PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($9,298): -4% / +148%
- ETH ($184): -2% / +38%
- LTC ($58): -5% / +90%
- XRP ($0.29): -2% / -17%
- Crypto Market Cap ($249B): -3% / +98%
- BTC Dominance: 67%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

Happy birthday bitcoin! Halloween 2019 marked the eleventh anniversary of the release of Satoshi Nakamoto's infamous white paper, which outlined the first full decentralized, peer-to-peer electronic cash system.

- Jihan Wu, ex-CEO of mining giant Bitmain, suddenly ousted his co-founder Micree Zhan earlier this week. According to transcripts of internal meetings, Wu and Zhan's relationship came to a head in December 2018 when Bitmain's exec team decided on a round of major layoffs that Zhan fought against and which ultimately resulted in Zhan taking over Wu's CEO role. The two also reportedly didn't see eye-to-eye on the future of Bitmain, which has been struggling in 2019 despite bitcoin's price rebound. Zhan wants Bitmain to expand its AI offerings while Wu wants to focus on the core mining business. According to Tencent News, Bitmain has already filed an application in the US to go public again - the confidential filing was submitted one week before what the news outlet described as Wu's coup. Link. 

- Bitmain has reportedly secretly filed an IPO in the US, targeting a raise of $300-500 million. The raise is down from the $3 billion it wanted to raise when it had filed to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last year - that application lapsed in March. Bitmain's rival Canaan Creative filed for a US IPO earlier this week, aiming to raise $400 million. Link. 

- Bitcoin derivatives provider Bakkt plans to launch a crypto consumer app and merchant portal in the first half of 2020. Starbucks is the planned launch partner for both platforms. It is reported that Starbucks received a generous equity deal as part of this partnership. Link. 

- CoinList, the crypto spinoff from Angel List that helps startups raise money through token sales, has raised $10 million in a new round led by Polychain Capital with participation from investors like Jack Dorsey. The company has supported more than $800 million worth of token offerings since August 2017. CoinList plans to use the capital to launch a crypto exchange and a crypto wallet. Link. 

- Robinhood, a stock and crypto trading platform, is hiring a chief compliance officer for its crypto unit, Robinhood Crypto LLC. Key responsibilities include managing regulatory reporting, executing a strong AML/KYC program, and leading their annual crypto audit. Link. 

- A recent filing shows that Blockstack paid crypto exchange Binance 833,333 STX tokens (~$250k) to list its Stacks token on the exchange. Binance is the first marketplace to support trading of Stacks and had announced last week that it wouldn't charge Blockstack a listing fee. The two groups are calling this a long-term payment for services and marketing fee. Link. 

- Security token platform Harbor received a transfer agent license from the SEC, enabling it to keep records of security token ownership and pay out dividends to token holders. It has become the first blockchain company to receive both a transfer agent license and a broker-dealer license, allowing it to fully service blockchain companies looking to complete Reg A+ offerings. Link. 

- Crypto custody startup Vault12 has developed a custodian solution that protects private keys using friends and family as a network. The technique allows 'guardians' to possess part of users' seed phrases, so if users lose access to their crypto holdings they can combine portions of their guardians' keys to recover their funds. The company has seed backing from Winklevoss Capital, True Ventures, and Naval Ravikant. Link. 

- Overstock's security token platform tZero is working with the Tezos Foundation to tokenize £500 million in various real estate projects, in whats the UK's first real estate backed security token offering (STO). The first STO is scheduled to take place early next year, when tZero's management will distribute tokenized securities representing £20 million in equity of a water-front property that's being developed in Manchester. The Tezos protocol will form the foundational layer for deploying, transferring, and storing the smart contracts and will make the tokens tradable on secondary markets. Link. 

- Flux, a startup known to let people bet on the success of a company, is opening its protocol to let developers build their own apps to bet on any asset and event, ranging from derivatives to weather forecasts. Flux believes opening its protocol to developers will allow it to compete with companies like Augur, Guesser and Veil which are targeting the same users. Link. 

- Binance is opening an office in Beijing, a signal that relations between Binance and Chinese authorities are warming just a year after China's censorship firewall had blocked access to Binance. The announcement comes days after Chinese authorities outlined the country's blockchain ambitions including a planned cryptocurrency from China's central bank. Binance CEO CZ stated this week on Twitter that he believes the Chinese central bank is having a positive impact on the crypto industry. Link. 

- The bitcoin blockchain reached $1 billion in cumulative transaction fees. The amount is closer to $1.86 billion if you take into account the market value of bitcoin today. Link. 

- Telegram released an early desktop wallet for its "gram" token, despite its recent SEC lawsuit. Users can send and receive special testnet gram tokens and set up their own wallets. Link.