ICOs Sold 160,000 Ethereum Over the Past 10 Days

In the past 10 days, Initial Coin Offering (ICO) projects have sold three times more Ethereum (ETH) than they did in August, according to research by TrustNodes published September 13.

The 160,000 Ethereum tokens sold over the past few days amount to $33 million, according to the price index at press time. Per TrustNodes, ICO projects sold 82,000 ETH on September 4, which was followed by a sharp decline in crypto markets.

Average daily ETH sales from ICOs varied from 1,000 to 5,000 coins in August, with occasional sales around 10,000 ETH. In contrast, the same amount of 10,000 ETH became a far more common daily sales volume in September.

According to TrustNodes, the total amount of Ethereum sold by ICOs over the past 30 days now amounts to 283,000 ETH, which is almost $60 million at press time.

Citing crypto data provider Santiment, TrustNodes states that the highest share of ETH sales from ICOs is attributable to the Digix ICO project. Digix’s paper value Ethereum holdings amounted to $150,000 million, which is significantly higher than the current total market capitalization of DigixDAO coin, which is $69 million at press time, according to Coinmarketcap.

Earlier this week, Cointelegraph reported that funding for ICOs have seen its hardest decline in 16 months. In August, ICO startups raised $326 million, the smallest amount since May 2017.

Ethereum-based ICOs have been outlined as the main factor for the recent ETH price decline, as some projects withdraw their funds in order to cover costs amid concerns over a bearish market. Today, Ethereum skyrocketed almost 20 percent with an intraday high of $214.18, after plungingbelow $170 earlier this week, its lowest point in 2018.

Also today, Sonny Singh, the CCO of global crypto payment processor Bitpay, argued that altcoins “will never come back” to their previous levels. Singh said that institutions adding financial products like crypto ETFs will be the main drivers of a bullish trend in the market and they are “not going to launch altcoin products, they’re going to launch Bitcoin products.”

An international task force targeting securities violations in the cryptocurrency industry has now opened active investigations into more than 200 initial coin offerings (ICOs) and investment products.

First launched in May by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), “Operation Cryptosweep” has already brought 47 enforcement actions against ICOs and firms offering cryptocurrency investment products in the U.S. and Canada, earning praise from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton in the process.

“State and provincial securities regulators are committing significant regulatory resources to protect investors from financial harm involving fraudulent ICOs and cryptocurrency-related investment products and also are raising awareness among industry participants of their regulatory responsibilities,” said NASAA President and Alabama Securities Commission Director Joseph P. Borg.

He added:

“While not every ICO or cryptocurrency-related investment is a fraud, it is important for individuals and firms selling these products to be mindful that they are not doing so in a vacuum; state and provincial laws or regulations may apply, especially securities laws. Sponsors of these products should seek the advice of knowledgeable legal counsel to ensure they do not run afoul of the law. Furthermore, a strong culture of compliance should be in place before, not after, these products are marketed to investors.”

Eleven of those enforcement actions have been levied by regulators in Texas, with the State Securities Board reporting that it had halted schemes “in which companies claimed to have raised billions of dollars from investors.”

Joseph Rotunda, director of enforcement at the Texas State Securities Board, said an in emailed statement that the investigation had turned up a “staggering” amount of illegal activity in the cryptocurrency space, ranging from ICOs that had deceptively used the likenesses of actress Jennifer Aniston and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in their marketing materials to investment promoters who had used stock videos to make it appear like the company was running three cryptocurrency mining farms.

He concluded:

“The work is far from complete, but state and local regulators will continue to conduct sophisticated investigations and bring appropriate enforcement actions to promote confidence and security in the market for investments tied to cryptocurrencies.”

 

If you’re new to ICOs how exactly do I know which ICO to invest in on exchanges like the bitcoin system app? What are ICOs how exactly do I know which ICO to invest in on exchanges like the bitcoin system app? What are ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings), you might be wondering what all the hype is about. ICOs are events in where creators of a particular token offer a partial supply to investors in order to further the development of the coin. In turn, this will give the ICO team enough money to fund more future developments and increase the value of the new coin. This, in turn, will create more interest with potential investors and increase the coins value even more.

