The Month in Crypto — August 19

The News

• Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange launched a USD backed stablecoin. The stablecoin was launched with approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services. binance
• The physically-settled bitcoin futures exchange, Bakkt, was launched on the 23rd September. Despite low volumes being traded, the launch was blamed for a 15% price tumble the following day. A similar fall was seen when CME launched their bitcoin futures product in 2017. forbes
• The SEC fined blockchain company block.one $24M for conducting an unregistered initial coin offering that raised the equivalent of several billion dollars. reuters

Capital

• Everledger closed a $20M equity round led by Tencent with Bloomberg Beta, Rakuten and Fidelity participating. Everldeger offers an immutable ledger to secure assets like diamonds and wine. venturebeat
• The blockchain forensics firm, Elliptic raised $23M led by SBI Holdings. Elliptic are known for finding the funds and actors behind several large cryptocurrency hacks. coindesk
• Binance acquired the cryptocurrency exchange JEX for an undisclosed amount to boost their crypto derivatives offering. coindesk

Adoption

• Deutsche Bank have joined the interbank information network, a blockchain based payments network built by JP Morgan. theblockcrypto
• Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain announced the implementation of a blockchain food tracking solution to provide visibility to their supply chain. forbes
• Wells Fargo announced they are trialling a digital currency for faster and cheaper internal transactions. reuters

Market:

September was a stable month until the launch of the Bakkt futures exchange on the 23rd. The day following, bitcoin slid 15% in one hour, falling through support levels. Overall bitcoin was down 12% in September, finishing the month at $8,450 USD. Ethereum performed stronger to finish the month 5% up at $178 USD.