The Month in Crypto — February 19

JP Morgan release a cryptocurrency, two bitcoin ETFs under review, Google adds blockchain search tools.

The News

• J.P. Morgan created their own cryptocurrency to enable instantaneous transfer of payments between institutional accounts. Called the JPM Coin, it will be physically backed by US dollars held in reserve accounts. jpmorgan
• The CEO of Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Quadriga CX, passed away without sharing the passwords that control $190M CAD of funds belonging to the users. His computer is encrypted and at this stage is seems the funds are lost forever. bloomberg
• The SEC is currently reviewing two bitcoin ETF proposals. The first, submitted by Bitwise Asset Management with NYSE Arca and the second, submitted by VanEck/SolidX and filed with Cboe BZX Exchange are both officially on the federal register. This means the SEC has a 45-day window give an initial decision on the outcome. coindesk
• Samsung included a cryptocurrency wallet in their latest smartphone, the S10. The wallet is not connected to the internet making it more secure than typical app-based cryptocurrency wallet. theverge

Capital

• Despite the bear market, cryptocurrency-related mergers and acquisitions in 2018 in the US broke records, reaching $559M in total. forbes
• The American cryptocurrency exchange, Kraken, acquired a London-based cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform for nine figures. kraken
• Figure Technologies, a blockchain-based home equity loan platform raised a series B round of $65M. finsmes
• The cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering investigator, Chainalysis, raised a $30M series B equity round. chainalysis

Adoption

• Google has introduced a suite of tools to allow some of the popular blockchains to be searched using their big-data analytics platform, BigQuery. forbes
• The House of Representatives in the American State of Wyoming has passed three blockchain bills. The first allows securities to be issued over the blockchain, the second recognises cryptocurrencies as property and the final bill will ensure blockchain businesses will have access to banking. coindesk
• Baidu, the Chinese search giant, released a blockchain developer platform to facilitate the development of blockchain applications. baidu
• Thailand’s National Legislative Assembly have amended the Securities and Exchange Act, legalising the tokenisation of securities. bangkokpost
• Telefonica announced they will trial blockchain-based platform to allow users to sell their own data in a secure and anonymous way. medium

Market:

Although far from a return to a bull market, for the first time since June the market has had a positive month with trading volumes hitting 300-day highs. The overall market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies rose 14% and is currently $131 billion USD. Bitcoin finished the month 12% up with a global average of $3,855 USD. Ethereum performed better ending the month at $138 USD, up 26% in February.