BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

Mar 19, 2020
  • Crypto markets are late to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but shining green this morning. Excluding dollar pegged stable coins, the top 50 digital currencies on Coinmarketcap.com are all in positive territory over 24-hours
  • Singapore’s financial watchdog has released updated AML guidelines covering virtual assets
  • South Korea and Canada are preparing own oversight regimes ahead of the G7’s upcoming FATF implementation deadlines
BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

Every few days I ending up talking about one of the North American public companies participating in the digital currency ecosystem. While I will continue to report on their respective corporate announcements, I am going to start providing the following basic chart every week to show key market data. I am happy to consider adding names to this list.

BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

The Headlines

BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

Singapore Updates AML Crypto Guidelines

www.mas.gov.sg
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has released new guidelines on prevention of money laundering and countering the finance of terrorism. The updated framework highlights the risks arriving from the use of continually evolving virtual assets including its potential abuse due to its pseudonymous nature, the convenience they provide as a near-instantaneous value transfer medium, and the cross-border nature of its transactions.
BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

Canada to Increase Crypto Oversight and Surveillance

www.coindesk.com
Canada’s financial watchdog is preparing to increase oversight of digital currencies as part of its adherence to the G7’s Financial Action Task Force’s June deadline. Companies with over $10,000 CAD in crypto business activity will be forced to register as a Canadian money service business and any transaction over $1,000 will required detailed KYC documentation on both the sender and receiver.
BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

South Korea Preparing for FATF Crypto Framework

www.decrypt.co
South Korea is working with local crypto firms to activate the country’s Special Financial Information Law (SPIL) a regulation requiring businesses to register with financial authorities and adhere to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) guidelines. “The Special Financial Information Law prevents money laundering and criminal activities using digital assets, and it complies with international standards for digital asset regulation,” the Financial Intelligence Unit explained.
BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

Hawaii Launched Digital Currency Innovation Lab

www.governor.hawaii.gov
The State of Hawaii launched a “Digital Currency Innovation Lab,” a pilot initiative allowing approved digital currency issuers to do business in the fiftieth state without the requirement of a state money transmitter license. Insights gained during this two-year test will be used to guide the development of legislation and determine the future of digital currency activities in Hawaii.
BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

Gemini Growing European Team

www.linkedin.com
It looks like Gemini Trust is looking to expand its presence in the European market. A new job posting has appeared on LinkedIn looking for a “Director, European Sales” who can help grow the exchange’s business activities including Gemini Custody across Europe.

Market Data

BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

Bitcoin Activity Increasing

www.dailyhodl.com
According to Whale Alert, a tracking app following activity on major digital currency exchanges, over $560 million of bitcoin (107,209 BTC) has moved between unknown wallets and exchanges signifying the potential of large upcoming trades.
BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

Competition Among Miners Increasing as Pool Dominance Subsides

www.dailyhodl.com
According to Whale Alert, a tracking app following activity on major digital currency exchanges, over $560 million of bitcoin (107,209 BTC) has moved between unknown wallets and exchanges signifying the potential of large upcoming trades.

Exchange, Custody and Product News

BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

Huobi to Eliminate Sudden Liquidations of Leveraged Positions

www.prnewswire.com
In what may be a crypto first, Singapore-based Huobi is introducing a process to systematically minimize user exposure during times of severe market volatility. Huobi’s deriavtives exchange will implement a partial liquidation mechanism that gradually reduces a user’s positions rather than liquidating them in full in a single event.
BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

BitGo Increasing Insurance Coverage Over $100M

www.financemagnates.com
Crypto custodian Bitgo announced it has obtained excess specie insurance allowing users to selectively purchase their own dedicated excess limits above BitGo’s $100 million policy.
BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

Binance Introduces Peer-to-Peer Trading for South American Currencies

www.binance.com
Binance has announced the launch of peer-to-peer (P2P) trading South America. Users can now buy and sell bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), tether (USDT), and Binance’s native token (BNB) and dollar pegged stablecoin (BUSD) against the Brazilian real (BRL), Argentine peso (ARS), Colombian peso (COP), Mexican peso (MXN) and Peruvian sol (PEN).

Thoughts on the Ecosystem

BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

BitMEX Questions Regulatory Approval of Central Bank Digital Currencies

www.blog.bitmex.com
BitMEX research expects that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) replacement for paper money would increase credit expansion while it believes allowing retail customers to have deposits directly with the central bank would casue contraction. BitMex does not believe financial regulators are likely to allow either of these CBDC schemes to succeed in any meaningful way.
BitDigest March 19 · Issue #618

Bitcoin Will Still 'Moon'

www.mobile.twitter.com
Crypto analyst Will Woo says the market is still “looking for its bottom” as investors are experiencing a “flight to safety,” but looking forward he remains positive tweeting that “once the bottom is in there are strong bullish pressures ahead. It’s this economic environment in the years ahead that Bitcoin was built for.”

Reports you may have missed

Crypto markets are declining following news that most of the SEC’s lawsuit against Coinbase will proceed (more below). BTC (-1.27%) reached intraday highs of $71.8k before declining to $69k after the news. Rumors have circulated that Morgan Stanley and PNC will soon approve access to Bitcoin ETFs on their wealth management platforms. Together, Morgan Stanley and PNC hold over $1.5 trillion in client assets and likely will provide a tailwind...

Following the worst week of ETF flows since inception, BTC (+3.89%) is rebounding, rising to $69.6k, and ETH (+4.09%) has reclaimed the $3,500 mark. Last week’s outflows totaled $888 million, representing about a fifth of the inflows seen in the previous two weeks. ONDO, an institutional RWA protocol, is one of the top performers today, rising 7.61% as investors remain optimistic about the future of tokenized assets and their ability...

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