A potentially giant step toward approval for listing bitcoin futures as exchange traded funds (ETFs) was taken this week when the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Arca, owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), filed a petition for a rule change regarding two potential ETFs. The document presumes much of the groundwork to be already completed, and could signal readiness to embrace even more mainstream acceptance for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.


“Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,” the SEC public notice began, “and Rule 19b-4 thereunder, notice is hereby given that, on December 4, 2017, NYSE Arca, Inc. filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission the proposed rule change,” also noting the SEC “is publishing this notice to solicit comments on the proposed rule change from interested persons.”

The proposed change is actually for two funds, the Proshares Bitcoin ETF and Proshares Short ETF. Both were previously denied in the fall. Presumably, the last two weeks of history-making futures markets on Cboe and CME helped boost confidence in both ICE and the SEC going forward.

The notice continues, each fund “is a series of the Proshares Trust II, a Delaware statutory trust. The Trust and the Funds are managed and controlled by Proshare Capital Management LLC. The Sponsor is registered as a commodity pool operator with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and is a member of the National Futures Association,” it details. The mainstream pedigree appears sufficient.

Cryptocurrencies in general are inching toward a trillion dollar market capitalization, and prices for brand favorites like bitcoin have been resilient through crackdowns from world governments, IRS challenges to popular exchanges, and assorted tabloid media linking the digital asset to any number of nefarious dealings. Bitcoin trudges along, and professional financial managers are noticing.


According to the filing, Proshares Bitcoin ETF’s “investment objective of the Fund is to seek, results (before fees and expenses) that, both for a single day and over time, correspond to the performance of lead month bitcoin futures contracts listed and traded on either the Cboe Futures Exchange or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Specifically, the Fund will seek results that correspond to the last traded price of the Benchmark Futures Contract on its primary listing exchange prior to the Fund’s NAV calculation time.”

The Proshares Short Bitcoin ETF’s “investment objective of the Fund is to seek results, for a single day, that correspond (before fees and expenses) to the inverse (-1x) of the daily performance of the Benchmark Futures Contract. The Fund does not seek to achieve its investment objective over a period greater than a single day. The Fund generally intends to invest substantially all of its assets through investment in short positions in Benchmark Futures Contracts. However, the Fund may invest through short positions in Bitcoin Futures Contracts other than Benchmark Futures Contracts,” the notice explains.  

The “investment objective of the Fund is to seek results (before fees and expenses) that, both for a single day and over time, correspond to the performance of lead month bitcoin futures contracts listed and traded on either [Cboe] or [CME],” the company wrote.

This is Arca’s second attempt this year at ETF approval. Rule changes could happen as soon as a month and half from now, or they could take into the spring of 2018, according to the filing.

https://news.bitcoin.com/rule-change-allow-listing-bitcoin-futures-exchange-traded-fund/

Bank of England (BoE) head Mark Carney said on Wednesday that bitcoin's meteoric price gains do not pose a threat to global financial stability.

Talking to British lawmakers in Parliament, Carney said that bitcoin's recent price moves are "significant" and more like an "equity-type risk," Reuters reports.

He stated that:

"At present, we don't view [bitcoin] as a financial stability issue."

Bitcoin is the number one cryptocurrency by market valuation, and recently reached an all-time high of around $20,000. At press time, it was trading at just over $16,700.

Carney, who also acts as chair of the G20's Financial Stability Board – a group of central banks and finance ministers that is also conducting its own blockchain research – further said that the idea of central bank-issued digital currency that can be used by the public has "some fundamental problems" unless there is a restriction in the amount that people can hold.

The BoE governor further noted, though, that he is "interested" in the distributed ledger technology (DLT) and that the central bank's own FinTech accelerator shows DLT's potential. According to a Bloomberg report, he added that the BoE is "active" in DLT, but is in no hurry to apply it to the core of the banking system, as any new technology has to satisfy a "five sigma quality rating."

