Crypto News & Analysis

Sony has formally announced their plans to develop a wireless crypto wallet. Sony Corp is letting the world know how serious they are about being leaders in the sale of commercial products that will be utilizing blockchain technology. Plans to build the state of the art hardware wallet is where it all begins with Sony. Hardware wallets will be where the wealth of the 21st century will be stored. And Sony wants to have a strong presence near the wealth of all cryptocurrency owners.

The hardware wallet that Sony (SNE ) plans to produce will be the first of its kind. It will be wireless and portable. Currently, all hardware wallets need to be attached to a computer through a USB cable in order to function. Sony's new contactless crypto wallet will be configured using IC card technology from Sony. Sony has described the technology in a press release this way,

“Sony CSL (Computer Science Laboratories) has developed a contactless IC card type hardware wallet which includes mutual authentication/encrypted communication technology by applying Sony’s expertise in contactless IC card technology cultivated over many years. The IC card type hardware wallet is small, portable and useful, unlike typical existing hardware wallets that connect to PCs via USB.”

The crypto wallet will be able to hold and function with a variety of cryptocurrencies. The IC technology behind it will enable the wallet to use private keys for a multitude of applications yet to be seen.

In Sony's press release it is described as "an infrastructure technology with multiple possible applications.”

Sony has not announced when the wallet will go into production or when it will be available to be purchased. What we do know is that earlier this year, Japanese financial services group, SBI Holdings, purchased a 40 percent stake in the cryptocurrency hardware wallet company CoolBitX based in Taiwan.

Forex News & Analysis

BTC / USD

Chart Courtesy of Trading View

Bitcoin continues to demonstrate stability. The cryptocurrency has maintained a value above its lower level of resistance, near US $6,200, throughout the week. The United States Dollar remained stable against Bitcoin as well this week. The USD started the week pairing with Bitcoin at an exchange rate of $6401/ 1 Bitcoin. The pair ended the week exchanging at the same rate of $6401 / 1 Bitcoin. The USD recorded a 0.0% change in value when paired with Bitcoin by the weeks end. 

The USD index (.DXY) compares the USD to 6 globally dominant currencies. The USD gained ground when compared to its global counterparts towards the end of the week. The .DXY index recorded a value of 96.01 at the beginning of the week. The Index closed at 96.32 recording a 0.323% gain in value by the week's end. Many analysts believe the gain in value recorded by the USD are a result of the better than expected 3rd quarter Gross Domestic Product value.

Amidst new found woes surrounding Brexit, the GBP lost ground against the USD from the previous week. The dollar ended the week exchanging with the GBP at $1.2831 compared to last weeks close of $1.3252 losing 3.28% from the previous week. While the Australian Dollar (AUD) lost a slim advantage over the Japanese Yen by the close of the week. The AUD ended the week marginally weaker when compared to the JPY just one week ago exchanging with the JPY at ¥79.36 / 1 AUD versus ¥80.01 / 1 AUD  the prior week a 0.81% decrease in value from the previous week.

Crypto Futures News & Analysis

The predictions of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency gains over the next 5 years continue to pour in. The latest prediction comes from MarketsandMarkets. MarketsandMarkets has forecast a 6.18% annual growth rate for the cryptocurrency market to 2024. The analysts who published the report conclude that the driving forces behind this consistent rate of growth will be:

• Growth in venture capital investments,
• Increases in distributed ledger technology (DLT) transparency,
• Fluctuations in monetary regulations,
• And high remittances in developing countries.

The panel of analysts that compiled the report acknowledge the implementation of blockchain technology in the financial industry. They give kudos to the functionality of blockchain technology applied to cross-border payments and money transfers. They attribute their forecast of steady growth to innovations such as these. The analysts also give attention to the factors that will hinder the growth of the cryptocurrency market. Factors like:

• The slow process of installing defined global regulations,
• The lack of technical knowledge within the world's population to understand cryptocurrency,
• Security issues surrounding cryptocurrency exchange hacks,
• Scaling issues,
• and the lack of accessibility to the crypto market for people apprehensive and unfamiliar with the new technology and its devices.

