BitDigest September 25 · Issue #750

• Crypto prices starting end of week in green with total market value at $334.9 billion
• The US Congress has introduced two new bills supporting the crypto ecosystem
• Germany pledges to move EC crypto discussion forward

Note: My API to Coinmarketcap.com is not linking this morning, sorry.
Bitcoin is trading at 10,604, up 2.67%
Ether (ETH) is at $340 up 3.91%
XRP (XRP) is at $0.23 up 3.5%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) at $211 up 0.28%

Today is the 750th edition of the newer public format of Bitdigest –it was published as a basic email for the first year – and as I read through the news below it is amazing to see how the blockchain and crypto story has evolved. I decided to look back to issue # 75 from November 6, 2017 to see where the story was back then. Here are some of those headlines:

• Bitcoin (BTC) traded up to $7,500 but pulled back to $7,354 with ether (ETH) holding flat at $300.
• The Central Bank of Uruguay announced plans to test the digitization of the Uruguayan peso.
• Russian officials reveled that the country has lost approximately 18 billion rubles ($310 million at that time) in tax revenues due to a lack of ICO regulations
• Societe Generale added to concerns about excessive bitcoin speculation, with the bank’s deputy head saying that bitcoin is a bubble 
• Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein admitted he is not comfortable with anything new, but said money backed by consensus rather than government degree may be the next evolution of hard currency.

A lot has changed over the past few years and I can only image where the conversation will be in 2023. Thanks for all your support, comments and conversations. I am looking forward to the crypto future.

The Headlines

New Crypto Legislation Introduced in Congress

www.emmer.house.gov

Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) introduced the Securities Clarity Act to provide a path to regulatory certainty for digital assets and other emerging technologies under securities law, and Representative Mike Conaway (R-TX) has introduced the Digital Commodity Exchange Act intended to provide a operational framework for digital commodity exchanges.

Germany Pledges to Speed up EU Crypto Efforts

www.reuters.com

Germany’s Finance Minister welcomed the European Commission proposal to regulate crypto-assets and said he plans to help “move the discussions forward quickly” to deepening capital markets and help accelerate the economic recovery from COVID-19.

Israel May Classify Crypto as a Currency

www.ihodl.com

Israel lawmakers have proposed amendment to the country’s Income Tax Ordinance that would classify digital currencies as a currency, and not an asset, for tax purposes.

Binance Website Blocked in Russia

www.financemagnates.com

Russian authorities added Binance’s URL to a list of prohibited domains supposedly because the leading digital exchange was offering details on how to acquire digital currencies.

Ant Launches 'Trusple' Blockchain

www.reuters.com

China’s Ant Group announced the launch of the “Trusple” (a combination of trust-made-simple) blockchain-powered platform for cross-border trade settlements ahead of its planned IPO

a16z Approved for Coinbase Transaction

www.coindesk.com

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z )has received approval from the Federal Trade Commission for a transaction involving Coinbase’s parent company; details are not known but while rumors have started suggesting that a16z is making a new investment ahead of Coinbase’s future IPO, this announcement could also be an approval related to the recent investment that added a16z founder Marc Andreessen as an observer to Coinbase’s board.

Market Data

ETP Volumes Drop 74% Over Past Month

www.cryptoglobe.com

Exchange-traded product (ETP) trading volumes related to digital currencies have dropped over 64 over the past month with the top three ETPs (all Grayscale offerings) falling from a combined volume of $180 million per day in mid-August to $40 million in mid-September.

Cambridge Releases New Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study

www.jbs.cam.ac.uk

The University of Cambridge has issued its 3rd Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study highlighting:

• Employment growth in the sector increased 21%, down from 57% post the 2017 market frenzy;
• 39% of proof-of-work mining is powered by renewable energy
• Off-chain transactions continue to be dominated by fiat-crypto trading
• Stablecoins are becoming increasingly valuable
• The share of crypto-only companies that did not conduct any KYC checks dropped from 48% to 13% between 2018 and 2020

Crypto Starting to Make the "World Go 'Round"

www.blog.genesis-mining.com

Results of a survey compiled by cloud mining company Genesis Mining finds that increased awareness of digital currencies is growing, yet many still do not really comprehend how the current fiat system works – the USD is not backed by gold as 28% of respondents answered..

Thoughts on the Ecosystem

Crypto Mom Still Supports Bitcoin ETF

www.cointelegraph.com

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce continues to object to the commission long-standing resistance to a bitcoin ETF suggesting that while “bitcoin markets are [not] mature…the markets are mature enough to build something else on top of.”