Carney has been commenting blockchain since the start of the year, when he said DLT has the potential to "fundamentally reshape banking including by sharply increasing liquidity risk for traditional banks."

The official's statements come as global central banks are increasingly active in their work with blockchain and DLT.

The BoE has said that a forthcoming version of its real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system – which settles around £500 billion daily – will be compatible with distributed ledger technology. Meanwhile, monetary authorities in Canada, China and Russia, among others, have all expressed interest in a central bank-issued digital currency.

https://www.coindesk.com/bank-of-england-chief-bitcoin-isnt-a-threat-to-financial-stability/

With the launch of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) by Coinbase and Gdax, the adoption of the cryptocurrency is likely going to accelerate further. To help local users, developers, and investors meet and discuss this, there is going to be a new bitcoin cash community center in Cyprus.


Limassol, Cyprus’ second city, is getting its first bitcoin cash embassy to open in early 2018. The venue will serve as an open community center where people can talk about the cryptocurrency, participate in free discussions and attend regular meet-ups with industry experts. It will be hosted by Hello Group, the fintech company which launched the city’s first bitcoin ATM a month ago.

Cyprus is an ideal location for cryptocurrency to take hold. The island servers as a regional offshore financial center for many companies from Europe, Russia and the Middle East that need cost effective solutions to transfer money across borders. Individuals are also more prone than others to see the benefits of a currency only they hold the keys to, especially with the memory of the 2013 EU ‘bail-in’ crisis still fresh. As evidence for this, the country’s University of Nicosia was the first academic institution in the world to offer a MSc in Digital Currency.

Full article - https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-cash-embassy-open-limassol-cyprus/

Japanese Internet leader GMO Group has announced today that it has launched a new cryptocurrency mining business through its European legal entity, as it aims to gain a better understanding of the virtual currency.


Japanese conglomerate GMO Group has introduced today a new cryptocurrency mining business that will use existing technology to mine from facilities (mining centers) in Northern Europe. The new business will gradually extend in phases, the company detailed in its announcement on December 20.

According to the company’s website, GMO Internet will use 7-nanometer(nm) process technology chips in the mining process, and is currently jointly working on research and development with their alliance partner who possesses the semiconductor design technology to develop high performance computers for mining (the mining board). The company plans to launch mining operations using “next-generation” mining boards in the first half of 2018.

Just a week ago, GMO offered to pay its approximately 4,700 employees partially in bitcoin as an effort to promote virtual currencies throughout the group. As for the reasons behind the new move, the company explained:

"Entering cryptocurrency mining business will enable GMO Internet to support mining infrastructure of cryptocurrencies, which are the “new universal currencies,” by leveraging our accumulated know-how in Internet Infrastructure and Internet Finance."


Tokyo-headquartered GMO Group comprises more than 60 companies in 10 countries. Its entry into the bitcoin mining sector is likely to be welcomed by those concerned about Bitmain’s dominance of the mining industry. Bitmain is the market leader for specialized mining hardware, including ASIC chips. It remains to be seen whether GMO Group can claim a substantial slice of the Chinese-dominated market.

The 7nm technology that GMO is working on is said to be four times more efficient than the current bitcoin mining industry standard. Diego Gutierrez, CEO of mining software developer RSK Labs, has previously professed that 7nm chips are the next generation of miners. He explained that other miners would surely follow and create their own 7nm chips if they are not already doing so.

https://news.bitcoin.com/japanese-internet-giant-gmo-launches-mining-business/

The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) community, developers, and businesses that support the decentralized currency are preparing for “Change the Address Day” scheduled for January 14. At that time the BCH network and its participants will upgrade the protocol’s address format to one proposed by Bitcoin ABC developer Amaury Séchet.


This past November news.Bitcoin.com reported on the lead developer of Bitcoin ABC, Amaury Séchet, proposing to change the address format in the bitcoin cash protocol. The new format will be based on the ‘bech32’ codebase and will prevent bitcoin cash from being sent to bitcoin core (BTC) addresses after the upgrade. In addition to that specific benefit the address format called the “Cashaddr format” will also provide enhancements for new protocol features.


