CoinDesk Crypto

Chicago-based ErisX, a crypto exchange for institutional investors, has joined the payments network of bitcoin-friendly Silvergate Bank.

• The connection to the Silvergate Exchange Network will give ErisX clients access to U.S. dollar withdrawals and deposits during business hours. The Silvergate Exchange Network is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• “If you think about the traditional means of moving fiat today, most institutional market participants would utilize the Fedwire system,” ErisX CEO Thomas Chippas said in an interview. “You’re talking about the availability of getting your money around 4:30 p.m. or 5 p.m. in the afternoon depending on the bank.” 
• ErisX is one of the few exchanges to have publicly announced its integration with the SEN. In November, Kraken announced that it had joined the SEN to enable real-time fund transfer.
• Chippas noted that the fee structure is no more expensive on SEN than what it would be for a typical Fedwire transfer.
• While ErisX is evaluating the SEN Leverage product, which allows proprietary traders to put up bitcoin as collateral for fiat loans, the exchange hasn’t yet decided to offer the service to its clients, Chippas said.
• In the first quarter of 2020, the SEN handled 31,405 transactions, according to the publicly-traded Silvergate’s most recent earnings report.

Read more: Silvergate Adds 46 More Crypto Clients in Q1 While Existing Customers Increase Deposit Levels

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CipherTrace, a blockchain analytics software firm, has deployed a predictive risk-scoring system that the company says provides real-time alerts on suspect crypto transactions for its exchange, investor and investigator clients.

• The tool will assign risk based on the on-chain histories of transacted funds, the Silicon Valley firm said.
• Inbound cryptos with unseemly ties (from sanctioned countries or a fraud campaign, for example) would get a “high risk” score under the system.
• CipherTrace claims the score respects user privacy, saying in a press release that it does not process any personally identifiable information. 
• Coming days after a Twitter hacker scammed nearly $200,000 in bitcoin from hundreds of victims, the score could warn exchanges of incoming plunder, CipherTrace chief financial analyst John Jefferies told CoinDesk.
• All CipherTrace clients can use the tool from Tuesday’s launch at 13:00 UTC (9a.m. ET).
• Jefferies declined to state how large that customer base is, saying only that Binance is among them. CipherTrace firm has previously boasted 150 partners. 
• The blockchain intelligence sector is broadly deploying risk-based scoring against a problematic crypto trio: money launderers, sanctions violators and terrorist financiers.
• CipherTrace competitors Chainalysis and Elliptic already market similar tools.

Also read: Crypto Exchange Group Eyes ‘Bulletin Board’ System for FATF Compliance: Coinbase Exec

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In the race to become the dominant cryptocurrency platform, Ethereum is gaining on Bitcoin.

Take a look at the market capitalization of ether, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain. Currently, the value stands at about $26 billion. But that figure doesn’t include all of the digital assets built atop the Ethereum blockchain, including some of this year’s hottest tokens: stablecoins like tether and USDC and altcoins like Crypto.com’s CRO, Chainlink’s LINK, Compound’s COMP and Kyber’s KNC. 

You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here.

Related: Blockchain Bites: China’s BSN Integrations and Satoshi’s Newfound Wealth

The combined value of those ERC-20-standard tokens is also around $26 billion, according to the data provider Messari. That puts the market capitalization of the Ethereum ecosystem at more than $50 billion – closer to bitcoin’s $170 billion than if ether were considered alone. 

The comparison shows how the rapid pace of development this year on Ethereum has brought the blockchain’s ecosystem closer to challenging Bitcoin. The value gap narrowed over the past month as bitcoin’s price stagnated, while demand for stablecoins and a flurry of activity in “decentralized finance,” known as DeFi, has ignited the value of Ethereum and the tokens that depend on it. 

“DeFi tokens continue their bull run,” cryptocurrency analysis firm TradeBlock wrote Monday in a weekly commentary.  

Messari, a digital-asset data firm, said in a report that the Ethereum blockchain’s daily settlement value recently surged to about $2.5 billion, surpassing Bitcoin’s for the first time since at least early 2019. 

Related: Ethereum Turns Five Next Week and We’re Producing a Special Series

“Ethereum has blown past Bitcoin,” Ryan Watkins, a Messari analyst, wrote in the post on Monday. “With the increasing amount of economic activity taking place on Ethereum, this trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon, if ever.”

It’s the latest chapter in the competition among projects to attain critical mass in the cryptocurrency industry. For entrepreneurs and investors in the space, the goal is to establish networks and projects with enough name recognition, credibility and functionality to scale quickly if and when mass adoption comes.

Bitcoin, the oldest and largest cryptocurrency, attracted most of the hype early in 2020 as some analysts predicted a once-every-four-years event known as the blockchain’s “halving” could send prices to $90,000. Bitcoin got another bluster of endorsements as the spreading coronavirus slammed the global economy, sending traditional markets plunging and prompting the Federal Reserve and other big central banks to create trillions of dollars of fresh money.

Many investors predicted that the money injections would debase the dollar’s purchasing power, driving up the price of bitcoin. Yet over the past couple months, bitcoin’s price has stagnated below $10,000, and even its notorious volatility has withered – prompting fickle crypto traders to seek faster-moving action. 

Bitcoin has been stuck in a tight trading range for weeks,  boring for a market that used to be known for its thrills. However, there are signs Tuesday that an expected big move may be building.   

Still, Ether’s price is up 81% in 2020 to $237, almost three times bitcoin’s 30% year-to-date gain.  

Steve Ehrlich, CEO of publicly traded cryptocurrency brokerage firm Voyager Digital, says bitcoin has accounted for about 15% of trading volumes so far in July, down from about 60% prior to the May halving. 

“We’ve seen a tremendous change in our retail customer behaviors,” Ehrlich said Monday in a phone interview. “When bitcoin is extremely flat in the marketplace, people are looking at other tokens.”

In terms of name recognition and popularity outside of the crypto industry, Bitcoin still dominates. According to a report last week from the trading platform eToro and data provider The TIE, only four stories about DeFi appeared in June in “non-crypto news sources,” versus some 200 about bitcoin.   

“There is a growing realization though that the 2020 DeFi hype may be overdone,” Mati Greenspan, founder of the cryptocurrency and foreign-exchange analysis firm Quantum Economics, wrote Monday in an e-mail to subscribers. 

