Weekly Market Movement

CLICK HERE FOR LIVE PRICES>>Weekly Summary: With some exceptions, most popular cryptocurrencies are slightly down or flat across the board over the 7-day period. Spot volumes continue to trend downwards, as the market remains quiet in terms of volatility for the third straight week.

Big News Of The Week: Cardano

ADA The Native Asset Of The Cardano Network, Has Become A Top Ten Crypto By Market Cap At USD 2.1B - The Asset’s Ranking Comes On The Back Of Technical Developments - We Provide an Overview Of The Asset And Explore Its Recent Performance

• In 2017, the Cardano Foundation, a non-profit entity working on the network, launched an ICO which raised $62M. Cardano is essentially a smart contract platform, conceptually similar to EOS or Ethereum. What differentiates the network is a multi-layer design. It features a ‘Cardano Settlement Layer’ (CSL) and a ‘Cardano Computation Layer’ (CCL). CSL represents a ledger of account balances. This layer is currently running, while CCL is expected to launch with the network’s third upgrade, Goguen and is described as a sidechain to CSL. CCL will introduce new functionalities. For example, it ‘is possible to create a special purpose token held by delegates of that ledger who could be regulated entities, thereby creating a permissioned ledger.’ Once both layers are working, the proof-of-stake system Ouroboros consensus algorithm would facilitate transactions and other activities such as smart contract data inputting. As such, one would need to hold ADA in order to pay for the processing of applications with the CCL, regardless of the applications being permissioned or permissionless. Ourobors, which is currently running and facilitating the CSL, is described as being modular and flexible, meeting the needs of diverse applications that will use CCL. Cardano has 5 developmental phases: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho and Voltaire. Byron represents a centralized version of the network, described as ‘federated.’ The network is currently ending Byron and a transition to Shelley is planned for July 29. Shelley will introduce staking of ADA capabilities for holders, allowing them to earn rewards by holding the asset.

Takeaway: Cardano’s consensus algorithm, Ourboros, which has seen use by other networks, goes beyond addressing scaling and throughput capacities, according to its technical documents. Ourboros’ and CCL’s flexibility and modularity allow for permissioned implementations, such as JP Morgan’s adaptation of Ethereum, Quorom. that remain on the network and increase demand for ADA. Furthermore, the modularity would also allow for creating applications or networks, inside Cardano, that meet certain regulatory requirements, while not degrading the immutability of the entire network. That said, Cardano is only now entering the 2nd phase of a 5 part developmental roadmap. If each phase lasts as long as Shelley, which was about 2 years, Cardano’s final Voltaire phase will be reached in 8 years. ADA reached an all-time high on January 4 2018 with $1.04, and has since seen a 92% drop. This volatility incapsulated the ICO craze of 2017 and subsequent deflation of expectations and realization of the extent of Cardano’s time horizons. Overall, a staking ecosystem has yet to emerge, not to mention any practical applications and the token still has an over USD 2B market cap.*DISCLAIMER* Bitbuy does not offer Cardano trading and this should not be considered investment advice in ADA/Cardano.

Other Weekly Headlines

• Decentralized prediction market Augur is launching the second version of its platform on Ethereum on July 28. Augur’s V2 introduced a new token, REPv2. Holder’s of Augur’s current REP token will be able to migrate their assets to the new version. The announcement was made Monday.Full story on Augur

• The New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) has raised $190M for one of its bitcoin funds, according to filings with the SEC. The fund, called NYDIG Institutional Bitcoin Fund LP, saw contributions from 24 investors.Full story on The Block

• According to research from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, 2.6M individuals have purchased crypto. Three quarters of the crypto holders own less than 1,000 pounds worth of the assets. The research also found that the majority of holders are male and over 35.Full Story On Reuters

• Israeli startup Curv a privacy-focused wallet provider, has closed a $23M Series A funding round. Curv saw contributions from CommerzVentures, Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Team8 and Digital Garage Lab Fund. The startup previously closed a $6.5M seed round in February 2018.Full Story On Coindesk

• The total amount of bitcoin represented on the Ethereum network via assets such as Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), renBTC, HBTC, or imBTC, has surpassed $100M. The metric, pointed out by crypto news site Decrypt, is achieved by locking BTC in smart contracts on their blockchain, and then issuing an Ethereum-based token to represent the locked BTC.Full Story On Decrypt
• Coinlist a platform that lists early-stage digital assets, will distribute Filecoin (FIL) tokens ater the asset’s network goes live in August. The tokens will be sent directly to investors’ CoinList wallets. The network aims to create a marketplace for unused digital storage. Full Story On The Block

LONG-READ OF THE WEEK

Central Banks And Payments In The Digital Era, Hyun Song Shin For The Bank For International Settlements, June 24, 2020

• Hyun Song Shin, Economic Adviser and Head of Research at the Bank For International Settlements, discusses the role central banks play in increasingly digitized payments.

Bitbuy Referral Program Changes

Please note, moving forward our referral program will require the referred user to make a singular CAD deposit of $250 or more in order for the referred user and referrer to each earn a $20 reward.

This change was made to eliminate an issue where some earned referral credits were being missed by our system. We're also working on some major improvements to our referral program including instant payouts. Stay tuned!