Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Closed for Good 😓

December 25, 2018

340+ UK Crypto Businesses Shutdown Operations in 2018

Trying to survive the bear market

According to Sky News, 342 cryptocurrency companies in the United Kingdom either dissolved or liquidated during the year.

Obviously, the discontinuation of cryptocurrency businesses have been influenced by the environment. Last year, when valuations were more favorable, only 139 companies ended operations.

Despite the market and many companies shutting down, more than 800 new blockchain related businesses opened shop during the year.

Extrapolating this across the globe

This report only discloses numbers for the United Kingdom. But, the rest of the world is suffering a similar fate.

It has been widely reported that all across the space, companies are struggling to stay financially afloat. The bear market has devalued companies reserves and now companies are scratching to stay alive.

For example, the crypto incubator Consensys recently laid off 60% of its entire workforce to save costs.

ADOPTION

Cryptocurrency Gaining Popularity for Remittances

Gaining market share

A study conducted by Clovr finds that cryptocurrencies are more often being used to send money across borders. According to a survey of 707 people who have sent money abroad in the past year, 15.8% of them used cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies still trail more traditional methods like online and money transfer services, and wire transfers.

Crypto users seemed to be pleased with the new technology. Of the respondents who used cryptocurrencies for remittance, ~86% said that they prefer it to other methods.

Awareness is a hurdle

Cryptocurrencies are beneficial over other methods for remittances for several reasons. Mainly, crypto can be transferred faster and cheaper.

While cryptocurrencies are more efficient, they are not capturing a meaningful share of the remittance market.

According to the same survery cited above, the number one reason people are not using cryptos for remittance is that they do not know enough about the technology. The second most common reason is that the user worries that the recipient will not be able to spend the cryptocurrency.

MARKET

Cryptos Surge as Equities Tumble During Holidays

Seeing green

At the end of a very rough year for cryptocurrencies, the market is seeing a bit of a resurgence.

Cryptos were positive almost across the board on Monday with Ethereum being one of the biggest gainers. This comes after Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and lead of Consensys, called bottom on the market.

In theory, cryptocurrencies should have little to no correlation with traditional shares of equity. However, this has not necessarily been the case in recent months, but times might be changing.

Santa rally M.I.A.

Historically, the end of the year has been a profitable period for the equity market. After a tough October and November, Wall Street was hoping for some relief to end the year.

Instead, investors were victim to the stock market's worst Christmas Eve performance in a century.

Good sign for crypto

Resisting to follow the equity market is a good sign for cryptocurrencies. It shows that the asset class can be seen as a safe haven from the recently volatile stock market.

Although, it is not certain that the recent cryptocurrency spike was influenced by the ongoings of the equity market.

BITS

But wait, there's more...

😬 Japanese internet giant GMO exits Bitcoin miner production in Q4 due to "extraordinary losses."
👏🏻 TRON now has over 1 million user addresses six months after going live.

MEME