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CoinDesk Crypto

Bitcoin Down 1% After Biggest Weekly Price Gain Since July

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Bitcoin (BTC) has crossed into bullish territory with the biggest weekly gain in 2.5 months.

  • The top cryptocurrency by market value climbed nearly 6.6% in the seven days to Oct. 11, capping its biggest single-week percentage rise since the last week of July.
  • The flipping of the stiff resistance of $11,200 (Sept. 18) into support is bullish, according to Stack Funds research analyst Lennard Neo.
  • So far, however, the follow-through to the breakout has been poor: The cryptocurrency is currently trading in the red near $11,250, having printed highs near $11,500 over the weekend.
  • However, the pullback may be short-lived, miner outflows suggest.
  • Last week, bitcoin miners sold more than they generated and ran down inventory by around 1,000 BTC, according to data source Bytetree.com.
  • The miners’ rolling inventory (MRI) figure, which tracks the changes in how much bitcoin miners are holding, held well above 100% last week; the five- and 12-week MRIs are also above 100%.
  • Miners liquidate their holdings almost on a daily basis to cover operational costs but will offer more when they feel the market has the strength to absorb the additional coins without harming price.
  • As such, the increased miner outflow is sign of strength in the market, according to Charlie Morris, chief investment officer at ByteTree Asset Management.
  • Additionally, payment company Square's recent disclosure of major bitcoin investments has given market players a fresh shot of confidence, Philip Gradwell, chief economist at the blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, told CoinDesk.
  • The major portion of the last week’s 6.6% rise happened after Square announced its bitcoin investment on Thursday.
  • While the path of least resistance for bitcoin appears to be on the higher side, a move to the next major resistance at $12,000 may remain elusive if the resurgence of the coronavirus cases across Europe, tanks global equities and boosts haven demand for the U.S. dollar.
  • “The macro-environment factors still play a strong factor in the direction of BTC as its correlation to the SPX [S&P 500] continues,” data analytics firm Santiment noted.
  • Disclosure: The author holds small positions in bitcoin and litecoin.

Also read: Bitcoin Nears $11.5K on US Stimulus Prospects, Seems to Confirm Bullish Trend

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Spate of Bitcoin Extortion Bomb Threats Hits Government, Schools in Japan

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Local government premises in Japan have been hit by a flood of extortion attempts demanding bitcoin over the least three months.

  • According to a report by Japan Today on Monday, such threats have been received in at least 18 prefectures since July.
  • The extortionists demand a payment in bitcoin to avoid the detonation of an explosive device, per the report.
  • Austria has also suffered a spate of similar bomb threats, as CoinDesk reported back in August.
  • Japan Post said that city halls or schools have been the subject of the threats, receiving an email demanding varying amounts of bitcoin.
  • In one case in Yamagata City, the demand was for 40 bitcoin, worth over $454,000 at time of writing.
  • The cases in Austria were demanding about $20,000 in bitcoin; prices were at slightly higher levels around $11,700 per bitcoin at the time.
  • None of the Japanese victims have paid the extortionists, per Japan Today.
  • Rather than choose major metropolitan centers, the attackers seem to be targeting local governments in rural areas, such as Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture; Tara, Saga Prefecture; and Minami, Tokushima Prefecture, among others.
  • The report theorizes that the extortion attempts are coming from outside of Japan, though there seems to be no evidence to back up the claim.

Also read: Wave of Bitcoin-Seeking Bomb Threats Sparks Probe by Austrian Police

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CoinDesk

Spate of Bitcoin Extortion Bomb Threats Hit Government, Schools in Japan

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Local government premises in Japan have been hit by a flood of extortion attempts demanding bitcoin over the least three months.

  • According to a report by Japan Today on Monday, such threats have been received in at least 18 prefectures since July.
  • The extortionists demand a payment in bitcoin to avoid the detonation of an explosive device, per the report.
  • Austria has also suffered a spate of similar bomb threats, as CoinDesk reported back in August.
  • Japan Post said that city halls or schools have been the subject of the threats, receiving an email demanding varying amounts of bitcoin.
  • In one case in Yamagata City, the demand was for 40 bitcoin, worth over $454,000 at time of writing.
  • The cases in Austria were demanding about $20,000 in bitcoin; prices were at slightly higher levels around $11,700 per bitcoin at the time.
  • None of the Japanese victims have paid the extortionists, per Japan Today.
  • Rather than choose major metropolitan centers, the attackers seem to be targeting local governments in rural areas, such as Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture; Tara, Saga Prefecture; and Minami, Tokushima Prefecture, among others.
  • The report theorizes that the extortion attempts are coming from outside of Japan, though there seems to be no evidence to back up the claim.

