Bitmain's co-founder Jihan Wu has been removed from the director's chair at Bitmain. It has been reported that Mr. Wu has been demoted to the position of supervisor and no longer has the authority to manage the day to day affairs of Bitmain. An unnamed source from Bitmain disclosed the functions and details of Mr Wu's new role within the company. The source describes Mr. Wu's demotion as follows,

“After changing to a supervisor, there are no voting rights, so (Mr. Wu’s) power is smaller and [he] cannot participate in the business decision-making of the enterprise.”

The 21st Money Team has been monitoring the events surrounding Bitmain closely. It appears as though many bad decisions were made at the executive level. Mistakes that could result in Bitmain's shareholders missing out on substantial gains from an initial public offering of the company. Unfortunately for the company's stockholders, Bitmain may no longer be able to boast that they control more than 50% of Bitcoin's hash-rate.

One of the key issues that hindered the IPO sale was the creation of a competitor, Bitewei. Bitewei has the capacity to manufacture an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) mining rig cheaper and more efficient than Bitmain, the Whatsminer M10. This new state of the art miner is able to utilize 7nm technology within their (ASIC) machines. Bitewei was founded by Yang Zuoxing, the former director of design at Bitmain. Bitmain under the leadership of Mr. Wu was unable to keep Mr. Zuoxing as a satisfied employee at Bitmain. So the computer design genius took his skills and formed his own company Bitewei, days before the proposed IPO sale.

• Bitmain has announced they can produce a miner that utilizes 7nm technology, but it is not yet available for sale, and the Whatsminer M10 is.
• The Bitcoin mining reward will be cut in half in May of 2020, making hashrate computing power a key point in selling ASIC miners.
• One of Bitmain's chip suppliers from Taiwan lowered their earnings estimate for 2018.
• When the quarterly reports, generated during the 3rd quarter of the financial calendar, are dissected by potential investors, they may not provide or support the revenue growth indications Bitmain needed to pull of a US $2 billion IPO.

The mismanagement at the top of the company may be considered a cause of the uncertainty surrounding Bitmain's future. The perfect storm that was brewing within Bitmain can almost be compared to the Titanic going full speed ahead towards that fateful unseen iceberg. Only this time the fellow officers may have been wise enough to relieve the captain of his duty, and slow the ship down, before they hit the iceberg. Can Bitmain's new crew bring the company back to its former glory? Can the IPO be salvaged? Will the current stockholders still make the fortune that was on the table for them only a few weeks ago? It's a waiting game now as the players involved, Canaan, Ebang, Bitewei, and Bitmain, jockey for the position of premier ASIC Miner manufacturer. The 21st Money Team will keep you informed as Bitmain attempts to salvage their company.

Forex News & Analysis

Bitcoin lost substantial value this week. The cryptocurrency price fell through its prior lower level of resistance, near US $6,200, and appears to have settled in at a level near $5,500. The United States Dollar gained value against Bitcoin this week. The USD started the week pairing with Bitcoin at an exchange rate of $6446/ 1 Bitcoin. The pair ended the week exchanging at a rate of $5548 / 1 Bitcoin. The USD recorded a 16.19% increase in value when paired with Bitcoin by the week's end.

The USD index (.DXY) compares the USD to 6 globally dominant currencies. The USD lost marginal ground when compared to its global counterparts towards the end of the week. The .DXY index recorded a record high value of 97 for the year, at the beginning of the week. The Index closed at 96.43 recording a 0.591% loss in value by the week's end.

The GBP lost ground against the USD from the previous week. The dollar ended the week exchanging with the GBP at $1.2837 gaining 1.075% from the previous week's level of $1.2975 / 1 GBP. The Mexican Peso (MXN) ended the week marginally stronger in value when compared to the GBP, exchanging with the GBP at 25.8743 Pesos / 1 GBP a 0.9756% increase in value from the previous week's level of 26.1268 Pesos / 1 GBP.

Crypto Futures News & Analysis

Bitcoin is trading at US $5500. the lowest level recorded in 2018.

• What caused the loss in Bitcoin’s value?
• Where will Bitcoin go from here?
• Is Bitcoin still the benchmark of cryptocurrency value?

