Your dose of crypto news and analysis from @BTO and @Goldfinger

We’re pleased to announce the launch of Crypto Wars, a new CEO.CA periodic feature.

What can you expect to find here? A curated list of the must-read crypto news items, as well as price updates and technical analysis of select cryptostocks and cryptocurrencies. If you’re an investor who wants to keep up-to-date on the crypto space, think of this as your one-stop shop.

We are open to any suggestions you have on what you’d like to see featured, so feel free to drop us a line in the comments or in a private message.

Without further ado… an update on the week of Oct. 28, 2017 through Nov. 3, 2017. (Given how fast-paced this sector is, earlier news is essentially stale.)

WTF did I miss this week in crypto?

Australian Central Bank: Regulating Blockchain Protocols 'Unlikely to Be Effective' — https://www.coindesk.com/australian-central-bank-regulating-blockchain-protocols-unlikely-effective/

Any comment from a governmental authority on blockchain/cryptocurrencies is important and interesting from the perspective of understanding which way the wind is blowing in what remains a rather unregulated sector. In this case, Australia’s Central Bank confirmed it would likely not support any rule-making around the core protocols that make up blockchain networks, stating that the distributed nature of the technology means such rules are “unlikely to be effective”.

Bank of Canada has ‘head in the sand’ on bitcoin: OSC — https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/streetwise/bank-of-canada-has-head-in-the-sand-on-bitcoin-osc/article36772878/

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) says the Bank of Canada “has its head in the sand” on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, having not made a determination on whether or not they constitute currency, making regulation of investment activity in the area difficult. The lack of regulatory clarity from the federal government and the central bank makes it tough for regulators to determine how to classify token offerings (or ICOs).

CME to launch bitcoin futures in push for currency's wide adoption — https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cme-group-bitcoin/cme-to-launch-bitcoin-futures-in-push-for-currencys-wide-adoption-idUSKBN1D01UG

Chicago-based CME Group intends to launch Bitcoin futures in Q4 2017, pending regulatory approval. CME says it will launch a new contract based on its CME CF bitcoin reference rate (BRR), which provides a daily reference rate for the price of bitcoin in U.S. dollars. This is probably the biggest crypto news of the week and the likely catalyst for the rise in coin prices since the announcement. For further reading, see here, here, and here.

Last Laugh? Dilbert Creator Scott Adams Talks Plans for Token Launch — https://www.coindesk.com/last-laugh-dilbert-creator-scott-adams-talks-plans-for-token-launch/

Recently, a Dilbert comic strip poked fun at ICOs:
Now it seems creator Scott Adams was not joking. WhenHub — a time visualization firm co-founded by Adams — is now preparing to launch a token of its own. It will do so through an offering of Simple Agreements for Future Tokens, or SAFTs, which is the crypto equivalent of Y Combinator’s simplified equity financing technique known as the Simple Agreement for Future Equity, or SAFE.

Amazon Subsidiary Registers Cryptocurrency and Ethereum Web Domains — https://www.coindesk.com/amazon-subsidiary-registers-3-cryptocurrency-web-domains/

In what could merely be part of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) managing and protecting its trade-mark portfolio, one of its subsidiaries registered three cryptocurrency-related web domains — “amazonethereum.com”, “amazoncryptocurrency.com”, and “amazoncryptocurrencies.com” — on Oct. 31. It is not clear what (if any) purpose the domains will serve, but interesting nonetheless!

One of the Most High-Profile Initial Coin Offerings Has Crashed 50% — https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-01/shining-star-of-initial-coin-offerings-crashing-back-to-earth

After being backed by billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper and raising $153 million through an ICO in just a few hours in June, the Israel-based startup Bancor has seen the price of its token decline 56%.

There was also bad news for another high profile ICO — Tezos — which is facing a class action lawsuit over allegations of violating U.S. securities laws: https://www.law.com/therecorder/sites/therecorder/2017/11/02/blockchain-startup-tezos-faces-class-action-over-232m-ico/

SEC: Celebrity ICO Endorsements Could Be Illegal — https://www.coindesk.com/sec-celebrity-ico-endorsements-illegal/

Celebrities ranging from Paris Hilton to Floyd Mayweather have jumped aboard the crypto bandwagon by publicly endorsing ICOs through platforms like Instagram. But — uh oh! — the SEC has now come out and stated that celebrities who endorse token sales may run afoul of “anti-touting” laws if they don't correctly state what compensation, if any, they received for the endorsement.

But… maybe the celebs will just move into endorsing other crypto things. Oh look… they just did: “DJ Khaled Just Promoted A Crypto Wallet On Instagram: How Is Influencer Marketing Affecting Mass…" https://hackernoon.com/dj-khaled-just-promoted-a-crypto-wallet-on-instagram-how-is-influencer-marketing-affecting-mass-e2195b02c54f

Britain's Royal Mint Reveals Details on 'Live' Blockchain for Tracking Gold — https://www.coindesk.com/britains-royal-mint-reveals-details-on-live-blockchain-for-tracking-gold/

A convergence of what seems to be the two favourite topics on CEO.CA at the moment: blockchain and gold. U.K.'s Royal Mint, which owns 5.4% of the global bullion market, established the Royal Mint Gold (RMG) blockchain, which is live and operational, having already verified more than 50,000 blocks and managing the ownership of the commodity. The tool was created in collaboration with financial market giant CME Group using wallet startup BitGo's technology. The Royal Mint now reveals that the launch of a blockchain-based bullion trading platform is imminent, further noting that the RMG platform could someday be used to accommodate requests to prove the provenance of gold and, even more broadly, in the provisioning of collateral of global trades.

