Crypto markets are in the red today following an announcement by the U.S. SEC, with Bitcoin losing almost $500 on the day and significant fluctuations in the top ten.

After solid growth to break above the $7,000 mark earlier today, Bitcoin (BTC) saw a loss of around $500 in six hours. At press time, all of the top ten cryptocurrencies other than Tether (USDT) are in the red, according to Coin360.

Market visualization from Coin360

BTC is trading around $6,598 at press time, dropping 5.29 percent over the last day and bringing a new weekly low. The decline follows today’s news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) postponed its decision on the listing and trading of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to the end of September.

Bitcoin’s 24-hour price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Bitcoin Price Index

Ethereum (ETH) is suffering a slump, having lost around 6.64 percent in the last 24 hours. The second largest cryptocurrency is trading at $377 at press time, also hitting a new weekly low. Over the month, the ETH price has dropped 23 percent.

Ethereum’s 7-day price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Ethereum Price Index

The top ten altcoins are firmly in the red, moving downward from 4 to almost 12 percent. At press time, IOTA, and Ripple (XRP) show the most significant losses, dropping 8.52 and 11.46 percent respectively, followed by Litecoin (LTC) with a loss of 8.5 percent on the day.

Among the top twenty coins by market capitalization, Ethereum Classic (ETC) has been hit the hardest, losing over 13 percent in the last 24 hours, and trading at $17.02 at press time. Today, Aug. 7, crypto exchange Coinbase added support for ETC on its Coinbase Pro platform. Yesterday, commission-free crypto trading platform Robinhood listed ETC as well.

Ethereum Classic’s 1-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is at $236.7 billion at press time, down almost $15 billion over the 24 hour period.

1-day chart of the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies from CoinMarketCap

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has warned investors about a crypto ‘clone’ company, which impersonates an authorized and registered firm.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned investors about a so-called “clone’ company of investment firm Fair Oaks Capital Ltd., in a statement published Aug. 7. Clone firms are companies that carry out business activities under the pretense that they are a firm registered by the FCA.

Almost all legal entities involved in financial services in the U.K. must be authorized or registered by the FCA. In the statement, the FCA outlines a fraudulent company targeting people in the U.K. using registration data of firms authorized by the regulator. The clone, Fair Oaks Crypto, allegedly aims to hoodwink potential scam victims by claiming that they represent Fair Oaks Capital.

The FCA provided the contact details of the clone firm, so that potential investors or clients would know to avoid it. The British regulatory agency also suggested that investors check the Financial Services Register before dealing with a firm in order to ensure it is legitimate and operating legally.

In May, the FCA opened 24 investigations into cryptocurrency businesses over financial regulatory compliance in order to “determine whether they might be carrying on regulated activities that require FCA authorization.”

Generally, the FCA has demonstrated a positive regulatory approach towards cryptocurrencies. Recently, it announced the creation of a global initiative called Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN) to improve collaboration between regulators and companies on fintech innovations like blockchain. GFIN aims to consult on various topics, including the regulation of securities and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO).

In March, the FCA launched a cryptocurrency task force in collaboration with the Bank of England in order to explore ways to regulate and support expanding crypto technologies. Shortly before, the regulator introduced a global fintech regulatory sandbox, that allows for innovative fintech development without requiring a full, strict regulatory process for testing.

Last month, the Big Innovation Centre, DAG Global, and Deep Knowledge Analytics released a report, that shows that the U.K. has the institutional and technological resources needed to become a leader in the crypto economic ecosystem within the next few years.

While the study considers the blockchain sector to be in the early stages of development globally, it still finds support at the governmental level. U.K. housing minister Eddie Hughes called on the government to prioritize the technology’s development in order to “enable social freedom, to increase efficiency, and to rebuild societal trust.”

The U.S. SEC has postponed its decision on listing and trading a Bitcoin ETF powered by investment firm VanEck and financial services company SolidX.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on the listing and trading of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) until September 30, according to an official document released by the SEC August 7.

ETFs are securities that track a basket of assets proportionately represented in the fund’s shares. They are seen by some as a potential step forward for the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies as a regulated and passive investment instrument.

The fund under consideration is powered by investment firm VanEck and financial services company SolidX, and is expected to list on the Chicago Board of Exchange (CBOE) BZX Equities Exchange. The SEC now has almost two more months to consider a proposed rule change by CBOE Global Markets Inc. that would allow the fund to list.  

Today's notice states that the SEC has received more than 1,300 comments on the proposed rule change to list and trade shares of SolidX BTC shares issued by the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust. Per the document, within 45 days of a filing of a proposed rule change, or within 90 days should the Commission deem necessary, the Commission will approve, disapprove, or extend the period of consideration. The document says:

“Accordingly, the Commission, pursuant to Section 19(b)(2) of the Act,6 designates September 30, 2018, as the date by which the Commission shall either approve or disapprove, or institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove, the proposed rule change (File No. SRCboeBZX-2018-040).”

