Daily: Gemini and Paxos stablecoins launched, Hacken investigates wash trading among exchanges, India's Supreme Court to rule on crypto crackdown

---

• Pumped-Up Dumps category:
• On September 10, two new stablecoins were launched - Winklevoss twins' Gemini Dollar ($GUSD) and Paxos Standard (PAX).
• So what's the difference or similar between the two and how do they pare up against USD Tether?
• First, both GUSD and PAX are pegged to the USD at a 1:1 ratio.
• Second, they're both regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services, or NYSDFS.
• Third, they are based off the Ethereum ERC20 standard.
• Fourth, they promote transparency as their codes are open to the public to view.
• Fifth, they come with monitoring and updating capabilities based on "technical jargon" compliances like BSA, AML and OFAC controls.
• Sixth, they have protection measures from illegal use.
• Now what are the differences?
• First, both tokens have unique codes.
• Second, GUSD deposits are made via State Street Bank, which you should be familiar with if you've used the Gemini website to transfer funds. PAX on the other hand is split among four different American institutional partners, so you have options.
• Third, they use different auditors, BPM for Gemini Dollar and Withum for PAX.
• The latest news is that Gemini Dollar will be listed on Bibox exchange.
• So how different are they to USD Tether?
• Well if you must know, USDT does not meet most, if not all, of the above specifications.​
• Source 1
• Source 2
• Source 3

• An interesting blog by Hacken Ecosystem documents wash trading happening in exchanges such as Binance, OKEX, Huobipro, HitBTC, Bittrex, Poloniex and Kucoin.
• They share that the crypto market is still overcrowded with unfair players involved in fraudelent activities, with wash trading being one of the most widespread.
• Wash trading is strictly prohibited in current regulated financial markets.
• So what's wash trading?
• It's a form of market manipulation where an investor or institution simultaneously sells and buys the same financial instruments, in this instance, tokens on an exchange, to create misleading, artificial activity in the market.
• Normally these sells and buys are large trading orders (you normally see them in bold on BlockFolio buy/sell sections).
• So Hacken Ecosystem took this one step further by analyzing quarter 2 2018 data for the BTC/USDT pair for the 7 big exchanges.
• What did they find?
• By analyzing volume traded over number of transactions over the same period, they found that trade volume values for OKEX and HitBTC are well above the average across the 7 exchanges.
• They then calculated a median value of these figures against combined values to remove outliers.
• HitBTC and OKEX average trade values are still very much higher (2.29 times and 1.72 times respectively) above the sample exchanges' average.
• Hacken Ecosystem concludes that OKEX and HitBTC have suspicious trade activities with OKEX raising the most red flags.
• They suggested that OKEX is very likely doing volume manipulations, particularly wash trading and has something to hide. ​
• The announcement triggered a price surge for Waves, especially on Binance, where it rose from USD1.90 to USD2.76.​
• Source

• Mediasized the Regulators category:

• The United Arab Emirates, or UAE's financial regulator, the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) is now in final steps to regulate ICOs.
• They have proposed a regulatory framework that will effectively recognize digital tokens as securities.
• The regulation also cover crypto issuance, blockchain operators, whitepaper content, liabilities and registrations.
• Source 1
• Source 2

• You guys heard of the British Virgin Isles right?
• But have you heard of Marshall's Islands?
• Well they've gotten the International Monetary Fund, IMF, in a tight bunch as they plan to issue crypto as an authorised tender together with the USD.
• Marshall's Islands have recently approved a law to introduce the 'Sovereign' virtual token to give its local economic structure a boost.
• It is noted that it's also a way to circumvent risks from being cut off from the international fiscal system, such as what Iran and Venezuela are currently doing.
• So what should the Marshall's Islands do - on the one hand, they've become over-reliant on the IMF and international aid to tide them through natural catastrophes from climate change and on the other hand, they get slapped with an advisory for trying to do something on their own.
• Why is it that the little guys always get slapped?
• But in all honesty, both routes have risks, so what do you think the Marshall's Islands should do?
• Source