Bitcoin lost approximately US $1,000 per coin at the weeks close, November 16th. The loss in value has been attributed to the hard fork that will be executed by Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin’s baby brother.

Apparently some infighting between a couple of whales, on both platforms have brought a level of uncertainty to all parties involved in the two cryptocurrencies. Craig Wright and Roger Ver, two high profile crypto investors, have gone to war with each other through social media outlets like youtube. They are aggressively attacking the strategy and investment practices of each other, removing confidence from the crypto markets. Craig Wright wants Bitcoin Cash to remain the way it is. His present adversary, Mr. Ver, wants the fork to be implemented.

Co-founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency trading wallet Luno,  Marcus Swanepoel, described the Bitcoin value loss this way:

“This drop in the bitcoin price is more than likely due to the upcoming hard fork scheduled by Bitcoin Cash. The Bitcoin Cash blockchain has been undergoing scheduled hard forks every six months to upgrade and improve the protocol. In most cases, these hard forks are uncontested with the whole community supporting them. In this case, however, consensus couldn’t be reached with two factions emerging and proposing different solutions for the upgrade.”

While these two investors duke it out in social media, Bitcoin's value decreased significantly. Even though some describe the loss in value as a bloodbath others assume a new lower level of resistance is being drawn. The general consensus maintain a vision of Bitcoin regaining value once one of the combatants has secured his victory in whole or in part.

The other opinion about Bitcoin's sudden drop in value centers around lack of interest in the product. Some analysts say lack of new investors caused the market to lose momentum. Sighting current investors are full of inventory and no longer wish to purchase more cryptos at the higher levels. Therefore their bids have been withdrawn or lowered.

Crypto Stocks & Analysis

Tencent Holdings limited's (TCEHY) 3rd quarter reports are in. Their earnings beat the expectations of most publicized predictions. TCEHY holds more than 20 patents utilizing blockchain technology. An amount equal to blockchain patents held by,  Accenture, Bitmain, China's State Grid Corporation, Google, Intel, Ping An Insurance, Sony, and Visa. The probability of blockchain technology being added to the daily operations of all of these corporate powerhouses is high enough to monitor their price activity with the fluctuations  occurring with the cryptocurrency markets.

TCEHY adjusted 3rd quarter earnings per share (EPS) value was 2.06 Yuan a share vs 1.79 Yuan a share for the same period a year ago.  Other factors that weighed in heavily on the increased EPS value were a 24% increase in revenue based on sales of 80.6 billion Yuan vs sales of 65.2 billion Yuan last year. Tencent was also able to report a 47% increase in advertising revenue to 16.2 billion Yuan.

Tencent Holdings Limited (TCEHY)

Chart courtesy of Yahoo Finance

There was a strong probability TCEHY may have even surpassed these stronger than expected earnings reports. Earlier this year Tencent was about to market a highly anticipated digital game for Chinese youth. But the government came in and said to Tencent the game was too addictive for the minds of the young people of China and too harmful to their eyes as well. Tencent was not allowed to bring the game to market causing TCEHY to lose a large portion of its market cap value earlier this year.  

The gaming accounted for approximately 40% of Tencent's revenue stream. Online games like 'Honor of Kings,' which TCEHY holds the license to sell in China, is one of the highest grossing games in the region. A massive multiplayer game, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," or 'PUBG' is awaiting approval from Chinese regulators so that it can be monetized by TCEHY. Sales of the game 'Monster Hunter: World' were also stopped. Tencent is supposedly working with regulators to find a way to bring their product to market with time restrictions for play. TCEHY claims they are confident an accord can be reached with regulators within a reasonable time frame.

TCEHY closed the week trading at US $37.63 a share gaining $1.03 from the previous trading day.That value translates into a 2.81% increase from the closing price one day earlier.

