Hey everyone,
You may have seen me before through Stratis, Medium or Twitter.
In my Weekly Crypto Overview, I will assemble the important news of the last week and make a summary of it. This way you will have one place to go for all the major events that happened the week before in crypto. I hope you enjoy it and that it saves you a lot of time searching for all the news. I know not everyone has the privilege to be full-time in crypto, so I hope this is a solution for many of you.
So let’s dig in… What kept the crypto world at hands last week?
- Tether Confirmed
- Bitstamp Partners with Cinnober
- ‘Plain English’ ICO Guidance by the SEC
- New Crypto Scams
- Gwyneth Paltrow and Bitcoin
- Bitfury Raises 80 Million
- Bitmain Releases New 7nm Antminer Hardware
- Off the Chain Crypto Podcast Blocked on Apple iTunes
- Morgan Stanley Report
- William Shatner and Vitalik Buterin
- SEC Charges EtherDelta Founder
- Crypto Exchange Steals $30 Million
- Crypto Wallet Firm Blockchain to Airdrop $125 Million in Stellar
Tether Confirmed
On November 1, 2018, Tether announced a banking relationship with Deltec Bank & Trust Limited.
Even though the evidence is clear a lot of people still had doubts about the legitimacy of the letter. Last week Jean Chalopin the chairman of Deltec Bank & Trust confirmed that the letter is authentic. This confirmation means that for the first time in months, Tether’s banking relationship is public knowledge and has been confirmed by a legitimate banking partner.
Bitstamp Partners with Cinnober
Last week Bitstamp announced their partnership with Cinnober, a global independent provider of technology solutions for the finance industry. Bitstamp will replace their in-house developed matching engine with Cinnober’s TRADExpress Trading System.
David Osojnik CTO of Bitstamp said the following about the partnership:
While Bitstamp’s matching engine was already very good by crypto standards, this will put us in the same league as traditional exchanges with decades of experience. Our platform’s order matching speed is expected to become 1250x faster, while throughput will increase by 400x.”
You can read Bitstamp’s announcement over here.
‘Plain English’ ICOs Guidance by the SEC is Coming
Last week SEC director William Hinman was speaking at the D.C. Fintech Week conference. William Hinman said the regulatory agency intends to release “plain English” guidance for developers to refer to when planning token offerings. This guidance will help such developers determine on their own whether any potential token offering may be classified as a security or not, according to Hinman, though it’s not clear when the guidance will be published.
We also will be putting out more guidance, the idea is a plain English instrument that people can look at and they’ll bring together sort of my Howey-meets-Gary speech, and that analysis … We’ll elaborate on that in a very plain English way, so ‘do I think I have a security offering,’ look at that guidance and you should be able to sort things out.
This is something a lot of projects are waiting for and that could help the crypto world in general.
You can read Coindesk’s full article on the subject over here.
New Crypto Scams
One of the most frustrating things to see for me are crypto scams. Even though they are so obvious and I personally can’t understand why people would fall for them, I do really feel bad for the people that lost money on crypto scams.
In my Weekly Crypto Overview #2 I wrote about that Elon Musk tweeted about Bitcoin. This tweet generated a lot of buzz around Bitcoin and Elon Musk himself. The downside of this is that there are always people that will try to take advantage of it.
Last week a number of verified Twitter accounts were compromised, all to impersonate SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk. Each of the compromised accounts engaged in a well-known crypto giveaway scam by promising to send large amounts of bitcoin to any users who sent them small amounts first.
Be careful out there, if something looks too good to be true most of the times it is.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Bitcoin
Gwyneth Paltrow is an American actress, businesswoman, socialite, lifestyle guru, singer, and food writer. Gwyneth has 2.85 Million followers on Twitter and last week she tweeted about Bitcoin:
Gwyneth tweeted an article which explains the basics of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency and how to invest in them. Thanks, Gwyneth!
Bitfury Raises 80 Million
The Bitfury Group is the largest full-service blockchain technology company in the world. They develop and deliver cutting-edge software and hardware solutions necessary for businesses, governments, organizations and individuals to securely move assets across the blockchain.
Last week Bitfury announced that they have raised $ 80 million in a closed funding round. The round was led by European venture capital fund Korelya Capital. Other participants included South Korean internet giant Naver Group, Asian institutions Macquarie Capital and Dentsu Japan and Michael Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital.
