📰 Bitcoin Weekly Review: BitMEX CEO Is Not Sure Will Someone Buy "Sh*t" Or Not, ICE's Bakkt Delayed, France Allows To Buy BTC/ETH at Tobacco Shops And Other Top News

icotelegraph (60)in #bitcoin • 5 years ago

Now: → Bitfinex increased the minimum commission for fiat withdrawals up to $60/60 euro (x3). The exchange also adds trading for RSK (RBTC).

Top News

ICE’s Bakkt Launch Delayed Until 2019

The launch date of the trading platform developed by Intercontinental Exchange has been postponed. This event could be the most significant in the industry over the past six months. But it became known that the first product of Bakkt, Bitcoin futures, will appear only on January 24 of 2019. Derivatives trading will start on the same day as proposed.

«As is often true with product launches, there are new processes, risks and mitigants to test and re-test, and in the case of crypto, a new asset class to which these resources are being applied. So it makes sense to adjust our timeline as we work with the industry toward launch»

It is possible that the collapse on the cryptocurrency market was one of the reasons why many players are not yet ready to make their offer to mass buyers or institutional investors.

The team has repeatedly reported that futures are not the only one product that will trade on the platform or complement its services. Details about this will be known in the coming weeks.

The U.S. Justice Department Accused Tether And Bitfinex In Market Manipulations

The cryptocurrency market has been subject to long-term investigations by some regulators. Sources "familiar to the matter" reported that the US Department of Justice is conducting an investigation jointly with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC).

The US Department of Justice intends to find out how Tether Ltd issues new coins and why most of them go through the Bitfinex exchange. Although a criminal charge may be brought on the fact of the investigations, so far neither the exchange nor the founders of the stablecoin have been accused officially.

The Justice Department is investigating how Bitfinex and Tether could have impacted the Bitcoin price in 2017. Almost all of us are confident that even 2 major players are not able to globally change the market as it happened almost a year ago, however, the hypothesis about the influence of Bitfinex/Tether on cryptomarket was proposed by the regulators themselves.

Opinions

Hoskinson: «Satoshi Did Something Completely Magical And Wonderful. Nobody Really Followed Up On It»

Charles Hoskinson, the co-founder of Ethereum and IOHK (Cardano), expressed his attitude to Bitcoin technology, mentioning that he considers this cryptocurrency as a series of experiments based on 2 key concepts.

«Can we achieve a decentralized form of value transfer or some sort of proto-money, and, instead of having a central entity issuing a token and securing it, can we release something decentralized with a secure ledger? And, if that happens, will it achieve real value in the marketplace?»

(Source - full interview.)

As we understand, the experiment was taken as a model, and many began to believe in Bitcoin as the final prototype for the cryptocurrency. Now, when the market moves down, Bitcoin is being rethought and considered as a means of payment, not as digital share, and here the coin has not the best results. On the other hand, the idea of improving the Bitcoin protocol has become a kind of a buzzword for many projects. Will we meet something new in this area?

Arthur Hayes: «Who Will Buy This Sh*T»? Major projects delays ICO start due to falling market

Last week BitMEX exchange CEO Arthur Hayes shared his thoughts on 12 ICOs, which raised more than $50 million, but didn't release their tokens to secondary markets. The projects that were listed by Hayes are potentially popular tokens in the future that have already received the support of investors and funds.

*«These deals have massive valuations, and many of the most venerated token funds took down large chunks. It is unclear when, if ever, these deals will ever list on the secondary market.

Given the large amount of token supply out there, who will buy this shit?
[…] 2019 is going to be the year of reckoning for many funds. You can mark something to an absurd level in year 1. But the meter starts again on January 1st.»*

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Earlier, Hayes had already predicted the fall of Bitcoin to $5,000 and $2,000. The first prediction has already been confirmed, so that we are at the level of $3,500 - the middle between these two key psychological points. If we analyze the attitude of the media to Bitcoin as a whole, then we see an almost final fall in the authority of cryptocurrency as a potentially profitable asset: many authors are very critical now.

November 19

$135 Million Of Derivative Contracts Caused Damage To OKEx Taders

$ 135 million in the form of BCH futures turned out to be too big a deal for one of the largest exchanges, OKEx. The exchange limited trading in assets, which was extremely volatile in those days - probably, it was a kind of manipulation. OKEx demonstrates low liquidity in the conditions of market fluctuations not for the first time.

Huobi Now Works With China's Communist Party

The exchange aims to get support from the Chinese government: Huobi unit in Beijing set up the special committee to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party. Since cryptocurrency trading is banned in China, then Huobi has only consulting and research centres here; the conclusion of such contracts is part of the practice for all state and some private companies.

November 20

cnLedger: «Tens Of Thousands Of Bitcoin Miners Were Shut Down Due To The Recent Market Crash»

The founder of the sixth largest mining pool F2Pool, located in China, published a video in which mining devices seem to be thrown out and are no longer used. Whether this video relates to the market crash in recent days or not, the hashrate on the Bitcoin network has shown a significant drop in the last 30 days, and some types of mining have stopped making a profit. However, some believe that this is the consequences of flooding in Sichuan.

