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And while Bitcoin has plunged by 15% on a seven-day period, dragging most of the cryptocurrency market along with it, some altcoins have survived the drop and massive price correction: Chainlink (LINK), Uniswap (UNI), and Polkadot (DOT) have recorded gains of 11%, 21%, and 20% over the same seven-day period.

Bitcoin investors tend to buy altcoins during bull runs, according to Coinbase data. Coinbase said "as people feel good about their initial crypto investments (into Bitcoin), they branch out to find other possible categorical winners".

Bitcoin is said to have increased in value by a large margin in the last seven days primarily due to the liquidation of around half a billion dollars worth of short contracts on exchanges like BitMEX.

"Enabling Blockchain Innovations with Pegged Sidechains" was viewed as a death blow for Altcoins. However, the type of sidechain outlined in the white paper has not materialized. Why not?

Tether is to stablecoins what Bitcoin is to altcoins, but whereas bitcoin's dominance stands at 62%, Tether is capturing 98% of all stablecoin volume, despite the numerous, and some say more trustworthy, alternatives.

Despite the knee-jerk reaction to Musk's Tweets, BTC's recent downturn appears to be part of a larger trend. Crypto markets tend to be cyclical and move from periods of BTC domination to periods where smaller-cap assets reign supreme. Based on the past few months of data, we appear to be in an altcoin cycle where smaller-cap coins outperform. This differs from the start of the year, where BTC led the way amongst most cryptoassets.

While trustless sidechains on Bitcoin may still be quite a few years away, there are other layer-two protocols, such as federated sidechains and the Lightning Network, that allow Bitcoin to gain the features of the most popular altcoins right now - albeit usually with security trade-offs. These additional protocol layers will likely become relatively trustless eventually, as advancements in cryptography are made over time.

TRON is a decentralized application platform and a blockchain-based operating system. The initial objective of this platform was to help resolve issues in the global entertainment sector. They later expanded the scope of their vision to tackle the whole DApps market.

"News that that the country is preparing a bill to regulate cryptocurrencies appears to have sparked a sell-off on exchanges popular with Indian investors. Altcoins including Shiba and Doge were at one point down more than 20% in trading on the WazirX platform, which bills itself as India's "most trusted" cryptocurrency exchange. The coins appeared far less affected on trading platforms such as Binance or Kraken. As of publishing time, Bitcoin was down almost 14% on WazirX but a mere 0.5% on Binance."

FDIC-insured banks don't hold digital assets. They hold US dollars. So this should read "collateralized 1-to-1 with US dollars held at US-domiciled, FDIC-insured banks." But even when corrected, this statement is so misleading it amounts to mis-selling. It implies that anyone who invests in this altcoin benefits from FDIC insurance. This is not the first time I have seen this claim made about cryptocurrency investments. It wasn't true last time, and it isn't now.

Analytics firm Coin Metrics has a new way to weed out fake data from crypto volume metrics. Only 13 crypto exchanges can be trusted to provide accurate volume figures, according to the firm's new Trusted Volume Framework. The framework more accurately measures trading volumes across crypto markets. Many exchanges, particularly those which list illiquid altcoins, have a reputation of falsifying volumes in a bid to attract traders. https://coinmetrics.io/introducing-coin-metrics-trusted-volume-framework/

"Cryptocurrency traders call it the "sandwich" maneuver, and nobody wants to be the turkey caught in the middle. Here's how it works: You spot another trader on the network trying to buy a token, such as Ether or another so-called altcoin. Then you place an order, too. If you are able to get your purchase done before the other trader, you'll get a good deal on a coin you know there's demand for. Your purchase pushes up the price the other buyer has to pay. Completing the sandwich, you sell for an easy profit."

"Algorand, a blockchain-based cryptocurrency platform with a native cryptocurrency called ALGO, is making waves as a new altcoin in the cryptocurrency market with its smart contract core architecture. This article explains why Algorand has generated interest for decentralized finance (DeFi) and decentralized apps (dApps) solutions."

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision suggested during its second consultation on the prudential treatment of crypto-asset exposures that banks limit their exposure to so-called Group 2 crypto assets to just 1% of their Tier 1 capital. Group 2 digital assets include major non-stablecoin, non-tokenized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and most altcoins. Therefore, banks would only be able to commit 1% of their total equity or net asset value in either long or short positions toward Group 2 digital assets. Moreover, the Basel Committee is considering banks adopting a 1,250% risk premium for Group 2 digital assets. In comparison, stocks typically have a 20% to 150% risk premium attached to their nominal values, depending on the company's credit rating. Under Basel III, a bank's risk-weighted assets must not surpass 10.5% of its Tier 1 capital for prudent leverage.

The Bahamas CBDC pilot is scheduled to be introduced in the remote Exuma district in 2020. The central bank is currently finalising the contractual onboarding of its chosen technology solutions provider, NZIA. Be cause the CBDC aims to complement and not replace existing banking services, the currency will not be interest-bearing. However, users may be able to invest in government securities via the CBDC wallet.

According to IBM, World Wire is the first blockchain network of its kind to integrate payment messaging, clearing and settlement on a single unified platform. Participants are also allowed to dynamically choose from a variety of digital assets for settlement. Currently, World Wire has enabled payment locations in 72 countries, with 48 currencies and 44 banking endpoints.

Markus Brunnermeier and Dirk Niepelt argue that concerns about central bank digital currency choking investment, cutting into banks' profits, or increasing the likelihood of bank runs are misplaced.

Sveriges Riksbank published positive feedback from 20 Swedish institutions and organizations on its 2nd e-krona report, including from the Finansinspektionen, the National Debt Office and the national tax agency. However, most entities called for a government inquiry; something the central bank has requested.

While industry executives generally agree Ethereum is not a security, the SEC chairman did not directly confirm it.

"MakerDAO token holders have again voted to increase fees charged to those taking out programmatic loans on the blockchain through its U.S. dollar-backed ethereum stablecoin DAI. The fourth and largest fee hike to the DAI "Stability Fee," users who take out loans with MakerDAO to generate new DAI will soon be required to pay a 7.5 percent fee when closing out the loan."