For instance, the new address format could progress the concept of Zero Knowledge Proofs being added to the BCH network. Further, Cashaddr format will provide a strong checksum that will offer better efficiency, and the new format will also improve QR coding as well. Amaury Séchet has said that the proposed format will also allow developers to “deploy a more secure way of doing multi-party smart contracts in the future.” Séchet had stated during his proposal that changing the address was “pressing” due to people mistakenly sending BCH to BTC addresses or vice-versa.  

“In order to reduce confusion for users with the use of different addresses, I think it is important to deploy this shortly and stop the fragmentation of the ecosystem,” explains Séchet on the developer mailing list.

"Deploying such a change on the network will take some time for all the wallets, exchanges and merchants to upgrade."

Full article - https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-cash-community-prepares-for-change-the-address-day/

Nigeria has witnessed a recent spike in bitcoin adoption, with the P2P markets setting a new record for trading volume thus far during the week of the 16th of December. Nigeria comprises the most recent African nation to experience a spike in cryptocurrency adoption, with Zimbabwe’s bitcoin prices having been among the highest worldwide for a large portion of 2017.


Nigeria’s local bitcoin markets have established a record high for trading volume, with nearly 1,950,000,000 Nigerian Naira worth of BTC exchange hands so far during the week of the 16th of December. According to cryptocompare, Nigerian Naira/BTC trade comprises the 23rd largest bitcoin market by national currency as of this writing, seeing 101.45 bitcoins traded in the last 24 hours. The Naira/BTC trade accounts for approximately 0.03% of global bitcoin trading.

Nigeria is reported to have experienced the second largest growth in its P2P bitcoin markets, trailing behind only China after witnessing growth of approximately 1,500% during 2017.


Manasseh Egedegbe, a Nigerian investment manager, recently told media of his decision to use bitcoin in 2016. After Nigeria’s central bank enforced strict capital controls designed to limit the use of U.S dollars throughout the nation. Mr. Egedegbe then turned to bitcoin, stating “I was able to use bitcoin to do just one transaction and then I got hooked.”

Mr. Egedegbe states that many Nigerians have been attracted to bitcoin solely for speculative purposes. He states that some Nigerians have grown tired of “seeing the price skyrocket,” and now “want a piece of the action.”


October saw the launch of two new Nigerian exchanges: Bitkoin Africa, cofounded by Timi Ajiboye; and Tanjalo, which was cofounded by Tim Akinbo. The exchanges appear to be establishing significant market share quickly, with Mr. Ajiboye claiming that almost half of Bitkoin Africa’s trading volume since launch took place during the first ten days of December, and Mr. Akinbo estimating that Tanjalo has facilitated close to $1 million USD worth of cryptocurrency since launch despite the company investing in “very little marketing.”

Mr. Ajiboye anticipates the future for crypto to be bright in Africa, citing the continent’s lack of “advanced financial infrastructure” as a likely catalyst for widespread future adoption.

https://news.bitcoin.com/nigeria-experience-spike-bitcoin-adoption/

The launch of Bitcoin futures trading has inevitably put cryptocurrencies in the spotlight of mainstream financial institutions.

While the Chicago Board Options Exchange and Chicago Mercantile Exchange will be credited for pioneering the first ever futures marketplace for Bitcoin, major decisions are being considered by government and organizations worldwide.


Last Friday, Reuters reported that EU states had agreed to implement stricter rules on the use of cryptocurrencies. With an eye on cracking down on money laundering and tax evasion, the efforts are calling for more transparency from exchange operators. European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Věra Jourová said:

“Today’s agreement will bring more transparency to improve the prevention of money laundering and to cut off terrorist financing.”

In an interview with RT, former MI5 intelligence officer Annie Machon insists that the European Union decision to tighten up regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges is mainly being done to protect the interests of big banks.


