The NRI/IU Crypto-Asset Index, an index powered by CryptoCompare and MV Index Solutions (MVIS), is now being disseminated on QUICK’s workstation and QUICK LevelX r1 terminals, where it will help Japanese traditional financial institutional make suitable investment decisions.

Google searches for ‘Bitcoin Halving’ have surged over the last few months as the price of BTC has been recovering. Interest for the cryptocurrency’s upcoming halving event has now surpassed the interest seen in 2016, when BTC underwent its second halving.

About one-third of Bitcoin Cash’s circulating supply has never been moved, presumably because of lost coins and of investors who don’t want to touch their holdings for one reason or another.

A group has been arrested for allegedly running a darknet market operation selling counterfeit fiat currency for crypto.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• CryptoCompare-powered Crypto-Asset Index Now Disseminated on QUICK
• Google Searches for 'Bitcoin Halving' Surge as BTC's Price Recovers
• Nearly 33% of Bitcoin Cash’s Circulating Supply Has Never Moved
• Darknet Criminals Sell $13 Million of Counterfeit Fiat for Crypto

At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $7,315.20 (-0.70%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $3.43 bn. As for ether (ETH), it is trading at $170.22 (-1.75%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $1.64 bn. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 2,662.44 (3.98%).

CryptoCompare-powered Crypto-Asset Index Now Disseminated on QUICK

The NRI/IU Crypto-Asset Index, an index powered by CryptoCompare and MV Index Solutions (MVIS), is now being disseminated on QUICK’s workstation and QUICK LevelX r1 terminals, according to the Nomura Research Institute, a leading provider of consulting services and system solutions.

The crypto-asset index will offer investment solutions related to the cryptocurrency space to Japanese traditional financial institutions subscribed to QUICK’s data and information platform. The NRI/IU Crypto-Asset Index is the first crypto-asset benchmark calculated in both JPY and USD by clear and transparent guidelines of MVIS, an administrator under the European Benchmark Regulation.

Japanese investors will now be able to monitor daily valuation prices of the NRI/IU Crypto-Asset Index, and real-time data on QUICK terminals while being able to diversify their portfolios and pick the most suitable investment opportunities for crypto-assets. The NRI/IU Crypto-Asset Index includes bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, litecoin, and XRP.

Google Searches for 'Bitcoin Halving' Surge as BTC's Price Recovers

Google searches for Bitcoin’s upcoming halving event have been surging over the last few months, as Google Trends data shows interest for the cryptocurrency’s upcoming event has been growing rapidly since mid-2018.

The trend was first spotted by Arcane Research, which pointed out that search interest for BTC’s halving has already surpassed that of 2016 when bitcoin underwent its second halving event, and is “approaching levels twice as high” as those seen then.

The halving will cut Bitcoin’s block rewards in half, from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC per block, effectively cutting its inflation in half. Some believe the halving will lead to a price rise, as historically other halvings events were followed by a bull market. Analysts claim that that as supply drops and demand is either maintained or grows, the cryptocurrency’s value inevitably goes up.

Other analysts, it’s worth noting, use the Efficient Market Hypothesis to argue the halving may already be priced in, as everyone knows it’s going to occur and has reacted accordingly.

Nearly 33% of Bitcoin Cash’s Circulating Supply Has Never Moved

About 32.6% of Bitcoin Cash’s circulating supply, or 6 million BCH, have never been touched since the cryptocurrency was created through a hard fork of the Bitcoin network on August 1, 2017.

According to data published by CoinMetrics, this could mean investors may only consider BCH’s circulating supply to be of 12 million tokens, and not of over 18 million. It’s worth noting that at the time of the hard fork BCH was airdropped to existing BTC wallets as the chain split.

Bitcoin users who lost their private keys or have been inactive haven’t touched their airdropped BCH. Others may have not moved the cryptocurrency because they are either hodling it, or they simply don’t want to as at the time the cryptocurrency community was split when it came to scaling BTC.

While some believed increasing the block size was the way to go – and forked to create BCH – others feared centralization and adopted other scaling solutions, including SegWit and the Lightning Network.

Darknet Criminals Sell $13 Million of Counterfeit Fiat for Crypto

Russian authorities have arrested a group that was allegedly selling large amounts of counterfeit banknotes on the darknet for cryptocurrency, according to Russian news outlet Kommersant.

The group, the news outlet reports, managed to sell over 1 billion counterfeit Russian rubles, equivalent to around $13 million. The report adds that the country’s Minister of Internal Affairs detailed the group was using Russia’s largest darknet marketplace, Hydra, to sell the counterfeit fiat currency.

On Hydra, the group was operating a store called “Bank of Russia,” alluding to the central bank of the country. The fake banknotes were reportedly of high quality and were first spotted in the Republic of Tatarstan, before spreading to other regions across Russia. These were sold exclusively for cryptocurrencies, for 30% of their nominal value.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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