Bitcoin Price Sets New Record As Cryptocurrency Market Tops $200 Billion — https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-price-sets-new-record-as-cryptocurrency-market-tops-200-billion/

In preparing this first issue of Crypto Wars, we wanted to include an article announcing that Bitcoin had reached an all-time high. But the top crypto seemed to hit a record price every day this week. Luckily CoinDesk continued to post article after article on the topic at every new level reached. Finally, today it reached its peak for the week (so far…) at over US$7,450. Unbelievable, really. One year ago today, Bitcoin was trading at US$686 and had a market cap just shy of US$11 billion. The market cap is now north of US$120 billion. Not a bad return.

Hello Moon: Ethereum Developers Launch Lightweight Dapp Browser — https://www.coindesk.com/hello-moon-ethereum-developers-launch-lightweight-dapp-browser/

The goal of the Ethereum project is to become a “world computer” through the creation and adoption of so-called distributed applications (dapps). At its huge developer conference in Cancun this past week — devcon3 — this was reiterated, where a new version of Mist, a browser designed for ethereum apps, debuted. The new version — called Moon — also provides an interface for dapp development.

Coins and tokens and stocks, oh my!

[Note — Net change and % change figures are from the close last Friday to the close today.]

HIVE Blockchain (TSXV:HIVE) — $HIVE — Net Change: $1.57; % Change: 50.0%

What a crazy week for cryptocurrency miner HIVE. After hitting a high of $6.75 today, news announced towards the end of the trading day that pooled stock totalling 24.6M shares would come free-trading on Nov. 8, instead of the planned Nov. 15, brought the stock back to earth. Still, on the week the stock was up 50% from the close last Friday to the close today, finishing the week at $4.71. The company put out significant news last week. On Oct. 23, it announced it would be expanding its crypto mining operations into Sweden, with the first phase of the project expected to increase hashpower capacity by 175%. Keeping the foot on the gas pedal, the company then announced a $30M bought deal financing at $2.80 per unit (1 common share and 1 warrant with a $3.90 strike price) on Oct. 25, with the funds to be used for the build-out of phase two of the Sweden project. Before these releases, the company’s operations were limited to two facilities in Iceland. Once operational, Sweden will represent 78% of the company’s hashpower capacity, dwarfing Iceland’s 22%.

Mogo Finance (TSX:MOGO) — $MOGO — Net Change: $1.71; % Change: 43.5%

On Oct. 30, MOGO, an online lender and leader in the Canadian fintech scene, announced that it has added dedicated blockchain capabilities to accelerate its plans to integrate Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies into its digital account as well as future new products and features based on blockchain technology. Fueled by this news, the stock rose 43.5% from the close last Friday to the close today, finishing the week at $5.64. Mackie Research has raised its price target for the stock to $9. With the company announcing acceleration of membership growth as well this week — it now has more than 500,000 members, twice as many as it had a year ago — this will be a very interesting story to watch.

Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) — $OSTK — Net Change: US$1.65; % Change: 3.8%

Online discount retailer, Overstock.com, led by crypto aficionado CEO Patrick Byrne, has been in the crypto game longer than any listed stock we’re aware of. In January 2014, it became the first major online retailer to accept Bitcoin, and in August 2017 doubled down on crypto by (a) integrating ShapeShift to allow customers to buy products with all major cryptocurrencies including Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, Monero, and Bitcoin Cash, and (b) opting to hold 50% of all Bitcoin payments and potentially other cryptos as investments (it had previously converted all but 10% of bitcoin payments into fiat currency). At the end of September 2017, it announced it was launching a first-of-its-kind alternative trading system (ATS) — dubbed tØ or tZERO — that will provide a platform for the exchange of cryptographic tokens categorized in the U.S. as securities. This was enough to cause short-seller Marc Cohodes to go long the stock. tZERO will be running an ICO from November 15 to December 31. The stock has been running on all this crypto news. At the beginning of August 2017, it was trading around US$16. It just closed out the week at US$44.55, an approximate 180% gain from those August levels.

MGT Capital (OTC:MGTI) — $MGTI — Net Change: -US$0.30; % Change: -14.2%

MGTI is backed by notorious tech pioneer, John McAfee, and has recently shifted more of its focus on crypto mining; it is also in the business of developing cyber security technologies. On Oct. 16, the company provided an update on its mining activities, noting that once it has received and set-up the mining rigs it currently has on order, which will operate in conjunction with the company’s current rigs, its Bitcoin mining operations are projected to generate EBITDA of US$1.1 million per month. The company expects these rigs to be operational by Q1 2018.

Other crypto/blockchain-related stocks riding the wave:

  • LeoNovus (TSXV:LTV) — $LTV — Net Change: $0.12; % Change: 23.5%
  • Global Blockchain (TSXV:BLOC) — $BLOC — Net Change: $0.56; % Change: 24.5%
  • BTL Group (TSXV:BTL) — $BTL — Net Change: $0.95; % Change: 20.0%
  • NetCents Technology (CSE:NC) — $NC — Net Change: $0.59; % Change: 107.3%
  • 360 Blockchain (CSE:CODE) — $CODE — Net Change: $0.06; % Change: 22.6%
  • Glance Technologies (CSE:GET) — $GET — Net Change: $0.29; % Change: 34.1%

The CryptoTechnician Report

Bitcoin is stretching the upper Bollinger Bands higher similar to what it did in August, expect a consolidation to begin shortly before bitcoin takes aim at the big $10,000 round number level. See below:

Compare this to Ethereum — the #2 crypto in the world by market cap. It diverged significantly from Bitcoin as it has been trapped in a range-bound oscillation for the last couple of months. Upside breakout over $350, downside breakdown below $250. See below:

A funny thing we saw this week

For Halloween, this guy went as a Bitcoin bubble. Yes, here he is floating between two bubble-blowing blondes. Classy.

And one more funny thing for good measure.

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