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BEQUANT Crypto&Coffee
Macro is all the rage as attention turns solely on elections that are taking place in the US, with the FT noting that US retailers prepared for post-election unrest by boarding up stores as Donald Trump and Joe Biden tried to win over undecided voters who will head to the polls on Tuesday following one of the most divisive presidential campaigns in recent history. Furthermore, by Monday evening, almost 99m Americans had already cast ballots either in person or by mail, equivalent to 72% of the entire 2016 vote and putting the country on track for record turnout. Democrats have appeared to perform better in early voting in some swing states, meaning Mr Trump must turn out Republicans in big numbers on Tuesday if he is to overcome their advantage. Bitcoin traded more or less steady, in the mid-$13,000 zone, while small-caps continued to underperform. So much so that the MVIS small cap index is now up a mere 12% year-to-date, having been up 100% in September. Given the subdued price action meant that Bitcoin open interest (OI) fell marginally from around $5.4bln to $5.2bln and the contango term structure flattened, albeit marginally. Overall vol has been steady, although look out for potential fireworks as the session progresses. As a reminder, today will see the mining difficulty adjust lower by around 15%. Elsewhere, overall activity on EOS mainnet has risen to its highest level since October 2019, which is a stark reversal of activity noted in February this year which was almost 3 times lower than that in October. Also of note, while BCH’s activity remained rather depressed, BSV’s was well within its highest levels of the year. Finally, Cardano’s transaction count for the month of October fell to its lowest level since May 2020. In terms of news flow, Reuters reported that Hong Kong will regulate all cryptocurrency trading platforms operating in the financial hub, the city’s markets watchdog said on Tuesday, changing its previous “opt in” approach. Of note, Dozens of cryptocurrency exchanges operate in Hong Kong, including some of the world’s largest, though many chose not to apply for a licence under the existing regime. The SFC has not issued a full licence to any exchange, but has agreed in principle to issue a licence to cryptocurrency firm OSL Digital Securities. Also, crypto-friendly privacy browser Brave today announced that it has passed 20 million monthly active users and 7 million daily active users. That’s a 2.3x increase from this time last year, when it reported 8.7 million monthly active users and 3 million daily active users.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission raised its limit on Regulation Crowdfunding offerings from $1.07 million to $5 million as part of a package of amendments to its exemption offering framework. The move should provide cryptocurrency startups with more legal pathways to funding beyond venture capital. As per Decrypt, regulated crowdfunding is a way for companies to get a securities offering off the ground without registering it with the SEC; startups can merely ask non-accredited investors (i.e., normal people instead of just rich people) for smaller investments.