Denis Vinokourov, head of research at the London-based cryptocurrency prime broker Bequant, said that ethereum risks becoming a victim of its own success, activity in the tokens built atop the blockchain are driving up transaction fees. 

“This resurgence in the network performance has come with a raft of undesired consequences,” Vinokourov wrote in emailed remarks. 

And Jimmy Song, a well-known bitcoin developer and promoter, told the website CoinMarketCap in an interview published last week that he thinks many DeFi projects will fail to live up to their “decentralized” billing because “they almost always have to have some sort of back door in case something goes wrong.”   

“It’s really just a form of gambling with limited upside for people that aren’t in control of the protocol,” Song said. 

For now, though, the Ethereum ecosystem is edging closer.  

Jack Tan, of Taiwan-based quantitative firm Kronos Research, told CoinDesk’s Daniel Cawrey that he sees ether hitting $500 by the end of this year. That would more than double ether’s market capitalization, to say nothing of any potential increases in the value of ERC-20 tokens.    

“Ethereum the platform has done its job,” the cryptocurrency investment firm Arca wrote Monday in a weekly blog post. 

Traders are apparently doing their jobs too – following the action. 

Tweet of the day Bitcoin watch

BTC: Price: $9,347 (BPI) | 24-Hr High: $9,363 | 24-Hr Low: $9,152

Trend: Bitcoin is showing signs of life on Tuesday with prices trading above $9,340 at press time, representing a 1.9% gain on the day. Notably, the cryptocurrency hasn’t witnessed an over 1% move since July 9.

The 4-hour chart shows the cryptocurrency has broken higher from the four-week-long narrowing price range. The breakout is backed by an above-50 or bullish reading on the relative strength index. Meanwhile, the MACD histogram is printing higher bars above the zero line, a sign the upward move may gather pace. 

The immediate resistance at $9,480 – a lower high created on July 9 – could be put to test over the next few hours.

Acceptance above that level would confirm a Bollinger band (volatility indicator) breakout on the daily chart and may yield a rally to $10,000. 

The bias would turn bearish if the cryptocurrency finds acceptance under $9,000. However, sellers have failed multiple times in the last two months to establish a foothold below that psychological support. 

Related Stories

• Bitcoin Rises With Stocks as EU Agrees €750B in Coronavirus Stimulus
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Clings to $9,200 While Ethereum Transactions Soar

In the race to become the dominant cryptocurrency platform, Ethereum is gaining on Bitcoin.

Take a look at the market capitalization of ether, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain. Currently, the value stands at about $26 billion. But that figure doesn’t include all of the digital assets built atop the Ethereum blockchain, including some of this year’s hottest tokens: stablecoins like tether and USDC and altcoins like Crypto.com’s CRO, Chainlink’s LINK, Compound’s COMP and Kyber’s KNC. 

You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here.

Related: Bitcoin Rises With Stocks as EU Agrees €750B in Coronavirus Stimulus

The combined value of those ERC-20-standard tokens is also around $26 billion, according to the data provider Messari. That puts the market capitalization of the Ethereum ecosystem at more than $50 billion – closer to bitcoin’s $170 billion than if ether were considered alone. 

The comparison shows how the rapid pace of development this year on Ethereum has brought the blockchain’s ecosystem closer to challenging Bitcoin. The value gap narrowed over the past month as bitcoin’s price stagnated, while demand for stablecoins and a flurry of activity in “decentralized finance,” known as DeFi, has ignited the value of Ethereum and the tokens that depend on it. 

“DeFi tokens continue their bull run,” cryptocurrency analysis firm TradeBlock wrote Monday in a weekly commentary.  

Messari, a digital-asset data firm, said in a report that the Ethereum blockchain’s daily settlement value recently surged to about $2.5 billion, surpassing Bitcoin’s for the first time since at least early 2019. 

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Clings to $9,200 While Ethereum Transactions Soar

“Ethereum has blown past Bitcoin,” Ryan Watkins, a Messari analyst, wrote in the post on Monday. “With the increasing amount of economic activity taking place on Ethereum, this trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon, if ever.”

It’s the latest chapter in the competition among projects to attain critical mass in the cryptocurrency industry. For entrepreneurs and investors in the space, the goal is to establish networks and projects with enough name recognition, credibility and functionality to scale quickly if and when mass adoption comes.

Bitcoin, the oldest and largest cryptocurrency, attracted most of the hype early in 2020 as some analysts predicted a once-every-four-years event known as the blockchain’s “halving” could send prices to $90,000. Bitcoin got another bluster of endorsements as the spreading coronavirus slammed the global economy, sending traditional markets plunging and prompting the Federal Reserve and other big central banks to create trillions of dollars of fresh money.

Many investors predicted that the money injections would debase the dollar’s purchasing power, driving up the price of bitcoin. Yet over the past couple months, bitcoin’s price has stagnated below $10,000, and even its notorious volatility has withered – prompting fickle crypto traders to seek faster-moving action. 

Bitcoin has been stuck in a tight trading range for weeks,  boring for a market that used to be known for its thrills. However, there are signs Tuesday that an expected big move may be building.   

Still, Ether’s price is up 81% in 2020 to $237, almost three times bitcoin’s 30% year-to-date gain.  

Steve Ehrlich, CEO of publicly traded cryptocurrency brokerage firm Voyager Digital, says bitcoin has accounted for about 15% of trading volumes so far in July, down from about 60% prior to the May halving. 

“We’ve seen a tremendous change in our retail customer behaviors,” Ehrlich said Monday in a phone interview. “When bitcoin is extremely flat in the marketplace, people are looking at other tokens.”

In terms of name recognition and popularity outside of the crypto industry, Bitcoin still dominates. According to a report last week from the trading platform eToro and data provider The TIE, only four stories about DeFi appeared in June in “non-crypto news sources,” versus some 200 about bitcoin.   

“There is a growing realization though that the 2020 DeFi hype may be overdone,” Mati Greenspan, founder of the cryptocurrency and foreign-exchange analysis firm Quantum Economics, wrote Monday in an e-mail to subscribers. 

Denis Vinokourov, head of research at the London-based cryptocurrency prime broker Bequant, said that ethereum risks becoming a victim of its own success, activity in the tokens built atop the blockchain are driving up transaction fees. 

“This resurgence in the network performance has come with a raft of undesired consequences,” Vinokourov wrote in emailed remarks. 

And Jimmy Song, a well-known bitcoin developer and promoter, told the website CoinMarketCap in an interview published last week that he thinks many DeFi projects will fail to live up to their “decentralized” billing because “they almost always have to have some sort of back door in case something goes wrong.”   

