Total Market Cap, as of 11.22.19 at 12:00pm (PST):  U.S. $197,982,389,192 (- 15.03%)

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STORY OF THE WEEK
• The Shanghai offices of Binance has been rumored to have been raided by Chinese authorities.
• This has since been clarified as false information by a Binance spokesperson as they do not have fixed offices in Shanghai or China.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• Shapeshift introduces zero-fee trading and a native token dubbed “FOX” to be utilized on the platform. In order to be eligible for zero-fee trading, traders on the platform will have to hold ERC-20 based FOX tokens.
• Binance has acquired India based cryptocurrency exchange WazirX.

REGULATION
• The German regulator Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) issues a warning against Bulgarian cryptocurrency broker 5 capital for offering Contracts for Difference (CFD’s) without a licence. The platform is since banned from operations within Germany.
• Grant Thornton, the interim receiver assigned to oversee Einstein Exchange’s finances and take control of remaining assets owned by the firm announced in a report that the organization has CA $45,000 left of the CA $16 million claimed by users of the exchange.
• The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) claims stablecoins will fall under the regulatory oversight of the agency.
• The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has proposed the listing and trading of cryptocurrency derivatives on exchanges approved by the authority.
• The National Assembly's Amendment Subcommittee on Parliamentary Affairs passed a legal amendment to force virtual asset exchanges to register with the Financial Services Commission (FSC).  Those failing to do so would face up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won ($42,460).
• The Shanghai headquarters of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has announced it will crack down on cryptocurrency exchanges across the city.
• The Finance Bureau of Shenzhen has identified 39 unnamed cryptocurrency exchanges for inspection.

SECURITY
• Galaxy Digital’s two new bitcoin funds will be held under the custody of BAKKT and Fidelity Digital Assets.
• According to a Reddit post published by the privacy coin’s core development team, the command-line interface (CLI) tools available at getmonero.org was found to have drained wallets after running the binary for a single transaction.
• GateHub have been found to have leaked password data and personal information involving 1.4M users of the cryptocurrency wallet. The stolen information includes registered email addresses, passwords, two-factor authentication keys, mnemonic phrases, and wallet hashes.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
• Fidelity Digital Assets has been granted a “limited-purpose trust company charter” by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). The charter will allow the company to offer cryptocurrency trading and custody services within the jurisdiction of New York.
• Franklin Templeton partners with wallet service provider Curv to offer a custody solution for shares of a fund which will be tracked on the Stellar Blockchain.

TECHNOLOGY
• Ethereum based stablecoin issuer MakerDAO, announces the launch of Multi-Collateral Dai (MCD) on its system after a vote on the asset was passed through. The new asset will enable users to create Dai tokens, previously collateralized by only Ethereum to now open to REP, BAT, 0x, DGD, OMG and GNT tokens.

TWITTER
• @IOHK_Charles – Bitcoin's price is going down? Remember everyone, after the FUD, news trading and manipulation clears out, we still have a global movement that's going to change the world. We will see 10k btc again and welcome 100k. Crypto is unstoppable. Crypto is the future.

Total Market Cap, as of 11.15.19 at 12:00pm (PST): U.S. $233,002,095,198 (- 2.75%)

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STORY OF THE WEEK
• The Shanghai headquarters of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and Shanghai Municipal Financial Regulatory Bureau ordered district administrative offices to investigate cryptocurrency related activities in the city and complete inspection by November 22nd, 2019.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• Paxos has launched a product allowing traders on cryptocurrency exchanges to fund accounts using a swap tool that facilitates trades between U.S. dollars and various stablecoins. Binance will be first exchange to integrate the new product.
• Cryptocurrency wallet and investment app Abra adds support for 60 new cryptocurrencies and increases fiat withdrawals and deposits.
• OKEx has launched a Bitcoin (BTC) futures contracts margined using Tether (USDT). Users will be able to take long and short positions against the contract and the product will offer up to 100x leverage.
• Korean exchange Bithumb has launched an exchange token named Bithumb Coin under the ticket “BT”. Half of all exchange revenue earned will be used to buy 50% of the total supply over time.
• Crypto.com announced the launch of a new exchange service open to beta testers on November 18th, 2019 with a public rollout scheduled to happen sometime in December.

REGULATION
• The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has approved Tassat (previously trueDigital) to offer physically settled bitcoin margin swaps.
• After suspending Iranian users on its platform back in 2017, Bittrex will return frozen holdings back to the affected users. During that time, the U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Control (OFAC) required Bittrex to disable Iranian user accounts as it was not allowed to service countries sanctioned by the U.S

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
• The fintech arm of Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group, Ant Financial has launched the test net of its blockchain network aimed to support small and medium sized businesses.
• The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) will be launching options on Bitcoin futures on January 13th, 2020 pending regulatory approval.
• Bakkt has opened its custody services for all institutional clients, not just its customers who trade its bitcoin futures contracts.

TECHNOLOGY
• White label exchange software provider AlphaPoint is offering support for margin trading.
• In collaboration with Nervos Network, Huobi has open sourced its own native blockchain dubbed “Huobi Chain”. A testnet launch is scheduled to happen in Q1 of 2020, with a mainnet launch to following shortly after.

TWITTER
• @cryptunez – “just hit one full bitcoin anyone can do this, i’m not special. all it took was 2 years, 5,000 hours of screen time and a starting balance of 10 BTC”
• @jimmysong – “A centralized Blockchain is just a database that everyone can see. The amount of mental gymnastics necessary to justify such a nothingburger into a technological panacea is Olympic level.”
• @BTC_Macro – “The greatest risk isn’t owning crypto and it going to zero. The greatest risk is owning no crypto and it changing the world. Don’t get left behind.”

