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BackSome news on CoinMetro’s business and technical development, funding, new project and CSD.
Check out our weekly “This Week in Crypto” summary in our blog post or watch the full video here.
Crypto Market News Highlights
1) China’s Central Bank ‘Close’ to Launching Official Digital Currency
Like to see how this one pans out. Not a lot of information on this. Is it really a central bank backed currencies for everyone to use to make purchases? Is it a way to clear between banks? For companies doing a lot of import/export into China? Kevin thinks this is not for individual use, but more for clearing and settlement. But we shall see.
2) New Zealand just became the first country to legalize salary payments in cryptocurrencies (BTC)
Everybody likes to put a nice spin on these things, they didn’t legalize it because they like it, they legalized it because people are already doing it and they want to be able to tax it.
Same thing as China saying that Bitcoin is property. They say it is property so they can legally seize it, tax it.
3) SEC: BTC ETFs will either launch or die this October
We’ll have to see what happens. The SEC came out and was pretty clear on this: they didn’t feel that there was consumer/investor protection. Still not in place. If it’s launch or die, it’s die. But as some point as the market matures. The current round might die in October, but once there’s more liquidity in the market, it’ll happen.
4) Bitcoin would still outperform the S&P 500 in 2019 even if it loses 50% of its current price
WFC – there’s a lot of things that would outperform the S&P 500. This year, and most years. S&P has averaged about 8-12% over the 10 years. A lot of investments would have basically doubled what the S&P has done.
5) Barclays breaks up with Coinbase, Coinbase moves to Clearbank
A lot of rumors about there being some fraud going on with Coinbase clients. This is what happens when you don’t do proper KYT, KYC, don’t onboard properly, when your KYC process is basically smoke and mirrors so that people think you’re doing the right thing. There’s also Santander rumors, and Clearbank.
Live YouTube Questions
Just give us all the updates, funding, bizdev, techdev etc.
So here it comes…
Funding: In progress. Sitting there right on the edge of the cliff, just waiting to push it over. And we will push it over.
Bizdev: Most of last week spent in meetings in regards of basically setting up the sandbox for both the CSD and the MTF. Meetings in Tallinn with a company that actually built the CSD for Nasdaq, they look like they’re coming on board as well possibly, along with our guys in Latvia, along with our guys in CoinMetro, to build out what will be a massive venture.
Imagine the fact that the CSD holds all the regulated assets, including everything people use to pay for those assets, whether that be crypto, stablecoins, cash, whatever – all those funds sit with us, everything. That means when we launch, we’re probably the only game in town for custody of regulated crypto assets, and in order for a transaction to happen at the CSD, you need to have DvP – Delivery versus Payment – settlement has to happen in the CSD.
That’s huge. Coinbase custody has been making a lot of news because they have 7-8 billion under custody. What’s going to happen when STOs start to get large, and people want to buy those STOs, with some of those stablecoins, maybe even Bitcoin, that they have deposited under Coinbase custody? Where do you think that’s going to go? Food for thought.
Techdev: TRAM, which we’re now calling it – thanks everybody who voted in the Telegram.
TRAM: TRA as “Trade”, M for “Mirror”.
Full focus of our development team is on this platform, we expect to get that rolled out in the next two weeks roughly. All eyes on TRAM. Details on that will follow next week, more details on how it will function. Might release some mockups. PR statement about the CoinMetro Direct platform, which will probably include some mockups for TRAM as well.
Margin Posting is also following behind that. With TRAM we will be releasing the convertibility to XCM on all fees as well. That will follow almost immediately after TRAM, maybe even at the same time.
Any news on that big check?
Brazilian guys still in town, waiting on questions from one of those guys to come through. Once we do, a call is in order, after the call, probably a meeting. Sometime between the call and the meeting, we will see those funds roll in.
How does XCM tie into the IEO?
Bonus structures built in that tie in XCM, also discounts for people that use XCM.
They also must lock-in some XCM to get on the whitelist, and as we build in additional IEOs – and we have a few in the pipeline – we will add in additional functionality.
Kevin would like people to actually buy the tokens using XCM, but it’s a bit too early.
How is the ETCF coming along?
ETCF isn’t coming along at all right now. We need additional licensing for the ETCF – Portfolio Licensing, EMF licensing in the EU. So until we get to the point where we apply for that investment firm license, ETCF will be on the backburner.
Is the API being released in tandem with TRAM?
Looking at the schedule, after TRAM/XCM utility, we basically have a 4-6 week gap between that and then Margin Posting. More than likely will fit API development in there as the API will be used by a lot of TRAM managers.
When is the release expected for PARSIQ?
Press release mid-week, and right around then you’ll probably see the landing page on their side, and more information from our side as well.
Can you explain what kind of assets we can expect with STO sandbox? Just crypto coins or can we see like stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc?
