Telegram
BackSummary of crypto market news and CoinMetro updates.
Check out our weekly “This Week in Crypto” summary or watch the full video.
Crypto Market News Highlights
1) Report: Hamas, Iran-Tied Militants Intensify Bitcoin Fundraising Action
Hamas and Iran militants obviously don’t care about AML. They’ve found ways to receive and cash out Bitcoin in countries that haven’t yet instilled any type of AML/KYC policies. They’re making themselves pseudo-anonymous rather than anonymous, which is something the US and coalition probably loves. This will probably lead to them finding more terrorists.
But when it comes out in light like this, people that don’t understand the technology — lawmakers, regulators, etcetera — they might look at this and say “Ah I knew it; Bitcoin is for criminals”.
We, as a community and as an industry — need to work together, to explain that it’s just not true.
This is a perfect example of why KYC is important.
2) Binance (BNB) Crypto Exchange Expands P2P Trading Service for more Liquidity
P2P is a lot more popular in some countries than other countries. Kevin wouldn’t think there is more liquidity in P2P trading when there actually isn’t more people.
At the end of the day, this shows that even Binance wants more liquidity — which probably means that much of the liquidity that they show, is inaccurate. Crypto is an illiquid market. With a lot of companies trying to create funds and trade hundreds of millions or even billions of crypto, liquidity becomes even more scarce for normal people.
Getting into some type of P2P liquidity, or hooking into a liquidity provider that provides liquidity from P2P — is going to become more and more of a reality in crypto, just as it is in every other market.
CoinMetro has been using LMAX since the inception, as our main liquidity provider. Just this morning we made some updates on how we push LMAX prices into the book.
LMAX is a very mature FX provider, although a less mature crypto provider, but they’re getting better all the time. Hats off to LMAX for moving forward.
Take a look at the narrow spreads and the liquidity available in CoinMetro’s order book!
4) Tether Says Its Newest Stablecoin Is Backed by Gold in Swiss Vault
They also said that their initial stablecoin was backed by US dollars in a bank account. Now we know that it’s backed by whatever they might have on hand. If Tether has 17 chocolate muffins in a cupboard, that’s more than likely backing about €34 of Tether.
So, of course we should not trust them.
5) Liechtenstein Regulators Approve Ethereum-Based Real Estate Fund
Lots of guys coming out with funds, and putting it on Ethereum. Without settlement, it’s just recreating the pain points, and putting very hard to liquidate assets on a blockchain.
What we need is to be able to settle those transactions — in real time, cross-border, to open up more liquidity — so CMEs and funds can get more capital faster and investors can get out when they want to get out.
Would you like to read about more market news? Check out our Medium post!
Reddit Questions
When are you going to add new listings?
We have been waiting for our banking partner LHV to come up with their self-assessment guideline. We were supposed to have an audit in the beginning of January, but we had to move it. The audit will happen sometime mid-February, and will give us some face-to-face time with LHV.
The self-assessment guideline will allow us to list new assets without having to wait for LHV’s approval. While we aren’t necessarily going to list these assets right away, we are waiting for the guideline before we are doing any more listing.
Live Questions
What’s new on the XCM ecosystem release?
It’s in testing right now on the sandbox. After that, it should be pushed to demo for the community to test, and then it will hit live.
CoinMetro’s Demo platform allows you to test all parts of the CoinMetro platform without using real funds or having to register!
What’s coming on the development release schedule?
We are publishing a roadmap for the next 3 months, and you will be able to see what CoinMetro is planning.
The main priorities for January and February is:
Streamlining onboarding – deposits – withdrawals, and adding a simple exchange flow built into the Dashboard.
When we kick off our marketing strategies, we absolutely want to make sure that the first touch of CoinMetro is as seamless as it possible can be. Signing up, passing KYC, making the first deposit and trade.
Haven’t passed KYC yet? 20 XCM is waiting for you! Get your account verified today!
Can you share the trend on new signups/active users? On track for EOY target?
We haven’t started to push marketing yet. So it’s not on track for the target — yet. It has been increasing over time. We have had some valleys here and there.
You can see that the volume has started picking up. Clients that were active in the past have started becoming active again.
Starting in February, we will begin collecting data for monthly reports to share with the team and the end of the month, with details such as progression of active users, average trades per users, etc.
What’s new in bizdev?
Kevin had some good conversations at the Autonomy2040 event in Tulum, Mexico, and met a friend to one of the Brazilian investors from months back. That friend works for UCL, and they want to do a case study. CoinMetro and the CSD, showing a complete capital market infrastructure, might be one of those case studies. We may be able to do that in Brazil, through a Brazilian bond.
A trip to Brazil and LA, sometime in March. Also to New York, to talk with a famous capital market attorney there, to assist us with a US game plan for both the CSD and CoinMetro.
When do you expect to get an answer from the potential CMO?
Kevin expects to hear a positive response by next week.
When are the market makers coming on board?