To my fellow Canadians, happy long weekend!

The intention is to produce these news digests on a weekly basis as a way to serve the community.

Total Market Cap, as of 11.08.19 at 12:00pm (PST): U.S. $239,602,746,771 (- 2.44%)

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STORY OF THE WEEK
•The Stellar Development Foundation has burned 55 billion of its XLM tokens, approximately half of the supply in existence.
•The organization has decided its better to project what it would use within 10 years to help increase adoption of the network and burn the excess tokens.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• Robinhood Crypto has expanded to 8 more U.S. states, supporting a total of 47 U.S. states. The new states supported are Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Vermont.
• DX.Exchange has announced a suspension of operations as it seeks for a merger or outright sale of the company. Users are instructed to withdrawal funds held on the platform by November 15th, 2019.
• Binance.US launched support for cryptocurrency purchases using debit cards.
• Huobi Global announced it will begin freezing all user accounts based in the U.S. commencing on November 13th, 2019.
• Square’s Cash App has begun charging fees for buying and selling bitcoins on the platform. Fees are rumored to range from 1% - 1.76%.
• Coinbase announced it will offer staking services for all its U.S. customers, beginning with digital asset Tezos.
• Atom Group has launched the Atom Asset Exchange (AAX), a cryptocurrency spot and derivatives exchange. The platform is powered by a matching engine developed by the London Stock Exchange and boasts a 0.0005 second trade settlement time.
• The CEO of Zimbabwean cryptocurrency exchange Golix, Tawanda Kembo claims to have lost the password to one of the exchanges Bitcoin (BTC) cold wallets containing 33 Bitcoins.

REGULATION
• Alameda Research LLC (the parent company of crypto exchange FTX) has been hit with a U.S. $150 million lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in California. The plaintiff accuses its founders of market manipulation, unfair business practices and racketeering activity.
• UK’s tax authority, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has released guidance for businesses and enterprises regarding crypto asset exchange tokens, utility tokens and security tokens.
• The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) has filed to take control of Einstein Exchange amidst complaints, investigations and lawsuits that it has ceased operations with more than 16 million CAD owed to customers.
• China’s National Development and Reform Commission has removed cryptocurrency mining from its list of industries it intends to wind down in the country.
• Bitfinex will pull its plans the token sale of “Kimcoin” (K!M) on its platform citing regulatory uncertainty.
• The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has issued a 61-page regulatory framework for licencing cryptocurrency exchanges.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
• The central bank of Turkey has announced its plans to launch a digital currency with trials scheduled to conclude by the end of 2020.
• Investing and cryptocurrency trading platform eToro has acquired Delta, a cryptocurrency portfolio management app.

TECHNOLOGY
• BitMEX addresses its mismanagement of customer email addresses citing technical issues with its email system. The exchange has since built an in-house system to handle sending of important email and employed password resets and human review on potentially endangered accounts.
• Investing and cryptocurrency trading platform eToro has acquired Delta, a cryptocurrency portfolio management app.
• Microsoft Azure has launched a token minting platform dubbed “Azure Blockchain Tokens”, allowing enterprises to mint and burn tokens on a permissioned version of Ethereum.
• Nervos Network plans to launch its Lina blockchain next week after a U.S. $72 million token sale. Developers and miners will be able to participate and utilize the network on November 16th, 2019.

PEOPLE
• Blockchain analysis platform Chainalysis has hired three new executives to its business development team. The new roles filled include Chief Revenue Officer, VP of Public Sectors and Vice President of Americas.

TWITTER
• @_ConnerBrown_ – “Right now, to maintain the price of bitcoin, the market has to absorb ~1800 new BTC every day. In just a few months, the market will only have to absorb ~900 new BTC per day to maintain price levels. That sounds like rocket fuel to me.”
• @matt_odell – “Cash transactions greater than RM25,000 ($6060 USD) will no longer be legal in Malaysia. As the global push to criminalize cash usage continues, bitcoin provides individuals the ability to opt out of state controlled digital money. There's safety in sats.”
• @Rhythemtrader – “Using Bitcoin 1. Download wallet 2. Receive funds | Using Banks 1. Go to location 1. Identification card 2. Social Security # 3. Hidden fees 4. Initial deposit 5. Proof of address 6. Unreadable legal docs 7. Wait a week for your funds. Which one will the next generation choose?”

Total Market Cap, as of 11.01.19 at 12:00pm (PST): U.S. $245,607,612,779 (+ 5.95%)

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STORY OF THE WEEK
• Deribit experienced a flash crash at 21:00 UTC on October 31st, 2019 causing the price of its bitcoin perpetual swap contract to drop 15%. Index calculation issues and the failure to remove incorrect outlier prices were cited as the reasons for the malfunction.

• COO of Deribit, Marius Jansen has since said the platform will be reimbursing traders that have been affected by the error. Total cost of compensation is estimated to be around U.S $1.3 million.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• Kraken will offer support for OmiseGO (OMG) and PAX Gold (PAXG). The coins will be rolled with trading pairs against bitcoin, ether, the euro and the U.S. dollar

• Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX has launched the “Dragon Perpetual Futures Index” a product that offers exposure to several Chinese related cryptocurrencies

• OKEx plans to launch Tether (UDST) futures trading with a futures contract offering leverage up to 100x.

• Bitfinex adds withdrawal support to Bech32 addresses. Bech32 is a new type of wallet address format starting with the alphanumeric characters “bc1” and only lowercase letters.

• Binance has added onramp and offramps for the Russian Ruble (RUB) through 3rd party integration AdvCash.

• eToro has launched “CopyTrader” – a feature that allows traders to automatically copy trades of top cryptocurrency traders on the platform. This feature will be rolled out on its cryptocurrency trading platform.

