This Week in Cryptocurrency: October 5, 2018

• What Is This? The Stock Market?

What Is This? The Stock Market?

Another relatively uneventful week for the cryptocurrency market. Even with positive news of Gemini’s digital asset insurance, Coinbase’s multi-billion dollar valuation, and further worldwide adoption, the market still managed to fall from $219.7B to $217.9B. 

That market cap change calculates to a less than 1% fall, however. In an industry in which 20%-50% weekly swings are considered normal, it’s remarkable how stable we’ve been. Let’s check in on the top three coins.

Bitcoin lost a meager 1.64% of its value over the week.

Ethereum only fell 1.42% in the last seven days.

And, Ripple’s Swell Conference must’ve been anything but as XRP fell the most with a 3.21% dropoff.

Shapeshift Faces-Off With the Wall Street Journal: Last Friday, good ol’ WSJ published How Dirty Money Disappears Into the Black Hole of Cryptocurrency, a seemingly tell-all of the nefarious activity happening on the Shapeshift exchange. The journalists behind the article claimed that Shapeshift is a hotbed for criminals looking to launder their ill-gotten funds.

Well, Shapeshift founder and CEO Erik Voorhees wasn’t going to take those accusations laying down. He responded with his own post, Shining Light on WSJ’s Attack on ShapeShift and Crypto, in which he basically states that the WSJ article is a load of B.S. He argues that it was a poor attempt to make Shapeshift and cryptocurrency as a whole look poor and stems from a lack of understanding about blockchain technology.

Lawmakers Push for Official ‘Blockchain’ Definition: In a further push to gain some clarity on the status of blockchain and related cryptocurrencies, Congresswoman Doris Matsui and Congressman Brett Guthrie have introduced a bill “to establish a common definition of blockchain.” The Blockchain Promotion Act of 2018 would also create a committee of governmental stakeholders and private industry leaders to help further research the potential of blockchain technology.

Although it’s concerning that government officials haven’t even decided on a definition for blockchain, this bill appears to be a step in the right direction, as long as it gets passed through.

Coinbase Reaches the Moon: Musk daddy isn’t the only person who’s gonna be reaching the moon this decade. Coinbase is allegedly in talks with Tiger Global to raise meager $500 million. This raise would place Coinbase at an $8 billion valuation – more than four times more than its $1.5 billion price tag last summer.

With this valuation, Coinbase is not encroaching on Uber ($68 billion), Airbnb ($29 billion), and SpaceX ($12 billion). The valuation would place it above Instacart ($4.35 billion), Magic Leap ($4.98 billion), and competitor Circle ($3 billion).

People Saying Things

Giancarlo Preaches: CFTC chairman and everyone’s favorite CryptoDad asserted in a CNBC interview that, like it or not, “cryptocurrency is here to stay.” He argued that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies may solve some of the problems around the world in which “probably two-thirds [of currency] are not worth the polymer or the paper they’re written on.”

Muscat Teaches: Malta Prime Minister Joseph Muscat spoke in front of the United Nations this week on why he’s positioning Malta as a blockchain hub. He enlightened the crowd on all the benefits that blockchain brings, including transparent businesses, accessible medical records, and overall improved verification systems.

(You caught us. This is actually international news, but we just couldn’t resist a good rhyming opportunity.)

Clinton Impeaches Speeches: World-renowned saxophone player Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker at this year’s Swell Conference hosted by Ripple. Former President Clinton compared these days of blockchain youth to the early Internet days of his presidency, warning that we “can’t apply an old regulatory regime to a new technology.” Hopefully, Capitol Hill takes note.

Why Major U.S. Financial Companies Avoid the Crypto Market: U.S. financial companies seem to be behind the ball when it comes to crypto. Here’s why.

Is Safe Trade Coin Really Safe? What You Need to Know About XSTC: You should skeptical of any coin that has to put ‘safe’ in their name. Sorry Maidsafe. But is Safe Trade Coin the exception?

Here’s Who Is Investing in Bitcoin: The Bulls, Bears and the Purists: Bets for and bets against. We list out some of Bitcoin’s most notable supporters and opponents.

DARPA Blockchain Programs: The U.S. Department of Defense Agency is quickly finding ways to use blockchain to their advantage.

What is Tendermint? | Everything You Need to Know: What’s round, tasty, and melt in your hand as well as your mouth? Tender mints. Okay, we promise that’s as bad as the jokes will get.

North Korea Can Use Hot Virtual Wallets to Circumvent U.S. Sanctions: Looks like Kim Jung-un may have his hands on quite a few cryptocurrencies. We can only hope it’s just some BCC.

Inflated Success: Cryptocurrency Exchange Trading Secrets Revealed: Crypto exchanges lying about trade volume? You don’t say.

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What Is DENT? | Beginner’s Guide: Have you heard the joke about the virtual telecom company? Neither have we.

The Growing Use of Blockchain Law Enforcement Strategies: Bad boys. Bad boys. Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when blockchain comes for you?

Crypto Lab Preview: The Fundamentals of Fundamentals: Check out a sneak peek of our Crypto Lab. A $99 / month value – yours free.

Why Are These Big Players Backing Atlas Protocol?: Two ex-Google employees with the support of some Chinese big bucks versus Google. The final showdown.

Crypto Market Tumbler Services and Exchanges Used to Launder over $80 Million: A case of he said she said between the Wall Street Journal and Shapeshift’s Erik Voorhees.

Ethereum Mining vs. Bitcoin Mining: Which is More Profitable?: We help you choose which of the big two currencies deserves your sweet, sweet hash power.

Venezuela Goes Full Crypto: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro released a video this week announcing the country’s complete shift to the newly created cryptocurrency, the Petro. Starting November 5th, the citizens of Venezuela will be able to purchase Petro tokens with Bitcoin, Ethereum, U.S. dollars, and Euros. Notably absent from the list – Venezuela’s own currency, the Bolivar.