VanEck and SolidX first announced the physically-backed Bitcoin ETF on June 6. As per the SEC filing, the price of each share of the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust is set to $200,000. SolidX CEO Daniel H. Gallancy told CNBC, that the high price reflects the fund’s intention to focus on institutional, rather than retail investors.

Last month, the SEC delayed its decision on investment firm Direxion’s application for a Bitcoin ETF until Sep. 21. The regulator also rejected an appeal by Bats BZX Exchange, Inc. (BZX) to list and trade shares of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, originally filed in 2016.

The agency cited the largely unregulated nature of Bitcoin markets as the principal reason for refusing the application, stating, “When the spot market is unregulated — there must be significant, regulated derivatives markets related to the underlying asset with which the Exchange can enter into a surveillance-sharing agreement.”

Institution-oriented crypto trading platform Omniex appoints former SEC and FDIC execs to its board of advisors.

Institution-oriented crypto trading platform Omniex has expanded its staff with high profile experts, including former execs of major U.S. financial regulators, according to a press release Aug. 7.

Omniex has appointed former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Arthur Levitt and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) chair Sheila Bair as members of the board of advisors.

The cryptocurrency trading firm also announced that Maartje Bus, former head of capital markets at Thomson Reuters, has joined Omniex as director of strategic partnerships, while Tom Eidt, former head of KCG's regulatory affairs was appointed as chief compliance officer and general counsel.

Levitt, who was the twenty-fifth and longest-serving chairman of the SEC from 1993 to 2001, claimed that institutional investors need “purpose-built technology to solve the challenges they face today and equipped to handle the hidden obstacles they’ll encounter tomorrow in this new asset class.”

Levitt currently serves as advisor to a number of companies such as Mirror, BitPay, Blockchain, PeerIQ and Sofi, previously working as senior advisor to Goldman Sachs and The Carlyle Group.

Former FDIC exec Sheila Bair emphasized that the crypto industry is a “revolutionary, global asset class” that is currently in its infancy. She also said that the world is now “on the cusp of regulatory thinking on how to approach and regulate crypto assets.”

"Technology like Omniex is designed to address regulators' concerns about a lack of robust market infrastructure, and will enable institutional investors to manage risk across a wide range of jurisdictions, liquidity sources and crypto-assets," Blair stated.

Having served as chair of the U.S. banking regulator from 2006 to 2011, Bair played a prominent role in the government’s response to the financial crisis of 2008.

Earlier in June, Bair claimed that, while cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) can be a way to improve еxisting monetary tools, she still argued that Bitcoin “has failed miserably as a method of payment.” The former FDIC chair further stated that the Federal Reserve needs to “seriously” consider the relative benefits of issuing its own digital currency.

Omniex is an office investment and trading platform for institutional investors. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $10 million in seed funding from investors such as Digital Currency Group, Sierra Ventures, and British hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard.

Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain is now valued at $15 billion after closing a pre-IPO funding round with backing from tech giants Tencent and Softbank.

Bitcoin (BTC) mining behemoth Bitmain is now valued at $15 billion after closing a pre-Initial Public Offering (IPO) funding round with backing from high-profile investors, QQ News reported August 4.

The fresh financing deal, which is said to have closed on Saturday, notably includes investments from Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent and Japan’s Softbank, another tech giant whose 15 percent stake in Uber makes it the drive-hailing app’s largest shareholder.

Tencent, meanwhile, is the developer of China’s dominant social media platform WeChat, which has over 1 billion global users and outstripped Facebook’s market cap by $72 billion in March of this year.

According to QQ, Bitmain is planning to launch its IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange  this September at an estimated valuation of $30 billion. As Cointelegraph previously reported, Bitmain’s CEO Jihan Wu hinted at plans for the IPO in early June.

In February 2018, Bitmain reportedly held 70-80 percent of the global market for Bitcoin mining hardware, and posted between $3 and $4 billion in operating profits in 2017 — higher than American graphics processing unit (GPU) manufacturer Nvidia.

At the end of July, Fortune reported that Bitmain earned around $1 billion in net profit for the first quarter of 2018, the same month it closed a $300-400 million Series B funding round which inched its valuation upward to $12 billion.

Meanwhile, another Chinese crypto mining giant, Canaan Creative, is planning to launch its own IPO — also on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Just yesterday, Bitmain revealed it will construct a $500 million blockchain data center and mining facility in Texas as part of its expansion into the U.S. market, hoping to initiate the center’s operations by early 2019.

Despite firing their social media employee, Bitfi continues to threaten their critics via social media.

