ETF Rejections, Printing Money, and the Woz: This Week in Crypto

Price Watch:
Bitcoin is up 6% this week to $6,700 in a relatively calm week. flat price last week and falls of 12% and 15% in the preceding weeks which themselves followed a 2-week price surge that landed investors back at the $8,000 mark before the plummet down to $7,000. Back then, most analysts had cited the reason for the drop as having been the Winklevoss’ second ETF rejection. Of course this week, 9 ETFs were rejected by the SEC for similar reasons to their last rejection and it’s anticipated that Bitcoin ETF rejections will continue for the next 18 months.
Ethereum is down 5% this week following drops of 11% last week, 24% the week before and single and double-digit drops going back months. Theories as to why Ethereums falling have remained diverse but consistent. A strong U.S. dollar, ETF rejections, and competing projects selling off ERC20 tokens and profiting with shorts have all been reasons cited for the tokens precipitous decline.
The entire coin market cap is up 3% this week to $217 billion following a relatively volatile week with interweek volatility of $20 billion. Most of the damage in the mid-week drop was taken by tokens which surged 30-50% for about 48 hours before dropping precipitously. One interesting development is in the face of this volatility, Bitcoin continued to show stability, which some analysts have seen as a sign of the coins maturity.
Currencies:
Tether Keeps Printing Money – This week- the bitcoin price leaped nearly $300 in just one minute, spurring a rally that carried the flagship cryptocurrency from $6,466 to $6,899 during a frenzied half-hour of trading. On top of accusations of rampant price manipulation by BitMEX, Tether data shows $100 million worth of Tether entered the market just hours earlier. This $100 million is on top of the almost $415 million worth of tether printed this month.
Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork Bitcoin Cash development team Bitcoin ABC isn’t backing down from its plan to release a contentious software upgrade in November, despite vows from other development teams and at least one major mining pool to continue using software that is incompatible with the new ABC client.
BitTorrent Inventor No Longer Involved Following Tron Acquisition – Industry publication TorrentFreak reports that BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen, who created the peer-to-peer BitTorrent protocol in 2001 and founded BitTorrent Inc. in 2004, has cut ties with the project.
Steve Wozniak Joins Crypto Startup Equi – Best known for founding Apple, Woz became a Bitcoin evangelist early on and publicly stated that he hoped Bitcoin would become the world’s first global currency. He later took a surprising view on blockchain – stating that while Bitcoin was valuable, blockchain was merely a bubble. Without recanting his previous statement, he’s joined investment startup Equi.
Enterprise:
Tencent Softbank Deny Reports of Investing In Bitmain’s Latest Round – Hong Kong-based financial publication AAStocks reports that both Tencent and Softbank have issued public statements denying their participation in the bitcoin mining giant’s latest funding round, which multiple outlets had said was expected to raise $1 billion.
Bitmain Invests in Lambda: Chinese bitcoin mining equipment manufacturer Bitmain has invested an undisclosed amount in blockchain data storage startup Lambda. The Singapore-based startup has already conducted a tokenized private sale round that attracted investments from FunCity Capital, BlockVC, BlueHill, Zhen Fund, and other well-known institutions. It is now gearing up for an initial coin offering (ICO) round with an aim to raise $5 million.
Trading Platform eToro Buying Ads in Bitcoin – Global online investment platform eToro, which notably offers cryptocurrency trading, has inked partnerships with seven major Premier League football clubs – all paid for in bitcoin.
Nvidia Quits Crypto – The world’s largest graphics card and chip maker Nvidia has officially put an end to its crypto venture, with an official announcement. The move is odd considering Nvidia generated a profit of $550 million, exactly 50 percent of Bitmain’s in Q1 of 2018.
Exchanges:
Swiss Digital Asset Exchange to Exclude Crypto – Business Insider reported this week that the new SIX Digital Exchange, which the group’s owner SIX describes as “the first market infrastructure in the world to offer a fully integrated end to end trading, settlement and custody service for digital assets.’”. The group cited “‘reputational’ issues surrounding Bitcoin” as a reason for exclusion.
BitMEX Rents World’s Most Expensive Offices – According to the Hong Kong Economic Times, leveraged bitcoin trading firm BitMEX has just taken occupancy of the most expensive offices in the world. Per the business publication, the bitcoin exchange will occupy Cheung Kong Center’s 45th floor. The average rent per square foot at the new location is US$28.66, more than nine times higher compared to the US$3.18 per square foot that BitMEX was paying at its old headquarter
Korean Lawmakers Discuss ICO Regulations – South Korea has commenced an extraordinary session in the National Assembly to discuss regulation and measures to promote the cryptocurrency industry alongside ICO guidelines to eventually overturn the ongoing ban.