TOP 11 cryptocurrency and blockchain world news for the week of October 7-13,

Last week was remembered for dramatic events in the cryptocurrency space – $ 1.4 trillion was filed against Tether and Bitfinex for market manipulation, SEC accused Telegram of selling unregistered securities, five companies left the Libra project, US regulators presented a new guide for cryptocurrency investors in Russia proposed to introduce a single indicator of the value of bitcoin, and Ukraine plans to legalize cryptocurrency and mining by the end of 2019.

Bitcoin out of danger zone

With the course of bitcoin, everything is not so sad. The first cryptocurrency started the week below the level of $ 8.000, but quickly grew to acceptable values. In two leaps, Bitcoin managed to rise above $ 8.600, but by the end of the week it began to turn in a bit.

The graph for the past seven days looks too smooth and correct on a general scale: two equal leaps, followed by a short period of low volatility. Such a picture makes one wonder whether the behavior of quotes is another manipulation of whales. Given that we are in the cryptocurrency market, this version seems the closest to reality.

Market capitalization at the time of writing is $ 225 billion. The dominance index is 66.5%.

SEC has secured a temporary ban on TON and Telegram Gram tokens

The developers didn’t have time to publish the rules for using the Gram token wallet, as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stated that the coins are securities.

The Telegram Open Network (TON) token sale was attended by 171 investors, including 39 US residents. The latter acquired Gram for $ 424.5 million. The organizers did not register an ICO in the SEC, which allegedly violated the US Securities Law, and refused to respond to the agenda from the agency.

The SEC urgently secured a federal court ban on distributing Gram tokens to US investors and filed a lawsuit against Telegram Inc. and Ton Issuer Inc.

The first hearing of the case will be held on October 24. Some investors suggest that Telegram will postpone the launch and go on the Blockstack startup path, eventually receiving SEC approval in accordance with the established “A +” regulation. Both companies are likely to expect fines.

Telegram, however, emphasized that it was “surprised and upset,” but they are considering a delay in launching among possible solutions to the problem.

It is known that under contracts with investors the TON launch deadline is October 31, otherwise $ 1.7 billion will have to be returned.

Prior to the conflict with SEC, Gram support was announced by custodians Coinbase Custody and Anchorage.

In Ukraine, they proposed to legalize mining and create a “crypto valley”

At a meeting of Ukrainian legislators, regulators and representatives of the blockchain industry, they proposed to develop cryptocurrency terminology, legalize mining, attract international bitcoin exchanges to the country, implement FATF standards and introduce blockchain technology into state registries.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation will present a regulatory bill by the end of this year.

On Monday, the Ukrainian blockchain association also published a bill to create a “crypto valley”.

Vitalik Buterin spoke about the transition of Ethereum to PoS

According to Vitalik Buterin, the transition to Ethereum 2.0 will only take six hours, but the actual implementation will take up to two years. The first step will be the introduction of the Proof-Of-Stake algorithm , while the ETH1 network will technically work until the ice age of complexity.

Witness data will be added to each transaction, which will allow them to be processed simultaneously on the ETH2 network.

Upon transition, the network is likely to stop completely for one hour.

CFTC recognizes Ethereum as a commodity

The United States Derivatives Exchange Commission (CFTC), represented by Chairman Heath Tarbert, recognized Ethereum as a commodity . The agency expects the launch of regulated futures on Ethereum.

He supported the opinion of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities. At the same time, the status of many other coins is not so clear, but ultimately “similar digital assets should be treated equally,” added the head of CFTC.

According to Tarbert, the coins that appeared as a result of the fork, such as Bitcoin Cash or Ethereum Classic, regulators should perceive similarly to the original cryptocurrencies.

New ASIC Miners S17 + and T17 + from Bitmain

Beijing Bitmain introduced the new ASIC devices S17 + and T17 + . Sales started on October 11, and delivery of the first batch is scheduled for the first ten days of December.

The main product of the line is, of course, Bitmain Antminer S17 +, which with a maximum hash of 74 Tx / s is at the top of the ranking among the most efficient mining devices, even higher than the recently introduced Canaan Avalon Miner A1166 , with a capacity of 70 TH / s.

