Coinbase & Co form Blockchain Lobbyist Association
Several leading cryptocurrency and blockchain companies announced the creation of a blockchain association, the first lobbying group to represent the industry in Washington. The new association includes leading cryptocurrency companies: U.S. exchange Coinbase, a technological start-up Protocol Labs, Digital Currency Group of Barry Silbert, and Polychain Capital among them.
A new organization headquartered in Washington states that its main goal will be to represent the industry in the U.S. political system. With this aim, it will focus its activities on educational issues and normalization of relations with the authorities on matters of regulation and taxation.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
- In February, a special assistant to the U.S. president and coordinator of the White House Cybersecurity Department, Rob Joyce, stressed that there is still a long way to go before the U.S. government begins to regulate bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
- Earlier, Coinbase, the prominent crypto exchange and wallet provider, has established a political action committee (PAC), which will be able to support political candidates, legislative initiatives, as well as to raise funds on behalf of persons running for public office.
- Recently crypto exchanges Gemini, Bitstamp, BitFlyer, and Bittrex decided to jointly fight the manipulation of the digital assets market as part of the of a Virtual Commodity Association, created by the brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
U.S. Federal Court Equates ICOs to Securities
The Brooklyn District Court equated ICOs to issuing securities. The decision has been made as a part of Maksim Zaslavskiy’s case on a fraudulent token sale organized by the businessman. At a preliminary hearing, Judge Raymond Dearie agreed with the prosecution that claimed that under the federal criminal law, Initial coin offerings are equal to issuing securities. The case remains to be considered by the jury, and if they agree with this verdict, it will become a precedent for all such proceedings.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
- A decision of a federal judge in the US becomes the norm for such subsequent cases. If the order of Brooklyn's Judge remains in effect, any start-up that conducts an ICO without registering with the SEC will violate the rules of the securities placement. According to them, only professional investors can participate in the campaign, they are required to provide the final product and financial reports without fail. Token sales that have been held before in this case will not face any responsibility, since the law does not have a retroactive effect. But American crypto exchanges can be forced to remove tokens from the listing.
Vitalik Buterin vs Crypto Community
Vitalik Buterin explained his words about the future growth of blockchain assets. His sharp statements provoked a violent reaction in the crypto community. Earlier, the founder of Ethereum (ETH/USD) said that the period of an explosive rally for the market of blockchain assets, during which they repeatedly demonstrated a thousand-fold growth, came to an end. This statement did not remain unnoticed in the crypto community.
Buterin’s longtime opponent, the founder of Tron Justin Sun, also connected to the squabble. He believes that such conclusions are early to be made and time will show how impressive the effect of cryptocurrency will be on the global economy.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
- Buterin believes that now every average educated person has heard about the blockchain at least once, therefore, no new powerful rally is foreseeable in the near future. But at the same time, the community should involve people already interested in real economic activity related to the blockchain industry.
- Earlier Justin Sun, on accusations of plagiarism from Buterin, responded politely and thanked Ethereum for inspiration in creating the best decentralized platform and invited Buterin to study the source code of Tron in the Github project repository.
SEC Disciplines Crypto Asset Management Hedge Fund
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered Crypto Asset Management LP (CAM) hedge fund’s work to be ceased immediately. The company's activities were found illegal. The regulator's press release says that the company violated registration requirements and at the same time provided hedge fund services, stating that it is the first regulated cryptocurrency fund in the country. For four months at the end of 2017, Crypto Asset Management succeeded in raising more than $3.6 million. The managing director of the company, Timothy Enneking, has stated that the fund is regulated by the U.S. SEC.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
- The company will pay a penalty of $200,000 for violating the rules. In addition to CAM fund, the regulator also filed a case against an unregistered TokenLot broker-dealer. It will pay a fine of $471 thousand dollars.
- The company actually deceived its customers. The SEC release notes that investment advisers should make sure that the funds they represent meet all the requirements, including registration standards, and give full information to their clients.
As Ether Falls, Bitcoin Increases Market Dominance
Markets continue their fall, with Ethereum (ETH/USD) leading the way. And this has paved the way for bitcoin (Bitcoin) to reassert its dominance onto the market even further, as the index now rose to nearly 60%. Ethereum was edging close on a few occasions towards taking up some of the market share but was unable to hold on to gains.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
- Today, ethereum is falling on the back of a fall in interest and investment in the ICO market. According to research conducted by GreySpark Partners, almost half of ICO’s conducted in 2017−2018 have failed while 40% of them have collected over $1 million.
- Experts also underline that in the near future the number of large scale ICO’s will diminish even further due to increased regulations, increased investor awareness and maturity of the market. This will likely to decrease the price of ethereum even further.
At 18:10 (GMT+1) total cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at $188,4 billion
Stellar (+6,52) showed the best growth in the top-10
Dentacoin (+10,38%) showed the best growth in the top-100
Market Dynamics
The trading volume of cryptocurrencies for 24 hours reached $11,8 (+0,9 billion per day)
Mining Profitability
- BTC $2,4 for 10 TH/s
- ETH $0,14 for 10 MH/s
- BCH $0,19 for 1 TH/s
- LTC $2,75 for 1 GH/s
- DASH $0,09 for 1 GH/s
Ongoing ICOs:
Expected ICOs:
- 13 September PavoCoin
- 18 September eMusic
- 1 October Open Packaging Network
- 1 October Tiberius
- 2 October CryptoCasher