• Huobi’s white-label service, Huobi Cloud, will now be available in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

REGULATION
• Canadian investment fund manager 3iQ received regulatory approval to launch a bitcoin fund on the Toronto Stock Exchange or the TSX Venture Exchange.

• The government in Guangzhou, China, has announced a U.S. $140 million subsidy fund to encourage research and development of blockchain initiatives.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
• BAKKT announces a consumer app scheduled to launch in 2020 which will enable payments and transactions using digital currencies.

• The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has published specifications for its upcoming bitcoin options contract scheduled to launch early 2020.

TECHNOLOGY
• An open source web application dubbed “Shhgit”  scans code repositories on Github and looks for files and data that is unintentionally exposed such as private keys or password data.

• Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX acknowledges it has sent email out to users and attached their email addresses to the “to” field, causing concerns of data protection and privacy.

• MyEtherWallet (MEW), an Ethereum wallet allowing user to store, send and receive ETH and ERC-20 tokens has released an updated Google Chrome extension offering.

• Halloween 2019 marks the eleventh anniversary of the release of the whitepaper for Bitcoin by anonymous creator dubbed ”Satoshi Nakamoto”.

PEOPLE
• Founder of major cryptocurrency miner and hardware producer Bitmain Technologies Ltd, Wu Jihan announced the resignation of his co-founder Mincree Zhan to reinstate control of the organization.

• Investment platform Robinhood is hiring a Chief Compliance Officer for its cryptocurrency unit, Robinhood Crypto, LLC.

TWITTER
• @MichellePhan – “There is a lot of misinformation about Bitcoin, so I recommend reading “ The Bitcoin Standard “ by @saifedean to understand not only the fundamentals of btc, but monetary history and Austrian economics. You’ll see btc as a true store of value. Good luck!”

• @boxmining –  “Rumors are circulating that China is allowing exchanges again. Further inspection reveals that new digital businessss are explicitly barred from creating crypto exchanges”

• @CharlesTheETH – “I take back everything I said about the crypto industry being mature and this no longer being the Wild West. Just yesterday we saw: - $7k BTC on deribit - $15k BTC on some no name exchange - Coinbase fuckery - Bitmex email leak A single fucking day.”

Total Market Cap, as of 10.25.19 at 12:00pm (PST): U.S. $231,808,660,371 (+ 6.63%)

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STORY OF THE WEEK
• In a recent Politburo Committee session, China’s President Xi Jinping provided a statement encouraging adoption and investment into blockchain technology.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• USD deposits on Binance U.S. are now insured up to U.S. $250,000 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

• STX, the native token of Blockstack, a decentralized computing network and app ecosystem will be listed on Binance and HashKey Pro on October 23rd, 2019.

• Bittrex International, the Malta-based international arm of Bittrex will cease operations in Venezuela and 30 other countries. Users are instructed to
withdraw funds from the exchange before October 29th ,2019.

• Binance U.S. will list dogecoin (DOGE), offering a DOGE/USDT market with deposits opening on October 24th, 2019 at 1:00 UTC.

REGULATION
• The next hearing involving the high-profile court case between Telegram and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) involving its sale of “gram” tokens has been postponed until February 18th – February 19th, 2020.

• A draft bill has been issued looking to introduce legislation to the House Financial Services Committee to regulate stablecoins under the Securities Act of 1933.

• The president of Crypto Capital has been arrested by Polish authorities under suspicions of money laundering and involvement with a Columbian drug cartel. He is wanted for laundering up to 1.5 billion zloty, worth approximately U.S. $390,000,000 from illegal sources.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
• Fidelity Digital Assets Services (FDAS) is rolling out its custody and trading services, previously limited to trial users while the platform was in its final testing stages.

• Galaxy Digital Asset Management, a merchant bank under Galaxy Digital will be launching two new bitcoin funds in November 2019. The new funds will require a U.S. $25,000 minimum investment with optional quarterly redemptions. Weekly withdrawals will also be available but at a higher minimum.

• BAKKT will be launching a regulated options contract for Bitcoin futures on December 9th, 2019. The benefits of the option contract will be capital efficiency, cash or physical settlement, early execution, low fees and instant messaging and analytics.

• Major cryptocurrency hardware manufacturer Bitmain has opened the “worlds largest” facility for Bitcoin mining in Rockdale, Texas.

TECHNOLOGY
• HTC unveils the Exodus 1s, the first smartphone to be able to run a full bitcoin node.

• Popular naming system “Ethereum Name Service” (ENS) has announced support for sending and receiving transactions across several blockchains,
previously only supporting Ethereum.

• Web browser Opera now allows payments with bitcoin directly within the browser.

• Cryptosteel has launched “Cryptosteel Capsule”, a physical backup device for the offline storage of private keys, passwords, and wallet recovery seeds.

TWITTER
• @ErikVoorhees – “Trump: blockchain bad Xi: blockchain good”

• @22loops – “BITCOIN BOTTOM 24 OCT 2019” (Tweeted on January 4th, 2019)

• @Thrillmex – “If you invested $100 into gold 20 years ago, you'd now have $500. If you invested $100 into $BTC 9 years ago you'd now have $16,381,493 F**k gold. Buy bitcoin.”

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STORY OF THE WEEK
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issues a temporary restraining order against Telegram Inc. and Ton Issuer Inc. for what the agency claims as an “ongoing illegal offering of digital-asset securities called Grams”.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• Ripple, Coinbase, Panthera Capital, Digital Currency Group and Jump Capital have invested in Mexico’s largest crypto exchange Bitso to expand its operations across Latin America.

