Bitcoin 10 years old, Fidelity Investments announce custody services, Coinbase valued at $8 billion, TD Ameritrade and Yale Endowment Fund enter the crypto space.
The News
The 31st of October marked the 10th anniversary of the white paper published by Satoshi Nakamoto, the start of Bitcoin. businessinsider
Coinbase, the American cryptocurrency trading platform raised a $300M series E round, valuing the company at $8 billion. cnbc
Fidelity Investments, the financial services giant which manages $7.4 trillion, announced cryptocurrency custody services. cnbc
David Swensen, the head of Yale’s $30 billion endowment fund invested in a new cryptocurrency fund called Paradigm. The fund was started by Fred Ehrsam (Coinbase), Matt Huang (Sequoia) and Charles Noyes (Pantera Capital) and raised $400 million. bloomberg
At Devcon, the annual ethereum developers conference, the creator of the Ethereum network Vitalik Buterin, laid out the network upgrade plan that will see the the move from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. The plan has several different stages of implementation that will occur over the next few years and will increase the transaction speed of Ethereum. trustnodes
TD Ameritrade announced a strategic investment in an exchange called ErisX, which will enable bitcoin trading for their clients. cnbc
Capital
Circle, one the big American cryptocurrency marketplaces, acquired SeedInvest, an equity crowdfunding platform. bloomberg
Bithumb, the largest South Korean cryptocurrency exchange announced a $350 million investment for a 38% ownership stake. coindesk Another European exchange, Bitstamp, was acquired for a rumoured $400 million. fortune
Starkware closed a $30 million equity round. The company builds a privacy layers on blockchains using zero-knowledge proofs. coindesk
Adoption
A group of nine Japanese banks will trail a blockchain-powered interbank settlement system developed by Fujitsu. finextra
GMO Internet Group in Japan announced plans to launch a Japanese yen-pegged cryptocurrency to support reliable borderless transactions. gmo
Singapore’s National Energy Provider launched a blockchain-based marketplace for trading renewable energy certificates. spgroup
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the company that controls Chinese internet censorship published a draft regulation for blockchain start-ups. coindesk
Oxfam in Sri Lanka announced plans to implement microinsurance for farmers using the Ethereum network. coindesk
Market:
The market slide continued in October finishing the month 6% down with an overall market cap of $200B. Bitcoin fell 3%, finishing the month at $6,400 USD. Bitcoin has now had three consecutive red candles on the monthly chart, the first time since March 2015. Ethereum continued its tumble, finishing the month 12% down at $200 USD.
