AH, My Eyes! It Burns!

So much for stability. Just when we thought the worst times were behind us, the market decides to take another dip into the depths below. The entire crypto market was hovering around $220 billion for the majority of the week before shedding off over $20 billion towards the end. It currently sits at just over $202 billion – a 7.34% drop on the week.

Let’s check in on our top three cryptos:

Bitcoin was the only coin with single digit loses, falling 4.22% this week.

Ethereum got hammered hard with an 11.03% fall.

XRP took a beating, dropping 16.57% in the last seven days.

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Cryptocurrency Market Stats (10/12/18) 

Domestic News

Gemini Secures Insurance for Hot Wallets: In what may be an industry first, Gemini has now obtained insurance for the digital assets held in the company’s hot wallets. The insurance is arranged Aon, a global professional services firm specializing in risk, retirement, and health solutions. Now, Gemini maintains insurance for its users’ cryptocurrency as well as their U.S. dollar funds through traditional FDIC guarantees.

Hopefully, other custodial exchanges follow suit. The risk of hackers has certainly been a deal breaker for many potential cryptocurrency investors, so this extra layer of fund security should help to bring more people into the space.

IBM Launches Food Blockchain: On Monday, IBM announced the launch of IBM Food Trust, a food-tracking blockchain for commercial use. And already, some notable companies have signed up. The list includes Nestle, Dole Food, Kroger, and Unilever among others. The Food Trust network runs on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain protocol and costs $100 to $10,000 per month to utilize.

Other than the Food Trust, IBM also runs blockchain initiatives regarding shipping, global trade, insurance, and even entertainment. In our current bear market, it’s adoption like this that should give you hope.

People Saying Things

Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em: Before you go and check your calendars, no, it’s not 2007 again. Soulja Boy is back in action, however. Climbing out of relative obscurity this week, the Chicago-born rapper released and subsequently Tweeted his newest banger, Bitcoin. “How is it?”, you ask. We’ll let you be the judge.

Soulja Boy - Bitcoin (Young Drako) https://t.co/5RHWgQUlf0 via @YouTube

— Soulja Boy (@souljaboy) October 6, 2018

Google Sell ‘Em: After first instating a cryptocurrency ad ban, and then reversing it (for some), Google is back again to play with our emotions. The company recently released an ad (ironic, we know) in which they imply that cryptocurrency is just money that isn’t real. C’mon Google. We’re sensitive right now. 

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International News

Seoul Mayor Building Blockchain Smart City: Last week, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon announced his Blockchain Urban Plan, a $108 million plan to elevate the city from traditional to smart. The five-year, smart city plan outlines the implementation of blockchain technology into several public services such as labor welfare and voting in elections.

The mayor also laid out a strategy to create two building complexes for the specific purpose of incubating blockchain startups. With these kinds of progressive actions, we could easily see Seoul rise to the level of Silicon Valley, Malta, or even Zug before long.

Vanua Who? Vanuatu: More and more small nations are betting big on blockchain. First Malta, now the less than 300 thousand person island nation of Vanuatu is positioning itself to become a hotbed of cryptocurrency activity. The South Pacific island is receiving help from Malta in establishing its own regulation for blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT).

Malta gained notoriety when Binance, cryptocurrency’s most active exchange, relocated their headquarters to the tiny archipelago this past March. The move was spurred by the lack of regulatory clarity in Japan and Hong Kong, the two places in which Binance was first operating.