Analyzing the situation, Machon said it’s like any other knee-jerk reaction, as old ways and new collide:

“I think we have a situation where any new form of technology on the internet, we’ve seen this for the last 30 years, that challenges the business models of established businesses is going to be cracked down on by governments, by international organizations to try and protect the old business models.”

“And we have seen it again in the attack on the old business model of the old media where piracy became the new threat and they tried to use laws to stamp that out. I think that is inevitable, if we have something that decentralizes the money supply and threatens the business model of the banks, of course, there’s going to be pushback against it.”


Machon conceded that criminals would inevitably use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies - but that doesn’t stop them from using banks either. Using that is an easy excuse to infringe on people's privacy, according to the former MI5 official:

“Any crackdown on our rights of privacy on the internet always has an excuse that it is trying to stop money laundering or trying to stop terrorism or pedophiles or whatever. I think, probably the vast majority of users of Bitcoin are doing it legitimately, they just have a legitimate concern to uphold their right to privacy as well.”

It is commonplace for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to get a bad wrap from past associations to dark web marketplaces. But as Machon reminds us, some banks hands are dirty as well:

“Yes, sure, criminals are going to use this, but criminals already use banks. So many banks have been caught out money laundering on vast scales and have received vast fines for laundering gray and black money from particularly the drug trade. Perhaps, we should say that the EU should close down our banks, too.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/eu-looking-to-protect-banks-from-bitcoin-former-mi5-agent

Survey of 50 academics reveals majority are not worried about risks posed to mainstream markets

Bitcoin poses no threat to financial stability and is unlikely to rattle mainstream markets in the next couple of years, a group of leading European economists have said.

According to a survey of almost 50 academics from universities across Europe by the Centre for Macroeconomics and the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the majority are sanguine about the risks posed by the digital currency despite repeated warnings by senior financiers.

Bitcoin’s small size and detachment from the wider financial system was one of the key reasons for comfort among the economists, who said major investment groups did not hold significant amounts of the digital currency. While bitcoin has surged in value by more than 900% this year, its total value stands at about $300bn, paling in comparison to the total value of global shares at almost $80tn.

Senior financiers including the chief executives of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have warned against bitcoin in recent months, while the chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland likened it to Dante’s Inferno, saying it was a speculative bubble in need of an apocalyptic health warning for investors from central banks.

There have been fears over the ability for banks to cover losses on bitcoin trading, with a group of major investment banks writing a letter to US regulators to say that the system of regulation was ill-prepared.

The cryptocurrency has become increasingly part of the wider financial system, after making its debut on the world’s largest futures exchange on Sunday evening, when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) became the second exchange to offer bitcoin derivatives trading.

The January 2018 contract traded on the CME initially spiked above $20,000 but later dropped, having been originally priced at $19,500.

A note of caution was sounded by Wouter den Haan of the London School of Economics, who responded to the survey by saying that past crises showed it could “take just one key financial institution taking on large risky positions to put the system at risk”.

Although the majority of economists believed there were limited risks to financial stability, they also said governments should introduce greater controls for cryptocurrencies as their anonymity and opacity could help enable tax evasion and other criminal activities.

Nicholas Oulton of the London School of Economics said: “One strand of current policy is to crack down on money laundering and tax evasion through tax havens. So it would seem odd to let cryptocurrencies get around these restrictions.”

The findings come after a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange appears set to file for bankruptcy after it was hacked for the second time this year, highlighting concerns about security amid booming trade in bitcoin and other virtual currencies.

The exchange, called Youbit, had been hacked once before in April when nearly 4,000 bitcoins were stolen in a cyber-attack that the country’s spy agency linked to North Korea, according to a recent South Korean newspaper report.

Youbit announced on its website on Tuesday that it had been hacked at 4.35am local time, causing a loss worth 17% of its total assets.

It did not elaborate on the amount, but said all customers’ cryptocurrency assets would be marked down to 75% of their value. It added that it had stopped trading and would work to minimise customer losses.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/19/korean-cryptocurrency-exchange-close-second-hacking-youbit

Intel has filed a patent for a type of Blockchain system that uses energy from proof-of-work (POW) crypto mining for genetic data sequencing.