“It’s really just a form of gambling with limited upside for people that aren’t in control of the protocol,” Song said. 

For now, though, the Ethereum ecosystem is edging closer.  

Jack Tan, of Taiwan-based quantitative firm Kronos Research, told CoinDesk’s Daniel Cawrey that he sees ether hitting $500 by the end of this year. That would more than double ether’s market capitalization, to say nothing of any potential increases in the value of ERC-20 tokens.    

“Ethereum the platform has done its job,” the cryptocurrency investment firm Arca wrote Monday in a weekly blog post. 

Traders are apparently doing their jobs too – following the action. 

Tweet of the day Bitcoin watch

BTC: Price: $9,347 (BPI) | 24-Hr High: $9,363 | 24-Hr Low: $9,152

Trend: Bitcoin is showing signs of life on Tuesday with prices trading above $9,340 at press time, representing a 1.9% gain on the day. Notably, the cryptocurrency hasn’t witnessed an over 1% move since July 9.

The 4-hour chart shows the cryptocurrency has broken higher from the four-week-long narrowing price range. The breakout is backed by an above-50 or bullish reading on the relative strength index. Meanwhile, the MACD histogram is printing higher bars above the zero line, a sign the upward move may gather pace. 

The immediate resistance at $9,480 – a lower high created on July 9 – could be put to test over the next few hours.

Acceptance above that level would confirm a Bollinger band (volatility indicator) breakout on the daily chart and may yield a rally to $10,000. 

The bias would turn bearish if the cryptocurrency finds acceptance under $9,000. However, sellers have failed multiple times in the last two months to establish a foothold below that psychological support. 

Related Stories

• Blockchain Bites: PayPal, Mastercard Inch Closer to Crypto
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Bitcoin edged higher on Tuesday as stock markets cheered the EU’s decision to approve a landmark coronavirus recovery fund.

• The leading cryptocurrency by market value jumped from $9,190 to $9,360 during the 60 minutes to 08:00 UTC.
• Bitcoin is trading at $9,348 at press time – up around 2% on the day, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index.
• European Union leaders clinched the long-awaited €750 billion post-pandemic fiscal stimulus plan during the Asian trading hours, boosting demand for equities and sending EUR/USD to a 4.5-month high of 1.1470.
• Additional bullish pressure looks to be stemming from hopes that coronavirus vaccines would be ready by the year-end. 
• Some major European equity indices are up at least 1.5% each, while Germany’s DAX index is currently at its highest level since February. 
• Asian stocks also gained over 2% early Tuesday; futures tied to the S&P 500, Wall Street’s benchmark index, are currently up nearly 0.8%. 

Looking forward

• Bitcoin has recently developed a strong positive correlation with the stock markets.
• Equities remain vulnerable to a potential escalation in lingering Sino-U.S. tensions.
• Wayne Chen, CEO of Interlapse Technologies, however, said investors may now look to bitcoin as a store of value/safe haven, given the high price of gold.
• The precious metal is now just 4.6% short of the record high of $1,911 reached in September 2011. 

• From a technical analysis standpoint, bitcoin’s immediate bias remains neutral, despite today’s rise.
• The cryptocurrency is still trapped within the narrowing Bollinger volatility bands.
• A Bollinger breakout in either direction would bring a measured move of $400 to support at $8,600 or resistance at $9,800, as noted by Adrian Zdunczyk, CEO of trading community The BIRB Nest in a blog post.

Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing.

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• First Mover: Bitcoin Miners Find Upgrade Financing Aplenty, Even as Prices Languish

Blockchain security firm CoolBitX and on-chain analytics company Elliptic are now pooling their technologies in a bid to help cryptocurrency firms better meet the demands of regulatory hurdles like the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) Travel Rule.

• Announced Tuesday, the two companies will provide a package of their respective solutions to firms such as exchanges, or virtual asset service providers (VASPs) under FATF parlance.
• The tools include CoolBitX’s Sygna Bridge product, an API-based messaging service enabling crypto firms to privately share data as required under FATF guidance for the world’s regulators, issued last June.
• Also included are Elliptic’s on-chain analytic tools designed to help companies comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) requirements from FATF.
• The Travel Rule requires VASPs to record identifying data on senders and receivers of transactions worth over $1,000 and pass the information on to other VASPs.
• CoolBitX’s CEO Michael Ou said the blockchain and crypto industries were at a “major crossroads” with the Travel Rule posing a “daunting” challenge for companies.
• The partners’ products would help firms avoid the risk of stepping outside FATF’s AML and CFT rules, Ou said.
• The crypto industry is now seeing a number of initiatives developing solutions and standards to make it easier for firms to stay compliant as global regulators move to implement FATF’s guidance.

Also read: Crypto Exchange Group Eyes ‘Bulletin Board’ System for FATF Compliance: Coinbase Exec

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100x Group has participated in a Series A funding round for a South African crypto exchange, saying it offers an entry point into the fast-growing market.

• The recently-renamed parent company of derivatives exchange BitMEX confirmed Monday that it had led the $3.4 million Series A for the Johannesburg-based exchange VALR.
• VALR has offered trading pairs for the rand against bitcoin, ether and XRP since June 2019.
• The investment will fund expansion into other countries as well as new products and services.
• Other commits came from Michael Jordaan, the former CEO of First National Bank, one of the largest banks in South Africa, as well as U.S. exchange Bittrex who both also participated in VALR’s R20 million (~$1.5 million) seed round in 2018.
• In a statement, 100x CEO Arthur Hayes said the VALR investment gave the firm key exposure to South Africa – a market, he said, with high potential.
• In a report this year, Arcane Research estimated that 13% of South African internet users had owned cryptocurrencies, nearly double the 7% global average.
• Binance launched its own local fiat gateway in April 2020 in order to capitalize on the country’s high crypto adoption rates.

See also: This Bitcoin Documentary From Africa Is Streaming on Amazon Prime

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Global tech giant Samsung is adding support for blockchain-based virtual world Decentraland to its wallet app.

