BitMEX lets you bet big on bitcoin — for a price | Why do we take EOS seriously when it’s clearly a plutocracy? | Coinbase exploring support for over 30 new cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin $3,385
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Ethereum $91.93
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Crypto Mkt Cap $108B
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BTC Dominance 54.60%
Why do we take EOS seriously when it’s clearly a plutocracy?
Crypto Caselaw Minute, Week of 12.02.18: When the Sherman Act crashes the Bitcoin Cash party
“We missed out on the peak of finance. Instead we got the decline. There’s not as much money, not as much risk, not as much flow. It’s boring. Bitcoin reminds us of what it must have been like trading an asset class in the late ’80s and ’90s.” — Arthur Hayes, CEO BitMEX
The Big Block
Crypto derivatives are essentially bets on whether the price of bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, is going to go up or down. And for retail investors who dream of winning big, the most popular platform for placing those bets is BitMEX, a largely unregulated Hong Kong-based exchange that’s been sneaking into the news of late.
Best known for its futures contracts, BitMEX (aka the Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange) is a peer-to-peer trading platform that allows traders to take positions against one another on crypto futures and swaps. The platform, available in five languages (English, Chinese, Russian, Korean and Japanese), then settles the trades exclusively in bitcoin.
Founded in 2014, BitMEX is fully owned and operated by HDR Global Trading Limited, which is registered in the Republic of Seychelles. An archipelago in the Indian Ocean, Seychelles is notoriously light on corporate regulation and does not require companies to pay taxes or undergo audits.
Run by a staff of more than 100, BitMEX touts itself as the most liquid bitcoin derivatives exchange in the world. On a typical day, it handles between $4 billion to $5 billion in volume, the bulk of which comes from North Asia. In the U.S., the Cboe Futures Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange also offer bitcoin futures, but in a conventional regulated environment— while NASDAQ may be joining them soon. But, according to a recent report from CryptoCompare, these financial stalwarts only do a fraction of the volume that BitMEX does.
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Why do we take EOS seriously when it’s clearly a plutocracy?
EOS, the brainchild of seigniorage addict Dan Larimer and noted #1 cryptocurrency project by the Chinese government, has confirmed what we always sort of knew: EOS clearly functions as a plutocracy—governance by the rich, for the rich.
It wasn’t always this way: a company called block.one created EOS in 2017. The team described their mission as providing “end-to-end solutions to bring businesses onto the blockchain from strategic planning to product deployment.” — More
Coinbase exploring support for over 30 new cryptocurrencies
Coinbase announced today that it is working with local banks and regulators to explore the addition of 31 new cryptocurrencies on its exchange. Some notable additions include Maker, XRP, and EOS. According to Coinbase "adding new assets requires significant exploratory work from both a technical and compliance standpoint," and that the exchange "cannot guarantee that all the assets we are evaluating will ultimately be listed for trading." — More
Crypto Caselaw Minute, Week of 12.02.18: When the Sherman Act crashes the Bitcoin Cash party — More
Venezuelan President: We’ll sell oil for Petro tokens by March 2019 — More
Coinbase to list CVC, DNT, LOOM, and MANA — More
YouTube drives the most traffic to cryptocurrency exchanges — More
Gemini to enable custody and trading for bitcoin cash — More
Report: Overbearing US regulations on crypto ‘hampering innovation’ and in need of change — More
Bipartisan congressmen introduce two bills to protect consumers from cryptocurrency price manipulation — More
Grayscale holds over 1% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply — More
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