Results of the week: Sharding from Ethereum and the threat of anonymity

Price changes, regulatory actions, new startups and other events of the past week.

Prices:

This week the price of Bitcoin increased by 5% to $9,990. The price fluctuated quite a bit throughout the week, briefly falling even below $9,000. On Tuesday, the price recovered to $9,300 and then rose to $9,900. Аналитики внимательно следят за попытками биткойна преодолеть критическую отметку в $10000.

Стоимость эфириума выросла на 16%. After successfully retesting the critical $800 mark, Ethereum's market capitalization once again exceeds $450 billion. One of the key factors for the further development of Ethereum prices will be the SEC's decision on whether this cryptocurrency is a security, which should be published this week. Many believe that if Ethereum is not considered a security, its price will be affected.

Overall, the value of the cryptocurrency market is up 8% this week and 10% last week.

Regulators:

Japan is putting pressure on exchanges to remove “anonymous” cryptocurrencies from their lists. According to the source, Japan is “taking all possible measures” to put pressure on domestic trading platforms. 

Indian law protects cryptocurrency investors. RBI - Reserve Bank of India - continues to face legal challenges following its ban on cryptocurrency trading.

Iran blocks Telegram. Iran's judiciary blocked Telegram on Monday and accused the popular app of aiding armed opposition groups in their illegal activities. Domestic providers are forced to comply under threat of prosecution. 

Startups:

Coinbase has valued itself at $8 billion. This amount is a stark difference from the August estimate of $1.6 billion. The increase in value is most likely due to new strategy aimed at institutional investors. 

Comcast Ventures is bullish on blockchain.. The fund's managing director, reviewing the current state of the market, said that the previous price pullback was a tool to weed out worthwhile applications from duds and that investors could likely see a surge in prices soon.

Scalability:

Mastercard and their blockchain scalability patent. Mastercard International filed a patent for faster data processing using a blockchain system. This came as a surprise to many, given that Mastercard has in the past described cryptocurrencies as “anonymous garbage.”

Ethereum Sharding Announcement. Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin announced that the long-awaited solution to the scalability problem of the Ethereum blockchain protocol called Sharding will soon be available. According to the information, Sharding will lead to a hundredfold increase in the scalability required to run large decentralized applications.

Other:

Buffett still hates cryptocurrency. Speaking to Yahoo Finance reporters at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett compared buying Bitcoin to "gambling." He explained this by saying that cryptocurrencies are “non-value-creating assets.” Only time will tell who is right.

According to https://www.ccn.com