Can Ethereum Hit The $200 Mark Before The Hard Fork?

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Ethereum continues to see a massive increase in contrast to the stagnant and continuous bearish trend of the crypto market. The recent gains experienced by Ethereum made it the best performing of the top cryptocurrencies in the past 30 days. Ethereum had seen gains as it attempts to recover the huge loss it took when the crypto market took a huge plunge in November.

The plunge that struck the crypto market in November saw the value of ethereum drop from around the mark of $220 to $80 and equally lost its position as the second-rated cryptocurrency to Ripple’s XRP within the same period. However, throughout the past three weeks, it has seen a considerable reversal in value as there has been about 80 percent gain. The gains from the $80 mark to $159 as at report time. Also, on the 2nd of January, the cryptocurrency overtook Ripple’s XRP, taking back its second position among other cryptocurrencies


The Reason For The Drastic Gains of Ethereum

The drastic gains that the cryptocurrency has gained has made crypto enthusiasts to adduce the recent success to the impending hard fork that is already scheduled to take place on January 16.



Alex Krüger, an economist and a cryptocurrency trader, stated through a tweet on the eve of Christmas, 2018 that “Ethereum’s Constantinople fork is coming on block 7080000, around January 16, 2019. Constantinople will reduce the block rewards from 3 to 2, decreasing new ETH supply accordingly. On the long run, this is decidedly bullish.”

The historical record of Ethereum’s hard fork has led to an increase in its value afterward. Ahead of the hard fork, the cryptocurrency has seen a boost because of the possibility of positive gains after the hard fork has taken place.

Can Ethereum Surpass $200 Ahead of its Hard Fork on January 16th

The cryptocurrency increase to the value of $200 will see it near the mark it was in November 2018 before it took the deep plunge with other cryptocurrencies. This will make the cryptocurrency distinctive in the market.

The progress Ethereum has made in the past couple of days and the historical antecedent of increase after a hard fork has taken place has increased the interest of investors in the cryptocurrency ahead of January 16. With the recent move in the past days, reaching the mark of $200 before the set date at this point looks possible.

New York is “first state in the nation” to have its own Crypto Task Force

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The new task force will be required to submit its first crypto report by December 2020.

New York has become the first state in the nation to have its own cryptocurrency task force, according to a Facebook post published yesterday.

The news was shared by Clyde Vanel, Chair of Subcommittee on Internet and New Technologies and New York state assemblyman. In the post, he said that the New York had become the first state to have its own crypto task force, which will be used to “study how to properly regulate, define and use cryptocurrency.”

New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law last week, which will henceforth be known as “The Digital Currency Study Bill.”

The members of the task force will be appointed by the Governor, Senate and Assembly, the announcement states, and will include technologists, consumers, institutional and small investors, blockchain businesses and academics.

The team will assemble various reports on the digital currency, crypto and blockchain industries in the state, including the number of digital currencies currently being traded, their market share, and the impact such currencies have on the state and local tax receipts. They’ll be required to submit these reports by 15 December next year.

“New York leads the country in finance. We will also lead in proper fintech regulation. The task force of experts will help us strike the balance between having a robust blockchain industry and cryptocurrency economic environment while at the same time protecting New York investors and consumers.” Vanel said in the announcement.

Julie Samuels, Executive Director of Tech: NYC also believes that the new task force will play a vital role in positioning New York at the centre of the nation’s innovative strategy.

“New York’s cryptocurrency task force – the first of its kind in the nation – shows how our state is leading the way in studying and understanding these technologies to ensure they can thrive in a responsible and effective way, further solidifying New York’s position as a global hub for smart innovation.”

Investor Fred Wilson says Crypto will enter “new bullish phase” in 2019

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Despite increased pressure on the crypto sector, he believes it’s going to be a year of progress for business, adoption and smart contracts. 

With the new year now thoroughly welcomed in, businessman Fred Wilson believes the crypto market will bottom in 2019, entering a “new bullish phase,” according to a recent statement.

The early Twitter and Tumblr investor welcomed in the new year on his blog, before laying out his predictions for 2019. They’re not quite the chipper aphorisms smattering the New Years’ cards, but crypto will nevertheless experience several promising developments this new year, according to him.

First up, Wilson predicts that the US will receive a new president by the end of 2019, and that the S&P 500 would likely hit 2,000, where he expects it to stay for most of the year. He also said that it could take most of 2019 to find the bottom on crypto-tokens.

“I expect we will see some bullish runs, followed by selling pressures taking us back to retest the lows. I think this bottoming out process will end sometime in 2019 and we will slowly enter a new bullish phase in crypto.”

