Market Update 10th – 16th October 2019
Welcome back to another Australian crypto market update.
In Markets
Bitcoin finished similar to last week’s levels, trading at $12,175 at the time of writing. Ethereum gained 3.51% while XRP increased 5.78%. EOS and Litecoin both held steady across the week. Bitcoin Cash lost 2.5% and is down 26% for the month. Stellar increased 2.31% this week.
In Headlines
Coalition of the unwilling
Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and eBay have all followed PayPal’s lead and pulled out of Facebook’s Libra coalition. The only payment company left is Payu. US Senators Brian Schatz and Sherrod Brown haven’t been helping matters by writing letters to Libra members warning them off the cryptocurrency: “Facebook has demonstrated through scandal after scandal that it doesn’t deserve our trust. It should be treated like the profit-seeking corporation it is, just like any other company,” they wrote. David Marcus, Facebook’s executive in charge of the Libra project, put a brave face on: “I would caution against reading the fate of Libra into this update. Of course, it’s not great news in the short term, but in a way it’s liberating.” Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify in front of the House of Representatives Financial Committee on October 23.
Cryptopia premiere
Five years after Bitcoin: The End of Money As We Know It, Torsten Hoffmann returns with a follow up documentary called Cryptopia. Hoffman has amassed some terrific interviews including Andreas Antonopoulos, Laura Shin, Dr. Jemma Green, Charlie Lee, Vitalik Buterin, Preethi Kasireddy, Dr. Robert Kahn, Wences Casares, Samson Mow, Roger Ver, and many more. The film premieres at Event Cinemas on George Street, October 21 at 5.45pm, and there will be a number of other screenings around the country.
Wealthy and wise
Investors aged 45 and over now account for almost a third of Independent Reserve customers. The 45+ demographic increased from 22% in 2017 to 29% today. Trading activity among retirees has doubled since January.
Bakkt spikes
Bakkt had a very good day on Wednesday with an 800 percent increase on Tuesday’s volume to 212 futures contracts traded. That equates to US$1.93 million. Bakkt appears to be turning over around half a million in volume on average.
SEC goes after Telegram
The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency action and obtained a temporary restraining order against the companies behind Telegram’s Gram token. The SEC believes Gram is a security and has accused Telegram conducted an unregistered token offering with its US$1.7 billion token sale.
Bitcoin ETF is ‘disapproved’
The SEC has “disapproved” the Bitwise ETF in a 112 page ruling. On the upside the SEC has also classified Ethereum as a commodity which CNBC’s Brian Kelly said was “huge for this space … (it) opens the door for institutions to come in.”
Decade since first Bitcoin fiat sale
This week marks ten years since a Finnish software developer named Martii Malmi sold 5050 Bitcoin for US dollars for the first time. He made a huge $5.02 out of the sale. Bitcoin has increased 83 million percent since.
Litecoin turns eight
Litecoin has turned eight years old. Around $500 billion has been transacted through the network so far.
Until next week, Happy Trading!
Independent Reserve Trading Desk