Valery Vavilov, CEO and co-founder of Bitfury:
2018 has been a year of incredible expansion for Bitfury. This private placement reflects our achievements, and it recognizes our ability to address adjacent market segments in high-performance computing, including in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). The institutionalization of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, partnered with the opportunity of these emerging technologies, is a natural expansion opportunity that Bitfury will build on — in 2019 and beyond.
You can read Bitfury’s announcement over here.
Bitmain Releases New 7nm Antminer Hardware
Bitmain is a leader in the still-nascent, high-growth blockchain technology ecosystem, they support a wide array of blockchain platforms and startups, and actively participates in industry and community development. Last week Bitmain released two new 7nm (nanometer) Antminer crypto mining machines:
Off the Chain Crypto Podcast Blocked on Apple iTunes
The “Off the Chain” cryptocurrency podcast produced by Anthony Pompliano, a crypto analyst and a partner at Morgan Creek Digital, was blocked on Apple’s iTunes last week:
This specific podcast generated a lot of buzz in the crypto scene because of its quality content and the amazing discussion regarding the ultimate argument for Bitcoin. In times like these, the crypto world does what it does best: unite and fight for a common goal.
Morgan Stanley Report
On October 31, multinational investment bank and financial services company, Morgan Stanley, released their latest report on Bitcoin. The report, entitled “Update: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain,” stated that Bitcoins and altcoins have constituted a “new institutional investment class” since 2017.
In comparison to Morgan Stanley’s 2017 report on Bitcoin, their 2018 outlook is bullish. The report contains an overview of both how Bitcoin has evolved, and how its investment purpose has changed throughout its existence.
Cointelegraph got their hands on the report and wrote a great article about it which you can read over here.
William Shatner and Vitalik Buterin
William Shatner is a Canadian actor, author, producer, director and singer. In his seven decades of television, Shatner became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T. Kirk, captain of the USS Enterprise, in the Star Trek franchise.
William Shatner has 2.49 Million followers on Twitter and tweeted the following last week:
This once again confirms my thoughts about the crypto world. It’s a place for everyone and it doesn’t matter what you do or where you come from. There is a place for everyone!
SEC Charges EtherDelta Founder
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Zachary Coburn, the founder of crypto token trading platform EtherDelta, with operating an unregistered securities exchange.
The SEC said the following about it:
Almost all of the orders placed through EtherDelta’s platform were traded after the Commission issued its 2017 DAO Report, which concluded that certain digital assets, such as DAO tokens, were securities and that platforms that offered trading of these digital asset securities would be subject to the SEC’s requirement that exchanges register or operate pursuant to an exemption.
Without admitting or denying the findings, Coburn consented to the order and agreed to pay $300,000 in disgorgement plus $13,000 in prejudgment interest and a $75,000 penalty.
You can read the press release from the SEC over here.
Crypto Exchange Steals $30 Million
Pure Bit, a cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, has allegedly pulled an exit scam, disappearing with more than $30 million worth of user funds.
According to HanKyung, a mainstream business-focused mainstream media outlet in South Korea, Pure Bit executed an exit scam with more than $30 million in user funds.
Another example of why regulation needs to come. Let’s hope this will bring us a step closer.
Crypto Wallet Firm Blockchain to Airdrop $125 Million in Stellar
Last week Blockchain.com released the blog: Introducing: Stellar, now in the Wallet, and $125M of free crypto in your pockets. In the blog they explain their $ 125 Million AirDrop:
The Blockchain Wallet is designed so users can control their crypto with ease and truly use it. But we’d be nowhere without the tens of millions of people that have used the Blockchain Wallet and allowed us to pioneer user-controlled finance at scale.
There are so many ways we could say thank you to our 30M (and counting!) Wallet users — but we narrowed it down to 125 million.
We’ve already shared our thoughts on how Blockchain Airdrops are a great way for crypto creators to drive decentralization and adoption for new networks. We think they’re great for crypto users too. They let you test, trade, and transact with the next generation of crypto assets without having to buy them or mine them. Your Blockchain Wallet has always been the safest and easiest way to use crypto. Now, with the launch of the Blockchain Airdrops program, you can count on your Blockchain Wallet as a place to learn and discover new assets, too — all for free.
You can read the full blog of Blockchain.com over here.
I would like to thank all of you for reading this article and spreading the word. This new world we are in keeps evolving and there is a place for everyone that wants to be a part of it. See you next week.
Cheers,
Khilone
