The first week of November has been exciting for the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Perhaps the biggest news of the week was that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray warned that cryptocurrency is a "significant issue" for law enforcement that will grow bigger. On Tuesday before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee, Wray responded to questions from Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) about cryptocurrency, law enforcement, and terrorist deterrence, explaining: "Whether its cryptocurrency, whether it's default encryption on devices and messaging platforms; we are moving as a country and world in a direction where if we don't get our act together money, people, communication, evidence, facts, all the bread and butter for all of us to do our work will be essentially walled off from the men and women we represent." Wray supported Romney's question concerning terrorist financing, saying US adversaries are becoming more adept with technologies that boost anonymity. The FBI has long argued that encryption can be used by criminal actors for information and financial flows.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
Silvergate Bank, a notable crypto-friendly bank, officially began selling its shares on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. About a year after the bank first filed for its initdial public offering (IPO), Silvergate began its "IPO day" on the NYSE, according to the stock exchange's Twitter (NASDAQ: TWTR) account. The news came a day after Silvergate received a "notice of effectiveness" from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), indicating its longstanding IPO bid. Silvergate priced its stock offering at $12 per share on November 6 and is planning to offer 3,333,333 shares of Class A common stock. The bank is looking to sell the shares under the "SI" ticker by Tuesday, November 12. The bank currently serves more than 750 firms in the crypto space, as blockchain startups seek banking solutions outside of traditional institutions.
Tencent is ready to launch a blockchain-based virtual bank after the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission approved a new license for the Chinese tech giant. Speaking at the World Blockchain Summit in Wuzhen, China on Friday, Tencent blockchain chief Yige Cai revealed the firm's virtual bank obtained a green light from regulators. Cai said Tencent will assemble a virtual bank team but did not give further details about the initiative. He emphasized the firm's existing blockchain projects, including the offering of supply chain financing for restaurant chain McDonald's (NYSE: MCD). Cai currently leads the consortium blockchain group out of the three blockchain development groups at Tencent, with the other two focused on blockchain infrastructure and cloud services.
Crypto prices traded flat to around $246 billion this week. For the majors, Stellar (XLM), Litecoin (LTC), and EOS (EOS) posted strong gains, while Ripple (XRP) and Bitcoin (BTC) slipped. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Chiliz (CHZ), down 18%, LUNA (LUNA), down 12%, and EDUCare (EKT), down 10%. The biggest gainers were DxChain Token (DX), up a whopping 193%, Aurora (AOA), up 50%, and Tezos (XTZ), up 45%. Next week traders will see if Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) can take back the key $10,000 and $200 levels.
The author owns a small amount of BTC and LTC.