Hello and welcome back to another week with the Digital Asset Digest. As you’re going to see, there have been several announcements in the business world regarding blockchain and how certain companies are planning to incorporate it into their businesses going forward.
On the Bitcoin front, we saw a relatively flat performance on the week, which you’ll hear about more below.
The main thing to watch out for is the periods of high volatility that tend to follow periods of low volatility like we’re in right now.
So enjoy this week’s issue of the Digital Asset Digest, and let us know if you have any questions!
Digital Assets – Bitcoin was at $9,208 as of the time of publishing, which represents a 0.73% drop from last week. This minute drop supports the belief that Bitcoin is going through more of a “stablecoin” period. Light news flow has been a factor, and this seems to have permeated out to ETH and XRP, which dropped 1.43% and 2.12%, respectively.
Indices – Low volatility is the pattern of the week, with the global equity markets showing not much change week over week. The S&P 500 was up 0.49% and the NASDAQ performed down 0.32% on the week. Much of the focus is shifting towards the U.S. election as it relates to the long-term prospects of the economy going forward, and it isn’t yet clear what the market has decided.
Commodities – Gold is echoing the performance of the crypto assets mentioned above, with a weekly return of only 0.17%. The last week represents a time of lower volatility and it should be noted that WTI July futures also dropped 0.32% on the week. With the recovery of oil slowing down and gold not spiking in the same way as it has been in the last month, it’s possible we’re entering a lower volatility period going forward.
Wealthsimple to launch cryptocurrency trading feature
Source: Yahoo Finance
“There’s a significant amount of interest around cryptocurrency in Canada, but there are a lot of barriers to safely buy and sell these assets on a Canadian platform,” Michael Katchen, co-founder and CEO of Wealthsimple, said in the release.
Alibaba’s Ant Group Plans to Stockpile Blockchain Talent ‘for 20 Years’
Source: CryptoNews
“The company added that its goal is to set up a technical team that will last it “the next 20 years,” and also plans to invest funds in research and development in “core blockchain technologies,” such as distributed ledger advances, asymmetric cryptography and consensus mechanisms.”
Coinbase is selling blockchain analytics software to the US Secret Service
Source: TheBlockCrypto
“Coinbase Analytics wasn’t publicly known until The Block’s reporting last month. It is a software system that Coinbase built after its acquisition of intelligence agency Neutrino in 2019. The acquisition drew controversy due to Neutrino founders’ involvement in the Italian spyware firm Hacking Team, and Coinbase ultimately parted ways with team members associated with Hacking Team.”
Singapore’s Central Bank Eyes Commercial Role for Its Blockchain Payments Tech
Source: CoinDesk
“The research found Ubin made complex financial transactions more efficient: lowering fees on foreign currency trading and cross border payments, as well as using smart contracts as a secure alternative to traditional escrow accounts.”
ShareRing (SHR) is a distributed-ledger based mobile application (pending Android/iOS release) with a current focus on streamlining the consumer travel booking and management process. In the future, ShareRing aims to expand its offerings to service the entire, fragmented sharing economy as its primary marketplace and catalyst for consolidation. ShareRing’s current implementation is built around three key user principles: peace of mind, convenience, and speed.
If you want to learn more about SHR we just published an in-depth report providing readers with everything they need to know.
Top Gainers
Top Losers
Inside Chainalysis’ Multimillion-Dollar Relationship With the US Government
Source: CoinDesk
“Nowadays, Chainalysis’ federal money comes from many corners: the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), from financial regulators in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), from the IRS, the Secret Service (USSS), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) – even from the Department of the Air Force.”
Source: Trading View
This week’s Bitcoin performance is an echo of the early stages of 2017. As you can see in the above chart, Bitcoin is trading in the same range as it has been for a while. Many analysts are referring to this as its “stablecoin” period, due to the fact that there haven’t been anywhere close to the same amount of swings as has become characteristic of Bitcoin. During last week’s Digital Asset Digest, we argued that Bitcoin’s momentum had petered out and that this might represent a short-term bearish trend before anything else could happen. Our sentiments regarding this potential bearish trend are supported by the fact that the price is staying the same, yet miners are receiving half the amount of Bitcoin as they received before. Although hash rate hit an all-time high last week, that pattern could quickly reverse.
It seems like after weeks of a cyclical performance, traders finally watched the markets from the sidelines as Bitcoin saw a relatively flat performance.
However, we encourage traders to be very diligent over these next few weeks as we have seen a pattern that begins with a low volatility trading period. Usually, this pattern is followed by a period of high volatility market activity.
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We hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of the Digital Asset Digest!
