 |
Three Major Factors Behind the Crypto SelloffNovember 21 – Chris Burniske, a Placeholder Management partner and co-author of “Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor’s Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond”, notes that the US stock market retracement, ICO fears, and the Bitcoin Cash hard fork were the three leading factors behind the selloff in cryptocurrencies this past week. Burniske believes that the sharp drop in equities prices over the last two months has led investors to de-risk their portfolios and eliminate exposure to cryptocurrencies. “First, there is a broader risk off environment throughout the markets. Your riskiest assets tend to get sold off most in a risk off environment. That’s definitely happening with crypto,” said Burniske. Burniske also thinks that the declining ICO market this year and the “hash war” between Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Cash SV had caused uncertainties in the market. “Ethereum has been through a broader deleveraging from the ICO boom from last year where funds were raised and those funds were used to raise and it’s kind of a cyclical deleveraging. The third thing is Bitcoin was forming support at $6,000 for about 3 to 4 months and there’s a lot of turbulence around a child of Bitcoin called Bitcoin Cash, which has also forked and that has perturbed the markets and broken that technical indicator and so we are searching for a new bottom in crypto land.” Read the full article here. |
 |
VanEck Subsidiary MVIS Releases Bitcoin OTC IndexNovember 22 – VanEck’s subsidiary MV Index Solutions has released a bitcoin price index that is based on three major over-the-counter (OTC) desks. MV Index Solutions is a firm that builds, monitors, and licenses MVIS Indices. The indices cover a number of asset classes, ranging from fixed income markets to digital assets. The new index is called the “MVIS Bitcoin U.S. OTC Spot Index”, and is based on U.S. price feeds from large OTC desks, which include Goldman-backed Circle Trade, Cumberland, and Genesis Trading. Gabor Gurbacs, the Director of Digital Asset Strategies at VanEck/MVIS, notes that “the index may pave the way for institutionally oriented products, such as ETFs as well as provide further tools to institutional investors to execute institutional size trades at transparent prices on the OTC markets.” Read the full article here. |
 |
KPMG Report: Institutional Investment Key for Cryptoasset GrowthNovember 19 – The major auditing and professional services firm KPMG has recently released a report titled “Institutionalization of Cryptoassets”. The 42-page report identifies key challenges to the adoption of crypto in the global financial services industry and introduces “KPMG’s Cryptoasset Framework” to help address the challenges. The report was created with contributions from the major crypto company Coinbase, as well as insights and guidance from Fundstrat Global Advisors and Morgan Creek Digital. KPMG believes that cryptoassets will realize their potential, but more institutionalization will be needed. While KPMG believes that there are still problems in the global financial services industry that cryptoassets can address, there is still a gap between use cases and development execution. According to KPMG, there are over 2,000 significant cryptoassets, yet many of them still don’t have a functional product associated with them. KPMG lists a number of functioning cryptoassets and their use-cases, such as Bitcoin as a digital store of value, Ethereum as a means to raise funds, and Litecoin as a cheap but fast peer-to-peer medium of exchange. The report also delved into the rise of the tokenization of real assets. Read the full article here. |
 |
Crypto Friendly Silvergate Bank Files for $50 Million USD IPONovember 21 – The crypto-friendly Silvergate Bank is planning a $50 million USD initial public offering (IPO), according to documents filed at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to the filings, the bank’s shares will be listed on the NYSE with the ticker symbol “SI”. Silvergate says that it will use the IPO funds to continue the bank’s growth as well as to oversee “general corporate purposes,” which include long-term debt repayments, future acquisitions, and other growth initiatives. The bank has helped provide banking services to cryptocurrency exchanges and other crypto companies that have found difficulty building relationships with traditional financial institutions. Some existing financial institutions have been reluctant to offer banking services to crypto businesses because of regulatory concerns and fears of crypto being used in illicit activities. However, Silvergate remains focused on being crypto-friendly, noting that a vast majority of their total deposits come from digital currency customers. In the filing, the bank noted “As of September 30, 2018, approximately $1.7 billion, or 88.2%, of our total deposits were noninterest-bearing demand accounts[…] Substantially all of these noninterest-bearing demand accounts are deposits from our customers in the digital currency industry”. Silvergate also estimates that the market for cryptocurrency banking services is between $30 billion and $40 billion USD. Read the full article here. |
 |
The EU Invites Major Banks to Join Blockchain AssociationNovember 23 – The executive body of the European Union (EU), the European Commission (EC), is looking to invite more major banks to sign up for their new blockchain association, dubbed the “International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications” (IATBA). The EC and has already secured several leading banks to its new association. IATBA aims to bring together major banks that are interested in exploring the potential of blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT). The major Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) was one of the first major banks asked to participate, due to their previous experience with developing blockchain technology and DLT. The Spanish business magazine Expansión has reported Santander may be another bank looking to join the association. “Blockchain will transform digital services. This is a major opportunity to increase trust and to improve services in a wide range of industries and sectors. Many governments and companies are already exploring the potential of this technology, across sectors such as energy, healthcare, financial services, supply chain management, manufacturing, transport, education, creative industries and public services. These are just some of the sectors that will be transformed by blockchain,” said the association. Read the full article here. |
 |
3iQ Global Cryptoasset Fund: Price as at November 23, 20183iQ is the first regulator approved multi-cryptoasset portfolio manager in Canada, providing accredited investors with exposure to bitcoin, ether, and litecoin through its 3iQ Global Cryptoasset Fund. |
