Cryptocurrency News Now!: SEC Will Make Decisions on 9 Bitcoin ETF's in the Next 2 Months

Thursday, August 9, 2018

SEC Will Make Decisions on 9 Bitcoin ETF's in the Next 2 Months

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Don't wait. The time will never be just right."

- Napoleon Hill

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MARKET

COIN	PRICE	24H

BTC	$6,277.008428	-3.67%

ETH	$354.621936	-3.39%

XRP	$0.33375	-4.55%

BCH	$583.539274	-5.12%

EOS	$5.503422	-7.09%

*Information as of 9:30 AM EST

REGULATION

SEC Will Make Decisions on 9 Bitcoin ETF's in the Next 2 Months

ETF CRAZE

The crypto space is going through an ETF mania, every day the news is headlined by either some ETF application or denial
Investors see Bitcoin ETF's as the saving grace for the prolonged bear trend we are encountering

NO APPROVALS YET

Most recently, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) postponed the deadline for the VanEck-SolidX Bitcoin ETF listing decision to September 30th
Prior to the VanEck-SolidX, the Winklevoss Twins' ETF was denied by the SEC a couple of weeks ago

BUSY AUG & SEP

Here is a comprehensive list of proposed Bitcoin ETF's and their respective decision date:

August 23 - Two funds from ProShares
September 15 - Two funds from GraniteShares (initially proposed January 5)
September 21 - Four funds from Direxion (initially proposed January 4)
September 30 - VanEck-SolidX fund

PRICE IMPACT

The crypto community will be on their toes over the next two months cautiously watching what the SEC decides
The SEC's rulings can't be predicted, but it is certain that the rulings will have an impact on Bitcoin's price, whether positive or negative is not certain

RESEARCH

Lightning Network Grows to Over 3,000 Nodes and Expands Capacity by 85%

85% BOOM IN JULY

Prior to July, the lightning network was growing at a steady pace since its beta release in early 2018
Then, in July, a single node caused the network's capacity to increase by 35.4 BTC which doubled the size of the total network's capacity at the time
According to the data monitoring resource 1ml.com, this supernode has since disappeared but the lightning network has continued to grow to a 97 BTC capacity

CRITICS TALK CENTRALIZATION

Though the lightning network now boasts over 3,000 nodes, some critics are stating the lightning network is prone to centralization

David Shares tweeted this picture to show that the lightning network is turning into a "hub-n-spoke" technology with few nodes owning the payment channels:

THE PUSH BACK

In defense, lightning network supporters pushed back with one supporter saying that the network graph actually does "analytical justice"
StopAndDecrypt posted on Medium to explain why the network graph is just a trick on the eyes
In the write-up, StopAndDecrypt suggested that the lightning network is still in an infancy and the network will continue to grow but did reiterate that if a single node crashes, the entire network will not go down

EXCHANGE

Vitalik and Binance’s CEO Emphasize Importance of Decentralized Exchanges

“BURN IN HELL”

In an interview at Tech Crunch Sessions: Blockchain 2018, Vitalik called for centralized exchanges to “burn in hell as much as possible”
Vitalik’s gripe with centralized exchanges is that they hold “stupid king-like power” and can determine which coins will be successful

CZ’S RESPONSE

Binance CEO, Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, fired back at Vitalik’s comments targeting his core business, but ultimately agreed with him to an extent

CZ replied to Vitalik saying:

“There is no absolute decentralization. Projects with core teams still have centralization. Today, Vitalik probably has more king-like powers than anyone else in this industry, and has used it, by serving as advisors to projects, therefore helped to decide their fate, at least fate of their ICOs to a large extent.”

CZ agrees with Vitalik that decentralized exchanges are necessary, but thinks that centralized exchanges can coexist with decentralized exchanges

BINANCE DEX

Binance has plans to launch a decentralized exchange this year that will be accessible to everybody
Unlike with centralized exchanges, Binance will have very little to no control over what cryptocurrencies are exchanged on its platform

In a recent interview, CZ explained this concept:

“On the decentralized exchange we’ll have less control. More likely anybody can list any coin. That’s the philosophy of the decentralized exchange, it’s freedom of choice, freedom of investments. But with freedom there will be people who are scammers. That’s not something we can control.”

ICO

Your Q2 ICO Market Quick Stats

FUNDING FIGURES

827 projects raised over $8.3 billion in Q2 2018 compared to the Q1 funding of $3.3 billion, showing a 151% increase
So far, Q1-Q2 2018 has had 6.4 times more ICO funding than the Q1-Q2 2017
50% of the ICO projects in Q2 failed to raise more than $100,000

TOP 5 LARGEST PROJECTS

Below are the top 5 largest projects in terms of funding for Q2:

PumaPay
Flashmoni
HYCON
Nexo
MOOVER

BEST PERFORMING INDUSTRIES

Exchanges and Wallets - Average ROI of +914%
Real Assets - Average ROI of +325%
Computing and Data Storage - Average ROI of +150%

WORST PERFORMING INDUSTRIES

Investment - Average ROI of -48%
Banking and Payments - Average ROI of -48%
Privacy and Security - Average ROI of -45%

For more facts, trends, and insights visit icorating.com to view the entire Q2 report.

MORE BREWING

Report: Ready-to-Use Malware for Bitcoin ATMs Found for Sale Online
Intuit Awarded Patent for Processing a Bitcoin Transaction via a Text Message
Microsoft Introduces Ethereum Proof-of-Authority Algorithm on Azure

TODAY IN CRYPTO

Lisk (LSK)

Candidate 1.0 To Testnet

Release of Lisk Core 1.0.0 candidate to testnet at block height 5,932,033.

PROOF | SOURCE

Today in Crypto is powered by coinmarketcal.com

COIN OF THE DAY

Cube (AUTO)
At present, the automobile market of 1.7 trillion USD, has reached an important turning point. The rapid expansion of car connectivity has brought attention to the significance of network security. Given that new cars from 2020 will be manufactured with built-in CDMA, connected cars are expected to be under constant threat of cyber-attacks, similar to attacks our network connected PCs coping with today. CUBE is preparing to embrace a pivotal role in the rapidly changing vehicle market.
WEBSITE \| TWITTER \| REDDIT

Cube (AUTO)

At present, the automobile market of 1.7 trillion USD, has reached an important turning point. The rapid expansion of car connectivity has brought attention to the significance of network security. Given that new cars from 2020 will be manufactured with built-in CDMA, connected cars are expected to be under constant threat of cyber-attacks, similar to attacks our network connected PCs coping with today. CUBE is preparing to embrace a pivotal role in the rapidly changing vehicle market.

WEBSITE | TWITTER | REDDIT

MEME