While the Americans mull 50 & 100yr dated paper to bankroll their rocket launchers and fighter jets, China has officially launched a new benchmark for 1 & 5yr loans today by taking the average spread quoted by 18 banks. HSBC (5 HK) -1.1% has been conspicuously left out of the boy’s club. Earlier this month CEO Joe Flint was shown the door following a leaked internal memorandum reflecting exasperation within. The PBOC wasn’t exactly jumping for joy when they indirectly accused the bank of aiding the US on their crackdown on Huawei but to see the biggest lender and the only foreign bank providing SHIBOR quotes in the special administrative region excluded from the list was unexpected to say the least. Tad cheaper loans for Chinese companies and speculation of a payroll tax cut (subsequently denied by the White House) has given the markets some reprieve.
News from Japan seems to be moving crypto as the cryptoassets that have been shortlisted to be tradeable on Rakuten (4755 JP) +1.9%, Japan’s biggest e-commerce site. $BTC +4.2% punches through $10,500 resistance formed over the weekend, $ETH 2.2% recovers $200 & BCH +0.8% in the green. Singapore contributes as the Association of Cryptocurrency Enterprises and Startups, Singapore (a.k.a. ACCESS) releases a of Code of Practice to promote “standardization of practice in crypto entities”. Regulatory ambiguity being addressed slowly but surely. And while Bank of America files yet another blockchain-related patent, even the World Bank is keeping with the times as they raise AUD50mn ($33mn) for a 1yr Kangaroo bond, the first of its kind. As Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” werd.
The positives clearly eclipsing the bad today with NYAG denying Bitfinex’s motion to terminate saying the exchange indeed is under their purview while Bitmex adds the Seychelles, Bermuda & Hong Kong to restricted jurisdictions. Arthur Hayers throws it down vs. Dr. Roubini, goes AWOL for a while and comes back with this… am I reading too much into it?
- Ethereum ($ETH) +1.7% Vitalik Buterin admits to a scalability and continues to promote solutions that do not require nodes to verify every transaction.
- Black Manta Capital Partners received BaFin license to run a multi STO platform
- Huobi adds support for MakerDAO tokens and Compound.
- Binance iOS App back on the shelves
- Deloitte debut’s ‘Blockchain in a Box’ to provide blockchain demonstrations and experimentations.
- Cere Network raises $3,5mn from Binance Labs, Neo Global Capital & Arrington XRP.
- IOTA ($MIOTA) +0.85% gets served
- Fidelity receives over $100mn in donations in crypto since 2015 (pg15).
- Israel looks to speed up blockchain and fintech license procurement.
May the trend be your friend… Happy trading!