Also read: Wave of Bitcoin-Seeking Bomb Threats Sparks Probe by Austrian Police

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BitMEX Exchange Hires Compliance Chief After US Charges

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

BitMEX, the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange recently charged by U.S. authorities, has hired an industry veteran to lead its compliance efforts going forward.

  • In a blog post Monday, the exchange’s operator 100x announced that Malcolm Wright will come aboard as chief compliance officer for the group.
  • Wright comes with 30 years of experience in compliance and anti-money laundering, per the post.
  • He currently chairs the Advisory Council and AML Working Group at Global Digital Finance, as well as being a speaker on topics including the Financial Action Tasks Force’s international guidance for regulators around virtual asset service providers.
  • According to his LinkedIn profile, Wright is also an associate fellow of the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at the U.K.’s Royal United Services Institute – a body working to address financial crimes.
  • 100x said the new hire will lead the group’s compliance efforts internationally and will report to the new interim CEO and COO Vivien Khoo.
  • Khoo replaced former CEO Arthur Hayes last week amid the fallout from the legal issues that hit the company on Oct. 1.
  • BitMEX, other associated entities including 100x and its founders were charged by both the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and federal prosecutors in New York over allegations the exchange had illegally offered derivatives trading to customers in the U.S. and violated the Bank Secrecy Act.
  • BitMEX’s operator has since said it will carry out business as usual but saw fit to shake up the executive team, removing Hayes and other founders Samuel Reed and Ben Delo from executive roles.
  • The hire of the compliance chief would seem to be the latest reaction to the charges, and an effort to avoid similar situations going forward.
  • 100x told CoinDesk the “compliance function” of the group was previously led by Khoo.

Also read: BitMEX CTO Released in US After Payment of $5M Bond

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Elon Musk Plays Down Sighting of Bitcoin ATM in Tesla Gigafactory

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Elon Musk has thrown doubt on a claimed sighting of a bitcoin ATM at the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada.

  • The ATM was first claimed to have been sighted by Twitter user Will Reeves who posted on Sunday that he had “just passed by and saw @elonmusk has a bitcoin ATM at the Gigafactory.”
  • The tweet was accompanied by a Google maps image revealing the location of the ATM on the northern side of the massive factory complex.
  • According to a Sunday report by Finbold, the ATM was installed by LibertyX in August of this year solely for the use by employees of the factory.
  • However, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk said he didn’t believe the claim was “accurate” in a tweet on Monday. The post Musk was replying to has now been deleted, presumably in response to his tweet.
  • CoinDesk reached out to Tesla for confirmation but had not received a reply by press time.
  • However, Reeves’ sighting was apparently confirmed to CoinDesk by bitcoin ATM operator LibertyX in a direct message, which said: “We have enabled 3 traditional ATMs inside so employees can use their debit cards and buy bitcoin.”
  • LibertyX now claims to have over 5,000 crypto ATMs in operation across the U.S., as well as a bitcoin buying service in around 20,000 stores.

See also: Bitcoin ATM Growth May Be a Boon for Money Launderers

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Revamped Crypto Derivatives Exchange Qume Set to Fly in Wake of BitMEX Woes

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

The timing couldn’t be better for regulation-focused trading platform Qume, which unveils a revamped set of services Monday. Even in its soft-launch phase, the derivatives exchange has been mopping up customers in the wake of U.S. charges against BitMEX.

“We’ve seen an uptick in users with about 2,000 customer sign-ups in the last week,” Aditya Mishra, CEO of the Singapore-based Qume, said in an interview. “In terms of specific trading volume, I guess we will really know in the next week or so.”

Nearly 30% of BitMEX’s bitcoin balance has been withdrawn by customers since U.S. regulators cracked down on the firm on Oct. 1, according to Coin Metrics, with big players like Binance, Gemini and Kraken being the immediate beneficiaries.

Related: UK Crypto Derivatives Ban Seen Having Limited Effect on Small Market

Having noticed that the crypto derivatives space operated “like the Wild West,” Mishra said the clampdown by U.S. regulators and federal prosecutors did not come as a huge surprise within the derivatives community.

