Market Analysis Report

MVIS-CryptoCompare Index

The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index closed at 1,972.65 yesterday at 5 pm (GMT) and has since decreased by 0.58%.

See the live index here

Market Update

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is sitting at $3,556 representing a loss of 0.86% in the last 24 hours. More than $120M worth of BTC were exchanged in the BTC/USD market representing a 13.2% share of the global daily volume. The BTC/JPY pair represents a 9% share.

The Ethereum price has decreased 2.13% over the past 24 hours and is currently sitting at $116, with over $45M worth of Ether exchanged in the past 24 hours on the ETH/USD pair which has an 8% market share of the daily trading volume.

See live charts here and here

Cboe Withdraws Proposal for VanEck-SolidX Bitcoin ETF

Yesterday the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, announced that Cboe BZX Exchange ("BZX"), which was going to be the exchange that would list the VanEck-SolidX Bitcoin ETF if it got approved, had withdrawn the proposed rule change. The SEC's notice said that BZX had withdrawn the "Proposed Rule Change to List and Trade Shares of SolidX Bitcoin Shares Issued by the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust", and that this proposal (SR-CboeBZX-2018- 040) had been withdrawn on Tuesday (January 22nd).

American lawyer Jake Chervinsky, who is highly respected in the crypto community for his excellent commentaries on how U.S. securities laws affect companies that deal with crypto assets, decided to focus his attention on the VanEck-SolidX Bitcoin ETF proposal and how its approval/denial may (or may not) be affected by the current U.S. government shutdown. He stated:

"All I'm saying is that the shutdown doesn't improve the ETF's chances of approval at all. In fact, the opposite is probably true. They haven't given a reason yet, but withdrawal implies that they expected denial & didn't want another SEC order setting a bad precedent for the future."

Read more here

Mastercard Fined $650M By EU For ‘Artificially’ Raising Fees

The European Union’s competition commission has handed Mastercard a €570 million ($648 million) fine for artificially raising payment processing fees in breach of antitrust laws, according to an online statement published last Tuesday. Mastercard forced merchants to pay exchange fees in their countries of residence, forestalling their access to banks with lower fees elsewhere in the EU.

Brussels has now ruled that Mastercard’s behaviour limited competition within the continent and inflated costs for retailers and customers. As per the statement, EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager noted that Mastercard’s actions limited merchants’ access to better options. Vestager said:

“By preventing merchants from shopping around for better conditions offered by banks in other member states, Mastercard’s rules artificially raised the costs of card payments, harming consumers and retailers in the EU.”

Read more here

UK Financial Regulator Launches Consultation Paper on Crypto

The UK’s financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has recently launched a consultation paper on crypto assets, which will set out the cryptocurrency-related activities it regulates and could lead to a ban sale of crypto derivatives to retail investors. The consultation paper, titled “Guidance on Crypto assets,” is looking to provide regulatory clarity for cryptocurrency market participants, with the consultation period set to end on April 5 of this year. After it ends, a statement with financial guidance is set to be released. Christopher Woolard, the executive director of Strategy and Competition at the regulator, was quoted as saying:

"This is a small but growing market and we want both industry and consumers to be clear what is regulated, and what isn’t. This is vital if consumers are to know what protections they’ll benefit from and in ensuring we have a market functioning as it should."

Read more here