By investing in an ICO within its early stages of development, you can get a much better investment price (think early bird special), which will lead to a much better return on investment if the coin eventually increases in value through further developments. ICO companies have been doing a great job in getting people to participate in these “pre-released cryptocurrencies” through solid marketing exposure, well thought out whitepapers (layout of future plans for the crypto coin), as well as a reputable development team.

Now that you have a better understanding how exactly do I know which ICO to invest in on exchanges like the bitcoin system app?of what an ICO is and how lucrative they can potentially be, you might be tempted to invest in the next one that crosses your path. At first glance, any particular token might seem like a great investment. However, it’s been proven time and time again that investing in less reputable ICO’s can be very dangerous to your overall investment capital. In fact, there are many ICOs that are flat out scams.

For example, the Mycelium ICO failed because the creators were using the development funds primarily for travel. Another example would be CoinDash, in which the entire network was hacked right before one of their events. This only proved that CoinDash’s security could not handle such a large event. Potential investors for that ICO would have had their money stolen. So now you might be asking yourself, how exactly do I know which ICO to invest in?

I’ve created a nice checklist of factors that you want to run down the next time you start shopping for potential investments in an ICO. Print this out and have it closed by once you start to shop around.

10 Tips to Investigate Before Investing in ICOs

1. The Team Behind the Cryptocurrency

Behind every successful ICO is a team of highly dedicated developers creating and managing the coin. Without a great team, the ICO is just another random coin to add to the 100+ piles of useless shitcoins out there. If you want to invest in a new coin, you first need to know who the people are behind it.

Some of the developers are well known in the tech world.  Have they had contributions in other cryptocurrencies before? The key here is to know who the developers are so that you’ll know whether a coin is worth investing in or not. Acquire a list of developers and Google them.

It’s pretty easy to do, simply run a few background checks on high profile individuals. This will allow you to check how credible or trustworthy your potential investment is. If the team of developers are comprised of a group of noteworthy people, then the coin has a higher chance of success.

2. Feedback on Bitcointalk.org

What is Bitcointalk.org, you ask? Why, it’s only the largest cryptocurrency forum on the net. If you want to get feedback on a particular ICO, then this is the place to go. You can see what other investors have to say about a particular ICO. You may also leave some of your own feedback for them to view. It’s basically a huge discussion board for people who are interested in talking about any particular cryptocurrency. It is also one of the best places for you to do your initial research.

3. Progress of the Development

Other than reading feedback on what other investors have to say about an ICO, it’s also good to do your own research (DYOR)  on the ICO’s  development stages (AKA Whitepaper). Investigate to see what information is already available to the public. The whitepaper is a crucial part of the research process as it contains all the key information about the coin. It contains all past, present, and future plans of the company.

However, you have to look beyond the whitepaper and see what else they have to offer. Do they offer prototypes for testing? Does it contain other useful information that is essential to investors? How far have they gone in developing the coin? Obviously, the more information that they release to the public, the more credible they are. This means that there’s a high chance of success for the company and high probability of profit for investors like you.

4. The ICO Community

You can tell how much confidence is placed in a coin by looking at the size of the community. The value of a coin is dependent mostly on the supply and demand. Every cryptocurrency has a certain supply of coins that will slowly be released to the public.

While the supply is maintained by the developers, the demand has to come from the community. If the size of the community is really large, then you can easily determine that there is most likely a high demand for it as well.

It also helps if there are more prominent or reputable names investing in the coin. If the demand is high for standard investors as well as high profile ones, you know that the coin is most likely worth investing in.

5. The Purpose of the ICO

When you invest in a security or investment medium, you want to place your money in something that has value. With regard to cryptocurrency, the value lies in the purpose of the coin or what it’s used for (you can find this in the whitepaper).

For example, the purpose of Bitcoin is to enable people the ability to transfer money without any involvement of third-party entities such as payment facilities. Ethereum, on the other hand, was used for smart contract functionality.