• We've reported lots of stuff coming out of India, mostly you know, call center crypto scams and that BitConnect India dude.
• But something important is brewing on 12 September as the Indian Supreme Court begins final hearings in a case between virtual money exchanges and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
• By the end of the hearings from both sides, the court will decide if exchanges will get any leeway from the banking regulator's recent crackdown.
• One such exchange, the Bengaluru-based Unocoin, saw it average monthly transactions dwindle from a high of 200,000 traders to just 20,000 after the crackdown in July.
• If you think the exchanges are only facing up to the RBI, you're wrong. The entire Indian government, market regulator SEBI, the enforcement directorate (police agencies maybe?) and the income tax department are in the RBI camp.
• It's an uphill battle for the exchanges for sure, so let's see if the Supreme Court's in a good mood these few days.
• ​​Source 1
• Source 2​

• Founders & Use Chains category:

• This is an interesting story. You'd probably surprised, so stick till the end of this story to find out what it is.
• So this person by the name of George Weiksner has just launched his own crypto-gaming company called Pocketful of Quarters.
• It's been sourcing for funds before its ICO goes public.
• Well, the good news is that Weiksner's project has secured influential Grammy Award-winner and producer Devo Harris to help him reach his USD1m target.
• Devo Harris has worked with celebrities like Kanye West, John Legend and Britney Spears.
• At the moment, Weiksner's project has raised USD94K and has about 109 days left.
• The game itself, which is already a year old in development, Pocketful of Quarters, will tokenise gaming credits by players engaging in the game but can transfer them for use later in other games.
• Weiksner has the support of famous blogger Michelle Phan and yes, the surprise is...he's only 12 years old!
• So he's basically the youngest person in the world who's raising an ICO which is also SEC compliant.
• Source

​​

• French soccer team, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) plans to issue its own cryptocurrency to incentivize participation from fans all around the world.
• PSG currently boasts players like Brazillian star Neymar, said it will partner with Malta-based blockchain startup Socios to do a "Fan Token Offering".
• PSG is eyeing a spring 2019 issuance of the token so it may be the first major soccer clubs in the world to do so.
• The token will give fans exclusive rights to vote and decide on PSG-related stuff like their jersey choices, opponents in friendly matches and so on.
• Source

• ​American stock exchange NASDAQ has plans to launch a new tool to predict price movements of cryptocurrencies.
• It will integrate this tool into its Analytics Hub, and provide institutional investors with the ability to trade hundreds of crypto assets.
• NASDAQ also plans to launch its centralized cryptocurrency exchange, called DX Exchange, which has 500,000 pre-registered users.
• The launch is currently planned for November this year and the platforms have entered beta-testing.
• The initial service will support 500 crypto assets and will look at how funds flow from wallets, to exchanges and social media such as Twitter and Reddit (uh guys? maybe you should also include Telegram and Discord?)
• Source

​

• We did a story on Bitmain vs Bitewei some time back.
• It appears that Bitewei is now making further inroads into irritating the hell out of Bitmain even more.
• The Shenzhen-based mining chip manufacturer is led by Yang Zuoxing, a former chip design director at Bitmain.
• He's raised 140 million yuan (USD20m) to give Bitmain's business a run for its money.
• Folks in the industry has claimed that Bitewei's WhatsMiner line of mining chips will be a "game changer"
• This is apparent from test results showing the WhatsMiner M10 as being 30 percent more energy efficient than Bitmain's flagship AntMiner S9 Hydro.
• Bitewei has so far received pre-orders of over 1000 units and plans to launch the M10 on September 19.
• The WhatsMiner M10 costs about USD1600.
• Bitewei's challenge ahead is probably Bitmain's 85% controlling share in the global cryptocurrency hardware mining market.
• Well competition is always good because it keeps the majority shareholder in check and maintains the vision for a decentralized mining market.
• Source​