September 30, 2018
QUOTE OF THE DAY 
“Society has had multiple stores of value, as none is perfectly secure. Gold, oil, dollars, real estate, (some) bonds & equities. Crypto is the first that’s decentralized *and* digital.”
- Naval
| COIN | PRICE | 24H |
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| BTC | $6,631.022044 | +0.89% |
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| XRP | $0.609454 | +8.05% |
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| ETH | $236.734494 | +2.64% |
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| BCH | $539.475128 | +0.11% |
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| EOS | $5.867358 | +2.34% |
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*Information as of 11:00 AM EST
Another Stablecoin Entered the Market, What's the Reason Behind the Stablecoin Hype?
A first for GBP
Yesterday, the London Block Exchange, a well-known U.K. crypto startup, announced that it is building the "world's first GBP-backed stablecoin."
According to a Business Insider, the stablecoin will be called LBXPeg and will have a 1-to-1 ratio with the British pound sterling.
In addition, LBX is building LBXPeg on Ethereum due to both transparency and efficiency, but also because Ethereum is "close to reaping the benefits of its upcoming scaling solutions."
They just keep on coming
Stablecoins are exciting for a large number of reasons but mostly one: they reap the benefits of digital transactions on the Blockchain without being vulnerable to volatile crypto price movements.
Following the popularity of the first stablecoin Tether, and because Tether has been criticized for being fraudulent, developers around the world set out to create a better stablecoin.
So far, according to Blockchain, there are now more than 57 different stablecoins in development with 23 of them already live. Adding to that, Blockchain estimates that stablecoins have attracted $335 million in venture funding to date.
How many is too many?
It seems like every other week we hear of a new stablecoin and its development.
According to Travis Kling, dozens of stablecoins are "over-capitalizing attractive areas of investment so much that they have become bad investments."
With many different almost identical stablecoins already available, competition will only increase. However, for the time being, it seems that the first-mover advantage for Tether is working out since it still ranks as the top dog among stablecoins.
Crypto Companies are Replacing Banks in Hong Kong’s Most Expensive Real Estate
Crypto companies are taking over Hong Kong skyscrapers
Hong Kong is home to some of the world’s most expensive real estate alongside the likes of New York, Sydney, and London.
Cryptocurrencies have begun infiltrating Hong Kong’s most expensive offices in the city’s skyscrapers. Last month, BitMEX moved its headquarters to Cheung Kong Center’s 45th floor, renting out 20,000 square feet at a whopping $28.66 per square foot.
More notably as crypto companies are moving in, banks are having to move out of the same expensive real estate locations to save costs. This is a tell-tale sign of intermediation.
A reporter from a Hong Kong news outlet commented:
“Blockchain companies show no signs of slowing their expansion in Hong Kong. These firms are leasing space in top-tier office buildings to attract and retain talent.”
Landlords aren’t trusting their crypto tenants
Even as the market has declined, crypto companies are still prospering. Exchanges make their money off of volume and crypto mining is still in full swing.
Yet, crypto companies still do not have the trust of landlords. It was reported that BitMEX had to pay its first year of rent upfront (estimated to be $6.8 million) before moving into the Cheung Kong Center.
Denis Ma, head of research at commercial real estate investment firm Jones Lang LaSalle said:
“It’s pretty common for landlords to ask for larger deposits from tenants with weaker covenant strength. Landlords are always open to taking on new tenants, it’s just a matter of balancing rent against flight risk.”
JD.com Establishes Smart City Research Institute to Facilitate Developments with Blockchain
China and the smart city revolution
China is determined to become the most advanced country in terms of technological innovation. With a population so large and growing out of control, the government is doing massive amounts of research on smart urban development.
The term ‘smart city’ has been coined to represent cities being developed with an integrated technological infrastructure. Most cities around the world were established long ago, before the internet age, and are outdated.
China is building new cities from the ground up and is at the forefront of the civil technological revolution.
JD.com wants to have a role in smart cities
China is very much a command economy, but there are still some large private corporations that are playing a role in the country’s economy. One of them, JD.com, who is an e-commerce giant, hopes to do its part in the building of ‘smart cities’.
JD.com recently announced the establishment of its own Smart City Research Institute.
As part of its announcement, the company said its priorities are to:
“Advanced Intelligent solutions in the areas of urban environment, transportation, planning, energy consumption, commerce, security, healthcare, credit cities and e-government.”
The company will utilize breakthrough technologies like blockchain as well as artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of these smart cities.
Q&A with Deribit
For today's interview feature, Unbankd had the opportunity to speak with Deribit CEO John Jansen about the crypto derivative exchange and its future opportunities.
What prompted the idea to create a new crypto derivative exchange?
I have a background in market making options on the Amsterdam Options Exchange. In the Summer of 2012, I heard about Bitcoin for the first time and became excited about it instantly. After spending some time investing and trading, in 2014 I had the idea for a professional futures and options trading platform for cryptocurrencies. After recruiting a number of technical experts that were able to help me we started building the system. My brother Marius was closely involved in the development of the platform and joined full time in 2016.
How valuable is user input as you continue to enhance Deribit?
We make a point of listening to our customers. We are currently getting a lot of new customers and our developers are incorporating a lot of the things that they are requesting, think about presenting ROI data on their trades. Senior management is always communicating with customers in our Telegram group and we conduct surveys on a regular basis. After listening to our customers we also prioritized the development of the Deribit Perpetual, our successful alternative to other Perpetual swaps.
What are some reasons why the Deribit platform would be attractive to traders?
We offer a vastly superior stability and transaction speed. Our platform does not suffer from overload issues and is on average 20-50 times faster than the competition. Besides this we are also the only serious crypto options exchange and Deribit features the only liquid market for put and call options on Bitcoin. This is a fast growing part of our business and one that will continue to grow as more people get involved.
How do you see cryptocurrency growing in the next decade?
We believe that cryptocurrencies still have a lot untapped potential. In the past months we have seen more and more institutional investors joining the crypto world which shows an increase in professional interest. Other interesting developments are security tokens that can tap an entire new source of demand. While it is hard to forecast what will happen exactly throughout the next decade, we definitely see a lot of positive developments at the moment. The SEC moving towards allowing an ETF would be icing on the cake.
To read the full interview and learn more about Deribit, click here.
- Arrington XRP Capital may stop funding U.S.-based blockchain startups after being subpoenaed repeatedly by the SEC.
- Ripple will lead a group of crypto startups to lobby lawmakers and financial regulators in D.C. to support crypto and blockchain innovation
- The Reserve Bank of India has denied officially forming a new unit to research AI and blockchain technology, despite reports to the contrary.
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