• The Ethereum-powered platform allows users to monetize and build a virtual world using non-fungible tokens (NFTs), or crypto collectibles.
• According to an announcement from the platform on Monday, Samsung now supports Decentraland’s native tokens, LAND and MANA, within its Blockchain Wallet App. 
• Non-fungible LAND tokens represent 10×10-meter parcels of virtual real estate, according to the marketplace’s website, making it easy to trade land parcels with other Decentraland inhabitants.
• Fungible MANA tokens, based on the ERC-20 standard, are used to make in-game purchases and are burned (destroyed) in order to buy LAND.
• A 3D virtual world in the vein of Second Life, Decentraland differs in that it is owned by its users, co-founder Esteban Ordano previously told CoinDesk.
• Samsung unveiled its cryptocurrency wallet in early March 2019 for its flagship phone at the time, the Galaxy S10.
• The tech giant has expanded support for cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects across its more budget-friendlyphones, where it has also continued adding dapps in its Blockchain Keystore.
• CoinDesk reached out to Samsung for more information, but did not receive a reply by press time.

See also: The People of Decentraland Will Greet You Now

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Top cryptocurrency exchanges are expected to release a white paper next month detailing a method to ease compliance with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) “Travel Rule.”

• First reported by CoinDesk and later confirmed by Coinbase’s chief compliance officer, Jeff Horowitz, at the Global Digital Finance event on July 15, the project aims to help the crypto industry with the compliance burden of the FATF’s guidelines on anti-money laundering.
• BitGo and Coinbase are members of the working group.
• The white paper will set out a framework designed to increase exchange transparency and setting out how they could share data over a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and a type of “bulletin board,” Horowitz said at the event, as reported by The Block on Monday.
• Participants would share addresses on the board and, if another member claims an address, the two entities could then share data P2P to keep personal information out of the reach of hackers.
• The Travel Rule, part of FATF’s guidance issued to global regulators on “virtual asset services providers” (VASPs) in June 2019, requires crypto exchanges to collect identifying data on both a transaction’s sender and receiver, and pass that information on with transactions.
• The rule is designed to limit terrorist activity and money laundering by forcing the identities of individuals on amounts over $1,000 to “travel” with the transaction between the sender and receiver.
• The Gemini, Kraken, and Bittrex exchanges are said by The Block to also be participating in the Travel Rule working group.
• Elsewhere, a new messaging standard was introduced to help cryptocurrency firms comply with FATF’s guidance in May, creating a uniform model for the data that must be exchanged between VASPs.
• In June, FATF reviewed the Travel Rule in a plenary meeting and released a report that examined the progress countries and the private sector had made in implementing its guidance on digital assets.

See also: Is the Travel Rule Good or Bad for Crypto? Both

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Blockchain startup Conflux has announced its Conflux Ecosystem Grants Program, paid in the blockchain’s native CFX token, for building out the Conflux ecosystem, according to a release from the firm. 

• As reported by CoinDesk, Conflux is a Chinese state-backed blockchain platform for decentralized applications (dapps).
• Grants will be paid in the platform’s native token, CFX, in values up to $15,000 and $50,000 for both projects and firms respectively. 
• Tier 1 grants are designed to fund approved developers “creating tooling, interoperability bridges, oracle infrastructure, and other vital ecosystem components.”
• Tier 2 grants will be distributed to companies willing to commit to building on the Conflux blockchain that have already demonstrated a measure of product-market fit. 
• The grant fund was released in concert with the launch of Conflux’s phase two-of-three network rollout.
• Applications opened Monday.

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A new governance token in decentralized finance (DeFi) is captivating yield farmers’ attention. Its creator didn’t set aside any of the tokens for himself and he insists the new token has no monetary value.

Still, that hasn’t stopped it from trading as high as $2,374 a pop, according to CoinGecko.

YFI is the governance token for Yearn.Finance, a site that performs a variety of functions for DeFi users, moving their assets in and out of different liquidity pools in order to find the best yields. Its name may also be a reference to an unflattering internet acronym.

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Clings to $9,200 While Ethereum Transactions Soar

Read more: What Is Yield Farming? The Rocket Fuel of DeFi, Explained

“Each of these systems have control mechanisms, configurable fees, maintenance controls, and rules that can be modified. Thus far, these have been managed by us,” Yearn’s creator, Andre Cronje, wrote in a Medium post. “In further efforts to give up this control (mostly because we are lazy and don’t want to do it) we have released YFI, a completely valueless 0 supply token.”

Cronje did not respond to a request for comment from CoinDesk.

“Earning YFI is simple, provide liquidity to one of the platforms above, stake the output tokens in the distribution contracts (we will provide an interface for this), and you will earn a (governance controlled) amount per day,” Cronje wrote.

Related: Aave’s LEND Token Is Now Up 1,600% in 2020

Yearn was able to largely reuse the code Synthetix used to deploy a similar liquidity incentive on Curve, Cronje explained on Twitter.

Users who deposit liquidity in Yearn pools will get yTokens, accounting for their deposits. These are what DeFi’s itinerant farmhands stake to earn YFI. A significant portion of this action is occurring on Curve, the automated market maker (AMM) that first rose to prominence following the debut of Compound’s COMP governance token.

Read more: COMP’s Sudden Growth Has Swamped a DEX Dealing Only in Stablecoins

Curve hit another all-time high in terms of pair volume on July 19, this time driven by YFI mania.

“Since YFI had no investors and ALL tokens are going to liquidity providers, everyone become very crazy about it, and it all exploded,” Curve founder Michael Egorov told CoinDesk in an email.

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Bitcoin options trading on CME has flatlined after the exchange experienced massive growth and a record-breaking expiry last month.

• CME’s bitcoin options open interest has grown barely 10% in July to $167 million at last check.
• Less than 0.2% of Friday’s aggregate bitcoin options trading occurred on CME, according to Skew.
• Open interest on Deribit, which represented 93% of Friday’s bitcoin options trading volume, has grown roughly 30% in July to $1.1 billion, down from $1.3 billion before the June expiry. 

• CME bitcoin options market grew 10x within a 30-day period between May and June on the heels of record-breaking growth in its bitcoin futures market. 
• Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency traded on CME Group, and the exchange currently has no plans to launch additional cryptocurrency markets.

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While bitcoin prices stay steady, Ethereum transactions are skyrocketing.

• Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $9,184 as of 20:30 UTC (4:30 p.m. EDT). Gaining 0.20% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $9,130-$9,244
• BTC above 10-day and 50-day moving average, a bullish signal for market technicians.

Holding on to $9,200 after a weekend in the $9,100 range is the best traders could hope for in a weaker-than-normal market for bitcoin. “After a brief consolidation in the region of $9,000, bitcoin began to adjust upward,” said Constantin Kogan, partner at cryptocurrency fund of funds BitBull Capital. “Now it is near the next important level at $9,200. If today’s trading session closes above this mark, it is likely to see further growth.” 

