As per recent news from the Dutch media group, Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS), the Dutch Ministry of Finance has received an official confirmation to set up a licensing system which would create transparency as far as the digital asset trading and crypto-based services are concerned.

Pete Hoekstra who is the Netherlands’ Minister of Finance has asked for a special report on the various operations of crypto markets and several trading platforms which are currently in use from the Netherlands’ Authority for the Financial Markets and De Nederlandsche Bank which is the local central bank of Netherlands

The minister in a press meet claimed that he has already planned his operation by the outcome of the report and have taken it up seriously. As per the report, the down surge in crypto space speculations has made to take up investor’s protection action lightly in the recent times. The consequence on the aftermath of this less stringent action is that emphasis has been put on the prevention of laundering of money and terrorist financing through trading in crypto industry.

In a recent report by the Netherland’s Financial Intelligence Unit, it was found out that the number of unusual and illegitimate transactions in the digital asset space has increased at an exponential rate from a meager 300 up to 5,000 last year.

The proposed licensing system once introduced is expected the crypto exchanges and wallet providers to monitor and record their customers’ transactions and bring to the notice of the authorities if any suspicious activity is found. The exchanges are also required to collect and store all trading related information of their customers and provide to the authorities during the instance of an investigation.

procedure on their operation. The bank authorities have confirmed that they would ensureThe Netherland’s central bank has been asked to follow a systematic that the companies will be scrutinized and tested before the license are issued. Recently, the bank has conducted an exercise to check if they are competent enough to collect the required user data in times of need.

Richard Kohl who happens to be a board member of the Nederland Foundation for Bitcoin claimed that the step taken would not be something conducive for the young innovative companies and would be a backlash on the face of local innovation and culture

Kohl believes that the new stringent law would bring in an inconsiderable amount of manual-based paperwork and rising cost to the companies for staying compliant with the new regulated system. Once inducted into the system, these would cause major competitive disadvantages when compared to large financial established bodies like banks and other financial institutions. He even believes that not much research has been done when setting the process considering the actual dangers which can be brought on by cryptocurrencies with stringent measures taken which are too extreme. He also expressed his concerns over the feasibility of data storage and its privacy and other possible dangers associated with storing of such sensitive data.

As per a report from a daily publication last December, all digital assets and cryptocurrency-based service providers would be required to get licenses from the central bank of the Netherlands for their business operations.

Earlier in August’18, there was a news break that one of the top officials of the Dutch central bank had claimed that since cryptocurrencies are not considered as real money, the bank has not resorted to any plan of banning them.

Ripple’s coin XRP is the second largest cryptocurrency coin in the market only after the Bitcoin [BTC] according to market cap. The XRP which is a digital asset is trying to achieve new financial organizations and institutions across the world to execute cross border transactions. This digital asset in future will be the top serious competitor for Bitcoin in the market.

XRP coin has significantly seen an increase in the trading volume at various exchanges around the world. As per the CoinMarketCap report the XRP coin traded at a volume of about $400 million, placing it at the 5th position by trading volume in the last 24 hours. However, coinmarketbook.cc confirmed that some portion of the coin liquidity is not true and is false.

The Coinmarketbook launched a new metrics .cc that will show the capacity of real liquidity of some of the popular coins in the market. The metrics have a Buy Support option that defines the sum of buy orders from the highest bid price at 10 percent distance and is computed by adding all the buy orders which are near to the bid price at max 10 percent distance and later the amount is exchanged into USD.

By using this technique, the Coinmarketbook will escape the operation of the market by market makers and big whales. The big whales and other market makers specify big orders to support the coin price which hides the real interest in the coin which is basically below the buying price level.

The buy support indicator displays that there are around $138 million users who are waiting to purchase bitcoin, around $26 million buying orders are for Ethereum, and there is only $13 million buying order for XRP token. To know more about XRP click here.

The website will give you the details information about real liquidity that has taken place on leading exchanges. The website allows the market to get an idea of the coin and the trading volume of the coin.

Few XRP token holders are misguided and falsely believe that XRP token is an essential element for operation across the company’s cross border payments solution. But this is not true because most of the banks are seen in support of a Ripple Product mostly known as xCurrent. The xCurrent product of Ripple does not make use of XRP tokens at all.

Now the question is about the price of the one XRP and how is it decided? As of now the price of XRP is decided by the speculators on crypto exchanges. In the long run, the speculators cannot decide on the value of XRP. The price of one XRP can be valued from people’s speculation, similar to the case like bitcoin. Nevertheless, the Banks are no more motivated by these beliefs and ideas.