How will this ‘bullish phase’ come about? Wilson believes 2019 will be the year in which many promises made in 2017 are fulfilled, specifically the launch of “big name projects,” (such as Protocol Labs’ Filecoin project), and ‘next-gen’ smart contract platforms that will “challenge Ethereum for leadership in this super important area of the crypto sector.”

He continued that he also expects Ethereum’s open source community to “ship a number of important improvements to its system in 2019 and defend their leadership in the smart contract space,” and expects to see “meaningful progress” for stablecoins, cryptoassets and gaming, and earn-spend opportunities overseas.

The crypto sector will see its fair share of pressure, though, particularly from regulators and fraudulent schemes.

“The area I am most concerned about are actions brought by misguided regulators who will take aim at high quality projects and harm them. And we will continue to see all sorts of failures, from scams, hacks, failed projects, and losing investments be a drag on the sector.” he wrote. Even so, he remains “incredibly optimistic” about 2019,

“That is always the case with a new emerging technology that allows anyone to set up shop and get going.” he continued. “Permissionless innovation produces the greatest gains over time but also comes with the inevitable bad actors and actions.”

For Wilson, it’ll be a case of taking crypto with a pinch of salt over this next year. Whether from progress or pressure, he’s convinced “it is going to be a doozy.”  

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Google Announces $1B Investment in New York City

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Tech companies such as Amazon and Apple have announced billion-dollar real estate projects in recent weeks; now Google is joining the fray. This morning the search engine giant announced it was investing $1 billion to establish a new 1.7-million-square foot campus in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood. The campus will be focused around 315 and 345 Hudson St., where Google has signed lease agreements, and at 550 Washington St., where it has signed a letter of intent.

Called Google Hudson Square, it will be the primary location for its New York-based operations.

Google, of course, already has a robust presence in New York City; the company has been here for close to twenty years and now employs some 7,000 local workers. Earlier this year, it announced the $2.4 billion purchase of the Manhattan Chelsea Market and also announced plans lease additional space at Pier 57.

According to a blog post by Google, the company hopes to start moving into the two Hudson Street buildings by 2020, followed by 550 Washington Street in 2022 once the building is complete.

With these investments, Google will have the capacity to more than double the number of its employees in New York over the next 10 years to 14,000.

“Our investment in New York is a huge part of our commitment to grow and invest in US facilities, offices and jobs, writes CFO Ruth Porat in the post. “In fact, we’re growing faster outside the Bay Area than within it, and this year opened new offices and data centers in locations like Detroit, Boulder, Los Angeles, Tennessee and Alabama.”

“And as we continue to grow across the country, we look forward to calling New York City home for many years to come.”

Coinbase announces instant PayPal withdrawals now available for all U.S. Customers

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Coinbase have announced that their new PayPal feature allowing U.S customers to withdraw to PayPal accounts has gone live as of today. 

The announcement is part of the "12 days of Coinbase" announcements, where each day at noon PST Coinbase announce new features, support for new cryptocurrencies, and more. Todays feature is the launch of the PayPal feature allowing U.S customers to withdraw directly to PayPal at zero fee cost to the client. 

Recap: Coinbase quietly introduces free PayPal withdrawals

The new feature will allow U.S customers access to their funds in a faster withdrawal method, utilizing one of the world's easiest and most widely-used payment platforms. With zero fees and fast withdrawals, the new feature will be most welcomed by U.S traders.

Coinbase commented on the announcement stating that they want to help their customers in having flexibility in using cryptocurrencies and being a part of the open financial system - "This integration is a big step forward in realizing that vision, allowing you to smoothly and instantly transfer your funds to cash."

Coinbase also announced that support for more countries will roll out in 2019. 

Facebook, the world's largest Social network to Hire Blockchain Specialists

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Facebook, the world's largest social network, is looking for five talented blockchain developers to work in its main office in Menlo Park, California. The announcement is published on the company's website.

Facebook needs two data officers, a development team leader, and two software engineers who are interested in solving difficult tasks and are ready to create scalable platforms.


The division, designed to study and develop blockchain, was established at Facebook in May 2018. It was headed by David Marcus, who was previously the company's VP at the Messenger app department. Later, in June, Evan Cheng, one of the senior engineers, was appointed as the director of engineering at the distributed ledger division.

The department was positioned as a startup, which will be involved in the adaptation of blockchain for the social network, although Facebook does not disclose specific plans in this direction. In general, this sounds like a desire to assist the people of the world in gaining access to things they lack today. Besides, it is about providing fair financial services and new ways of data exchange.

In August 2018, the information was circulating that Facebook cooperates with the Stellar crypto platform to use its blockchain for the creation of its own network. Later, the company denied these rumors.

