Current Bitcoin Price: $8396 (as of 7:45 AM PST)

Over the weekend most major cryptocurrencies appreciated by at least a few percent, although the last 24 hours haven’t shown much movement in either direction. TRON (#9) is performing particularly well, up 10% in the last day and at least 20% since Friday.

As you might expect with the weekend just finishing up, there are no big regulatory news stories — but there have been a number of exciting announcements for crypto projects across the space…

Top Bitcoin & Crypto News Stories for 21st May 2018

VeChain unveils new development plan

VeChain (VEN) sits at number 16 in the rankings, and is currently valued at $4.41 per unit. It’s a project with lots of ties to the Southeast Asian subcontinent seeking to provide mass-scale blockchain solutions to industry.

On Sunday, the VeChain team announced a new development plan and whitepaper, identifying a number of obstacles to overcome in their mission to create a “a trust-free and distributed business ecosystem platform”.

Nano launches ‘Universal Block Canary’

Nano (NANO) is number 32 by market cap; a pure currency coin, Nano offers fast and fee-less transactions. Unfortunately for investors, it’s been on a solid downtrend since the start of this year, and hasn’t been responding to “good news” in the way most would expect.

Earlier today, Nano creator Colin LeMahieu announced the release of the Universal Block Canary, which combines the Nano blockchain’s four existing block types into a single, universal block. With this, the Nano team hope to provide faster, more secure transactions.

First floating, crypto-friendly nation due in 2022

At the end of last week, word hit the street that the world’s first floating nation is set to be launched in 2022. Located off the coast of Tahiti, French Polynesia, the $50 million man-made island will be funded by PayPal founder Peter Thiel.

Of interest to us is talk of their proprietary cryptocurrency, ‘Vayron’, which will supposedly allow the nation to “operate outside of government regulations.” Whether or not the project will introduce anything new to the world of cryptocurrencies is yet to be seen.