September and October Cryptocurrency Market News 2019

Over the past month, we have seen serious action across the regulatory, retail and corporate planes of the cryptocurrency world. Multiple high GDP countries have revealed their stances on cryptocurrency and taxation, and Facebook Libra has seen some decent development as well as multiple setbacks.

The cryptocurrency market itself over September and October saw mostly sideways action – apart from a heavy drop in the total market cap and some price surges across some of the popular altcoins.

Market Summary

Total Market Cap (the total value across all cryptocurrencies combined)

September 2019 saw a relatively stable market cap until the 25th, when the entire market suddenly plummeted by 10%. The reason for this drop is unclear, but as seasoned investors in the cryptocurrency market understand – there isn’t always a good reason for immense price movements.

Bitcoin

Combined market cap aside – Bitcoin experienced the biggest losses from the 25th, dropping from $9.7K USD to $8.4k USD within 24hrs. In the following days, BTC continued to decrease in price down to $7.85k USD, which was the lowest Bitcoin price in 3 and a half months.

Ripple XRP

XRP has seen a consistent bull run over the past month, increasing steadily in value since its big dip at the end of September. Up 21% since its plummet on the 25th, Ripple has been making some positive advancements in the established financial world – allegedly closing over 30 deals each quarter with new organisations. Ripple looks to be working directly in setting up understructure where it is most needed, such its collaboration with multiple major private Indian banks.

Ethereum

Over the past 8 weeks, Ethereum has seen relative stability apart from the surge and plummet in the days leading up to the 25th. Behind the scenes, Ethereum is hard at work developing their new consensus system for their Ethereum 2.0 launch. Ethereum will be changing its consensus system from Proof-of-work to Proof-of-stake, in a move to improve transaction speeds, scalability and blockchain efficiency.

Notable Global Cryptocurrency Events

France and Germany vow to block Facebook’s upcoming 2020 ‘cryptocurrency’ Libra from operating in Europe.

Germany and France have agreed to block Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency, the French finance ministry said on the 25th of September. In a joint statement from the two governments, “no private entity can claim monetary power, which is inherent to the sovereignty of nations”.

The French Financial Minister Bruno Le Maire said on the 24th that ‘Facebook’s cryptocurrency should not be allowed to operate in Europe while concerns persist about sovereignty and persistent financial risks’.

Following this news, Paypal, Mastercard, Visa and eBay have all withdrawn from Facebook’s Libra project.

Right-wing UK party becomes nation’s first to reveal cryptocurrency policy

On the 24th August, the National Liberal Party (NLP) published a post on its website arguing that the U.K.’s current cryptocurrency policy is non-existent — and alleged the government has failed to take a stance on regulation. While showing support for emerging technologies, the NLP’s statements are a clear sign that policymakers in the UK are waking up to the idea of crypto and that it is not going to go away any time soon.

The Marshall Islands reveals its plan to launch its own national cryptocurrency

The Marshall Islands has revealed a plan to launch its own national cryptocurrency, one with a fixed supply. Since the national MI crypto will have a finite supply, it will not see any inflation either – which makes this an outlier among traditional monetary policies.

“Since becoming an independent democratic nation in 1979, the Republic of the Marshall Islands has used the US dollar as money. Today we are progressing with our plan to issue a sovereign currency in digital form – using blockchain technology.”

BAKKT arrived – delivered low volumes despite huge amount of hype

On the 22nd September, the highly anticipated BAKKT Futures arrived, with the purpose of alleviating fears exhibited by retail and institutional investors when interacting with cryptocurrencies.

Bakkt is a bitcoin futures exchange and digital assets platform founded in 2018 by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) – the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Despite Bakkt kicking off its Bitcoin futures trading with low volumes, many believe it is too early to determine the success of BAKKT’s cryptocurrency services.

French and Portuguese tax authorities say there is no need to pay tax on crypto-to-crypto transactions.

French and Portuguese tax authorities have released their position on crypto-to-crypto transactions, placing no tax requirements on crypto-to-crypto transactions. This is a surprisingly positive announcement coming from France, whose Finance Minister recently stated ‘no private entity can claim monetary power, which is inherent to the sovereignty of nations’.

Treating cryptocurrency like fiat currency by not taxing transactions is a great step forward in regulation, and this is a great development for the encouragement of French and Portuguese cryptocurrency adoption and usage.

Summary

This month’s events and news were primarily based around regulation, taxation and governmental actions. With taxation at the core of this month’s main events, it appears that many of the world’s governments are realising that cryptocurrency is not going away any time soon, and that they need to establish their stances on it.

Cryptocurrency is currently legal in just under half of all countries, with the highest rates of blockchain and cryptocurrency development happening in the US, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and Malta. The highest rates crypto adoption is believed to be happening in Columbia, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Hong Kong and South Africa.