The Bitbuy Brief
Issue #110
August 20th, 2020
Weekly Market Movement
Analysis: Crypto saw modest gains across the board over the past week, with some coins such as EOS and Litecoin posting double digit gains. Spot volumes increased week over week to retrace levels seen during July.
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New On Bitbuy Resources
You may have heard of DeFi, it’s been one of the most talked about topics in crypto in 2020. DeFi is an exciting new corner of the crypto economy, bringing traditional financial products to the masses using decentralized protocols. Crypto writer Jack Choros breaks down what DeFi is, and how to get DeFi tokens in Canada in this new guide.
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Big Story Of The Week on EOS
This Week Saw EOS Post Significant Gains After Months of Mostly Flat Trading – We Discuss The Asset’s Recent Performance And Prospects Given Current Market Conditions
- The firm behind the EOS network, Block.one, based in the Cayman Islands with offices in Virginia and Hong Kong, raised an impressive USD 4.1B in its 2018 ICO (much of which remains in Block.one treasury). EOS was pitched as a fast blockchain network that would overcome capacity issues via its delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism. This approach relies on 21 delegates who process transactions on the network. EOS token holders are able to elect delegates out of a broader set of competing candidates. EOS’ DPoS has drawn criticism of centralization as the network works towards developing a viable ecosystem where prospective validators have authentic incentives to compete for the votes of EOS holders. In September 2019 the SEC announced that it had reached a settlement with Block.one over its ICO, which the regulator classified as an unregistered securities offering. Under the deal, Block.one paid a USD 24M fine. Announcing the SEC deal, Block.one described the settlement as resolving ‘all ongoing matters between Block.one and the SEC.’ EOS made highs in April 2018, when it reached a market cap of USD 15B. Since then, the asset has not been able to regain more than half of that value.
Takeaway: EOS has largely flown under the radar in the current market dynamic which has been marked by outsized gains from ‘newer’ names such as LINK. Crypto media largely missed the incremental progress made by Block.one’s EOS-based social media platform Voice, which announced that early adopters’ friends and family would be invited to join the network. Similarly, incremental advances by Eosfinex, a decentralized exchange built on the network by Bitfinex, have gone unnoticed as well. In July the exchange announced it was entering ‘the final stage of our [EOS] mainnet launch’ and was looking ‘for beta testers.’ The launch of Eosfinex would bolster the development of DeFi on EOS, similar to how decentralized exchanges preceded other DeFi protocols on Ethereum. Given the current appetite for risk and all things DeFi, the developments of Voice and Eosfinex look well-timed. EOS’ huge ‘ICO’ offers plenty to fund development. For example, Block.one poured USD 150M into Voice ‘to kickstart its independent operation. After months of underperformance and quiet, announcements look to start flowing for EOS in a friendly market environment.
Other Weekly Headlines
- The US Federal Reserve released details on Thursday regarding a 2019 payments experiment dubbed ‘FooWire.’ The experiment used the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain software. ‘The team found that Fabric and similar DLT platforms have potential payment uses.’ – link – @Fed
- George Ball, the CEO of wealth management firm Sanders Morris Harris predicted that investors will turn to BTC and other cryptocurrencies in search of a safe haven. Ball, who described himself as initially being an ‘opponent’ of bitcoin and blockchain, said investors will seek the asset because it can’t be undermined by the government and ‘won’t become worthless. VIDEO – @Reuters
- YAM, the decentralized finance platform which saw total locked capital reach USD 475M within days of launch, has launched YAM version 2 due to bugs discovered in the initial protocol. Holders of YAM version 1 tokens now have 3 days to migrate to the new protocol, which has been audited by crypto-security firm Peckshield. – link – @YAM
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Disclaimer: The opinions and analysis expressed in this newsletter are those of the writer, and not of Bitbuy. Nothing in this note should be considered investment advice.