The data provided by Bitmain shows a miner high efficiency of 40 watts per TH. Operating at maximum power, the Antminer S17 + and Antminer S17 + boast an energy consumption of about 3000 watts per hour, which is provided by an integrated power source.

The second device announced, the Antminer T17 +, is a continuation of the T Antminer series, which has always had a lower starting price compared to the S17 series.

The new Bitmain Antminer T17 + ASIC for Bitcoin mining has very good characteristics similar to the old Antminer S17e, thanks to the declared hash power close to 64 TH / s. True, the device’s efficiency is lower, 50 watts per VT, and power consumption is about 3200 watts per hour.

Russia introduced a single indicator of the value of bitcoin

The single indicator for bitcoin was presented by the Russian Association of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain (RACIB) and the Commission for the Legal Support of the Digital Economy of the Moscow branch of the Russian Bar Association.

The essence of the mechanism is to request bitcoin rates from several cryptocurrency exchanges every day for 30 days. After that, all the data obtained is carefully analyzed and at 23:59:40 Moscow time, an average value is formed, from which the cross rate to the dollar and the ruble is already calculated. Such a procedure should be carried out every day.

First of all, the value of bitcoin will be determined in this way, but not only: the rate of the cryptocurrency traded in conjunction with it will also be calculated. The creators of the system emphasize that their development will make it possible to clarify the situation on the electronic currency market, since today the cost of the same types of digital money can vary on different exchanges.

According to the developers of the new cryptocurrency valuation system, it will be in demand, and the peak of its popularity will come when the cryptocurrency in Russia begins to be used in commercial and institutional calculations.

U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) updates cryptocurrency investor guide

The SEC, CFTC, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) called on cryptocurrency service providers to comply with a number of legal requirements, including the US Bank Secrecy Act and AML / KYC / CFT.

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), meanwhile, updated the guide for cryptocurrency owners , which clarified its position on forks, the value of cryptocurrencies received as income, and the calculation of taxable profits on the sale of digital assets.

The IRS believes that forks are ordinary income, taxes from which are calculated at the market price at the time of receipt. The same applies to assets received as part of airdrops.

The agency explained how to calculate the base value of the extracted cryptocurrency and each unit of the digital asset sold.

The cryptocurrency revenue column also appeared in the most common tax form 1040.

Binance Cryptocurrency Exchange Launches P2P Trading Service Supporting RMB

Bitcoin exchange Binance launched p2p trading of BTC, ETH and USDT in pairs with the Chinese yuan in an Android application.

The platform will add support for WeChat and Alipay payment systems. This should return to the Chinese residents the opportunity to trade cryptocurrencies, which they lost after a series of repressive measures by the central government in 2017.

However, Alipay immediately announced that they would block transactions related to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

According to The Block analysts, before that, WeChat and Alipay deliberately turned a blind eye to the fact that large exchanges used them as a gateway for working with Chinese traders.

Visa, MasterCard and eBay quit Facebook's Libra crypto project

Earlier this week, US senators Sherrod Brown and Brian Schatz called on Visa, Mastercard and Stripe to leave Facebook's Libra digital currency project. Already at the end of the week, companies followed this advice , followed by eBay and Mercado Pago. Prior to this, PayPal refused to participate.

pic.twitter.com/h72JHb9320

– Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) October 11, 2019

At the same time, Visa and Stripe emphasized that they still see the potential in the blockchain and Libra.

Calibra CEO David Marcus wrote that you should not put an end to the project, although in the short term it will significantly hit him.

Amid pressure from regulators around the world, Mark Zuckerberg will speak at the US Congress on October 23.

The lawsuit against Tether and Bitfinex

IFinex Inc., its subsidiaries, Bitfinex top management, Crypto Capital processing, and Global Trade Solutions AG are sued for a $ 1.4 trillion class action lawsuit filed by lawyers Val Freidman and Kyle Rocher, who had previously sued Craig Wright .

Tether and Bitfinex have been accused of violating the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act, the RICO Act (investing in racketeering funds), money laundering, Pump & Dump schemes, market manipulation through the issuance of USDT and deliberate fraud of investors.

Judging by the set of charges, we are talking about all the alleged crimes that the tandem committed during its existence.

The companies knew about the preparation of the lawsuit in advance and called all the claims “unfounded”.

Publication date 10/14/2019
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