Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA will start using the local cryptocurrency El Petro for all its transactions on August 20, President Nicolas Maduro said, as quoted by Sputnik. The president did not mention whether PDVSA’s business partners agreed with the change, yet the shift to a cryptocurrency in all of PDVSA’s business dealings is only part of a much bigger monetary overhaul…. CLICK for complete article

The Turkish Lira collapsed as much as 18% as Trump escalated his feud with Turkey over a detained US pastor.

Bitcoin (BTC) prices broke below the $7,000 support level late August 7 to hit lows on Wednesday, August 8 not seen since mid-July, as 99 out of the 100 coins on CoinMarketCap see red…. CLICK for complete article

The Australian dollar has been the worst performer among the world’s major currencies this year, dropping like a rock against most other currencies apart from the Swedish krona. AUD has weakened about nine percent against the U.S. dollar, currently changing hands at 73.91 cents against the greenback from the January high of 81.15 cents.

Despite the deep slide, the current optimism that the Aussie has found a bottom may be a tad premature…. CLICK for complete article

Bitcoin was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis that wreaked havoc on the world economy, but it hasn’t quite had the chance to prove itself since. The fact is, stock markets have been doing well. Really well. Especially in the U.S. But now, some analysts are beginning to sound the alarms…. CLICK for complete article