Wednesday, June 13, 2018

📌 Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

Bitcoin beach body.

Recently, the crypto markets have been doing a great job shedding that winter weight.

Over the weekend, South Korean exchange Coinrail was hacked, losing 40-60 million dollars worth of cryptos, yet it's not the ultimate cause of the recent market decline...

In timely fashion, there was also a significant investigation launched into the biggest exchanges that make up the futures market, following fears of price manipulations.

Both have lead to a widespread panic... And a whole lotta red. 🚨

Nevertheless, we are quickly approaching a point where it is worth buying while there is blood in the streets.

To be an effective trader and investor, you HAVE to rewire your brain to buy when everyone is afraid.

📜 Reminder: This market will NOT be going to zero.

MUST READS

Bitcoin Falls Sharply After Another Cryptocurrency Exchange is Hacked

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail said it suffered a "cyberintrusion" on Sunday, prompting bitcoin prices to fall sharply toward year lows.

Coinbase One Step Closer to Selling Securities

The race is on for the desired title of "world's #1 exchange," and Coinbase is looking to take the lead as it makes moves to become the first broker-dealer to offer blockchain securities regulated by the SEC and FINRA.

In the month of June alone, Coinbase has made massive strides including:

🤝 Acquired Keystone Capital in a bid to become a regulated broker-dealer. This acquisition provides them the opportunity to be able to offer more than just crypto related products in the near future
👣 Revealed their path to listing SEC-regulated crypto securities, laying out their next steps following the Keystone acquisition
✍️ Added Ethereum Classic (ETC) to their marketplace, to be rolled out in the coming months.

Crypto Giant Binance to Offer Euro Trading Pairs This Year

Many of the most popular virtual currency venues only provide crypto-to-crypto trading, which is subject to less regulatory scrutiny but limits customers' ability to cash out. Offering a fiat currency would be a first for Binance as it looks to build on its rapid growth.

DEEP DIVE

Bitcoin is Not an Energy Drain, But Rather an Energy Gain?

The CoinShares Group has published a white paper authored by researchers who make the claim that the Bitcoin Network is not using as much energy as has been widely reported.

Contrary to media sources, they claim that the Bitcoin network is actually mainly powered by renewable energy, with hydro being the dominant source.

📊 BTC Investment Theses

We can separate the investment theses for (and against) investing in Bitcoin into categories. This detailed analysis helps clarify how much of an impact a given narrative could have to Bitcoin's valuation. For example, investment theses that have a short holding period are less meaningful for investors than ones with a long holding period.

The Truth About Smart Contracts – And a Tweetstorm Response

Crypto Influencer Jimmy Song breaks down the misguided assumptions people have towards Smart Contracts, and how instead they're "not so simple and very hard to secure".

Our friend Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital responds to this article to offer his critiques - albiet 280 characters at a time.

Coming Soon: Amazon Coin

Recent evidence shows that Amazon may be on the verge of testing out it's own cryptocurrency.

And Silicon Valley expert, Jeff Brown, has released a strategy that shows you two "backdoor" ways to profit from this extraordinary event without having to buy Amazon shares or a single cryptocurrency.

REGULATORY FRONT

U.S. Regulator Demands Trading Data From Bitcoin Exchanges in Manipulation Probe

The CFTC has reportedly sent subpoenas to four cryptocurrency exchanges to gather trading data for its investigation into pricing manipulation.

Ever since cryptocurrency took off in 2017 and bigger players started entering the arena, investors have theorized that cryptocurrency prices were possibly being manipulated. [paywall]

Although the markets have sold off since the news, this should be viewed as GOOD regulatory news.

Wells Fargo Bans Cryptocurrency Purchases on Its Credit Cards

Wells Fargo has decided to hop on the bandwagon and join Citigroup and Bank of America in starting to charge a cash equivalent fee to customers purchasing cryptocurrency with a credit card.

CHART OF THE WEEK

In regards to our latest BTC chart, we basically hit the April 1st low of $6,400.

If we break through that level, the next major level of support is the Feb 2nd low of about $6,000. On Bitstamp, the price briefly dropped to around $5,900 so that could happen again as well.

Above is the Bitfinex chart with the 2 levels circled. Horizontal levels like these can be more relevant than channel levels in strong down-turns.