Bitcoin has frequently been criticized for the network’s high energy use, and waste of energy is in fact one of the leading arguments for proof-of-stake (POS) protocols. Intel is seeking not to reduce Bitcoin’s energy use per se, but to harness the power that’s already being consumed to serve another purpose.

Since miners would be accomplishing two tasks simultaneously -- regular crypto mining and nucleobase sequencing-- the inventors refer to this type of POW as “multipurpose.” Comparing the process to traditional Bitcoin mining, they state:

“The present disclosure, by contrast [to traditional Bitcoin mining] involves a Blockchain protocol which, when implemented in a Blockchain system, enables miners to accomplish additional useful work while generating proofs of work (POWs) for new blocks. In particular, as described in greater detail below, miners determine sequences of nucleobases when generating POWs. And since a miner accomplishes additional useful work while generating a POW, the POW may be referred to as a ‘multipurpose POW,’ and the work to create the POW may be referred to as ‘multipurpose POW operations.’


Based on the patent application, the SMP will utilize a nucleobase sequencing unit to determine and establish the order of the nucleobases in a given sample. The result will then be verified by the POW before being permanently recorded on their Blockchain.

The SMP will be used in genetic data sequencing, particularly to determine the sequence of nucleobases in a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA, for example). The physical traits of a person, animal, or plant can be determined based on the order of its nucleobases.

In their patent application -- filed in June, 2016 and published by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on December 14, 2017-- Intel inventors Ned Smith and Rajesh Poornachandran explain how their project addresses the problem of energy waste in cryptocurrency POW mining. According to their application, Intel’s SMP would use the energy spent by crypto miners generating POW to determine nucleobase sequences


According to the application, the results of nucleobase sequencing have many potential benefits for society,

“Possibly leading to improved prevention of cancer and other diseases, improved understanding of biological ecosystems, improved tracking of populations and pathology, etc.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/harnessing-energy-from-bitcoin-mining-to-sequence-genetic-data

Over 300,000 financial professionals working in asset management, hedge funds or other institutions now have access to bitcoin cash data directly via their Thomson Reuters Eikon platform.

Toronto-headquartered multinational mass media and information firm, Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE: TRI), has added bitcoin cash (BCH) to its Bloomberg Terminal challenger platform, Eikon. BCH has thus become only the third cryptocurrency to list on the platform following bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum.

This development can be seen as a reaction to Bloomberg which recently expanded its bitcoin coverage on the terminal and added ethereum, ripple (XRP) and litecoin feeds to its service.

Eikon first added BTC to its suite of tracked assets, based on a feed from Bitstamp exchange, back in mid 2014.

Bitcoin cash has being getting more and more adoption recently, with the latest major example being Bitpay. The the largest bitcoin payment processor in the world announced just a couple of days ago that it will start processing BCH payments for invoices and debit loads.


If you are not familiar with Eikon, it is Thomson Reuters’ flagship financial information platform, like the information component of Bloomberg’s Professional service. It was launched back in 2010 and is estimated to cost between $300 to $1800 per month, depending on the total number of systems a user licenses.

The platform is connected to more than 400 exchanges and OTC-traded markets, and over 70 direct exchange feeds, delivered via low latency data feeds. It also offers connectivity to deep liquidity pools, with over 80 providers and more than 1,300 institutional clients, plus FX market pricing from over 2,000 contributing sources in 175 fiat currencies.

https://news.bitcoin.com/thomson-reuters-adds-bitcoin-cash-to-eikon-platform/

It appears that public companies have found a new way to attract investors to their stocks, implying they are becoming a part of the booming bitcoin market.


A third company listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) has now announced a new connection to bitcoin, and in response it has seen the price of its stock skyrocket. This comes despite the best efforts of the Israeli regulator at preventing bitcoin-related firms affecting TASE trading.

