The big card company Mastercard has released their financial report for the first quarter of 2018. The report showed a decline in growth from 21 percent for the fourth quarter 2017 to 19 percent for the first quarter 2018.
In an interview with CNBC, Mastercards CFO Martina Hund-Mejean commented that the decline could partially be explained with a lower interest in cryptocurrencies.
Contrary to many other payment service providers, Mastercard does still allow purchases of cryptocurrencies with their cards.
Crypto companies in Malta struggle with banks
Trijo News has been reporting about big problems for crypto companies to get bank accounts in Malta. For the last six months, Maltese politicians have been lobbying hard to establish Malta as the main choice for crypto- and blockchain companies, but those efforts could have been in vain if the problem with the banks is not solved within the near future.
Trijo News could also report that the junior minister for financial services in Malta, Silvio Schembri, has addressed the problem and are working on a solution.
Ethereum on a bull run
For the third day in a row, bitcoin (+4,08%), ethereum (+7,87%) and ripple (+0,81%) continued on their way up. Ethereum is now on its highest levels, $776.21, since the beginning of March, and has been performing well compared to the other cryptocurrencies on the top five.
Right now, bitcoin stands before an important psychological barrier, $10,000, but it is still to be decided if the market manages to break through, or if we once again will face a correction downwards.
The biggest losers of the top five were eos (-5,98%) and bitcoin cash (-0,70%).
On the top 100, the biggest winner was loom network (+41,82%), which means that the cryptocurrency has grown about 40 percent per day, two days in a row now. Electroneum (+25,28%) and gas (+21,10%) showed strong growth as well.
The biggest losers of the top 100 were hshare (-10,54%) and mixin (-10,04%).
Prices the last 24 hours
| Asset | Price | % (24h) |
| Bitcoin | $9 617,27 | +4,08% |
| Ethereum | $776,21 | +7,87% |
| Ripple | $0,869296 | +0,81% |
| Bitcoin cash | $1 481,17 | −0,70% |
| Eos | $17,38 | −5,98% |