UK Parliament Offered To Add Bitcoin As Tax Payment

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The representative of the Conservative Party in the UK Parliament, Eddie Hughes stated the need to adopt Bitcoin to pay taxes and utility bills, The Daily Express reports.



According to Hughes, blockchain technologies are of great interest in society, hence his colleagues in the Parliament have to understand how they work. The speaker, for his part, said that he himself is a crypto enthusiast who has amateur knowledge in the blockchain field.



The idea of ​​introducing Bitcoin to pay for services was prompted by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which had started accepting digital currencies as donations. According to Hughes, this example indicates the possibility of using bitcoin as a means of payment in municipal systems.



In his speech, the lawmaker appealed to the recent decision by the authorities of the American state of Ohio to adopt bitcoin so that companies registered within the jurisdiction of the state could use the cryptocurrency to pay taxes.





Hughes concluded that in order to maintain the status of a progressive country, the UK should move one step ahead of events.



As it was previously reported, Tokyo authorities intend to take up the struggle against residents who evade paying taxes on profits received from cryptocurrency trading.

Denmark has over 1,500 Restaurants that accept Bitcoin

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Strapped for cash with a bad case of the munchies? You’re in luck. If you live in Denmark, that is. You can now use your bitcoins again at Hungry.dk to order online takeaway from over 1,500 restaurants.

Denmark may be more famous for its pastries and its Vikings, but it seems the small Northern European country is breaking new terrain once again, just like its ancestors prior.

There aren’t all that many places that allow you to buy food with bitcoin and it’s not often that much of an incentive since you could end up losing out big time when the market goes up.

But still, it’s nice to know that there are companies blazing the trail for virtual currencies to use as a form of payment–and people who actually want to use their bitcoins in this way.

BUYING WITH BITCOINS ON HUNGRY.DK SINCE 2014


Actually, the fact that Hungry.dk accepts bitcoin payments isn’t really new since they were offering the service as far back as 2014 (light years when it comes to cryptocurrency evolution). However, as explained to Bitcoinist by a Hungry.dk representative:

We have accepted Bitcoins as a payment method for quite some time. We decided to remove the feature temporarily last year though because the average transaction time took too long, and the experience wasn’t the best.

The problems have since been solved, and we have added the option again… Hungry.dk handle the payment, so you will always be able to use Bitcoins with all the restaurants currently found on Hungry.dk.

Blockchain becomes Necessary for German Businessman like Internet

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A poll conducted by the German Association for IT, Telecommunications and New Media (Bitkom) unveiled that every third major company in the country considers blockchain technology as groundbreaking as the Internet, according to the press release of the organization.



Based on the extensive research, the Bitkom experts concluded that German entrepreneurs consider blockchain to be one of three most promising technologies along with artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of things (IoT)


About 15% of companies-respondents believe that distributed ledger will drastically change the society and the economy, as happened with the advent of the Internet. Nearly 36% of large enterprises, with the number of employees from 500 and above, adhere to this opinion.



Almost half of the survey participants (46%) believe that Germany is late with the development and use of blockchain and is already far behind other countries. 40% of the surveyed state that the country is in the middle of the list of countries that actively use blockchain technology.



A previous Bitkom survey, which was conducted in November 2018, showed that 60% of German companies do not want to address the blockchain matter because they do not know how to find a practical application of the technology.



In February 2018, the organization conducted a study on the awareness of German citizens about bitcoin. Then 64% of citizens reported that they are familiar with cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, in 2016, only 4% of the country's population knew what bitcoin is.



Earlier, a study by the World Trade Organization revealed that blockchain might bring $3 trillion to the economy in the next 20 years.

Banks in Latin America Launch a Blockchain-based Platform for Loans

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Two banks in Latin America have collaborated to develop a Blockchain-based platform that will aid in issuing loans. The banks are Itaú Unibanco Holding SA and Standard Chartered. They revealed in a statement that they aim to eliminate fraud and cut the legal cost that is usually involved.

Blockchain-based Platform to be Used to a Handle Client Loans

R3, a New York-based startup is the developer of the Blockchain platform. This platform is called Corda, and the new system will be used to handle clients’ loans. These loans are known as club-loans because the lenders are usually a small group of people, and the amount to be lent is considerably small.

Currently, it can take weeks before transactions can be completed because about 2,000 emails have to be sent between parties who will be involved. Asides being a complex process, there are also legal costs to consider. The level of risks associated can be said to be high since it may be difficult to detect fraud in financial transactions easily.

New Platform Promises Faster and More Efficient Transactions
Therefore, Blockchain technology which is reputably known to be faster, more efficient and reliable has been relied upon. Its application in this area will bring about efficiency in the processes and transparency between parties. Ricardo Nuno, Itaú’s treasury managing director, has also revealed that it will help to reduce legal cost.