This morning a solar energy technology company, Apollo Power (TASE: APLP), announced it carried out a “successful test” of mining cryptocurrency with the system it’s developing. By basically just mining an insignificant amount of ether for a few hours with solar power the company was able to push its stock value up 150% in early trading. The CEO even had the audacity to say that the technology will revolutionize the electricity market in comparison to bitcoin.

Yesterday an apps promotion company, Apply Advanced Mobile Technologies Ltd. (TASE:APLY), announced that it will launch a new bitcoin-related marketing platform. Its stock went up 170% immediately and ended the trading day 250% higher. The company only had to say it signed an agreement with an unnamed third party to “develop a platform for marketing, distributing, and referring customers to blockchain and digital currencies’ trading systems and platforms.”

Sparking the regional trend was Natural Resource Holdings, a precious metals company whose stock price jumped 3,750% earlier this month after it announced a switch to mining cryptocurrencies.


This trend of companies from completely different fields claiming a new found love for bitcoin is of course not limited just to Israeli public-traded firms. On Thursday Rich Cigars, Inc. (OTCMKTS: RCGR), a Texas-based cigar company promoted by D.J. Khaled, announced it is switching its name to Intercontinental Technology, Inc.

The company says this was done to reflect a strategic shift to a new direction including “aggressive” and immediate mining of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The penny stock jumped in response from $0.31 to as high as $0.89 that same day.

https://news.bitcoin.com/more-firms-entering-the-bitcoin-market-see-stocks-soar/

A senior economist for the Eurozone at ING has said Bitcoin will “return to being a niche product” once current “hype” has dissipated.


ING ‘YET TO BE CONVINCED’ ON BITCOIN’S COMPETITIVENESS

Quoted by CityAM, Teunis Brosens appeared to suggest that the reversal forecast represented the bank’s “current thinking.”

The comments mark further critical thinking on Bitcoin from the Dutch bank, with CEO Ralph Hamers last week saying he is “yet to be convinced” on how cryptocurrency’s current valuation can be managed effectively.

“Nobody can forecast the future, but our current thinking is this: one day, beyond the hype, bitcoin will return to being the thriving niche product that it was in its initial years,” Brosens continued.

"Users will include tech nerds, people obsessed about their privacy, people afraid for (hyper)inflation in traditional currencies, and people wanting to circumvent central banks for ideological or criminal reasons."

…BUT IT STILL HAS ‘POTENTIAL’

Banks have faced increasing criticism for top executives’ continued downplaying of Bitcoin in particular in recent weeks as prices head towards $20,000.

While the narrative legacy finance is ‘scared’ of the emerging technology’s potential remains, public statements by the CEOs of major players and associated businesses have served to cause anger.

In an interview with Bloomberg on Bitcoin’s rise, Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein repeated his perspective that Bitcoin “isn’t for him,” while the network’s own CEO Michael R. Bloomberg confused Bitcoin and Blockchain, before claiming Bloomberg was itself a Blockchain.

Echoing reservations from Bitcoin’s myriad banking critics, Brosens voiced concerns about its regulatory status.

“Bitcoin proponents argue that volatility will fall as Bitcoin adoption increases. That may be the case. Yet bitcoin remains money with fixed supply, lacking a central bank to manage price stability,” he continued.

Despite adding that Bitcoin faced “serious impediments” which would halt its capability to challenge extant payment methods, however, Brosens did concede that in developing economies, Bitcoin still had “potential.”

http://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-niche-product-senior-ing-analyst/

I will never ever invest into russian/ukrainian projects. They have no western working culture, only silence in twitter and facebook during 2017, and ultimately i sold all my tokens on very( cheap and ridiculous price, because they were working in the fog all these time. Nothing prevented them to inform investors about development process: open team meetings, screenshots on early stages, etc. I`m just little bit disappointed, sorry for this massage, I didn't mean to hurt other`s feelings.

