The last week of June has been exciting for the cryptocurrency markets. Arguably the biggest news is that the social media conglomerate Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) will partially reverse its ban on cryptocurrency ads. Its blog post explained that going forward, Facebook will allow advertisers of crypto services and products to submit an application detailing their legitimacy. Relevant information will include any licenses, any exchanges that the token is listed on, and other public disclosures. Facebook stated it is open to revising its policy. As Facebook is one of the world's largest advertising platforms, the nuanced policy change is good news.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
A TechCrunch article argues that over 1,000 crypto projects have already failed in 2018. Most are scam ICOs that raised crypto worth millions of dollars. Some are legitimate startups that simply received too much funding and ran into regulatory or operational troubles. The article suggests that ICOs should adopt the framework of trust that Kickstarter and Indiegogo feature in order to avoid failure and abandonment, and achieve long-term success.
A Fortune piece profiles a crypto hedge fund that remains long on Ethereum (ETH) and the controversial EOS. The Texas-based Multicoin Capital, backed by Andressen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, believes that EOS is suffering growing pains but will climb in a similar way to Ethereum. Multicoin Capital is short on Ripple (XRP) and Litecoin (LTC) because they believe that Litecoin has no investment thesis and that Ripple will be classified as a security by US regulators. The hedge fund's trading thesis is contrarian, but it has paid off handsomely in recent months.
A New York Times article covers the recent investments made by Medici Ventures, a subsidiary of CEO Patrick Byrnes's Overstock (NASDAQ: OSTK). Medici has invested in tZero, a fintech firm that wants to reduce securities settlement to zero days, Bitt, a startup that aims to help the world's unbanked use digital mobile wallets, and Voatz, a startup that is experimenting with blockchain tech to secure smartphone voting. However, Byrne cautions the public to stay away from the crypto asset class until the Securities and Exchange Commission issues its final guidance.
Sentinel Protocol is a startup creating a decentralized threat reputation database to help reduce the occurrences of exchange hacking in the future. Sentinel is working with the Bibox exchange and various decentralized exchanges to enable them to detect and stop fraudulent, malicious transactions and criminal activities. Hopefully their innovative software will give crypto users and investors greater security and peace of mind.
This week crypto prices plummeted to the year's low before sharply bouncing up. Total market capitalization broke through the $250 billion level to test $230 billion. A buying spree late on Friday caused prices to almost surge to last week's highs. Still, traders and investors should remain vigilant. Though sporadic vicious bull rallies might occur, the overall bear market trends with resistance ahead.
The author owns a small amount of BTC and LTC.