY noted that there was neither segregation between duties and basic internal controls - nor any segregation of assets between QuadrigaCX's and other user funds. EY also added that Quadriga did not have any visibility regarding its profits or profitability in general. As the report cites, user crypto was not exclusively maintained in the exchange's wallets.

“Significant volumes of Cryptocurrency were transferred off Platform outside Quadriga to competitor exchanges into personal accounts controlled by Mr. Cotten. It appears that User Cryptocurrency was traded on these exchanges and in some circumstances used as security for a margin trading account established by Mr. Cotten.”

In addition to this, the coming altcoin news show that QuadrigaCX co-founder Cotton apparently created fake "identified" accounts on the exchange under multiple aliases “into which unsupported Deposits were deposited and used to trade within the platform.” This, as EY noted, led to “inflated revenue figures, artificial trades with Users and ultimately the withdrawal of Cryptocurrency deposited by Users.” In his trading on the competitor exchanges, EY noted that the QuadrigaCX co-founder incurred trading losses and incremental fees that affected Quadriga's cryptocurrency reserves. The report also cites EY saying that it has been unable to confirm the identity of wallet holders to which substantial sums of crypto were transferred. As of the filing date, around 76,000 users are owed a combination of fiat and crypto by Quadriga, at an aggregate value of around $214.6 Canadian dollars (equivalent to $162.2 million in USD).

Analysts believe that the number one cryptocurrency will reach up to $64K by the end of 2019 according to technical indicators. Let’s check out the latest altcoin news and read more about the analysis. There are quite a few analysts who believe that bitcoin and its meteoric rise isn’t over yet. According to Galaxy, as one of the popular bitcoin bulls, there are some technical patterns to sustain the price rally. The Bitcoin analyst Robert Sluymer of Fundstrat Global Advisors also stated previously that the investors should load up the digital currency on the basis of improving technicals. Fundstrat’s co-founder Thomas Lee on the other hand, is extremely bullish about the future of the number one cryptocurrency. He says that the bitcoin price will surge up to 200% or 400% once its breaks past the FOMO phase level of $10,000. It might be a good idea to forget about the past and to believe that the digital asset will hit a new record high in a matter of weeks. There is however a decent evidence that suggests that this is possible according to what analysts believe. Bitcoin fundamentals are very positive thanks to the several latest developments with the last one being the launch of the social media giant Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra. The market watchers believe that Libra will further fuel the global bitcoin adoption. The CEO of Digital Currency Group Barry Silbert, believes that Libra will be a perfect catalyst for bitcoin and its mass adoption. Hedge funds are piling into the cryptocurrency which shows that the institutional investors are piling in thanks to the newly found status as a safe-investment asset. Greyscale, the investment company as previously reported in the latest cryptocurrency news, revealed that during Q1 in 2019, the inflow from hedge funds jumped to $24 million from the previous $1 million in the previous quarter. The combination of the increased demand and the technical trends in favour of the price of bitcoin could push the price for the asset to hit new highs in the coming months and by the end of 2019 the price could even reach $62,000. At least, Galaxy believes that Bitcoin will manage to reach this price level but we should wait patiently and see.