Image of The Day, 28 of September: Economic Times, The Next Web, Forbes and Others
We're presenting "the image of the day". Bitnewstoday.com has chosen the most important news about the digital economy and virtual currencies. Only the most valuable stories from only the trusted sources. Each and every event from this list will change the world of the digital economy either way. The most important stories of this day in the most indicative quotes are below!
1. AUSTRIAN ROLE IN EUROPE (The Daily Hodl)
Blockchain pioneers in Europe
Austria will raise a total 1.15 billion euros in a federal bond auction on Oct. 2 using blockchain notarization, according to Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB), which oversees the auctions for issuing federal bonds as a neutral capital market participant for the Austrian Federal Financing Agency (OeBFA). The auction demonstrates Austria’s pioneering role in Europe for deploying blockchain technology for sovereign bond issues, according to the notice posted on the Finance Ministry website.
“The digitization of the financial sector, also known as fintech, has long arrived in Austria,” Finance Minister Hartwig Loger said in a prepared statement. “We need to use the positive effects intelligently for the financial services sector. Blockchain technology is an economic policy focus for us. With the establishment of the FinTech Advisory Council in the Ministry of Finance, we are developing strategies to help Austria make the best possible use of these developments”.
2. IT HAS BEEN A PRIVILEGE TRADING WITH YOU (Economic Times)
Zebpay pulls the plug
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange app Zebpay has announced that it will be stopping its exchange business effective from 4 pm today, that is, September 28 2018. This follows prohibition of all regulated financial institutions – including banks – from providing any service in relation to virtual currencies.
“We are stopping our exchange. At 4 PM today, we will cancel unexecuted orders & credit your coins to your Zebpay wallet. No new orders will be accepted,” the company said in a statement.
3. NOT TOO HOT (The Next Web)
Pornhub: less than 1% of users buy subscriptions with cryptocurrency
Back in April, adult entertainment giant Pornhub broke the internet when it announced users can now buy a premium subscription with cryptocurrency. But despite all the buzz the announcement generated, it seems pornography viewers hardly share this enthusiasm for blockchain-powered payments.
Pornhub revealed that cryptocurrencies currently account for “less than 1 percent of purchases made” on the platform. While the company does not share what chunk of its users pay for the premium service, its website attracted a mind-blowing 28.5 billion visits last year.
Still, Pornhub remains optimistic about the future of the technology. “That being said, we expect to see widespread adoption of crypto[currency] and blockchain on our site in the near future,” a spokesperson added.
4. KINGDOM IS FALLING (Forbes)
Bitcoin dominance is crashing
Bitcoin dominance — Bitcoin's share of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization — has been in freefall in the second half of this month after hitting year-to-date highs in mid-September.
Bitcoin's contribution to the total cryptocurrency market capitalization has dropped to just above 50%, down from almost 60% earlier in the month (according to CoinMarketCap data), as other major cryptocurrencies experience a revival, boosted by big wins for Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.
5. HIGHTIMES IN CRYPTOLAND (Yahoo News)
Cannabis is the new crypto
Canadian cannabis company Tilray (TLRY) soared by as much as 90% after the CEO said Tilray is eyeing partnerships with pharmaceutical companies; Tilray briefly had a bigger market cap than giants like American Airlines, Chipotle, and Tiffany. Then shares plummeted, erasing the day’s gains, and finally Tilray ended the day up 40%. The next day, Sept. 20, Tilray fell 19%. It is still up more than 200% since its IPO in July. Canopy Growth (CGC) and Aurora (ACBFF) have also seen a bump since Tilray’s IPO, but have also been erratic on many days.
Owen Donley III, chief counsel of the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, says there’s something else the two industries have in common: fraud. “The fraud we’re seeing in that space [crypto] tracks the fraud we’re seeing in any other space,” Donley said on Yahoo Finance’s Final Round live show. “If you look at some of the crypto, ICO offerings that are guaranteeing returns, promising no losses, saying they’re going to change the world, with not a lot to back it up, we’re going to be worried. And of course that’s going to be with any industry, including marijuana. The fact that those two things are linked shouldn’t be surprising.”
6. CRYPTO ON THE GO (Venture Beat)
Exchange cryptocurrency via app, debit card, and over 105,000 locations
A significant challenge in the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology world is converting digital assets to fiat currency. There are only a few fast, reasonable options available.
A crypto payment network that is attempting to simplify the exchange process from crypto to fiat, Tempo Money Transfer is creating what it claims is the largest payment network of any licensed global crypto exchange.
Operating on the Stellar DEX as the principal European anchor for Stellar — and through Lightyear.io, a for-profit spinoff dedicated to helping big investors integrate software — Tempo aims to bring ease-of-use to crypto trading by facilitating the process on its online platform and mobile application.
7. REPEAT PLEASE (CNBC)
Congress members ask SEC chairman for clarity on cryptocurrency regulation
Calls for more clarity on cryptocurrency regulation are now coming from Congress, not just Bitcoin fanatics. More than a dozen members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Securities and Exchange Chairman Jay Clayton Friday urging his agency to tell investors, in plain English, how it plans to regulate cryptocurrency.
"It is important that all policy makers work toward developing clearer guidelines between those digital tokens that are securities, and those that are not, through better articulation of SEC policy, and, ultimately, through formal guidance or legislation," the letter said.
8. AGAINST ALL ODDS (Quartz)
One of the world’s largest crypto companies is hedging against the crypto market
All the ups and downs of cryptocurrencies can make anyone—even the most bullish of crypto believers—reconsider putting all their eggs in one basket.
That seems to be the thinking of one of the world’s largest crypto companies, Beijing-based Bitmain Technologies, which filed for an IPO in Hong Kong on Sept. 26. Aspirations to go public have forced the secretive company to open up its books, revealing how its business has changed over the last three years. One takeaway from its numbers is that even as overall profit has risen, an increasingly smaller share of its revenue has come from mining cryptocurrencies for itself.
9. POISED FOR A BIG RALLY (Bloomberg)
Crypto bull Thomas Lee says Ethereum is poised for a big rally
Things may be looking up for Ether, the second most popular digital coin, according to cryptocurrency advocate Thomas Lee.
The token, which has suffered a severe sell-off this year as investors retreated from the virtual-asset market, is about to bounce back, Lee wrote in a note to clients Thursday. Ether has lost half of its value in the past three months and has underperformed large-cap coins by two standard deviations, which could signal that it’s time for a rebound, he said.
10. CRYPTO-CARIBBEAN (Forbes)
The world's most idyllic blockchain sandbox
The concept of a financial or technology sandbox, popularized over the last decade, is gaining sway around the world, particularly as regulators try to put cryptocurrency, blockchain and technology genies back in the bottle and under observation (perhaps even starving them of oxygen).
However, when scanning the world’s self-identified crypto-friendly jurisdictions, the idyllic beaches of the Caribbean basin offer not only the most promising options, they are also among the most prolific when it comes to breakthrough innovation and the occasional epic failures attendant with all great waves of change.