In July, cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer Bitfi’s executive chairman, John McAfee, claimed that Bitfi was “the world’s first unhackable device,” urging security experts to breach its security for a $100,000 bounty.

Since then, a number of reports emerged that suggested Bitfi is not, in fact, “unhackable,” only to be dismissed by the wallet service as well as McAfee himself, steadily making the bounty hunt seem like a tasteless PR stunt.

What is Bitfi?

Essentially, Bitfi is a physical device — or a ‘hardware’ wallet — supporting “an unlimited amount of cryptocurrencies” that costs $120, as per its website. Although no actual contact details (apart from email addresses) are listed there, the company is registered in London, according to Companies House data. Bitfi’s CEO is 38-year-old American entrepreneur Daniel Khesin.

The project first surfaced in July, when the infamous investor John McAfee — who once promised to “eat [his] own dick on national television” if Bitcoin’s price doesn’t reach $500,000 by 2020 — premiered the crypto wallet on his Twitter. He called Bitfi “a Colt 45 of the crypto world” and “the world’s first unhackable device.” To prove his point, McAfee announced a bounty hunt: $100,000 would go to the first person to hack the new device. “Money talks, bullshit walks,” he taunted the skeptics and later raised the bet up to $250,000.

Notably, unlike the majority of other hardware wallets, Bitfi doesn’t put such a strong emphasis on private keys, according to its website:

“The Bitfi hardware wallet solves this security problem once and for all in the most elegant way possible — the private keys are simply not stored anywhere, ever. This is another layer of security that goes beyond keeping the private key outside the computer environment or from devices with internet access. So even if your Bitfi hardware wallet is seized or stolen, there is nothing that anyone can do to extract the private keys because they are not on the device in the first place.”

Instead, its security system revolves around a user-generated secret phrase — that can supposedly be memorized — instead of a conventional 24-word mnemonic seed that has to be written down, which allegedly contributes to the safety of the stored assets. That way, the Bitfi team argues, private keys are not held on the device at all:

“On the Bitfi wallet, your private key is calculated using our algorithm every time you type in your secret phrase. Once a transaction is approved, the private key is not stored anywhere in local memory. The private key does not exist on the device until you type in your secret phrase again. Therefore, if your device is stolen or seized, there is no way to gain access to the private key because it is not on the device and your funds always remain safe and there is absolutely no reason for alarm or concern if your device is lost of stolen.”

Finally, Bitfi argues that their product is “completely open-source,” meaning that the user allegedly stays in control of their funds in any scenario, as long as they remember the aforementioned secret phrase. The wallet also doesn’t have room for “human error,” the creators claim, because it’s strictly updated automatically via WiFi and the user doesn’t get to download any software manually.

Bounty hunt quickly went wrong

Bitfi’s website elaborates on the bounty program, listing a number of “rules”: Essentially, those who wish to participate have to purchase a Bitfi wallet that is preloaded with coins for an additional $10 (the wallet itselfs costs $120, as mentioned above).

The ultimate goal for the participant is to successfully extract the coins and empty the wallet, while the company allegedly grants “anyone who participates in this bounty permission to use all possible attack vectors, including our servers, nodes and our infrastructure.”

“The above is what we consider a successful hack,” the Bitfi website reads, “Nothing else will qualify.”

McAfee announced the hunt on July 24. Within a week, hacking reports started to emerge. On Aug. 1, crypto personality from the Netherlands OverSoft tweeted (referencing other users, namely Saleem Rashid, the alleged fifteen-year-old who revealed a security vulnerability in fellow hardware wallet Ledger in 2017, and Andrew Tierney, a security consultant at Pen Test Partners firm): “We have root access, a patched firmware and can confirm the BitFi wallet still connect happily to the dashboard.” OverSoft later posted BitFi ROM directory listings.

Bitfi did not respond to OverSoft’s original tweet directly. Nevertheless, the wallet soon announced a second bounty hunt — this time with a much more modest $10,000 reward — altering the rules and proceeding to claim that all reported security breaches did not meet the bounty’s conditions and, therefore, the device has not been hacked: “Rooting [i.e., getting administrative access to] the device does not mean it has been hacked,” the Bitfi team argued.

Soon, BitFi wrote on Twitter that the person handling their account was “dismissed because of many cocky [and] insulting remarks to smart researchers,” but continued to reinforce the idea that their service has not been “hacked.” “Your bounty only covers a single attack vector and excludes backdooring the device,” Tiernay replied.

“Cheap, stripped down Android phone”

Pen Test Partners, which posted a blog series regarding the hacking of Bitfi, claimed that, hardware-wise, “the Bitfi is a stripped down Mediatek MT6580 [...] It’s an Android phone, minus some components.” “Someone will probably have Doom running on it by Friday,” commented Ryan Castellucci, a self-proclaimed “software engineer and hardware hacker,” calling the device “a cheap, stripped down Android phone.” Consequently, in a subsequent episode of their “hacking Bitfi” series, Pen Test Partners posted a video allegedly proving that Bitfi device does have storage: In it, the wallet displays an uploaded video of John Mcafee. The Bitfi website, in turn, continues to refer to its wallet as “the most sophisticated instrument on the world.”

