BitDigest March 18 · Issue #617

• Crypto prices slip over night as bitcoin holds above $5,000
• Sweden wants to amend central bank charter to allow it to fund and establish BIS innovation hub
• India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs is investigating fraud charges against crypto companies for failing to provide proper balance sheets

I have looked at a lot of different technical analysis over the past several years and I recently discovered some new work from Technical Roundup, a shop based in the UK. I plan to start incorporating their bitcoin (BTC) analysis into BitDigest every Wednesday to provide a technical explanation for BTC’s price action.

The Headlines

Riksbank Looking to Amend Charter to Finance BIS Innovation Hub

www.bit.ly

Sweden’s central bank wants to change its charter allowing it to formally cooperate with international bodies on the creation of a digital currency innovation hub. The Riksbank has proposed amending the Sveriges Riksbank Act to allow it to become a candidate to finance the establishment of a digital currency innovation hub for the Bank for International Settlements. Currently, Swedish law prohibits from financing such activities.

Indian Government Still Questioning Crypto Activities

www.164.100.24.220

The Indian Ministry of Corporate Affair has unveiled a new investigation into the activities, “cheating and fraudulent practices by [digital currency] companies.” The claim suggests that these companies “are repeatedly violating rules laid out by the Corporate Affairs Ministry by not filing annual balance sheets.”

Credit Suisse Leading Efforts to Launch Blockchain-based Investment Distribution Platform

www.credit-suisse.com

Credit Suisse and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange have joined to launch a new blockchain-based technology platform for the investment fund industry. FundsDLT, a market infrastructure distribution ledger, enabling the reengineering of the fund distribution value chain removing redundant activities, while providing the opportunity to achieve necessary transparency on end investors and creating the foundation for digital fund distribution.

Nvidia Did Not Mislead Investors During Crypto Sales Boom

www.reuters.com

A federal judge has ruled that US chip supplier Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) did not mislead investors by falsely representing that a spike in revenue for a chip marketed to videogamers was actually due to sales to cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

Maker Protocol Approves USDC as New Collateral

www.blog.makerdao.com

Maker has announced that it is adding USDC, the US dollar backed stablecoin, as a new collateral asset. This will become the third collateral type, joining ether (ETH) and Brave’s basic attention token (BAT) able to be used to open Maker Vaults in order to generate Dai.

Mt. Gox CEO Wants to Dismiss Remaining Fraud Case

www.bitcoinist.com

The former CEO of Mt. Gox has asked a US district court to dismiss the remaining charges against him regarding his role in the collapse of the digital currency exchange. Mark Karpeles claims the plaintiff is changing the basis of the fraud charge as information used to support the case were not available at the time the plaintiff become a customer of the exchange.

CryptoMondays Meetups Going VR

www.meetup.com

In the new world of social distancing and work from home environment, Crypto Mondays is moving their weekly get togethers to the metaverse with virtual reality meet ups. Go to try it, next one is Monday March 23rd at 6:30 PM eastern.

Market Data

Bank Closures Driving Bitcoin Volumes in Venezuela

www.decrypt.co

A COVID-19 forced shut down of banks in Venezuela has driven weekly transaction volume on Local Bitcoins in the country to recent highs. 540 BTC ($2.7 million) traded last week, an increase of 10% to the prior period.

>50% of Circulating Bitcoin Trading at a Loss

www.twitter.com

According to on-chain market analysis form Glassnode, the bitcoin (BTC) market may be trading at a bottom. More than half of the circulating bitcoin supply (~9.8M BTC) is now trading below cost suggesting that traders may HODL allowing the market to recover.

Exchange, Custody and Product News

Nifty Gateway 2.0 Unveiled

www.mailchi.mp

Nifty Gateway, the non-fungible token (NFT) site, recently purchased by the Winklevoss twins, has released Nifty Gateway 2.0, a centralized USD marketplace for Nifties (NFTs) and online digital gallery for digital artwork.

Buy Bitcoin with ApplePay on Opera

www.theblockcrypto.com

The self-described “awesome” Opera internet browser is now offering users the ability to buy digital currencies with Apple Pay and debit cards. Opera has partnered with API paymets platform Wyre to offer the feature on its Android, iOS and desktop platforms. The fee per transaction is $0.30 + 2.9%.

Coinbase Adding Orchid for NY Customers

www.blog.orchid.com

Coinbase has decided to bring VPN-like Orchid’s OXT to customers in New York. Trading will now be permitted for customers in the Empire State.

Thoughts on the Ecosystem

Peter Brandt Thinks Having is 'Grossly Overrated'

www.twitter.com

Veteran trader and financial author Peter Brandt believes the upcoming bitcoin halving is “grossly over rated” and that the new supply generated by mining awards is nothing more than “chump change.” Brandt tweeted that reduction of mined new bitcoins equates to less than 1% of the daily trading volume of bitcoin which he considers to be “the REAL supply of BTC.”

Crypto Sell-off Set Back Narrative 12 – 18 Months

www.bitcoinist.com

Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novograts believes the recent crypto sell-off has set back the adoption of digital currencies and the store of value and decentralized internet narrative 12 – 18 months. “We’re gonna have to get through this and then … rebuild confidence,” he said.