The State of The Market — March 13, 2019BTC: $3,917.97 (-0.04%)ETH: $133.77 (-0.70%)XRP: $0.317386 (+2.25%)
The market continues to trade horizontally, as it gained just $100 Million in the last 24 hours. Once again, Bitcoin went below $3,900, only to recover in a few hours. Most of the top 10 cryptocurrencies have changed by less than 1%. The overall outlook could turn bearish if Bitcoin does not successfully move past this point over the next few days.
In other news, Manta’s financial regulator, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) has partnered with CipherTrace to implement crypto intelligence. Its tool called “Compliance Monitoring” can be used to rate the risks of cryptocurrency businesses to protect consumers, investors and business partners. It can also enable MFSA to prevent fraud and flag transactions related to money laundering and terrorism financing. Also, Korea Times recently reported that HSBC is searching for banking partners to assist with launching a blockchain platform called Voltron. The platform will allow companies to process and settle their trading invoices on blockchain and a pilot platform was launched by R3 and eight other banks in October 2018. Joshua Kroeker, HSBC’s Innovation Director on Blockchain, said that HSBC is planning a commercial launch of Voltron in the near future and the bank would like to partner with South Korean banks to collaborate, develop the platform and share in costs.
1) After a year-long wait, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton has concluded that Ethereum is probably not a security. This change in perspective aligns with Clayton’s colleague, SEC Director of Corporation Finance William Hinman. In 2018 Hinman said that Ethereum did not exhibit the properties of a security as he did not see one central group in charge of the cryptocurrency. Congressman Ted Budd recently requested clarification on Clayton’s opinion of Hinman’s remarks and Cayton said that he agrees “that the analysis of whether a digital asset is offered or sold as a security is not static and does not strictly adhere to the instrument.” On March 7 Clayton also wrote that cryptocurrencies can be sold as securities when first launched if the asset meets the definition of an investment contract, but the asset can later be sold and offered to consumers without being classified as an investment. Clayton emphasized that decentralization plays a key role in determining whether a digital asset is a security. (Read More)
2) Chinese cybersecurity firm SlowMist Technology Co. Ltd. has reported a major vulnerability in the EOS blockchain. EOS is the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap and one of the most popular Dapp platforms. The vulnerability called “false top-up” can be exploited to deposit EOS without actually transferring any EOS. It can be used to attack exchanges, wallets, and other crypto services. SlowMist has recommended suspending EOS deposits as soon as possible and double check the process. They’ve not revealed any specific details yet. However, cryptocurrency exchange OKEx has acknowledged the existence of the bug and assured that their customer assets are still safe. There is no official statement from the EOS foundation yet. EOS is priced at $3.70, gaining 2.78% in the last 24 hours. (Read More)
3) BlockABC, the development team behind one of the top block explorers on EOS, has officially released the IOSTABC block explorer for the IOST ecosystem. The team is also a participant in the Node Partner Program under the IOSTABC name. This is an important development for the IOST ecosystem, the fourth usable public blockchain with a significant user base. IOST community members now have an intuitive, user-friendly block explorer that allows access IOST data, provides easy access for developers and ultimately lowers barriers to use. (Read More)
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