Нехорошо поступили Хуманики, пол года держали сообщество в неведении о ходе разработки, объемы падают, с битрекса убирают, довели инвестора до пред скамового состояния, в итоге я продал все монеты по бросовой цене. Уверен, это делалось специально, чтобы помимо собственных ICO миллионов, перекачать по максимуму прибыль инвесторов к себе в карман. Больше никогда не буду связываться с русскими и украинскими ICO командами. Алчность, монголо-татарская культура работы и отсутствие человеческого отношения к своим вкладчикам. Полно native english проектов с нормальными дорожными картами которые выполняются, регулярными тим митингами. Буду внимательнее.

Ahead of CME’s Bitcoin Futures, Regulator Creates Website and New Crypto Rules

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was very active on the final business day before the globe’s largest futures market maker, CME Group Inc., is to begin its entrance into bitcoin contracts. The regulator created a website devoted to bitcoin, and it issued new cryptocurrency rules of compliance for public comment.


Release pr7664-17, Proposed Interpretation on Virtual Currency “Actual Delivery” in Retail Transactions, concerns “its authority over retail commodity transactions involving virtual currency, such as bitcoin,” the CFTC statement began. In it, they set “out the CFTC’s view regarding the ‘actual delivery’ exception that may apply to virtual currency transactions.”

The CFTC has long held bitcoin to be a commodity as defined within the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). It is clarifying what that means as market makers under its purview now that Cboe (last Sunday), CME (Monday), Nasdaq (middle of next year), and Cantor Fitzgerald (next year) are moving full-steam ahead to meet an insatiable demand for bitcoin. Broadly speaking, the CEA gives muscle to the CFTC, allowing it to oversee bitcoin/crypto futures on the retail side.

The proposed rules of 15 December 2017 exempt contracts if they’re delivered within 28 days. They establish “two primary factors necessary to demonstrate ‘actual delivery’ of retail commodity transactions in virtual currency: (1) a customer having the ability to: (i) take possession and control of the entire quantity of the commodity, whether it was purchased on margin, or using leverage, or any other financing arrangement, and (ii) use it freely in commerce (both within and away from any particular platform) no later than 28 days from the date of the transaction,” the statement outlined.

Participants have three months to issue their thoughts on the proposals, which also include “(2) the offeror and counterparty seller (including any of their respective affiliates or other persons acting in concert with the offeror or counterparty seller on a similar basis) not retaining any interest in or control over any of the commodity purchased on margin, leverage, or other financing arrangement at the expiration of 28 days from the date of the transaction,” the CFTC noted.

Such clarification is widely believed to be a way for the agency “to crack down on so-called ‘bucket shop’ outfits that take retail investors’ cash fraudulently claiming to plow it into a virtual currency, but no underlying transaction actually takes place,” Reuters stressed.


Friday also saw another first, a CFTC webpage dedicated exclusively to bitcoin. It aims to provide online “resources for market participants and customers on virtual currency and the CFTC’s role in oversight of this emerging innovation.”

It boasts a podcast, CFTC Talks, for which production values leave much to be desired. Its maiden episode is a roundtable of CFTC directors discussing existing and coming bitcoin futures. They each read banal introductions as to their purpose, and every participant sounds as if they’re directing flight traffic above a very large international airport. The host is also very excited about everything.

The website includes a primer on bitcoin as well as the ominously titled, Understand the Risks of Virtual Currency Trading. The one and a half page oddly formatted document warns: “Virtual currencies are commonly targeted by hackers and criminals who commit fraud. There is no assurance of recourse if your virtual currency is stolen. Be careful how and where you store your virtual currency.”

What do you think about the CFTC’s increased bitcoin activity? Tell us in the comments below.

https://news.bitcoin.com/ahead-of-cmes-bitcoin-futures-regulator-creates-website-and-new-crypto-rules/

South Korea’s government released emergency measures for cryptocurrency regulation on Thursday. Bitcoin exchanges will now be regulated. Among other measures, there will be a ban on banks, minors, and foreigners trading cryptocurrency as well as a clampdown on virtual bank accounts needed to trade cryptocurrencies in Korea.