• Bitfinex launches the Bitfinex Affiliate Program, allowing users to refer new users and earn commissions from trading fees.

• KuMEX, the derivatives arm of KuCoin to launch a bitcoin monthly futures contract in a few weeks.

• Huobi Global plans to launch a fiat gateway for users in Turkey by offering a Turkish Lira to Tether onramp.

• Circle parts ways with Poloniex to spin off a new company dubbed “Polo Digital Asset”. The new platform will not serve U.S. customers.

• Binance Futures, the derivatives arm of Binance is raising its maximum leverage to 125x with the launch of bitcoin (BTC) and tether (USDT) contracts.

REGULATION
• The chairmen of the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN) have issued a joint statement addressing KYC/AML obligations for crypto users.

• The Government of Bermuda announced on Wednesday it will accept USD Coin (USDC) for payment against taxes, fees and other government services.

• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issues a compliant accusing cryptocurrency and foreign exchange investment firm Circle Society and its operator David Gilbert Saffron for misappropriating investors funds and registration violations.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
• Booking Holdings, the parent company behind Booking.com has announced its departure from the Libra Association.

TECHNOLOGY
• The next release of popular bitcoin wallet Electrum will support payments through the bitcoin Lightning Network.

PEOPLE
• Bank of America currently has six roles open for individuals with experience in blockchain technology or the ability to apply it in a banking context.

TWITTER
• @AngeloBTC – “Patiently waiting for $6k $BTC levels where I will add to long-term holdings. Good luck homies.”

• @Nebraskangooner ¬– “The lower #Bitcoin drops, the more risk there is involved with leverage trading. Smaller moves are higher percentages. So please.. Don't use 125x leverage on Binance. They have plenty of money without your donations.”

• @Bitcoin_Vending – “Never let anyone tell you that you "got lucky" when it comes to bitcoin. You invested the time to learn. You invested money to be a part. You had the conviction to ignore the many around you that thought or called you an idiot. That's not luck, that's work.”

Total Market Cap, as of 10.11.19 at 12:00pm (PST): U.S. $224,687,816,165 (+2.12%)

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STORY OF THE WEEK
• PayPal, Ebay, Stripe and Mastercard have announced their departure from the Libra Association.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• Changelly launches new mobile applications to support Android and iOS users.
• Coinbase releases an iOS app for Coinbase Pro.

REGULATION
•J ennifer Robertson, the widow of the founder of QuadrigaCX is returning US $12 million worth of assets as part of a voluntary settlement.
• The IRS has released a document outlining how the agency expects cryptocurrency investors to report income from their holdings.
• A Bitcoin ETF proposal submitted by Bitwise has been rejected by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
• The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) declares Ethereum a commodity rather then a security.
• Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has released regulations for cryptocurrency fund managers. Virtual asset fund managers in Hong Kong must maintain liquid capital totalling HK $3 million (US $383,000) and additional variable capital.

TECHNOLOGY
• The CTO of Algo Capital, Pablo Yabo had his phone compromised which led to attackers successfully stealing US $1 to $2 million from the hot wallet holding funds belonging to the investment firm.
• Block.one has announced the 2.0 release of its open-source protocol, EOSIO.

PEOPLE
• Head of Product at the Libra Association, Simon Morris has left the firm just after 5 months of joining.

TWITTER
• @codeyisfun – “I waved to a woman because I thought she waved at me. Turns out she was waving to the guy behind me. To get out of the awkward moment I left my hand up and a taxi stopped and drove me to the airport. I am now in Antarctica starting my life over. Buy bitcoin”
• @BTC_Macro – “Imagine not buying $BTC or Altcoins at the bottom... In 2 years, the people who didn't have the balls to buy will tell us how we "just got lucky."
• @Travis_Kling – Equities are at/near all-time highs. Bonds all-time highs. Real estate all-time highs. Venture Cap/PE all-time highs. Precious metals multi-year highs. ...All made possible by QE. A compelling argument can be made that BTC is the most undervalued asset in the world today.

Total Market Cap, as of 10.04.19 at 12:00pm (PST): 220,026,401,689 (+2.64%)

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STORY OF THE WEEK
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settles charges against Block.one with a fine of U.S. $24 million for conducting an unregistered ICO between 2017 – 2018.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• Binance launches a staking platform allowing users to deposit token holdings and earn rewards without the complexity of setting up a node.

• Coinexchange.io ceases operations citing financial issues within the firm.

• Users of Coinbase who hold at least one dollar’s worth of USDC token will automatically begin to accrue rewards (1.25%) on their holdings at no additional cost or fees.

• Binance is delisting thirty trading pairs from its platform citing liquidity and user trading experience considerations.

• Coinbase Pro changes its fee schedule, increasing fees for lower volume traders and decreasing fees for large volume traders.

REGULATION
• Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy introduces a draft bill recommending businesses working with crypto assets should pay 3x the cost of electricity currently changed in their business category no matter the power capacity.

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settles charges against Nebulous, the parent company behind decentralized network Sia with a fine of U.S. $220,000 for an unregistered ICO in 2014.

• Six major Japanese brokerages, Kabu.com, Securities, Monex, Rakuten Securities, SBI Securities, Nomura Securities and Daiwa Securities have teamed up to form the “Japan STO Association”, a self-regulatory organization for STOs (Security Token Offerings).

TECHNOLOGY
• A vulnerability was found in Zcash in which full nodes with shielded addresses could leak data containing the IP address of the user running the node.

• The Fusion Foundation, the parent company behind decentralized network, Fusion Network had one of its wallets drained for tokens worth an estimated U.S. $3.75 million.

• Telegram has launched a native wallet for its native token, Gram (GRM) on the Apple app store.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
No noteworthy articles this week pertaining to institutions involved in cryptocurrency or blockchain related technology.

