Market Analysis Report

17 June 2019

Illicit Cryptocurrency Use Targeted in Proposed 2018 FBI Budget

In a budget request for fiscal year 2018, sent on 21st June, the FBI is requesting $21m and 80 new employees in a bid to investigate emerging tech that could help the agency combat cybercrime, including the illicit use of cryptocurrencies.

Earlier this year, the privacy-encrypted digital currency Monero (XMR) drew attention from FBI for similar reasons. A special agent working at the FBI's Cyber Division in New York City said at an event that the agency has concerns such technology will set roadblocks for criminal investigations. The agency said:

"Developing alternative technical methods is typically a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process."

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Transaction Backlog Hamstrings Ethereum

Slow transaction times caused by a backlog have caused several exchanges to put a hold on ETH transactions. Bitfinex tweeted it was suspending all ETH withdrawals “as the Ethereum network continues to experience extreme delays” until the network backlog subsides and they can reliably post transactions to the blockchain. CEX.IO tweeted the same thing, as did BTC-E, which cited the “unstoppable operation of the Ethereum network due to the network load.”

An update on June 20 from ShapeShift’s support site advised users not to submit a ticket if they have not received ETH or an ETH token, but to wait 24 hours. “The entire ETH network is backlogged and causing delays, however, most transactions are posting to the chain within 8-10 hours,” the site noted.

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US Government Seeks Blockchain Solutions for Contract Bidding System

The US government’s main logistical agency is looking at blockchain as a way to re-envision its contract review process. The General Services Administration is looking for a contractor to help it assess how blockchain could be integrated into FAStlane, a system launched last year as part of a broader effort to streamline how smaller companies, especially IT firms, bid on government contracts. The agency said on its website:

"The purpose of this RFQ is to obtain contractor support to develop a proof of concept for DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology), automated machine learning technology, and/or artificial intelligence based exchange implementation into GSA's Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) FAStlane new offer proposal review processes."

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Petition for Amazon to Accept Bitcoin and Litecoin

An Amazon customer made a petition directly addressed to its CEO Jeff Bezos to accept Bitcoin and Litecoin as mode of payments on the e-commerce platform. The petition which has been lodged through Change.org is mainly requesting the e-commerce giant to allow its users to pay for purchases on the site using cryptocurrencies. With the initial goal of 1,500 goal, it has managed to gather 1,438 supporters as of writing. While it got a few upvotes on Reddit, some the latter’s community members think it’s unlikely for Amazon to pay attention to the request since it has been historically hesitant to support cryptocurrency.

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State of the Crypto

Bitcoin is up 2.57% at $2,733.82 with a volume of Ƀ 68,295.5 - $185,025,827.3 on the USD pairs.

Litecoin is up 2.47% against the dollar for the day at $46.48 and down 0.12% to Ƀ 0.01708 on volumes of Ƀ 17.1k.

Ether is up 0.75% against Bitcoin at Ƀ 0.1216 per Ether and up 3.47% against the dollar to $327.82 with average volume Ƀ 60.2k on the ETH/BTC pair.

Dash is down 2.49% at Ƀ 0.06825 with Ƀ 4.4k volume and down 0.73% against the dollar at $182.73.

Ripple is up 1.57% to Ƀ 0.0001034 with volumes of Ƀ 11k and up 4.94% against the dollar at $0.2806.

Zcash is up 2.14% for the day to Ƀ 0.1431 per ZEC and up 4.86% against the dollar to $385.02 with an average volume of Ƀ 3.1k for the 24 hour period.

Monero is up 4.37% against the dollar at $50.65 and up 1.18% against Bitcoin at Ƀ 0.01881 on volumes of Ƀ 1.9k

Ether Classic is up 2.88% to Ƀ 0.007365 with volumes of Ƀ 4.3k and up 6.41% against the dollar at $19.92.

Stratis is up 1.08% to Ƀ 0.002807 on Ƀ 2.1k volume.

Waves is down 3.97% to Ƀ 0.001912 on Ƀ 801 volume.

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