This Week's Biggest Winners in Cryptocurrencies

1) +492.13% Nasdacoin (NSD) Started the week at $0.576 Ended the week at $3.387

2) +41.38% Mobius (MOBI) Started the week at $0.0290 Ended the week at $0.0410

3) +37.61% CloakCoin (CLOAK) Started the week at $4.501 Ended the week at $6.194

4) +32.37% Factom (FCT) Started the week at $4.409 Ended the week at $5.836

5) +20.37% Wowbit (WWB) Started the week at $0.0481 Ended the week at $0.0579

6) +7.98% Odem (ODE) Started the week at $0.238 Ended the week at $0.257

7) +7.72% CrypticCoin (CRYP) Started the week at $0.00570140 Ended the week at $0.00614132

8) +6.28% APIS (APIS) Started the week at $0.00363297 Ended the week at $0.00386125

9) +5.73% ChainLink (LINK) Started the week at $0.489 Ended the week at $0.517

10) +5.13% Vitae (VITAE) Started the week at $1.754 Ended the week at $1.844

11) +4.71% SmartCash (SMART) Started the week at $0.0170 Ended the week at $0..0178

12) +4.44% MOAC (MOAC) Started the week at $1.126 Ended the week at $1.176

13) +2.29% NEM (XEM) Started the week at $0.0916 Ended the week at $0.0937

14) +1.21% Dentacoin (DCN) Started the week at $0.00024771 Ended the week at $0.00025070

15) +0.99% Dai (DAI) Started the week at $1.005 Ended the week at $1.015

Crypto Chart of the Week

Nasdacoin NSD

Chart Courtesy of Coinlib

Nasdacoin (NSD) ranks 91st on the list of cryptos ordered according to their market capitalization. Nasdacoin's current market cap is $51,200,000. Nasdacoin describe themselves as a decentralized encrypted virtual currency. Be Advised! There isn't any news available or trading volume recorded to corroborate with the dramatic rise in value associated with Nasdacoin at this present time.

Heard Through the Grapevine

Upcoming ICOs and Events

Upcoming Events

November 19, 22, 24, 27, 30 - European Blockchain Hub Tour Stockholm, Manila, Ho Chi Minh, Jelu, Bangkok,

November 16 - 17 -  CryptoFinance 2018 Oslo, Norway

November 21 - 22 - Russian Blockchain Week Moscow, Russia

November 21 - 23 - CryptoEvent RIW Conference Moscow, Russia

November 28 - 29 - Blockchain Expo North America 2018 Santa Clara, California

November 29 - 30 - Monaco International Blockchain Forum Monaco

March 19 - 21, 2019 -  Money20/20 Asia Singapore

Upcoming ICOs

Adab Solutions (ADAB) Sale Starts November 18 Sale Ends December 28 / The First Islamic Crypto Exchange, based on the norms of Shariah

SharkGate (SHKG) Sale Starts November 18, 2018 Sale Ends January 17, 2019 / Providing unrivaled hacker protection to a website plus running a 24/7 malware scanner

Bounty Angels (BANG) Sale Starts November 19 Sale Ends December 19 / Automatic marketing platform for bounty campaign

Enzym (EYM) Sale Starts November 19 Sale Ends December 10 / Bringing transparency and security to the user. Enzym is a free mobile game that triggers encounters outside our usual circles of (friends, family, colleagues...)

iCasting (TLNT) Sale Starts November 19 Sale Ends December 28 / A revolutionary one-stop-shop talent ecosystem, serving the whole casting industry from one platform

EthicHub (ETHIX) Sale Starts November 20 Sale Ends December 18 / Transnational peer-to-peer crowdlending platform

PlayChip (PLA) Sale Starts November 21 Sale Ends November 28 / Delivering the world's first fully-integrated, blockchain enabled global fantasy sports, online sports betting and gaming ecosystem

Craider (RAID) Sale Starts November 24, 2018 Sale Ends January 18, 2019 / A next-gen digital platform consisting of a mobile messenger bot, a web based portal and a cloud based exchange, all powered by data driven analytics

MiMiner (MIT) Sale Starts November 25 Sale Ends December 25 / A combination of specifically designed rooms, outdoor sites, associated utilities supporting systems and staff. This forms a common physical space and technology environment for mining equipment as well as readiness to operate 24/7

Trade Pharma Network (TXP) Sale Starts November 26 Sale Ends December 31 / A EU-licensed brokerage platform and an international pharma-centric marketplace of choice for buyers & sellers performing routine transactions of medicines