Since last 2 days, the crypto exchange has bounced back marginally by $5 billion, from $120 billion to $125 billion after a promising breakout of the Bitcoin cost above $3,700.

The unexpected solid development of Bitcoin could prompt the transient recovery of other major crypto resources and low market capital cryptocurrencies by the next few days.

Bitcoin’s Promising Gains by Monday

Generally, amid the weekend, the crypto exchange plans to show a plunge in volume and a minor decrease in exchanging activities.

Despite, since last two days, the volume of Bitcoin has stayed over the $5 billion mark with the day by day volume of the crypto exchange above $17 billion.

The moderately high everyday volume of major crypto resources has enabled the market to bounce back before Monday when the volume typically starts to pick up, and the market begins to see an expansion in exchange activities.

Preceding the breakout of Bitcoin above $3,700, an ultimate digital currency technical expert with an online alias ‘Cred’ said that if the Bitcoin cost outperforms $3,700 temporarily, it is almost certain to prompt a positive upward development.

The expert clarified:

Extremely compacted value activity following the high set on Monday. My agenda is direct: Price underneath and discovering resistance at $3,560s I’ll search for moves focusing on $3,430s. Breakout and cost acknowledged above $3,700s I’ll be a buyer until $3,840s.

All in all, while a breakout of obstruction levels beneath the $4,000 stamp may keep a further dip under the mid-$3,000 region, it might be lacking in giving an establishment to the predominant cryptocurrency to start a legitimate short-term rally.

Since the end of December 2018, Bitcoin value has stayed in a tight range between $3,500 to $4,100, unfit to neither test key opposition levels nor dip under vital help levels.

Not absolutely unfavorable for Bitcoin

In all cases, many major crypto resources and low market capital digital resources have reported 2 to 4% gains against the U.S. dollar on the day.

Ethereum, Litecoin, and Cardano flooded by 3, 4 and 5% separately over the last 12 hours, following the upward value movement of Bitcoin.

While the bear showcase in crypto stays in full impact, driving organizations in likes of Binance see an appeal in key markets like Europe.

Recently, following the release of Binance Jersey, a directed fiat-to-crypto trade that supports British pound and euro exchanges, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated:

Binance.je is overwhelmed with enrollments. There is an overabundance of KYC checks as of now. More assets are distributed to lessen it. Meanwhile, we value your comprehension and tolerance. The enrollment prize is FIFO based no stresses. Simply crazy! One thing we can do is thinking little of ourselves and the market.

To keep a further dip under a low enough range, a supportable high daily volume in the crypto showcase is pivotal. For the time being, the market is seeing a moderately abnormal state of exchanging movement crosswise over major markets.

In a long-standing conflict between the United States and Russia, this time German companies will have to face the ire. The United States has warned German companies involved in the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that they may face sanctions if they choose to continue with the project.

US president Donald Trump has accused Germany of being a captive of Russia as it is heavily reliant on Russian energy and urged German companies to stop work at the earliest in the $11 billion gas pipeline project.

The pipeline since its plan formulation days has been criticized heavily as it will pass through Baltic Sea direct from Russia to Germany. It would bypass Ukraine depriving the country of lucrative gas transit fees. This may make Ukraine more economically vulnerable.

US Ambassador Richard Grenell has sent letters stating the same to various companies, as per the Embassy’s statement. The Embassy spokesperson said the letter reminds that any company operating in the Russian energy export pipeline sector is in danger under CAATSA of US sanctions and also added that other European countries had opposed this pipeline.

Germany along with its allies in the whole Europe alleged that the United States by using its Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) is trying to influence the country’s foreign and energy policies.

The Russian giant Gazprom is implementing the project along with western partners Uniper, Wintershall, Engie, OMV, and Shell.

The letter has created much talk in the Chancellor’s own Government. As per the sources, Chancellor Angela Merkel will direct take this issue with Washington as the ambassador’s letter did not follow the common diplomatic practice.

Juergen Hardt, the foreign policy spokesman for Merkel’s conservatives in parliament, said that the US ambassador’s direct threatening letter to the German companies is not acceptable. The letter demeans the tone of the transatlantic relationship. He also added that if the United States President wants to act tough on Russia in public, instead of targeting German companies he should first clear the air above his alleged relationship with the Russian regime.

The German companies that have received the letter denied making any official comment on the whole issue.

