Current Bitcoin Price: $4151 (as of 10:00 AM PST)

The cryptocurrency market is continuing its slow, upward trend today. On average, the market is up around 0.7% today. Bitcoin is up 0.8%, with Ethereum up 0.2% and XRP up 0.6%.

Top-20 currencies in the red include Cardano, which is down just over 1%, and Tezos, which is down just over 4.5%. On the flipside, Binance Coin is up just over 4.5%, TRON is up over 3.5%, with DASH, Monero, and IOTA all posting 24-hour gains in that same range.

Top Crypto News Stories for 1st April 2019

Japanese eCommerce giant to launch crypto exchange

Rakuten is Japan’s largest eCommerce retailer. Supposedly, almost 90% of Japan’s internet users are registered on the platform. It’s Japan’s version of Amazon, in some senses.

The eCommerce giant has just announced an official launch date for its new cryptocurrency exchange, Rakuten Wallet. Explaining their decision to enter the cryptocurrency space, Rakuten said the following:

We expect that the role of cryptocurrency-based payments in e-commerce, offline retail and in P2P payments will grow in the future. In order to provide cryptocurrency payment methods smoothly, we believe it is necessary for us to provide a cryptocurrency exchange function.

VeChain releases business integration functionality

Using blockchain functionality in business is difficult. It’s a novel technology, which, when paired, with age-old enterprise systems, makes integration very difficult. VeChain is one of many cryptocurrency projects with the goal to fix this.

VeChain has just released the VeChain module, which connects to more than 80 existing enterprise systems, and allows crucial data to be published straight onto the blockchain, where it can’t be tampered with.

Cryptopia may have been an inside job

Cryptopia was a New Zealand-based cryptocurrency exchange that went south this year. Its owner supposedly passed away in India, taking all access to the exchange’s funds with him.

Users are starting to pick up on a crucial piece of the picture. In the days leading up to Cryptopia’s breach, the value of the exchange’s proprietary token, CryptopiaFeeShares, fell by almost 50%. This suggests that at least one major shareholder — likely an internal member of the company — knew about the upcoming drama.

Bonus Story: Amazon to sell cryptocurrencies

As a bonus story for today, Amazon has added cryptocurrencies to its large list of products. You can now purchase Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and a range of other digital assets directly from the eCommerce giant.

Yes, this story is an April Fools joke. Unfortunately.