June Weekly Recap 4

June 16th - June 22nd, 2020

Welcome to our 4th weekly recap for June.

Overview 

Crypto News

• • Number of Bitcoin ‘Whales’ Has Risen by 2% Since Halving

• As of Tuesday, the number of bitcoin whales, as represented by the tally of unique entities holding at least 1,000 coins, was 1,840. That’s nearly 2% up from the level of 1,811 observed on May 1, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode. The metric clocked a recent high of 1,844 on Monday, a level last seen in November 2017.

  • Infosec Exec Urges US Lawmakers to Tighten Crypto Regs Over Pandemic-Driven Scams

• Tom Kellermann, head of cybersecurity strategy at publicly traded software company VMWare, told lawmakers that virtual currencies need stronger oversight. There has been an increase in the number of security breaches and thefts at digital currency exchanges, which cybercriminals used to launder stolen money, he said.

  • Bitcoin’s Rise Driven by Institutional Trading, Says Research and Investor Sentiment

• This week the research firm the Tie tweeted about bitcoin’s (BTC) social activity to the company’s 6,300 Twitter followers. The company thinks that institutional interest and trading is a driving force right now. “Bitcoin is trading at an all-time high (ATH) relative to its social activity,” the Tie tweeted on Thursday.

  • Bitcoin Rises in New Crypto Rankings by Chinese Government-Backed Institute
• The Center for Information and Industry Development (CCID), under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, published its 18th update of crypto project rankings on Thursday.
• In the 18th ranking, BTC improved slightly from the April revision overall, rising from the 14th position to the 12th position. BCH fell slightly from the 31st position to the 34th spot. Meanwhile, EOS, Tron, and ETH continue to top the overall ranking.

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June Weekly Recap 3

June 9th - June 16th, 2020

Welcome to our 3rd weekly recap for June.

Overview 

Crypto News

• • Coca-Cola Distributor Offers Bitcoin Payment Options for Aussie Vending Machines

• Coca-Cola Amatil, the Asia-Pacific bottling giant, has partnered with digital assets platform Centrapay to integrate bitcoin as a payment option from its vending machines across Australia and New Zealand. This means over 2,000 smart vending machines now accept cryptocurrency.

  • Indian Government Reconsiders Banning Cryptocurrency

• The Indian government is reportedly reconsidering a plan to ban cryptocurrency and the finance ministry has initiated related inter-ministerial consultations.

  • US Financial Services Committee Hearing Discussed the Creation of a ‘Digital Dollar’

• At the virtual hearing with members of the DDF, Congress, and leaders from the Electronic Transactions Association, the group listened to a number of speakers. Speaking with the financial columnist, Rachel McIntosh, Christopher Giancarlo told the publication “the purpose of the hearing,” which includes “inclusive banking during a pandemic: using FedAccounts and Digital Tools to improve Delivery of Stimulus Payments,’ but it wasn’t only to discuss the ‘digital dollar,’ but to spark a conversation around better digital solutions for financial inclusion.”

  • JPMorgan: Bitcoin’s Market Structure More Resilient Than Currencies, Equities, Treasuries and Gold
• In a new report entitled “Cryptocurrency takes its first stress test: Digital gold, pyrite, or something in between?” JPMorgan’s strategists say bitcoin is looking “mostly positive,” Bloomberg reported Friday. The report, led by head of U.S. interest rate derivatives strategy Joshua Younger and cross-asset research analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, shows that cryptocurrencies have “longevity as an asset class.”

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June Weekly Recap 2

June 1st - June 8th, 2020

Welcome to our 2nd weekly recap for June.

Overview 

Crypto News

• • Swiss Banks Launch Cryptocurrency Trading and Custody After Gaining Regulatory Approval

• The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) recently approved two banks — Maerki Baumann and Incore Bank — to offer several cryptocurrency services on Friday.

  • India to Significantly Increase Crypto Market Share

• The Indian cryptocurrency market is poised to gain considerable global market share starting this year, according to a report published last week by Coinpaprika, a cryptocurrency research platform, and Okex, a global cryptocurrency exchange.

