Weekly Crypto Market Update

Market Momentum, Crypto Market News, Regulatory News and Last Week in Funding

• Bitcoin’s dominance is up by 2.5% (53.2%), the total market cap is up by 5.1% ($184bn)‚ and overall volume is up by 27% ($50bn) on the previous week. Bitcoin is up by 9%, Ethereum by 7%, XRP by 1.6%, and EOS is down by 1.2%. The best performers among the top-20 crypto were Tezos (37%), Binance Coin (23%) and BAT (31%).
• eToro Launches Crypto Exchange
• Binance Reports $78 Million Profits in Q1 2019
• Rakuten Begins Accepting Registration for its Crypto Exchange
• Ernst & Young Launches Beta Version of Smart Contract Analyzer
• Arca Files for Tokenized Treasury Bond
• London Stock Exchange Issues Tokenized Shares
• France Pushes EU to Adopt its Crypto Regulations
• India’s Reserve Bank Excludes Crypto Projects from Fintech Regulatory Sandbox
• Switzerland Introduces Comprehensive Regulations for Security Tokens

Market momentum

Digital assets continue to climb higher, with total market capitalisation rising by almost 8% over the past week. Bitcoin, supported by a Golden Cross pattern (50-day MA crossed 200-day MA) spiked this morning by 5%, recording its yearly highs above $5,500. Bitcoin’s dominance percentage is up by 2.5%. The rest of the top-20 coins have mostly followed BTC’s price action with gains and losses ranging from 37% to -5% respectively. Last week’s best performers were Tezos (37%), BAT (30.9%) and Binance Coin (23%). 

Source: coinmarketcap.com, as of 23rd of April 2019 as of 09:00 AM BST. 

Source: coinmarketcap.com, *) MktCap>=$50m

Source: coinmarketcap.com, Mkt Cap >=$50m

Source: Coinmarketcap.com, NKB Research *as of 23rd April 2019, 10:30 BST

Crypto Market News

Nestle and Carrefour Partner to Feed Consumers Data With IBM Blockchain
The service provides the product’s production date and quality control parameters, as well as storage times and the locations of warehouses. Consumers can even find information on the farmers who supply the potatoes for the product and how the puree in the Mousline line of instant mash is made.

eToro Launches Crypto Exchange 

The blockchain division of global social trading platform eToro has launched a crypto exchange, EToroX for pro traders, which claims to be a secure and fully regulated trading venue. As of now, the platform offers 37 trading pairs, with the ability to convert six cryptocurrencies to fiat, including the dollar, euro and Swiss franc.

Binance Reports $78 Million Profits in Q1 2019

Major crypto exchange Binance reported $78 million in profits in Q1 2019, up 66% compared to the previous quarter. The native exchange coin BNB has recorded an outstanding 300% increase since January. 

Ernst & Young Launches Beta Version of Smart Contract Analyzer

Big Four auditing firm Ernst & Young has launched a private beta test version of its new Smart Contract Analyzer tool for the public Ethereum blockchain. The tool is described as a testing and security service that will allow companies and individual investors to assess smart contracts and associated tokens for known security risks.

Rakuten Begins Accepting Registrations for its Crypto Exchange

Major Japanese e-commerce platform, and Amazon’s direct competitor Rakuten, has begun accepting registrations for its crypto exchange Rakuten Wallet.

Last Week in Funding

Japan’s largest bank MUFG invested an undisclosed amount in Chainanalysis’ $36m Series B round; ZenGo raised $4m via our Israeli partners Benson Oak Ventures to bring keyless crypto wallets to the mainstream; Bolt Labs raised $1.5m in seed to launch a private payment channel; gate.io raised $64m to launch a new cryptocurrency and blockchain.

SECURITY TOKEN NEWS

Arca Files for Tokenized Treasury Bond

US-based institutional-grade asset manager Arca has filed with the SEC to issue its Arca UST Coins — digitized shares that will be authenticated and then recorded in a form of ERC-20 compatible tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. In the filing, Arca specified that the initial net asset value (NAV) of its UST tokens will be $1, with at least 80% of the fund planned to be invested in U.S. Treasury securities.

tZERO Still Negotiates Funding from Makara and GSR Capital

Security token exchange tZERO has failed to meet its April goal to raise $100m, according to a shareholder letter. The company is still negotiating the investments from Makara and GSR Capital, the latter already has a binding funding obligation for $30 million due May 6th, following an earlier security token purchase agreement. 

London Stock Exchange Issues Tokenized Shares 

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has collaborated on the first securities based on blockchain technology. A report in the Telegraph said that Fintech 2030 has issued around £3 million in tokenized equity, and settled on the LSE’s Turquoise platform, described as a test environment.

Regulatory news

France Pushes EU to Adopt Its Crypto Regulations

Bruno Le Maire, the French Minister of the Economy and Finance, reportedly stated that France will encourage other EU countries to adopt crypto regulations similar to those France approved last week. The news rules reportedly aim to attract cryptocurrency issuers and traders to France by providing them some official recognition, while taxing their profits in return.

Japanese FCA to Introduce New Rules Regarding Cold Wallets

Japan’s Financial Services Agency will reportedly introduce new rules regarding cold wallets for storing cryptocurrencies.

India’s Reserve Bank Excludes Crypto Projects from Fintech Regulatory Sandbox

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the framework for its fintech regulatory sandbox. While the regulatory sandbox invites blockchain projects to take part, it excludes any cryptocurrency-related businesses — enumerating cryptocurrency services, trading, or Initial Coin Offerings in its exclusions list.

Switzerland Introduces Comprehensive Regulations for Security Tokens

The Swiss proposal addresses some pressing market needs and solves some debated legal questions. It can be seen as confirmation of the positive attitude of the Swiss government towards DLT and strikes a good balance between self-regulation, supervision and alleviations for smaller market places.