Bitcoin exchange Coinbase is reported to have brought in more than $1bn in revenues this past year; according to a report in Recode the revenue figures for Coinbase were supposed to be $600mn but the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas pushed them to over $1bn; the company has also seen spikes in users, with more than 100,000 users signing in over the Thanksgiving day weekend. Source.
While speaking at the Asian Financial Forum Jiang Yang, vice chairman of China's Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said that fintech should serve the broader economy, not a select few; two markets mentioned in the talk included p2p lending and cryptocurrencies as they are two of the most popular areas of fintech in China; while Mr. Yang stated that fintech has provided more convenience they should not ignore risks like money laundering and financial crime; he also stated that regulators can play a key role to ensure these new tools are used properly and are widely adopted. Source.
Visa notified WaveCrest that they were terminating their membership with the company for non compliance; WaveCrest is a third party processor where prepaid cards were being used for crypto based activities; the terms and conditions of their agreement with Visa stated that funds could only be loaded to the card via an employer on a regular basis; the termination note leaves a number of companies in limbo and looking for another option to service customers. Source.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Founders Fund has amasses hundreds of millions of dollars or bitcoin recently; the fund started with about $10mn to $15mn worth of bitcoin and has since seen that initial investment skyrocket; while many traditional wall street names have yet to buy into bitcoin the move by Mr. Thiel and his fund point to their confidence in the currency; during an interview in October Mr. Thiel was reported to say, “While I’m skeptical of most of them, I do think people are a little bit underestimating bitcoin, specifically, because it is like a reserve form of money.” Source.
eToro partnered with CoinDash to develop a set of social trading products built on blockchain technology; eToro CEO Yoni Assia tells Banking Technology, “With thousands of new coins in the market, it can be difficult for mainstream investors to navigate this new space. The CoinDash team is enabling users to better analyse their investments in cryptocurrencies, and to learn from others.”; the eToro marketplace has more than 4.5 million users in over 170 countries, they allow users to trade based on copying or following other individual’s portfolios and recently added access to cryptocurrencies. Source.
The company has raised the money from investors which includes Draper Esprit Plc; Ledger sells USB keys that allow for secure storage of cryptocurrencies; funds will be used to expand the team and on research and development; they plan to sell between 3 and 6 million hardware wallets in 2018 and have sold about a million so far; total revenue in 2017 was $56 million; Ledger has offices in Paris and San Francisco. Source
Researches have investigated price manipulations in cryptocurrencies and have written a paper titled “Price Manipulation in the Bitcoin Ecosystem” which shares their findings; many of the newer cryptocurrencies as well as bitcoin in the early days were subject to manipulation since they were thinly traded; the article also shares instances of fake trades during the Mt.Gox hack. Source
Kevin McPartland, the head of research for market structure and technology at Greenwich Associates put together his list of the top ten trends that will define finance in 2018; some of the highlights from the list include alternative data become less alternative and more part of the norm; regulators are better at getting things done as opposed to congress; continued innovation in the fintech space and the fear of a potential cyber breach in the space; banks will begin to focus more attention to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Source.
With cryptocurrency market caps rising and futures markets being adopted 2017 saw hedge funds pour over $2bn into the space; the figures come from a Morgan Stanley note sent to clients with research included from Autonomous NEXT; the note also shows 84 of 100 crypto related funds started in 2017; this year has helped the market to begin being more widely accepted by traditional institutional investors. Source.
Bitcoin is the financial phenomenon of the year; Peter Renton, Founder of Lend Academy and Co-Founder of LendIt shares his thoughts on cryptocurrencies as well as a breakdown of his holdings. Source