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Börse Stuttgart has listed two crypto exchange-traded notes based on XRP and litecoin and traded against the Swedish krona and euro.

Estonia-based Bibox exchange is to launch bitcoin cash (BCH) and litecoin (LTC) perpetual trading contracts on April 12, with leverage of up to 50x. Priced in tether (USDT) the cryptocurrency derivatives are targeted at both institutional and retail investors.

"One of the strongest emerging narratives in crypto is the sudden rise of cryptocurrency lending platforms. Multiple new platforms have launched and the demand for their services is growing. What is crypto lending and who are the major players?"

The price of Bitcoin tumbled by 11% to about $7,000 after a $35 million sell order on London-based exchange Bitstamp triggered a rash of liquidations by other investors. Other digital currencies like Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP and Bitcoin Cash fell in sync.

Flare Networks has announced that it will integrate Stellar Lumens (XLM) with its smart contract platform, thereby offering compatibility with the Ethereum blockchain. Users will be able to create XLM-backed tokens and use those tokens with Ethereum-based DeFi projects. While Stellar already supports native smart contracts, its own contracts are not compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Flare Networks has previously announced integration with XRP (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), and Dogecoin (DOGE).

PayPal launched Checkout with Crypto that US PayPal customers with certain crypto-assets (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum or Bitcoin Cash) will be able to choose to check out with crypto seamlessly within PayPal at millions of global online businesses. Customers pay no transaction fees but a spread will be built into the conversion from crypto to USD. There are no additional integrations or fees required by the business. All transactions are settled in USD and converted to the applicable currency for the business at the standard PayPal conversion rates.

"What if the costs of cryptocurrencies weren't so opaque? Say that each Dogecoin owner had to pay miners a minute-by-minute fee out of their own pocket. True anti-centralization connoisseurs would happily pay up. But mainstream users, confronted for the first time with a transparent price for distributed ledger services, would panic and quickly exit their Dogecoin positions. The same goes for Litecoin and Bitcoin."

Grayscale accumulated 16,244 Bitcoin worth more than $600 million on January 18, 18 times more than miners added to the supply that day. According to Bybt.com data, Grayscale's total crypto assets under management exceeds $27 billion when Bitcoin crossed $37,000. In Q4 2020 institutional investors accounted for 93% of capital inflows, or $3.0 billion. Grayscale is also slowly accumulating other digital assets including Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.

Grayscale continues with its massive Bitcoin (BTC) purchaing program. So far this week they have purchased 25,000 BTC which is nearly 7x of the amount of BTC mined this week and brings its total portfolio to 641,520 BTC, representing more than 3.4% of BTCs's circulating supply. Meanwhile, the premium on Grayscale Bitcoin Trust has come down from the December 22 high of 40.2% to 6.3% more recently. However, Grayscale hasn't bought any Ethereum since December 9 but continues to add some Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Stellar, Horizon and eZEC.

Crypto exchange OKEx is planning to launch Tether-based futures trading, offering a linear futures contract with leverage of up to 100x. The contract will have daily settlement and offers supported pairs with Bitcoin, EOS, Ether, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, XRP, Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin SV and Tron.

Yahoo Japan's trading platform Taotao is open offering BTC and ETH trading while also providing users with margin trading available in litecoin (LTC), ripple (XRP) and bitcoin cash (BCH).

The price of bitcoin briefly fell below $30,000 from nearly $34,000 within a couple of hours this morning (ET), as about $1.1 billion worth of open interest was liquidated by crypto exchanges, according to tracker Bybt.com. Most of it occurred on Binance, followed by Huobi and OKEx, with bitcoin positions forming most of the liquidations, followed by ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC).

The price of bitcoin briefly fell below $30,000 from nearly $34,000 within a couple of hours this morning (ET), as about $1.1 billion worth of open interest was liquidated by crypto exchanges, according to tracker Bybt.com. Most of it occurred on Binance, followed by Huobi and OKEx, with bitcoin positions forming most of the liquidations, followed by ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC).

According to analysis by crypto fund Pantera Capital, the recent crypto-asset rally has likely been driven by an influx of retail investors buying Bitcoin. The main trigger is the October launch of PayPal's new service that enables customers to buy, sell, and hold crypto-assets directly from their PayPal accounts. According to Pantera's projections, PayPal users alone may soon acquire more Bitcoin than there are being mined. Square launched similar capabilities in its cash app in June 2019, but it only gives access to Bitcoin, whereas PayPal's offering supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has granted the first "conditional BitLicense" to PayPal for a partnership with Paxos Trust Company enabling customers to buy and sell crypto-assets. Now New York State-chartered Paxos will be able to provide trading and custodial services to PayPal to allow the latter's 325-plus million customers to buy, sell, and hold crypto-assets. Four NYDFS-approved digital assets will be initially available: bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether and litecoin. https://www.dfs.ny.gov/reports_and_publications/press_releases/pr202010211

Trading in Bitwise Asset Management's 10 Crypto Index Fund is live. It tracks the 10 largest crypto-assets and allows investors to buy shares that represent them. It is billed as the first publicly traded crypto index fund in the United States. The Fund debuted with $120 million in assets under management. 75% of the assets are Bitcoin, 13% in Ether and the remaining 12% split between XRP, Litecoin, Chainlink, Tezos, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, and EOS.

PayPal announced plans to enable British customers buy, hold, and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, starting this week. By accessing their PayPal account via the website or the mobile app, they can view real-time crypto prices, access educational content to help answer commonly asked questions, and learn more about cryptocurrencies, including the opportunities and risks.

Stock and cryptocurrency trading app Robinhood is making plans to add the Bitcoin Lightning Network to its platform for speedier Bitcoin transactions. It also shared that eligible users from its beta crypto waitlist can now send and receive crypto through its crypto wallet feature. Robinhood currently offers trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV, with adding crypto deposits and withdrawals being the next natural step the company is taking into crypto.

Last year, Bitcoin's use at merchants that use BitPay dropped to about 65% of processed payments, down from 92% in 2020. Ether purchases accounted for 15% of the total, stablecoins were 13% and new coins added to BitPay in 2021 -- Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and Litecoin -- accounted for 3%. The alternative coins' use surged partly as more businesses have begun using stablecoins for cross-border payments. Also many investors may also have chosen to hold onto Bitcoin instead of spending it.