To ensure the smooth operation of Corda, the banks have tested it by issuing loans. First of all, Itaú Unibanco and Standard Chartered raised $100 million and then negotiated the terms of the loan. Although the money was not transferred, it was said that in future, the money could be sent to the receiving party.

Financial Institutions are Adopting Blockchain Technology
More banks are adopting Blockchain technology either in combating fraud or facilitating their processes. An example is SWIFT India, a financial services provider who has collaborated with the Fintech firm, MonetaGO. The former will use MonetaGO’s Blockchain platform for secure messaging. In this case, banks in India will be able to share the same DLT network to gain access to its stored information.

Thailand’s Revenue Department, on the other hand, has decided to use the Distributed Ledger Technology to combat VAT payment fraud. The department has decided that VAT invoices will now be stored on Blockchain to make them traceable. As a result, it will help to resolve issues relating to tax refund claims

Bitfinex and Ethfinex Now Lists Six Different Stablecoins

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Bitfinex and Ethfinex, two leading digital asset exchanges, now enable clients to trade all six major stablecoins on both exchanges in an attempt to create coin agnostic platforms, the companies announced in a Medium post on December 4, 2018.

Six Stablecoins Now Available for Trading on Bitfinex
Starting on December 4, 2018, customers of Bitfinex and Ethfinex will be able to trade all six major stablecoins on both exchanges.

According to the company’s Medium post announcing the news, all stablecoins on Bitfinex and Ethfinex will be traded against the U.S. dollar. The USD Coin (USDC), Paxos Standard Token (PAX), True USD (TUSD), and the Gemini Dollar (GUSD) are all new additions to the exchange, joining Tether (USDT) and Dai (DAI).

Bitfinex is considered to be a pioneer when it comes to stablecoin adoption, as it was the first to introduce Dai, an Ethereum collateralized stablecoin, onto its platform. The company said that deposits and withdrawals for the four newly added stablecoins would be limited only to verified traders.

The announcement continues Bitfinex’s heritage of providing a neutral, coin-agnostic platform. Earlier in November, the exchange introduced USDT/USD and EURT/EUR Tether trading pairs, enabling their users to trade Tether-fiat directly on their platform.


Bitfinex and Ethfinex, two leading digital asset exchanges, now enable clients to trade all six major stablecoins on both exchanges in an attempt to create coin agnostic platforms, the companies announced in a Medium post on December 4, 2018.

Six Stablecoins Now Available for Trading on Bitfinex
Starting on December 4, 2018, customers of Bitfinex and Ethfinex will be able to trade all six major stablecoins on both exchanges.

According to the company’s Medium post announcing the news, all stablecoins on Bitfinex and Ethfinex will be traded against the U.S. dollar. The USD Coin (USDC), Paxos Standard Token (PAX), True USD (TUSD), and the Gemini Dollar (GUSD) are all new additions to the exchange, joining Tether (USDT) and Dai (DAI).

Bitfinex is considered to be a pioneer when it comes to stablecoin adoption, as it was the first to introduce Dai, an Ethereum collateralized stablecoin, onto its platform. The company said that deposits and withdrawals for the four newly added stablecoins would be limited only to verified traders.

The announcement continues Bitfinex’s heritage of providing a neutral, coin-agnostic platform. Earlier in November, the exchange introduced USDT/USD and EURT/EUR Tether trading pairs, enabling their users to trade Tether-fiat directly on their platform.


This replaced the previous 1:1 conversion on deposits and withdrawals provided by Bitfinex and reflected the increasing range of choice in the stablecoin market and customer demands.

Increased Market Demand for Stablecoins
Created in 2014, Tether was the only stablecoin available to traders for years and was a response to a clear market need to allow movements of funds quickly between different exchanges while benefiting from the stability of the U.S. Dollar.

Following the boom Tether saw in 2017, the skyrocketing demand caused the stablecoin market to expand, with five alternatives launching since March 2018 rapidly. With around $186 billion, stablecoins are currently the fastest growing sector of the crypto market.

Questions about legitimacy and true value have been contributing factors in the plummeting price of cryptocurrencies and tokens, and have been directly responsible for the rise of stablecoins. With the trust in Tether withering in 2018, the increase in the number of stablecoins available is has been a welcome reprieve for crypto traders.

Worldwide, stablecoins in their fundraising ICO phases have attracted millions of dollars’ worth of investment from reputable multinational corporations. This proves that stablecoins are a respected alternative to traditional banking, valued for their reliable software that leaves no room for error.

Bitcoin Trading Volue Exceeds 2$ Trillion in 2018 Despite year long Bearish Market

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With a few weeks still left in 2018, the total Bitcoin trading volume for the year has already crossed $2 trillion. Many countries have also seen record BTC trading volume at different points of the year with more everyday people seemingly adopting the popular cryptocurrency.