  • US Regulators Target Bitcoin ATMs

• Bitcoin automated teller machines (BATMs) will become the next target for regulators, as world governments tighten screws on money laundering. According to Ciphertrace CTO John Jeffries, crypto-cash machines will attract “greater…regulatory focus” in a bid to rein-in alleged cross-border illicit financial transfers.

  • Japanese Finance Minister Shoots Down Plan to Cut Bitcoin Tax to 20%
• Japan’s finance minister Taro Aso says he is opposed to reducing tax on bitcoin income to 20%, on par with stock dividends, arguing that most Japanese households find it difficult to invest in digital assets. The development suggests that Japan will uphold its current definition of cryptocurrency as miscellaneous income, whereby virtual currency is taxed at rates of up to 55%.

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June Weekly Recap 1

May 26th - June 1st, 2020

Welcome to our 1st weekly recap for June.

Overview 

Crypto News

• • South Korea Is Exploring New Crypto Tax Laws

• South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance is preparing an amendment to apply to the nation’s Income Tax Law. This could include rules for profitable sales of cryptocurrencies as well as profits from national crypto mining projects.

  • Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Buys Over 1.5 Times Total BTC Mined Since Halving

• Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) has been racking up the number of BTC it has purchased since the third Bitcoin halving. During the two-week period, Grayscale Investments bought a total of 18,910.47949263 bitcoins.

  • China Passes Law Protecting Cryptocurrency Inheritance

• The third session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, voted on and passed the “Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China” on Thursday. In addition to general and supplementary provisions, the civil code ”includes six parts on real rights, contracts, personality rights, marriage and family, inheritance, and tort liabilities,” Xinhua News Agency reported.

  The new civil code states that the property rights of individuals are equally safeguarded to those of the State and collective, and online virtual assets are protected, too.

  • JPMorgan Suddenly Appears To Be Going All In On Crypto
• Earlier this month, JPMorgan signed Coinbase and rival bitcoin and crypto exchange Gemini after a lengthy vetting period. JPMorgan approved the two bitcoin exchanges’ accounts last month and is already processing transactions, potentially signaling the end of the crypto industry’s banking woes.

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May Weekly Recap 4

May 19th - May 25th, 2020

Welcome to our 4th weekly recap for May.

Overview 

Crypto News

• • Litecoin Fdn. Partners With Videogame Maker Atari

• The Litecoin Foundation has announced a partnership with the legendary videogame company of Atari. LTC will now be accepted as a means of investing in the Atari token, to be issued in September 2020, and as a payment option for purchasing the new Atari VCS gaming console.

  • Albania Approves Europe’s Most Comprehensive Crypto Law Yet

• Albania’s Parliament signed a bill into law on May 21 plenary session a legal framework for cryptocurrencies. The legislation looks to regulate the conditions for licensing all crypto activities in the country. Beyond digital tokens, the law looks to monitor all infrastructure where DLT technology operates.

  • Chinese Government Advisers Propose Regional Stablecoin for 4 Asian Countries:

• The proposal unveiled Thursday describes the currencies as a “stablecoin”. The basket of underlying collateral would follow the special drawing rights (SDR) model of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where each country’s currency is assigned a different weight based on its economy.

  • Russia Proposes Law That Criminalizes Buying Bitcoin With Cash
• According to draft bills submitted by a group of deputies to the Russian parliament recently, individuals may face up to seven years in prison and fines of up to $7,000 for using BTC in financial transactions. People will also be penalized for buying crypto with cash or transferring to accounts opened with Russian banks.

May Weekly Recap 3

May 12th - May 18th, 2020

Welcome to our 3rd weekly recap for May.

Overview 

Crypto News

• • STABLECOIN SUPPLY BREAKS $10B

• The value of assets for all stablecoins surpassed $10b on Tuesday, having surged by over 70% in just two months, according to Coin Metrics. Most of the stable coin growth comes from tether, which represents almost 90% of the total stable coin supply. The largest tether markets measured by traded volume are supported by two Asia-based exchanges, Binance and Huobi.