However, German and Russia also did not share a good relationship after Russia’s Crimea accession from Ukraine in 2014. But, both the countries had to advance the plan as they have common interests in the Nord Stream 2 project, which has the capacity to double the load of existing Nord Stream 1 route.

Russian Advantage-

German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported that the letter from the Ambassador would only help Russia to have leverage on the gas pipeline project in future.

As per the spokesperson in US embassy, the letter is a coordinated effort by several US government agencies; it was never meant to be a threat letter but a letter stating the US policy clearly.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that the US sanctions on Nord Stream 2 pipeline project would be a wrong step for solving the dispute. The United States should stop meddling in the internal affairs of the European Countries and let the European countries decide their own energy policy.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May suffered a humiliating and historic defeat on the Brexit deal in the House of Commons. Her deal was dismissed by the Member of Parliaments by 230 votes which is considered as the largest defeat suffered by a ruling government in UK’s history. 432 of the MP7s voted and out of them, 209 said ‘No’ to the deal. Earlier, May has postponed the voting from December to garner more support from the MP’s but despite that could not get them to vote for her Brexit Deal.

If the vote had been passed in the House of Commons, May had plans of making a departing from EU on Mar 29 and has also worked out on a transition period to thrash out details of a deal for free trade. Since the deal did not come through, now there is speculation about an early general election which could be another headache for Prime Minister May after Jeremy Corbyn has pressed for a no-confidence vote against the government.

Pound steadies but till when?

Despite May’s defeat in the exit vote, the Sterling has recovered, and that has taken the investors on a rollercoaster ride. The investors expected the Pound to slide down if May lost, but on the contrary, the Pound rebounded against the Dollar. Now that the ‘no-deal’ situation is highly probable with the huge defeat May has faced, the Pound is getting much support, and that is seen in the markets too. Even though the pound is steady for the time being, the future looks quite unstable as there is no telling about the outcome of the vote for ‘no-confidence.’ The Pound is expected to be stable for a short duration if Theresa May survives the vote of no-confidence. However, on the other hand, if she loses the pound can have a significant fall due to chances of a general election. The pound will remain volatile till the political situation stabilizes.

The GBP was at $1.284 against the dollar and was less by 0.1% and had regained a cent more than the lowest in the day after a huge margin defeated may. The trade funds that are focused on UK exchange are under tremendous pressure. The FTSE 100 ETF which a Tokyo based saw a decline of 1%, so were the shares in Asia-Pacific outside Japan. Shenzhen and Shanghai shares also saw a fall of 0.1%.

As the ongoing trade negotiations between the United States and China are giving both the parties some positive results, the new data by China may rock the relationship between the two largest economies in the world. China announced on Monday that it has the largest trade surplus with the United States breaking the record of the last decade, despite trade barriers imposed by the Trump administration on China.

According to government data, China’s trade surplus with the United States has grown by 17 percent in 2018 from 2017 and managed to touch $323.32 billion. And, it is the highest trade surplus since 2006. The deficit that the United States has with China must be a lot bigger than the figure released by China as China uses a different calculation method. It doesn’t consider the goods end up in the United States through other countries.

As per the data, exports to the United States rose 11.3 percent in 2018 whereas imports from the United States rose by a minimal 0.7 percent throughout the last year.

China confirmed that its overall trade surplus stands at $3351.76 billion for 2018 and exports inflated by 9.9 percent from 2017 and imports grew by only 15.8 percent over the same period.

According to Reuter’s records, China has the lowest overall surplus in 2018 since 2013, though the surplus with the United States increased. For 2018, the export growth also rose by the highest percentage since 2011.

China’s General Administration of Customs labeled external uncertainty and protectionism as the reason for this. It has been predicted that China will have slower growth in 2019.

Customs spokesman Li Kuiwen said Asia’s largest economy is growing steadily in 2019, but there are certain external headwinds it would have to face.

These data are being watched carefully to know the depth of damage inflicted by the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. As of now, it is evident that production metrics and export orders are falling owing to the trade dispute with the United States, as it is the largest trading partner of China.

Chinese Export and Imports-

China has experienced the biggest fall in exports in two years. It fell down by 4.4 percent in December from November.

Imports also contracted by 7.6 percent in December from November, making it the biggest decline since July 2016.

The trade surplus in November was $44.71 billion for China, and in December it had a surplus of $57.06 billion in trade while the analysts’ expectations were on the line of $52 billion.

As per the analysts, Chinese exports have not managed to sustain the November growth of 5.4 percent. It had a growth of 3 percent in December.