As you can see, each coin has its own purpose. You have to find out whether the purpose of the coin you want to invest in actually makes sense or not. If you think it’s something that people can really use and get behind, then it’s investment potential increases. However, if you and others within the crypto community deem the coin useless, it’s most likely not a great investment opportunity.

6. Distribution of the Coin

Another thing to take note of is the distribution volume of the coin. If it happens to be more than 50% during the ICO, then you may want to think twice about investing. A credible  ICO will only have a certain volume of distribution as to not over-saturate the market. The key here is to find an ICO that doesn’t release all of its coins at once and instead releases the coins slowly into the market.

7. The Cap of the ICO

The cap refers to how many funds are allowed to be accumulated by the developers. If an ICO allows a lot of these funds to be stored, then a lot more coins will be supplied to its investors. This, in turn, may lessen the demand because demand goes up whenever the supply is down. You have to take note of the cap of the ICO to get an idea of the supply and demand figures.

8. ICO Code Quality

This step is more applicable to those who have more knowledge of computer programming. In order to know whether a certain ICO is junk or not, a lot of tech specialists actually examine the code that powers it. If the code is messy (especially during its final stages), then it might not be a very safe investment. Remember that the code is the core of the token. If the core itself is a mess, then you can assume that the rest of the company is too.

Just to give you an idea, a cryptocurrency that has function codes of more than 50 lines is a red flag for most programmers. If you’re really interested in investing a great deal of money into a particular ICO, you may want to take the time and hire a developer to look over the code for you.

9. The Number of Commits

Each cryptocurrency is powered by an open source code, which means that the public can view the improvements or the progress of the token. There will be logs that are also known as “commit logs” in the coding. A commit is a word that developers use to promote a code to the Github coding sector.

The number of commits in the log can tell you the progress and improvements of your cryptocurrency. It’s great to invest in a coin that has a high number of commits because it shows that the coin is developing quickly.

10. The General Activity of Developers

Aside from viewing progress of the code, another way to check progress of an ICO is to look into the Insights page of a particular ICO’s website. By clicking on the Insights page, you’ll see a chart of the daily commits of the cryptocurrency. Moreover, you can view the specific activity that each developer has completed for the token on a daily basis. You can check whether the developers of the coin are actually doing their job and making progress.

Conclusion

With the rising popularity of cryptocurrency, more and more ICOs will pop up on a monthly basis. In fact, ICOs have become one of the main methods of raising money for the development of new cryptocurrencies. As time passes, it will become even easier for people to have access to ICOs due to their rising popularity. Of course, this also means that people will have a harder time knowing which ICOs are worthy of funding and which ones are scams.

The key here is to do your homework on any particular ICO before investing. The checklist outline for you above should help you avoid any careless investment mistakes. The coins that don’t have much public information aren’t recommended.

A few resources I always check before investing into an ICO is…

https://icorating.com/

https://icoranker.com/

https://icobench.com/

Here you can view a comprehensive list of top ICOs along with ratings, rankings, and comprehensive analysis that will help you form a better buying decision.

 

Don’t invest in a token unless you have full knowledge about the coin that you’re planning to invest in. If you take the time to do your due diligence, and have investigated every facet of the ICO, then regardless of what happens to it, you’ll know you did everything in your power to prevent losing your investment captial…..and that my friend is something to be proud of.

Tether Limited, the issuer of controversial USD-pegged cryptocurrency stablecoin tether (USDT), has confirmed that it has established a banking relationship with a small financial institution based out of the Bahamas.

The cryptocurrency firm, notorious for its opaque operations, broke from standard practice on Thursday, announcing publicly that it has formed a banking partnership with Deltec Bank, a 72-year-old financial institution located in Nassau.

Writing in the announcement, Tether said that Deltec had only opened the account after a several month review that included evaluating whether the company could maintain the USDT token’s $1.00 peg. That, peg,, has faltered in recent weeks, even as Tether has redeemed more than $1 billion worth of the token at full face value since the beginning of October.

