BTC Pumps
Bitcoin's price jumped Wednesday (13%), it's biggest jump in six weeks – outpacing (surprise 😄) U.S. stocks. In terms of year-to-date (YTD) performance, Bitcoin's returns increased to 15%, surging past gold's 12% and way ahead of the S&P's -10%.
| | Bitcoin Miner Maker Ebang Files for $100M IPO
Ebang International, one of the world's largest Bitcoin mining manufacturers based in China, has just formally filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S.
Ebang is one of the leading ASIC chip designers and made 82% of its 2019 revenue on designing these chips for Bitcoin mining.
This is Ebang's second attempt to go public. In June 2018, the company filed for an IPO in Hong Kong, but it failed to take off. At the time, Ebang was reportedly looking to raise as much as $1 billion.
| | Stacking Sats? Small Bitcoin Holders on the Rise
No big surprise here... but now there's data to prove it: An influx of first-time BTC buyers are joining the tribe, likely due to the recent Covid-19/money printing crisis.
According to Glassnode, the number of network addresses holding at least 0.1 BTC has continued to hit new all-time highs. Furthermore, several U.S.-based Bitcoin investment services are seeing numbers jump.
"The number of orders on our platform doubled in mid-March, and it has since sustained a significantly elevated rate... A lot of these people are buying bitcoin for the first time." - River Financial
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| | How Oil Going Negative Could Open the Door for Bitcoin ETFs...
In this deep dive, Noelle Acheson compares the volatility in the oil market to the lack of a Bitcoin ETF, and gives a rundown on Bitcoin's performance compared to other assets over the past week.
"So, here you have an ETF whose value does not necessarily reflect the underlying asset, maneuvering to be able to sell more shares to retail investors in a dislocated market that is one of the most blatantly manipulated in the world. And yet, bitcoin ETF proposals are rejected as being too risky, opaque and manipulable."
TL;DR: The SEC is hypocritical. Many SEC-approved ETFs are way more dangerous than any of the proposed Bitcoin ETFs that have been rejected by the SEC.
Further reading (paywall): Qiao Wang examines 5 ETFs that screwed retail investors.
| | 🇦🇷 Will Argentina Be the Next Venezuela? Bitcoin's Growing Impact in LatAm
Trading of the Argentine Peso (ARS) on LocalBitcoins, a frequent bellwether for global Bitcoin adoption, hit an all-time high this April. This record coincided with the implementation of new capital controls which began accelerating last fall.
Matt Ahlbourg's latest post: - Concisely explains the economic, political, and monetary situation within Argentina
- Takes a detailed look at USD's status in Argentina
- Explores the factors which have led to increased Bitcoin adoption in Argentina
Overall, if you are in the Bitcoin industry and don't have your attention on LatAm you are doing this wrong.
| | Bitfinex Launches Social Media Platform for Traders
Bitfinex has launched a social networking platform for its users dubbed Pulse. The platform brands itself as "the next generation of social trading" and will reportedly "enable users to exchange ideas, interact with each other, and feel the pulse of the exchange's growing community."
Much like Twitter, users will be able to write, link, and share other "pulses," however, there is no functionality for commenting yet.
The platform is reminiscent of eToro's social trading network, which has existed since their inception. The key difference here is that Pulse will place emphasis on "niche, high-quality content," allowing users to not get polluted by speculative ideas from one-off traders with virtually no experience. That's what Crypto Twitter is for, obviously...
The question now is, will other exchanges follow suit?
| | Coinbase Emerges as a Major DeFi Contender With Price Oracle Launch
This week, Coinbase released a price oracle that lets anyone publish data on-chain. The oracle sources price data from Coinbase Pro and allows anyone to publish and verify the data's authenticity.
Let's back it up... what exactly is an oracle? It's a third-party price feed that provides real-world data to a decentralized network. Right now, almost all DeFi platforms rely on price oracles to offer services like lending, margin trading, and derivatives. Uniswap and Kyber both have oracles that are pretty popular.
What this means: Many of the existing price feeds can be manipulated by bad actors, which has led to loss of funds (example here). The Coinbase Oracle solves this problem by providing a cryptographic signature alongside the price data that can be easily verified by DeFi protocols on chain.
| | SEC vs. Kik vs. New York Judge
Another day... another update on the Kik case.
We've gone over this case a few times here at CoinSnacks so we won't rehash the past. (The gist: The SEC claims Kik conducted a $100M unregistered ICO)
Here's what has happened in the last week though: -
The Blockchain Association, a non-profit who is supporting Kik's case, motioned for leave to file an amicus, or friend of the court, brief – a non-partisan filing intended to assist the court by providing information, expertise and insight - The SEC denied, saying that seven companies in the 24-member association have a direct financial interest in the outcome of the case and went as far as to file an opposition
- Just yesterday, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York signed off on the advocacy group's right to file in direct opposition to the SEC
| | Congress Has Now Introduced 32 Crypto And Blockchain Bills
There appears to be no shortage of interest in cryptocurrency and blockchain policy in D.C. as members in the House of Representatives and U.S. Senators have introduced a total of 32 bills in the 116th Congress. - 12 bills address the use of cryptocurrency in potential terrorism, money laundering, human, and sex trafficking
- 13 bills focus on the regulatory framework and treatment of cryptocurrency and blockchain protocols
- 5 bills promote ways blockchain technology could be used by the U.S. Government
- 2 bills cover the concept of a digital dollar
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