● Coinbase Prepares Filings For IPO
● US Regulators Take Aim At Personal Wallet Information
● Optimism on the Euro Leads to its Highest Rise in More than Two Years
Welcome again to this week’s edition of Overbit Insights, where we try and highlight some of the more prominent market trends going into the week.
As we write today’s edition, the cryptocurrency market is booming. On Saturday, Dec. 18, BTCUSD cleared the $24,000 level before retracing a few hundred, marking yet another all-time high for the world’s first cryptocurrency. It seems that with Bitcoin remerging into record-setting levels, at least one of the groups associated with its rise is looking to cash out.
Coinbase, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2012, just ‘confidentially’ filed paperwork to go public. Being eight years old makes Coinbase one of the oldest companies in the space. On Thursday, Dec. 17, it was reported that the San Francisco based exchange filed their S-1 with the SEC, which is one of the first documents in the legal process to take a company public.
To us, this seems like a monumental milestone in the lifespan of the cryptocurrency markets. What was once just a nascent idea on an obscure mailing list is now, just a decade later, a booming infrastructure, one that can support a multi-billion-dollar initial public offering.
Besides the Coinbase IPO, Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, was in the news again this week for new rules regarding KYC laws in the US. These new rules would essentially require US Exchanges “to submit and store records involving such transactions with a total value over $10,000 in a given reporting period”, and for individuals to self-report wallet addresses.
Proponents of the new rules cite that these changes would bring the crypto closer to the traditional banking system, and would perhaps give greater comfort to institutional investors who are increasingly considering the asset class.
On the contrary, crypto companies and individuals who reject these proposed rules claim that this will weaken the early promise of privacy and self-government of blockchain technology.
Regardless of ongoing disputes, the US Treasury stated that the rule would close “loopholes” around virtual currency transaction reporting and that the general public will have until Jan. 4, 2021, to provide comments or feedback.
It appears there will be a showdown between the Government and Individuals parties over the coming weeks, as the US Treasury is anxious to “clamp down” on the burgeoning industry and bring it more in line with traditional banking rules; we’ll just wait to see that play out.
Lastly, in our final topic of the day; the EURO and it’s renewed optimism. Since the EU announced their recovery fund in May, the Euro has risen nearly 13%, and this week alone the EURO hit $1.22 against the US dollar on Wednesday for the first time since April 2018.
Besides the EU Recovery fund, expectations were further raised by a new manufacturing survey from Germany and France showing that Europe’s biggest economies may be recovering quickly. All in all, the EURO is on track for its most significant annual rise since 2017, showing that bullish momentum may be happening across Europe, which is great news for the ongoing Covid-19 recovery.
With the end of the year approaching, we at Overbit.com will continue to bring you the top insights into the traditional forex markets, commodities, and cryptocurrencies, and we look forward to an exciting year of new tools for our customers.