Fintech Daily Digest

According to findings from Arcane Research CME Group's Bitcoin futures settlement dates, in particular, appear to negatively influence BTC markets. Analyzing price behavior from January 2018 to August 2019, the company found that 75% of the times immediately before CME issued payouts, Bitcoin fell.

Accumulated P2P loans in South Korea have surpassed 6 trillion won (US$5 billion). Outstanding P2P loans extended by 220 companies stood at 6.2 trillion won in June, compared with 4.7 trillion won at the end of last year, according to the data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service.

The recent Ether (ETH) price drop showed the reliability and weaknesses of the decentralized stablecoin built by MakerDAO, Dai (DAI), and the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem built on top of it.

Congress wants the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to up its internal blockchain game with a new bill to study how the technology could be adapted for law enforcement.

An IMF paper explores some of the insights that economics gives us to think about the implications of data proliferation, and what this means for modern data policies. Cooperation between regulators, both within and across countries, will be vital to tackle the challenges associated with the increased flow of data.

"David Marcus: I'm often asked why we didn't take a more traditional route of building a payment system on top of existing rails, instead of the more ambitious route we've chosen. I tried to find a good concise write-up about the advantages of a new core network to move money around, and couldn't find one, so I thought it would be a good idea to take a stab at it.

The Bitcoin (BTC) network's hash rate suffered a mysterious flash crash on Sept. 23, in a sudden intraday plummet from 98,000,000 TH/S to 57,700,000 TH/s. By press time, levels have recovered back to 92,800,295 TH/S- yet remain shy of their recent record of 102,848,135 on Sept. 18.

The U.S. SEC has begun proceedings to determine whether it should approve a proposed bitcoin ETF. It has begun evaluating the proposed rule change to allow NYSE Arca to list and trade shares of Wilshire Phoenix's Bitcoin and Treasury Investment Trust.

A key question for adherents of DLT is why it offers benefits beyond traditional settlement mechanisms. Whelan suggested "smart contracts" could be one answer - contracts written in computer code that can be fulfilled automatically when certain conditions are met. He said such contracts had proven "extremely powerful" in trials.

"All things considered, Libra has undoubtedly been a wakeup call for central banks and policymakers. Global "stablecoin" initiatives are the natural result of rapid technological progress, globalisation and shifting consumer preferences. The demand for fast, reliable and cheap cross-border payments is bound to grow further in coming years. Policymakers and central banks should respond to these challenges."

"Bitcoin is like backing Apple when it was on the edge of going bust: do you believe in the future or not? If you do, you hold forever and buy the dips. The only thing you mustn't do with the position is let that put your finances at risk or hurt your sanity."

According to Byte Tree, a transaction from a private wallet to an exchange worth $1.2 billion triggered the dip. The scale of funds at involved sparked a panic selling session.

The efforts are similar to the multi-level marketing programs involving supplements, cosmetics and kitchen items, where you recruit others to earn income rather than actually selling the products. While the programs have long raised eyebrows, they're playing a greater role in the crypto world.

The lion's share of Bitcoin derivatives trading volume is on unregulated exchanges that don't operate as clearinghouses and offer leverage up to 100X.

A confusion of theories have surfaced to explain the cause of the savage decline, yet a compelling one is that it was fuelled-perhaps not started-by a series of liquidations and margin calls on 100x leverage crypto derivatives giant BitMEX.

32% of all cryptocurrency projects failed to publish a single line of code in 2019. Based on a research of 2,000 startups by the Coincodecap project, 640 were completely inactive.

The Bitcoin network hash rate, which was reaching all-time highs a few weeks ago, has recently dropped around 40% yesterday. According to information from Coin.dance, the hash rate plummeted from 98 million to 57,7 million TH/s.

Bitfinex has won an appeal in the New York Supreme Court, which means it won't have to turn over documents pertaining to its use of the the cryptocurrency Tether.

As science-fictiony as it sounds, quantum computing is a threat that needs to be taken seriously in the world of blockchains. It may not be the kill switch that everyone imagines because of media hype, but it certainly something that should be on the radar for anyone involved in the ecosystem.

SIX Group plans a full launch of its new SIX Digital Exchange trading platform using blockchain technology at the end of next year. It had originally intended to go live this year.