Friday, January 4, 2019

The OTC Battlefield 👊🏻

January 4, 2019

Circle's OTC Desk Saw $24 Billion in 2018

Topping 10,000 trades

Crypto platform Circle is prospering this year. In fact, in their year end blog post the leadership highlighted a handful of accomplishments including acquisitions, stablecoin development, and product introductions.

Most interesting though was that the post also unveiled its over-the-counter (OTC) desk performance - a metric that signals institutional adoption.

Here's how Circle's OTC did in a nutshell:

10,000+ trades executed
24 billion in volume
600 different counter parties

Securing the spot

Those numbers aren't too shabby for a service that has been around less than a year, however, the ever-growing battlefield for OTC services is getting intense.

In November, Coinbase followed Circle and quietly opened its institutional investment platform. Prior to that, Winklevoss-owned exchange Gemini also turned to institutional investors this year through its platform.

Outside of the known crypto juggernauts, traditional financial players are also sneaking in. Just recently VanEck subsidiary MV Index Solutions launched its own Bitcoin index based on OTC desk prices.

And these companies are just a tiny drop in the bucket of new liquidity providers.

TECH

BitTorrent to Launch its Own Crypto on the Tron Network

Tron's purchase of BitTorrent

In July of this year, Justin Sun and Tron acquired BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing software.

With more than 100 million users worldwide, the acquisition of BitTorrent made Tron the world's largest decentralized internet ecosystem.

It was reported that Sun's offer accepted by BitTorrent was around $120 million.

Birth of a new crypto

BitTorrent just announced its plans to launch a cryptocurrency that is developed by Tron and will run on the Tron network. The crypto will be known as the BitTorrent Token.

The token's intended use will be as a means of payment for sending and receiving files. Users will be able to pay more to receive faster download speeds.

More details surrounding the project are set to be revealed at Tron's summit later this month in San Francisco.

ADOPTION

Overstock Plans to Pay Some of its Taxes in Bitcoin

Overstock's transition into a blockchain company

Overstock has traditionally operated as an internet retailer selling discounted furniture, jewelry, and other products. As the retail segment of Overstock's business has struggled, the company's CEO Patrick Byrne has begun to shift his company to a blockchain-focused firm.

In 2014, Overstock created a venture capital arm called Medici Ventures. Recently, Overstock announced plans to sell off its retail business by February, which will only leave Medici Ventures and its blockchain portfolio.

Since 2014, Medici Ventures has invested more than $175 million in blockchain companies. Its most notable venture is tZero which is a security token offering exchange.

Paying the government in BTC

Last November, the state of Ohio announced that it would accept Bitcoin for tax payments. Now, Overstock has announced that it plans to pay a portion of its taxes in Bitcoin.

In addition to its blockchain VC arm, Overstock has been involved with crypto prior, accepting Bitcoin as payments for goods since 2014.

Overstock's CEO and founder Patrick Byrne commented on government adoption of cryptocurrency:

"We have long thought that thoughtful governmental adoption of emerging technologies such as cryptocurrencies (when accompanied by non-restrictive legislation over these technologies) is the best way to ensure the U.S. does not lose our place at the forefront of the ever-advancing global economy."

BITS

But wait, there's more...

✈️ Bitcoin ATM producer Lamassu has shipped off to Switzerland due to regulatory issues.
🚶‍♂️ A Coinbase executive has left the exchange for a stablecoin issuer.

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Week 01: Komodo's Five Bullet Friday.

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Five Bullet Friday

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Week 01

What is CHIPS?

It is currently one of the few coins that have SegWit and Lightning Network enabled. The objective is for the coin to be used in the Pangea Poker dAPP that is currently being developed on Komodo Platform as well as allowing this project to be integrated into any other gaming or gambling system that may want to employ it as it actively supports micro-transactions and has exceptionally low fees. https://docs.chips.cash/en/latest/faq.html

Here's a sneak peek of the Ledger $KMD Reward Claim app which is finally done!

"We've implemented full BIP44 account discovery, so all of your $KMD accounts and addresses in Ledger Live will be detected. And once the rewards have been claimed with our app you'll see the updated balance in Ledger Live." - Luke Childs, https://twitter.com/lukechilds/status/1081099829319655424.

Crypto Penguin's Fundamental Analysis of Komodo

This is an independent and unsolicited article published on The Birb Nest on Medium. and looks at the token utility, token economies, the team roadmap and the competition. We don't guarantee that all of the information is correct, however, if you have any questions please reply to this email and we'll answer them. Read here: https://medium.com/the-birb-nest/penguin-fa-komodo-kmd-a5c06a45820f.

Komodo compared to Ethereum & ETH architecture problems

This short post is about energy efficient bitcoin miners seeking renewable energy as an economic solution. Komodo dPoW is explained briefly, which provides blockchain security and entry into secure & scalable sharding solutions not available to existing blockchain sharding consensus protocols. Read more: https://i.mylomylo.com/energy-efficient-bitcoin-security-komodo-dpow/.