The Team of analysts reports that everyone of the issues they discovered are being dealt with by the crypto community. That was the fact that enabled them to predict continued growth within the crypto market.

Crypto Stocks & Analysis

Cryptocurrency, the blockchain, and stocks, how are these unique relationships evolving? One way to gauge how heavily some companies are involved in blockchain technology is to find out how many patents they hold that involve the new technology. Envision IP, a law firm that specializes in intellectual property, has released a report disclosing what firms in America are in the group of top ten patent holders involving blockchain technology. It may come as a surprise to some to find out who they are. These firms and their stock value may move in the same direction as the cryptocurrency market, especially because they are both deeply involved in the same technology.

The Envision IP Report claims that 1,045 patents involving blockchain technology were filed in the US by 478 owners. The report was released at the beginning of 2018. Most of the owners were entrepreneurial enterprises holding 1 or two patents per entity or individual. But the majority of patents were held by leading companies. Everyday names, with an extraordinary amount of assets and revenue that they manage.  

Accenture (ACN), Coinbase (a privately held firm), Dell (DVMT), Fidelity Investments (privately held), Google (GOOGL), Ping An Insurance (PNGAY), Bitmain (IPO on the way), Intel (INTC), Visa (V), Sony (SNE), Tencent (TCEHY), China's State Grid Corporation (government owned), and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) are some of the patent holders ranking in the top 10 according to the number of patents filed. The last reports available claimed they held about 20 or more patents each. Please bear in mind patent information isn't public until 18 months after the filing in the US. So these ranking can change quickly. IBM (IBM) and MasterCard (MA) have been jockeying for a spot in the top 3 of patents held. It has been reported that IBM currently holds almost 100 blockchain technology patents. It has also been reported that Bank of America (BAC) held the most blockchain patents at one point in the year. And then we have Alibaba that has been reported as holding 10% of all the blockchain technology patents filed globally.

These companies are on the 21st Money watch list. Their interaction and integration with blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are being forged every moment of everyday in our 21st century. The 21st Money Team will keep you informed.

This week's Biggest Winners in Cryptocurrencies

1) +360.19% PumaPay (PMA) Started the week at $0.00032011 Ended the week at $0.00147311

2) +55.75% Nexo (NEXO) Started the week at $0.113 Ended the week at $0.176

3) +51.95% Ravencoin (RVN) Started the week at $0.0308 Ended the week at $0.0468

4) +54.07% MobileGo (MGO) Started the week at $0.479 Ended the week at $0.738

5) +46.75% Revain (R) Started the week at $0.154 Ended the week at $0.226

6) +44.55% Veritaseum (VERI) Started the week at $28.44 Ended the week at $41.11

7) +49.56%  GoCoin (GO) Started the week at $0.0458 Ended the week at $0.0685

8) +41.74% Endor Protocol Token (EDR2) Started the week at $0.0448 Ended the week at $0.0635

9) +28.69% Neblio (NEBL) Started the week at $1.945 Ended the week at $2.503

10) +21.86%  ChainLink (LINK) Started the week at $0.366 Ended the week at $0.446

11) +27.67% SaluS (SLS) Started the week at $18.18 Ended the week at $23.21

12) +12.50%  EthLend (LEND) Started the week at $0.0192 Ended the week at $0.0216

13) +13.84% Mainframe (MFT) Started the week at $0.00748871 Ended the week at $0.00852503

14) +9.37% Byteball (GBYTE) Started the week at $46.07 Ended the week at $50.39

15) +4.77%  Factom (FCT) Started the week at $4.526 Ended the week at $4.742

Crypto Chart of the Week

PumaPay / PMA

Chart Courtesy of CoinValuator

PumaPay (PMA) ranks 175th on the list of cryptos ordered according to their market capitalization. PumaPay's current market cap is $23,080,000. PumaPay describe themselves as developing an advanced billing infrastructure for merchants, allowing them to design flexible payment scenarios over the blockchain.
$25,0816 worth of PMA changed hands October 26th at an average price of $0.0015.

