weekly roundup – Getting More Bullish
We’ve had a busy week attending DAS: London and the inaugural Coinscrum institutional event; we’ll share videos from the latter next week. Here’s our weekly roundup with the big reads and listens from the digital asset industry.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Confirms Bitcoin Crackdown
Speaking in front of the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Congress that FinCEN will be rolling out significant new requirements for cryptocurrencies and service providers.
Mnuchin promised that the new requirements are meant to ensure the technology moves in the right direction. “We want to make sure the technology moves forward. On the other hand, we want to make sure cryptocurrencies aren’t used for the equivalent of old Swiss secret number bank accounts.” However, the news has failed to move the bitcoin price significantly, which remains up almost 50% since the beginning of the year.
Getting More Bullish
The Block’s Larry Cermak has again tweeted several interesting charts saying, “The sentiment has drastically changed in January IMO.” His first bit of evidence is that spot trading is up 70% from last month to a five-month high. Perpetual swap volume in January is up 55% to an eight-month high. And web traffic to crypto exchanges is up for the first time since April.
Meanwhile, bitcoin quantitative analyst, PlanB, highlighted that February performance for bitcoin has been so strong that there have only been 2 other months that have closed higher – December 2017 and June 2019.
What Pushed Bitcoin Up 65% in 2 Months? – Novogratz on Bitcoin
Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, recently weighed in, telling CNBC’s “Closing Bell” panel why he thinks bitcoin has embarked on this near-relentless trend higher.
Even More Bullish Sentiment
Great clip highlighted in this Nathaniel Whittemore tweet. In just 99 seconds, all 5 CNBC Fast Money contributors hit on every single major macro bitcoin bull narrative:
-Weak hands are out of the market
-Institutional infrastructure has been built and is picking up steam
-Central banks – activity – bull case for bitcoin
-Gold is rallying, why shouldn’t digital gold in BTC?
-Is this acting as a safe haven?
-Are Chinese buying because of Coronavirus?
-As central banks rush to devalue their currencies, bitcoin wins
-“In world of fiat currencies, bitcoin is the victor.”
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on Her Safe Harbour Proposal
Hester Peirce discusses her proposal for a three-year safe harbour period for token sales, what problems she hopes to solve with this suggestion, the conditions that token issuers would have to meet to qualify for it, such as achieving a decentralised network or functional token within three years, and how she defines those terms.
How Decentralised Cryptocurrency Exchanges Help Grow Financial Inclusion
Centralised cryptocurrency exchanges are one of the main pillars of the cryptocurrency space. Competition between them forces them to roll out new features to users from time to time and allow them to be the on-ramp of the crypto world. This article looks at how decentralised exchanges can help grow financial inclusion, having now overcome previous challenges such as poor user experience and low liquidity.
Special Edition of Unqualified Opinions: COVID-19 with Balaji Srinivasan
Former CTO of Coinbase and now editor-in-chief of Nakamoto.com has been watching and studying the developing situation surrounding COVID-19 closely. In this conversation he covers with Ryan Selkis the current status of the Coronavirus, the variables to watch, the likely economic and geopolitical impact as well as what it all means for the future of work. Interesting take on the implications of COVID-19 and the ripple effects to come for digital assets and beyond.