PEOPLE
• Former executive at BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, Howard Surloff has joined cryptocurrency wallet provider Blockchain.com as General Counsel.

• Former CTO of NiceHash, Matjaz Skorjanec has been arrested by German federal police over charges of running a cybercrime forum and creation and deployment of a malicious botnet dubbed Mariposa.

TWITTER
• @rhythemtrader – “Bitcoin's hashrate is now 7x larger than it was during price's all-time high of $20,000 in 2017. We're seeing resources being spent researching, developing, and deploying mining hardware at a record pace. Investment into bitcoin infrastructure is accelerating.”

• @TheCryptoDog – “Many people are attracted to the quick flips and dirty pumps, but the real money in $crypto is all about the long-term play.”

• @arbys – “Crypto is somewhere in this picture, but you’ill never find him.”

Total Market Cap, as of 09.27.19 at 12:00pm (PST):  $214,363,678,700 (-20.32%)

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STORY OF THE WEEK
• BAKKT has officially launched its physically settled Bitcoin (BTC) futures on September 22nd, 2019 at 8:00pm EST.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• Boerse Stuttgart, Germany’s second-largest stock exchange has introduced digital asset trading on its new platform, Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange (BSDEX).

• Binance launches Binance.US, a platform to service traders based out of the U.S.

REGULATION
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sues ICOBox and its founder Nikolay Evdokimov for conducting an unregistered U.S. $14.6 million ICO back in August 2017 and for conducting token sales for over 30 clients raising over U.S. $650 million.

• The British Police is auction off U.S. $621,400 worth of confiscated Bitcoin from a criminal offering hacking services and selling personal data. The auction will begin from 12:00pm GMT on September 25th, 2019 managed by Wilsons Auctions.  

• A lawsuit has been filed against the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to abolish the BitLicense has been moved to the state’s highest court.

TECHNOLOGY
• Cybersecurity firm Emsisoft has released a fix for a BTC ransomware dubbed “WannaCryFake”.

• A new browser-based malware dubbed the “Masad Stealer” has been found to replace the wallet addresses as it is being typed by unsuspecting victims.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
• The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has come out with an announcement addressing the allegations that it will launch a national digital currency in November.

• Derivatives giant CME Group has announced the launch of bitcoin options contracts scheduled to go live in Q1 2020.

PEOPLE
• CoinDesk’s editor-in-chief Pete Rizzo has departed the firm after 6 years at the organization. Rizzo oversaw the news site as well as its monthly report, released under its research arm, CoinDesk Research.

TWITTER
• @ErikVoorhees – “If you bought Bitcoin this summer at $12,000 because it was going up, and you’re selling it now at $9,700 because it’s going down, you’re doing it wrong. “Hodl” isn’t just a cute meme... it’s wisdom from the elders who have been here before.”

• @APompliano – “Large institutional investors aren't trying to time the market when they buy Bitcoin. They do their research, develop a thesis, make a decision, invest their capital in a prudent & disciplined way, and hold it for the long term. Don't try to outsmart yourself.”

• @Dailydirtnap – “I am a former bitcoin skeptic that is now a bitcoin believer. Thread/”

Total Market Cap, as of 09.06.19 at 12:00pm (PST): U.S. $266,306,455,007 (-1.88%)

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STORY OF THE WEEK
• Documentation released for Binance’s  futures trading product was found to have plagiarized from the documentation of a similar product offering from competitor BitMEX.   

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• Thai cryptocurrency exchange Bitcoin Co. Ltd. to cease operations as of September 2nd, 2019. Customers are asked to withdraw funds from their wallets before November 1st, 2019.

• Binance acquires JEX, a Seychelles-registered cryptocurrency spot and derivatives exchange to launch “Binance JEX”, a platform offering Bitcoin futures and options markets.

• Gemini launches a new clearing and settlement product dubbed Gemini Clearing.

• U.S. based cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin offers fiat-to-crypto onramps across 7 new U.S. states: Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin.

REGULATION
• From a statement issued by the Financial Institutions Division of the Depart of Business and Industry (NFID), ATM operators, including Bitcoin ATM’s will have to be licenced to operate in the state of Nevada.

• As of January 10th, 2020, companies or individuals involved in fiat offramps and deposit services relating to cryptocurrencies will be required to self-register with the De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB).

TECHNOLOGY
• Paxos, a New York based exchange and stablecoin issuer has released Pax Gold (PAXG), an Ethereum token backed by gold physically stored in Brink’s London vault.

• Firefox will now have a feature to allow users to block cryptomining and third-party cookies by default.

• Binance is set to launch a dollar backed stablecoin dubbed Binance USD (BUSD) in the U.S.

• The application that manages Ledger devices, Ledger Live, will now support the option to send and receive across 1250 different ERC-20 tokens.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
• Brazil’s largest payment processor, Cielo, has unveiled support for cryptocurrencies across its network of 1.4 million point-of-sale devices.

• Japan’s most popular messaging app, LINE, has been approved for a cryptocurrency business licence in the country by Japan’s Financial Service Agency (FSA).

PEOPLE
• The CEO of Decentral and co-founder of Ethereum, Anthony Di Iorio is stepping down from CEO to focus on philanthropic initiatives.

• Gemini hires Noah Perlman, a former executive from Morgan Stanley as its Chief Compliance Officer.

TWITTER
• @Rhythmtrader – “94,504 bitcoin were moved today in a transaction. That's $1,000,000,000 transfered for a $700 fee. No government, bank or third party had to verify the transaction, nor could they have stopped it if they wanted to. The true power of bitcoin.”