Heard Through the Grapevine

Upcoming ICOs and Events

Upcoming Events

October 29 - 30 - IoT Blockchain Summit Atlanta, Georgia USA

October 30 - November 2 - Devcon IV in Prague Prague, Czech Republic

October 31 - November 2 - World Crypto Con Las Vegas, Nevada USA

November 1 - 2 - Malta Blockchain Summit St. Julian, Malta

November 8 - 9 - STABLE CONF 2018 Budapest, Hungary

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

HELIXHILLS (HILL) Sale Starts October 27, 2018 Sale Ends August 21, 2019 / Using blockchain infrastructure to help consumers, service providers, and professional consultants automate the algorithms for selecting business partners and concluding deals, to record interaction time and bill the relevant parties using corresponding tariffs, and provide instant loans to reliable users

Betec (BETEC) Sale Starts October 28 Sale Ends January 27, 2019 / Enabling simple and safe betting between people on practically anything, at anytime

Blackbox Foundation (BBOS) Sale Starts October 28 Sale Ends November 20 / A group of PhDs, executives, and technologists joining forces to create the future of work - decentralized

Platin (PTNX) Sale Starts October 28 Sale Ends December 1 / Allowing anyone to geo-locate a digital asset (cryptocurrencies, documents, images, etc.), anywhere on the map, anywhere in the world, in real time

Cyber Capital Invest (CCI) Sale Starts October 29 Sale Ends November 26 / Offering users the most flexible and secure cryptocurrency investment fund with a highly profitable business model

Festy (FESTY) Sale Starts October 29 Sale Ends December 31 / A contactless payment and verification system that unites IoT and blockchain technology to benefit event organizers, merchants and consumers worldwide

TimberCoin (TMB) Sale Starts October 29 Sale Ends November 29 / A decentralized online platform based on the blockchain Ethereum that shall use the smart-contract system, combining advanced technologies in the area of finance and industrial production of one of the most demanded in the world market high-strength multilayer square-sawn lumber that is the veneer laminated, reliable, cost-effective, easy-to-use material for the construction of lightweight, environmentally friendly, heat-saving houses, agricultural, sports and other facilities

UHIVE (HVE) Sale Starts October 29, 2018 Sale Ends February 11, 2019 / A new, innovative and easy-to-use social network

CryptoCurve (CURV) Sale Starts October 30 Sale Ends November 30 / Accelerating the positive global impact of blockchain technology through an ecosystem of user-experience-driven products and programs that help individual investors, software developers, and corporate entrepreneurs achieve their goals with blockchain technology

CRYPTTO (TTO) Sale starts October 30 Sale Ends November 30 / Creating a world-class high-frequency crypto trading platform that provides: 1) Fully-automated trading strategies that make money in your crypto exchange account regardless of the market direction. 2) Intelligent and ultra-fast execution algorithms that improve execution prices and significantly reduce trading costs. 3) Proprietary trading signals based on market data statistical analysis, on-chain activity, news and social media sentiment analysis

GGRocket (GGR) Sale Starts October 30 Sale Ends November 14 / A mechanism that utilizes big data and machine learning technology in order to create specified and personalized offers for each customer based on their preferences

PlayTrip (PLTC) Sale Starts October 30 Sale Ends November 15 / A mobile application that allows you to experience a tourist itinerary through the narration of a story

TITA Project (TTN) Sale Starts October 30 Sale Ends November 30 / Building a decentralized ecosystem powered by Blockchain technology for the buying and selling of locally/globally traded commodities and finished goods thereby setting up pedestals that enhance the financial systems of the communities where these commodities are produced

