PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($8,046): -4% / +115%
- ETH ($174): -4% / +30%
- LTC ($54): -4% / +77%
- XRP ($0.29): +8% / -17%
- Crypto Market Cap ($219B): -2% / +74%
- BTC Dominance: 66%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- US and Korean authorities broke up one of the world's largest markets for child pornography by analyzing bitcoin's blockchain. The site Welcome to Video made money by charging users fees in bitcoin and gave each user a unique bitcoin wallet address when they created an account. Over the two years the site operated, it received 520 bitcoins over 7,300 bitcoin transactions from users in the US, UK and South Korea. The bitcoin was used to purchase child exploitation videos. Sophisticated techniques allowed authorities to use these transactions to identify the location of the Darknet server to South Korea and authorities worked with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis to identify users of the site in the US and other countries. Overall officials arrested a total of 337 Welcome to Video users in 23 states and 11 countries. The initiative resulted in the rescue of at least 23 children being abused by site participants. Link. 

- Twenty-one organizations formally joined the Libra Association in Geneva this week and appointed a board of directors. The initial board members are Calibra cofounder David Marcus, Andreessen Horowitz general partner Katie Haun, Xapo CEO Wences Cesares, PayU general counsel Patrick Ellis, and Kiva chief strategy officer Matthew Davie. Libra initially had 28 launch partners, but Visa, PayPal, MasterCard, Stripe, eBay, Mercado Pago, and Booking all departed the project over the last few weeks, citing regulatory concerns. Link. 

- Telegram emailed investors wanting to push the deadline for the TON launch from Oct 30 to April 30, 2020, after the SEC recently sued it for selling Gram tokens which it deemed to be unregistered securities. If the majority of investors choose not to approve the extension, they will get back approximately 77% of their capital. A court hearing for the SEC/Telegram case is scheduled to take place on Oct 24. Link. 

- Fidelity Digital Asset Services is working on fully rolling out its custody and trading services, expanding from the limited trial users in the platform's final test stage. The $2.8 trillion asset manage is one of the first financial institutions to offer digital asset custody services. Link. 

- The Bank of Canada has been researching issuing a central bank-issued digital currency that could eventually replace cash and would provide the central bank with more information on how people spend their money. The central bank believes the rise of cryptocurrencies could impact its ability to effectively implement monetary policy. Other countries like Sweden, Singapore, and China are also exploring their own digital currencies. Link. 

- Circle is spinning out crypto exchange Poloniex, which it acquired in early 2018 for $400 million. The new platform, called Polo Digital Assets, will focus on the global crypto market and will not serve US customers. Poloniex is no longer accepting US signups and will disable US trades on Nov 1. Circle plans to focus its business on its stablecoin USDC and SeedInvest, a crowdfunding platform it acquired earlier this year. Link. 

- Telegram has agreed to stop selling and delivering its Gram tokens after the SEC filed an emergency action against the company arguing that its Gram tokens are unregistered securities. Telegram says that it has been engaged with the SEC over the past 18 months and was surprised by the regulatory bodies actions. Telegram conducted an ICO in 2018 that raised around $1.7 billion. Link. 

- Layer1, a vertically integrated crypto mining startup, is raising $50 million at a $200 million valuation. The company plans to bring wind-powered bitcoin mining rigs to West Texas early next year. The company is fully integrated and has designed and built its mining rigs in-house, and will run its own power procurement. Investors include Peter Thiel, Shasta Ventures, and DCG. Link. 

- Emaar Group, the real estate developing giant behind the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, is launching its native token EMR later this year. EMR tokens are built on JPMorgan's blockchain network Quorum and will be used by Emaar to reward its customers as part of a referral and loyalty program. The tokens will be redeemable in Emaar's real estate, hotels, ecommerce operations and malls, and can be traded with others. Emaar plans to launch a mobile app for earning and redeeming EMR by the end of the year. Link. 

- Privacy focused internet browser Brave has hit 8 million monthly active users, and 2.8 million daily active users. The browser has a built-in blockchain wallet and recently launched opt-in Brave Ads, which compensates users in its native Basic Attention Token (BAT) for viewing online ads all while preserving users' privacy. Brave Ads has seen high platform engagement, with a click-through rates of 14% vs industry average of 2%. Link. 

- EY has launched a blockchain solution for governments around the world to track funds in "real-time" to improve financial governance. The solution, called "EY OpsChain Public Finance Manager" creates a single dashboard to track budgets and expenditures. The platform was built on EY's native blockchain application, OpsChain, and has been piloted worldwide including for the city of Toronto, who specifically tested how reconciliations and divisional fund transfers are managed. Link. 

- Blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace has added support for over 700 digital assets, including bitcoin cash, ether, litecoin, and tether to its platform. With the new additions CipherTrace claims to be covering over 87% of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by trading volume, including hundreds of ERC-20 tokens. CipherTrace's clients are primarily crypto exchanges and financial institutions who use their services to trace coins for potential laundering risks. Link. 

- HTC launched a crypto-friendly smartphone, called the EXODUS 1s, which has a built-in crypto wallet and can run a full Bitcoin node. The device will initially be available for order in Europe, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Link. 

- Satoshi, bitcoin's smallest unit, has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Satoshi is defined as: “The smallest monetary unit in the Bitcoin digital payment system, equal to one hundred millionth of a bitcoin.”Link.