Bitcoin drops below $19,000-mark

Major cryptocurrencies traded in red early today on September 19 as the global crypto market cap declined 6.55 per cent to $909.40 billion over the last day. On the other hand, the total crypto market volume surged 43.72 percent to $69.19 billion during the last 24 hours. In dollar terms, bitcoin fell 5.4 percent to $18,934.8 - dropping below $19,000-mark again. Its market value stood at $373 billion. The world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency is down 58.9 percent from the year's high of $48,234 on March 28. Read full here

Is Ethereum ditching its ‘miners’

A complex software change to the cryptocurrency ethereum holds the potential to dramatically reduce its energy consumption — and resulting climate-related pollution. But the transition known as “the merge” is not going to do the trick by itself. With the change enacted late Wednesday, ethereum — the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency after bitcoin — has effectively eliminated the energy-intensive task of “mining” new coins on its blockchain. Read details here

ECB Taps Amazon, Four Others to Pitch Digital Euro Prototype

US tech giant Amazon is among the five companies the European Central Bank has chosen to develop a prototype for a digital euro. Spain’s CaixaBank, France’s Worldline SA, Italy’s Nexi S.p.A. and EPI, a consortium of banks and third-party acquirers, join Amazon in winning a bid to develop prototypes, with each company focusing on a specific digital use for the euro-area currency. Take a look