Crypto Theses for 2019

An interesting Medium article, that contains wide-ranging theses. It's a good round-up of 2018 and long from dive into what's coming up in 2019 by Arjun Balaji. It's not directly related to Komodo, however, it's well worth a read. Medium article here: https://medium.com/@arjunblj/crypto-theses-for-2019-dd20cb7f9895.

Past Issues of Five Bullet Friday

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CryptoWeekly #90

CRYPTO WEEKLY
January 4, 2019 | #90

THE MARKETS

BTC: $3,787.53 | -$95.02 (-2.45%) since last week
ETH: $151.36 | +$17.14 (+12.77%) since last week

GOOD READS

Binance is renewing its token launch program this year
After nearly a year-long break, Binance will be reviving its token launch platform in the form of Launchpad, which will be listing a new token project every month in 2019. There is a rigorous screening process for new tokens, and the platform will focus primarily on mature projects for the time being.

Proof of Keys explained - Bitcoin's first "bank run" is finally here
A massive group of Bitcoin owners is preparing to withdraw their tokens from key exchanges in an effort to expose exchanges that are operating more like fractional-reserve banks, and which are truly trustworthy.

Here's what Litecoin achieved this year, and its plans for the future
The past year saw the adoption of Litecoin continue to skyrocket, and its network infrastructure hit some key development milestones as well. This year, the network aims to incorporate atomic swaps and new privacy features, while continuing to grow adoption.

Crypto theses on what's in store for 2019
Crypto trader Arjun Balaji shares his thoughts on where crypto is headed in 2019, and puts forth some broad investment theses that can help inform trading decisions for novice and expert crypto traders alike in the coming year.

Why Bitcoin matters for freedom
Driven by hyperinflation and political volatility Venezuelans are turning to crypto to secure their savings and funnel capital out of the country more than ever, it what has become one of crypto's most interesting use cases.

Bitcoin is ten years old, but the crypto era is still just beginning
Bitcoin turned a decade old this year, and it marks the first decade in human history that a decentralized source of truth has been easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

Here's the reality of using Bitcoin anonymously in 2019
Bitcoin has long been touted for its privacy-focused use cases, but there are some nuances to keep in mind when doing so. This guide explains what considerations every crypto trader should use when leveraging Bitcoin for privacy purposes, particularly in today's security climate.

Crypto made some huge engineering advances in 2018 - here's a roundup of all of them
This is an excellent deep dive on all of the exciting engineering breakthroughs made in crypto over the past year, from Lightning Network's testnet launch to new forms of encryption on the Bitcoin network.

This is a great thread from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on Bitcoin's past decade
This week saw Bitcoin officially turn a decade old, and on its anniversary, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong reflected on the progress crypto has made towards mass-market adoption to date, and how much further it has yet to go.

Jimmy Song explains Neutrino, a new privacy-based protocol
Neutrino is a new client-side protocol that's primarily used for payment verification. It has some cutting-edge privacy features, but this privacy means that more validation is needed on the client side for every transaction.

Lenders are aiding Bitcoin's bust by thriving off of fanatics and shorts
Creditors in the crypto industry have been seeing strong demand from borrowers who aren't keen to sell their tokens at lower prices, and it puts lenders in a position to win on both sides by facilitating loans while enabling shorts at the same time.

Meet the virtual artists hiding crypto in their newest works
There's a growing niche market of artists (and art collectors) who are passionate about crypto. Bitcoin art puzzles are on the rise, and they give collectors a fun way to build an art collection while earning crypto in the process.

COMMUNITY NEWS

We just published a list of 250 crypto companies to watch in 2019. Link
Mike Novogratz is increasing his stake in Galaxy Digital to 80%. Link
DX.Exchange will let its client purchase shares in major firms through its token platform. Link
Meet BlueWallet, a new Bitcoin wallet for Android. Link
Japan's internet giants are shutting down their crypto mining operations en masse. Link
The State of New York is establishing a crypto regulatory task force. Link
Overstock.com plans to pay its corporate taxes in Bitcoin this year. Link
Take a look at Bitcoin's Genesis Block, mined ten years ago this week. Link
Coinbase is hiring an Android Engineer in San Francisco. Link
Join the Japan Blockchain Conference on January 30. Link

Edited by Chris Osborne in Bangkok (in town? reach out to get a coffee). Feel free to reply to this email with any feedback and/or suggestions.

Nothing shared or published by CryptoWeekly constitutes an investment recommendation, nor should any data or content published by CryptoWeekly be relied upon for any investment activities. CryptoWeekly strongly recommends that you perform your own independent research and/or speak with a qualified investment professional before making any financial decisions.

Copyright © 2019 CryptoWeekly. All rights reserved. No longer want to receive CryptoWeekly? Unsubscribe.

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