Bitfi dismissed Saleem Rashid claims, citing his decision not to claim the bounty. Responding, Rashid retweeted cryptocurrency and cybersecurity researcher Alan Woodward, who had also discussed the hack with Bitfi in the same Twitter thread.

“It’s not speculation based on what I’m looking at,” Woodward had written, continuing:
“And we don’t want your money. Give it to charity. We are concerned that others will entrust their money to something that is not secure in the way [it appears] to suggest.”

“Army of trolls”: Bitfi’s response to the criticism

Nevertheless, despite reportedly firing their social media employee, Bitfi continues to disown — and even threaten — their critics via social media: For instance, the wallet team asked Woodward if they could “alter [a] photograph of [his] face with something humiliating added,” in response to his concern about Bitfi’s affiliate allegedly spreading hate speech while defending the wallet.

On Aug. 1, an official Bitfi spokesperson, went even further and told Hard Fork that the recent criticism of the wallet’s security on Twitter was, in fact, the product of an “army of trolls” hired by hard wallet competitors Trezor and Ledger — Trezor’s founder and CEO has since denied the accusation. The spokesperson for Bitfi stated:

“Please understand that the Bitfi wallet is a major threat to Ledger and Trezor because it renders their technology obsolete [...] So they hired an army of trolls to try to ruin our reputation (which is OK because the truth always prevails).”

Meanwhile, Bitfi’s CEO Daniel Khesin continued to hold a skeptical position toward Rashid, challenging him to accept the money if he had, in fact, compromised the device, contributing to the overall immature approach his firm took trying to handle criticism:

“The person claiming to have cracked the bounty has not come forward to prove it and has tweeted five min ago that he will not be pursuing the bounty because it’s not worth his time,” he told Cointelegraph.

“Yet, he tweeted to the whole world this morning that he hacked into our wallet. I think it’s a disgrace for any human being to do such a thing, but I will leave to you to judge.”

On July 30, the Chamber of Digital Commerce proposed guidelines for the “responsible growth” of the crypto market.

On July 30, the Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC) Token Alliance published a 108-page collaborative report of proposed guidelines for the “responsible growth” of the cryptocurrency market.

In the accompanying press release, CDC member Paul Atkins, CEO of Patomak Global Partners and former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner, argued that guidelines are needed for the smart regulation that “strikes the right balance between protecting investors while allowing for innovation in this new technological frontier.”

What is Chamber of Digital Commerce?

The CDC is a U.S.-based advocacy group that promotes the industry behind virtual currencies and underlying technologies like blockchain. It was founded in July 2014 by Perianne Boring, who previously worked as a legislative analyst in the U.S. House of Representatives and a television anchor of an unspecified “international finance program,” according to her bio aon the CDC’s website.

Being established as a public education outlet, as well as a tool for influencing lawmakers and regulators about digital currencies, the Chamber started to build up its credibility with authorities from the very start: In August 2014, it registered a political action committee (PAC) with the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC). Two months after that, in October, the CDC received a nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

At this point, the CDC is comprised of approximately 350 participants — ranging from technologists and economists, to token experts, lawyers, former regulators and membership companies as large as Microsoft, Deloitte and IBM.

Tokens are not necessarily ‘securities’ or ‘commodities’ and therefore fall into a grey zone

The CDC report is dubbed “Understanding Digital Tokens.” It is the first installment of what is supposed to become a series, and it focuses upon a particular type of coin — tokens that are not designed to represent securities or commodities, meaning that they should be situated in a grey zone not controlled by the SEC and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) respectively.

In the introduction of the paper, the authors argue that the industry has come to a point where digital tokens do not necessarily fall into one precise category, a sentiment similar to the one voiced by experts at a recent U.S. Congressional hearing, which argued that a digital token’s legal status is fluid these days:

“Some tokens may serve as a virtual currency, others may represent or track physical assets in the real world, some may explicitly represent a security and others may have a utility function. These functionalities are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and a token’s legal treatment may depend on the manner in which the token was marketed.”

The CDC then lists examples of U.S. regulatory bodies’ various approaches toward virtual currencies, outlining the uncertainty of the current regulatory landscape. “In such a volatile regulatory regime (not to mention economic market), reasonable guidelines
are imperative,” the paper argues.

The first part of the report is a regulatory overview of five different jurisdictions: namely, the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and Gibraltar. The CDC goes over various legal aspects like taxation of tokens, Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance, investors protection, etc.

