Cryptocurrency Daily News Bulletin: July 23, 2018

General News

China: As regulators clamp down on industry business, many Chinese investors are turning to foreign real estate markets in the US with crypto as the gateway; purchasing property directly with crypto or using BTC to gain foreign currencies without going through a bank.

Hong Kong: The Fusang Investment Office, an Asia-based fund management firm focusing on family offices, is planning to launch a crypto-custody service in Hong Kong. The custody service, Fusang Vault, will hold digital assets for clients as well as provide periodic audits. The service’s launch is planned for the fourth quarter of 2018.

India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has urged the country’s Supreme Court to regulate cryptocurrencies following its decision to move the final hearing on the RBI’s crypto ban to September.  

South Korea: The Financial Services Commission (FSC) is establishing a policymaking body to lead the country’s efforts in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era; restructuring their current framework for regulating innovation. The newly-created Financial Innovation Bureau will focus on blockchain, cryptocurrency and fintech.

Ukraine: The Financial Stability Council has supported a concept for crypto regulations. Timur Khromaev, head of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (SSMCS), said the concept involves recognizing cryptocurrencies as financial instruments, establishes the roles and functions of governmental bodies in regulating those instruments, in addition to licensing transaction participants and other factors.

United Kingdom: The Liverpool City Council (LCC) announced it will be using blockchain tech to mitigate the city’s climate impact as they aim to become the “world’s first climate-positive city by 2020.” The LCC will partner with the Poseidon Foundation to conduct a year-long trial of a blockchain platform that will facilitate the security and exchange of tokenized carbon credits with the goal of offsetting the city’s climate impact by more than 110 percent.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) has signed a new blockchain-based loan of €100 million ($117 million) with civil engineering firm ACS Group of €100 million ($117 million).

Boston College Carroll School of Management has placed the post-ICO survival rate of crypto start-ups at just 44 percent. The study examined more than 4,000 ICOs that raised a total of $12 billion in capital between January 2017 and March 2018. Despite the low survival rate, they find that the average return from the token sale price to the opening market price is about 179 percent, over a holding period of just 16 days.

Coinbase has become the first crypto industry organisation in the US to form a political action committee (PAC) as part of a push to increase its presence in DC. This comes after the Business Insider reported that Coinbase has secured an unnamed $20 billion hedge fund for its custody service.

ECON: A study on the issues of competition in fintech, commissioned by the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), found that central bank-issued digital currencies (CBDC’s) could be a “remedy” for a lack of competition policy in the crypto sector.

G20 have released the official communique and in the report, they claim that crypto assets do not pose a global financial stability risk. They have given an October deadline for the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to clarify how it’s AML standards apply to crypto-assets.

TP ICAP is setting up a group to explore crypto trading.

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin $7,693.16 USD (3.29 percent) price rose by nearly 5 percent overnight on Sunday to touch the $7800 resistance level. This unexplained boost could be due to more investors taking their money out of altcoins and sliding them into the top cryptocurrency. BTC has now reached a 46 percent dominance over the market with more trading volume than other altcoins, which have not followed BTC price movements as closely since the rally. CME Group’s BTC futures average daily volume spiked 93 percent in the second quarter over the previous quarter, while open interest increased 58 percent. Meanwhile, a team of BTC engineers have announced the launch of the Bitcoin Operations Technology Group (Bitcoin Optech) focussed on addressing the problem of Bitcoin’s scalability.

General News

China: As regulators clamp down on industry business, many Chinese investors are turning to foreign real estate markets in the US with crypto as the gateway; purchasing property directly with crypto or using BTC to gain foreign currencies without going through a bank.

Hong Kong: The Fusang Investment Office, an Asia-based fund management firm focusing on family offices, is planning to launch a crypto-custody service in Hong Kong. The custody service, Fusang Vault, will hold digital assets for clients as well as provide periodic audits. The service’s launch is planned for the fourth quarter of 2018.

India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has urged the country’s Supreme Court to regulate cryptocurrencies following its decision to move the final hearing on the RBI’s crypto ban to September.  

South Korea: The Financial Services Commission (FSC) is establishing a policymaking body to lead the country’s efforts in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era; restructuring their current framework for regulating innovation. The newly-created Financial Innovation Bureau will focus on blockchain, cryptocurrency and fintech.

Ukraine: The Financial Stability Council has supported a concept for crypto regulations. Timur Khromaev, head of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (SSMCS), said the concept involves recognizing cryptocurrencies as financial instruments, establishes the roles and functions of governmental bodies in regulating those instruments, in addition to licensing transaction participants and other factors.

United Kingdom: The Liverpool City Council (LCC) announced it will be using blockchain tech to mitigate the city’s climate impact as they aim to become the “world’s first climate-positive city by 2020.” The LCC will partner with the Poseidon Foundation to conduct a year-long trial of a blockchain platform that will facilitate the security and exchange of tokenized carbon credits with the goal of offsetting the city’s climate impact by more than 110 percent.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) has signed a new blockchain-based loan of €100 million ($117 million) with civil engineering firm ACS Group of €100 million ($117 million).

Boston College Carroll School of Management has placed the post-ICO survival rate of crypto start-ups at just 44 percent. The study examined more than 4,000 ICOs that raised a total of $12 billion in capital between January 2017 and March 2018. Despite the low survival rate, they find that the average return from the token sale price to the opening market price is about 179 percent, over a holding period of just 16 days.

Coinbase has become the first crypto industry organisation in the US to form a political action committee (PAC) as part of a push to increase its presence in DC. This comes after the Business Insider reported that Coinbase has secured an unnamed $20 billion hedge fund for its custody service.

ECON: A study on the issues of competition in fintech, commissioned by the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), found that central bank-issued digital currencies (CBDC’s) could be a “remedy” for a lack of competition policy in the crypto sector.

G20 have released the official communique and in the report, they claim that crypto assets do not pose a global financial stability risk. They have given an October deadline for the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to clarify how it’s AML standards apply to crypto-assets.

TP ICAP is setting up a group to explore crypto trading.

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin $7,693.16 USD (3.29 percent) price rose by nearly 5 percent overnight on Sunday to touch the $7800 resistance level. This unexplained boost could be due to more investors taking their money out of altcoins and sliding them into the top cryptocurrency. BTC has now reached a 46 percent dominance over the market with more trading volume than other altcoins, which have not followed BTC price movements as closely since the rally. CME Group’s BTC futures average daily volume spiked 93 percent in the second quarter over the previous quarter, while open interest increased 58 percent. Meanwhile, a team of BTC engineers have announced the launch of the Bitcoin Operations Technology Group (Bitcoin Optech) focussed on addressing the problem of Bitcoin’s scalability.

– WN.com, Jamie Saarloos