• @winklevoss – “When people say they believe in cryptocurrency but aren’t sure about Bitcoin, it’s like saying you believe in the Internet but aren’t sure about TCP/IP and HTML.”

• @APompliano – “Bitcoin is the most transparent money in history.”

Total Market Cap, as of 08.30.19 at 12:00pm (PST): U.S. $247,228,974,45 (-9.3%)

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STORY OF THE WEEK   
• In a high-profile court case between Craig Wright and the Kleiman estate, the U.S. district court has awarded the Kleinman estate with 50% of the alleged 1.1 million BTC David Kleiman mined with Wright as well as intellectual property associated with the software.
• Back in 2018, David Kleinman’s estate began the lawsuit against Wright for half of the fair market value of the mined bitcoins as well as intellectual property associated with a trust called the “Tulip Trust”.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• Gemini integrates the “Silvergate Exchange Network”, allowing institutional customers on its exchange platform to deposit and withdraw USD to and from their accounts in real time.

• Coincheck will reduce the maximum leverage for margin traders on its platform from 5x down to 4x. This is scheduled to take into effect on October 31st, 2019.

• Binance to launch a new service dubbed “Binance Lending”. Holders of Binance Coin (BNB), Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Tether (USDT) will be able to lend their assets to others to earn interest.

REGULATION
• In a document released by The Portugues Tax and Customs Authority (PTA), the regulator has outlined trading and payments associated with cryptocurrencies in the country will be exempt from Value Added Tax (VAT) and capital gain taxes.

• 25-year-old Los Angeles resident Kunal Kalra is facing federal charges for exchanging up to U.S. $25 million in cash and crypto without a licence or a KYC/AML protocol in place.

TECHNOLOGY
• CoinMarketCap, a major data source provider of traded cryptocurrencies and exchanges, will be releasing a new liquidity ranking system in November.

• French cybersecurity officials, known as “cyber gendarmes” have announced the detection and disabling of a malicious botnet with over 850,000 servers primarily situated in Latin America. The botnet was infecting computers with Monero crypto-jacking software, dubbed “Retadup” as well as stole personal data from Israeli hospitals.

• A security vulnerability was found on the Lighting Network. A core developer of Lightning has recommended to upgrade existing software against three affected Lighting node versions.

• Hashgraph, a decentralized network to build blockchain based applications is set to release its main-net beta to the public on September 16th. Dubbed “Open Access”, developers can begin to create accounts and build dApps on the platform alongside hundreds of existing third-party developers utilizing the service.

• Telegram to release code for its TON blockchain on September 1st. TON is a platform to host fast, secure and scalable decentralized applications capable of handling millions of transactions per second.

• A vulnerability was found in Ethereum’s second most popular client, Parity. The vulnerability presented no possibility to steal funds but had the capacity to shut down a portion of existing Ethereum nodes.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
• BAKKT will enable deposits for Bitcoin on September 6th to prepare for its daily and monthly futures contracts trading on September 23rd.
PEOPLE

• Former Head of Finance at PayPal Europe, Joe Podulka, has joined cryptocurrency lending and borrowing start-up Cred serving as CFO.

TWITTER
• @AngeloBTC – “Got a message from a friend that trades with serious size - he said long capitulation once we break $8k. I tend to believe him.”

• @MrMichaelNye – “I have traveled around the world for $crypto events for the last 1.5 years and one thing has stood out: No one actually uses crypto. I have met maybe 5-10 people in this time that actively use Bitcoin/crypto beyond trading. We have a long way to go before adoption.”

• @cryptoSqueeze – “Summary of altcoins in Year 2019 1. BTC pump, Alts dump 2. BTC dump, Alts dump 3. BTC consolidates, Alts flat 4. BTC recovers, Alts dump 5. BTC finally dumps, Alts dump”

Total Market Cap, as of 08.23.19 at 12:00pm (PST): U.S. $271,408,862,054 (0.49%)

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STORY OF THE WEEK
Similar to Facebook’s Libra, Binance is launching an open blockchain project dubbed “Venus” to develop stablecoins in various communities on a global scale.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
Gemini has opened its platform for prospective users residing in Australia. Australian users will be able to buy and sell five cryptocurrencies on Gemini (BTC, BCH, ETH, LTC, ZEC).

Binance’s iOS app has returned to the Apple App Store after a hiatus since May 2019.

South Korean based cryptocurrency exchange Prixbit has ceased operations citing external and internal influences as well as management difficulties.

Kraken will be listing Basic Attention Token (BAT) and Waves (WAVES). Trading and funding will commence concurrently on August 22nd at 1:30pm UTC.

Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Deribit is partnering with Paradigm, a messaging service for institutional traders to introduce block trading for cryptocurrency derivatives.

An issue on Amazon Web Services on Friday has disrupted services across several major cryptocurrency exchanges.

REGULATION
HDR Global Trading Limited, the parent company of cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX has added Hong Kong, Bermuda and Seychelles to its restricted jurisdiction list.

U.S. charges two Canadian nationals over alleged U.S $ 230,000 bitcoin fraud. The defendants allegedly stole 23.2 Bitcoin from a woman in the U.S. state of Oregon by using a fraudulent Twitter handle named @HitBTCAssist to act as customer support for a cryptocurrency.

TECHNOLOGY
Coinbase discloses a security vulnerability involving 3,420 customers where registration details were found to be stored in plain text in Coinbase’s internal servers.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
Rakuten Wallet, a subsidiary of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten has launched spot trading of Bitcoin, Ether and Bitcoin Cash.

According to a shareholder of Tether’s sister company Bitfinex, the firm will be issuing a new stablecoin dubbed “CNHT”. CNHT will be pegged to offshore reserves of Chinese yuan (CNY).

