Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Bear Scares?🐻

December 19, 2018

The Bear is Scaring Off Institutions...Or is It?

Holding out

The crypto bear market has caused grief for many retail investors. All year the crypto community has waited by with high hopes saying the "institutions are coming."

Now, however, Bloomberg is reporting that institutions could be holding out because of the bleeding market.

Falling futures

To come to this conclusion, J.P. Morgan analysts took a look at futures activity on CBOE Global Markets and found that open interest has declined since crypto's peak last year.

Within the same timeframe, however, the more popular futures exchange CME has seen a rocky open interest value - not showing a strong move either way.

Mining misery

In addition to falling futures interest, the analysts pointed to poor mining profits as another threat to hesitant institutions. With miners operating underwater and shutting off equipment, institutions are likely staying on the sidelines until profit returns.

But are they really?

It's unclear whether institutions are dropping out of the market like J.P. Morgan claims they are. Earlier this week, research firm Diar found that the over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks have grown significantly during the market's worst span yet.

Meanwhile, others like Meltem Demirors of CoinShares believe the recent plummet was actually caused by "institutions taking money off the table."

There are indicators showing strength on both sides of the table. For now, the crypto market is in the midst of a rally as Bitcoin passes $3,800.

TECH

Binance Labs Facilitates the Launch of 8 New Crypto Startups

Birth of new cryptos

After completion of a ten-week Incubation Program, Binance Labs recently announced the launch of eight new blockchain startups. The program took place in San Francisco and received applications from over 500 projects.

At the end of the ten weeks, eight projects came out on top and were awarded a $500,000 grant. In addition to the monetary reward, each founder will also receive access to a fireside chat with industry leaders, including Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Head of Binance Labs, Ella Zhang, commented on the Incubator Program:

"In the long run, we aim to build up a strong blockchain ecosystem and network of BUIDLers around the world. Our first incubation program in San Francisco was an amazing experience and we are grateful to the mentors, advisers and friends who helped our BUIDLers during the 10 weeks. We are very excited to expand our program next season and meet with blockchain projects across five different continents — scaling quickly, that is Binance speed."

Meet the winners

The eight projects launched out of Binance Labs' incubator program are:

Nym - Decentralized authentication and payment protocol
Path - Ubiquitous API for crypto exchanges and wallets
SafePal - Crypto hardware wallet
Injective Protocol - Decentralized exchange protocol
Torus - Frictionless logins for dapps
Akio Labs - Gathering insights from blockchain data
Decore - Payroll and accounting software for crypto native companies

REPORT

The Chinese Millionaire Who Made it Rain Cash Was Allegedly Arrested

Falling from the sky

Earlier this week it was reported that Chinese Bitcoin millionaire Wong Ching-kit was spotted "making it rain cash" in the streets of Hong Kong.

The publicity stunt was live streamed on Facebook as a promotion to help boost attention to a new competition where participants can allegedly win large amounts of cash.

Detained as disorderly

Following the stunt, local news outlet Shanghaiist discovered that the event actually provoked police to arrest Wong Ching-kit for "disorderly conduct in a public place."

The troubles don't stop there. On Twitter, Leo Weese, a member of the local Twitter community, revealed that Wong Ching-kit is actually running a pyramid scheme that is "well known in the community."

As of now, no details have been released for either of the issues Wong Ching-kit may be encountering soon.

Tim Draper Invests $1.25 Million in Bitcoin-Only Payment Processor

Supporting the future of Bitcoin

Tim Draper, the famous venture capitalist and blockchain proponent, invested $1.25 million in a Bitcoin-only payment processor startup called OpenNode.

The firm claims that it will be able to process "instant" and "risk-free" Bitcoin payments for businesses. OpenNode plans to charge its customers a 1% transaction fee, far less than the 2.9% traditional payment processors charge.

The startup leverages Bitcoin's Lightning network to enable the instant, cheap Bitcoin payments. The company reports that since its inception, the Lightning Network has grown more than 15,000% and now has a capacity of 456 BTC.

An OpenNode spokesperson detailed the potential of the Lightning Network:

"We'll continue to tackle new emerging markets where the lightning network can cut costs, promote creative payment models, and refine the current user experience with payments."

BITS

But wait, there's more...

✅ Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) has allegedly approved previously hacked exchange Coincheck for a license to operate.
🤓 BitMEX CEO claims Bitcoin could be the world's next asset class within 10 years.
💰Vitalik Buterin just donated $300k on a whim after a conversation on Twitter.

MEME