Volans (VOL) Sale Starts October 30 Sale Ends November 30 / A cryptocurrency payment system which is based on blockchain technology

Adult X Token (ADUX) Sale Starts October 31 Sale Ends November 30 / Offering an absolute, never seen before, “all – in – one solution” for the adult entertainment industry

Hydrominer (H3O) Sale Starts October 31 Sale Ends November 1 / Green mining in the Austrian Alps

Neogame (TKT) Sale Starts October 31 Sale Ends November 30 / Designed to disrupt the for-profit model of gambling

Nexxo (NEXXO) Sale Starts October 31 Sale Ends December 31 / The world's first global blockchain-powered small business banking platform

Aeternum ICO (ALF) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends May 1, 2019 / This platform will be open to anyone owning Aeternum Token not just a select group of investors and no contribution will be too small to reap the return from deep science project realization

Alive Casino (AL) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 1 / Operating in such a way that allows online casinos to occupy a greater share of the gambling market

ALLCARE (ALCR) Sale Starts November 1, 2018 Sale Ends January 31, 2019 / Making company benefits like health care, insurance, training, and other perks accessible to all workers including contractual, freelancers and self-employed individuals

Arcus (ARCUS) Sale Starts November 1, 2018 Sale Ends March 1, 2019 / A project to combine crypto world and augmented reality

ASTRA (STAR) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 30 / Building a network of communities and computers (Astra Network) for discovery of scientific and social truths

AutoBay (ABX) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 15 / The first ecommerce platform based on the Ethereum blockchain that allows users to sell, buy and auction vehicles using cryptocurrencies as payment method

ClearAid (CAID) Sale Starts November 1, 2018 Sale Ends May 1, 2019 / A digital platform that aims to connect the non-profit community through an easy-to-use interface which allows full transparency and traceability of donations made on the blockchain

ComBox (CBP) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 30 / An international company, a developer and manufacturer of immersion cooling systems for industrial mining and for solving science-driven tasks

Cryptocoin Insurance (CCIN) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 27 / The first option exchange with the possibility of insuring deposits against falling prices

Cryptonity (XNY) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 31 / The combination of two words: Crypto and Community. Simple but strong and meaningful, the goal is to be an exchange that is respected by the Cryptocurrency Community

DeNet (DNET) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 30 / Decentralized data storage & web hosting service.

Filotech (FILO) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 31 / Featuring an open ecosystem with forthcoming APIs to enable service providers and entrepreneurs to easily integrate the services offered as part of Filo network

Gastro Advisor (FORK) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 16 / A platform for research, recommendation and booking of restaurants and clubs with an ERC20 token-based economy that connects users and restaurateurs with a p2p reward and benefit

Gemstra (GMS) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 30 / A blockchain-integrated ecosystem for the social selling economy

getFIFO (FFUEL) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends February 1, 2019 / A Live and Trading Fiat to Crypto Exchange based in the UK

GGPRO (GGP) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends January 1, 2019 /  A blockchain platform that creates new opportunities for interaction between the gaming community, sponsors and game developers

Gric (GC) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 30 / Aiming to create a brand that will be a benchmark in the agricultural industry, removing imitation and food counterfeiting, bringing about transparency with the aid of blockchain, creating a vehicle for people to invest on real life agriculture and earn rewards on their investments

IAME Identity (IAM) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 5 / Building the first truly decentralised cross-blockchain identification system based on its proprietary sharding technology and consensus identification

Instoken (INSTA) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 15 / Powering the Global Services Marketplace

Investoland (INV) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 30 / Empowering the widespread use of financial smart contracts, for individuals or companies, including SeSocio, thus creating a global, scalable, decentralized and transparent solution to investments worldwide

IZIChain (IZI) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends January 29, 2019 / A Public Hybrid Blockchain hyperlink platform providing blockchain custom solutions for financial markets with social and real-life applications

