XRP Coinbase hopes misplaced, Google drops ad ban, Bitwala banking

Thank you Coinbase. The market is flashing green this morning after Coinbase dropped its listings news late yesterday. The market is now catching up. Bitcoin is priced at $6,493, up 1%.

That is seen most clearly  in the price of Ripple’s XRP which is 23% higher as it rockets back above $0.50 at $0.560. Here at Coinintelnews we find that somewhat puzzling but nevertheless rejoice at the helping hand it is providing the rest of the market.

XRP Coinbase listing hopes

So why do we think there will be no Coinbase listing, or not as soon as some might hope. First, XRP is not on the list of the most recent crypto assets that the exchange said it was reviewing – namely Cardano, Basic Attention Token, Stellar Lumens, Zcash, and Ox.

Second, the framework designed by Coinbase to determine which assets to list, if taken at face value, should exclude XRP on the grounds of its centralisation – it is Ripple that decides who and who cannot operate a node and 60% of the supply is held by the company.

That being so, XRP doesn’t cut it. However, that’s not the end of the story. Coinbase wants in on the altcoin action before the next bull market begins and XRP is one of the top traded assets.

If the US exchange is serious about taking on Binance then it may need to list XRP. Binance currently has 11% of XRP trading volume (XRP/USDT) or South Korea’s UpBit with 10% (XRP/KRW), according to coinmarketcap.

Bitwala to enable bitcoin to be held in bank accounts

In other news Germany’s Bitwala is introducing a new service in November for 30,000 of its customers, providing them access to banking and allowing them to hold bitcoin in a bank account as you would fiat.

Bitwala raised €4 million in its latest funding round.

Bitwala president Jörg von Minckwitz commenting on the announcement said: “The cryptocurrency community is eagerly awaiting the launch of our new service. I’m very proud that with our new product we will close the gap between crypto and traditional banking and solve one of the biggest hurdles on the road to mainstream adoption.”

Google rethinks ad ban

Google is dropping its blanket ban on crypto advertising. It will take advertising from “regulated” exchanges in the US and Japan, as well as other entities providing they abide by “local laws”, according to CNBC.

The easing up from Google follows similar relaxation of crypto banning rules by Facebook, followed by Snap and Twitter.

If a company wants to advertise anything to do with crypto on Facebook (not just ICOs), it has to acquire explicit written permission from the social media company.

Google’s sudden scrapping of the ban will certainly be welcomed by the crypto industry, providing the social media gatekeepers keep out the scammers.

Bakkt bitcoin futures

Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt crypto efforts are moving forward as institutional interest grows. In a tweet yesterday it said its first product would be a physically backed bitcoin futures instrument. Here’s the tweet:

Our first contracts will be physically delivered Bitcoin futures contracts versus fiat currencies, including USD, GBP and EUR. For example, buying one USD/BTC futures contract will result in daily delivery of one Bitcoin into the customer’s account.

— Bakkt (@Bakkt) September 25, 2018

US Congress must provide regulation clarity

Crypto bosses were at the Capitol yesterday to implore Congress to lead the way in bringing in meaningful regulation of the industry, as regulatory uncertainty holds back progress. US industry observers believe the US is falling behind Asian competitors in blockchain technology. An indication of the gap is shown in the the 56% of blockchain patents held by Chinese companies compared to only  22% by US companies.

Carla Carriveau, a lawyer for crypto finance firm Circle who previously worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), underlined the urgency:

“Congress has to act because the SEC has said what they thought was right, and already did what they thought they needed to do,” she said.

Quote of the week goes to…Anthony Pompliano

“What we are seeing in real time is people losing trust in the discipline of humans but growing in math and computers,” said Pompliano, the founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital and host of the Off the Chain podcast.

Londoners bullish on crypto

A survey commissioned by Rathbones, a Uk-based investment management firm has some interesting findings.

• 37% of under 35s plan to by crypto in the future but only 4% of over 45s
• A third of the UK’s high net worth investors have invested in crypto
• Most crypto investors live in London
• 3% of those surveyed had invested in crypto

Robert Szechenyi, Investment Director at Rathbones comments: “Lucrative returns made by the early adopters of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies have been widely publicised. These early investors have been followed by others looking to make similar gains.

“Younger investors who perhaps have shorter investment goals have been more susceptible to the ‘Bitcoin craze’, whilst older generations with their mind on retirement savings have mostly stayed clear of what is a high-risk asset class. Buying crypto-currencies can come back to bite you.” Not if you buy Dogecoin 🙂

1,500 people took part in the survey.

Top 30 crypto by market cap, as at 26 September 9.54 UTC*

Smartphone users may need to rotate device to landscape in order to view the full table

Data source: coinmarketcap

Pete Winston

I live and breathe crypto and have a small holding (BTC, ETH, EOS and XLM) that isn’t life-changing, so move along hackers! You can email me here: petewinston@coinintelnews.com