VeradiVerdict - Treasury Management - Issue #5

Hi, I am Paul Veradittakit, a Partner at Pantera Capital, one of the oldest and largest institutional investors focused on investing into blockchain companies and cryptocurrencies. I focus on early investments and want to share my thoughts and what’s going on in the industry in this weekly newsletter.

October 02, 2018

Hi, I am Paul Veradittakit, a Partner at Pantera Capital, one of the oldest and largest institutional investors focused on investing into blockchain companies and cryptocurrencies. I focus on early investments and want to share my thoughts and what’s going on in the industry in this weekly newsletter.

View and comment this newsletter on Medium

Editorials

Bitmex has an insightful report that they tweeted where ICO projects have sold 52% of the ETH they have raised during their crowdsale.

I assume that many projects that raised earlier this year held on to the ETH that they raised and now need to sell to cover operations. It’s a tough decision to make on whether to speculate on ETH vs to hold in USD or some other stablecoin. I believe the ETH/BTC decline that started this year due to tax season and the constant sell pressure from ICO projects is coming into effect.

I typically advise ICO projects to sell at least half of their ETH into USD shortly after their sale to make sure operations are covered. There are new treasure management companies that can help manage crowd-sale funds or OTC trading desks that can help liquidate crypto.

Digests

There’s a lot of confusion about blockchain governance. Many participants and potential participants inside and outside the blockchain space fail to effectively participate in blockchain governance…

Apart from a few outlier situations, the top cryptocurrencies are very closely correlated with Bitcoin; as a result, the idea of diversifying a portfolio to spread risk is really only a myth in my…

Blockchain is virgin territory, a new frontier. Getting there first, exerting influence, and dominating the market matters. He is weaving a strategic future plan in military restructuring and…

The crypto market and blockchain sector in South Korea is thriving with the involvement of major banks and conglomerates.

In the Tweets

Is the $ETH carnage over? BitMEX Research publishes some interesting numbers about ICO Ether holdings. https://t.co/VYCm5XjEha

1:31 AM - 1 Oct 2018

I build a Coke vending machine that accepts Bitcoin payments through Lightning Network.I use @Raspberry_Pi, @BtcpayServer , @pusher YT: https://t.co/qVr3GDkitJ https://t.co/anSmCYmIKM

12:29 PM - 30 Sep 2018

Very proud to announce the launch of the CoinCap platform. Reliable real-time crypto market data, 1200+ assets, 65+ exchanges, market volume metrics, new comprehensive API, TradingView charts, and... no obnoxious banner ads. Also Dark Mode for 1337 hax0rs https://t.co/2JZAgbYOvz

7:43 AM - 27 Sep 2018

News

Abstract: Following on from our August 2018 piece on Bitmain’s IPO, in this note we look at new information made available in Bitmain’s IPO prospectus, which was published in the last few days. The new filing confirms our suspicion that Bitmain has been making large losses recently, with a net loss of US$395m in Q2 2018.

Four early employees and two contractors have resigned from the Hong Kong cryptocurrency company Block.one to start up StrongBlock, a new blockchain project that is currently under wraps.

Landmark investment in UK start-up Gospel Technology marks Salesforce Ventures first investment in enterprise blockchain.

The US SEC has been heavily criticized for its actions against Elon Musk’s Tesla, the crypto market, investment firms within the local market.

Beijing Sci-Tech Report (BSTR), the oldest technology publication in China, has recently announced that it will soon accept Bitcoin on its platform.

Everbloom, one of numerous so-called decentralized exchanges (DEXs) for cryptocurrencies that have cropped up lately, is seeking to become a licensed broker-dealer in a bid to attract institutional investors.

Regulations

The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed charges against an international securities dealer and its Austria-based CEO for allegedly violating the federal securities laws in connection with security-based swaps funded with bitcoins.

Cryptocurrency to cash transactions may be approved by regulators in Taiwan. This, after Taiwan’s central bank governor said cryptocurrencies lack the trust element and cannot retain value. If permitted, local convenience stores will be allowed to facilitate crypto to fiat transactions.

The statement was a result of an unjust enrichment case filed by a crypto tech company in Beijing, which accidentally sent 20 Ether to a man named Chen.

Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, has used his platform at the U.N. to speak out on the potential of blockchain and cryptocurrency, calling them an “inevitable” part of a digital future.

A group of U.S. lawmakers are asking Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Jay Clayton to clarify when initial coin offerings (ICOs) are considered securities sales.

An arbitration body in the Chinese city of Nanjing has launched an online ruling system that it says has a built-in blockchain network for depositing and storing data in legal disputes.

New Products and Hot Deals

Signaling their support of MakerDAO’s Dai stablecoin, investment fund a16z crypto has purchased 6% of the total MKR token supply for $15 million USD. The purchase gives a16z crypto a stake in the…

Especially in a down market, those hodling crypto would love that. And ethereum-based startup Compound is launching a product to do just that.

Circle’s stablecoin USDC, a fully-compliant and transparent USD 1:1 collateralized digital dollar on the Ethereum blockchain, goes live on Poloniex and Circle Trade and is accepted by 20 other companies.

Messaging giant LINE has officially announced the first five decentralized apps (dapps) to launch on its custom blockchain platform.

As ICO is entering Ice Age and cryptocurrency has been facing a bear market, some people are wondering whether the blockchain technology is just a flash in the pan. In this regard, Jiang Guofei, Vice President of Ant Financial holds an opposite view.

After being unveiled in July of this year, the zero-fee decentralized trading platform StellarX has now been fully launched.

Two cryptocurrency projects, Grin and Beam, are close to realizing versions of the Mimblewimble protocol, which combines versions of several cryptographic tricks designed to increase Bitcoin’s privacy.

Meet with Me

I will be traveling this fall for certain events, and to meet with investors. Let me know if you and your colleagues would like to meet in person.

San Francisco, SF Blockchain Week, October 9

Las Vegas, Money 2020 USA, October 21-24

Zurich, Crypto Summit, October 28-29

Prague, DevCon 4, October 30-November 2

Macau, Sora Summit, November 13

New York, Consensus Invest, November 27