In every reviewed case, a specific regulatory framework for generation and distribution of digital tokens is absent. Therefore, such actions tend to fall on the periphery of the law and are defined on a case-to-case basis, where certain aspects of a token are studied by regulators. Even in Gibraltar, where a DLT framework was brought into effect in January 2018 and aimed to help facilitate DLT-backed businesses, it “does not extend to the generation and sale of digital tokens,” albeit with some exceptions, the paper concludes.

Token’s white paper: Dos and don’ts

Based on the assumption that digital tokens “can take a variety of forms and serve many purposes” that was supported by the aforementioned examples, the paper then attempts to outline principles and guidelines for ‘Token Sponsors’ — defined as an individual or group that either “generates or distributes” or “undertakes to lead or control the development, adoption, or distribution of a digital token” — to manage the risk that the offering and distribution of a digital token may entail, considering certain securities and commodity laws.

Significantly, tokens mentioned in this report are not securities or CFTC-regulated instruments, and the paper itself does not contain legal advice.

The CDC suggests risk management based on the broad definition of what might be deemed as “securities” along with the Howey Test, as well as stating the cases in which the CFTC may exercise general anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority over any digital token.

The next section in the report focuses on what should and what should not be included in the token’s white paper:

“Thus, the Token Sponsor should provide clear explanation of the project, along with the underlying technology, include descriptive or illustrative case studies of the application, disclose potential risks and employ utility-oriented promotion that does not ‘encourage interest in acquiring the token based solely on investment expectations or a fear of missing out on an investment,’ as it would constitute securities.”

The authors then argue that the white paper should not, however, describe the process of token distribution — as those details can be disclosed in additional materials, if needed:

“If a Token Sponsor’s digital token will be distributed in private sales, a limited public sale or auction, airdrop or a similarly limited event, it may be more appropriate to describe the event in separate materials that can be superseded when the event is completed, rather than in the Token Sponsor’s white paper.”

Moreover, the white paper should stay away from making misleading statements, promising financial returns, discussing strictly investor-oriented details and mentioning prior investments or major projects completed by the development team, its advisors and consultants.

The CDC stresses that following these guidelines “provides no guarantee that a federal or state regulator will not take issue with the digital token issuance, sale or other distribution” as they are intended to assist a Token Sponsor when thinking through critical issues related to “its digital token issuance, sale and distribution.”

Due diligence is the number one priority for platforms trading tokens

Further, the Chamber report focuses on token trading platforms, “entities that allow the trading of digital tokens.” The paper first warns that “responsible” platforms “should do more than merely avoid regulation by the SEC or the CFTC”:

“They should voluntarily conduct business in a manner that protects token consumers, protects the integrity of secondary markets and builds public confidence in the broader blockchain industry.”

Then, the section discusses how token trading platforms may manage risks that arise when a regulator or a court contends that a digital token trading on their platform is a security or a CFTC-regulated instrument “notwithstanding the Token Sponsor’s claims to the contrary.” Essentially, the report suggests the platform to do due diligence, keep the Howey Test in mind and review the token’s present utility before listing it on their service.

CDC will continue publishing reports to improve the token ecosystem

The report comes to a close by noting that the “concept of digital tokens is complex” and by citing SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, who declared that she “used to know what a token was,” while its present state is much more perplexing — which, in turn, shouldn’t “breed anxiety and therefore bad regulation.”

The subsequent CDC reports will highlight topics including AML/KYC potential regulatory adjustments; promoting the concept of a “utility token” among policymakers; and how the industry might play a role in self-regulation, among others.

A new report from KB Financial Group says that only around 2 percent of South Korean assets holders would like to invest in cryptocurrencies.

South Korean financial holding company KB Financial Group Inc. has released an Aug. 6  report on crypto investments in 2018, finding the majority of domestic respondents revealed no intention to invest in crypto.

KB Financial Group Inc. is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea and focuses on a range of banking and related financial services. Their survey involved 600 households that had financial assets of more than KRW 500 million (around $447,000) from April to May, as well as 400 respondents with over KRW 1 billion in financial assets (around $894,000).

According to their latest publication, 74.8 percent of domestic respondents revealed no intentions to invest in cryptocurrencies, 23 percent said that investments depended on the situation, and only around 2 percent intended to invest in cryptocurrencies in the future.

Meanwhile, the global situation showed more positive dynamics, local Korean news outlet Token Post writes. The KB Financial Group report notes that 29 percent of global asset holders and 52 percent of Asian asset holders — excluding those in Japan — are interested in cryptocurrency investments.

South Korea’s relationship to cryptocurrency has oscillated with the crypto craze, as the country has both banned anonymous trading and forbidden minor and government official from trading, as well as legalized Bitcoin (BTC) as a remittance method and lifted the ban on Initial Coin Offerings (ICO).

