PRICE CHANGE WTD/YTD

- BTC ($3,513): -13% / -6%
- ETH ($117): -25% / -12%
- LTC ($30): -23% / -2%
- XRP ($0.32): -16% / -9%
- Crypto Market Cap ($118B): -15% / -6%
- BTC dominance: 53%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- Ethereum Classic faced what was potentially a 51 percent attack this week. Someone controlling miners on the network reorganized 100 blocks on the chain, enabling 'double spending' of some $460,000 worth of ETC. Some exchanges like Coinbase halted all trading of the coin, while others increased transaction verification. Ethereum Classic was created in June 2016 following a major hack on The DAO. Link. 

- An SEC unit included crypto as one of it six examination priorities for 2018. Every year, the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations highlights six areas that present a risk to capital markets. The agency said that the growth of digital assets and different market participants raised a number of concerns. In particular the group said it would focus its exams on portfolio management, trading, security, pricing, compliance, and internal controls. Link. 

- Crypto mining giant Bitmain, which filed to go public in Hong Kong in September, has reportedly replaced CEO Wu Jihan. Bitmain's director of product engineering has assumed CEO duties. The company, which is said to have been valued as much as $15 billion, appears to have stalled its IPO. Link. 

- Blockfolio, the popular crypto portfolio tracking app, folded its DataBlock project and reduced the size of its staff just three months after raising $11.5 million from investors. The company made the decision to reduce burn and focus on its core product offerings. Link. 

- The Russian government is reportedly considering purchasing $470 billion in bitcoin as a way to switch part of its reserves from fiat to crypto. A Russian economist believes the Russian government will purchase the coins to combat economic sanctions from the United States. The purchases would likely come in stages, but estimates indicate the government could purchase at least $10 billion worth of bitcoin starting next month. Link. 

- Crypto startup Bitwise Asset Management has filed for a new bitcoin ETF with the SEC. The fund would track the Bitwise Bitcoin Total Return Index, which measures the value of bitcoin including meaningful hard forks. Bitwise indicated it wanted to underpin its index with spot prices from exchanges and physically settled futures contracts, rather than cash-settled contracts as earlier proposed ETFs would have done. The SEC has yet to approve a crypto-related ETF. Link. 

- Segwit adoption appears to have stagnated at around a 40-50% share of bitcoin transactions over the last 5 months. Segwit is a soft fork protocol upgrade intended to fix certain forms of malleability and increase block size. The fork occurred in summer of 2017. Segwit transactions are at least 25 percent smaller in size when compared to legacy  transactions, and therefore cheaper. Link.  

- A research paper on cryptocurrency Monero found that over 4 percent of the currency was mined by malware, earning those bad actors up to $56 million. Link. 

- USD Coin stablecoin (USDC) announced support from six new companies and surpassed $300 million in market cap. The stablecoin was co-founded by Circle and Coinbase in September and is now supported by nearly 100 exchanges, protocols, platforms, applications, wallets and service providers. USDC is the second-largest stablecoin by market cap and is one of the top 25 largest currencies. Link. 

- Despite the bear market, Genesis Trading, the digital currency OTC trading firm, saw a 50 percent year over year increase in OTC trading volumes and originated nearly $1B in loans for its lending business, Genesis Capital. Link. 

- Crypto exchange ShapeShift, founded by Erik Voorhees, reduced the size of its team by a third and laid off 37 employees. Voorhees said the company had diversified its product line too early and in too many verticals, resulting in the suffering of its core exchange business. ShapeShift's decision follows similar layoff announcements from companies like Huobi, Steemit, and ConsenSys. Link. 

- NASA announced it was looking at blockchain technology and smart contracts as a means to ensure the privacy and security of aircraft flight data. Starting in 2020 the FAA has mandated a new surveillance system that broadcasts aircrafts' identity, position and other information but some stakeholders are worried the transparency goes too far. The new blockchain system would enable control of what data is shared publicly or privately with authorized entities. Link. 

- Wyoming has reportedly passed two new house bills to increase blockchain adoption and crypto innovation. One of the bills established tokens as a new asset class and indicated they do not require an exemption from federal securities laws. Wyoming has passed a number of pro-crypto and blockchain legislation, including a bill last summer that exempted virtual currencies from state property taxation. Link. 

- Iceland-based blockchain startup Monerium announced a $2 million seed round with participation from ConsenSys. The startup counts the former chairman of Iceland's Central Bank among its four founders. Monerium is developing a solution for bridging fiat money and blockchains, issuing what it refers to as e-money. The company is currently awaiting review of its application to become a licensed financial services company in Europe. Link. 

- Security token trading platform tZERO, incubated within Overstock, has begun distributing tokens to investors in its $134 million token offering in August. Investors had two options to receive their tokens: create a brokerage account with broker-dealer and tZero partner Dinosaur Financial Group or hold the tokens in a personal wallet. Though investors are receiving their tokens, it is unclear when tZero will begin actual trading on its platform. Link.