South Korea’s government held an emergency meeting to discuss cryptocurrency regulation on Thursday. Following the meeting, the regulators released “virtual currency emergency measures,” Hankyung reported. The publication explained, according to the announcement:

"A virtual currency exchange, which has more than 10 billion won in sales such as Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit, or more than 1 million visitors per day, is expected to receive the government’s ‘Information Security Management System (ISMS)’ certification next year."

The regulators have also increased the standard and penalties applicable when a security breach occurs at exchanges. “We will not allow virtual currency transactions unless the requirements for protection of investors, transparency of transactions and other measures are met through prompt legislation in the near future,” the government was quoted by the publication.

This week, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the regulators proposing six conditions for crypto exchanges to operate.

Full article - https://news.bitcoin.com/south-korea-emergency-cryptocurrency-regulation/

Stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse is reportedly considering whether to make Germany the first European country to list full-fledged bitcoin futures contracts on a regulated trading platform.


According to German business outlet Wirtschaftswoche, Deutsche Boerse executives are holding discussions about whether to list bitcoin futures on Eurex, which is Europe’s largest futures and options market.

“We are thinking about futures, with which private investors and institutional investors can protect existing investments in Bitcoin or set for falling prices of the cyber currency,” a spokeswoman for the exchange told the magazine.

However, Deutsche Boerse is concerned about the potential for price manipulation, given that most spot bitcoin markets are unregulated — a common complaint among critics of cryptocurrency futures.

If Deutsche Boerse does list bitcoin futures, it will be the first regulated exchange in Europe to provide investors with direct access to these products.

Two financial houses have launched mini futures on SIX, Switzerland’s principal stock exchange — and Nasdaq Nordic has listed two exchange-traded bitcoin notes — but no European exchange operator has listed full-fledged futures contracts.


Though still a nascent asset class, institutional investors have been clamoring for the ability to gain exposure to cryptocurrency without the systemic risks of holding the assets directly, and futures meet this need.

Earlier this week, Wall Street obtained its first exposure to cryptocurrency futures after CBOE became the first regulated U.S. exchange to list these products. CME — the world’s largest derivatives exchange — will begin trading bitcoin futures on Monday, making them available to an even wider swath of traders. Several other U.S. exchange operators — most notably Nasdaq — are expected to list bitcoin futures in 2018.

Japan, a country that has emerged as an important hub for the cryptocurrency industry in Asia, is also expected to attract bitcoin futures trading in the near future. As CCN reported, the Tokyo Financial Exchange is working to list bitcoin futures products “as quickly as possible,” although it must convince the government to tweak the country’s securities laws to accommodate these products.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/german-stock-exchange-mulls-adding-bitcoin-futures/

On my point of view, Ethereum rises evolutionary, with continuous bag fixing and new features implementations. Why should Patientory rise? It was a gift to investors, recent price above 0.4$. And current dump just reveals natural state of affairs in the company. More over Chrissa will be talking today on some forum in Atlanta. Please, someone, ask her, what about investor`s money. Is Roadmap still has a meaning?  Is she working at all? Just show the progress, lady, do it)

Глаголите истину уважаемый, явно было видно что памп искусственный, неподствержденный новостями и реальной работой команды. Надо взглянуть правде в глаза, черная леди просто не заслуживает денег которые ей выделили инвесторы, по сравнению с рядом топовых и открытых для комьюнити проектов, patientory - невероятно темная лошадка.

Кстати Crissa приглашает всех на конференцию в Атланте. Может кто имеет деньги на билет и хочет лично взглянуть в ее "ясны очи" - конференция посвящена сбогу денег "нетрадиционными методами."

 

IF anyone know the official twitter channel from veritaseum team, please post here. There a lot of similar groups and communities it twitter, which talk different things about Very, someone call it scum, this is of course not true. Very interesting how much $very may cost in first quarter of 2018, If the project has roadmap with dates, please share link. 1000$ per coin seems very optimistic "tothemoon" prediction, it was already pumped < 3x during last month, maybe token is overpriced now...