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Bitcoin News Roundup for June 18, 2020

With an Austrian app that aims to track COVID-19 now including blockchain, CoinDesk's Markets Daily Bitcoin news roundup is back!

By Adam B. Levine, John Biggs, Lyllah Ledesma

Updated Dec 6, 2022, 6:28 p.m. Published Jun 18, 2020, 4:00 p.m.

With an Austrian app that aims to track COVID-19 now including blockchain, CoinDesk's Markets Daily Bitcoin news roundup is back!

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

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This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Ciphertrace.

Today's stories:

Bitcoin Still Undervalued After Q2 Rally, Price Metric Shows

Bitcoin's Mayer multiple indicates the cryptocurrency is undervalued despite having rallied by over 40% this quarter.

Trump Told Treasury Secretary to 'Go After' Bitcoin, Bolton Book Reportedly Claims

Former national security adviser John Bolton is said to have revealed the conversation in his book, scheduled for publication next week.

Austrian Government Funds Development of Blockchain-Based COVID-19 App

Austria's economic affairs ministry awarded a $67,600 grant to a project called QualiSig, which uses the Ardor blockchain to verify COVID-19 testing.

Russia's Ministry of Justice Latest to Criticize Proposed Crypto Ban

Russia's Ministry of Justice is the latest government authority to oppose a proposed crypto ban, seeing inconsistencies in the bill's stipulations

Russia Donald Trump Podcasts Markets Daily COVID-19 Contact Tracing John Bolton Crypto Ban

Adam B. Levine

Adam B. Levine joined CoinDesk in 2019 as the editor of its new audio and podcasts division. Previously, Adam founded the long-running Let's Talk Bitcoin! talk show with co-hosts Stephanie Murphy and Andreas M. Antonopoulos. Finding early success with the show, Adam transformed the podcast's homepage into a full newsdesk and publishing platform, founding the LTB Network in January of 2014 to help broaden the conversation with new and different perspectives. In the Spring of that year, he would go on to launch the first and largest tokenized rewards program for creators and their audience. In what many have called an early influential version of "Steemit"; LTBCOIN, which was awarded to both content creators and members of the audience for participation was distributed until the LTBN was acquired by BTC, Inc. in January of 2017. With the network launched and growing, in late 2014 Adam turned his attention to the practical challenges of administering the tokenized program and founded Tokenly, Inc. There, he led the development of early tokenized vending machines with Swapbot, tokenized identity solution Tokenpass, e-commerce with TokenMarkets.com and media with Token.fm. Adam owns some BTC, ETH and small positions in a number of other tokens.

John Biggs

John Biggs is an entrepreneur, consultant, writer, and maker. He spent fifteen years as an editor for Gizmodo, CrunchGear, and TechCrunch and has a deep background in hardware startups, 3D printing, and blockchain. His work has appeared in Men’s Health, Wired, and the New York Times. He runs the Technotopia podcast about a better future. He has written five books including the best book on blogging, Bloggers Boot Camp, and a book about the most expensive timepiece ever made, Marie Antoinette’s Watch. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Lyllah Ledesma

Lyllah Ledesma is a CoinDesk Markets reporter currently based in Europe. She holds a master's degree from New York University in Business and Economics and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of East Anglia. Lyllah holds bitcoin, ether and small amounts of other crypto assets.