Perhaps the biggest news regrading cryptocurrency for the first week of March is South Korea's legislature approved a new bill to regulate crypto exchanges, and it may spell bad news for questionable initial coin offerings (ICOs). South Korean lawmakers voted Thursday to place tough new requirements on cryptocurrency exchanges, adding legitimacy to the country's burgeoning crypto economy. The amendment to the existing Financial Information Act shores up the country's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing framework for virtual asset service companies. The new requirements could squeeze out smaller Korean firms that cannot afford to take on the extra regulatory burden. Exchanges might try to consolidate and merge together to meet the new requirements. The bill could also lead to the death of legally gray projects trying to take advantage of investors, as they are forced to register. South Korea's president has 15 days to sign the bill into law.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
Although the Indian cryptocurrency industry won a recent court battle over an April 2018 central bank ban on banking access, the longer war is not yet over. The Reserve Bank of India, which issued the order to cut off crypto firms from the financial system, announced it plans to return to the Supreme Court to fight the Wednesday ruling that overturned its ban, according to an Economic Times report on Friday. The report says the central bank will file a review petition over the court judges' ruling the central bank had not been balanced in issuing the order. In its petition the central bank is planning to cite concerns the restarting of crypto trading could pose a risk to India's banking system. Since Wednesday's ruling, some Indian crypto exchanges restarted deposits and withdrawals via bank accounts. But if the central bank persuades the Supreme Court to change its mind, the Indian crypto industry could face more time in regulatory limbo.
Auburn University's RFID Lab on Wednesday published a white paper that studies a tracking tool that retailers could use to share product info across supply chains. Blockchain might help major apparel brands from Nike (NYSE: NKE) to Macy's (NYSE: M) better share product data across the retail supply chain, according to the white paper. The Auburn study found blockchain to be a promising way to share serialized data after following tens of thousands of goods including Nike Kids' Air Force 1 shoes and Michael Kors parkas as they moved through distribution centers. RFID Lab is one of the most prominent outposts for American retailers' experiments with emerging supply chain technology. RFID Lab will now continue its blockchain study to a "consultancy" phase to better understand how much value distributed ledger and RFID data sharing systems can offer businesses, possibly allowing them to reap millions of dollars' worth of efficiencies.
Crypto prices tumbled to $231 billion this week. For the majors, Bitcoin SV (BSV), EOS, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) posted outsized double-digit losses, while Tether (USDT) eked up. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Synthetix Network (SNX), down 24%, Siacoin (SC), down 20%, and aelf (ELF), down 20%. The biggest gainers were Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR), up a whopping 52%, Ren (REN), up 33%, and Energi (NRG), up 31%. Next week traders will see if crypto can post a green week amid the market panic due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The author does not hold any positions in any of the securities above.