The goal for Qume, from back in January 2019 when it began being built, was to be regulation-first, Mishra said. 

“Our focus was to build out a high-performance crypto derivatives exchange, and have it sit under some sort of regulatory framework,” he said. “In the last year and a half or so, the market has obviously evolved, and there are several other derivatives participants who have emerged. Some of them are doing pretty well for themselves but most operate in a fairly unregulated fashion.”

Read more: UK Crypto Derivatives Ban Seen Having Limited Effect on Small Market

Related: CME Sounding Out Crypto Traders to Gauge Market Demand for Ether Futures, Options

Qume, which is incorporated in Singapore, grew out of the sandbox of the Central Bank of Bahrain. In terms of know-your-customer (KYC) and anti–money laundering (AML) compliance, a team including former employees of JPMorgan and Nomura drafted up a regulatory framework. In addition, Qume last week completed the integration of Berlin-based Fractal, which uses AI and runs photos of new users across KYC databases in their home jurisdictions.   

The derivatives platform does not offer its services to customers based in the U.S. or retail customers in the U.K.

Just last week the Financial Conduct Authority finalized its ban on crypto derivatives to retail customers based in Britain.

DEX hybrid

Thanks to the explosive growth of decentralized finance (DeFi), firms like Qume are busy figuring out how to build bridges to a more decentralized trading experience, focusing on areas like custody.  

The platform, which previously raised $3.5 million with a cap table that includes DeFi darlings like Robert Leshner and Calvin Liu of Compound Finance, provides customers with a kind of hybrid offering that can operate like a decentralized exchange (DEX).

To this end, Qume teamed up with Hashflow, a protocol that helps platforms combine centralized order-matching and trade execution with decentralized custody and post-trade settlement.

To decentralize the entire trading experience is doable but kind of clunky, said Mishra, who claims to have struck a balance. He said Qume’s centralized aspect has sub-millisecond latency and institutional-grade throughput of between 100,000 and 200,000 transactions per second. On the other hand, the DEX component is there thanks to Hashflow’s second-layer protocol.

“So we can have two different sorts of customers,” said Mishra. “There is a certain type of user that really cares about decentralization and will only come and trade if they control their own keys. But then there is also the more traditional customer from India, for example, who just sees the volatility in the crypto markets, but doesn’t necessarily want any exposure to crypto as such.”

Read more: Crypto Long & Short: A UK Ban on Crypto Derivatives Will Hurt, Not Protect Investors

Rather than focusing on the typical Asia markets, Qume is directing its attention towards fresh pastures in India, the Middle East and Africa, said Mishra. The company is poised to make inroads to the Indian crypto market, driven by the acquisition of Indian spot exchange BitPolo back in August of this year.

“India is still a gray area for now but my personal opinion is there should be a regulatory framework for crypto, especially given the size of the developer talent pool in the jurisdiction,” said Mishra. “Just look at the strides being made in China. I think it would be a travesty if India is kept out of this technology revolution.”

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UK Crypto Derivatives Ban Seen Having Limited Effect on Small Market

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s decision to ban individual investors from speculating on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is likely to have a minimal impact, partly because the market is so small, according to analysts and industry executives who track the trading business.

Some U.K.-based brokerages that had offered the crypto derivative products to retail traders could see a drop-off in revenue, though big cryptocurrency exchanges including Kraken say the impact is likely to be minimal. While U.K. individuals can still trade the actual cryptocurrencies, there may be some traders who will seek to skirt the rules by trading on offshore exchanges.

The ban is set to take effect in January. Professional investors weren’t barred from trading cryptocurrency derivatives partly because they “have greater understanding of the risks and greater capacity to absorb potential investment losses,” according to an FCA report this month.

Related: Crypto Long & Short: A UK Ban on Crypto Derivatives Will Hurt, Not Protect Investors

“Those still keen on trading crypto derivatives will just find ways to open accounts in unaffected regions,” Don Guo, CEO of Broctagon Fintech Group, told CoinDesk in an email. “There is a stark risk that retail traders will simply trade on unregulated exchanges, which in fact puts them at more risk.”

Few U.K.-based retail investors trade crypto derivative products directly, according to Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks, which provides price indexes to exchanges including Chicago-based CME Group.

Instead, they normally go through so-called contract for difference (CFD) providers, Chung said. 

Regulated brokers and exchanges that had offered crypto derivatives and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) to retail traders included the Kraken-owned Crypto Facilities, CMC Markets and IG Index.

