This Week in Cryptocurrency: November 23, 2018

• And We're Free, Free Fallin'
• Domestic News
• What’s New at CoinCentral?
• Cryptocurrency News from Around the World

And We’re Free, Free Fallin’

Not a good week for the cryptocurrency market, not a good week at all. The total market cap fell from just under $185B down to about $140B. The almost 25 percent fall brings us down to the lowest value we’ve seen in 2018. But, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, let’s take a moment to reflect on the things we should still be thankful for. Even in this economic downturn, Bitcoin continues to make technological strides, Ethereum is one of the fastest growing Github projects, and traditional industries continue to implement new blockchain tech.

Let’s take a look at our top cryptos (Warning – it’s not pretty): 

Bitcoin dove 22.45%, significantly below the $100B market cap floor that previously gave it support.

XRP  maintained its second place positions but still fell 12.49% over the week.

Ethereum continues to get hammered, losing 30.89% of its value since last Friday.

Domestic News

Christie’s Records Millions of Art Sales on Blockchain: Going once. Going twice. Sold! Christie’s in New York recently held an event in which the auction house sold nearly $318 million worth of artwork. One piece of art, Edward Hopper’s Chop Suey, was purchased for over $90 million on its own.

Christie’s worked with technology partner Artory to record the provenance of each work. Artory utilizes a private implementation of the Ethereum blockchain to track information and ownership throughout a piece’s lifecycle. It looks as if Artory’s will continue to partner with the auction house on more events in the future as well.

People Saying Things

Paul Polls: Libertarian bad boy Ron Paul took to the Twittersphere this week to ask his followers on what they believe to be the best store of wealth over the next ten years. The winner: the one and only Bitcoin. Take that, Federal Reserve Notes!

A wealthy person gifts you $10,000. You get to choose in which form you’ll accept the gift. But there’s a catch: You must keep the gift in the form that you choose for 10 years without touching it. In which form would you accept the gift?

— Ron Paul (@RonPaul) November 15, 2018

Snowden Speaks: This week, Ben Wizner, Edward Snowden’s lawyer, published a discussion he recently had with his controversial client about blockchain. Summarizing, they took the time to define blockchain, explain how it works, and talk through the pros and cons of the technology.

What’s New at CoinCentral?

How to Get a Loan in BTC: Sometimes you just want to take out a loan without having to deal with that pesky fiat stuff.

Binance CEO CZ Predicts a Crypto Market Bull Run: It’s almost like asking a barber if you need to get your haircut…

Iran Close to Shifting Rial to Digital Currency Due to Sanctions: First Venezuela, now possibly Iran. Crypto is becoming the new way to dodge foreign sanctions.

The Best Wallet for Ripple in 2018: If you’re holding a substantial amount of XRP, you want to make sure you’re storing in the best wallet possible. Here are a few.

Bitcoin Mining Firm Is Using Green Energy to Realize Impressive Profits: As the market tumbles, more and more mining farms may start looking towards green energy.

What Are X11 Coins? Specialized Mining and the Blockchain Battlefield: Find out why some communities prefer X11 over SHA256 and other popular hashing functions.

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Putting Initiative Q on Trial | The Next Big Thing or Complete Scam?: You’ve seen the endless amount of Facebook spam. But, do the claims hold any water?

SegWit Coins Are Gearing up for a Privacy Overhaul: More privacy may be coming to Bitcoin’s (and other SegWit coins’) public ledger soon.

What We Learned from the CTR Coin Scam: Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

How to Buy Cryptocurrency with PayPal: A Step-By-Step Guide: Although not impossible, there are better ways to obtain your crypto.

3Commas Review: An In-Depth Look at the Trading Bot Service: Find out if this trading bot service has got the goods to get you into the three comma club.

Cryptocurrency News from Around the World

Switzerland Announces World’s First Crypto ETP: Those Swiss bankers are at it again. The SIX Swiss exchange will soon list the world’s first cryptocurrency Exchange Traded Product (ETP), called Anum. Simply put, the Anum ETP is like an index fund for the cryptocurrency market. It tracks the top coins by market cap and allocates assets according to market share. So, currently, the ETP would have the highest stake in Bitcoin, followed by XRP, then Ethereum, etc.

Similar to an ETF, this ETP exposes you to the value increases (or decreases) of certain cryptocurrency without having to purchase the underlying asset. Because Switzerland is one of the more progressive nations regarding cryptocurrency, it wouldn’t be surprising to see companies in other countries launching their own ETPs soon.