Bitcoin Crosses $8k / Crypto Hedge Funds / Russel Okung / Know Your Customer

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Presented by Subscribe | View in browser $BTC (3:55 p.m. EST): $7,796.63 (-0.50%) // 90-day high: $8,268.71 // 90-day low: $3,607.70 / / More… $BCH ABC (3:55 p.m. EST): $371.73 (-4.95%) // 90-day high: $407.58// 90-day low: $121.15 // More… $ETH (3:55 p.m. EST): $204.25 (1.69%) // 90-day high: $213.59 // 90-day low: $121.33 // More… $LTC (3:55 p.m. EST): $88.57 (-1.55%) // 90-day high: $97.50 // 90-day low: $41.27 // More… $XRP (3:55 p.m. EST): $0.39 (19.12%) // 90-day high: $0.41 // 90-day low: $0.28 // More…       1. Bitcoin passed through $8k and is up 50% in May as investors believe the crypto winter is over.  Bitcoin continues its meteoric rise as it now accounts for 60% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, the highest since December 2017. Bitcoin is up over $500 since Monday. It continues to be uncorrelated to equity markets as the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both tumbled 2.4% by the end of the trading day on Monday amid the ongoing U.S. and China trade war. -WALL STREET JOURNAL       2. Cryptocurrency hedge funds on average lost 46% of their assets in 2018. Despite the drop in cryptocurrency prices and bitcoin falling nearly 72%, the reported median of assets under management grew 3x from $1.2 million to $4.3 million. This shows that hedge funds continued to buy cryptocurrencies during the bear market. There are currently 150 active crypto hedge funds that collectively manage $1 billion in assets. -BLOOMBERG       A MESSAGE FROM MANAGED BY Q 2019 Workplace Trends Report How, where, and why we work is changing. This report identifies the five major trends that employers of all sizes and industries must effectively integrate into their workspace to stay relevant as workplace culture and technology rapidly evolve.   Download the 2019 Workplace Trends Report 3. From The Forums: NFL player and starting left tackle for the San Diego Chargers, Russel Okung, tweeted, "Pay me in Bitcoin." That caused a frenzy among many influencers and companies within the crypto community, including Lolli and Trezor which offered their services to him. Okung followed that tweet up with a tweetstorm that continued to display his fondness of the cryptocurrency. "How dope would it be to see a ESPN headline with an athlete being paid in $BTC?" When asked how his teammates felt about BTC he responded, "I'm talking to them about it right now". He then took a line made popular by cryptocurrency investor, Anthony Pompliano, and tweeted it to his 152k followers. "I'm part of the revolution. Long $BTC, short the bankers."       4. Sigal Mandelker, the U.S. Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, warned cryptocurrency exchanges to comply with regulations designed to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Speaking at Consensus during New York Blockchain Week Mandelker said, "Nobody here wants to see innovative products and services misused to support terrorism and weapons proliferation." Since 2013 the Treasury Department has received 47,000 suspicious activity reports citing bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies with half of the reports filed coming from crypto exchange administrators themselves. -YAHOO       A MESSAGE FROM BRAVADO TRADING Is the Bitcoin bottom in? Download the FREE Analysis Navigating the crypto space is tough, but our team of traders and investors can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you when you join our community. Start by downloading our free Bitcoin bottom analysis, detailed with charts & other imagery and see exactly what we predict Bitcoin is going to do. 5. In an effort to increase Hyperledger Fabric's usage, IBM established five blockchain principles to drive enterprise adoption and benefit society. -FORBES 6. Bakkt announced bitcoin futures in collaboration with ICE Futures U.S. and ICE Clear U.S. -BAKKT 7. Traditional financial advisors are taking a closer look at cryptocurrency for their clients. -ETFDB 8. Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin stated Ethereum will become 1,000x more scalable in the next 24 months with the implementation of Ethereum 2.0. -COIN TELEGRAPH 9. Three French-based banking institutions BNP Paribas, Natixis, and Societe Generale have joined R3 Corda a blockcain-based loan platform. -COIN TELEGRAPH 10. Bank of New York Mellon has appointed Subhankar Sinha, who came from PricewaterhouseCoopers, as the new Head of Blockchain. -ASSET SERVICING TIMES       Written and curated by Darren Webb. He created Currencylists and has worked in marketing roles for a multitude of cryptocurrency and blockchain projects since 2014. Based in NYC, Darren loves to read and continue to learn about cryptocurrency and emerging technology in his spare time. You can find him on Twitter @Dwebbny. Editing team: Kim Lyons (Pittsburgh-based journalist and managing editor at Inside); Susmita Baral (senior editor at Inside, who runs the biggest mac and cheese account on Instagram); and David Stegon (senior editor at Inside, whose reporting experience includes cryptocurrency and technology).

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Consensus 2019: Day Two

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Sponsored by   May 14, 2019 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.    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 WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER Copyright © 2019 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  Our mailing address is:  250 Park Avenue South New York, NY, 10003, US  Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list