The State of The Market — December 17, 2018BTC: $3,397.73 (+3.33%)XRP: $0.299002 (+2.29%)ETH: $90.06 (+3.28%)
Over the weekend, the crypto market crashed to a new low of $100 Billion and held on to it. Exactly one year ago, on December 17, 2018, Bitcoin touched its all-time high of $20,000. Bitcoin has lost nearly 85% of its value ever since, and more than $700 Billion was wiped off from the crypto market. Meanwhile, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Cash SV (BSV) are racing each other to the bottom as both sides are dumping the other cryptocurrency. Litecoin has now overtaken BCH with the recent crash. Also, Ethereum, for the first time, is priced more than BCH.
In other news, Cryptojacking is up by 400% in 2018. According to Kaspersky, there were about 13 million instances of cryptojacking this year, up from 3.5 million in 2017. Also, Ethereum has reached a milestone of 50 million unique addresses. Since May 18, Ethereum has added 15 million new unique addresses. This number is significantly higher than Bitcoin, as it has more consumer use via dApps and other platforms.
1) U.S. customers can instantly withdraw Coinbase balances to PayPal starting today. To enjoy the new services, customers need to sign in to Coinbase and link their PayPal account to their Coinbase account. Besides, they can select the PayPal account as a payment option when withdrawing the cash balance. According to PayPal’s announcement, the new services will give Coinbase customers more flexibility to be a part of the open financial system. (Read More)
2) November was the worst month for ICOs. February 2018 was the best performing month for ICOs, with a total of $2.6 billion raised. However, only 65 million was raised last month. ICOs have also declined with cryptocurrencies as most projects that raised millions of dollars last year have failed to deliver. Also, regulators worldwide have been clamping down on ICOs and branding them as unregistered securities. Just last month, the SEC fined Paragon (PRG) and Air Token (AIR) and ordered them to refund investors. The only way for the ICO market to recover is with price stability and clarity on regulations. (Read More)
3) The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) is reluctant to approve the initial public offering (IPO) applications of Chinese bitcoin mining equipment manufacturers, i.e., Canaan Creative, Ebang and Bitmain. According to an insider source, “the exchange is very hesitant to approve these bitcoin mining companies because the industry is so volatile.” However, some industry experts believe that going public is not necessarily a life-or-death matter for the Chinese mining companies. (Read More)
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