Lawsuit Against Coinbase Now Includes Details About Bitcoin Cash Insider Trading

The claimants are certain that one of the largest US cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase, intentionally created the conditions for BCH insider traders and allowed them to sell assets at the best price. At the same time, the internal investigation of Coinbase did not find evidence of insider trading. Nevertheless, the applicants have several arguments, for example, correspondence of insiders about future fluctuations in the Bitcoin Cash tradings.

Bitcoin As A Payment Method Lost 80% Of Popularity

According to Chainalysis, from December 2017 - September 2018, the use of Bitcoin as a means of payment decreased by 80%. The largest providers (like BitPay) processed transactions worth $427 million by December, but in September of this year, this value was only $96 million. The reasons for this include the general market changes and development of the Lightning Network (LN).

Huobi's Derivative Market Platform Is Now Live

Huobi DM allows users to open short and long positions, and receive income from cryptocurrency price changes. Weekly, bi-weekly and quarterly contracts are now available for traders. The nominal value of one Bitcoin derivative on the platform is $100, other contracts can be purchased for $10.

VanEck Launches MVIS Bitcoin US OTC Spot Index

Cumberland, Genesis Trading, and Circle Trade, are providing data for a future VanEck’s ETF index. MVIS Bitcoin US OTC Spot Index can be used by institutional investors. It is said that MVIS will be more reliable than exchange data. It is noted that OTC trade now has a much greater potential than the usual cryptocurrency market, and is estimated at $20 billion in recent days.

November 21

Crypto Exchange Quoine Being Sued In Singapore

According to local media, the Singapore International Commercial Court has begun consideration of the case between the B2C2 (crypto OTC liquidity provider) and the cryptocurrency exchange Quoine. B2C2 intends to recover 3085 BTCs from Quoine: according to the applicants, the exchange made an unlawful cancellation of BTC/ETH orders (with 10 BTC for 1 ETH).

Russian cryptocurrency exchange WEX changed its domain (trading BTC with Kimchi at $8300)

Russian cryptocurrency exchange WEX changed its domain wex.nz to wex.link mirror. The old domain was suspended due to doubts about the authenticity of registration data. Users of the exchange have problems with withdrawals for a long time; there BTC is traded at $8100-$8300.

November 22/23

Five Largest EU Banks Join The Blockchain Association

The 5 large banks in EU, including BBVA, have been invited to join a blockchain forum organized by the European Commission (EC) in Brussels to, subsequently, join the launch of the IATBA (International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (IATBA)). It is likely that the association will be engaged in the blockchain development and organization of interaction with European regulators.

Ethereum Developers Changing Roadmap For The New Update

Ethereum developers are planning a new update aimed at increasing the capabilities of the technology. This upgrade is accelerated and not quite combined with the roadmap of the project that has been presented previously. Some developers do not know anything about the implementation of ethereum 1x or any other protocol in this order. Possible updates may include the potential EVM replacement, the establishment of a lease for the storage of smart contracts. Probably some decisions were made during secret meetings.

Traders Paid $40,000 For Bitcoin At Market Highs

Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust. sold a number of its shares equivalent to one bitcoin, for a 2x price at the peak value of the currency. In December 2017, the main buyers of GBTC were institutional investors, who were able to pay $40,000 for Bitcoin derivatives, which have been trading at $20,000 at that time. (Bitcoin Investment Trust was the only regulated seller.) This is what institutional money means.

Bitcoin And Ethereum Will Be Available In French Tobacco Shops

Tobacco stores will act as intermediaries, and processing support will be provided by KeplerK and Bimedia. At first, about 4,000 stores across the country will install software for selling digital currencies. The link may be the upcoming price increase for tobacco products in France.

Mt. Gox: Rehabilitation Requirements Can Be Received Until December 26, 2018 (not confirmed)

The trustee of the infamous Mt.Gox exchange Nobuaki Kobayashi announced his intention to extend the closure of receiving applications for civil rehabilitation until the end of this year. If the deadline for submission of applications will be extended, users will be able to use it until December 26, 2018. November 22: Announcement for Handling of Proofs of Rehabilitation Claims Filed After Deadline.

Market Review: Weekly

The rapid crash of the cryptocurrency market continues. So, the price of Bitcoin dropped below $4000 for the first time since September 2017. And this is despite the fact that on Monday, November 19, Bitcoin overcame the psychological point of $ 5000. As for the interim daily totals, Bitcoin is traded at nearly $3,800, but this value still remains extremely unstable.

Ethereum fell below $100, traded at around $98, but now the price of the asset has slightly recovered to $110, the same thing happened with the dominant currency, Bitcoin. Probably, such a market can still give an advantage in short-term.

Weekly Ripple Quotes: «XRP does not have mining, but 80% of Bitcoin [BTC] are mined in China» «XRP is now being used more than Bitcoin» - Cory Johnson, the Chief Market Strategist at Ripple.

Weekly Positive: Tom Lee still stands by $15,000 for 1 BTC at the end of the year.