Regulations
Philippines
Released a draft on ICOs which states that each ICO will have to undergo an initial assessment and submit the whitepaper, it is all required to prove that it is not a security token. Within 20 days SEC defines whether the token is a security token or not, in a case when it is a security token it needs to be registered. This all applies to ICOs which have been completed already, they will have 3 months to submit the required documents.
Japan
The Financial Service Agency raised the bar for aspiring cryptocurrency exchanges since they have received more than 100 applications.
Market capitalization
On the 1st of August the was 276 304 000 000 USD in the crypto market (according to coinmarketcap data).
On the 31st of August the market cap was 225 183 000 000 USD.
The loss of capital was around 18.50%.
Hacks
Michael Terpin’s phone was hacked and he lost 24 000 000 USD in cryptocurrencies. According to Mr. Terpin it was AT&T insiders job, a so called SIM swap fraud, therefore AT&T is sued now for 224 million USD.
Atlas, a brazilian cryptocurrency investment platform, was hacked on the 25th of August and personal data of 264 000 customers was leaked (their balance, email address, names, phone numbers).
Crypto market performance comparison to other assets
| August | |
|---|---|
| Bitcoin | -7.53% |
| S&P 500 | 3.13% |
| Crude Oil WTI | 3.16% |
| Gold Futures | -1.45% |
| US 10Y Bond | -4.83% |
| Crypto Market | -18.50% |
Source: investing.com. Calculations do not include data on weekends.
Correlation
| Bitcoin | S&P 500 | Crude Oil WTI | Gold Futures | US 10Y Bond | Crypto Market | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | 1 | |||||
| S&P 500 | 0.18 | 1 | ||||
| Crude Oil WTI | 0.62 | 0.62 | 1 | |||
| Gold Futures | 0.56 | 0.18 | 0.61 | 1 | ||
| US 10Y Bond | 0.51 | -0.39 | 0.14 | 0.56 | 1 | |
| Crypto Market | 0.70 | -0.17 | 0.46 | 0.74 | 0.84 | 1 |
Source: investing.com. Calculations do not include data on weekends.
Transactions
Source: coinmetrics.io
ICOs
The total number of ICOs completed in August was 149 (70.47% of the have not published the results). The total amount raised is equivalent to 517 018 185 USD.
This graph does not include ICOs that raised less than 100 000 USD.
Sources: https://www.icodata.io/, https://icobench.com/, https://icodrops.com/.
In comparison to July ICOs raised approx. 27% less, however, the total number of ICOs was smaller by 100 (according to data gathered by us in July).
Summary
The market was shrinking so as all the value in the investment. There were no strict regulations introduced or any other event which could have caused a lower confidence in the market. The total market capitalization decreased by 18.50% while S&P 500 outperformed Bitcoin by 10.66%. ICO market shrank indeed there were 40% reduction in launched ICOs, sequentially, 27% less capital raised.