Weekly Review: Filecoin Mainnet is finally launched, OKEx triggers market panic

The Filecoin mainnet, which had been postponed several times this week, was finally launched, and the news that OKEx exchange suspended deposits and withdrawals caused local panic in the market.

Crypto Market

The cryptocurrency market has seen ups and downs this week. At the beginning of this week, the price of Bitcoin rose above $11,500, and industry insiders are confident that the price of Bitcoin will break through $12,000 this week.

Although the market experienced minor setbacks in the middle of the week, the news of the launch of the Filecoin mainnet pushed the market to remain high, and Bitcoin's upward momentum remained strong. However, this momentum was greatly interrupted by the news that OKEx exchange suspended deposits and withdrawals and "Xu Mingxing was investigated", and market confidence was frustrated. Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency with the highest market value, fell again to around $11,300.

invest

Grayscale announced on Monday that its Grayscale Ethereum Trust has become a digital currency investment vehicle reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This means that the trust is now registered under the Securities Exchange Act. This is also the second such product to report to the SEC after the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust was listed on January 21, 2020.

Digital currency asset management company Grayscale Investments brought in more than $1 billion in new investments in the third quarter of this year. Grayscale released its digital asset investment report for the third quarter of this year on Wednesday, which showed that the company had raised $1.05 billion through investment products last quarter, which was also its best quarter ever. Investment in Grayscale's series of products has exceeded $2.4 billion so far this year, more than double the total investment from 2013 to 2019.

Fidelity Digital Assets, a subsidiary of asset management giant Fidelity, believes that Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency with the largest market value, will have the potential to become an independent asset class after it matures. This week, Fidelity Digital Assets released the latest research report from its head of digital research, Ria Bhutoria. This is the second in a series of reports the company is preparing related to digital asset investments, which aims to study the forces driving current Bitcoin interest and investment, as well as the potential for digital assets to develop and gain more traction in the future.

Digital Currency

The G20 Financial Stability Board said in its latest report released on Tuesday that it has agreed to develop international standards for global stablecoins by the end of 2021. The report released by the committee is titled "Regulation and Supervision of Global Stablecoins". The report believes that "global stablecoins should comply with the regulatory standards applicable to them, address the risks they pose to financial stability before they begin operations, and adapt to new regulatory requirements when necessary."

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said the ECB is "very seriously" considering creating a digital euro. Lagarde said at an online event of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday that this year's COVID-19 pandemic has caused many structural changes, including "our work, our trade and our payment methods." She mentioned that between February and June 2020, e-commerce increased by nearly one-fifth in both volume and size due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kozo Yamamoto, chairman of the Financial Affairs Committee of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and a former finance ministry official, said that Japan must amend the Central Bank Law before issuing a digital yen. According to Reuters, the law stipulates the authority and responsibility of the Bank of Japan in developing central bank digital currency. In addition, Kazushige Kamiyama, director of the Payment and Settlement Systems Department of the Bank of Japan, which is responsible for overseeing central bank digital currency research, said that if a digital yen is issued, the Bank of Japan will control the upper limit of issuance, and any such move will be aimed at preventing funds from being transferred from commercial bank accounts to central bank digital currency.

On Monday, the Digital Dollar Project released the "Proposal for a Pilot Program to Explore U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency," a report that lists nine "pilot" options to illustrate how a U.S. CBDC (digital dollar) could address some common challenges faced by different stakeholders, including consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and fintech companies.

The Central Bank of Russia has published a report on the possible launch of the digital ruble. According to the report, the bank is accepting feedback on the idea until December 31. Then, the data will be evaluated and the digital ruble may be piloted among a limited user group.

application

Block.one, the company behind the EOS ecosystem, has launched a commercial version of the EOSIO blockchain. Block.one officially announced the "EOSIO for Business" version for enterprises on Thursday to help companies build and maintain blockchain-based infrastructure, including Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS), consulting, technical support, training and certification. The blockchain cloud service can provide companies with a quick and easy way to set up digital ledgers on their favorite cloud computing platform.

IBM Watson Health, IBM's healthcare-focused company, launched the blockchain-based IBM Digital Health Pass app on Tuesday, aiming to help organizations and companies reopen after months of quarantine.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) have launched a new program to evaluate blockchain and cryptocurrency: the Global Standards Mapping Initiative (GSMI). The program studies the status of blockchain and cryptocurrency by reviewing current regulations, technical standards, and best industry practices. The announcement stated that GSMI is the first collective organization program to measure blockchain standards, bringing together data from more than 30 technology organizations, 185 jurisdictions, and nearly 400 industry groups.

