Apr 15, 2019
OSL Trader View — 15 April 2019
Back in the saddle from Deconomy and 13 days later, we are still facing a consolidating wall albeit clinging on to the $5-handle. Both volume and volatility have pulled back as BTC oscillates to find equilibrium. The initial pump that had everyone scratching their heads turns out it was of substance after all as we see monumental developments in the regulatory space by the Americans, the Europeans, and the Japanese.
Following SEC Chairman Jay Clayton’s comments of there being a “path to compliance,” Congress reattempted to amend the Securities Act of 1933 & Securities Exchange Act of 1934 with a revamped Token Taxonomy Act, 2019 and set a framework for ICOs. 21 members of Congress kept the pressure up with their letter urging the IRS to provide clarity in reporting virtual currency gains. Surely no coincidence that the letter comes just days before US Tax Day (April 15).
The EU came out of the blue with the launch of the International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications to “support interoperability… promote standards and regulatory convergence to support… blockchain technologies.” While the French lawmakers went further, passing the Pact Law essentially clearing the way for life insurers and other professional money managers to invest in crypto without limits.
Japanese Financial Services Agency wanting to expand Bitcoin’s definition from “virtual currency.”
IMFs Managing Director Christine Lagarde has shown a more balanced view of crypto in the past but it appears she is closer than ever to making that leap of faith with her comment of crypto quite literally “shaking the system.”
Sure all of the above came after the April fool’s day pump but hey, it wasn’t that long ago when the stock market was rampant with players of this sort.
The efforts in the private space have been commendable as well. Biggest headline grabber being Facebook’s $1bn raise for a native cryptocurrency. The company generated $55.8bn revenues last year and hold $10bn in cash reserves. Enigma to me as to why they need the funding.
MUFJ, the fifth largest bank in the world has also decided to try their luck in building their JPY backed stablecoin while the Harvard Endowment became the latest Ivy League money manager to jump on the gravy train dropping $12.6mn in Blockstack’s $50mn token offering using SEC Reg A+; the first SEC-qualified token offering of its kind. 0.03% of AUM but hey, its a start
Peter McCormack’s comical exchange with Faketoshi has turned plenty of heads but aside from the entertainment it indeed looks like BSV is losing steam as we see Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees superseding Bitcoin Cash block rewards.
There’s also been a slew of consolidation and not-so-pretty earnings reported in the space but its never a straight line up and honestly a cleansing of the hubris was necessary to power on to the next level. Recently heard that an ICO that want straight to the gutter communicated of burning through $2mn on the payroll for a 40man team per month. The fruits of their hard work? crickets…
The wait on institutional money has been long but (as cliche as it may sound) it really does look like the snowballs are starting to grow — well at least big enough for the IMF & the World bank to hit the books!
- Bitstamp acquires Bit license, Bittrex’s application gets rejected citing “inadequate internal policies, non-existent Compliance Officer & inadequate due diligence among others.
- Coinviillel Phiils, Bexpress & Aba Global take tally of licensed crypto exchanges in the Philippines to 10
- Coinbase issues a Visa-backed Debit card funded by crypto assets held at the exchange as they lose their third senior management in six months
- Former NYMEX president James Collins launches San Juan Mercantile Exchange (SJMX) offering custody and crypto trading services
- Telegram launched private beta testing of Telegram Open Network (TON)
- Bithumb FY2018 revenue +17% to W391bn but W247bn in crypto valuation & obsolescence losses dropped the bottom line in the red: -W205bn
- Coinone revenue -95% to W4.5bn, bottom line turns to red -W5.7bn
- Tata Consultancy Services completes worlds first successful cross-border securities between Morocco & Kuwait security depositories with Quartz blockchain
- Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) permits financial firms to list blockchain-based securities.
- MT Gox Legal (MGL) founder Andy Pag throws in the towel as prospects for shareholders and creditors is obscured with Coinlabs $75mn claim.
- IMF & the Worldbank launch “Learning Coin;” a private blockchain to learn about the technology.
- Fisco Acquires Zaif, both Japanese crypto exchanges 5 months after running operations for the latter
- China to ban crypto mining as they “seriously waste resources”public feedback accepted through May 7. As the speculation builds of Bitcoin digging deeper into the red, Canaan looks to try their luck in the Big Apple.
- Huobi prints $100mn for BCH leveraged products 3 days after launch.
May the trend be your friend… Happy Trading!