Related: CME Sounding Out Crypto Traders to Gauge Market Demand for Ether Futures, Options

“This has a very minimal impact on Crypto Facilities,” a Crypto Facilities spokesperson told CoinDesk in an email.

“We anticipate no material impact resulting from the FCA announcement as these products form a very small part of our diversified and global business,” IG Group told CoinDesk in a statement. ”The impacted revenue following the FCA restrictions would be less than 1% of IG Group’s overall revenue.”

As recently as May, crypto made up 2.7% of IG Group’s total revenue this year, of which the U.K. market was only 1% to 1.5%, according to a research note by Vivek Raja and Paul McGinnis, analysts from Shore Capital, on Oct 6. According to the note, crypto was within 18% of CMC Markets’ total revenue as of March.

Both CME Group and CMC Markets declined CoinDesk’s request to comment on this topic.

A research report released by the FCA on June 30 estimated that about 3.86% of the general population hold cryptocurrencies in the U.K., with 12% of respondents saying they “never” monitor the prices of their cryptocurrencies.

“Consumers seem to treat cryptocurrencies as a form of speculation akin to gambling, rather than as a payment or investment,” according to the report.

A separate FCA report this month indicated that some 97% of comments submitted in connection with the rulemaking were opposed to agency’s proposed ban.

“With most of the bigger firms, whether that’s Coinbase or Gemini, I think the majority of them aren’t affected by it,” Yang Li, the chief growth officer at Ziglu, a U.K.-based cryptocurrency platform, said in an interview with CoinDesk. “It was a niche product.”

A silver lining for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies might be that with more robust regulations on nascent digital-asset markets might encourage more institutional investors to jump in.

“Any step toward a better-defined regulatory framework serves to legitimize crypto as a mainstream investment for those institutions,” said Dmitry Tokarev, CEO of London-based crypto custodian Copper, told CoinDesk via email.

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Pelosi Says Stimulus Talks at Impasse; Trump Blames Pelosi: Report

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that talks over a new stimulus package remain at a standstill, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

  • Pelosi said the Trump administration’s nearly $1.9 trillion proposal still lacks adequate funding and has no plan for national testing and contact tracing, the WSJ reported.
  • Meanwhile, the president laid responsibility for the holdup on the House speaker: “Republicans want to do it. We’re having a hard time with Nancy Pelosi,” the WSJ quoted the president as saying Sunday on Fox News.
  • But yesterday it was reported that some in the GOP were reluctant to back the president’s proposal, instead voicing support for a much smaller package.
  • In addition, the White House proposal would expand the Affordable Care Act’s provisions for people who have lost their jobs – and therefore insurance – during the pandemic. As many in the GOP have been trying to scrap the ACA, the proposal to expand it is problematic to say the least, the WSJ said.
  • Why this matter in the crypto world: Bitcoin (BTC) prices have been buoyed this year as investors bet that trillions of dollars of government and central bank spending around the world in response to the coronavirus-induced slowdown will inevitably result in inflation, and therefore be positive for the cryptocurrency.
  • With that in mind, should the two sides reach an agreement on a pandemic-relief package, the price of BTC could rise as a result.
  • In recent trading, BTC was trading at $11,425, up 0.43% in the last 24 hours.

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Ripple’s Larsen Says US Risks Losing Stewardship of Global Financial System to China, Disses SEC

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Chris Larsen, Ripple co-founder and chairman of the payments technology company’s board of directors, said China’s “itching” to be the one that designs the next financial system and that the U.S. is “woefully behind.”

  • Speaking at the LA Blockchain Summit last week, Larsen said the U.S. needs to face up to that it’s in a tech cold war with China with the fate of control of the world’s financial system at stake. Right now, China’s winning, he said.
  • “China is just itching to be the one that designs this next system,” Larsen said. “They’ve committed $1.4 trillion to a variety of technologies and blockchain is right at the top of their list.” 
  • It’s not just that China’s pumping money into technology, the regulatory environment in the U.S. is actively discouraging financial innovation, he said.
  • “I just have to say it, in the U.S., all things blockchain, digital currency, they start and end with the SEC, Larsen said. “Instead of pivoting to encouraging U.S. innovation to keep up, they’ve done the opposite.”
  • “We’re going to have to change up here or we’re going to lose our leadership, stewardship of the global financial system,” he said. “That would be a tragedy.”
  • As CoinDesk reported at the time, Larsen also said his company could leave the U.S. if the regulatory environment doesn’t improve.

