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Central Banks Could Issue Digital Currencies ‘Sooner Than We Think’July 1 – Agustin Carstens, the chief of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), has noted that central banks will soon likely need to issue digital currencies of their own. In an interview on the Financial Times, Carstens said that the BIS is currently supporting global central banks in researching and developing cryptocurrencies based on existing national fiat currencies. According to Carstens, several central banks are already engaging in creating cryptocurrencies of their own, and the BIS is “working on it, [and] supporting them”. Read the full article from The Financial Times here. |
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Rising Institutional Investment Setting Pace for Future Crypto GrowthJuly 6 – According to information retrieved by CoinDesk, financial institutions have begun to enter the crypto industry with “quickening” pace and the tones for 2019 and 2020 are being set to positive. Compared to previous bull runs, crypto markets are seeing the benefits that come from the “speed and professionalization” of financial institutional entrances. “The 2013 bubble was driven by technocrats and dark web trawlers and the 2017 rally was led by the whims of speculative retail traders, 2019’s growth belongs to financial institutions who are diversifying stale portfolios and finally have the professional machinery to do so,” said Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie, the CEO of BCB Group. “Exchanges are changing their focus from retail traders to institutional traders, providing such customers better ability to customize the front end of their trading platforms and providing APIs that better suit what institutional traders are used to.” Read the full article from CoinDesk here. |
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US Lawmakers Could Establish New Cryptocurrency Rules Within WeeksJuly 6 – The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is expected to update its 2014 guidance on cryptocurrencies in the coming weeks, which has stemmed from an April 2019 request from a bipartisan group consisting of 20 lawmakers. US Congress is also currently “considering at least three bills that would resolve some of the murky legal issues surrounding digital money”. The moves to advance laws relating to cryptocurrencies appears to have got a bit of a push from Facebook’s Libra stablecoin, which is expected to have its congressional hearing sometime in late July 2019. Several crypto advocates in Washington have expressed concern that regulations surrounding crypto in the US are falling behind those made in Japan and Switzerland, as their lawmakers have already developed legal frameworks for crypto. Read the full article from The Wall Street Journal here. |
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CME Bitcoin Futures See New Record Sign-upsJuly 3 – The recent surge in bitcoin prices has helped gather investor interest for bitcoin futures contracts offered by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The CME had previously reported record daily volume for their bitcoin futures contracts back on May 13, which was $1.3 billion USD in notional volume. In 2019, over 950 new accounts have been created to trade these contracts, which is a 30% increase over last year. The number of entities that are holding contracts worth at least 25 BTC, which is worth around $280,000 USD, grew to 49, setting a new record. According to Gareth MacLeod, a partner at Gryphon Labs, an algorithmic trading company in cryptocurrency markets, professional traders and large financial institutions are sticking with a “familiar platform” for their trades as the futures contracts interoperate on Bloomberg terminals, whereas traditional crypto trading platforms do not. Either way, the increasing demand for regulated bitcoin futures will help assert the legitimacy of the crypto market for new prospective institutional players. Read the full article from CoinDesk here. |
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Bitcoin Hash Rate Hits New All-Time HighsJuly 6 – According to data retrieved from Blockchain.com, a leading bitcoin blockchain data aggregator, the total network hash rate of bitcoin has reached its all-time high on July 7, 2019. As of July 7, 2019, Bitcoin’s hash rate broke 75 million tera hashes per second, which is around a 110% increase year-over-year. The previous all-time high hash rate was set just a few weeks ago on June 29, 2019, at 68.6 million tera hashes per second. Higher network hash rates, for any blockchain, increase the resiliency and security of the networks making them harder to attack. Read the full article from The Block Crypto here. |
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3iQ Bitcoin Trust (Class A) : NAV as at July 5, 2019Underlying cryptoasset prices sourced from Bloomberg. |
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3iQ Global Cryptoasset Fund (Class A): NAV as at July 5, 2019Underlying cryptoasset prices sourced from Bloomberg.View charts and more fund data at here. 3iQ Corp. (“3iQ”) is the first Canadian investment fund manager to agree to terms and conditions with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities which permit 3iQ to manage a multi-cryptoasset investment fund available to Canadian accredited investors. 3iQ provides accredited investors with exposure to bitcoin, ether, and litecoin through its 3iQ Global Cryptoasset Fund. |