BITCOIN TRADING UP 61 PERCENT SINCE 2017

This volume of trade is especially profound given the tirade of criticism from vocal naysayers who continue to engage in Bitcoin bashing. According to Satoshi Capital Research, the notional value of BTC traded so far in 2018 stands at $2.2 trillion.

The figures posted so far represent a 61 percent increase from last years total volume of $870 billion. However, the growth recorded in 2017 – 96 percent still dwarfs that recorded in 2018 and will remain so unless a massive spike in BTC trading occurs between now and the end of the year.



To put things in perspective, Mastercard recently published its Q3 2018 financials which showed a total transaction volume of $4.4 trillion for the year. The world’s second largest payment card company also settles about $12 billion worth of transactions per day.

From these figures, Bitcoin $4151.76 -0.03% is already at half the transaction settling capacity of Mastercard despite losing close to 70 percent of its value during the year. BTC’s daily volume which is at $8 billion, isn’t a million miles away from Mastercard’s.

WHY DO THE NOCOINERS RAGE?
Some might argue that the analysis above is akin to comparing apples and oranges. This is because Mastercard’s figures only cover payments made to retail merchants on both online and offline platforms. The figures for Bitcoin come from merchants, futures trading, exchanges, and even international payments.

However, the fact that a cryptocurrency with a sub-$100 billion market cap is posting figures in the same ballpark as Mastercard is a glowing endorsement of BTC’s uptake. This assertion is especially true given the negative rhetoric espoused by critics such as Paul Donovan of UBS who recently said that the world’s most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin is on the verge of falling apart.

Things may even get better for cryptocurrency trading as a whole. Earlier in the year, Bitcoinist reported that digital currency trading might grow by 50 percent in 2019 based on a study by Satis Group.

Why Chicago is Fast Becoming the Crypto Trading Capital of the World

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Beginning with the founding of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) in 1848, Chicago has a long and illustrious history as a trading town.  The CBOT introduced standardized futures contracts, and more than a century later spun off the CBOE which pioneered standardized option contracts.  The Chicago Mercantile Exchange launched in 1898 as an egg & butter exchange and in 1972 spun off the International Monetary Market, the first exchange to trade financial futures.  For the past 45 years, the CBOT, CBOE, & CME have established Chicago as the derivatives capital of the world trading both options and futures on grains, meats, stocks, bonds, foreign currencies, and other financial products. 

Fast forward to 2018 and Chicago is once again leading the charge as it has begun to trade derivatives on a revolutionary new product.  In December 2017, both Cboe Global Markets and the CME Group began trading futures on bitcoin.  The two derivative exchanges are the most prominent local enterprises to enter the cryptocurrency markets but an entire ecosystem has begun to emerge in Chicago and is rapidly gaining momentum.    

Chicago is home to a number of spot exchanges which trade the cryptocurrencies that underlie the derivative contracts.  Athena Bitcoin operates more than 70 crypto ATMs in 8 states across the USA and has entered Latin America.  Digital Mint has over 70 crypto ATMs in Chicago alone and close to 200 nationwide.  Bcause runs the largest mining operation in North America and is building the world’s first full-stack cryptocurrency ecosystem.  Seed CX offers institutional trading and settlement for both spot and derivatives in cryptocurrencies.  Beaxy aims to create an all-in-one cryptocurrency exchange.  The Eris Exchange, which is backed by Cboe Global Markets, DRW, ED&F Man Capital Markets, NEX Opportunities, Susquehanna, TD Ameritrade, Valor Equity Partners and Virtu Financial, is launching a platform to trade both spot and futures which will settle with the physical delivery of cryptocurrency.  Edge Financial Technologies is on target to launch a cryptocurrency platform for both retail and institutional traders in the first quarter of 2019.  CFX launched the first platform in the U.S. to facilitate the trading of regulated security tokens.  The Bitnomial Exchange is waiting for approval from the CFTC.                           




Exchanges from other cities are establishing a foothold in Chicago, too.  Coinbase opened a permanent office in Chicago and announced plans to hire 90 software developers in the next three years.  The San Juan Mercantile Exchange is launching the world’s first digital asset exchange for high frequency traders and plans to open offices in three cities including Chicago.  Kraken is moving its headquarters from San Francisco to Chicago.

Why are Kraken, Coinbase, and the San Juan Mercantile Exchange coming to Chicago?  The answer is that they want access to our trading community with its abundance of resources including traders, liquidity, technology, and developers.  According to Paul Bauerschmidt, former CME executive and leader of Coinbase’s Chicago office:  “Chicago is super valuable to us because of the talent that’s here.  If you move to one of the coasts, you…will get access to talent, but it’s much harder to come by.  And, in Chicago, we’ve got an incredible exchange and trading community.”  And, according to Fred Grede, CEO of Bcause:  “They’re starting to figure out that the real center of liquidity in these kinds of markets is right here in Chicago, and that it’s a tremendous pool of resources.  I don’t mean to get into any disrespect for New York.”                        