See also: SEC Will Be Forced to Give Crypto Guidance Despite Bureaucracy, Risk-Avoidance: Peirce

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CoinDesk

Ripple’s Larsen Says US Risks Losing Stewardship of Global Financial System to China, Dissing SEC

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Chris Larsen, Ripple co-founder and chairman of the payments technology company’s board of directors, said China’s “itching” to be the one that designs the next financial system and that the U.S. is “woefully behind.”

  • Speaking at the LA Blockchain Summit last week, Larsen said the U.S. needs to face up to that it’s in a tech cold war with China with the fate of control of the world’s financial system at stake. Right now, China’s winning, he said.
  • “China is just itching to be the one that designs this next system,” Larsen said. “They’ve committed $1.4 trillion to a variety of technologies and blockchain is right at the top of their list.” 
  • It’s not just that China’s pumping money into technology, the regulatory environment in the U.S. is actively discouraging financial innovation, he said.
  • “I just have to say it, in the U.S., all things blockchain, digital currency, they start and end with the SEC, Larsen said. “Instead of pivoting to encouraging U.S. innovation to keep up, they’ve done the opposite.”
  • “We’re going to have to change up here or we’re going to lose our leadership, stewardship of the global financial system,” he said. “That would be a tragedy.”
  • As CoinDesk reported at the time, Larsen also said his company could leave the U.S. if the regulatory environment doesn’t improve.

See also: SEC Will Be Forced to Give Crypto Guidance Despite Bureaucracy, Risk-Avoidance: Peirce

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Coinbase Senior Software Engineer Left This Week, Unclear if Departure Linked to New Policy

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Andrei Anisimov, whose LinkedIn profile still describes him as a “Senior Software Engineer” at Coinbase, tweeted Saturday that this had been his last week at the cryptocurrency exchange. At press time it wasn’t clear whether Anisimov was one of the 60 people who accepted a severance package that was offered this week.

  • In a company-wide memo obtained earlier this week by CoinDesk, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong informed employees that 5% of the company’s 1,200-person workforce had accepted the severance package offered last week. 
  • The severance offer was made in response to disagreement about Armstrong’s recent statement that his company’s policy was not to engage in “broader societal issues” or entertain employee discussions about it.
  • According to LinkedIn, Anisimov had been with the exchange for just over a year.
  • A direct message to him via Twitter seeking comment was read but not immediately responded to. In another Tweet he praised his former company, saying, “If you’re thinking of joining Coinbase – don’t hesitate, it’ll be worth it.”

Read more: 5% of Coinbase Employees Take Severance Offer Over ‘Apolitical’ Stance

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Shenzhen Giving Away Millions in Digital Yuan in Lottery to Boost Consumption, Test Tech: Report

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

The rapidly growing city of Shenzhen will be giving away 10 million yuan (US$1.47 million) of China’s new sovereign digital money via lottery, as China seeks to test out and stimulate the usage of the digital funds, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.

  • Winners will be announced on Sunday and the currency can be used at 3,389 shops. They can’t be transferred or moved into a regular bank account, the report said.
  • The promotion is part of China’s plan to move solely to digital currency, known as the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP).
  • The new currency has been used in more than a billion yuan worth of transactions across the country n a series of test programs over the past 12 months.

    See also: China Sees Advantages in Being First on New Digital Currency ‘Battlefield’
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SEC Will Be Forced to Give Crypto Guidance Despite Bureaucracy, Risk-Avoidance: Peirce

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner (SEC) Hester Peirce, well known for her pro-cryptocurrencies views, said increased interest in the space will necessarily force the regulatory body to shift toward a more accommodating stance, but it won’t be easy, according to a recent interview with Cointelegraph.

