BAKKT TO THE FUTURE | Hodler's Digest

I don't know much about bitcoin or cryptocurrency. I like good old American cash. I like it in my pocket and I like it in the bank. I don't think there's a lot of small business opportunities in crypto or a lot of other yeah, no, it's not something that I'm interested in. I feel like there's too much unknown.

Around what Listen to Bob Dylan Marcus. Don't criticize what you can't understand. Safe to say no one will profit from watching your show. If life gives you Lemonis, make your way to the exit. It is hard to predict what life has in store. Even harder it seems to stay when an ETF will finally get approved Pump and dump schemes are still slam dunks for secretive trading groups. A drop in bitcoin transaction used for crime was reported this week by the dea. Have you heard of bitcoin? Duh. Say the Russian public and Barclays are 100%. Definitely, maybe not potentially so. Certainly not starting a crypto trading desk Ladies and gentlemen, here's your good old fashioned Hodler's digest. A ginormous $15 billion was wiped off the total market after the SEC postponed an ETF decision. The deadline for approval or disapproval is now September 30th for the proposed VanEck and Solid X ETF. There is one more reason to be hopeful about this one compared to the Winkleby proposal due to its high minimum share price, a discouragement for retail investors. Fingers crossed toddlers, approval in late September is still possible. A new WSJ report claims that crypto price manipulation is largely conducted by organized trading groups using apps like Telegram for so called pump and dump schemes. In the first six months of 2018 alone, trading groups generated revenues of $825 million. The WSJ report looked at 175 schemes trading 121 different coins. Operating in private chat rooms, accessible only by invitation and generally overseen by an anonymous moderator. The WSJ took the aptly named cloakcoin as an example, an older altcoin that experienced more pumps this year than all of the NFL footballs combined. On July 1, the price of cloak coins skyrocketed on binance to shortly after Big Pump Signal sent a message on telegram to followers telling them to buy. It would be easy to call this kind of report fud, but realistically it is the bad actors in the space that really do serious damage to the prospect of mass adoption. More so even than fudmeister General Kenneth Rogoff.

I think Bitcoin will be worth a tiny fraction of what it is now if we're headed out 10 years from now.

Bitcoin is cleaning up its public image. The Drug Enforcement Agency, AKA the dea, noted that bitcoin's role in crimes have dropped to just 10% of transactions, while transactions themselves have grown tremendously. DEA Special Agent Lila Infante, part of the Cyber Investigative Task Force, said that the ratio of legitimate to illegitimate bitcoin transaction had flipped over the past five years. Bad news for those who like to see scapegoat Bitcoin as responsible for increased criminal activity. Looking at you Rogoff. Good news for Hodlers looking at you neckbeard. What Infante went on to say the blockchain actually gives us a lot of tools to be able to identify people. I actually want people to keep using them. Cryptocurrencies. In short, even if you are a hardcore libertarian, pay your taxes. Anderson Horowitz covered similar ground recently when he told a US House committee, bitcoin is law enforcement's best friend due to the ability to track illicit transactions on the blockchain from Russia with Crypto A Gallup and romeo survey of 1,500 Russians revealed this week that 44% of Russians have heard of crypto. 13% said they had a good understanding, and 56% didn't even know what the word meant. The survey's other findings included a relationship between income and knowledge of the crypto sphere. The people with lower incomes tend to know more about cryptocurrency. Russia is in the middle right now of formalizing its regulatory approach to crypto. After years of uncertainty, the first reading of the package of draft bills concerning crypto and blockchain passed earlier this year. The Russian government has yet to formally approve the statute as law. Russians may love their dancing bears, but when crypto comes to town, they should adopt the non native bull Are you on your way to Starbucks right now? Well, I have some bad news for you. No, it hasn't been taken over by the English only serving tea at exactly five o' clock every day and no other time. Starbucks has just clarified that it will not be accepting crypto for coffee, despite reports to the contrary from mainstream media. Last week the New York Stock Exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange announced plans to create a new global platform and ecosystem for digital assets Bakkt alongside a group of big name enterprises including Starbucks. Both Bloomberg and CNBC then ran misleading headlines like New Starbucks Partnership Allows customers to pay for Frappuccinos with Bitcoin. A spokesperson for the coffee chain clarified customers will not be able to pay for Frappuccinos with Bitcoin, but you can convert digital assets like Bitcoin into US Dollars, which can then be used at Starbucks. Starbucks stated that the Bakkt offering will, however, include physically delivered Bitcoin futures subject to CFTC review and approval. Starbucks did not comment on any imminent threats of an English invasion. In March, Barclays partnered with Coinbase to allow for considerably faster funding options for UK traders. But this month, for the millionth time this century, the bank denied it is opening a crypto trading desk. Two Barclays employees clearly had a different idea when they listed crypto related duties on their LinkedIn. This has since been removed. Lets hope the same is not true of the employees. Their LinkedIn profiles still say Barclays so it looks like they're okay for now. One of the employees had written that he was involved in a digital assets project and was hired to produce a business plan for integrating a digital asset trading desk into Barclays market business. After being approached, one employee said the info was accurate and the other declined to comment. Barclays told cointelegraph that they have no plans to open a crypto trading desk. Big banks denying involvement in crypto is getting more and more curious. This week, Goldman Sachs Insider said the bank planned to offer crypto custody services, but a spokesman claimed the bank had not reached a conclusion. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink last month claimed its clients had no interest in crypto, yet his company formed a working group to assess Bitcoin involvement. Banks need to come out of the crypto closet and embrace the future. Banks will fall. Governments will crumble. Bitcoin will reign supreme like subscribe and Hodl and we'll tell you a secret. Have you done it yet? Okay, good. There is a chance Barclays might be starting a trading desk, but keep it to yourselves. Cointelegraph like subscribe and Hodl.