Import has seen an increment as well in December in comparison with November. It had risen by 5 percent in December whereas the rise in November was 3 percent.

Julian Evans-Pritchard, a senior China economist at Capital Economics, said exports in China fell because of the global slowdown and complex situation at the US trade scenario, whereas imports declined due to cooling of domestic demand.

China’s December trade surplus with the United States was $29.87 billion, and in November it has a whopping $35.54 billion as trade surplus.

Blaming the tariff war with the United States would be an injustice as China has its own domestic headwinds. Even China has accepted slowing down of growth, and it has been trying to manage the slowdown.

As of now, both sides are on the table negotiating the best terms for trade. Trump has been vocal about the rising trade deficit with China since his electoral campaigning. With more slowdown of the global economy in the year ahead, export for China will be low even if it manages to make a deal to get conducive tariff from the United States.

The US special representative for Iran said recently that there would not be any more waivers on the oil sanction posed by the United States on Iran. The step has been decided to choke off Iran’s source of income further.

In a news conference, he said Iran is gradually feeling isolated, and the sanctions are blocking a major part of the country’s revenue. The motive of the American sanction on Iran is to deny revenue to the country.

As per the United States’ version, around 80 percent of Iran’s revenue comes from oil exports, and Iran has been using it to augment state-sponsored terrorism. So, the United States will deny the money it needs to encourage terrorism by imposing sanctions.

All these tensions started in May 2018. President Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal saying the deal was skewed towards Iran’s undue advantage. Hence, by moving out of the nuclear deal, he again imposed the economic sanctions which were effective from 2015.

It should be reported here that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal is an agreement between six countries and the European Union after the United States withdrew on the charges of deal violation by Iran. However, none of the other countries in the Iran deal moved out. The other countries in the deal are China, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom and European Union (EU).

As per an American envoy, U.S. wants negotiation and a better deal. But, Iran does not agree on the terms of U.S. So, the United States is trying to stop Iran get the billions of dollars as revenue. With huge pressure on liquidity crunch, Iran would come to the table for negotiation.

But, replying to that, Iran has confirmed that it did not want any negotiation or any new deal from the United States. And it would not compromise with its security for any deal. It is to be noted that the bone of contention here is Iran’s ballistic missile program, which was disliked by the United States and its allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Special envoy said the U.S. is happy that China has limited oil imports from Iran and they expect more cuts from China and they will ensure to do that.

Iran is going through a tough phase as it now struggles to get any new buyers due to U.S. sanction. But, some of the traditional customers of Iran managed to secure a waiver to get the Oil supply uninterrupted.

The countries which have managed to get the waivers were China, India, Japan, and South Korea.

The special envoy, when asked about the end date of sanction, denied making any comments further.

After a series of criticisms by the U.S. President Donald Trump on OPEC, the relationship of the largest economy and the biggest oil exporting congregation seems to have halted. On the same note, Oman’s oil minister Mohammed bin Hamad al-Rumhi also said President Trump has not been very fair on OPEC. The criticisms made by him were undue and uncalled for.

At the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi, he said that Trump’s ideas and views on OPEC were misplaced. Though he accepted that Trump must be having good intentions for the people he is representing, the way things were happening was not correct.

He also added no one wants volatility in the market and the price, the same way President Trump also does not want volatility in the oil import, as volatility is difficult to manage.

It should be reported here that U.S. President Donald Trump has been criticizing the 14 member group for its management of oil output, urging the group to keep the taps open and oil prices low. OPEC has created much volatility in the American economy.

It should be reported here that in last December, OPEC members along with Russia had made an agreement to cut their crude production by 1.2 million barrels of oil per day from the market in order to stem the fall in prices. This has also attracted Trump’s criticism on a larger scale.

Oman’s minister also said that Politics had forced the President to take the issue on the social media and he said that was the reason for this scuffle between the OPEC and the United States.

But he did not fail to express his eagerness to have talks with the United States to resolve the issue. The issue should be resolved satisfying each of the parties despite it is impractical.

He also said he wishes to sit with President Trump and exchange ideas, though it seems tough in the present circumstances. But, this is the only way, as per the minister, to see the convergence.

As per the records, Oman produces about 900,000 barrels of oil per days, which is less than one-tenth the volume of OPEC’s largest producer Saudi Arabia. Oman has a population of 4.6 million, and it is expected to suffer more than other OPEC neighbors as the economic growth of Oman has been predicted to take a dip. Also, the once used to be strong, Omani rial, has also come under pressure and the country should consider of adopting austerity measures to recover.