  • “While we’ve been very slow in giving guidance, there is more and more interest from a wide spectrum of people, both inside the crypto space as well as inside the traditional financial institutions who are asking us for guidance,” Peirce said. “The landscape is changing so quickly.”
  • “So I think we’re going to be forced to confront that more and more in the coming years.”
  • Peirce blamed bureaucracy for the SEC’s slowness to react to financial innovation, saying it acts as an impediment to change and discourages risk-taking.
  • “It’s really difficult,” the commissioner said. “There’s so many different layers of bureaucracy things need to get through and people tend to be very hesitant to make decisions because when they do the ramifications come back on them if something goes wrong so it’s easier to kick the can down the road.”
  • On the positive side, Peirce said that pro-crypto moves in the U.S. by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as well as actions by regulators in other countries are slowly prodding the SEC into action.
  • She also said there are a growing number of people at the SEC, many who are interested in crypto, who want the body to become more innovation-friendly. That combined with the growing interest in financial innovation will eventually cause the regulatory agency to shift, she said.
  • On another issue, the commissioner said Congress needs to be thinking about smart contracts and decentralized finance so it can give the SEC directives on how it wants the regulator to handle them.
  • Peirce said that while she hopes the SEC will revisit its decisions to reject BTC Exchange-Traded Funds, she declined to predict whether the regulator will ever approve them, saying the SEC seems to have made up its own standards just for BTC.
  • Though the commissioner called the prospect of a digital dollar “likely,” that’s not where she says the real action is.
  • “I think a lot of the really interesting innovation is happening outside of sort of the central bank digital currency space.”

UPDATE 23:59 UTC Adds comments from Peirce about hurdles to financial innovation at the SEC

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Crypto Guidance, Slowed by Bureaucracy, Risk-Avoidance at SEC, Will Come: Peirce

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner (SEC) Hester Peirce, well known for her pro-cryptocurrencies views, said increased interest in the space will necessarily force the regulatory body to shift toward a more accommodating stance, but it won’t be easy, according to a recent interview with Cointelegraph.

  • “While we’ve been very slow in giving guidance, there is more and more interest from a wide spectrum of people, both inside the crypto space as well as inside the traditional financial institutions who are asking us for guidance,” Peirce said. “The landscape is changing so quickly.”
  • “So I think we’re going to be forced to confront that more and more in the coming years.”
  • Peirce blamed bureaucracy for the SEC’s slowness to react to financial innovation, saying it acts as an impediment to change and discourages risk-taking.
  • “It’s really difficult,” the commissioner said. “There’s so many different layers of bureaucracy things need to get through and people tend to be very hesitant to make decisions because when they do the ramifications come back on them if something goes wrong so it’s easier to kick the can down the road.”
  • On the positive side, Peirce said that pro-crypto moves in the U.S. by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as well as actions by regulators in other countries are slowly prodding the SEC into action.
  • She also said there are a growing number of people at the SEC, many who are interested in crypto, who want the body to become more innovation-friendly. That combined with the growing interest in financial innovation will eventually cause the regulatory agency to shift, she said.
  • On another issue, the commissioner said Congress needs to be thinking about smart contracts and decentralized finance so it can give the SEC directives on how it wants the regulator to handle them.
  • Peirce said that while she hopes the SEC will revisit its decisions to reject BTC Exchange-Traded Funds, she declined to predict whether the regulator will ever approve them, saying the SEC seems to have made up its own standards just for BTC.
  • Though the commissioner called the prospect of a digital dollar “likely,” that’s not where she says the real action is.
  • “I think a lot of the really interesting innovation is happening outside of sort of the central bank digital currency space.”

UPDATE 23:59 UTC Adds comments from Peirce about hurdles to financial innovation at the SEC

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CoinDesk

SEC Will Be Forced to Give More Guidance About Crypto: Peirce

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner (SEC) Hester Peirce, well known for her pro-cryptocurrencies views, said increased interest in the space will necessarily force the regulatory body to shift toward a more accommodating stance, according to a recent interview with Cointelegraph.

  • “While we’ve been very slow in giving guidance, there is more and more interest from a wide spectrum of people, both inside the crypto space as well as inside the traditional financial institutions who are asking us for guidance,” Peirce said.
  • “So I think we’re going to be forced to confront that more and more in the coming years.”
  • Peirce also said that pro-crypto moves in the U.S. by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as well as actions by regulators in other countries are also slowly prodding the SEC into action.
  • While there are a lot of people at the SEC who want the body to become more innovation-friendly, the regulator’s bureaucracy acts as an impediment to change and discourages risk-taking, Peirce said. The number of people interested in innovation and in crypto at the SEC is “growing,” she said.
  • The commissioner also said Congress needs to be thinking about smart contracts and decentralized finance so it can give the SEC directives on how it wants the regulator to handle them.
  • Peirce said that while she hopes the SEC will revisit its decisions to reject BTC Exchange-Traded Funds, she declined to predict whether the regulator will ever approve them, saying the SEC seems to have made up its own standards just for BTC.
  • Though the commissioner called the prospect of a digital dollar “likely,” that’s not where she says the real action is.
  • “I think a lot of the really interesting innovation is happening outside sort of the central bank digital currency space.”

