Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Breaking 50 mil 🚀

December 18, 2018

There are Now More than 50 Million Unique ETH Addresses

Addresses still growing

The number of unique Ethereum wallet addresses recently broke the 50 million mark. The amount of ETH addresses has been consistently growing, even as the value of Ether is down more than 90% from its all-time high.

However, according to BitInfoCharts, the number of active ETH wallets has more closely mirrored the price of ETH. Active wallets are defined by having carried out a transaction on a certain day.

Ethereum adoption, up or down?

There are conflicting opinions of just how well Ethereum adoption is going. On the bull side is Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin who recently contrasted Ethereum adoption with its price, saying:

"Blockchain is more than a market. It's a movement. Market cap doesn't reflect activity. Decentralized networks are growing. 10 billion daily API requests served by Infura. 1 million Truffle downloads. 1 million MetaMask downloads. 12,000 live Ethereum nodes. 48 million unique Ethereum addresses. 3 times LinkedIn blockchain job openings."

However, some investors look at Ethereum's two most common use cases: initial coin offerings and decentralized applications.

The initial coin offering funding process is very much in jeopardy due to the enforcement of the SEC. The Commission has shown that it will prosecute ICO's that are unregistered securities.

Ethereum's decentralized applications are also looking pretty bleak. The top Dapp on the Ethereum network had only about 1,000 users in the past day and it was a decentralized exchange. If you ignore DEX's, the top Ethereum Dapp only has about 400 daily active users.

EXCHANGE

Coinbase Just Became Much More Useful with Crypto-to-Crypto Trading

Finally fixed

Coinbase was introduced as simple as can be with only a two-way street. Either customers are buying crypto with fiat, or selling crypto for fiat.

As of yesterday, however, the San Francisco-based exchange is now offering crypto-to-crypto conversions right in its IOS and Android app for customer convenience.

This means what could have been done in 2 transactions is both cheaper and faster thanks to this new feature.

12 days of Coinbase

So far, we've seen 4 days of Coinbase's "12 Days of Coinbase" - a promotional campaign where the exchange is introducing new offerings day by day to the public.

Here's what the bag of gifts has had so far:

Day 1: Convert crypto into gift cards
Day 2: Donation to Venezuelan families with ZEC
Day 3: A video on economic freedom
Day 4: Asset watchlist
Day 5: Withdrawals to PayPal accounts
Day 6: Donation to Syrian refugees
Day 7: An introduction to USDC
Day 8: Direct crypto-to-crypto conversions
Day 9: ???

So far, the campaign has continuously received media attention for each day of its release.

While the new bag of tricks on the exchange may not be life-changing for many customers who already use more robust exchanges, it certainly is a step outside of Coinbase's usual platform.

REPORT

Are Crypto Trading Volumes Being Faked?

"Clear evidence"

A new report released by Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) is claiming that over 80% of trading volume in the top 25 Bitcoin pairs on CoinMarketCap is faked by wash trading - a process in which a trader boosts volumes by both buying and selling an asset.

The conclusion stems from 3-months of surveillance on top crypto exchanges to watch for trading patterns as well as consultation from market maker experts.

2 out of 25…

Within the top 25, only two different exchanges stayed true to their real volumes: Binance and Bitfinex. That means even high-profile exchanges like OKEx, Huobi, and HitBTC are joining in on the fraud.

It's a problem

In the United States, both the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have opened investigations into exchanges to look for market manipulation.

Still, however, it seems spoofing activity is the only way to "keep up" with the market.

TRADING

Market Jumps in Bid to Defend $100 Billion Total Market Cap

Seeing green

Almost all cryptocurrencies saw gains of more than 5% on Monday morning as the total market capitalization was testing the $100 billion dollar mark.

The $100 billion dollar level is a significant psychological support. If the market were to dip below this level, the market would most likely sell off.

However, investors flooded into the market when it neared $100 billion, indicating that many think that this may be the bottom. Bitcoin and Ethereum both saw more than 5% gains early in the day and EOS surged more than 20%.

Although, there are still a lot of investors thinking that the market will go even lower. Some fear that Bitcoin will soon trade under $3,000 and the rest of the market will follow.

We could be finally getting to the point where all the bears have sold off or this could be just a dead cat bounce. Only time will tell.

Why #HODL when you can #FODL?

There's a new startup in town and it's making crypto payments at your favorite stores possible. It's called Fold. Today, they are launching retail giant Target on their platform to give millions of retail shoppers the choice crypto payments.

To celebrate, Fold has a gift for you. Use Bitcoin for your next purchase at Target and get a $5 Target card as a reward. This offer is only limited to the first 100 users (so hurry!) and can only be used once per user. Each gift card will be deposited by Friday, December 21st. Click the button below to redeem your offer!

I WANT TO #FODL 🤑

BITS

But wait, there's more...

🏦 Former Goldman Sachs executive says crypto "feels like being at the early days of trading equities electronically."
🚢 Two South Korean governments are looking to track marine shipments with blockchain technology.
💰Crypto data startup Nomics has secured $3 million in funding from a number of investors including Coinbase Ventures.

MEME