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Consensus 2019's jam-packed schedule continues. Some of the highlights from day two...
THE RETAIL CRYPTO DIVIDE: One of this morning's panels featured two people who are perhaps at the forefront of coaxing the next generation of investors to the crypto space: ErisX CEO Thomas Chippas and TD Ameritrade executive vice president for trading and education Steve Quirk.
According to Quirk, it's become clear that TD's customer base is interested in cryptocurrency.
What's more, Quirk indicated pretty directly that the interest level there transcends generational boundaries: he noted that attendance has been “off the charts” at the bitcoin education events facilitated by the company, and that this intense interest isn’t just from Millennials, but older retail investors too.
Quirk and fellow panelist Thomas Chippas, CEO of exchange ErisX (which TD Ameritrade has invested in) also commented on institutional investors, which, perhaps despite popular perception, they claimed are already investing in bitcoin.
“Apologies it’s not happening faster,” Chippas said in a nod to skeptics, but “it’s happening, it’s never going to be fast enough for the people who write headlines.”
THE LONG-AWAITED BET: Crypto-fans who've been waiting for Jimmy Song and Joe Lubin to hash out the details of their bet on ethereum's future can rest easy after a joint appearance on CoinDesk LIVE, our live events broadcast.
Our reporter Brady Dale bore witness to the details being ironed out, a year after Song and Lubin first agreed to such a deal during Consensus 2018.
Here's the scoop: if ethereum is doing great four years from now, Song will pay Lubin (or his beneficiary) 810.8 ETH. If the dapp economy is sputtering at that point, Lubin will send Song 69.74 BTC.
“It’s a maximum pain kind of bet,” Song said. “Skin in the game.”
But don't worry about any real acrimony at work here: the two hugged at the end of the session.
Click here to watch the recording on Periscope.
A KEY MOMENT FROM MONDAY: Before we close out this part of the newsletter, there was a panel appearance Monday by the SEC's 'crypto czar' that you may want to revisit.
As we reported yesterday, Valerie Szczepanik, the SEC’s senior advisor for digital assets and innovation, made it clear that so-called initial exchange offerings, or IEOs, fall into the purview of the agency's sights.
She said cryptocurrency exchanges that facilitate token sales for a fee likely meet the legal definition of securities dealers if the issuer or any of the buyers are based in the U.S. As such, they need to follow the registration and licensing requirements for broker-dealers, alternative trading systems (ATS) or national securities exchanges.
And if they’re not, they’re going to be in hot water, according to Szczepanik.
“If they are not registered they will find themselves in trouble in the U.S., if they have a U.S. issuer or U.S. buyers, if they are operating on the U.S. market," she remarked.
Does this mean the end of IEOs? Highly unlikely given Bitfinex's recent efforts (amid its dispute with New York) to raise as much as $1 billion worth of the USDT stablecoin via an IEO. But Szczepanik's remarks make clear that the SEC is watching this funding mechanism closely.
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BITCOIN'S GYRATIONS: Bitcoin (BTC) clocked fresh 10-month highs earlier today and currently appears on track to post its largest monthly gain since late 2017. The cryptocurrency market leader rose to $8,335 at 08:00 UTC on Tuesday, the highest level since July 25, according to Bitstamp prices.
As of time of writing, the price of bitcoin is hovering just north of $7,900.
It's worth noting that the last time the cryptocurrency chalked up over 50 percent monthly gains was during the height of the bull market in 2017. Prices rallied 54 percent in November 2017 on speculation that the launch of BTC futures on major U.S. derivative exchanges would open the doors to institutional money in the crypto space.
So, as long as prices close May above $7,350, the monthly gain would be the highest since November 2017.
-- Omkar Godbole |
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