Market Watch | Bitcoin | $15,304 | 7 day: +14% | | Ethereum | $447 | 7 day: +15.9% | | All crypto | $441b | 7 day: +12.2% | | Bitcoin dominance | 64.4% | 7 day: +1% | Prices as of 10 a.m. EST
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 Yi Gang Central bank governor Yi Gang claims that China's central bank digital currency has recorded over 4m transactions. The Governor of the People's Bank of China revealed the tally during last week's Hong Kong Fintech Week. - The pilot is live in metropolitan areas including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, and a satellite city of Beijing.
- Earlier this year, China's central bank announced that it is preparing a full roll-out of the currency by the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
- Yi Gang encouraged clearer regulations for the currency. Yi welcomed overseas central banks and regulatory bodies to collaborate on legal frameworks.
- On Oct. 23, the PBoC published a draft law that would, if passed, approve greater use of the digital yuan and prohibit competitive, yuan-pegged cryptocurrencies.
Bloomberg 
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 Currency ranking by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) Putting the Chinese yuan and the U.S. dollar into perspective. Writer's note: Originally intended to be a feature for Inside Cryptocurrency Premium, I have decided to publish this article for free. I hope this helps contextualize China's share of yuan-denominated global trade relative to the U.S. dollar. Although the media might have you believe that China is an imminent threat to the world's reserve currency, the reality is quite different. If you enjoy reading Inside Cryptocurrency, consider joining premium today and enjoy a free 14-day trial on all new subscriptions! We sincerely appreciate your support of our time-intensive research. - Summary: Although the yuan is nowhere close to replacing the dollar, it is growing fast.
- For a deep dive on the U.S. dollar versus China's renminbi, see this recent report.
- Terminology: Chinese fiat has three interchangeable names: renminbi (RMB), Chinese yen (CNY), and yuan (¥). The People's Bank of China (PBoC) issues China's central bank digital currency (CBDC) called "digital yuan," or its preferred name, Digital Currency/Electronic Payment (abbreviated DC/EP or DCEP).
CNY versus USD: - As pictured above, China's currency distribution of over-the-counter (OTC) foreign exchange (forex) achieved 4.3% of the 200% global market in 2019. (Because each forex pair is settled in two currencies, the total forex market is measured in 200% instead of 100%). USD was involved in 88.3% of forex trades.
- China's currency accounted for 1.85% of global transactions according to SWIFT's monthly RMB tracker. (SWIFT is the world's dominant system for international bank wires.)
- Compared to other currencies, SWIFT ranks China's renminbi in 8th place.
- 2.2% of global settlements were denominated in renminbi as of March 2020. In contrast, 44% of global trade settles in USD, or roughly 20 times the amount of trade denominated in renminbi.
- For the past three years, the Chinese currency has ranked 8th among the world's most-traded forex pairs.
Oil: - China, the world's second-largest economy, imports tremendous quantities of oil.
- Its renminbi competes with USD in currency markets, especially for the settlement of commodities contracts like oil futures.
- In an attempt to brand its yuan for use by oil traders, China created the petroyuan to compete against the petrodollar.
- Although the petrodollar still denominates the vast majority of international oil trading, China has made undeniable progress with renminbi-denominated oil transactions.
- Starting in 2018 at sub-1%, over 13% of today's crude oil futures are now denominated in renminbi. Most of these futures trade on Shanghai exchanges.
- China has also moved most of its Russian oil imports onto non-USD-denominated contracts. It has also increased non-USD oil trading with U.S.-sanctioned countries like Iran and Venezuela.
Final notes: - China's absolute control of domestic activity during the coronavirus pandemic has affected its economy profoundly. China will be one of the world's few major economies to report positive GDP this year.
- To convey stability to the international community, the Chinese government prohibits the yuan from trading outside of prescribed trading bands. For the last ten years, China has prohibited the renminbi from trading beyond 6 to 7.30 renminbi per USD.
- China gained international attention when its fiat joined the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Special Drawing Rights Basket in Oct. 2016.
- Although that event helped increase the renminbi's currency distribution of over-the-counter forex turnover from 4% in 2016 to 4.3% in 2019, China is now looking for other ways to attract international liquidity.
- To that end, China's three largest initiatives are its Digital Belt & Road (a.k.a. Digital Silk Road), Made In China 2025, and its central bank digital currency (a.k.a. DC/EP).