DRW, founded by billionaire trader Don Wilson, was the first trading firm in Chicago to jump into the crypto space.  In 2014, DRW spun off Cumberland Mining which runs the largest over-the-counter cryptocurrency trading desk in the world.  In 2017, Akuna Capital, Blue Fire Capital, CMT Digital, DV Trading, and Consolidated Trading launched cryptocurrency trading desks.  In January 2018, Trading Technologies announced a partnership with Coinbase to provide cryptocurrency trading in both spot and derivative markets.  In April 2018, Hehmeyer Trading launched the first cryptocurrency index fund.  Jump Trading, the largest trader of U.S. Treasuries in the world, ‘jumped’ into cryptocurrency trading in mid-2017 and, in June 2018, launched an over-the-counter cryptocurrency trading platform.  XR Trading and TransMarket Group also began trading cryptocurrencies in 2018.  Geneva Trading is in the process of forming a cryptocurrency trading team.   

In summary, Chicago has all the ingredients to become the ‘Crypto Trading Capital of the World’ with its abundance of derivative exchanges, spot exchanges, traders, investors, developers, etc.  One of the keys will be to bring together the major players in Chicago’s emerging crypto ecosystem to foster collaboration.  There is competition to be sure among the various players but there is also such a thing as co-opetition.  As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats.  For many years, the CBOT, CME & CBOE have competed against each other but find another city or region in the world which could boast three of the biggest and most successful exchanges on the planet.     

Stay tuned as FinTank (FinTank.org), a local Fintech hub and accelerator specializing in crypto assets, is getting ready to facilitate collaboration by launching Chicago’s first online crypto community for traders, investors, miners, entrepreneurs, developers, consultants, senior-level executives, and other blockchain/digital currency players and enthusiasts.  FinTank is partnering with two startups in its accelerator—Crypto Markets and Coinifide —to build a platform that offers in-depth content, experiential learning, and job leads to enhance the knowledge, skill set, and economic opportunities for participants in Chicago’s burgeoning crypto community.

Nasdaq and VanEck join to launch new Bitcoin futures Contracts

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World’s second-largest stock exchange Nasdaq is preparing to launch its bitcoin futures contracts in the first quarter of 2019.

A couple of weeks ago, the cryptographic ecosystem suffered a sharp drop in its prices, when the Bitcoin’s value fell around 70% compared to the peak reached in the last quarter of last year.

Despite the recent collapse of the crypto market, the New York stock exchange has announced that it maintains its plans to launch bitcoin futures in the first quarter of 2019 in a joint initiative with the investment management firm VanEck.

In this regard, Gabor Gurbacs, director of digital asset strategy at VanEck, said the companies plan to launch a variety of bitcoin derivatives in the first few months of 2019, including the aforementioned regulated futures contracts. The announcement was made during the Consensus Invest conference held in New York, on Tuesday.

Gurbacs confirmed the information in his Twitter account, ensuring that Nasdaq and VanEck will present transparent, regulated and monitored products of digital assets, such as bitcoin futures contracts.

“@Nasdaq and VanEck’s @MVISIndices announces #index #partnership and intention to bring to market transparent, regulated and surveilled #DigitalAssets products, such as #Bitcoin futures contracts. More info to come,” the publication said.



Bitcoin Futures Contracts

In the last year, Nasdaq has openly shown interest in launching bitcoin futures, but they did not do so before because according to Adena Friedman, CEO of Nasdaq, they wanted their contracts to be different from those that already exist.

On the other hand, after the collapse of the market, several reports indicate that the second stock exchange in the world has taken into account the concerns of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of the United States – a government independent agency which regulates futures markets – and Nasdaq has been working on it.

The CFTC, which regulates bitcoin as a commodity, has so far approved only two encryption futures products: one from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and another from the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE).

However, they are not the only ones who have shown interest in Bitcoin futures.

For its part, ICE (Intercontinental Exchange), Nasdaq’s main competitor, has announced their plans to launch a bitcoin futures product liquidated physically in the first quarter of 2019.

Similarly, the cryptocurrency exchange created by ICE, Bakkt, announced that it would launch bitcoin futures to the market on December 12, but later decided to postpone the launch for next year’s January 24.

Tom Lee Has Slashed His Price Target on Bitcoin from $25,000 to $15,000

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The popular digital currency supporter has sharply reduced his price target from $25,000 to $15,000 on bitcoin for the year-end.


