BITCOIN NEWS ICOs Tanked Ethereum |UK vs. US: Liberalization of Fintech vs. More Regulation|Texas Congressman Calls for Stricter Cryptocurrency Regulations

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#1 UK vs. US: Liberalization of Fintech vs. More Regulation

Based on the policies involving cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technologies, UK moves to liberalization of cryptocurrencies while the US looks into more regulations.

The World Bank estimates $429 bln of remittance market in 2016. This is mostly from migrants sending remittances to their home nations, mostly done through traditional banks and other non-bank payment systems, and P2P systems.

To leverage this growing industry, the UK is finding ways to integrate Britain’s interbank payments and encourage further liberalization of P2P systems. Consequently, It is exploring ways to officially integrate cryptocurrency, testing Ripple’s Blockchain technology for cross-border payments.

NEWS #2 Major Startups Whose ICOs Tanked Ethereum Price Will Help Raise It Again

Several factors would be responsible for the Ether price to rise organically to $400 again or even higher in coming weeks. One of them would be a result of the roles of the startups whose ICOs reportedly brought down the price in the first place.

It is correct to say that the rise of ICOs is a major factor that troubled the ETH price of late. After the Status ICO, for example, there were claims that the crowdsale process contributed to the fall of ETH’s price - considering its effect on the Ethereum network and the scramble to lay hands on some of its SNTs.

Selloffs
The same has been said about Tezos, Bancor etc. These startups have to sell back some of what they were able to gather into the market to achieve their set goals.

Looking at it from this perspective, it would make sense to postulate that in the foreseeable future, the price of the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap will rise again and these startups - depending on their varying use cases - that are having their ICOs now would have a role to play then. Most of these projects are all at their planning stage as they haven’t really launched out the final version of their platforms.

ICO mania
It’s been argued that the developers are the main beneficiaries from ICO mania as most of them are now better equipped to display and improve on what they do. However, looking at CoinMarketCap, all the promising coins have at least 300 percent increase over a period of three to six months. Icostats also shows that the ROI on many startups to ETH in a year is at least 10x.

It depends on the ICO you chose to invest in as some of these projects tend to look to be more promising than others - not those with just a website, a white paper and a few developers but yet raised millions without a real business model. Some of them were built on the Ethereum network to stand as a platform on their own hosting other platforms rather than serving a singular purpose like what most other companies have been doing.

Regaining strength
At some point, ICOs will subside as only promising projects would be churned out, or there will be a mental form of screening process introduced by the growing knowledge of users. New use case ideas won’t wither completely but the evaluation process would be strengthened and only those with the best to stay the course would be seen through.

By then, Ether’s price will regain strength as major projects - especially those that will also enable non-crypto users - launched on its framework, will actualize their vision and will start disrupting their respective markets.

NEWS #3 Texas Congressman Calls for Stricter Cryptocurrency Regulations

Texas congressman Roger Williams has called for controls on cryptocurrencies to ensure they do not aid crime or terrorist activities.

The rapid rise in popularity of Bitcoin has highlighted the evolution of cryptocurrency. Consequently, it has invited a lot of criticism and skepticism as well. Most skeptics address risks due to high volatility, lack of consumer protection and the possibility of problems in central control on currency in cases of cryptocurrency being used at a large scale.

Skepticism
Williams has called for cryptocurrency startups to be subjected to anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) regulations.

These points were added as an addendum to a hearing entitled "Virtual Currency: Financial Innovation and National Security Implications," held by the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit Finance of the House Financial Services Committee on July 8, 2017.

Guarding Bitcoin
While Williams acknowledged that cryptocurrency is restructuring international finance and is increasingly offering a wide range of unprecedented opportunities, he stressed that it needs to be monitored.

Since cryptocurrency is run through digital media, it makes it vulnerable to being used by anti-state elements, terrorists and criminals, he claims.

Hence, it must have protective regulations to ensure it is not misused. To accomplish this, Williams suggested that all the cryptocurrencies in circulation must be subject to same legal requirements as the other financial institutions.

The argument put forward by digital currency operators and users is that cryptocurrency requires relaxation of these regulations to function efficiently. Williams disagrees, insisting that safeguards and controls will ensure that criminal activities are not aided and that it is used for betterment only.