Read More: Bitcoin Futures Trading Volume Slips to 3-Month Low on CME

Related: Troll Token? Why DeFi Yield Farmers Are Now All About YFI

Any growth would be welcomed by cryptocurrency traders – so far this month, bitcoin’s overall performance in July has been flat.

With bitcoin’s price in a wait-and-see mode, some investors are paying more attention to opportunities in alternative cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, instead. “Altcoins are back in our focus,” said Karl Samson of Toronto-based brokerage Global Digital Assets. 

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed Monday. Notable winners as of 20:30 UTC (4:30 p.m. EDT): 

• iota (IOTA) + 2.6%
• lisk (LSK) + 1.5%
• monero (XMR) + 0.65%

Notable losers as of 20:30 UTC (4:30 p.m. EDT):

• chainlink (LINK) – 5.8%
• dogecoin (DOGE) – 5.4%
• basic attention token (BAT) – 3%

Related: Argentine Telecom Hackers Demanded $7.5M in Crypto as Ransom

Despite the flurry of altcoin activity, bitcoin investors still believe the oldest cryptocurrency has immense value in an uncertain world. “It is sad but these economic times are setting the stage for a massive wave of new money into bitcoin,” said Henrik Kugelberg, a Sweden-based over-the-counter trader. “The past week, it’s been altcoins but they are only for the initiated. Newbies and wealth storers will go for bitcoin.”

However, Michael Gord, CEO of Global Digital Assets, believes altcoins aren’t going anywhere. “Alt season is in session,” he said. “Expect it to only get crazier as the mainstream wakes up to the very substantial returns being generated again with digital assets.” 

Read More: Canada Exchange Coinsquare Accused of Wash Trading by Watchdog

Ethereum transaction frenzy

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Monday trading around $236 and climbing 0.50% in 24 hours as of 20:30 UTC (4:30 p.m. EDT). “If ETH manages to hang around $262 for more than a couple hours, it would be quite positive,” said Jack Tan, of Taiwan-based quantitative firm Kronos Research. “I’m looking at the $500 level for ether before year end.” 

The average transactions per second on Ethereum is hitting highs not seen in years. On July 13, the network processed over 13 transactions per second, the highest since January 15, 2018 according to data aggregator Blockchair.

Peter Chen of Hong Kong-based trading firmOneBit Quant says the current situation reminds him of Ethereum’s 2017-2018 fundraising craze via initial coin offerings, or ICOs.

“ETH gas is also in the sky right now,” said Chen. “It’s probably because of the DeFi tokens hype. Maybe we are seeing a second wave of ICOs on the Ethereum blockchain?” 

Read More: PayPal Picks Paxos to Supply Crypto for New Service, Sources Say

Other markets

Equities:

• In Asia, the Nikkei 225 ended the day flat, in the green 0.09% with concerns about the coronavirus dampening positive economic sentiment.
• In Europe, the FTSE 100 in London closed in the red 0.49% as policymakers in the EU plot a €750 billion coronavirus stimulus package.
• The U.S. S&P 500 index gained 0.70% as tech stocks closed higher – Amazon climbed 7.1%, its largest jump since March.

Read More: UK Government Moving to Restrict Cryptocurrency Promotions

Commodities: 

• Oil is up 0.36%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $40.72
• Gold is up 0.50% Monday, at $1,817 per ounce

Read More: Bitcoin Miners Find Upgrade Financing Aplenty, Even as Prices Languish

Treasurys:

• U.S. Treasury bonds all slipped Monday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the 10-year, in the red 3.5%.

Read More: Standard Chartered to Launch Institutional Crypto Custody Solution

Related Stories

• First Mover: Bitcoin Miners Find Upgrade Financing Aplenty, Even as Prices Languish
• Bitcoin Futures Trading Volume Slips to 3-Month Low on CME

Only 30% of Ethereum Classic’s nodes will support future network hard forks after a major client walked away from the project last week.

OpenEthereum has voted to stop supporting its Ethereum Classic client to focus attention on other projects. In addition, it has concerns about that blockchain’s immutability, according to a GitHub vote Thursday. It’s also well known that client Multi-Geth will not support future network updates either for similar reasons.

What this means is, of the 615 current Ethereum Classic nodes listed by ETC Nodes, 425 won’t update in the future as developers make changes via hard forks.

Related: Introducing the CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most in Crypto

That leaves Besu, with three nodes, and Core Geth, with 187, to support the network if a hard fork were to occur now. OpenEthereum supports 294 nodes and Multi-Geth supports 131 nodes. The former is a project run by decentralized exchange (DEX) Gnosis that supports Ethereum and Ethereum Classic implementations written in the Solidity programming language.

OpenEthereum has chosen to shut down support for the original Ethereum mainnet to conserve developer energy for its Ethereum client, formerly known as Parity-Ethereum. Gnosis’ OpenEthereum inherited the entire client codebase from Parity Technologies in December. 

In a private message, Gnosis Founder Martin Köppelmann told CoinDesk that Gnosis did not have the “capacity or the willingness to get involved into the governance (aka “drama”) of other chains.” 

“We explored various options to work with different players from ETC but in the end we felt we want to focus on the thing we know and that is Ethereum,” he said.

Immutability lost?

Related: Ethereum Developers Delay Berlin Hard Fork to Stem Client Centralization Concerns

Ethereum and Ethereum Classic split ways in 2016 following the exploitation of a vulnerability in The DAO’s smart contract code. Ethereum developers led by co-founder Vitalik Buterin decided to roll back the Ethereum mainchain to its previous state before The DAO incident in order to recoup lost funds in the exploit. 

Read more: Understanding the DAO Attack

Ethereum Classic developers disagreed with the rollback and chose to maintain the original chain in order to keep the value of “blockchain immutability” alive.

With Ethereum Classic’s latest hard fork, Phoenix, questions regarding immutability are again at the forefront of community debate.

Phoenix introduced new internal changes to the tokenomics of the blockchain network, called OP-CODEs, previously implemented in December 2019 on sister network Ethereum with its Istanbul hard fork. Changing those tokennomics necessarily broke some smart contracts thereby harming the network’s image as the “immutable” version of Ethereum, some voiced in the GitHub.

