XRP Falls Below $0.27 for First Time Since 12 Dec 2017

On Tuesday (14 August 2018), XRP, the world's third-largest cryptocurrency (by market cap), fell to its lowest price in 2018.

According to data from CryptoCompare, at 00:30 (UTC), the XRP price dropped to $0.2657, for the first time since 12 December 2017:

XRP one day chart for 14 aug 2018.png

Below is the one year chart:

XRP one year chart for 14 aug 2018.png

At press time, XRP is trading at $0.2566, down 14.44% in the past 24-hour period. XRP's market cap stands at $9.83 billion

Amazingly, in the past 24-hour period, amongst the top ten cryptocurrencies, this 14.44% drop is not enough to make it the biggest loser, with ETH down 18.22% and ADA down 16.13%.

The total market cap for all cryptocurrencies is below $200 billion, currently at $191.4 billion, which means the total market cap has reached a new 2018 low.

The Bitcoin dominance rate (i.e. the percentage of the total market cap that is contributed by Bitcoin) is at 53.8% (on 11 August 2018, it rose above 50% for the first time in 2018).
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Siamak Masnavi

Siamak Masnavi

13 Aug 2018
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In #Bitcoin , #Altcoins , #Exchanges

The fiat-backed stablecoin Tether plays an increasingly important (and controversial) role in crypto trading. Some even have called it "the central bank of crypto trading." Before we go any further, it is important to note that although many people incorrectly associate one tether with one U.S. dollar, in reality, the Tether platform does not support just the U.S. dollar. According to Tether:

"Tether initially supports US Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR), and soon Japanese Yen (JPY). Represented by ₮, tether platform currencies are denoted as USD₮, EUR₮, and JPY₮."

However, since the bulk the tether tokens in circulation are those backed by U.S. dollars rather than euros. At press time, according to Tether website's "Transparency" page, there ar roughly 2.5 billion of the former and 40 million of the latter. That's why it is not too surprising to see in discussions of Tether, people making statements such as "one tether generally equals one dollar."
Highlights From the WSJ Report

On Sunday (12 August 2018), Wall Street Journal (WSJ) presented a report on Tether, focusing on one of the main worries peple have, namely the fact that it is not very clear how much reserve holdings actually exist. In this article, we highlight some of the more interesting parts of this report:

"Tether, whose main selling point is its tie to the U.S. dollar, has grown dramatically over the past year—its daily trading volume of around $3 billion trails only bitcoin’s $5 billion."
"Tether has also become a “crypto bank” for cryptocurrency businesses that have trouble maintaining real-world banking relationships, providing liquidity and a place to park assets, according to a new study from blockchain research firm Chainalysis."
"But Tether has never produced an audit showing it has the purported reserves. The company that controls tether maintains it has the reserves, yet it has never named the banks it uses to hold these funds, nor said where they are based and regulated." (On its website, Tether says that its reserve holdings are "subject to frequent professional audits.")
"Last year, Tether hired accountants Friedman LLP, based in New York, to audit the reserves. The firm issued a preliminary report last year, but Tether says it released Friedman before a final audit was completed."
Leonardo Real, Tether’s chief compliance officer, told WSJ: “There’s nothing to hide here,” said Mr. Real. “It’s not three managers just cranking out money randomly in a dark basement somewhere.”
"In June, Tether hired law firm Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan LLP, co-founded by former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Louis J. Freeh, which issued a report stating that it believed tether had full dollar backing."
"In theory, demand drives new issuance. Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex places orders for new tokens with Tether and wires dollars or euros to the company’s bank account, according to both companies. Tether sends the newly created tokens to Bitfinex, which distributes them to investors."
"Investors have little visibility into the process. Bitfinex shares ownership and management with Tether, and it is the only entity through which Tether issues tokens."
David Gerard, the author of the book “Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain", told WSJ: "It’s sort of the central bank of crypto trading" even though “they don’t conduct themselves like you’d expect a responsible, sensible financial institution to do.”
"Tether’s market value has risen steadily over the past 18 months, to $2.4 billion from about $10 million at the beginning of 2017. That has made it a crucial link in the wider cryptocurrency market."
"Tether-based trading volume grew more than 15-fold between October 2017 and March 2018, Chainalysis found. U.S. dollar-based trading volume, meanwhile, tripled in that same period."
"tether has become a key source of liquidity. At times this summer, tether has represented as much as 80% of bitcoin trading volume, according to research site CryptoCompare. When the year began, it accounted for about 10% of bitcoin trading volume."
Ding’An Fei, a managing partner at Ledger Capital, a digital asset management firm based in Beijing, told WSJ: "There are a couple of forces in this market that if they failed, it would be catastrophic. Tether is one of them.”
"Chainalysis also found tether trading is increasingly concentrated among smaller, more speculative digital currencies, a sign it is being used as a tool of “pump-and-dump” schemes, in which traders hype an asset, causing its price to rise, before dumping it for a profit."