PEOPLE
Gemini has hired cybersecurity expert David Damato as its Chief Security Officer (CSO). Damato was previously CSO at Tanium, where he created and led the cybersecurity team to offer security services to government agencies, Fortune 500 firms and various banks.

Former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) cyber unit Robert A. Cohen will join law firm Davis Polk and Wardwell LLP as a partner. Davis Polk and Wardwell LLP is a firm known for representing crypto firms such as Coinbase as well as large financial institutions.

TWITTER
@CharlieShrem: It’s insane how little #bitcoin is actually in circulation, a little under 18m coins. Think about how few that is. That’s not even enough for every citizen of Cairo to have just 1 bitcoin. All you need is 1 and that will be life changing.

@MiguelCuneta: Watched #Bitcoin fall from $1242 to $190 from 2013 to 2015. China banned it, the biggest exchange in the world collapsed after losing 850,000 BTC, & Mike Hearn, a Bitcoin core dev, declared it as a failure in 2015, at the bottom. And a dip to $9500 is shaking you out?

@bitcoin: Bitcoin Cash is pronounced “bcash”

Total Market Cap, as of 08.16.19 at 12:00pm (PST): U.S. $270,098,635,992 (-10.76%)

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STORY OF THE WEEK   
• BAKKT has received regulatory approval from the CFTC (U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and NYDFS (New York Department of Financial Services) to launch its derivatives product paying out in physically delivered Bitcoin. The first contracts are scheduled to launch on September 23rd, 2019.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• Coinbase Pro lists Algorand (ALGO) on August 14th, 2019. ALGO will be available for deposits and transfers to customers within Coinbase’s supported jurisdictions, except for New York State.

• Bitfinex’s partner exchange Ethfinex rebrands to DeversiFi. Launched in mid-2018, the platform is a decentralized, peer-to-peer exchange for ERC20 tokens.

• Coinbase acquires institutional based cryptocurrency and custody service provider Xapo for U.S. $55 million.

• Poloniex deslists 23 trading pairs due to low volume (the full list of pairs can be found on the announcement tweet).

• A sell-off of Ripple (XRP) on cryptocurrency exchange Beaxy resulted in tokens to trade at an  approximate 62% discount relative to other exchanges. The platform shortly after halted all trading activities on the platform as it investigated the situation.

REGULATION
• Coinbase UK drops support for privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash. Some UK customers claimed to receive letters warning users to convert their Zcash (ZEC) holdings or move them to an external wallet by August 26th, 2019.

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking to freeze the assets of Reggie Middleton, the organizer of a U.S. $14.8 million Veritaseum (VERI) initial coin offering (ICO).

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed decisions on three bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposals. The ETF’s were filed by Bitwise Asset Management, VanEck/SolidX and Wilshire Phoenix Funds.

• The United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) alleges BitMEX has misled the public in a newspaper ad from January of this year. The watchdog has received complaints on the firm exaggerating the return on an investment in Bitcoin or failing to illustrate the risks of an investment against the asset.

TECHNOLOGY
• Cybersecurity firm Varonis has discovered a cryptojacking virus dubbed “Norman” that mines cryptocurrency Monero (XMR)

INSTITUTIONALIZATION
• According to sources familiar with the matter, Barclays is no longer providing banking services to Coinbase. Barclays and Coinbase representatives have since declined to comment on the matter.

PEOPLE
• Former CTO of Coinbase has joined decentralized finance blockchain project Findora. Srinivasan will help guide the firm as a strategic advisor.

• The CEO of Switzerland’s SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), Martin Halblaub, departs the company following disagreements on how the trading platform should be run.

TWITTER
• @Timcast: “I bought bitcoin a couple of years ago and have ignored it ever since I am very happy with that decision.”

• @kimDOTcom: “Get out of stocks NOW. Buy bitcoin and gold. Trust me.”

Total Market Cap, as of 08.09.19 at 12:00pm (PST): U.S. $302,670,290,417 (+ 6.97%)

To subscribe to the weekly digest - follow @Symetria_io on Twitter!

STORY OF THE WEEK
• A rumor is circulating online of a large-scale KYC data breach of Binance users which was leaked on a public Telegram channel. The exchange has since offered a reward of up to 25 to anyone that can help catch the individual. An ongoing investigation by the firm suggests there are “inconsistencies with the data” shared on social media relative to the data it holds in its systems for KYC compliance.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES
• Bitcoin(dot)com has announced the launch of a cryptocurrency exchange service on its site slated to launch early September 2019.

• Japanese based exchange BitPoint resumes operations amid its hack which occurred on July 11th, 2019.

• U.S. based stock and crypto trading app Robinhood to expand in the UK after receiving regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

• Coinbase lists Tezos (XTZ) on its web, Android and iOS versions of the platform.

REGULATION
• The department of Federal Revenue of Brazil has issued guidance stating that cryptocurrency transactions in excess of $30,000 Brazilian reals must be reported to tax authorities.

• Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) of Thailand has stated the agency has intentions to amend the Anti-Money Laundering Act to require digital currency exchanges to report their activities.

• Coinbase Inc will face a negligence lawsuit due to how the firm handled the launch of its digital currency bitcoin cash back in December 2017.

• The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has plans to bring cryptocurrency exchanges under direct regulation. This is a change to its current practice of regulating exchanges by providing administrative guidance to domestic banks.

• Local police in China are investigating decentralized exchange EtherDelta for an alleged major scam in China.

• A tax bill dubbed “Virtual Value Tax Fix Act of 2019” has been introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill seeks to introduce amendments to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 which would result in cryptocurrencies to be excluded from double taxation under the existing Internal Revenue Code.