Read more: Hard Fork Sets Stage for Ethereum Classic’s Second Major Departure From Ethereum

OpenEthereum developer Artem Vorotnikov said that it was perhaps “time for a divorce” between OpenEthereum and Ethereum Classic. That sentiment was shared by Multi-Geth and Parity Tech cord developer Wei Tang in a June blog.

“If two things are basically the same without even any principle or philosophical differences, if the original good reason that caused the disruptions and splits of ETH and ETC is no longer valid, then I think for a healthy ecosystem of Ethereum, we should follow the majority consensus of ETH, or support a merge of ETH and ETC,” he wrote.

Ethereum Classic developers respond

In a phone interview with CoinDesk, ETC Labs CEO Terry Culver acknowledged Parity Technologies has been “extremely generous” in its developer support over the years. He suggested that Ethereum Classic developers should be mindful that they have to balance immutability with the need for innovation in Ethereum Classic (ETC Labs maintains Core Geth).

“Dogmatism isn’t helpful,” Culver said.

In short, the dwindling number of nodes is a problem for the network. A large and diverse set of nodes is needed to maintain a blockchain resistant to third-party attacks.

ETC Cooperative Executive Director Bob Summerwill pointed CoinDesk to his comment on GitHub urging network developers to transition over to Core Geth or Besu.

Multi-geth is dropping ETC support too, but both core-geth and Hyperledger Besu are both viable options which we will be recommending to end-users. Best wishes.

Related Stories

• NEAR Protocol Enlists Bison Trails for Validator Support as It Heads Toward Full Mainnet
• Ethereum Classic

The hackers behind an unsuccessful ransomware attack on Argentina’s leading telecommunications company, Telecom SA, demanded $7.5 million in monero (XMR) to allow infected computers to go back to normal operations.

• According to unidentified employees of Telecom SA, the company’s network was under attack for up to 72 hours, affecting employee access to its virtual private network (VPN) and a number of databases, Argentinian news publication El Periodista reported on Saturday.
  
• On Sunday, Argentine daily newspaper, La Nacion, confirmed the malicious attack adding that it only affected the computers of teams providing remote customer service, and that hackers asked for the sum to release keys that would allow infected computers to regain access to the system. 
  
• Rumors of a crypto ransom first began circulating on Twitter, on Saturday, after economist Alex Kruger tweeted that hackers were demanding a $7.5 million in privacy-focused cryptocurrency monero. 
  
• The tweet included an image that indicated the hackers threatened to double the ransom to $15 million if it was not paid within 48 hours. 
  
• In another attached image, Telecom SA apparently urged its employees to “minimize” accessing the corporate network, avoid using VPNs and refrain from opening emails containing attachments. 
  
• The image also said that the attack had not affected the firm’s critical services, and that its cyberdefense teams were working to contain it. 
  
• According to La Nacion’s post, Telecom SA said it curtailed the attack without having to pay the ransom.

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• Everything We Know About the Bitcoin Scam Rocking Twitter’s Most Prominent Accounts
• Introducing the CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most in Crypto
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Briefly Breaks Below $9K, but Markets Remain Comatose

Ant Group has kickstarted the process of a concurrent initial public offering (IPO) on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

• The Hangzhou-based fintech giant, an affiliate of the Alibaba Group, said Monday that a dual listing would allow it to fund further domestic and global expansion as well as invest more in technology and innovation.
• Better known as the operator of payments app Alipay, Ant launched its own scalable network earlier this year and is believed to be one of the planned primary issuers for China’s digital yuan.
• In the company’s Series C round in 2018, Ant was valued at $150 billion; JPMorgan and Bank of America analysts now value the company at well over $200 billion.
• If that valuation holds, Ant Group’s offering would make the company one of the most highly valued in the world and, arguably, the largest firm operating in the blockchain space.
• For comparison, crypto exchange Coinbase, which is said to be looking at a direct listing in early 2021, was last valued at only $8 billion.
• An Ant Group spokesperson declined to comment on whether the company was indeed targeting a $200 billion valuation.

See also: Global Shipping Giant Cosco to Trial Alibaba’s Ant Blockchain

Related Stories

• UK Government Moving to Restrict Cryptocurrency Promotions
• Japanese Financial Giant MUFG to Launch Digital Currency in 2020
• Bank of Japan Forms New Team to Explore Central Bank Digital Currency
• Mastercard Now Allows Crypto Firm Wirex to Issue Payment Cards

New on-chain analysis from Whale Alert says Bitcoin’s anonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto mined an estimated 1,125,150 BTC, now worth an estimated $10.9 billion. In a Medium post, researchers describe how Satoshi continued mining with the same rig until at least May 2010.

• Whale Alert based its findings on Sergio Demian Lerner’s 2013 “extra nonce” technique which claimed Satoshi’s stash to be at some 1 million BTC. (Lerner referred to the possible Satoshi mining as the “Patoshi” pattern).
• Researchers identified a set of nonce patterns more specific to the Patoshi set which helped further isolate possible Satoshi-mined blocks.
• 22,503 of the first 54,316 blocks were mined by Satoshi under the new method, Whale Alert says.
• Satoshi maintained a constant mining scheme while the network was growing to protect it from 51% attacks, researchers suggest.
• The reliability of assuming nonce patterns are specific to certain mining rigs was called into scrutiny by BitMEX Research in 2018. They estimated Satoshi’s haul to be around 700,000 BTC.

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• Crypto Long & Short: Bitcoin’s Quiet Progress Is Pointing Toward a Better Future

The Bank of France’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) experiments are moving forward with eight candidate firms picked to begin work “in the coming days,” the central bank said in a press release Monday.

• The chosen include Accenture, Euroclear, HSBC, Iznes, LiquidShare, ProsperUS, Seba Bank and Societe Generale FORGE, which has previously studied CBDC for the central bank. 
• These firms will explore three CBDC focus areas: the regulation of CBDC in cross-border payments; “arrangements” for making fiat money available; and the exchange of financial instruments for central bank fiat, the Bank said.
• Crypto-assets are not among the financial instruments to be researched, however. The Bank of France explicitly excluded “crypto-assets” writ large from its run-down of areas of study.
• France cannot unilaterally move to adopt a national CBDC due to its membership in the Eurozone. Even so, the country’s central bank said on Monday that these experiments will contribute to the European Union’s growing focus on CBDC.