Sherlock by Sherlock   November 17, 2018  in Crypto news, Opinion


As the bitcoin price traded below the psychological level of $6,000 mark, Fundstrat Global Advisors co-founder, Tom Lee, has slashed his price target on bitcoin nearly half. However, the revised target price is much higher than the current trading price. Significantly, his comments come on the heels of seven out of top ten cryptocurrencies witnessing a double-digit drop in the 7-day period.

Break-Even Point
The popular digital currency supporter has sharply reduced his price target from $25,000 to $15,000 on bitcoin for the year-end. He believes that the important driver is ‘break-even’ point. This meant that mining costs should match the trading price. According to him, the matching level reduced to $7,000 from his previous estimate of 8,000. This is based on the Bitmain’s S9 mining machine. This would mean a fair value of roughly 2.2 times of the fresh break-even price.

Bitcoin is trading around $5,450 at the time of writing and has shed 13.56 percent for the one-week period. Despite the existing sluggishness or the bearishness, Lee is confident of a recovery in bitcoin price. In a research note to clients, he pointed out the earlier bear market during the period 2013 – 2015 and said that it “never sustained a move below breakeven.” The former chief equity strategist at J.P. Morgan Lee thinks that the psychological breaking down of $6,000 has driven a fresh wave of pessimism.

Negative Swing in Sentiment
He also pointed out that there is a negative swing in sentiment that is much worse relative to the fundamental implications. Lee said that most of the price movement was fueled by certain events like the argument over bitcoin cash. There have been several tweets on bitcoin cash hard fork and splitting into bitcoin ABC or bitcoin SV. Significantly, bitcoin cash itself was a fork from bitcoin.

Though the bitcoin price remained somewhat stable in October, the sell-off has started a few days back after remaining around $6,400 levels. However, Lee is unmoved by the current condition and sees bullishness on the most valuable digital coin with the belief that institutional involvement will boost the price before the current year ends. He pointed out the wider infrastructure creation for institutional involvement to support his belief.

What an ETF Is and What It Means for Bitcoin?

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What an ETF Is and What It Means for Bitcoin
To start, a short explanation: an ETF is a fund that holds an underlying asset or assets, be they stocks, commodities, bonds, etc., which are then divided into shares for investors to buy. In structure, an ETF functions like a hedge fund, the primary difference being that an ETF is traded on a public market like shares of a stock, while a hedge fund is not.

With that primer in mind, we can now unpack the processes and jargon that constitute an ETF’s many working parts.

Typically, an ETF features four primary stakeholders:

a sponsor (the entity who creates the ETF)

a custodian (the entity who stores and manages the underlying asset/s)

authorized participants (financial institutions or accredited individuals who create and redeem a block of the ETF’s shares)

shareholders/investors (those who purchase the shares on the open market)

More or less, authorized participants and sponsors are in charge of the ETF’s supply. The participants create or redeem blocks of shares (called creation units) directly from the sponsor; typically, these creation units are settled in-kind, meaning they are purchased for or redeemed in the underlying asset. 
Once participants have purchased creation units, these units are then divided into shares and traded on public exchanges.

For bitcoin, an ETF would function similarly to ETFs for other commodities like gold and silver. Its sponsor, most likely a trust of sorts, would employ the help of a custodian to store the physical bitcoins backing the ETFs (or, in the case of futures, the futures contracts) and related cash flow, and it would also rely on eager financial institutions to jumpstart circulation by purchasing shares to trade on a regulated, legacy exchange like the NYSE, CME or Cboe.

Many investors see the bitcoin ETF as the hitherto undiscovered holy grail of institutional-grade bitcoin investments, something that could push the market to new heights. In the broader market, ETFs are considered to be a low-barrier, low-cost alternative to other investment vehicles like hedge funds, and per this rationale, community members in favor of a bitcoin ETF say it would finally give institutional investors easy, reliable access to the crypto market. Supporting this thesis, proponents often point to the impacts ETFs had on the underlying gold market, noting that bitcoin would likely experience a similar price stimulation.

Detractors don’t think this is a good thing. They believe that, by encouraging a flood of institutional money, a bitcoin ETF would drown the market in inflated valuations, an argument critics in other markets have made by insisting that ETFs distort prices and liquidity. So the argument goes: Why would we create an investment vessel that could leave bitcoin susceptible to the same inflationary threats that it was created to avoid?

How Will The US Midterm Elections Impact Bitcoin

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Tuesday the 6th of November 2018 marks the next big election date in the United States, the midterm elections that allow the country to decide who represents individual states at Senate level. It’s an important election, as this is the first chance the people of the United States have a chance to show newly elected Donald Trump what they really think of him, sort of anyway.


