29 September - 1 October 2017
Charts for three days here. I was caught up in editorial deadlines for another publication.
28 September 2017 table
29 September 2017 table
30 September 2017 table
This has been a week of catching up, with everyone but Dash (see yesterday's post) up in price compared to seven days before.
Volatility levels were low for cryptos, too, and trading levels were way less than the frenzy of the previous 30 days. This changed somewhat on Friday with the announcement from South Korea (see below) of a blanket ban on crowd-funded tokens.
Crypto marketcapitalization is still hovering around $150bn, with bitcoin accounting for 47-8%.
Crypto developments
South Korea bans ICOs
The major development affecting crypto was South Korea's decision on 29 September to ban ICOs (initial coin offerings). This is so much bigger than China on the market, it dropped the price of ethereum 6% and bitcoin 3.5%. Ether is so often the basis for ICOs this is no surprise.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said it will prohibit all forms of ICO "regardless of technical terminology," while margin trading of virtual currencies will also be illegal following the ruling, reports coindesk.
It is unclear how far the ruling will extend into cryptocurrency exchanges, coindesk notes. "South Korea has recently seen a surge in cryptocurrency trading [and] domestic exchange Bithumb, for example, has a total trading volume of 104,113 BTC, or $427,533,000, according to CoinMarketCap data at press time."
Bloomberg said: "ICOs have been used to raise more than $2 billion this year, with some startups seeing it as a cheaper and faster alternative to venture capital for raising money. But the lack of oversight has attracted criminals, with some estimates showing about 10 percent of all ICO funds being stolen by thieves."
Score: -2% on the validityindicator
Japan recognizes currency exchanges
At the same time Japan recognized 11 cryptocurrency exchanges, reports ethnews citing the Chnese edition of the Wall Street Journal.
Applications from 17 exchanges remain under the agency’s review while 12 previously-operational exchanges elected to close down, the FSA told Reuters.
Score: +2% on the validity indicator
'Bitcoin payments will be banned' – Russia
According to the Russian news source TASS, Alexey Moiseev, Russian deputy finance minister, told reporters that no regulator doubts that bitcoin payments will be banned.
Unscored because this is a statement rather than action.
Previous days' commentaries
Excel version
Click here for an Excel 1997-2003 version of this table with records key records, free for download. There's also an Excel version of the shorter summary screenshot used above.
Superforecasting
Indicators
I've listed my seven indicators and explanations of what I consider important here.