Cryptonews Rewind 2019: Q3 - The Return of Bears and Growing Adoption

Here is what happened in the Cryptoworld in the third quarter of this year:

Total crypto market capitalization in Q3

July

• July was a very busy month. Telegram's token even before public sale, and after the announcement that it'll be listed on . In other coin news, was hit with ; and Opera’s crypto wallet for Android .

• Speaking of Tron, by day, , allegedly due to Sun’s kidney stones, after which the TRX prices dropped. This was followed by a lot of confusion and speculation when .

  

• In the meantime, news about and regulations in became practically inseparable, as from all sides. Facebook was working hard to try to expressed by the Washington lawmakers. The Internal Revenue Service following a request put forward by the parliamentarians. The and cryptos. Finally, there were , but to talk about the new coin.
• U.S. lawmakers were from issuing cryptocurrencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced that brokers looking to offer cryptocurrency securities will , including customer protection rules. The SEC, however, , to be held by blockchain start-up Blockstack. In the meantime, a Chinese court reportedly .
• In South Korea, we've seen , while Samsung, LG and SK were set to begin their for the Leader title. The local governments were , while to its Galaxy S10 smartphone’s blockchain wallet with more to follow, might've talked with Kakao about , and Kakao’s platform Klaytn sacrificed decentralization to be . Additionally, South Korean major mobile carriers joined with major companies and banks on , and .
• Nearby, in Japan, the reports were out that there would likely be as it’s not deemed a crypto. Also, a parliamentarian aimed to bring , and , so to say, as the CEO stepped down.
• In Singapore, the authorities were , while the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) proposed from goods and services tax. In other countries, Siemens was looking into ways to , and to bring crypto to more retailers. India, however, was . Meanwhile, by the authorities in the Dominican Republic, then released four days later safe and sound.
• A number of Russian companies were and were waiting on Moscow to make its final decision. to help its economy amid U.S.-led sanctions, but another regulatory battle was coming the Cryptoworld’s way as the UK financial watchdog said it wants to . Also, Donald Trump joined ECB, IMF, China, Italy and others in .

• In the meantime, good news started coming in, as and and targeted 1B people, the crypto derivatives market was heating up as , and Catherine Coley, former Head of Institutional Liquidity at Ripple, was . on an upgraded version of its trading platform.

  

• took a fresh turn with the AG claiming that there have been irregularities with Bitfinex claims about whether – and how long – the platform and related companies have been dealing with New York-based customers. Furthermore, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) started investigating by allowing Americans to trade on the platform. Furthermore, due to regulatory uncertainty.
• , while considering 'a more balanced shift' . And while the highly-anticipated that is its experimental version called Kusama, and , Vitalik Buterin was criticized for his , followed by some .
• We saw : a blockchain-powered shipment from South Korea to the Netherlands was successfully completed, and the first crypto hedge fund won the UK authorities’ approval. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs went as it sought to hire a “digital asset project manager” for its New York office. in 73 additional of its country-specific stores, and Norwegian Air allowed its and to trade on the airline’s very own crypto exchange, while tour operators in China’s Yunnan Province would get

August

• by the U.S. Federal Reserve in its history, and people were not quite sure of this event. Nonetheless, after a senator said that , the crypto market went up. BTC dropped below USD 10,000 at the end of August, leaving analysts stumped.
• In the world of crypto-regulations: on cryptoassets; ; and China appeared to be , while also thinking about releasing . People discussed if Singapore's new tax regulations could give crypto exchanges and Initial Coin Offering (ICO) issuers , and while to recognize differences in cryptoassets, proposed by the government. However, the Federal Reserve was reportedly “seriously considering” for domestic use. Furthermore, a congressional financial committee was set to with exhaustive questionnaires.

• In Japan, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) looked set to beef up its policing of the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges.

  

• Meanwhile, a financial expert said that is already happening. While when it comes to crypto and blockchain, and were reportedly seamless, , urging McDonalds and Starbucks to launch their own cryptos, though it was later reported that there might be and that the Brazilian Central Bank changed its cryptocurrency classifications. Additionally, people in South Korea might be .
• In their attempt to repay the lenders impacted by the market crash back in May, . In the meantime, BINANCE it would pay 25 BTC for help to identify its blackmailer. Speaking of dirty players, the UN Security Council said . However, the country hit back at these claims, calling them “unfounded.”
• Major online trading platform, TD Ameritrade claimed it saw , while its partnering crypto asset exchange ErisX was on target with all their goals for 2019. Furthermore, bitFlyer Europe announced its , while Blockchain came out with its own for trading. Additionally, , gaining access to over sixty institutions. Meanwhile, an American court ruled that for allegedly botching the launch of . Meanwhile, in South Korea, .
• Following all that, as Binance CEO confirmed that its American branch would open within “a month or two,” it seemed that during the transition period. The exchange also planned to . While we're at Binance, the exchange also , and said its futures is coming “very, very soon”.
• While South Korea's “big four” platforms seemed to be planning a slew of delistings, , despite its founders claims that its compliant, and we provided behind this move. In an effort to focus on the decentralized finance () community, , an independent, hybrid decentralized exchange. And we had some unusual news with Colu DLT saying they want to .
• We learned that since its first halving, and then it . Meanwhile, , Sigma. We also learned .
• We also saw a disagreement over two vital blockchain-related points, speed and capacity of existing blockchains, between two major figures in the Cryptoworld - CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), and co-founder of , Vitalik Buterin.

