Daily Crypto Recap: India’s Stance on Cryptos Dramatized, Sea of Red as a Result
Top Crypto Headlines for Jan 31st
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- HOT! — Bittrex Pronounces USD Pairings Might Start Anytime
- ICON Annual Summit: The Team Over-Delivered, Live Blogger Reports
- Scammers Compromise the Bee Token ICO
- Andreas M. Antonopoulos Working on a New Book Called ‘Mastering Ethereum’
- Ethereum Enterprise Alliance: 80 News Members Sign in
- India’s Unocoin Launches Trading Platform
HOT! — Indian Government Warns on Cryptos, Media Outlets Exaggerate - Bitfury Launches New Tool to Be Used by Law Enforcement
HOT! — Venezuelan Government Issues White Paper on Petro (PTR) - ICON Annual Summit: Major Partnerships Announced
HOT! — US Court Puts Temporary Restraining Order on BitConnect’s Assets
HOT! — South Korea’s Wemakeprice Set to Implement Crypto Payments - Leading Chinese Internet Company Releases Their Cryptocurrency Wallet App
- CFTC Chairman Looks to Calm Crypto FUD
- Cindicator Releases Q1–2018 Roadmap
- World’s First Child Chain Listed on Bittrex
HOT! — European Commission Commences EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum - Komodo to Offer dICO Capabilities
- Bitpanda Increases Deposit/Withdrawal Limits
HOT! — Status to Invest $5 Million in P2P Messaging App Matrix
HOT! — Woori Bank’s Ripple Tests to Continue Until Feb. 14 - Waves Rolls Out Desktop App
Market Summary for Feb 1st
There are times when FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) is well justified, and others, as in Feb 1st, when it leaves you that sense of bewilderness. Judging by the sea of red in the crypto space, the former definitely applies, as the cascade of selling pressure in cryptos appeared to have one single catalyst, and that is, the rather excessively dramatized news that India’s goal is to terminate crypto activities in the country.
The India FinMin, as part of the Budget 2018 address, said: “The Government does not consider crypto-currencies legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system. The Government will explore use of Blockchain technology proactively for ushering in digital economy.”
Following that statement, a tsunami of sensationalist headlines from media outlets started to dramatize the story: “Budget 2018 Bombshell for Bitcoin: FinMin Will Eliminate Use of Cryptos” (NDTV), “Arun Jaitley has just killed India’s crypto party” (Quartz), and obviously, the British added its fair share of drama “Bitcoin in India: Has India just destroyed Bitcoin?” (Express UK).
Ajeet Khurana, Head of the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Committee of India (BACC), conceded an interview to YourStory.com, and when asked what should the end-investor in cryptocurrency take from this announcement, Khurana said: “There has been no indication by the government that it is banning exchanges. Neither does it stop people from holding a cryptocurrency. It is just saying that the government doesn’t recognize cryptocurrency as money, which no country in the world does except Japan.”
In terms of the individual performance in top cryptos by market cap, double-digit losses were dominant, with Cardano, Iota, NEM, Vechain, and ICON punished the most. Bitcoin was down over 10% to close near $9,000, while Ethereum found support circa $1,000 after a steady-selloff. On the flip side, ZCash, DigixDAO, Dentacoin, and Steem navigated the storm quite impressively. As per exchange volumes, Bitfinex and Binance stood around $2.2 billion each, with increases of 40 and 75% in volume respectively in the last 24h, while GDAX topped the board in terms of % increase, near 100% for a total of over $1 billion.
As a reminder, given that today’s sell-off may have forced many investors to resort back into USDT, be aware of the recent scrutinity by US regulators on both Bitfinex and Tether, with the break of the USDT/USD, last trading sub 0.98, a red flag to stay away frrom the potential ‘ticking bomb’ that is Tether.
Thursday left behind, other than an ongoing FUD, some bright industry-broad stories, including India’s Unocoin launching a trading platform, which should add further credibility to the remarks of the overblown headlines out of the country. Also, great news came out of the US, as a Court put a temporary restraining order on the BitConnect’s assets. Out of Asia, we also learned that South Korea’s Wemakeprice is set to implement crypto payments, while a leading Chinese internet company (Cheetah Mobile) released a cryptocurrency wallet App, which as in the case of India, suggests that the adoption for cryptos continues its course, as long as a legal framework is respected. In Europe, the European Commission began the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum. Last but not least, Andreas M. Antonopoulos announced to be working on a new book called ‘Mastering Ethereum’, as he puts it, it will be an important guide for a number of developers.
On the negative side, we were saddened to learn that more ICOs are being victims of wide-scale scam. After the hack of Experty ICO, the last episode happening in the hugely popular Bee-Token crowd-sale, with their database compromised and scammers taking over email details and the telegram room, resulting in hundreds if not thousands of innocent potential ICO contributors sending their ETH to the wrong address. Over 200 ETH were stolen from this hack, with this amount likely to grow. Also, soulless scammers went into a frenzy of tweets trying to impersonate both Vitalik Buterin and Charlie Lee, Founders of Ethereum and Litecoin respectively.
On the project-specific news front, special mention to the widely reported 1st ICON Annual Summit, where major partnerships were announced. Today’s round of shout-outs also goes to Cindicator announcing their Q1–2018 roadmap, to Walton on listing the Jiangsu Zhongke Internet of Things Technology Venture Capital as a new partner, to the Omisego team on hosting their first town hall meeting (Jan 31st), which was a great way to interact with the community. Also, to the Bitcoin community on the progress made in the lighting network, with nearly 300 hubs and 800 channels in place. To the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, who carried good news as well, welcoming 80 new members. Stratis on their engagement with Beyond Global Trade as an ICO in their platform. ARK and their community on the progress made with their ACES (Ark Contract Execution Service) project, aimed for smother interoperability. NEO also released a detailed roadmap for Trinity, their answer to scalability. We also learned that IOTA is stepping up its marketing efforts. Status announced the release of its Alpha version on iOS and Android, and plans to invest $5 mill in P2P messaging app Matrix. Lastly, to Waves rolling out its desktop application.
Main Gainers / Losers Top 100 Coins