Earlier in July, the Bank of Korea had released a report noting that crypto does not pose any threat to the local financial market, underling that “the amount of crypto-asset investment is not really big.”

Bitcoin has seen posted growth to break back above the $7,000 mark, with the overall crypto market seeing a healthy flush of green.

Bitcoin (BTC) has seen solid growth to break back above the $7,000 mark today, August 7. The overall crypto market is seeing a healthy flush of green, rallying forth after the weekend’s losses, as data from Coin360 shows.

Market visualization from Coin360

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $7,118 at press time, up around 2.5 percent on the day. After several faltering attempts to break past the $7,000 threshold yesterday, the leading cryptocurrency has today seen a sustained uptick as of very early trading hours. Today’s growth has not yet pushed the coin’s weekly price change back into the green, however, which still remains at around an 8 percent loss. On the month, Bitcoin is now up almost 9 percent.

Bitcoin’s 24-hour price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Bitcoin Price Index

Fundstrat’s head of research and well-known Bitcoin bull Tom Lee today used his firm’s recently launched Bitcoin Misery Index (BMI) to evaluate the coin’s current market momentum. The index determines that any value below 27 signals promising future returns, while 68 is set as a “time to sell” misery threshold. With the index presently at 39, Lee said:

"Bitcoin isn't broken if it's holding at these levels. I think people are afraid it is going to go back down to $6,000 and never come back from those bear markets.”

The analyst also noted the recent uptrend in Bitcoin dominance by market capitalization, which as of press time is pushing 48 percent. In late July, BTC dominance had surged to 2018 record-highs, hitting levels not seen since last December, at a time when the coin was trading just below its $20,000 industry peak.

Lee also singled out the Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) plans to develop a regulated, global digital assets platform — spearheaded by Bitcoin-fiat conversion for consumers — as a strong bullish signal for the asset.

Ethereum (ETH) is currently trading around $409, up around one percent on the day to press time. The altcoin is now closing its losses on its weekly chart: while the asset is still down around $20 from its price point at the beginning of August, only yesterday its weekly value loss was above $50. Closing down to a 6 percentage loss on the week, Ethereum is still around 1.5 percent in the red on its monthly chart.

Ethereum’s 7-day price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Ethereum Price Index

On CoinMarketCap’s listings, all but three of the top ten coins by market cap are in the green, although gains are capped at a modest 2 percent over the 24-hour period.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is the strongest performer among the top ten, seeing around 2.4 percent in growth to trade at $708 at press time. EOS and Stellar (XLM) are also seeing solid gains, with the former up around 2 percent to trade at $7.15 and the latter up over 2 percent to hit $0.24 at press time.

IOTA (MIOTA) meanwhile, has seen ongoing significant losses and is down to around $0.80 at press time. The asset’s 24-hour chart is indicating an almost 9 percent loss, and an intra-day plummet to as low as $0.74. On the week, IOTA’s performance has been volatile, after it briefly decoupled from the wider bearish market to stake short-lived growth before its subsequent plummet.

IOTA’s 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Among the top twenty coins by market cap, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is still riding major positive momentum, possibly triggered by news of its imminent listing on popular U.S. crypto exchange and wallet service provider Coinbase, which is set for August 7. The asset is up a almost 8 percent to trade around $19.70 at press time, likely buoyed by another burst of good news of its listing on zero-fee crypto trading app Robinhood yesterday.

Ethereum Classic’s 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is around $257 billion at press time, edging upwards as the market stakes its recovery, yet still down around $20 billion on its weekly chart.

7-day chart of the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies from CoinMarketCap

Indications of crypto’s impending institutionalization continues to break, with insider sources yesterday telling Bloomberg that Goldman Sachs plans to “offer [its clients] custody for crypto funds,” notwithstanding the bank’s claims “not [to have] reached a conclusion” on digital assets.

Other traditional financial sector players are proceeding with similar caution, with UK-based bank Barclays today denying it is opening a crypto trading desk, while two employees recently removed LinkedIn evidence that they were working on digital asset-related products.

A new global alliance has been established by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to promote fintech collaboration.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced the creation of a global initiative to improve collaboration on fintech innovations — like blockchain — between regulators and companies, according to an official August 7 press release.

The FCA states that the new alliance, the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN), will work in collaboration with 11 financial authorities and related organizations in order to help fintech firms interact more easily with regulators from different countries.

According to the press release, GFIN aims to consult on topics such as the growth of technologies like distributed ledger tech and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as the regulation of securities and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), among others.

Christopher Woolard, FCA board member and Executive Director of Strategy and Competition, said in the press release that the creation of GFIN will help organizations “harnes[s] the benefits of innovation in financial services for consumers, while managing the potential harm.”

The new alliance is a part of the further implementation and development of the successful progress of FCA’s global fintech regulatory sandbox that had been launched earlier this year.