“The acceptance of Tether Limited as a client of Deltec came after their due diligence review of our company. This included, notably, an analysis of our compliance processes, policies and procedures; a full background check of the shareholders, ultimate beneficiaries and officers of our company; and assessments of our ability to maintain the USD-peg at any moment and our treasury management policies. This process of due diligence, was conducted over a period of several months and garnered positive results, which led to the opening of our bank account with this institution. Deltec reviews our company on an ongoing basis.”

Tether further published a letter from Deltec apparently confirming that the firm — accused by some of operating a fractional reserve — is holding $1.83 billion at the bank, more than enough to cover the assets backing the 1.78 billion in outstanding USDT.

The letter, which was attributed to Deltec Bank & Trust Limited, stressed that this confirmation was made “without liability” to the bank:

“We hereby confirm that, as at the close of business on October 31, 2018, the portfolio cash value of your account with our bank was US$1,831,322,828. “This letter is provided without any liability, however arising, on the part of Deltec Bank & Trust Limited, its officers, directors, employees and shareholders, and is solely based on the information that is currently in our possession.”

Prior to this public confirmation, Tether’s relationship with Deltec had first been reported by The Block. Previously, the firm was said to be banking at Puerto Rico-based Noble Bank, which is now reportedly up for sale following the departure of Tether and other large crypto industry clients.

In June, Tether published a report from US legal firm Freeh, Sporkin & Sullivan LLP that vetted the firm’s bank accounts, finding that they contained enough funds to cover the outstanding USDT as of June 1, the date on which the review was conducted.

The Court Of International Arbitration in China (a high Chinese court), involving half a million worth of cryptocurrency, led to an unprecedented event in which Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were deemed as valuable personal property and therefore protected under Chinese law. The court also noted that there is no law currently prohibiting the possession of cryptocurrency.

The plaintiff who originally brought the suit against the defendant, who he had hired as a steward to trade his cryptocurrency for him, had scheduled a deadline to return the coins. The defendant had missed this deadline, thus keeping the coins in his possession. The cryptocurrency held in question are 20 Bitcoins, 70 Bitcoin Cash, and just over 12.5 Bitcoin Diamond.

The defenses argument was that the contract between the two was invalid due to the Chinese ruling to ban ICOs and crypto trading. According to the defendant’s stance, this would make all crypto transactions illegal and therefore the contract was outside legal bounds of the courtrooms enforcement. However, the court strongly disagreed with the defendant’s interpretation where, according to a Chinese news source, the final conclusion was drawn:

“The Bitcoin contract between the plaintiff and defendant does not violate mandatory legal provisions and regulatory affects which may be considered invalid. Under Chinese law, cryptocurrency is a digital asset and does not prevent it from becoming an object of delivery.”

As a result of this ruling, the defendant was forced to pay 100,000 Yuan in damages on top of returning the coins back to its rightful owner.

An Important Crypto Precedent

Cryptocurrency continues to be a grey area around the world, especially in China, where rumors of Bitcoin bans have repeatedly brought turbulence to the cryptocurrency marketplace. Despite being legal, there has been numerous incidences where the government had to take action against its operations as it was being improperly regulated. These instances have often had global implications.

As a result of this court proceeding, one can speculate that the case for cryptocurrency is far from settled. ICO’s and exchanges have been shut down and even banned. Many exchanges like Binance have found ways to adapt, thus moving their operations to Malta, which seems to bring hope to Chinese crypto enthusiasts. At the time of this ruling, which can later be challenged by an even higher court, private individuals are free to utilize Bitcoin amongst themselves.

The Chinese government is not completely opposed to cryptocurrency. Those of us within the cryptocurrency space realize that central banks as well as private banks do what they can to impede the progress of digital currency. However, within the law, these institutions are not all powerful. Citizens of China can still hold cryptocurrency and therefore hope that over time they will be able to legally participate in activities such as trading and ICO investment opportunities.

Due to the increasing popularity of decentralized exchanges, many exchanges like EtherMium aim to offer more features than your standard DEX. With so many “non-feature rich” decentralized exchanges like EtherDelta and IDEX, which provide a very limited amount of features, EtherMium’s primary goal is to allow the same features found on a centralized exchanges within a decentralized platform, thus creating the best possible decentralized exchange available.