It’s a little complicated if like me, you don’t know a lot about US politics, however the general feeling is that due to Trump’s politics, these elections are some of the most important to ever take place within the United States, suggesting that not only will this impact politics and public feeling, this is sure to have an effect on the cryptocurrency markets too.

What will happen to Bitcoin

During the 2014 midterm elections, Bitcoin didn’t really react to the political movements, therefore some expect that in this instance, Bitcoin will remain steady at a price nearing $6,500.00. Others however believe that during 2014, Bitcoin was still very immature, it didn’t truly fly until the end of 2017, so, a response to US politics in 2014 would have been far less likely. As a result of this, many are unsure about what will happen with Bitcoin.

The same goes for the actual election of President Donald Trump in November 2016. During this time, Bitcoin was valued at a price around $730.00 and remained steady throughout the duration of the election. Even when Trump came into power in January 2017, Bitcoin remained very slow and very steady.

History tells us nothing

The history of presidential elections in the United States and their relationship can’t tell us anything, because the relationship is so new. Therefore, we can’t really predict what will happen to Bitcoin come tuesday. Hopefully, the elections run smoothly and there isn’t too much of a political shake up. We have a feeling though that suggests if there is a bit of a shake up and Senate level, Bitcoin might react accordingly. If people are happy with the outcome in the US, Bitcoin might start to climb, if things don’t go to plan, Bitcoin might take a tumble. We won’t know until tuesday, so at the very best see this as a warning that things do have the chance to change slightly this week. Our advice, hold on and see what happens.

#Hong Kong Regulator Brings New Rules To Regulate Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Funds

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Hong Kong’s security watchdog – The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) – has announced new regulatory rules and guidelines for the country’s local cryptocurrency market. However, the highlight of this announcement is that the regulator wants to have a watchful eye on the operations of cryptocurrency exchange and cryptocurrency funds.

In its official announcement, the SFC notes under the existing rules, virtual assets do not fall under the definition of “securities” or “futures contracts”. Hence they do not come directly under the regulatory oversight of the SFC. As a result, investors who are dealing with virtual assets through unregulated platforms do not get the protection under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO). Thus the SFC has decided that to protect the investors’ interest, it will bring crypto exchange operators under its regulatory purview.

“…It is proposed that the standards of conduct regulation for virtual asset trading platform operators should be comparable to those applicable to existing licensed providers of automated trading services,” the SFC adds.

The definition of “virtual assets” provided by the SFC includes all blockchain-based tokens like the utility tokens, digital currencies, and the asset-backed tokens.

Licenses for Cryptocurrency Fund Distributors and Portfolio Managers
Under the new regulatory guidelines, cryptocurrency fund distributors and portfolio managers will require to get an official license from the SFC. Fund managers with more than 10 percent exposure into virtual assets will have to mandatorily get their licenses. Also, “firms managing funds which solely invest in virtual assets that do not constitute securities or future contracts” will require a license for the distribution of their funds. The statement reads:

“In order to afford better protection to investors, the SFC considers that all licensed portfolio managers intending to invest in virtual assets should observe essentially the same regulatory requirements even if the portfolios (or portions of portfolios) under their management invest solely or partially in virtual assets, irrespective of whether these virtual assets amount to ‘securities’ or ‘futures contracts.’”

Ashley Alder, the chief executive of the SFC praised the agency for its new approach towards investors protection.

“The measures announced today allow us to regulate the management or distribution of virtual asset funds in one way or another so that investors’ interests would be protected either at the fund management level, at the distribution level, or both. We hope to encourage the responsible use of new technologies and also provide investors with more choices and better outcomes,” added Alder.

The Growing Regulatory Demand Due to Increasing Risks
The SFC cites several risks associated while dealing with virtual assets. The regulator says that the inherent nature and characteristics of the virtual assets are some of the reasons behind it. As crypto assets lack any intrinsic value, they are subject to high volatility and price fluctuations.

Furthermore, the anonymous nature of virtual assets makes them vulnerable to all sorts of illicit activities like terror financing, fraud, and money laundering.  Additionally, the cryptocurrency market is facing huge challenges in terms of cyber-security risks and thefts. Most of the centralized exchanges across the globe have faced huge losses this year due to external attacks. On top of it, the lack of secure storage solutions is another reason preventing investor participation.

The regulator thus mandates proper regulatory rules to have a cleaner and safer environment for investors. It notes:

“While virtual assets have not posed a material risk to financial stability2, there is a broad consensus among securities regulators that they pose significant investor protection risks. The regulatory response to these risks varies in different jurisdictions, depending on the regulatory remit, the scale of the activities and their impact on investor interests and whether virtual assets are deemed financial products suitable for regulatio