A July report conducted by the Big Innovation Centre, DAG Global, and Deep Knowledge Analytics had stated that the UK was set to become a leader in blockchain technology and the crypto economy by 2022.

Public South Korean biotech firm Macrogen has unveiled plans to develop a blockchain-based genomic big data ecosystem.

Public South Korean biotech enterprise Macrogen, the country’s leading gene sequencing service provider, is developing a genomic big data blockchain-based platform together with local tech firm Bigster, according to an August 6 press release.

The new partnership will leverage blockchain tech to create a medical big data ecosystem that would allow for both the secure and private storage and the transfer of large amounts of sensitive genomic and personal information.

As the press release notes, advances in genomics are reshaping the global medical landscape, allowing for individually customized diagnoses, treatment and prevention. Medical big data, which integrates individuals’ genomic, health and lifestyle information, is both highly sensitive and of exceptional value for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

Speaking to local news outlet The Korea Herald, Macrogen CEO Yang Kap-seok commented,

“Despite its wide utility, gene data has been difficult to move around due to privacy protection issues and technological barriers. We hope that our upcoming blockchain-based platform will allow health care genet[ic] and medical big data to be circulated freely.”

Macrogen and Bigster aim to develop the platform by June 2019, and have opted to create a permissioned blockchain that would restrict access to specific institutions such as pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, hospitals, and research institutes.

As Cointelegraph reported this May, a precedent for the use of blockchain for the secure exchange of genomic data has been set by American Nebula Genomics’ cooperation with Longenesis — the latter being a Hong-Kong-based partnership between Insilico Medicine and the Bitfury Group.

In April, US healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group announced it would be implementing blockchain to keep its records up to date in a more efficient, secure and accessible manner.

A “flippening” in criminal use of cryptocurrencies has occurred over the past five years, the US DEA has revealed.

An agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has noted that Bitcoin’s (BTC) role in crimes has dropped to just 10 percent of transactions, while transactions themselves have “grown tremendously,” Bloomberg reports August 7.

In an interview, DEA special agent Lilita Infante — who is a member of the 10-person Cyber Investigative Task Force — said that the ratio of legitimate to illegitimate Bitcoin transactions had flipped over the past five years, noting

“The volume has grown tremendously, the amount of transactions and the dollar value has grown tremendously over the years in criminal activity, but the ratio has decreased.”

The concept of criminals turning to cryptocurrency as an alternative to cash has traditionally formed a central argument used by those critical of Bitcoin’s future.

Regulators too have set about tackling the perceived usage of cryptocurrency for illicit purposes, often associated with terrorism and money laundering.

As Bitcoin’s popularity has grown, however, it is now legitimate trading which forms the overwhelming majority of activity, with Infante noting that the “majority of transactions are used for price speculation.”

She added that although privacy-focused altcoins are less liquid and more anonymous than BTC, the DEA “still has ways of tracking” currencies such as Monero and Zcash. Infante concluded,

“The blockchain actually gives us a lot of tools to be able to identify people. I actually want them to keep using them [cryptocurrencies].’’

At a U.S. House public meeting on digital assets in mid-July, Andreessen Horowitz managing partner Scott Kupor suggested that “Bitcoin is law enforcement’s best friend” due to the ability to track illicit transactions on the blockchain.

Tom Lee claims that Bitcoin’s growing market dominance and current BMI indicators show that the crypto is gaining momentum.

Bitcoin (BTC) “isn't broken” if it’s holding at the current price and volatility levels, Fundstrat’s Tom Lee said to CNBC's "Fast Money" on August 6.

In the interview, the Wall Street bull referred to the current indicators of Fundstrat’s recently launched Bitcoin Misery Index (BMI), which aims to inform investors of how “miserable” holders of the currency are based on its price and volatility.

According to Lee, when the index is below 27, it shows that future returns are very good, while if it surpasses 68 percent, it is “time to sell Bitcoin.” Pointing at the index’s current number of 39, Lee concluded that the momentum is “recovering,” noting

"Bitcoin isn't broken if it's holding at these levels. I think people are afraid it is going to go back down to $6,000 and never come back from those bear markets.”

Fundstrat’s head of research also pointed out the current levels of Bitcoin dominance on the crypto markets, which has surged up to around 48 percent over the past several weeks after dropping to as low as 37 percent in July.  

As Lee explained, the fact that major cryptocurrency keeps gaining momentum in terms of market share is “actually showing the market is reacting to what's been taking place."

Lee also pointed at the recent biggest news in the industry, such as the Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) announcement of developing a new global digital assets platform, as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stating that Bitcoin is not a security.

On Aug. 3, ICE, the operator of 23 leading global exchanges including the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), announced its plans to build an integrated digital assets platform to enable customers, merchants, and institutional clients to buy, sell, store, and spend digital assets on a “seamless global network.”