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CoinDesk

Pelosi Rejects, Senate GOP Bridles at White House’s $1.8T Stimulus Offer: Reports

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the White House’s recently boosted $1.8 trillion stimulus offer, saying it doesn’t provide enough in the way of coronavirus testing, worker safety and child care, the Financial Times reported.

  • Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal quoted people familiar with a Saturday call between the president’s chief of staff and Senate Republicans as saying several of the GOP members said they were opposed to another large stimulus package.
  • The Senate Republicans instead are backing a measure along the lines of one they proposed in September that was less than half the size of the president’s most recent proposal and would cut spending in other areas as a partial offset, the WSJ reported.
  • The president’s boosted offer, made Friday, gave a lift to bitcoin (BTC) and equities alike.
  • Even with opposition to the offer on both sides of the aisle, BTC is holding onto today’s gains, up 2.70% to $11,361 at press time.
  • According to the FT, the House speaker didn’t rule out chances for a deal, saying “I remain hopeful that yesterday’s developments will move us closer to an agreement on a relief package that addresses the health and economic crisis facing America’s families.”

UPDATE: 21:25 UTC Adds that Senate Republicans are also opposed to the president’s proposal.

CoinDesk

Pelosi Rejects White House’s $1.8T Stimulus Offer: Report

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the White House’s recently boosted $1.8 trillion stimulus offer, saying it doesn’t provide enough in the way of coronavirus testing, worker safety and child care, the Financial Times reported, setting back hopes for an imminent breakthrough in talks.

  • The boosted offer, made Friday, gave a lift to bitcoin (BTC) and equities alike.
  • Even though Pelosi rejected the offer, BTC is holding onto today’s gains, up 2.52% to $11,351 at press time.
  • According to the FT, the House speaker didn’t rule out chances for a deal, saying “I remain hopeful that yesterday’s developments will move us closer to an agreement on a relief package that addresses the health and economic crisis facing America’s families.”
CoinDesk

Dapper Labs Raises $18M in Token Sale for NFT-Centric Flow Blockchain

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Dapper Labs has closed an $18 million token sale on the strength of its latest collectibles game, NBA Top Shot.

  • The non-fungible token (NFT) maker, also known for its early success in clogging the Ethereum blockchain in 2017 with CryptoKitties, raised the latest funds on CoinList. The firm completed work on its own high-volume Flow blockchain earlier this year.
  • The token sale platform announced the results of the raise on Friday, saying that 13,000 people participated in the offering from Sept. 21–Oct. 2.
  • The token sale comes as interest in NFTs has perked back up, inspired by a dose of DeFi-thinking.
  • “The FLOW token … is the native asset for the Flow blockchain that is used by validators, developers, and users to participate in the FLOW network and earn rewards,” CoinList wrote.
  • Dapper Labs’ flagship game, NBA Top Shot, launched in full earlier this month after clocking over $2 million in revenue in private beta.
  • The startup last raised $12 million in a funding round that included Coinbase Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and a handful of NBA stars.

Read more: Dapper’s NBA Top Shot Launches Out of Beta With Samsung Galaxy Store Deal

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CoinDesk

Bitcoin Nears $11.5K on US Stimulus Prospects, Seems to Confirm Bullish Trend

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Bitcoin’s (BTC) uptrend gathered pace on Saturday with prices nearly testing $11,500 for the first time in over a month.

  • The biggest cryptocurrency by market value rose to $11,484 at 03:10 UTC – the highest level since Sept. 2, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index.
  • Likely driving the move was optimism for the prospects for a U.S. stimulus package after the White House boosted its offer to Democrats on a pandemic relief package to the north of $1.8 trillion Friday.

A new round of stimulus would likely benefit BTC in at least three ways: 

  1. Government and central bank spending around the world in response to the coronavirus-induced slowdown, in the eyes of many, will. inevitably result in inflation, and therefore be positive for the cryptocurrency. 
  2. Given the current correlation between equities and BTC, and that some investors treating BTC like it’s a tech stock, anything that boosts equities invariably boosts BTC.
  3. Stimulus paychecks would give individual investors money to invest and some of those investments would likely be BTC.

Buyers stepped in around $10,500 earlier this week after payments company Square announced that it has put some 1% of its assets into bitcoin.