Regulation

According to a briefing released by Spanish Finance Minister María Jesús Montero, the draft law on measures to prevent and combat tax fraud was recently approved by the Spanish Council of Ministers, the central administrative body of Spain. The new Spanish draft bill requires citizens of the country to report all digital assets used or held, including those held or traded outside of Spain.

The Central Bank of Russia is considering limiting the amount of digital currencies that non-qualified investors in the country can buy. The Central Bank of Russia issued a draft directive this week to clarify the characteristics of digital financial assets and set rules for qualified and non-qualified investors to invest in such instruments. The proposed framework hopes to limit investments in cryptocurrency instruments by all non-qualified individuals and companies to 600,000 rubles (about $7,779) per year. On the other hand, qualified Russian investors can invest in digital assets under foreign laws. The regulator is seeking public comments on the draft, and if approved, the rule is expected to take effect on January 1, 2021.

According to Kenya's new tax law, foreign crypto exchanges such as Paxful and Binance will be required to pay a 1.5% tax. According to local media reports, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has clarified the new tax rules for "digital markets" that the agency had previously issued, and its planned digital service tax (DST) will apply to cryptocurrencies at a rate of 1.5% of the total transaction amount.

project

The much-anticipated crypto project Filecoin has finally launched its mainnet, and major exchanges have listed the Filecoin token FIL, which has also driven up its price. On Thursday evening Beijing time, the Filecoin block height reached the mainnet launch height. Subsequently, Filecoin officials issued a statement saying that the Filecoin mainnet has been officially launched, and the network has been running stably so far. To ensure that the network operates normally, the Filecoin network has now entered the post-launch monitoring period. During this period, officials will closely track network performance while preparing for the Filecoin Liftoff Week event. Officials said that the Filecoin Liftoff Week event will be held from October 19th to 23rd.

Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, expressed the hope that Ethereum users would pay attention to the second-layer expansion solution. In his opening speech at the Ethereum Economy Virtual Conference organized by Coindesk, he said that in the face of the recent surge in transaction fees on the Ethereum network, Ethereum users should turn to solutions that increase its scalability.

Exchanges

Nearly 2,000 Robinhood accounts have been hacked in the latest series of attacks to steal customer funds, according to Bloomberg. Starting in September, customers of the cryptocurrency investment platform Robinhood were targeted by hackers. The company said last week that funds were stolen from a "limited number" of victim accounts.

Crypto exchange Bitstamp has announced the launch of crime insurance to protect the security of its users’ crypto assets. “The insurance applies to digital assets stored online or offline at Bitstamp and covers a range of crime-related cases, such as employee theft, loss of assets while stored at any location, loss in transit, loss due to computer fraud or money transfer, and losses related to legal fees and expenses,” Bitamp said in a statement on October 15, detailing the company’s latest insurance measures.

At noon on Friday Beijing time, major cryptocurrency exchanges announced the suspension of deposits and withdrawals, triggering a sharp drop in the cryptocurrency market. According to Bitpush data, Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency with the largest market value, plummeted by $300 at noon, from above $11,500 to below $11,300. At around 12 noon, the official website of OKEx issued an announcement stating that some private key holders of OKEx are cooperating with the public security authorities in the investigation and are currently out of contact, making it impossible to complete the authorization.

Crypto exchange Coinbase released a "Transparency Report" this week, which quantifies customer information requests received from law enforcement agencies around the world. The report shows that the exchange received a total of 1,914 customer data requests from governments in the first half of 2020, with about 90% of the requests coming from three jurisdictions: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. U.S. government agencies sent 1,113 requests, accounting for about 60%; British authorities accounted for 23%; Germany accounted for 9%, and most of the rest were made by European authorities.

In a leaked audio file, Brian Armstrong, CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, said that the "silent majority" supports Coinbase's apolitical stance. Coinbase's leadership recently took action to limit sociopolitical speech within the company, requiring the team to focus on the company's mission rather than politics. Armstrong later held an all-hands meeting with employees to discuss changes to the company's culture. His remarks at the all-hands meeting on October 1 were leaked to the media Motherboard.

Author: Liang Che This article comes from Bitpush.News. Reprinting must indicate the source.