What Happened Yesterday (WHY) is an overview of yesterday’s broader macro trends in the cryptocurrency market and blockchain technology industry.
It is not financial advice. Any opinions are those solely of my own.
Exchanges
Number one exchange to offer fiat gateway
Binance will begin to accept credit and debit cards to purchase cryptocurrency. Binance will initially allow its users to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and XRP with a credit or debit card. The firm is partnering with Simplex to support the new service. (Source: Block Crypto)
US Regulations
Riders on the Storm
Wyoming legislation has been pushing forward on all cylinders in the new year. So far, the following have either been passed by or introduced to lawmakers:
- Defining three categories of digital assets and treating them as property,
- Granting assets designated as virtual currencies the same legal status as money,
- Authorizing banks to hold digital assets in custody,
- Allowing corporations to issue certificate tokens that represent shares, and
- Creating a regulatory fintech sandbox aimed at further diminishing any regulatory hurdles to industry startups
This isn’t the first time a scrappy American state is going after blossoming, potentially lucrative industries by offering amenable laws. South Dakota was able to land CitiBank in the 80’s and Delaware has long served as a tax haven, with no sales tax, corporate income tax, or capital gains tax at the State level. (Source: Coin Telegraph)
Financial Instruments
Get the ETF outta here
The SolidX Bitcoin Shares ETF, which is a collaborative effort by asset manager VanEck and SolidX, has filed to list on the CBOE following the US Federal government shutdown.
Additions were made to the application, one in which the firm compared the liquidity of bitcoin futures versus the freight futures, to argue for its approval. (Source: Block Crypto)
High Fidelity
Fidelity has stated their cryptocurrency trading and custody platform is in its “final testing” phase. The brokerage firm has on-boarded “a select set of eligible clients” already. (Source: Coin Desk)
Another BTC ATM
The New York Department of Financial Services granted Cottonwood Vending LLC a BitLicense, joining a group of less than 20 who have received State-level regulatory approval.
Users can now purchase Bitcoin at any of the vendor’s ATM’s, and sell Bitcoin for fiat at select machines. (Source: Coin Desk)
Bitcoin
The Bitcoin lightning network now holds a capacity of 600 BTC on the second layer, which is worth around US $2 million. This is about 15% more BTC than the network was holding this time last month.
Bitcoin’s total node count has also increased to 5,768 nodes, a 16% increase from last month. (Source: Bitcoin Exchange Guide)
New Hires
Following the 51% attack on ETC that cost $1.1 million in the forked cryptocurrency, the Ethereum Cooperative is hiring Bob Summerwell as the new Executive Director. Summerwell will “help facilitate the growth of Ethereum Classic’s community and technology.” (Source: Sludgefeed)
Past performance doesn’t predict future results
Coin Desk printed a piece that began with “Bitcoin could end its four-year February winning streak unless prices see a strong bounce from key support.” (Source: Coin Desk)
The markets are irrational, and this statement will either be right or wrong. Don’t put any weight into it.