Crypto Market Update (14 September 2017)

Market Update

Rumors and speculation that the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is preparing to outlaw Bitcoin exchanges grew more serious yesterday, as a self-regulatory agency established by the bank issued a statement warning their members not to operate cryptocurrency exchanges or utilize their trading platforms. This downward movement dropped the Bitcoin price below $3,800 for the first time since the 22nd of August. This represents a 7-day decline of more than $700.

Currently sitting at $3,906, the BTC price has touched the 3800$ line once again yesterday, with over $660 M worth of Bitcoin exchanged in the past 24 hours on the BTC USD pair, which has a 33.88% share of daily volume, second to JPY at 44.85%.

The Ethereum price has fared equally as poorly. A week ago, it was trading at $330–having already declined $60 on the heels of China’s ICO ban. Since then, it has dropped well below the $300 threshold. Yesterday, it fell as far as $261, setting the Ethereum price at its lowest point since August 7.

At press time, Ethereum's price is sitting at $274.66, with volumes of $280 M worth of ETH exchanged in the markets in the last 24 hours on the USD pair which holds 48.72% of trading followed by Korea at 20.40%.

This comprehensive pullback has reduced the total cryptocurrency market cap to $134.8 billion. Altogether, the total value of all cryptocurrencies has fallen 21%–constituting more than $30 billion–since Friday, when it reached its weekly peak of $165.3 billion

Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges May Face Stricter Regulation and Licensure

According to recent reports from the country’s National Internet Finance Association (NIFA), bitcoin is not ‘illegal,’ but exchanges may face tighter regulatory supervision and might have to cease operations temporarily until they are licensed.

Bitmain’s Jihan Wu explained to his Twitter followers that China has not banned Bitcoin. Further Mr. Wu detailed that exchanges needed licensure and the same thing would happen in the U.S. if trading platforms didn’t have a license.

“None of the Bitcoin exchanges in China have licenses that are required for order book exchange. Such law is older than Bitcoin. Because some establish in China that Bitcoin exchanges need to stop operations right now does not mean that they cannot open again once with a license.”
Read more here

AXA Uses Ethereum's Blockchain For a New Product

French insurance giant AXA has launched a new flight delay insurance product that uses the public Ethereum blockchain to store and process payouts. The product, called Fizzy, is being pitched as a "smart insurance" tool that flyers can use to ensure their trips if their flight is delayed by two hours or more.

According to AXA, Ethereum's public blockchain plays two key roles here. It maintains an accessible record of the insurance contract itself within a smart contract and serves as a mechanism for triggering the payment to the client once the two-hour mark is passed. AXA representative Jean-Baptiste Mounier said:

"The smart contract is the party that decides whether or not we should indemnify the policy holder and triggers a payment request to our system. The use of a smart contract to trigger claims will add trust in the insurer/policy holder relationship."
Read more here

Tencent Taps Intel's Hardware for IoT Blockchain Solution

Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent announced a blockchain research partnership with multinational tech corporation Intel at a conference on Tuesday. The deal aims to fuse Intel Core technology with the Tencent User Security Infrastructure (TUSI) standard to develop a secure blockchain system for the Internet of Things (IoT).

The effort aims to develop accounts secured by "hardware keys and blockchain," so that IoT devices can enjoy unified security capabilities. Intel has been pursuing blockchain technology for some time, with a particular emphasis on its own hardware-based security.

State of the Crypto

Bitcoin is down 1.47% at $3,903.170 with a volume of $171.1k - $662.1M on the USD pairs.

Litecoin is down 1.61% against the dollar for the day at $61.16 and up 0.13% to Ƀ0.01572 on volumes of Ƀ8.3k.

Ether is down 0.20% against Bitcoin at Ƀ0.07048 per Ether and down 1.86% against the dollar to $274.61 with average volume Ƀ25.9k on the ETH/BTC pair.

Dash is down 0.14% at Ƀ0.07697 with Ƀ2.3k volume and down 2.03% against the dollar at $297.83.

Ripple is up 0.87% to Ƀ0.00005113 with volumes of Ƀ3.8k and down 0.20% against the dollar at $0.1999.

Zcash is up 6.57% for the day to Ƀ0.05307 per ZEC and up 5.11% against the dollar to $206.04 with an average volume of Ƀ3.4k for the 24 hour period.

Monero is up 10.95% against the dollar at $115.32 and up 12.16% against Bitcoin at Ƀ0.02945 on volumes of Ƀ11.0k.

Ether Classic is up 1.88% to Ƀ0.003680 with volumes of Ƀ2.1k and down 0.21% against the dollar at $14.32.

Waves is up 1.08% to Ƀ0.001026 on Ƀ910.618 volume.

Stratis is down 0.7% to Ƀ0.001278 on Ƀ1.5k volume.

Market risers
1 ZOMB +1000.00%
2 GLIPP +750.00%
3 DESH +650.00%
4 XGTC +575.00%
5 NTCC +350.00%
Market losers
1 SLEEP -99.93%
2 VEN -95.13%
3 SRS -89.47%
4 GO -76.50%
5 TYC -75.71%