No crypto coins, because those aren’t tokenized securities. We will select 5-10 instruments, they will be equities, bonds – could be something like tokenized diamonds/precious arts, it’s possible.
Probably will have a real estate backed token that will basically give equity and revenue share into a real estate project. Some type of equity based token/company, like shares. Some bond/convertible bond token. And more, but these will be regulated products. No crypto, Bitcoin, Litecoin – regulated products. Securities, that have been tokenized natively, from inception, basically. Not depository recipes.
“Imagine all regulated assets like STO’s in the CSD” – how does this impact XCM?
Doesn’t impact XCM at all directly. However, CoinMetro will be, at first, the only primary market for Europe. So it will be getting all those listings. Which means there will be more and more and more volume, which obviously will directly affect XCM.
In what capacity are you currently using PARSIQ and to what extent do you expect to use them in the future and for what purposes?
CoinMetro has been working closely with them so that they can understand how we want the product to work, in terms of exchanges wants to see it. So we will basically use their KYT system, their action system, and a few other systems. We will use almost their full suite of products.
What blockchains will these STOs use?
Probably one standardized system initially, Ethereum.
Will PARSIQ somehow be involved in the CSD?
PARSIQ services will be used in the CSD as well, so they will have a hand in some way.
You’ve talked before about becoming the “primary market” of Europe, how does that process work? Is there some document that gives you that status or what’s the process?
We would be regulated, have an MTF license, and hooked in to the CSD. In order for anyone else to connect they need to become licensed, and have to be accepted into the network. Just to have the license will take some time. There aren’t many players in Europe applying for the license, but there are a few.
The CSD can accept who they want to accept. We’re not a cartel, so we’re not going to not accept someone because we want CoinMetro to be primary forever. But, having said that, it will be a process, and it will take time.
Will CM develop its own blockchain platform eventually? Wouldn’t that be cheaper/more efficient for tokenizing securities?
If you already have 2,000 tokens sitting on one blockchain, it has proven itself, smart contract wise and everything – people use it. Whether it’s the best or better is almost meaningless, it’s just where most of the usage is, just like Bitcoin. Bitcoin gets 70% of the liquidity – is it that much better of a blockchain technology?
We’ll be setting standards all over the place with the CSD. Standards on how things are communicated, how custody is run, all kinds of standards. Not sure if we want to set the blockchain standard. We want to be as agnostic as possible. If something doesn’t come out that suit the needs specifically, we may look at creating our own blockchain.
Who will sponsor the CSD?
If you mean invest, right now we’re courting a few investors, few different investor groups, in different regions in the world for different regional CSDs that will then connect to a global CSD hub.
Any news on the new fiat currencies?
No real new additional news on that. Will talk to those guys probably next week about the APIs. Probably after TRAM that would happen. Everything is ready and waiting. The fees right now are a little high (.5 in, .1 out), would like to see those at fixed rates before.
Any news on the liquidity providers?
In the book by mid-September, that’s the goal. Specifically for the 6 current tokens, and any new tokens we decide to list.
New website still on track for this month?
Likely one landing page ready to load before the end of the month, and then we’ll add in additional pages every few weeks. It’s all about conversions, it’s a sales website.
Reddit Questions
What about that “interesting“ stable coin you mentioned in one of the previous AMAs?
CementDAO https://www.cementdao.com/ is the one we’re thinking about listing.
How will ETCF work with low volume on the basket items. Are there ideas for first baskets?
Need to be licensed first. By the time we get licensed, Kevin doesn’t expect volume to be much of an issue. Will also have market makers coming on, so that’s going to fix a lot of the lower volumes you see currently.
First three new tokens & no trading volume yet. Now, three more tokens, and again no volume. I know that you rely only on organic growth at the moment, but maybe some marketing would help to get at least some volume?
Obviously, marketing would help, but we need money to do marketing. We definitely have a plan to get there, and we’re hiring people in marketing to expand our marketing team. We will get there. If we do marketing and have nothing to trade, or we start building up what we have to trade since it takes so long to get these things through the bank right now, we have to choose one.
“Kevin Explains Crypto” Term: Seed
A seed is usually a group of words, 12 or 24 words.
In a hardware wallet, this combination of words in the correct order would allow you to recover your wallets.
Want to know more? Check for more details in the video below.
Listen to Last Week’s TWiC on the Go
Get the complete scoop by tuning in to our audio version of last week’s TWiC on SoundCloud. Happy listening!
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Well, that’s it for this week’s AMA with CoinMetro Founder Kevin Murcko! Please join us next week on CoinMetro’s Facebook and YouTube Channel at 12:00 (UTC) for another round and make sure you submit your questions to the CoinMetro subReddit!
As always, we’re available to answer any questions you may have on our Telegram Group 24/7.