 QUOTE OF THE DAY  |
| "Smart money is just dumb money that's been through a crash." - Naval |
Happy Thursday! We are almost at over 2,000 subscribers! We can't thank you guys enough for everything since we've started. Crypto education is one of the most important drivers of mass adoption and everyone who has helped spread the Blockchain Brew is helping out tremendously.
With that being said, we challenge you to introduce someone to the idea of cryptocurrencies today! Whether it's a friend, coworker, stranger, or a random person walking down the street, talk crypto.
Cheers,
Blockchain Brew Team
| COIN | PRICE | 24H |
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| BTC | $6,728.62 | +0.26% |
|
| ETH | $533.511 | +0.68% |
|
| XRP | $0.536466 | +0.09% |
|
| BCH | $876.731 | -0.59% |
|
| EOS | $10.4439 | +0.3% |
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*Information as of 9:30 AM EST
Tether Finally Releases Third-Party Report of its Bank Accounts
LONG CRITICIZED
- Cryptocurrency investors have long been wary of Tether’s transparency, fearing that the most popular stable coin used to trade cryptocurrencies is not actually backed 1:1 with the US Dollar
- Bitfinex, which shares common owners and managers as Tether, has been accused by some of inflating the price of cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, by printing unbacked Tether
- Just last December, a subpoena was sent to Bitfinex and Tether by Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the results of this subpoena have not been released
‘AUDIT’
- On Wednesday, Tether published a report done by the law firm, Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan, LLP (FSS)
- The report concluded that Tether has $2.55 billion USD in two bank accounts to cover the $2.54 billion Tether currently in the market
- However, the report does not say whether Tether has always been backed by enough funds or even if these funds have the sole purpose of backing Tether
BUT IT WASN’T AN ‘AUDIT’...
- This report still does not calm the worries of some, because they complain the audit was completed by a law firm when it should’ve been done by an accounting firm
- The law firm even made it clear they did not perform an audit, its investigative processes were not conducted following generally accepted auditing or accounting standards
The firm even included the disclaimer:
"FSS procedures performed are not for the purpose of providing assurance."
Stu Hoegner, Tether’s general counsel, commented why an accounting firm couldn’t be used:
“The bottom line is that an audit cannot be obtained. The barriers to getting audited are simply too big for us to overcome right now, and not just for us [...] we’ve gone for the next best thing.”
Goldman Sachs Reveals It May Trade Just Not Futures But Also Actual Cryptocurrencies
GOLDMAN SACHS
- Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is an investment bank and financial services institution headquartered in New York City
- Goldman Sachs is one of the largest investment banks in the world with nearly $1 trillion in assets under management
- The firm was one of the first large investment firms to get its feet wet in the cryptocurrency market by clearing Bitcoin futures trading
NOT JUST FUTURES
- In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs Chief Operating Officer David Solomon revealed that due to client demand, the firm is looking into offering additional cryptocurrency products
Solomon stated:
“We are clearing some futures around Bitcoin, talking about doing some other activities there, but it’s going very cautiously. We’re listening to our clients and trying to help our clients as they’re exploring those things too.”
- In order to trade “physical” cryptocurrencies, Goldman will need to acquire additional regulatory approval and figure out a secure way to store the tokens
29% of High Net Worth Individuals Have a High Degree of Interest in Crypto
GAINING INTEREST
- Each year the consulting firm Capgemini releases the World Wealth Report which is a study of wealthy individuals in 71 countries who account for 98% of global gross national income and 99% of world stock market capitalization
- According to the World Wealth Report, 29% of high net worth individuals have a high degree of interest in cryptocurrencies
- Though this number has seen significant growth and reached an all time high in 2017, the sector still remains cautious
An infographic provided by the report shows the interest levels of cryptocurrencies among high net worth individuals in different countries:
MORE FINDS
- Globally, 39.3% of respondents stated that the primary reason to hold cryptocurrencies was for investment return while 19.3% cited cryptocurrencies as an alternative store of value
- In addition, though cryptocurrencies reached an all time high in interest in 2017, only 35% of asset managers provided information about crypto to their customers
- Not surprisingly, over 70% of respondents under 40 years old took an interest in receiving cryptocurrency information from their primary asset managers whereas only 13% of respondents over 60 years old took the same interest
MOVING FORWARD
- Though these numbers have reached an all time high, they are modest at best
- It is likely that crypto regulation will generate more interest among this demographic in the future
- Lastly, since the younger generation of high net worth individuals take a much larger interest in cryptocurrencies, new generations may adopt similar sentiment, spurring long-term growth
Nasdaq CEO Says ICOs Pose 'Serious Risks'
ICO CONCERNS
- According to CNBC, Adena Friedman, CEO of Nasdaq, spoke at the Future of Fintech conference in New York on Wednesday about the concerns she has about initial coin offerings (ICO)
- Friedman's key takeaways for her stance against the current ICO model was that there is currently a lack of transparency, regulation, and accountability
- Friedman's concerns are a widely held view of the ICO model since a handful of projects in the space have ended up being nothing more than a front for an exit scam
Friedman criticized the ICO model and the loose regulation surrounding it in her speech saying:
"To make it no rules at all, when companies can just willy-nilly take people's money and offer no information at all, with no governance, that sounds to me like you're taking advantage of people."
ICOS AS SECURITIES
- ICOs have been under a lot of scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission recently due to the idea that ICOs are actually just securities offerings
- Treating ICOs like securities would have a large impact on many ICOs in the space including removal from U.S. crypto exchanges and heavy regulation
- Friedman, who has been known to be welcoming of cryptocurrencies, actually holds a similar view as the SEC regarding ICOs as securities sharing "I support the SEC on that"
- Amsterdam Airport Lets Travelers Swap Leftover Euros for Crypto
- Robinhood Reportedly Considering Formal Banking Services
- Bloomberg Terminal Adds Huobi's Cryptocurrency Market Index
DigiByte (DGB)
"An upcoming DigiByte hard fork that will change some of DigiBytes Mining algorithms to maintain GPU friendliness."
TRON (TRX)
The migration from ERC20 tokens to TRX, the cryptocurrency on Tron’s public blockchain, will begin on June 21,2018 (GMT+8).
TRON (TRX)
Bittrex is supporting the TRON blockchain upgrade on June 21st.
TRON (TRX)
Bitfinex is supporting the TRON blockchain upgrade on June 21st.
TRON (TRX)
Binance is supporting the TRON blockchain upgrade on June 21st.
TRON (TRX)
Gate.io will support TRON Mainnet Migration. All TRX tokens will be swapped to mainnet asset.
TRON (TRX)
India Biggest Exchange Zebpay will support the TRON blockchain upgrade on June 21st.
TRON (TRX)
"Bithumb Official will support #TRON blockchain upgrade and token migration."
TRON (TRX)
Coindelta is supporting the TRON blockchain upgrade on June 21st.
TRON (TRX)
CoinEgg is supporting the TRON blockchain upgrade on June 21st.
TRON (TRX)
Bitbns is supporting the TRON blockchain upgrade on June 21st.
TRON (TRX)
Koinex is supporting the TRON blockchain upgrade on June 21st.
Today in Crypto is powered by coinmarketcal.com
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