• Under the guidance of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), fifteen nations will be collaborating to setup a system to monitor cryptocurrency transactions.

TECHNOLOGY
• Analysts at cybersecurity firm Zscaler have found a new type of trojan that targets cryptocurrency users. The malware, dubbed “Saefko”, is a remote access trojan (RAT) that can, retrieve browser history affiliated with cryptocurrency, credit cards, business, social media and other forms of data from a targeted computer.

• Litecoin has reduced its block rewards from 25 LTC down to 12.5 LTC after reaching the trigger block height of 1,680,000 at 10:16 UTC on August 5th, 2019.

• Samsung has expanded its blockchain and DApp software development kit by introducing two new services. It has integrated a digital analytics DApp dubbed “Jupiter” and a QR code-based password wallet “Mars” into Galaxy S10 and newer version of Samsung smartphones.


INSTITUTIONALIZATION
• No significant developments this week pertaining to institutional developments or forays into cryptocurrency/blockchain technology

PEOPLE
• In an internal memo, Circle’s Head of Trading, Dan Matuszewski, has announced his departure at the firm. The position will be filled by Nick Gustafson, a Kraken and UBS alum.

• On Mastercard’s job board, the organization is looking to fill three senior-level positions to lead efforts in cryptocurrency, focusing on payments and wallets solutions.

TWITTER
• @cryptoSqueeze – Financial roadmap: 1. BTC breaks ATH & moon hard 2. Alts capitulate another 50% from here 3. Buy alt capitulation 4. Sell alt for 5x, get back to BTC & HODL 5. Cash out 80% BTC by end of 2020 6. Financial crisis should be ending soon 7. Buy into stocks and real estate 8. Retire

• @TimDraper – Nasdaq down 3.4% Dow down 2.9%. Bitcoin up 3.2%. Bitcoin may be a remarkable hedge. #bitcoin

• @jason_yanowitz – 4 people who changed the course of money forever 1260, Kublai Khan: Paper Money 1397, The Medicis: Credit w/ Interest 1971, Richard Nixon: Gold Standard 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto: Bitcoin

Total Market Cap, as of 07.26.19 at 12:00pm (PST): U.S. $272,561,563,061 (-3.33%)

To subscribe to the weekly digest - follow @Symetria_io on Twitter!

STORY OF THE WEEK

· Justin Sun, the CEO of TRON has postponed a high-profile charity fundraising lunch with Warren Buffet citing health issues. According to a report from Chinese media outlet Caixin, Sun is facing allegations of money laundering and illegal fundraising.

· Despite the postponement, the charitable organization Glide has received the full U.S. $4.6 million an additional $100,000 donation from Sun.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRADING SERVICES

· Indian cryptocurrency exchange Cryptokart ceases operations as of July 17th, 2019.

· Huobi announces Huobi Thailand, an exchange licenced by the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to offer trading and fiat on-ramps for cryptocurrency.

· Hrvatska Pošta, Croatia’s national postal operator is now operating crypto-to-fiat exchanges across three offices in the country.

· Swedish cryptocurrency exchange QuickBit has confirmed the leak of 300,000 customer records due to a vulnerable database.

REGULATION

· Fidelity’s cryptocurrency arm Fidelity Digital Asset Services (FDAS) has applied for a licence to operate as a trust in the state of New York.

· A panel that reports to India’s Finance Ministry proposes a ban of private cryptocurrencies as well as heavy fines and a potential jail term of up to 10 years for those dealing in cryptocurrencies.

· The Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture has approved cryptocurrency mining in the country. The commission now looks to create a policy to regulate mining.

· From the latest court filings, Bitfinex disputes against the New York Attorney General (NYAG’s) claims of New York jurisdiction.

· The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has established the Research and Innovation Division – a new department responsible for licencing and regulating crypto-related businesses.

· The U.S. Internal Revenue Services (IRS) has sent over 10,000 letters to various taxpayers owning cryptocurrencies advising them to pay back taxes they may owe or amend returns in accordance to their holdings.

TECHNOLOGY

· Ethereum wallet and decentralized app browser MetaMask has launched the public beta of its mobile app.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION

· According to an announcement, Bakkt, a Bitcoin futures platform launched by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has begun testing for the delivery of its BTC futures product.

PEOPLE

· Telecom giant Verizon looks to build a blockchain team with 35 job openings requiring blockchain knowledge and recently adding 5 open positions for blockchain developers.

· Kraken hires Kevin Beardsley, former Managing Director at B2C2 to lead business development efforts for Kraken Derivatives.

TWITTER

· @BTC_Macro – “If you survived the bear market, you should give yourself some credit. You’ve learned more in the last 18 months than any course or book will ever teach you. You learned the hard way, and that’s usually the best way. Now go get your f*cking money back!”

· @Tracyalloway – A major divergence has opened up in my proprietary quant model. Historic correlations are breaking down, presenting a unique opportunity for investors brave enough to take advantage of the temporary dislocation. Yes, it is time to sell avocados to buy Bitcoin.”

· @RussellOkung – “First @NFL training camp conversation: Bitcoin.”

Performance?, exchange fees?, lack of transparency?, lack of a particular functionality?


We would love just your thoughts on what you are most frustrated about with existing exchanges and right the wrongs.

I think that although the interface is dated, people enjoy it because its a tried and true trading platform, with great charting functionality. We also noticed that are a lot of normal equity/stock traders have transitioned to crypto. Maybe they will like it because they are familiar with it?

We are a upcoming exchange planning to implement Metatrader 4 if it is desired for our professional/advanced traders. Based on your poll votes, if this proves popular we are going to add this functionality.

https://www.metatrader4.com/en