Jibbit (JIB) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 15 / Creating an ecosystem network to connect the worldwide cannabis community with the crypto world (200m +)

karbon14 (K14) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends May 1, 2019 / Maintaining information that will be used to create the Proof of Life certificates, generating a unique hash that will be saved in a Smart Contract

LaborCrypto (LBR) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends March 30, 2019 / A light touch administrator in a people-powered freelance work ecosystem

Laccoin (LAC) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 30 / An Ethereum backed cryptocurrency that enables the banked, unbanked and underbanked individuals who are in Latin America and Caribbean region to send money, invest and send micro-loans to each other with their mobile wallet or web app ***** No Website ****

Litenett (LNC) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 5 / A social network and a large media resource with its own payment system

MEDICOHEALTH (MHP) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 1 / Allows for fully anonymous, and safe client communication with the world’s leading physicians

MetaCert Protocol (META) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 15 / Building an open security protocol for the Internet storing trust and reputation information about Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) including domain names, applications, bots, crypto wallet addresses, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and content classification

MinedBlock (MBTX) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends April 30, 2019 / Offering the resources from a large scale mining operation, in order to mine multiple coins without the need to buy, configure and maintain expensive mining equipment

NOMAD.space (NSP) Sale Starts November 1, 2018 Sale Ends February 28, 2019 / Global wide Blockchain platform on hotel online booking eliminating middleman commissions

Onam (ONAM) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 1 / A truly scalable, High-performance, regulatory compliant, trading platform that features robust risk-management, trade surveillance, advanced trading tools and state-of-the-art enterprise grade security system powered by machine learning

Openartis (OART) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 31 / A revolutionary ecosystem that enables the adaptation of cryptocurrencies to everyday life

ORET (ORET) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 1 /  One of the first options in the world of cryptocurrencies to invest and share the profits of a Gold Mining Company

Parkres (PARK) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 30 / The all-in-one parking solution, bridging the gap between cryptocurrency, blockchain and parking system

Primex (PMX) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 23 / An advanced user-friendly platform, providing users anywhere in the world with unified electronic wallets for all of their cryptocurrency and fiat savings

Release Project (REL) Sale Starts November 1, 2018 Sale Ends April 20, 2019 / Next generation social media dispersed platform

SGAT (SGAT) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 30 / An IT consulting and development firm providing solutions based on blockchain technologies and smart-contracts

Silent (SLNT) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 30 / Constructing and operating industrial Methanol Synthesis Plants producing CO2-neutral Methanol and researches new technologies for small-scale Methanol synthesis systems

SocialRemit (SRT) Sale Starts November 1, 2018 Sale Ends April 1, 2019 / A new platform designed to provide emerging projects with financial and technological tools based on blockchain and impact society in a positive way through a collaborative economy that aims to build decentralized autonomous platforms of high efficiency

Stacktical (DSLA) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 31 / A unique way to turn the performance failures of an online service into surprisingly gratifying experiences for its stakeholders

SVPER (SVP) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 31 / Replacing user profiles, pictures and text messages with instant video invitations

TANZŌ (TZO) Sale Starts November 1, 2019 Sale Ends January 10, 2019 / A first-of-its-kind social marketplace for handmade goods, where crafters are protected and craftsmanship is guaranteed

Trecento Blockchain Capital (TOT) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends November 30 / All-in-One Blockchain Investment Solution

W12 (W12) Sale Starts November 1 Sale Ends December 12 / A tenfold improvement over existing centralized analogues, offering the market a transactional model with a commission of just 0.5% (instead of 4-20%) which can be integrated with existing platforms and enterprises on each available market

2TF (2TF) Sale Starts November 2 Sale Ends November 24 / A mobile global payment platform with decentralized principles where users transact directly through the use of stable price cryptocurrencies and smart contracts

CryptoCasher (CRR) Sale Starts November 2 Sale Ends March 2, 2019 / Allowing buying or selling of cryptos for cash safely and quickly with a 3rd party escrow service