• And while another Satoshi Nakamoto appeared, the news of a Faketoshi ruling hit the Cryptoverse.

  

• Finally, one of the biggest airlines in Europe beyond its company, and a Russia’s major airline said that its worth of sales in July alone. Samsung added support for BTC and another 32 coins to its crypto wallet. for senior-level specialists, and Quidd.

September

• The third month of the third quarter started with Bitcoin rallying back above USD 10,000, pushing its market dominance at c. 70% and leaving more altcoins bleeding. This led to more analysts expressing their bullish views on Bitcoin, and even prominent venture capitalist Fred Wilson stated that he and his firm are "long [on] crypto." We finally saw Bakkt launch its long-awaited Bitcoin futures contracts.
• In the meantime, Binance announced the launch of USD-backed stablecoin BUSD while its U.S. traders were looking for alternative trading platforms ahead of the U.S. ban. Many people were left bemused by the news from Binance.US that the company would be following KYC (know-your-customer) protocol, and started to migrate to other exchanges. The branch and said that there is still room for new exchanges in the U.S. September was also the month when Binance made its first strategic investment in China. Huobi introduced , and while somebody moved USD 1 billion in BTC, Huobi's funds weren't a part of it.

• There were also talks that Coinbase may announce its plans for an initial exchange offering (IEO) platform in a few months, while security token offerings were also in their radar. The South Korean branch of cryptocurrency exchange OKEx announced that it will delist Monero, Dash, ZCash, Horizen and Super Bitcoin, saying they “violate regulatory laws.” After reports that a large majority of OKEx's volume is fake, , defending the company. Additionally, improving user experience was one of at this year and it plans a “major change” soon, Dan Held, Director of Business Development of the company, told us.

  

• In the regulators' corner, we saw the Venezuelan government planning to release a crypto calculator for Android smartphones, while a Venezuelan state-run oil and gas company seemed to be sitting on a BTC and ETH unspecified “stash”. The government agencies in Brazil and Mexico were looking to crack down on non-compliant platforms and brokerages. We’ve also wondered if the Uruguayan Central Bank took a crypto U-turn, while on European soil. Meanwhile, North Korea was preparing to host a crypto conference, and it may be working on wallets too, while it's people are allowed to own crypto. In South Korea, on the other hand, some of the biggest companies were investing in domestic blockchain and crypto startups, with the Seoul government looking to get in on the action. And in Japan, Japanese securities firm Monex Group said – regardless of how much stock they own in the company.
• Germany’s cabinet launched a stinging attack on stablecoins, with the country’s finance minister suggesting that it will “clearly reject” tokens like Facebook’s forthcoming Libra token and Berlin hoping to push the rest of the international community to follow suit.
• Ripple stood firm in its claim that XRP is not a security and wanted the federal court to dismiss a class action lawsuit according to which the company illegally sold unregistered securities.

• Many other interesting things happened this month: a workaround for "Bitcoin-ETF" was found, but industry players argued that it's not a Bitcoin ETF at all; Japanese banks continued to invest in XRP-powered MoneyTapp app for smartphones; Chinese police untangled an elaborate crypto mining scheme, arresting fifteen suspects in south-central China, for stealing electricity from Internet cafes to mine cryptocurrency, and while a new wallet by ex-CEO of BTCC was revealed, Trezor introduced its BTC-only firmware.

  

• It wasn't the end of new developments. Samsung revealed more details about their crypto-friendly Klaytn phones, while we compiled the full list of tokens and dapps supported by the Samsung Galaxy S10. The Cryptoworld learned that LG could be launching its own blockchain-powered smartphone in response to Klaytn Phone, and the giant soon confirmed that it's considering the idea. Finally, U.S.-headquartered banking giant with USD 1.9 trillion in assets, Wells Fargo, said that it plans to pilot its internal settlement service, Wells Fargo Digital Cash, in 2020.
• And we wondered yet again .

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What other news from the first quarter you would like to add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.

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Learn more:

Cryptonews Rewind 2019: Q1 - Last Months of Crypto Winter & First Hacks