Author: Editorial Office CVJ.CH

For a long time it was quiet around the planned stable coin social media company Facebook. Now the Geneva-based Libra Foundation is back with a revised whitepaper and a FINMA application for a licence to be considered payment system. As can be seen from the announcement on the Association’s blog, the project wants to support central banks in the future, in their development of central bank digital currencies (CBDC’s). Efforts are being made to bring blockchain technology inline with recognized regulations. The updated white paper provides an overview of the categories of network participants, including virtual asset service providers (VASP’s).…

In an open letter to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), the Bitcoin Association Switzerland (BAS) is formulating a recommendation to amend the Money Laundering Ordinance presented in February. It calls for all financial market players to be treated equally. On 7 February 2020, FINMA published a proposed ordinance and several partial ordinance revision projects, including the FINMA Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance (GWV-FINMA). The BAS refers to a specific detail concerning crypto-currencies. Regulation shows differences between virtual and traditional currencies The proposed Article 51a GWV-FINMA would create a legal distinction between virtual currencies and traditional currencies. It would set different…

Bitcoin/USD daily basis Source: Tradingview.com Bitcoin/USD – Not much new in the reporting week On Monday, Bitcoin was able to advance to just over USD 7,300 right at the beginning of the reporting week. This was followed on Tuesday by another attempt to climb higher spheres. However, this was rejected at USD 7,500. This was followed by an intraday correction to a low of USD 7,050, but the daily closing price was marked slightly higher at USD 7,200. The next two days the Bitcoin price consolidated at these levels until Friday when it was sharply rejected below the USD 7’000…

Crypto Valley and the entire Swiss Blockchain scene is facing an existential threat due to the restrictions caused by the Corona pandemic. The Swiss Blockchain Federation recently conducted a broad survey among companies in the Valley. Startups from Crypto Valley are particularly hard hit Due to the uncertainties of the Corona crisis, numerous industry players have already contacted the umbrella organisation and asked for urgent support. Crypto Valley, which today stretches far beyond the canton of Zug, had established itself in recent years as a global showcase cluster in the field of blockchain technology. Survey of 203 companies The Swiss…

In order to improve the traceability of its own coffee brand “Zoégas”, Nestlé is expanding the use of the IBM’s Food Trust blockchain and is entering into a cooperation with the Rainforest Alliance. Zoega’s coffee packaging is labelled with QR codes According to the company, the IBM Food Trust blockchain will provide consumers with more detailed information about the logistics processes. As part of this, Zoégas coffee packaging sold in Sweden will be labelled with QR codes. These can provide customers with various types of information, such as the distance the coffee beans have travelled from harvest to the supermarket…

Central bank policy and monetary system The trend displayed below is one of an expansive monetary policy (which was originally intended to rescue the traditional banking system). Despite being intended only to rescue the traditional banking system, this policy is now further being continued in the hopes of achieving the vision of eternal growth without recessionary periods.  Low interest rates and the continuous printing of new money to buy bonds and shares on the market is fast becoming a normality for central banks. Effectively, the aim is to provide the world with cheap capital. Under the term “Quantitative Easing,” an…

The whistle for “halve-time” is set to blow, with May 2020 creeping ever closer. For those operating in the crypto-verse “halving/halvening” is the talk of the office, with speculation as to what new heights the price of bitcoin will surge to, taking centre stage. This interest in 2020’s most anticipated crypto-event is seemingly mirrored by the volume of searches for “bitcoin halving” on Google Trends. The increase in searches is indicative of the excitement and pull bitcoin has across the globe. But what is the “halving” and what/who may be driving this surge in searches? Bitcoin Halving – a Brief…

Chainalysis (a company specializing in blockchain analysis) helps companies and law enforcement agencies uncover fraud and prevent money laundering. In its recently published Crypto Crime Report, the company recorded the illegal activities that were discovered. Thanks to the inherent transparency of the blockchain, findings can be made that are not possible when investigating money laundering in the traditional Fiat currency world. According to the report, cryptocurrency fraudsters succeeded in scamming 4.3 billion dollars from their victims last year. Most of the illegal money flows were linked to pyramid schemes, including OneCoin and PlusToken. Exchanges are a popular money laundering solution…