In the beginning of July, Lee repeated his stance that Bitcoin could reach anywhere between $22,000 to $25,000 by the end of 2018. Earlier this summer, on June 27, Lee had predicted that the BTC downtrend that took place in June would be reversed if Bitcoin could push through a resistance point of $6,300 to $6,400.

Maerki Baumann has become the second Swiss bank to accept cryptocurrency assets, following Hypothekarbank Lenzburg.

The Maerki Baumann private bank will become the second Swiss bank to accept cryptocurrency assets, financial news outlet International Investment reports August 6.

The private Zurich bank has decided to accept crypto assets from payments received for services rendered, as well as those earned from crypto mining, as a response to new market demands and the rise of cryptocurrencies’ popularity, International Investment writes.

Maerki Baumann noted that they are not ready to provide direct cryptocurrency investments, but will provide “experts” to clients interested in crypto investing. According to their statement, the bank “closely monitors the development” of crypto as an investment vehicle and its “underlying regulation,” noting

“We currently see cryptocurrencies as alternative investment vehicles, but we have limited experience and data (prices, volatility, trading volumes) available in our house.”

However, the bank does state that they “currently advise against larger investments in cryptocurrencies,” adding

 “Crypto currencies [sic] are not, in our estimation, suitable for long-term investment due to the uncertainties outlined above.”

Earlier this summer, the Hypothekarbank Lenzburg had become the first bank Switzerland to provide company accounts for blockchain and crypto-related fintech companies. Last year, the Falcon Private Bank had received authorization from the Swiss Financial Supervisory Authority (FINMA) for managing Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies based on blockchain technology.

Employees at UK bank Barclays have deleted information from LinkedIn about a digital assets project at the bank after media inquiries.

UK-based bank Barclays has denied it is working on opening a crypto trading desk. The statement was made after two employees removed LinkedIn evidence they were working on a digital assets project at the bank, Business Insider reports August 6.

According to Business Insider, Matthieu Jobbe Duval and Chris Tyrer, whom Barclays confirmed worked for the bank, had listed cryptocurrency-related duties on their LinkedIn profiles.

Duval had written he was involved in a “digital asset project” and was “hired to produce a business plan for integrating a digital assets trading desk into Barclays' markets business: revenue opportunity, competitive landscape, budgeting and planning for delivery, I.T. buildout, capital & balance sheet impact.”

After Business Insider approached Barclays for comment, however, Duval removed the information while nonetheless confirming it was “accurate.” Tyrer, whose LinkedIn had described him as the head of the digital assets project, declined to comment.

Barclays told Cointelegraph that they have “no plans for a crypto trading desk.”

As of press time, Duval and Tyrer’s LinkedIn profiles still show positions at Barclays working with “digital assets,” but all information detailing the specifics of the jobs is not listed.

Barclays, as well as Duval and Tyrer, have not responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment by press time.

The curious events continue what has become a growing trend among banks of denying cryptocurrency interest at a senior level while appearing to actively develop an approach to the phenomenon elsewhere.

This week, Goldman Sachs insiders said the bank planned to offer “crypto custody” services despite a spokesman telling Bloomberg it had “not reached a conclusion” on digital assets.

A similar story emerged from BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, whose CEO Larry Fink last month claimed none of its clients had an interest in cryptocurrency exposure while at the same time the company formed a working group to assess Bitcoin involvement.

In March, Barclays began serving U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in a partnership which allowed considerably faster funding options for UK traders.

Coinbase has hired a former AWS and Microsoft exec as the new VP of engineering in order to build the “most open, secure, and accessible financial system.”

Former Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft employee Tim Wagner has joined Coinbase as vice president (VP) of engineering, according to a blogpost August 6.

Wagner will now lead Coinbase’s engineering team, which is “central to [Coinbase’s] mission of creating an open financial system for the world,” Coinbase writes in the post.

Aiming to build the “most open, secure, and accessible financial system,” Wagner will also be responsible for expanding the team by hiring engineering talent in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Prior to Coinbase, Wagner served as general manager (GM) at AWS for more than five years, with his most recent positions at AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, and AWS Serverless App Repository.

Before AWS, Wagner spent several years at Microsoft, serving as the director of development at Microsoft’s Visual Studio Ultimate.

San Francisco-based crypto exchange and wallet Coinbase has also recently hired Wall Street exec Jeff Horowitz as its new Chief Compliance Officer, and Rachel Horowitz, who previously served at Twitter and Facebook as a communications expert, as the new VP of Communications.

Last week, Coinbase announced it started exploring the listing of 49 new assets on its custodial service, including storage for such cryptocurrencies as Ripple (XRP), EOS, Monero (XMR), VeChain (VEN), Cardano (ADA), Bitcoin Gold (BTG), and Telegram.