Image of The Day, 3 of December: The Next Web, FxStreet, Finance Magnates 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. NO STO FOR YOU! (The Next Web)
Security token offerings are illegal in Beijing
China has remained vigilant toward the fledgling blockchain and cryptocurrency industry for a while — and things might be about to get even worse. Beijing has declared security token offerings (STOs) illegal. At a wealth management forum held over the weekend, Huo Xuewen, chief of Beijing’s Municipal Bureau of Finance, said that raising funds in STOs is practically “illegal,” local outlet Caijing reports.
“The ICO (initial coin offering) model is getting left behind for a new concept called STO. I want to issue a warning to anyone considering running an STO in Beijing,” Xuewen said. “Don’t do it in Beijing — it is illegal. You can only engage in such activities with the approval from the government.”
2. BITCOIN IN SHAMBLES (Market Watch)
Bitcoin is now entering a death spiral
Just one year has passed since Bitcoin enthusiasts forecasted that the cryptocurrency would hit a price of $1 million. But that was then. With the price of Bitcoin having fallen almost 80% from its peak, and now trading well-below the support level of $6,000, everyone is wondering where it goes from here.
The answer is, a swift and painful drop to zero. In a MarketWatch column I wrote last April, I explained what it would take for Bitcoin to become worthless. Bitcoin is getting close to that point. As I argued, once Bitcoin’s price falls below its cost of mining, the incentive to mine will deteriorate, thrusting Bitcoin into a death spiral. That is, without the mining activities supporting the ledger that maintains the records of who owns what — Bitcoin is, after all, a set of encrypted numbers that cannot establish the ownership of anything — Bitcoin will become worthless.
3. INDUSTRY OF TRUST (Blokt)
IOTA Foundation and RIDDLE&CODE team up to turn industrial devices into trusted data sources
The IOTA Foundation has announced on December 3 its partnership with Riddle&Code, a blockchain hardware, and software company, to enable autonomous machine-to-machine transactions on the IOTA Tangle. The integration of Riddle&Code’s to IoT devices extends trust to data sources and, therefore, enables the decision-making process based on IoT data. To obtain this, the technology utilizes only the designated data sources that play a role, by selecting the ones marked with a trusted identity.
It eliminates the “garbage in, garbage out” problem and paves the ground for automated M2M payments. Riddle&Code’s Secure Element microchip is tamper-proof and “enables to securely store the digital identity (private key) on any given device through the combination of hard- and software.”
4. BEARS ARE BACK (FxStreet)
Missed them?
The cryptocurrency market is back in the red zone as the recovery proved to be short-lived. The total capitalization of all digital assets in circulation is hovering around $130B amid resumed bearish pressure.
Bitcoin, the largest and the most popular cryptocurrency, has lost over 5% in recent 24 hours to trade at $3,945 by the time of writing. The coin is down nearly 4% since the beginning of Monday, trading with a strong bearish bias. Ethereum is changing hands at $112.8 at the time of writing, off the Asian high of $116.9. ETH stays well below the pivotal $120, moving closer to $110.00. The third largest coin with the market value of $11.2B is down 4.4% in recent 24 hours and 3% since the beginning of the day.
5. JUST LIKE DADDY (Finance Magnates)
New FINMA licence allows non-banks to accept 100 million CHF
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), Switzerland’s financial regulator, is to offer a new fintech licence which is suitable for blockchain firms.
The licence is a modification of banking laws (Article 1b of the Banking Act) which will allow licencees to accept up to 100 million Swiss francs ($100.089 million) from the public as long as they do not invest the money, or pay interest on it. The new licence has been in development since February, and will become active on the 1st of January.
6. IT’S FINE! (The Daily Hodl)
Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, is still positive about cryptocurrencies
Despite his optimism about the long-term strength of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market at large, Novogratz says the toll of the market downturn on him and his company is significant.
The billionaire’s crypto trading desk lost $136 million on digital assets through the first three quarters of the year, while Galaxy Digital lost roughly $41 million in Q3 alone.
During a conference call with Bloomberg on Friday, Novogratz said: “Part of the sell-off is because, I think, the SEC got tough on a few fraudulent ICOs. And not just were tough on them — they mentioned personal investors can go for reparations in most cases. And people got very nervous.”
7. NO EASY WAYS (Barron’s)
Ohio says you can pay your taxes with Bitcoin, but there’s a catch.
The big cryptocurrency news this week was that Ohio became the first state to allow you to pay your taxes with Bitcoin.Here’s the catch: You can’t actually pay your Ohio taxes with Bitcoin
What you can do (if you are a business that owes Ohio taxes; this new systems applies only to businesses) is go to a website set up by the Ohio Treasurer, enter how much you owe in taxes, in dollars, for a specific tax period, and then sell Bitcoin to a third party, Bitpay, which sends the dollars to the state.
8. START WITH A BANG (CNBC)
Bitcoin drops 8% to kick off December
After ending November deeply in the red, the world's largest cryptocurrency fell as much as 8 percent on Monday to a low of $3,790.96, according to data from CoinDesk
The tail end of this year has been a different story: Bitcoin is now down 73 percent since the beginning of January. Twenty-four-hour trading volumes are down 56 percent since Jan. 1, while the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization has fallen 80 percent.
9. RIDE TO THE BOTTOM (Forbes)
Bitcoin sell-off Is back — plunging the price well under $4,000
The Bitcoin price has moved sharply downward twice in the last 12 hours as Bitcoin gave up the psychological $4,000 level that had appeared to support the price over the last week.
Bitcoin dropped as low as $3,790, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin price tracker, back to near its yearly lows at the end of last month — and renewing fears the route that began in November will bleed through to December.
10.THE CRYPTOSTATE! (The Next Web)
Ohio tech funds to pump over $100M into blockchain startups
Ohio is set to make another play in the blockchain and cryptocurrency game as tech accelerator funds look to pump millions of dollars into blockchain startups in the state.
The funds will specifically be focused on supporting startups that are developing blockchain-based systems for business and governments, so it looks like the funds aren’t going to be available for all startups. Indeed, it seems Ohio is getting keen on cryptocurrency and the decentralized tech, it recently became the first US state to accept payments for taxes in Bitcoin.