Like most other decentralized exchanges, they don’t require KYC from their users. You’ll also be allowed to trade within seconds of registering. The company is getting ready to launch their options trading solution as well as allowing the opportunity to invest in ICOs within their decentralized platform.

Regarding safety, Ethermium never holds any of their customer’s funds. These funds stay within their corresponding smart contracts, which if you’re not familiar with, act as independent programmable bank accounts. Due to this technology, customers are able to manage their funds independently without exchange owner intervention.

Regarding cryptocurrency selection, EtherMium offers a wide range of Ethereum ERC20 tokens that can be traded at any given moment. In the near future, the company plans on launching a derivative trading solution which makes it possible to trade non-Ethereum cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin, etc) with up to 10X leverage.

EtherMium will also allow the trading of real world assets like commodities, company stocks, and indices. The company believes that a decentralized futures trading platform with the ability to leverage trades, will revolutionize the DEX trading world forever.

Last but not least, EtherMium plans to offer the ability to invest in ICOs while taking advantage of their security, anonymity, and decentralization.

EtherMium Features

First of all, the company makes it very quick and simple to start trading due to its decentralized nature. No longer do you need to register or complete KYC requirements. Simply create a new Ethereum based wallet, deposit your Ethereum into it, and start trading in minutes.

As you can see from the screenshot below, the EtherMium trading screen is very well-designed. It offers more trading options than any other current decentralized trading platform like stop limits and market orders.

The platform also offers extremely competitive trading fees along with no withdrawal or deposit fees. Their  current trading fee model allows market makers to trade with 0% fees while takers only pay 0.2%.

Future Features

The most revolutionary feature EtherMium plans to release is the ability to trade leveraged futures on a decentralized platform. This is currently unheard of!  This will allow investors to bet on the prices of certain assets including cryptocurrency, stocks, and other commodities.

The company currently plans on offering leverage up to 10X for starters, however this will most likely increase as the platform expands and gains more popularity. Their goal is to start leverage trading with available assets such as Bitcoin, Dash, Litecoin, and Monero. After such, they will deploy other trading channels with a focus on company stocks. After that, commodities will be added such as oil, gold, and other tradable assets.

Another noteworthy feature of EtherMium will be the ability to short an ICO. This is a feature that no other exchange can currently provide. This is yet another feature that will “game changing”, not only with decentralized exchanges, but within the crypto trading community.

EtherMium will soon release a mobile application which allows users to trade on any mobile application like Android and iOS devices.

Conclusion

EtherMium will most certainly change the way decentralized exchanges are perceived. Users will be able to secure their funds on smart contracts as well as the ability to trade other “non-cryptocurrency assets” you can’t currently find on other exchanges. With game changing features like DEX futures leverage trading and the ability to both invest in ICOs as well as short them, will undoubtedly create a frenzy of new users to their platform.

At the moment, the exchange currently has one of the most intuitively designed and easy to use decentralized trading platforms available today. With their soon to be released mobile app looking equally as appealing, I’m quite sure that the company will experience a flood of new traders that will look forward to trading on a decentralized exchange like they’ve never experienced before.

Cryptocurrency exchange and brokerage giant Coinbase has provided a major stamp of approval to one of several recently launched USD-pegged cryptocurrency “stablecoins” seeking to supplant tether (USDT) as the leader in this burgeoning market niche.

The San Francisco-based Coinbase on Tuesday announced that beginning today, customers can buy, sell, send, and receive USD Coin, the cryptocurrency initially launched by fellow cryptocurrency unicorn Circle.

Coinbase customers throughout the world can send and receive the token, which is backed by physical dollars stored in company-controlled bank accounts, while U.S. customers — excluding those in New York — can buy and sell the token on Coinbase.com. USDC is not currently listed on Coinbase Pro — the firm’s order-book cryptocurrency exchange — though the company says it will be added to this platform “in the coming weeks.”