The market makers have been making deposits yesterday and today, and they are now fully KYC/compliance onboarded, ready to light up at any point. Live testing could trickle in today, but at some point during the next week, they will be live.
We will make an announcement once they are fully live.
One month after TraM release but still only one TraM?
That one TraM has helped us immensely in finding bugs and fine tuning. Oliver is in the process of onboarding one of the algo providers.
When we push the marketing live, TraM will definitely be on the forefront. We will have more than one manager, and we will know for sure that the system is solid.
Check out CoinMetro’s most recent product: TraM – Trade Mirroring.
Would it be viable to use an existing stablecoin for USD pairs, just temporarily?
It could be, but we would have to get that stablecoin approved by our banking partner. Kevin would rather just get USD. CoinMetro is going through the Payment Institution Licensing process, which will help us with this. It’s still 6-8 months away.
There are solutions out there — but they are too expensive or too slow.
Stablecoins are a solution, but requires listing and we would need one that has enough liquidity to provide strong support. We have the CementDAO token, but that got a bit sidetracked.
Do you still think 70,000 active users is achievable this year?
Yes, it is achievable. The longer it takes us to start the marketing, the harder it is for us to reach that goal, but yes — it is achievable. There are companies onboarding 100,000 users a month in challenger banking, and in crypto.
Are you pushing any marketing, prior to the new marketing team, or is it all on hold until then?
Some small marketing is being tested. Promo codes and different promotions. We won’t be spending major marketing euros before we have the marketing team onboard.
Some exciting news for our dear Ambassadors coming soon! Become a CoinMetro Ambassador today!
Is the CSD MVP (Minimum Viable Product) done?
Yes, it’s locked and loaded. Some auxiliary features are being built into the CSD.
In the last demo, we had asset creation, asset issuance, primary market distribution, payment of interest, and redemption. The assets were successfully issued onto the Ethereum testnet.
What will be the first issuance on the CSD, and what kind of amount are they looking to raise?
We are in talks with four different issuers right now. The first issuance will more than likely be a plain vanilla bond, most likely with a 6 month maturity date, and it will be tokenized end to end.
This is a real issuance, and there are NDAs in play, so we can’t say who the issuer is. There will be some press around that issuance.
Any news on PRQ and their market maker?
The market maker wanted to market make on two different exchanges. They are waiting for the second exchange to come online. That exchange delayed them for a few weeks.
Should go live in the first half of February.
PARSIQ was the first IEO hosted on the CoinMetro Direct platform, and is now tradeable on the PRQ/EUR pair.
Why not allow private TraMs to list on the site?
For risk mitigation.
In reality, 96% of all TraMs that are made, will fail. This will give a bad light on the product. People wouldn’t understand the distinction between a public and private TraM, no matter how big and red letters we put there.
Therefore, only proven professional traders will be publicly listed.For now, private TraMs will remain private.
Joining a TraM is easy. Find out how to join a TraM!
Is the Margin Trading platform a part of the TraM platform?
All TraM trading is done using the margin platform.
CoinMetro’s recently revamped Pro platform offers the Trade mode for trading with 2-legged trading with positions, and the Margin mode, enabling trades with 3x leverage.
Are decentralized exchanges a threat to the future of regulated exchanges?
No, not at all. A DEX will never be able to replace the speed of a centralized exchange.
Major market players will never trade on a DEX. Retail traders usually follow major market players.
At the end of the day, DEXes will be there for the select few that know how to use them, and might give them access to unrelated tokens or assets that aren’t traded elsewhere.
Can you explain a bit more how the CSD will be good for the XCM price?
The CSD is not owned by CoinMetro, but it is absolutely needed for CoinMetro to move through the sandbox process to show how the full capital market infrastructure works. Just like CoinMetro is needed for the CSD, to do the same thing.
This will give CoinMetro PR. No one cares about just “exchange news” anymore. The MTF license will give CoinMetro a bit of PR, but when you tie that into the fact that we have CoinMetro being an MTF inside the sandbox, hooking up with a real time settlement partner who can actually facilitate global cross-border settlement — which can open up liquidity for CMEs and all that stuff — that becomes a much more powerful PR release.
More than that, wherever the CSD goes — if it helps opening up a sandbox in Asia for example — CoinMetro will follow.
For the next year to two years, CoinMetro and the CSD will be very jointly connected. If the CSD has success, so will CoinMetro. Not maybe at the same level, but still success.
Want to learn more about the CSD, Ignium?
“Kevin Explains Crypto” Term: Gas
Many believe that gas is simply a fee that is paid to get a transaction processed. Which is true. But more than that, gas is the amount of computational power needed to execute a transaction or operation.
Interested in learning more? Have a look at the video where Kevin explains “Gas”:
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!
__________________________________________________________________________
That’s a wrap for this week’s AMA with CoinMetro Founder Kevin Murcko! Please join us next week on CoinMetro’s Facebook and YouTube Channel at 1 PM (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.