Cryptocurrency News Now!: Global Blockchain Spending Expected to Reach $11.7 Billion in 2022

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Global Blockchain Spending Expected to Reach $11.7 Billion in 2022

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turn into an innovation."

- Dan Kamen

Happy Wednesday! We are above 2,000 readers! Big thank you to all of our readers who made it possible. Keep sharing to get the crypto word out. For crypto to succeed, we all need to do our part in educating the masses.

Cheers,
Blockchain Brew Team

MARKETS

COIN	PRICE	24H

BTC	$8,212.74	+0.06%

ETH	$472.371	-0.64%

XRP	$0.456061	-0.67%

BCH	$839.102	-2.46%

EOS	$8.53742	+2.28%

*Information as of 9:30 AM EST

PREDICTION

Global Blockchain Spending Expected to Reach $11.7 Billion in 2022

BOOMING

Blockchain has burst onto the scene in the past couple years, but shows no signs of slowing down
International Data Corporation, a market research firm, predicts that in 2022 blockchain spending will rise almost 10x of what it will be this year
The firms released a report forecasting blockchain spending to grow 73.2% annually from $1.5 billion in 2018 to $11.7 billion in 2017

GEOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN

As the largest economy in the world, the United States is expected to take the lead in blockchain investments, predicted to account for 36% of global spending over the next five years
Trailing the United States will be Western Europe and China
However, Japan and Canada are supposed to have the highest annual spending growth rate at 108.7% and 86.7%, respectively

SECTOR BREAKDOWN

The financial sector is projected to be the biggest beneficiary with $552 million in blockchain spending directed at the sector in 2018
Next, after the financial sector is the the manufacturing and resources sector with investments expected to total $160 million this year

ROI

The amount that will be spent on blockchain technologies over the next five years is astounding
There is a reason that companies and governments are pouring money into this technology, there will be return on the investment
Blockchain can improve efficiencies in many types of processes and its immutable, transparent, decentralized nature is very valuable

NEWS

Bitwise Files with SEC for Crypto Index ETF

FILING

In a press release published yesterday, Bitwise announced that it filed the necessary paperwork with the SEC to apply for its crypto index fund to become a publicly offered exchange traded fund (ETF)
The company has only filed with the SEC, the ETF is not yet effective, no shares of the ETF are available for trade yet

Bitwise Global Head of Exchange-Traded Products John Hyland commented on the filing:

"We know that the current crypto ETF filings have generated a great deal of discussion and analysis within the SEC about this emerging asset class, and the SEC and its staff, to their credit, have asked for public comment on a wide range of issues relating to these products. We expect the staff of the SEC has had ongoing discussions with the investment firms making the crypto filings to date, and we look forward to having our own discussions with the SEC about the nature of our proposed offering."

HOLD 10 INDEX

Bitwise's ETF would be dubbed the HOLD 10 Cryptocurrency Index Fund
This fund would be a market cap weighted index of the 10 largest cryptocurrencies and be rebalanced every month
To calculate market cap, Bitwise will use a 5-year diluted market cap because crypto's supply count is always changing and liquidity is sometimes uncertain

Bitwise Global Head of Research Matt Hougan spoke about the benefit of an index for the space:

"Our research shows that an index-tracking basket of multiple cryptocurrencies behaves differently than a single coin. As such, we think both sorts of exposure need to be looked at by investors when considering the growing cryptocurrency space. Our view is that this new area has many similarities to the introduction 10 to 15 years ago of commodity ETFs. At that time, we saw the launch of single-commodity ETFs tracking gold, silver, crude oil, and other commodities, as well as ETFs tracking diversified commodity index baskets. We see a lot of similarities here."

NEWS

Coinbase Internal Investigation Concludes No Insider Trading Took Place During Bitcoin Cash Listing

BITCOIN CASH LISTING

After initially avoiding listing Bitcoin Cash, Coinbase decided to add the Bitcoin fork to its platform on December 19th, 2017
Allegations of insider trading erupted after Bitcoin Cash's price had jumped to over $3,000 within an hour of being listed on the platform
Later, Coinbase halted Bitcoin Cash trading as the price on GDAX (now Coinbase Pro) showed Bitcoin Cash's price to be $9,500

Many users took to Twitter to accuse Coinbase of insider trading:

INTERNAL INVESTIGATION

Following the allegations of insider trading, the San Francisco-based exchange started an internal investigation
According to Fortune, the investigation, conducted by two national law firms, has now concluded and Coinbase is "determined to take no disciplinary action"
Though this is great news for Coinbase, they are still not in the clear as a class action lawsuit about the Bitcoin Cash insider trading incident looms over their head
Lynda Grant, the lawyer heading the class action lawsuit, believes not only is her team investigating the case, but that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is also

RESEARCH

CoinDesk Releases Q2 State of the Blockchain Report, What You Need to Know

Each quarter for the last four years, CoinDesk has released a State of the Blockchain report that provides key insights on the industry.

MARKETS

During Q2, the total cryptocurrency market remained relatively flat with a small decline of only 1.25%
Though the decline in price is small, Bitcoin's total trading pairs saw a massive decline in volume of 26%
Correlation between Bitcoin and the top cryptocurrencies remained strong:
- Ethereum (ETH) - 0.93
- XRP (XRP) - 0.80
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH) - 0.84
- EOS (EOS) - 0.61

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

An official of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stated that Ether (ETH), in its present form, is not a security
The U.S. Justice Department opens investigation to search for Bitcoin price manipulation
Coinbase launches index fund and custody solutions for institutional investors
China stands by cryptocurrency crackdown
Cryptocurrency ad ban is slowly getting lifted by tech giants

SENTIMENT SURVEY FINDINGS

65% of respondents believe at current prices, cryptocurrencies are undervalued
48% of respondents believe it is unlikely the 2018 crypto downturn will cause a prolonged bear market
75% of respondents HODLed their cryptocurrencies all the way down
95% of respondents believe that regulated institutions will tokenize securities in the future

To read more insights gathered by CoinDesk's State of the Blockchain report, click here.

MORE BREWING