Strong crypto month to start 2020
The year 2020 „traditionally“ started with „Proof of Keys“ on the third of January – Bitcoin’s 11th birthday. Trace Mayer, the inventor of „Proof of Keys“, Andreas Antonopoulos and numerous other prominent people in crypto celebrated this day by taking their coins off exchanges and in their own custody. This event shall remind investors once a year who really holds their keys, teach new investors „Not your keys – not your Bitcoin“ and how they can move around their financial assets. This also helps exposing shady exchanges.
Throughout January, the public cryptocurrency markets soared and the overall market rose by more than 30%. The best performing coins with more than 5 Million USD trading volume were BSV (192% monthly return) & DASH (177% monthly return). BSV’s rising price was partially explained by Craig Wright’s dealings in front of court and his claims to have the public keys associated with billions in crypto. DASH’s rising price was mostly attributed to a successful launch of the Evolution Testnet in December. Similarly, Bitcoin had its best January price gain since 2013 with more than 30% monthly return (in 2013 it was 50%). For many people in crypto, this industry-wide price rally came as a surprise since there were few factors indicating specific changes in the market – except slowly closing in on the Bitcoin halvening on the 12th of May.
Interesting research
A fantastic report about the state of crypto adoption was published by a group of the industry’s best analysts, VCs, and startups. The „State of Adoption“ report can be accessed at www.stateofcrypto.report.
Updates about protocol & blockchain solutions
We’ll provide important updates from all layer 1 protocols once we are live and in regular communication with project leaders. Similarly, we’ll present a few selected interesting blockchain solutions per month after “officially” launching.
Top News
- On Bitcoin’s 11th birthday Nakamoto.org launched its website with immense support from crypto leaders that also believe in Bitcoin. Nakamoto.org aims to create a venue for quality technical, philosophical, and cultural writing that is of general interest to the crypto community as a whole. A great introduction to the properties of Bitcoin and a cryptocurrency course were shared shortly after launch but few new publications have appeared ever since.
- The Digital YUAN is in the making for more than 5 years by now. The Chinese government shared a press release that development progresses smoothly („Progressing smoothly with development“).
- The SEC filed a court order against Telegram to hand over bank records in order to check the legitimacy of the 1.7 billion ICO-offering and if it wasn’t an unregistered securities sale.
- Ray Dalio, american billionaire hedge fund manager and founder of investment firm Bridgewater Associates, says that unbacked FIAT money is no good and Bitcoin is neither a medium of exchange nor a store of value. He advises a diversified portfolio with some gold.
- Bitcoin’s hash rate hit all time highs (See here). There has never been more engagement from miners with halving only a few months away. It will be very interesting to see which miners keep working after the halving and if the hashing rate keeps growing.
- According to a Ripple employee, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, shared at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he expects IPOs in crypto and blockchain in the next 12 months – and Ripple will be on the leading side.
- Spencer Dinwiddie announced tokenizing his NBA contract. It will be interesting if he can follow through or if the league will object.
- Don Tapscott acknowledges that blockchains are still hard to use, claims that regulation is the most significant hurdle for innovators but explains that there are large collaborations and real use cases are getting into production.
We share monthly updates about the blockchain industry to help you keep track of the progress. Sign up to the newsletter and these updates are sent directly to your inbox.