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• Japan Is Seriously Considering a Digital Yen: Report
• Ride-Hailing Giant DiDi to Trial China’s Central Bank Digital Currency

The ongoing battle between the co-founders at Bitmain has now essentially hard forked the world’s largest bitcoin miner manufacturer into two different operations and supply chains for making its flagship AntMiner equipment.

Wu Jihan, the co-founder who ousted his rival co-founder Micree Zhan Ketuan last year, registered a new entity on July 16 in Shenzhen, China. The new entity, called Guiji Yanghang, is a subsidiary of another recently incorporated company named Beijing Guiyuan Dalu, which is controlled by Wu’s side.

Wu removed Zhan from Beijing Bitmain in October, following a long-time power struggle between the two. But Zhan made his comeback in June to control the entity again after winning favor from authorities earlier this year. 

Related: Bitmain

One person familiar with Wu’s plan, who wasn’t authorized to speak, said the new Shenzhen entity is to build out a separate supply chain and manufacturing process for making the AntMiner product. This is a countermove to Zhan also taking over Beijing Bitmain’s long-time Shenzhen factory after his return to power last month.

Bitmain, which raised more than $700 million in 2018, was once the most-valued crypto startup in the world at a staggering $14.5 billion valuation. But its dominance in the crypto mining industry has been seriously eroded by competitors since last year amid its internal power fight for control of the company.

Wu’s move is the latest twist in a power struggle that could create greater confusion for global customers buying the firm’s equipment. It might be unclear, for example, which side would own the AntMiner brand, its shipment logistics and the post-sale services.

Read more: Leaked Transcript Details Power Struggle Inside Bitcoin Mining Giant Bitmain

Related: Bitmain Co-Founder Offers Share Buyback at $4B Valuation to End Power Struggle

In an internal letter last Friday, Wu explained to all staff at Bitmain again that he had to return last year to take the reins in order to save Bitmain from a cash flow shortage of several hundred million dollars, allegedly caused by Zhan.

Wu added in the letter that he has initiated an alternative supply chain plan to substitute the role of the existing Shenzhen factory that’s affecting the firm’s product shipment.

The official WeChat account of the AntMiner brand maintained by Wu’s side published a notice on Monday, apologizing to customers that shipments that were already due by the end of June will be delayed again, citing “external disruption to the company’s management recently.” 

Further, with Zhan having rehired Bill Zhu, the head of sales at Bitmain who was let go after Wu’s coup last year, the two sides now also maintain their own sales staff. 

“The next phase of the dispute could focus on the chip ownership [of AntMiner],” the person said.

Comeback

After being pushed out last October, Zhan, as the largest shareholder of Bitmain, made his way back on June 3 after winning favor from Chinese authorities. In early May, authorities granted him control of Beijing Bitmain Technology, the long-standing operational entity of Bitmain. 

In a countermove, Wu registered the Beijing Guiyuan Dalu on May 26 and had been trying to transfer the contracts of employees on his side to the new entity.

Following his return, Zhan also took over Beijing Bitmain’s Shenzhen factory called Century Cloud Core, where his brother-in-law remains the person in charge, and withheld miner shipments for customers who paid their pre-orders to bank accounts controlled by Wu’s side.

Read more: Bitmain’s Power Struggle Takes Toll on Customers as Co-Founder Halts Shipments

A second person with knowledge of Bitmain’s internal situation said the Shenzhen factory issue caused pressure for Wu from customers whose shipment was due. As such, creating a separate new line of supply chain and production is a method attempting to resolve the supply chain situation. 

But it’s unclear at this stage how soon production can begin as Wu would need to persuade technical staff with knowledge of handling the integrated circuit process to come over to his side. Most of them had been working closely with Zhan, the person added.

AntMiner trademark

Public records show that an effective AntMiner trademark has at least been registered in mainland China and Hong Kong, both filed and owned by Bitmain’s Singapore entity called Bitmaintech Pte. 

Intriguingly, the same Singapore entity filed a new application for a trademark named “Bitmain Antrack” on June 5, two days after Zhan’s return. But product details relating to this trademark aren’t clear at this stage.

Bitmaintech Pte is in parallel with Bitmain Technologies Limited, which is registered in Hong Kong. The two are both direct subsidiaries of BitMain Technologies Holding, the ultimate parent holding group incorporated in the Cayman Islands that controls all Bitmain entities.

Read more: How Was It Possible for Bitmain to Oust Its Largest Shareholder Overnight?

Zhan owns 36% of the holding group while Wu owns 20%. The Hong Kong entity further owns Beijing Bitmain as well as Beijing Guiyuan Dalu. Currently, Zhan’s side controls Beijing Bitmain and its Shenzhen factory Century Cloud Core while Wu controls Guiyuan Dalu with the new supply chain subsidiary.

But as of July 2, a corporate filing of Bitmain Technologies Limited with the Hong Kong government shows that Wu was still the sole executive director at the Hong Kong entity’s board. 

The two sides have an ongoing legal battle in the Cayman Islands. The legal decision could mark an end to their internal fight as it will rule on whether Zhan still has the dominant voting power over all issues at Bitmain’s parent holding group.

Related Stories

• Bitmain’s Power Struggle Takes Toll on Customers as Co-Founder Halts Shipments
• Bitmain’s Feuding Co-Founders Are Fracturing the Firm and Staff Are Caught in the Middle

Fintech giant PayPal is leaning on Paxos to handle its crypto services, Mastercard is expanding its crypto program and a prominent Canadian crypto platform has been accused of wash trading as much of 90% of its volumes.

You’re reading Blockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here. 

PayPal Picks Paxos
PayPal, the fintech giant planning to bring crypto trading to its massive user base, has chosen Paxos to handle the new service’s supply of digital assets, according to two people familiar with the matter. Paxos launched a brokerage service last week, which provides an API solution to allow businesses to begin offering crypto buying, selling, holding and sending capabilities – while handling all regulatory compliance aspects. It’s unknown what cryptocurrencies PayPal intends to offer, though its entry into the space makes it one of the most mainstream companies to do so. 

Related: First Mover: Bitcoin Miners Find Upgrade Financing Aplenty, Even as Prices Languish

Wash Trading
Canada-based crypto trading platform Coinsquare has been accused by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) of inflating its trading volumes in an illegal practice called wash trading. In a Statement of Allegations from the OSC, filed last Thursday, the regulator alleges Coinsquare’s executives directed staff to wash trade as much as 90% of the platform’s reported volume between July 2018 and December 2019. The alleged misconduct occurred while Coinsquare was applying to the OSC to register a subsidiary, Coinsquare Capital Markets.

