Croatian post lets citizens exchange crypto. View in browser

“Bitcoin basically has no statistical correlation with stocks or bonds for that matter, which makes it an excellent diversifier.” ~  Bill Miller, American fund manager
Market State

The cryptocurrency market suffered a significant drop last week. The market dropped by $21 billion. During the weekend the price of Bitcoin dropped by $800 within 15 minutes. Currently Bitcoin is trading at around $9500. Ether has been weak lately, it is slowly dropping to $200 level. Ether is down by 7% to $209 since last week. Ripple is hanging tight around $0.31 for the past week while Litecoin dropped by 11% to $89. Despite the markets downturn many crypto enthusiasts are expecting price growth in the long term. 

A new survey called “Bitcoin: 2019 Investor Study” conducted by Grayscale Investments (a digital currency investment company established in 2013) found out that more than a third (36%) of American investors would consider an investment in Bitcoin. The study revealed that 83% of the 1100 participants who were interested in Bitcoin (between the ages of 25 and 64) were “strongly motivated by the idea that they could invest small amounts in Bitcoin today.” Grayscale stated that “Investors are constantly looking for new ways to diversify their portfolios as traditional assets and markets have begun to move more closely in sync with one another. Increasingly, savvy investors recognize that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies may have unique investment characteristics that provide better diversification the basic 60% stock and 40% bond portfolio allocation.” According to the survey, hacks and lack of regulation are keeping cryptocurrencies from reaching a broader audience. The United States Senate Banking Committee is set to hold a hearing on crypto and blockchain regulatory frameworks on July 30.
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Quiz of the week

Which of these cryptocurrencies is not mineable?

  1. Ether
  2. Bitcoin
  3. EOS

Scroll down to see the answer at the end of the newsletter.
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Top stories of the week
German Regulators Approve $280 Million Ethereum Token Sale

Berlin-based blockchain firm Fundament has obtained approval from Germany’s financial regulator, BaFIN for the issuance of real-estate backed bond on Ethereum blockchain. More than €250 million ($280 million) worth of properties located across major cities in Germany including Berlin, Hamburg, Rostock, Jena, and Fulda will bet tokenized and offered as ERC-20 tokens to retail investors globally. Fundament hopes that the project would help bring more liquidity to the traditionally illiquid real estate market. The token will start marketing next month, each of them will have a nominal value of 1 EUR. Holders of the token will receive an annual dividend of around 4%-8%. There will be no minimum investment requirement, anyone from anywhere will have the opportunity to purchase tokenized real estate claims in Germany.
Bitcoin Ban Will Set India Back 40 Years

Last month a bill draft has been leaked on Scribd that would ban all cryptocurrencies in India, except India’s proposed digital currency, the Digital Rupee. The bill is titled “Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulation of Official Digital Currencies” and entails any direct or indirect use of cryptocurrency shall be punishable with a fine or imprisonment which may extend up to 10 years. Tim Draper, American venture capitalist argues that the proposed crypto ban could be catastrophic for India. Tim said “It is akin to the Luddites. They are in fact saying, ‘we will not tolerate progress.’ It will set them back 40 years. Imagine if they did this with the internet?”  The crypto community is against the potential law and started a hashtag #IndiaWantsCrypto. Many have pointed out that crypto is the future in advanced countries and banning it would cost India jobs, investments, talent, and more.

Bank of China is Bullish on Bitcoin

Bank of China (is one of the four biggest state-owned commercial banks in China, the 4th largest bank worldwide) published an educational infographic on its website to explain how Bitcoin works, why its price keeps increasing. The infographic is a bit comical and consists of three parts. The first part covers the history of Bitcoin, beginning with the release of its whitepaper in November 2008, the mining of the first 50 BTCs in 2009, 10000 BTC having been spent for pizza in 2010. The second part of the infographic focuses on the characteristics of Bitcoin, its price history and volatility, as well as why the price keeps appreciating. According to the bank Bitcoin’s value continues to rise due to its limited supply, fast and cheap cross border payments, store of value feature, especially for countries suffering from hyperinflation. The final part covers evidence of Bitcoin’s adoption, such as increasing number of Bitcoin ATMs.

Croatian Post Lets Citizens Exchange Crypto

Croatian Post (Hrvatska Pošta) announced that it is testing a crypto exchange service for cryptocurrency users. The state-owned corporation started offering crypto to fiat exchanges July 15 of this year. Currently the service is available in three post offices in the coastal town of Zadar which is a popular tourist destination. Crypto holders can convert BTC, ETH, XLM, XRP and EOS to Croatian Kuna. The service is offered in collaboration with Croatian brokerage firm Electrocoin which has been running the local crypto exchange for five years. Croatian Post is looking to spread the service nationwide via its network of 1,016 postal offices. According to the announcement, the country has seen an increasing number of cryptocurrency users over the past few years and Croatia will surely contribute to their popularity by entering digital currency market.
Cryptocurrency Investors Started Receiving Letters From the IRS

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that it had begun sending letters to taxpayers who conducted cryptocurrency transactions but failed to report their crypto-related income and pay tax from cryptocurrency transactions or did not report their transactions properly. According to the organization, three different versions of letters will be sent to more than 10,000 taxpayers by the end of August. The agency said it had obtained names of these cryptocurrency holders via “various ongoing IRS compliance efforts.” (In 2018 IRS ordered the US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to share the data of 13000 customers.) The letters strive to help taxpayers understand their tax and filing obligations and how to correct past errors. Letter 6174 and 6174-A are friendly reminders that require no action. Letter 6173 was issued to taxpayers who didn’t report any cryptocurrency transactions.
SWIFT Settles Cross-Border Payment in 13 Seconds

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) has executed a successful trial of cross-border instant payments. The trial involved 17 banks across seven countries including Australia, China, Canada, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Singapore and Thailand and performed payments between all continents. The trial integrated SWIFT's Global Payments Innovation (GPI) Instant, into Singapore's domestic instant payment service Fast And Secure Transfers (FAST). All payments in the trial were processed end-to-end within 25 seconds. The fastest payment took only 13 seconds from Australia to Singapore. Additional tests are planned in other markets with instant payment systems, ahead of the planned global launch of GPI Instant later this year. Ripple is aiming to solve cross border payments for banks. It’s nice to see traditional financial system catching up with blockchain based systems.
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Quiz answer

Which of these cryptocurrencies is not mineable?

The correct answer is “C”.

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