Market Analysis Report

MVIS-CryptoCompare Index

The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index has closed at 8,230.36 with a loss of 11.02% for the day.

See the live index here

Market Update

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is sitting at $10,521 representing a loss of 6% in the last 24 hours. More than $1.5B worth of BTC were exchanged in the BTC/USD market representing a 26.8% share of the global daily volume. The BTC/JPY pair represents a 42.8% share.

The Ethereum price has dropped 6.15% over the past 24 hours and is currently sitting at $840, with over $350M worth of Ether exchanged in the past 24 hours on the ETH/USD pair which has a 31% market share of the daily trading volume.

See live charts here and here

Bafin Clarifies Stance on ICOs as More Citizens Ask About Tokens

Germany’s financial regulator Bafin has clarified its position on Initial Coin Offerings. Bafin admitted it was receiving many inquiries about the status of tokens and cryptocurrencies distributed to investors through ICOs. The federal agency advised interested parties to refer to regulations applicable to traditional financial instruments and comply with current requirements.

In an advisory letter, Bafin provides some basic definitions of ICOs and related terms. The regulator's objective is to educate the public about cryptocurrencies, tokens, which are typically generated using distributed ledger or blockchain technology, and ICOs, that are used to raise funds for startup projects.

Read more here

Ripple Is Releasing Two New White Papers For Peer Review

Announced yesterday, San Francisco-based startup Ripple is releasing two new white papers for peer review - one describing XRP's consensus algorithm in a more formal way and the other outlining a way to improve the diversity of connections of each node, the software users run to relay and verify transactions on the network. The move shows that Ripple is ready and willing to invest in the core infrastructure supporting its cryptocurrency.

In an interview, Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas, sought to stress how the papers open up the possibility of further building a network effect around the tech. Thomas stated:

"This is the first time we're releasing peer-reviewed academic papers. Obviously, it opens the door for future research. After this, I expect you'll hear much more about us interacting with academia."

Read more here

Tesla 'Cryptojacked' By Hackers To Mine Cryptocurrencies

Tesla, the electric car manufacturer based in Palo Alto, California, is the latest corporation to fall victim to ‘cryptojacking’, according to a newly released research from cybersecurity firm RedLock.

The researchers found that hackers had infiltrated Tesla’s Kubernetes console (a system for containerized apps that was originally designed by Google) which was not password protected. The hackers were mining for cryptocurrency from within one of Tesla’s Kubernetes pods.

The team noted some sophisticated evasion measures that were employed in this attack. Unlike other crypto mining incidents, the hackers did not use a well known public mining pool in this attack. Instead, they installed mining pool software and configured the malicious script to connect to an unlisted or semi-public endpoint. This makes it difficult for standard IP/domain-based threat intelligence feeds to detect the malicious activity, they explain.

Read more here