Chinese court declares Bitcoin a legal “virtual property”. View in browser

“The world that Satoshi Nakamoto, author of the Bitcoin white paper, envisioned is an unstoppable force. We should not attempt to deter this innovation. Those who have tried have already failed.” ~  Congressman Patrick McHenry
Market State

Bitcoin has been trading between $10000 and $13000 in the past month until last week’s turbulence. Bitcoin briefly fell below $10000 losing 20% of its value. Altcoins dropped even faster. It’s totally normal for cryptocurrencies to fall double digit. Prices have rebounded towards the end of the week. Bitcoin is now back at $10000 level. Ether and Bitcoin Cash remained stable around $212 and $305 compared to last week. 

The price volatility was partly due to Facebook’s Libra coin hearings. Libra elevated the topic of cryptocurrencies among the politicians, financial leaders and lawmakers. During the Libra hearing Bitcoin was mentioned as an unstoppable force. Even the word shitcoin has been mentioned by a congressman after which the Google search for shitcoin exploded through the roof. (The term shitcoin refers to those altcoins that are possibly a scam or a worthless project. Governmental activity around cryptocurrencies increased, they can no longer afford to ignore cryptocurrencies thanks to Facebook’s Libra project for example.

Bitcoin crossed over $3 billion in daily transaction and set a 30 day volume record at $770 billion. The total amount of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) tripled overnight. WBTC is an ERC20 version of Bitcoin. WBTC is created by locking Bitcoin into an Ethereum smart contract and then users can use Bitcoin on Ethereum blockchain. According to defipulse there are now almost $6 million worth of Bitcoin is wrapped on Ethereum whereas there are $9.6 million Bitcoin locked on Bitcoin second layer, Lightning network. If Wrapped Bitcoin continues to grow then there will be more Bitcoins in Ethereum’s second layer than on Bitcoin’s second layer
Check the latest Bitcoin Price
Quiz of the week

What is a dead Bitcoin?

  1. A Bitcoin that has been hacked or stolen
  2. A Bitcoin that has been used in an illegal transaction
  3. A Bitcoin that can no longer be accessed due to private key loss

Scroll down to see the answer at the end of the newsletter.
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Top stories of the week
G7 Approves Japan’s Cryptocurrency-Based SWIFT Alternative

Japan is planning to replace the global banking transaction mechanism SWIFT with its own blockchain solution. The project is designed to combat money laundering worldwide and to provide banks with a more secure and efficient means for transactions. Japan hopes to launch the network within the next few years. The network will focus on providing international payments between banks but the details of the project hasn’t been made public. Plans for the network were proposed by the Japanese Ministry of Finance and the Financial Services Agency (FSA) and was approved by the Financial Action Task Force an intergovernmental organization initiated by G7 countries to fight money laundering on a global scale.

Chinese Court Declares Bitcoin a Legal “Virtual Property”

China hasn’t been a Bitcoin friendly country. In fact Bitcoin trading has been banned in China for several times. China has also banned ICOs and crypto exchanges. However the latest order by Hangzhou Internet Court made a judgement during an ongoing dispute between a cryptocurrency exchange and one of its users which suggests that owning Bitcoin is not illegal in China and holders will be protected by the country’s legal system in disputes. The local court declared that the Chinese legal system recognizes Bitcoin as “virtual property”. The court said “Bitcoin holds the attributes as property - valuable, scarce and disposable. We should recognize it as a virtual property. According to “The General Civil Law”, virtual property is legally protected by laws of People’s Republic of China.”
Chainalysis Makes Forbes ’Next-Billion Dollar Startups' List

Chainalysis became the first cryptocurrency firm to be listed on Forbes “The Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2019”  list. Chainalysis is a cryptocurrency compliance firm that focuses on investigating cryptocurrency money laundering, fraud and compliance violations and developing anti-money laundering software for Bitcoin businesses. The firm provides real-time monitoring tool, Chainalysis KYT (Know Your Transaction) used by over 110 cryptocurrency businesses and financial institutions in 36 countries. The tool enables banks and money processing services to quickly and securely verify the source of their clients’ funds and automatically comply with regulations which have made the firm one of the most promising companies in the industry.
Investment Into Blockchain Startups Drops 60%

The tables have turned between the two terms “Blockchain, not Bitcoin” and “Bitcoin, not blockchain.” Many people have expressed in the past few years that they don’t like Bitcoin, but they like the underlying technology blockchain. Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba Group (one of the biggest Chinese technology companies) stated that, although Bitcoin was a bubble, blockchain was not, and his company would only focus on blockchain. As the price of Bitcoin kept declining during 2018 investors shifted their attention to blockchain startups. However a new research from CB Insights shows that investment in blockchain startups dropped 60% compared to 2018. Now as the price of Bitcoin has rebounded, the focus has shifted from blockchain to Bitcoin.

BitMEX Is Under Investigation By the US Regulators

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating crypto exchange BitMEX for allowing Americans to trade on its platform. The exchange is registered in the Seychelles, its headquarters is in Hong Kong and it also has an office in San Francisco. It is one of the biggest margin trading platforms that allows users to trade with up to 100X leverage with Bitcoin only collateral. A well known economist and crypto critic, Nouriel Roubini also has accused BitMEX of trading against its own clients. Nouriel believes that the exchange uses customer's data to advantageously trade against them, and even allows terrorists and criminals from Russia and Iran to use BitMEX services for money laundering so it can profit from them.

Iran Announces Gold Backed National Cryptocurrency

Iranian economy has collapsed after the US sanctions. The country has been planning to launch its own national cryptocurrency  for a while now to circumvent the sanctions. Tehran News agency has reported that the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has approved the issuance of a national cryptocurrency. According to the official news the new cryptocurrency will be backed by gold and will function similar to other cryptocurrencies. The gold backed cryptocurrency project is called Paymon. Iranian citizens have been turning to Bitcoin mining to cope with sanctions. Last month Iranian authority seized 1000 Bitcoin mining machines due to increased power use. Cryptocurrencies are becoming alternative in countries affected by economic crisis.
Tweet of the week
Meme of the week
Quiz answer

What is a dead Bitcoin?

The correct answer is “C”.

Thank you for reading :) 

Have a great day!
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Cheers, 
MrCoin
💌 hello@mrcoin.eu
📞 +36 16 555 333
MrCoin

96 Kensington High Street, London, W8 4SG, UK

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