The Month in Crypto — July 18

Bitcoin ETF rejected, Bitmain $1.1B profit in Q1, SBI launch first bank-backed exchange in Japan.

The News

An attempt by the Winklevoss twins to launch a Bitcoin ETF was rejected for the second time, citing fraud and manipulation concerns. cnbc
Bitmain, the Chinese bitcoin mining and chip company, reported a profit of $1.1 billion USD in Q1 2018. They are reportedly planning to file for an IPO in Hong Kong this year. fortune
SBI Holdings launched the first bank-backed crypto exchange in Japan. coindesk
Northern Trust, the custodian for $10.7 trillion in assets are now offering fund administration services to crypto hedge funds. They are still not taking direct custody of cryptocurrency. forbes
Blackrock’s CEO, Larry Fink stated they have assembled a crypto working group. reuters
Peter Thiel led a funding round in block.one, the company behind EOS, a competing blockchain to ethereum. block.one
Google’s Sergey Brin is mining ethereum. businessinsider
Hedge Fund manager Steve Cohen reportedly invested in the crypto space through the fund, Autonomous Partners. fortune

Oasis Labs raised a $45M round from a16z crypto, Accel, Panterra and Polychain Capital. They are building a “privacy-first” cloud computing platform. venturebeat
PolyChain Capital and Sequoia China invested $28M in Nervos Network, a next generation enterprise blockchain. venturebeat
Bitmain (also mentioned above) reportedly closed a $300-$400M series B round led by Sequoia China, although no official statement has been released. chinamoneynetwork

Australia’s largest bank, Commonwealth Bank, completed a global trade blockchain trail using the ethereum blockchain. commbank
A patent released by the US Patent Office indicates GE plan to use the blockchain to track and authenticate 3D printed products. uspto
The Agricultural Bank of China are trialling a blockchain system to issue loans with agricultural land as collateral. coindesk
*RiskBlock Alliance, an insurance alliance including Chubb, Marsh and Liberty Mutual, are trialling a number of blockchain applications on a blockchain built by the consortium, R3. coindesk

At the end of June, the market was at a 7 month low and has since recovered 7% to finish July at $274B overall. Bitcoin was a strong performer over month rising from $6,400 USD to $8,400 on the 25th July. It is since fallen following the ETF rejection and currently the global average is $7,650, up 20% for the month. Ethereum didn’t track the market and finished the month 6.5% down with a global average of $426 USD.