This Week in Cryptocurrency: October 19, 2018

• Up and at 'Em

Up and at ‘Em

After a beating last week, the cryptocurrency market showed some mercy with a 10 percent jump this Monday. Since then, the market has slowly fallen, currently sitting at $207.7B. That gives us a 3.23% gain on the week. 

Thankfully, the top three coins performed positively as well. Let’s take a look at how they did:

Bitcoin grew by 2.56% over the course of the week and is currently priced at $6,458.99.

Ethereum continues to test the $200 support line but had a 3.12% rise in price in the last seven days.

XRP was this week’s biggest gainer this week with 6.01% in the green.

Fidelity Opens Doors to Institutional Crypto: Fidelity Investments is going where no large-scale financial institution has gone before. The fifth-biggest asset manager in the world is spinning off a separate company, Fidelity Digital Assets, to provide institutions with crypto custody solutions. Say that one five times fast.

Fidelity will begin by offering three main solutions including custody of bitcoin and ether. Additionally, the company will provide a trade execution service that connects customers to existing exchanges through a smart order router as well as create a dedicated team to help clients onboard to the platform.

Tether Loses Stability: Here’s a riddle: When is a dollar not worth a dollar? When it’s pegged to Tether, apparently. This past week, the stablecoin Tether was anything but stable as it fell close to $0.90 on numerous exchanges and even a low of $0.85 on Kraken. A lack of investor faith in the financials of Bitfinex, Tether’s issuer, and continued doubt that the stablecoin is actually backed by U.S. dollars seems to have driven the fall. The fact that Bitfinex has yet to provide a third-party audit of their reserves leaves many community members skeptical.

The Tether ‘dumpening’ had a few adverse effects such as a Bitcoin price premium on Bitfinex as well as a flood of interest into other stablecoins. At the time of this writing, Tether still sits at a market average of ~$0.975.

People Saying Things

Song Sings: In a recent interview with Crypto Insider, Bitcoin developer and advocate Jimmy Song made his opinion of EOS clear. He stated that he believes the project is a scam and that “it will die in a horrible dumpster fire in the next five years.” Oof.

Voorhees Voices Value: Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees had some positive words to say in response to Fidelity’s crypto custodial announcement. Doing some back of the napkin math, he calculated that it would be impossible for every Fidelity brokerage customer to own an entire bitcoin. And that’s why they’re worth thousands of dollars. On the other hand, “a dollar is only worth one dollar (and only until next year when it’s worth 97 cents).” We like those numbers.

It would be impossible for every Fidelity brokerage customer to own even one Bitcoin. This is why Bitcoins are worth thousands of dollars, while a dollar is only worth one dollar (and only until next year when when it’s worth 97 cents). Save wisely. https://t.co/NdEEgYNH9a

— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) October 16, 2018

Roubini Raises Ruckus: American economist Nouriel Roubini caused quite the controversy this week with his article The Big Blockchain Lie. In it, he attempts to prove his claim that decentralized blockchains have no value and are “a ruse to separate retail investors from their hard-earned real money.” Strong words from a guy who told investors to stay away when Bitcoin was trading below $58.

In good company with Gold. @Convertbond: While everyone was focused on Gold and Silver, #BITCOIN dropped another 40%, traded below $58

— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) April 16, 2013

What is the XYO Network? Decentralizing GPS and Putting Location on Blockchain: Every step you take, every move you make, we’ll be watching you.

Silk Road Admin Indicted for Involvement in Money Laundering and Drug Trafficking Network: Another one bites the dust. Silk Road Admin Libertas, aka Gary Davis, just plead guilty.

Bitcoin Mining: Chinese Man Gets 3.5 Year Sentence for Stealing Power to Mine Bitcoin: Want to know what happens when you steal power in China? Jail time. And a lot of it.

Zinc CEO and Founder Daniel Trachtemberg on Merging Ad Tech and Blockchain: Digital advertising leaves a lot of money of the table. Zincs wants to pick some of that up.

Why Tiny Liechtenstein Is Becoming a Crypto Powerhouse: Small country, large crypto ambitions.

What Is the Best Litecoin Mining Hardware in 2018?: Still interested in mining Litecoin throughout this bear market? These are your best option for hardware rigs.

Project Infinity Status After NEX Group Cutbacks: Massive layoffs, conflicting statements, and a seemingly dead project. We give you the straight scoop.

What is Cosmos Network (ATOM) | A Beginner’s Guide to the Internet of Blockchains: A guide to the project with a cool name and an even cooler mission.

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Hacking Bitcoin: Report Says China Can Attack the Bitcoin Mining Network: Florida International and Princeton universities claim China could easily attack Bitcoin. But does the claim hold up?

Scrypt ASIC vs. SHA-256: Explaining the Options for 2018: ASICs are here to stay, and these are your best options for the two most popular hashing algorithms.

Monachain LG Introduces the Queen of the Blockchain: Mona. Chain. LG, the queen. (Our poor attempt at a Lil’ Wayne lyric pun)

On the Frontline: How Blockchain Forensics Fight Crypto Crimes: Learn how, with blockchain forensics, we can stop cybercriminals in their tracks.

Are USB ASIC Miner Devices Profitable?: Spoiler alert: not really.

MinerGate CEO Claude Lecomte on Cryptocurrency Mining: MinerGate has been instrumental in helping the average Joe mine cryptocurrency. We talked with the company’s CEO.

Monero’s October Forking – Bulletproofs and Keeping the ASICs at Bay: The Monero development team just pushed some significant upgrades. Learn about them here.

Baya’s Jason Freedman on Superpowering Commercial Real Estate with Blockchain: Baya wants to use blockchain to fix commercial real estate. Here’s what team member Jason Freedman has to say.

Brazilian Candidate Cements Government Plan in Blockchain: Brazilian presidential candidate Fernando Haddad has recorded his proposals for the country’s government using blockchain technology. He hopes that the immutable nature of the technology will help stop the alleged spread of disinformation by his opponents.

This instance isn’t the first time that Haddad has implemented progressive technological strategies, either. As mayor of São Paulo, he implemented several forms of free software to improve the transparency of his administration.

Abu Dhabi Ports Announces Blockchain Trade Solution Test: Abu Dhabi is joining the blockchain party. Alongside the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, Abu Dhabi Ports is piloting an international blockchain trade solution. The project, Silsal, uses a distributed ledger system to connect stakeholders of the trade system between the two ports. The announcement came during GITEX Technology Week, a week-long conference in Dubai showcasing the newest technology around the world.

Rwanda Begins Tracing Tantalum via Blockchain: In other international news, the Rwandan government is beginning to use blockchain for the supply chains of certain metals. Particularly, they’re working with blockchain solutions company Circulor to better tag and trace tantalum along every step of its supply chain. Both parties are aiming to remove conflict minerals from production and have greater visibility into the metal that’s so critical for consumer electronic goods.