Forbes
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 Silk Road operator, Ross Ulbricht. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a civil forfeiture complaint regarding $1b worth of bitcoin linked to the Silk Road. The funds were seized by U.S. law enforcement on Nov. 3. - The DOJ believes the $1b worth of bitcoin - Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Bitcoin SV (BSV), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) - is linked to the Silk Road, according to a Bloomberg report.
- Elliptic and Whale Alert first flagged the movement of those funds. U.S. law enforcement agents later confirmed that they had initiated the transfer into a U.S. government-controlled bitcoin wallet.
- As the market learned that law enforcement was behind the $1b transfer, and not likely to be immediately sold, bitcoin prices rallied about 9% on Nov. 5, 2020, cresting $15,300.
Individual X: - A hacker called Individual X, wanted by criminal investigators, stole funds from the Silk Road many years ago.
- The funds seized in the $1b Election Day bitcoin transfer are linked to the hacker.
- U.S. agents tracked Individual X with the help of researchers at Chainalysis, a U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security-funded company.
- In 2017, "individual X" tried liquidating a fraction of funds at a cryptocurrency exchange, BTC-e.
- U.S authorities seized those funds from BTC-e, citing anti-money laundering authority.
Bitcoin's Silk Road: - The $1b transfer emptied the fourth-richest bitcoin wallet, created during bitcoin's Satoshi Nakamoto era. (Bitcoin's creator(s) was/were still active in the community when those funds were originally amassed.)
- Silk Road, a mostly illegal online marketplace, facilitated transactions for drugs, contraband, and criminal services. Due to bitcoin's irreversibility and quasi-pseudonymity, bitcoin was the preferred payment on the illicit website.
- The darknet marketplace operated roughly between 2011 and 2013. Within that short time, it generated sales of $1.2b through illegal dealings.
- Silk Road accounted for 20% of total bitcoin activity in 2013, according to Chainalysis data.
- The marketplace made approximately $80m via commissions within three years, according to court documents.
- The FBI tracked down the main perpetrator, Ross William Ulbricht, and convicted him in 2015.
- Ulbricht is currently serving a double life sentence for seven criminal counts, including creating Silk Road, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, and money laundering.
- For a retelling of the Silk Road investigation from a top U.S. prosecutor, see this interview of Kathryn Haun.
Bloomberg
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Regarding FTX, Alameda Research, and one of Joe Biden's largest campaign donors, Sam-Bankman-Fried (SBF). In today's Inside Cryptocurrency Premium, we look into "not available in the United States," USD-denominated, U.S. election-focused futures contracts funded by an unregistered offering of FTT tokens. SBF is CEO of a market-maker called Alameda. Simultaneously, he is also CEO of an exchange called FTX. Join us today and enjoy a free 14-day trial on all new subscriptions. We sincerely appreciate your support of independent research. FREE TRIAL  | | | |
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QUICK HITS - Joselito Lizarondo, CEO of Binance-owned Swipe (SXP), announced that Swipe has begun shipping Binance Card, its Visa debit card.
- Russian hydropower company En+ announced a partnership with BitRiver, Russia's largest bitcoin mine. En+ and BitRiver will open a new bitcoin mining farm as a joint venture (JV).
- Trezor, a cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer, clarified in a blog post by its parent company, SatoshiLabs, that it will not support Bitcoin Cash's (BCH) contentious hard fork, Bitcoin Cash ABC.
- One first-time founder just raised $1,400,000 after finding an early market signal from this website.*
- Binance used its centralized powers to track and recover $345,000 worth of funds related to an exit scam, WineSwap. Changpeng Zhao was quick to self-congratulate.
- Ripple (XRP) has opened offices in Dubai after complaining about the "hostile attitude" of harmed investors who allege that its co-founders enriched themselves at their expense in one of the largest unregistered U.S. securities offerings in history.
- Hiring trend: Vettery reports 53% of employers are open to remote work while only 12% market this benefit, download remote hiring guide for insights.*
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 |  | Written and curated by wide-eyed bitcoin watcher since $1, Aaron Wise. Streaming headline junkie, Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, 2017 founder of Cryptocurrency Newsfeed. Temporarily based in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Alexander Huls is a Toronto-based journalist. He has contributed articles about true crime and pop culture to The New York Times, Men's Health, Popular Mechanics, and other fine publications. Follow him on Twitter @alxhuls. | |
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