Crypto Cards
Mastercard is expanding its cryptocurrency program by granting Wirex, a crypto payment business, principal membership status. This status makes Wirex the first native crypto company to be able to directly issue payment cards to its customers. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulated-Wirex offers a payment facility that automatically exchanges crypto into fiat currencies.

Custodial Entrant
Standard Chartered’s venture and innovation arm has been working on a crypto custody offering for the institutional market that could be piloted later this year. Alex Manson, the head of SC Ventures, said as many as 20 institutions have expressed interest in the custodial solution. He added, institutional adoption has been hindered by a lack of proper custodial offerings. Initially, SC Ventures had been looking at creating a market service, but realized it had to go a couple of steps back as many wouldn’t touch the digital asset space “with a flagpole” until they had ready access to an institutional-grade storage solution.

Promo Oversight
The U.K. government is looking to increase oversight into cryptocurrency promotions in order to protect investors. On Monday, the country’s Treasury said it would clamp down on “misleading and inadequate promotions” that endangered retail investors, like crypto promotions. John Glen, the City Minister responsible for the U.K.’s financial services sector, said any firm looking to approve the financial promotions from unauthorized firms would first need to have the consent of the Financial Conduct Authority. He added the proposals would bring crypto product promotions up to the same levels as those for other asset-classes.

Quick bites

• A Welsh author memorializes the ICO bubble in novel form
• Wanted Wirecard executive is thought to be sheltered by Russia’s Secret Service
• Third Centra Tech founder pleaded guilty to ICO fraud
• Balaji proposed a decentralized plan to exit Twitter (Decrypt)
• $1.6 billion was invested in institutional-focused crypto custody services (The Block)

The big story

Related: Blockchain Bites: Binance’s Bitcoin Mining, ConsenSys’ Legal Trouble and Why Politicians Blame Twitter, Not Bitcoin

Elon Musk’s OpenAI opened its third-generation language processing model to private beta, and crypto is aflutter with prognostications. GPT-3, short for Generative Pre-training Transformer, is a new AI-driven tool that revolutionizes how computers process and produce language. 

“When properly primed by a human, it can write creative fiction; it can generate functioning code; it can compose thoughtful business memos; and much more. Its possible use cases are limited only by our imaginations,” Forbes reports. 

Fed with nearly all the text available on the internet (roughly 175 billion parameters, or two orders of magnitude larger than its predecessor) GPT-3 can take any chuck of language a human gives it and run wild. It’s the one of the most advanced machine-learning language models to date. 

Manuel Araoz, Zeppelin Solutions CTO, already used it to write a 746-word blog about a fake experiment looking at how GPT-3 can be used to deceive Bitcointalk forum members, Decrypt reports. This meta-blog demonstrates how language generators could be employed to create fake news and misinformation. 

Araoz wonders whether GPT-3 will be “the biggest thing since bitcoin.” Citing its raw processing power, and Turing Test-passing blogs and tweets, it’s likely this technical edge will have a profound effect on how we judge content – once it’s released to the wild world wide web. 

There’s plenty to suggest this tool will deepen the skepticism of online content, but Gwern, a pseudonymous researcher in crypto, has already used it to find beauty. 

“GPT-3’s samples are not just close to human level: they are creative, witty, deep, meta, and often beautiful. They demonstrate an ability to handle abstractions, like style parodies, I have not seen in GPT-2 at all,” he writes, after testing it for a week. “Chatting with GPT-3 feels uncannily like chatting with a human.”

Other early testers have their doubts. Delian Asparouhov, a Principal at Founders Fund, cautioned not to “get too excited, this isn’t some sort of general AI, and the machine doesn’t really have a way of understanding if what it is outputting is true or not.” 

While GPT-3 can predict language and finish a human being’s sentences, paragraphs, essays, it lacks internal understanding of language. It cannot reason. It cannot create. It can only mimic. 

Whether that’s enough to match the revolutionary potential of a self-sovereign financial system is an open question. But it seems like the genie is out of the bottle in both instances. 

Market intel

Futures: Bleak
Trading activity in bitcoin futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has cooled notably as the leading cryptocurrency languishes in the price doldrums. Only 1,895 contracts, representing $87 million in daily trading volume, were placed. This is the lowest level since mid-April. This is one part of a larger trend. Total global daily volume, as calculated by adding numbers from BitMEX, Deribit, Kraken, OKEx, bitFlyer, CoinFlex, CME. Huobi, FTX, Bitfinex, Binance, Bybit, and Bakkt, tanked to $4.65 billion – down 87% from the $36 billion observed on May 11. 

Opinion

Two of CoinDesk’s senior-most leaders weigh in on the Twitter hack aftermath in their newsletters: Money Reimagined and Crypto Long & Short. You can sign up to get the full account in your inbox here. 

This Isn’t Good for Crypto
“No, blockchain does not fix this,” CoinDesk’s Chief Content Officer Michael Casey begins his weekly newsletter, Money Reimagined. He’s referring to the conversation on social media following the Twitter hack that left heads-of-state, corporate leaders and prominent crypto accounts exposed on Wednesday. Crypto Twitter responded with arguments that the exploit would shake trust in centralized systems and lead to a digital-first, self-sovereign revolution. That may be true, but Crypto Twitter isn’t likely to change any hearts and minds, Casey argues, especially if the community keeps calling its critics “morons.”

On Second Thought
In her latest Crypto Long & Short newsletter, CoinDesk Head of Research Noelle Acheson argues the Twitter hack was good for Bitcoin, though not for the obvious reasons. While some have labeled the event a “bitcoin scam,” and called for the regulation or eradication of crypto, the hack highlights how this would be impossible: “One of the strengths of bitcoin is that it is out of the range of state actors.” This reassurance may assuage the anxieties of interested, though cautious, investors waiting for regulatory clarity. Further, because Bitcoin is built on a public ledger, a trail of the hacker’s conduct is in full view. “This should reassure regulators that bitcoin-related crime is not the threat to society some skeptics claim.”

Podcast

Bitcoin’s First Metric
What are bitcoin days destroyed (BDD)? CoinDesk’s research team dive in to give a complete overview of what’s thought to be Bitcoin’s first on-chain metric.

Who won #CryptoTwitter? Related Stories

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• First Mover: ‘Boring’ Bitcoin Shrugs Off Twitter Hack as Stablecoins Co-Opt Satoshi’s Dream