Commenting on its decision to support the USDC stablecoin, Coinbase said that fiat-based blockchain currencies could contribute to the development of “a more open financial system” and could further the adoption of decentralized applications (dApps):

“The advantage of a blockchain-based digital dollar like USDC is easier to program with, to send quickly, to use in dApps, and to store locally than traditional bank account-based dollars. That’s why we think of it as an important step towards a more open financial system.”

Coinbase also noted that stablecoins like USDC are ideal for business purposes and e-commerce applications, as payments denominated in these tokens can be made at any time of day without the inherent risks of price volatility associated with using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as working capital.

At present, though, stablecoins are primarily used as a USD proxy in cryptocurrency trading. Collectively, fiat-pegged assets see more than $2 billion in daily trading volume, with the vast majority of those trades currently denominated in the controversial tether token.

In adding support for USDC, Coinbase joins Circle as a founding member of the CENTRE Consortium, which governs the development of issuance of USD Coin and other stablecoins that the consortium may develop in the future.

According to the announcement, Coinbase had already partnered with Circle to build the underlying technology behind USDC, which is structured as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum network, though the full extent of Coinbase’s involvement had not previously been made public.

In launching USDC through a partnership with Coinbase, Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, emphasized the importance of creating an asset that has no single owner or issuer.

“Coinbase joining us to co-found CENTRE and launch USDC reinforces the value of a shared, standard, interoperable stablecoin. Like internet standards, USDC is now not owned by one single company, but distributed among network participants according to clear rules, regulations, and collectively-owned software,” he said. “When we began work on CENTRE and USDC last year, we envisioned collaborating with a consortium of industry leaders to set new standards for global value exchange and financial contracts. We’ve been thrilled to collaborate with Coinbase on CENTRE, and we look forward to welcoming more partners who share this vision.”

 

CCN

Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs has put another stake in the ground of the burgeoning cryptocurrency industry, headlining a $58.5 million Series B funding round in digital asset custodian BitGo.

Goldman, Novogratz Invest $15 Million in BitGo

Announced on Thursday, the Series B round raises the Silicon Valley-based bitcoin startup’s total fundraising to approximately $70 million. Also participating in the funding round was Galaxy Digital Ventures, a cryptocurrency fund founded by billionaire bitcoin bull and former Goldman partner Mike Novogratz. The news was first reported by Bloomberg, who said that Goldman Sachs and Galaxy Digital together contributed about $15 million to the funding round.

“If you were investing in any other asset class, you’re probably not worried about the asset just disappearing — but this one, people still have that fear,” Mike Belshe, BitGo’s co-founder and chief executive officer, told Bloomberg in an interview, “we’ve got to conquer that.”

Founded in 2013, BitGo now holds about $2 billion in customer assets, which are denominated across 95 different cryptocurrencies.

Recently, BitGo received regulatory approval from the South Dakota Division of Banking to offer qualified cryptocurrency custody services, making it the only regulated custodian developed exclusively for cryptoassets.

However, it’s one thing to receive the green light from regulators, but it’s quite another for BitGo to persuade cautious institutions to entrust them with their assets. Receiving financial backing from a firm like Goldman Sachs should go a long way toward helping the upstart firm build that trust.

“Greater institutional participation in the digital asset markets requires secure and regulated custody solutions,” said Rana Yared, a managing director of Goldman Sachs’ Principal Strategic Investments group. “We are impressed by BitGo’s product, unique services, and the management team. We view our investment in BitGo as an exciting opportunity to contribute to the evolution of this critical market infrastructure.”

A Growing Market for Crypto Custody

Meanwhile, BitGo must also stave off competition from legacy financial players who are beginning to build out blockchain products for their crypto-curious clients.

Fidelity Investments — the fifth-largest asset manager in the world with 27 million clients and $7.2 trillion in assets under management and administration — just this week announced that it was launching a separate company called Fidelity Digital Asset Services to provide cryptocurrency custody and trade execution services for institutional investors. The firm has already signed up Galaxy Digital as its first custody client.

Moreover, Goldman Sachs itself is said to be working on a custody product for cryptocurrency assets, though it’s not clear when that product would launch. Previously, Goldman announced that it was launching a bitcoin trading desk, though it later shelved those plans to focus on cryptocurrency custody.