CryptoAM: SAFU is real, Billionaire fights, and Clothing...on the Blockchain!
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Good morning bitlets, I hope you didn’t miss us too much. Luckily for you, the next holiday on our calendar is Labor day — so you’re stuck with us for 2 months :)
3 things you need to know:
One: Binance announces the creation of #SAFU, the Secure Asset Fund for Users. In the aftermath of the Syscoin API attack, Binance has created a dedicated fund to reimburse users for losses. They will be taking 10% of the profits generated and placing them in cold storage to make sure
The Syscoin attack: Similar to the Viacoin attack a few months ago, the hackers gained access to accounts through phishing attacks/compromised trading bots and gathered a database of API keys. While they did they, they started to accumulate stores of Syscoin. Once they had sufficient API keys, they wrote a program to empty the compromised accounts and sell all their assets into Syscoin at absurdly inflated prices! One Syscoin was sold for 96 BTC…
We got lucky: Nothing was actually stolen from Binance! Their anomaly detection systems worked incredibly well, and shut down withdrawals before the attackers managed to move funds off the exchange. One important note is that Binance itself was not compromised — only individual accounts were.
Be careful! If you use API keys, change them at least once a month. Never, ever sign up for online trading bots. First of all, if they’re for sale they are unlikely to actually be effective. Second, they may end up compromised and you may find your funds at risk.
Two: Chinese Crypto Billionaire Bashes NEO, QTUM, and CZ. Xiaolai Li is about as famous as you can get in the cryptocurrency space in China. He was one of the first big Chinese investors, establishing the first (and now most influential) Chinese cryptocurrency venture fund — BitFund.
In a secretly recorded video, Xiaolai is heard taking shots at many of the players in the current cryptocurrency space, calling Qtum a “Garbage coin”, and NEO a “stupid project [and] worthless”. He goes on to claim that the founder of NEO, Dai Hongfei, barely holds any NEO anymore. These words coming from a influential investors behind closed doors are something to take seriously. Xiaolai had a hand in helping these projects off the ground, and for him to turn around and trash them may be indicative of large issues. Then again, it’s possible he has new investments that could
Stay aware: Cryptocurrencies are hard. Building a robust currency is no easy task, and there are many instances of projects failing, or turning out to be vaporware. It’s a good bet to be overly skeptical of projects. Even the most well funded projects can turn out to be worthless.
Three: Waltonchain partners with KALTENDIN to bring blockchain to the retail industry. Yesterday in partnership with KALTENDIN, a high end Chinese clothing brand, Waltonchain introduced the WTC-Garment system, the world's first blockchain-based high-end clothing authenticity traceability system.
Disruption: WTC-Garment is an attempt as innovating in a historically low-tech industry – clothing. There is little application and use of data in this area, mainly because data collection has historically been difficult. With the introduction of RFID chips on clothes, it becomes easier to track how often clothes are worn, bought, looked at and handled.
Be smart: Adoption is coming, and people should be watching out. If 2017 was the year of hype, 2018 and 2019 will be the year of action. Moving forward, I’m expecting projects with true use cases, products and implementation to have outsized price appreciation. While this seems obvious, it was not always true. In the past, marketing and hype have had a lot more to do with price than fundamentals.
Also in the news:
Maltese Parliament Passes Pro-Blockchain Laws, Establishing Malta as “Blockchain Island”
Kingdom of Thailand Publishes New ICO Legalization Framework
South Korea Recognizes Crypto Exchanges With Launch of Blockchain Classification System
What I’m reading today:
Cryptocurrency Virtually Outlawed in India as Top Court Backs Ban
For 17% the world, it will remain effectively impossible to purchase cryptocurrencies in a legal manner. “the Reserve Bank of India’s directive prohibiting banks, financial institutions and other regulated institutions from providing any services related to virtual currencies will remain implemented.” This means that Indian citizens will not have access to any Indian regulated institutions that deal in cryptocurrencies and that they will not be able to use any assets held under Indian bank accounts to fund purchases of cryptocurrencies on foreign exchanges.
Of the larger nations around the globe, India has taken one of the strictest stances against cryptocurrencies. It will be very interesting to see how these laws affect the adoption of cryptocurrency in India. Inevitably there will be greatly reduced amount of investment from Indian citizens, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Indians won’t use DApps. I anticipate that within five to ten years the regulations around cryptocurrency in India will be drastically different. Clearly, we are optimistic here at CryptoAM, but there is no way that India will want to be behind in adoption of DLT for too long.
Many people might dismiss India’s laws regarding crypto as simply backwards, but it’s very important to understand that no one knows it’s citizens better than the Indian government. It is a fact that many crypto “investments” are in fact scams. The crypto space still needs time to mature, and it is perfectly reasonable for a government to decide that its citizens may not be well versed enough to distinguish fact from fantasy.
Around the corner:
TechCrunch Crypto Sessions takes place July 6th
Quarkchain public testnet is launching July 7th
VeChain is releasing their mobile wallet on July 9th
The Augur mainnet is launching on July 9th
NULS is releasing their mainnet on July 12th
Tell us what we should add!
Market Outlook:
Quick Take
Low volatility has continued through the week, with both upper and lower resistance levels being tested — but not broken. I’m looking for a daily close above 6.85k (resistance #2) for confirmation of a continued uptrend.
Most people likely have shorts out at the 7.2k level, and a break upwards would cause them to close out. A daily close above 6.85k would indicate a likely run to 7.8k, as the mini bull run stays intact.
Watch closely for a break of support #1 at 6.45k. It would not invalidate the reversal, but would reduce probability of a continued run quite a bit, and I would reduce exposure. A break of support #2 around 6.35k would invalidate the reversal, and we would be looking to test 6k once again.
Daily Chart:
Fear & Greed:
Fear & Greed remains bullish. Both RSI and F&G indicate we have room to go before exhausting this bull run. We will likely see BTC appreciate first, with alts following as speculation is still so low.