Bayerische Motoren Werke, better known as BMW, has announced that the company has successfully tested a platform called “PartChain”. According to the announcement, the test was completed in 2019. Pilot project has already been successfully tested at several locations PartChain will use blockchain as well as cloud technologies from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure to ensure the traceability of automotive parts. The company wants to ensure greater data transparency for automotive parts involving parties that are distributed around the world. In the pilot project already completed, the solution was used for purchasing and tracking headlights. At the time, two…

Bitcoin/USD daily basis Bitcoin USD – Continuously higher lows At the beginning of the reporting week, Bitcoin was able to defend the previous Sunday’s low of USD 5,900. This was followed on Monday by an upward movement which led to a level of 6’600 USD and just below that marked its daily closing price. In the following days the Bitcoin price was able to move steadfastly away from the USD 6,000 mark. This happened within narrow daily bandwidths, but with consistently higher lows. Although the USD 7,200 was briefly eclipsed on Thursday, this was only an intraday result. Thus, in…

This acquisition has been hiding in plain sight for some time. The crypto exchange Binance takes over the popular US crypto information service Coinmarketcap. Coinmarketcap – 35 million requests per month It is now official: Binance has confirmed that it has acquired the, currently ,most popular crypto information service. According to reports in The Block magazine, Binance may have spent around 400 million dollars on the acquisition. According to the magazine, the acquisition was mainly paid for with shares and NBB tokens. The acquisition of Coinmarketcap would place this deal among the top three most expensive crypto acquisitions. The platform,…

According to a circular dated 4 October 2019, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has issued official regulations for crypto-fund managers. The 37-page document is entitled “Proforma Terms and Conditions for Licensed Corporations which Manage Portfolios that Invest in Virtual Assets.” In this document, SFC sets out conditions that apply to all companies that manage portfolios and invest in virtual assets. Organizational and financial guidelines Accordingly, asset managers in Hong Kong are expected to have liquid capital of at least 3 million Hong Kong dollars ($383,000) and a floating liquid capital. In addition, SFC recommends that the managers…

A dispute in France has led to a landmark court decision. The decision of the Nanterre Commercial Court contained extensive case law, which also determined the legal nature of Bitcoin. The court considers Bitcoin in this case to be a fungible intangible asset. Just like paper money, Bitcoin legally represents an asset that is exchangeable but not individualizable. This is a landmark decision which should facilitate Bitcoin transactions in the future due to new legal certainty in France. Dispute over Bitcoin credit security led to the decision According to a report by Les Echos, a dispute between the French stock…

The transaction volume in the Bitcoin network is constantly increasing. The annual transaction volume has grown steadily over the last 4 years to reach 727 billion USD, exceeding for example, Paypal. In a tweet, Blockchain analyst Willy Woo compared the number of transactions to transactions within traditional payment providers. For example, the payment service provider Visa processed around USD 8.2 trillion in 2018, which corresponds to eleven times the volume of Bitcoin transactions. The previous cash flow in the Bitcoin network has increased by a factor of about 10 in the last four years. If growth remains constant, this would…

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), in its quarterly report, has focused on “Trends in payment infrastructure”. In the 151-page report, the Swiss-based institution deals with, among other things, tokenized securities, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), cross-border payments and peer-to-peer innovations. In his introduction to the report, BIS Director General Agustin Castens makes the following points: The most transformative option for improving payments is a peer-to-peer agreement that directly links payers and payees and minimises the number of intermediaries. More efficiency not necessarily desirable With regard to tokenisation, the report mentions the marking of securities, which should make it possible…

Sector Analysis March 2020 The exchange FTX rebalanced their Alt/Mid/Shit Indices on March 27, 2020. Also, a 20% weight cap for a single coin was introduced in each of the indices. In addition to that of the quarterly rebalancing, any further amendments will be published 24 hours prior. Alt Index The coins still within the Alt Index are BCH, BNB, BSV, EOS, ETH, LTC, and XRP. Leo and TRX have been added to the Mid Index. New Coins: Mid Index All three major exchange coins LEO, OKB, and HT have been consolidated in the Mid Index. The constituent number within…