  • $2B CRYPTO HEDGE FUND INDUSTRY SET TO GROW SIGNIFICANTLY

• Cryptocurrency hedge funds’ assets under management more than doubled in 2019, according to a new survey by PWC and Elwood Asset Management Services Ltd. The data comes from “the largest global crypto hedge funds by assets under management (AUM).

  • CANADIAN FIRM REPORTS BTC MINED IN Q1 DECLINED 54%

• For the three months to March 31, 2020, the Canadian bitcoin firm, Hut 8 Mining, said it mined 1,116 BTC, down 54% from the 2,405 BTC a year earlier. It blamed the decline on “increasing network difficulty (that) impacted the company’s production negatively”.

  • BITWALA LAUNCHES BTC INTEREST ACCOUNT
• A court in Shanghai, China, has reportedly ruled that bitcoin is an asset protected by Chinese law in a case that has dragged on for years. The case involves the theft of two different cryptocurrencies, one being bitcoin, from an American. The defendants argued that bitcoin was not recognized under Chinese law; the court disagreed, citing documents by the central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).

• • CRYPTO DERIVATIVES EXCHANGE LAUNCHES BTC HASHRATE FUTURES
• On Friday, cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, FTX, launched a hash rate futures tool that allows Bitcoin (BTC) miners to hedge against mining difficulty risk. Hash rate is the amount of processing power dedicated to a Bitcoin network at a given time and determines the strength and security of the network. FTX leverages this mining difficulty that validates bitcoin transactions.

May Weekly Recap 2

May 5th - May 11th, 2020

Welcome to our 2nd weekly recap for May.

Overview 

Crypto News

• • IRAN LICENSES CRYPTO MINING ENTERPRISE

• Iran has issued a bitcoin mining license to Iminer, a Turkish-based company. Iminer will operate up to 6,000 rigs, with a computing power of 96,000 terahash per second (TH/s) in total. According to reports, the miner has spent $7.3 million setting up the mining facility, located in Iran’s central city of Semnan.

  • BITCOIN ATM NUMBER SURGES

• The number of bitcoin ATM locations has been growing rapidly amid nationwide lockdowns and the coronavirus crisis. With hundreds of new machines added each month, there are now more than 7,700 bitcoin ATMs spread all over the world.

  • NEW CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE LAUNCHES IN INDIA

• The Indian cryptocurrency industry has been growing rapidly despite the nationwide lockdown and the coronavirus crisis. Two new cryptocurrency trading platforms are launching in India while existing crypto businesses seek clarification from the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

  • CHINESE COURT RULES BTC IS ASSET PROTECTED BY LAW
• A court in Shanghai, China, has reportedly ruled that bitcoin is an asset protected by Chinese law in a case that has dragged on for years. The case involves the theft of two different cryptocurrencies, one being bitcoin, from an American. The defendants argued that bitcoin was not recognized under Chinese law; the court disagreed, citing documents by the central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).

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May Weekly Recap 1

April 28th - May 4th, 2020

Welcome to our 1st weekly recap for May.

Overview 

Crypto News

• • GOLD PRICE SURPASSES $1,700 AS CENTRAL BANKS EXPAND STIMULUS

• The spot price of gold surpassed the $1,700 mark after dipping more than 1% on Tuesday. The rise comes as central banks announced plans to expand monetary stimulus and jobless rates soar.

  • BITCOIN OUTPERFORMS S&P500

• Bitcoin is now outperforming the S&P 500 for the first time since the market crash in March and the equities sell-off that started in February. In a big 24-hour move, BTC crossed $8,000 and is currently trading at $8,592, up 10.5% at the time of writing. The S&P 500 is up 2.9% at 2,946.

  • FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR SAYS “WE WILL NOT RUN OUT OF MONEY”

• On Thursday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell explained what the central bank of the U.S. is currently doing and what it is prepared to do in the future to help the U.S. economy fight the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • JP MORGAN AND GOLDMAN ADVISE CLIENTS AGAINST BTC
• JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs are advising their clients against purchasing Bitcoin, a unique asset whose US dollar-rate has surged 8,000 percent since 2009.Digital Asset Investment Management (DAIM), a California-based digital asset wealth manager, alleged that it risked losing a vital client upon the intervention of the two financial moguls. The firm claimed that it has an institutional player who was ready to invest in Bitcoin but changed his mind after speaking to his advisors at JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.
• • TRUMP AND THE FED COULD BE ABOUT TO DESTROY THE US BANKING SYSTEM

• Donald Trump and the Federal Reserve have gone to extraordinary lengths to prop up the U.S. economy in recent weeks.

  The coronavirus pandemic and the lockdowns put in place to slow its spread have ravaged the U.S. economy—with the Fed and the Trump administration pumping a staggering $6 trillion into the system since March and taking interest rates back to record lows to keep it on its feet.

  Now, as the economic reality of a post-coronavirus world sinks in, Trump and the Fed are edging closer to negative interest rates—something legendary investor Warren Buffett has warned could have “extreme consequences.”

   

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April Weekly Recap 4

April 21th - April 27th, 2020

Welcome to our 4th weekly recap for April.

Overview 

Crypto News

• • TETHER MINTS $600M THIS MONTH

• Tether mints an additional $120,000,000 in USDT tokens Tuesday morning. This comes after Tether minted $480,000,000 last week, bringing the months total to $600,000,000. Tether has minted more tokens this month than the entire market cap of Ethereum Classic.

  Tether CTO, Paolo Ardoino claims that these new tokens are for “inventory replenishment” and will be used for future demand.

  • BINANCE LAUNCHES CRYPTO PAYMENT APP IN AFRICA

• Binance said its social payments app Bundle would provide users across Africa with a fee-free means to store and transact in both cash and cryptocurrencies, through a new digital wallet that can be downloaded on their phones.

  • BITTREX EXTENDS GLOBAL VISA/CREDIT

• Bittrex Exchange announced its significant global extension of Visa support accross 125 countries on April 20.

  In addition to making fiat deposits and trading directly using their Visa cards, users can now access further features such as conditional orders and trading with euros on the platform’s recently-launched Bittrex Euromarkets.

  • CHILE BTC VOLUME HITS ATH AMID PANDEMIC

• Cryptocurrency market data platform CoinDance showed that LocalBitcoins volume in Chile reached a new record of over 330 million Chilean pesos in the week ending on April 4.

  It’s noted that these figures are also influenced by the depreciation of the Chilean peso. According to data from foreign exchange website XE,  the currency fell by over 6.45% against the dollar in the last two months alone — and has lost a whopping 27% over the last year.

   

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April Weekly Recap 3

April 14th - April 20th, 2020

Welcome to our 3rd weekly recap for April.

Overview 

Crypto News

• • CENTRAL BANKS RECOMMENDED BANNING STABLECOINS

  Central banks have been pushing for heavy-duty regulation of centralized, privately-issued global stable coins. Fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies are coming under scrutiny, based on recommendations from the Financial Stability Board.

  • INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS POUR $498,900,000 INTO CRYPTO FUNDS

  New numbers from the digital asset management giant Grayscale show investors are collectively throwing big money into Ethereum for the first time, on top of record investment numbers for Bitcoin.

  According to Grayscale’s Q1 2020 report, institutions have been taking a serious interest in ETH.

  Spencer Noon, the head of crypto investments at DTC Capital, says the numbers show Ethereum has reached a turning point with high-net-worth investors.

  • 5G COULD UNLOCK BLOCKCHAIN POTENTIAL
• Darren Sadana, CEO of Choice IoT (Choice Business Connections Inc.), an IoT management platform, told Decrypt that blockchain could prevent hacking, and predicts that most computer programming will transition to blockchain. “ As 5G coverage increases and smarter applications are built that require complex and huge amounts amid data at high speeds, there is also going to be increased danger of hacking,” he said.
• “This is where blockchain can help tremendously because of its advanced security,” Sadana said. “Even if a small part is hacked, it does not affect the whole program. In fact, most coding will move to blockchain in the future as it is more resistant to hacking,” he added.