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Tops $11.1K; Ether Traders Like $400 Options

At press time, bitcoin is changing hands near $11,320, representing a 2% gain on the day.

Also read: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Tops $11.1K; Ether Traders Like $400 Options

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CoinDesk

Market Wrap: Bitcoin Tops $11.1K; Ether Traders Like $400 Options

CoinDesk Crypto
5 years 11 months ago

Bitcoin is making gains Friday while ether options traders on the Deribit exchange love $400 strikes.

  • Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $10,050 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 1.4% over the previous 24 hours.
  • Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $10,834-$11,111
  • BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians.

Bitcoin’s price is making gains Friday, rising as high as $11,111 on spot exchanges such as Coinbase before settling to $10,050 as of press time. 

David Lifchitz, chief investment officer for quant trading firm ExoAlpha, says another rally could occur once the price gets over $11,200, but it could be difficult to hit new 2020 highs – bitcoin’s record this year was $12,483 on Aug. 18. “The first hurdle for bitcoin lies around $11,200, the lows before the Sept. 3 drop, then $12,000 and $12,500 before trying to retake the previous highs,” he said. “So there’s still a long way to go.”

Related: Bitcoin Tops $11.3K on US Stimulus Prospects, Seems to Confirm Bullish Trend

The last time bitcoin hit Friday’s $11,111 price level was back on Sept. 19. This recent run-up has been helped by exuberant market-related news, Lifchitz added. “Bitcoin was looking for a catalyst and partly found it Thursday when Square announced [it] bought … $50 million worth of bitcoin, and today when President Trump tweeted that a [COVID-19] relief financial package was back on track,” Lifchitz said. 

Read More: Bitcoin Must Now Beat $11.2K for Bull Revival, Say Analysts

Indeed, positive news, combined with short-oriented trader liquidations in the derivatives market, have helped push bitcoin higher. Over the past day, over $20 million in buy liquidations dominated the much-maligned BitMEX exchange, versus a paltry $1 million in long wipeouts, the equivalent of a margin call in the cryptocurrency world.

Constantin Kogan, a partner at crypto fund of funds BitBull Capital, notes spot volumes have been picking up, which could provide fuel for a further price upswing. “The spot market is very active,” he said. “From here we could see a potential bullish rise up to $13,000.” Volumes on major spot exchanges Thursday hit $371 million, much higher than the $277 million daily average over the past month. So far Friday, spot volumes are at $288 million.

Related: Robinhood Traders, Including Bitcoin Holders, Left in the Lurch Following Theft: Report

“I’m happy to see bitcoin break $11,000,” said Henrik Kugelberg, a Sweden-based over-the-counter trader. Kugelberg said many traders will swap poorly performing alternative cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, for more bitcoin, but that trend won’t send price skyrocketing. “I do have some hope it may lie around $10,500-$11,500 during Q4 as more money will move from altcoins to bitcoin – bullish, but no bull run this year I would say.”

Ether option traders prefer $400 strikes

Ether (ETH) was up Friday trading around $364 and climbing 3.4% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). 

Read More: Opinion – Ethereum Is Manhattan and Everyone Is Moving to the Suburbs

Ether options traders on Deribit, one of the largest crypto venues in terms of daily volume, prefer betting at the $400 price point. According to Deribit data aggregated from Genesis Volility, options traders currently have over 75,741 ETH options on a $400 strike price, tops on the exchange. This is followed by 71,989 ETH on a $200 strike in second place, followed by 65,159 ETH on the $280 price point.

Greg Magadini, chief executive officer of Genesis Volatility, says the options market has seen a lot of $400 calls lately. “The $400 price point has become an inflection point for ETH recently,” he told CoinDesk. 

Conversely, Magadini sees lots of puts on $200, although that price level hasn’t been touched on the ether spot market since way back in May. He added that “$200 is less logical as $250 is a more tested level, but for whatever reason the market likes being short $200 puts more.”

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mostly green Friday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

One notable loser as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

  • xrp (XRP) – 0.52%

Read More: CME Sounding Out Market Demand for Ether Futures, Options

Equities:

Commodities:

  • Oil was down 2%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $40.52.
  • Gold was in the green 1.8% and at $1,927 as of press time.

Treasurys:

  • U.S. Treasury bond yields were mixed Friday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were up on the two-year, jumping to 0.157 and in the green 2.7%.
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