Ponder it through

Your daily newsletter for 27 August, 2019

Think

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."

– Albert Einstein

Day 2 of the week. Happy Tuesday! I hope the Monday blues didn't get to ya folks yesterday! This fine day also happens to be both "International Lottery Day" and "National Just Because Day" - so why not try your luck and get a hold of some lottery tickets! 🎲

Today in history (1908), Hong Kong martial arts film, "Hero", starring Jet Li opened in the U.S. and became the first Chinese-language film to go No.1 at the U.S. box office. 🇨🇳

In today's newsletter, we will be covering the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority granting banking and securities dealer licenses to 2 Swiss banks, Binance to soon launch its first crypto lending product, and the Australian Securities Exchange to integrate blockchain to its registry, settlement and clearing systems in 2021.

Also, in our 'Tutorial Tuesday' section, we have another well put together educational video by crypto educational content provider, Goodbit!

Please do not forget to answer the polls down below too! It's a great way to interact with you and hear what you have to say. 💭 Happy reading! 📚

Bitcoin domination 🦍

Over the last 24 hours, total market capitalization held the ~$268 billion for most of the morning, before slipping down to ~$265 billion where it currently remains. Most coins are seeing losses in the ~1-3% range. 24-hour volume registered ~$53 billion.

BTC is currently trading at ~$10,200, down ~1.5% over yesterday. BTC's dominance has once again broken its 24-month high and is now at ~69% - The last time it was at this level was way back in end May 2017! On the daily chart, BTC challenged and failed to close above its 50-day EMA line for the second time in 4 days. RSI is currently at ~45, indicative of market indecisiveness at the moment.

You're all set 👍

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has reportedly granted 2 banking and securities dealer licenses to Swiss crypto-focused banks, Seba Crypto AG and Sygnum. 👍

Now equipped with the new license, Seba seeks to launch its new trading platform in early Oct, and establish a digital asset platform for professional traders, firms and institutional clients and provide custody storage and asset management.

For Sygnum, the license allows it to bring its digital asset offerings to market, which include a custody and an integrated liquidity platform for major digital currencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and digital Swiss Franc tokens.

DeFi-nately the way forward 👉

According to a recent official announcement, crypto exchange Binance will be launching its first crypto lending product, dubbed "Binance Lending", on 28 Aug. 👐

Holders of Binance coin (BNB), Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Tether (USDT) will be able to lend their assets and earn interest through the new service. The services will be made available for subscription from 28 Aug to 29 Aug.

BNB is projected to have the highest annualized interest rate of 15%, while the rates for USDT and ETC amount to 10% and 7%, respectively. The annualized interest rates will be adjusted based on market reception during an initial phase. ⚖️

Blockchain integration 🤖

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has signed a 3-party memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the firms NYSE-listed VMware and Digital Asset Holding (DA) to integrate blockchain to its registry, settlement and clearing systems (CHESS) in 2021.

Apart from jointly developing the application to replace ASX's equities clearing and settlement system, the MoU also entails collaboration on blockchain projects in Australia and New Zealand, and the support of the open-source smart contract programming language called DAML. 🤝

According to ASX's Deputy CEO, Peter Hiom, the new partnership confirms ASX’s belief in the potential of distributed ledger technology as they remain on track to deliver the CHESS replacement system in March-April 2021.

Blockchain term of the day 🤓- Digital Signature

A digital code generated by key encryption that is attached to an electronically transmitted document to verify its contents and the sender’s identity.

Tutorial Tuesday 🤓- 'What is a Seed Phrase?'

In this week's Tutorial Tuesday, our friends over at Goodbit have created an educational video on 'What i s a Seed Phrase?' Class is in session. Check it out here!

Special announcement - CoinMarketCap 'The Capital' Global Conference

At The Capital, join in on the cutting-edge discussions around adoption and liquidity! Wait til you see our speakers' list! The crypto leaders and builders will share their perspectives on the state of crypto today, and chime in on their thoughts for where blockchain is headed! Best of all, the community gets to vote on the topics that matter to them, during our exclusive UNconference sessions! In these sessions, our speakers will touch on what YOU deem is important.

For a little Proof-of-Work, we're making your ticket to The Capital FREE! Simply click on "TICKETS", select "free" or "full" admission, answer the questions, and we will see you there! More details can be found here! Remember to start looking for flights/trains/buses ASAP!

Other news 📰

Hong Kong’s HashKey Capital has invested in stablecoin Terra. 💰
Singaporean private equity firm Makara Capital will not be investing in Overstock’s blockchain subsidiary tZERO. 🙅
Crypto exchange that claims to settle bitcoin futures contracts physically, CoinFlex, has just received $10 million in financing from Polychain Capital and Bitcoin.com chairman Roger Ver, and others. 💰

Crypto calendar 📅

29 Sept - U.S. SEC's decision on the Wilshire Phoenix's Bitcoin and Treasury Investment Trust ETF application, under the NYSE Arca exchange (initial decision)

13 Oct - U.S. SEC's decision on the Bitwise Asset Management's Bitcoin ETF application, under the NYSE Arca exchange (final decision)

18 Oct - U.S. SEC's decision on the VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin ETF application, under the Cboe BZX exchange (final decision)

TBA - ICE's Bakkt Bitcoin Daily Futures Contract updated launch timeline

TBA - Justin Sun's lunch with Warren Buffett

What's up in the markets

Bitcoin Dominance

Daily Top 10

Greatest Crypto Gainers

Greatest Crypto Loses

New on CoinMarketCap

Poll of the Day

"How much do you agree with this statement: "I believe that crypto can help with financial inclusion for the unbanked."

Why or why not? Share with me in the polls!

What you said

"How much do you agree with this statement: "Given the chance, I would be interested in working for the Libra project.""

The average vote was 4.8.

"Why or why not?"

Libra need to declare itself as a centralised system if still want to keep previous works mechanism. This to avoid confusion and negative effect to the majority decentralised crypto digital asset. This will educate people as well - True. They've created a great narrative though, but it ain't gonna fool us. 🙅

Only as part of dev team. I’m a scrum master/rte - You'd def have great prospects. 👍

As it helps spreading of crypto, that I believe is the ideal future of money. - What they're spreading isn't truly a crypto though. It is still for a large part very centralized. 😔

No interest at all - Zilch. No way, I would never work for Zuck... so I guess the only way I'd consider it is if the board of directors fires Zuck lol. I'd rather work on BAT or Ethereum or something. - Wow sounds like you have a deep seeded hate for the guy. 🤣 But yeah, he's betrayed the trust of the public way too many times.

I hate facebook I deleted my account years ago! - Same.

Maybe... If its impressive. Libra is planing for stable coin pegged to multiple currency that can be used to send tips through wats up na? Its ok...why not the missiin is fine. But if its going to invade privacy or just an insult to crypto ethos, i would chuck it. - It prob will. They will have a great deal of data on the way money is moved and spending habits etc. It's another data gold mine. 🤑

Everything coming from Zuckenberg is good! 🙂 - Sarcasm is strong with this one haha 🤣

libra is not a good thing as long is centralized . - Yeah. Too little degree of control by the end user. 👎

Facebook privacy concerns and other coins can already be used for the same purposes. - Exactly. Just that they may have unlimited funds to keep building it.

Opportunistic Assholes ! - Hahaha, can you blame em tho? It's a business. 🤑

I don't trust them. - Neither do I.

NOT interested with Libra, too much spies are able to get too much sensitive information about my life, definitively I do not want to be in with Libra. let´s stay out from it. - #BoycottLibra!

If they pay me enough why not. - It's all about the benjamins to you eh? Haha 🤑

Not at all, yes it can bring future work, and it a great learning experience, but no, my standards are higher than working for the face of evil and anything associated with them. Really about morals. Maybe I'm silly, but it just me. - I don't blame ya. You have to believe in the company's vision and modus operandi too. 😄

Facebook is empirically impressive but also basically Evil Corp. - True. Data is the most valuable asset of this decade, and they've such a large pool of it. The amount they know about people is dangerously scary.

Thank you all for reading! Catch you back here again on tomorrow for your daily dose of crypto news! 💙