From a notorious Bitcoin expiration date to a big investment at Ripple, here’s a look at some of the stories breaking in the world of crypto.
Bitcoin
A crypto analyst is issuing an alert about the coming expiration of Bitcoin futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
CME’s Bitcoin futures contracts are cash-settled, which essentially allows people to place a side bet on the price of BTC.
And as Luke Martin of Venture Coinist explains, the price of Bitcoin has often dropped in the days leading up to the event.
“Next BTC CME expiration is on Friday 11/29.
I charted out price returns before & after expiration since the contracts started trading.
Takeaway: Generally experience selling pressure before and positive returns after.”
Historical $BTC CME futures expiration full data:
— Luke Martin (@VentureCoinist) November 25, 2019
•Avg & median return 1-week before expiration both negative
•Last 4 months price sold off before with positive returns after
•If negative return 1-week before expiration, 73% of the time returns are positive 1-week after pic.twitter.com/9SSrINaU1b
Conspiracy theories about the manipulation of Bitcoin futures have persisted for months without concrete evidence.
A study published by the American Finance Association explored the potential for cash-settled futures manipulation and found that investors could potentially “earn positive expected profits by establishing a futures position and then trading in the spot market to manipulate the spot price used to compute the cash settlement at delivery.”
Ethereum
The Ethereum Foundation is advising the network’s node operators to update as soon as possible by downloading the latest version of their Ethereum client, ahead of the blockchain’s much-anticipated Istanbul upgrade.
“The Ethereum network will be undergoing a scheduled upgrade at block number 9,069,000, which is predicted to occur on Saturday, December 7, 2019. The exact date is subject to change due to variable block times and timezones.
Please upgrade your node before Sunday, December 1, 2019 to account for the variable block times.”
The Istanbul hard fork is a system-wide update designed to improve the blockchain’s efficiency and security. It’s the eighth hard fork since Ethereum’s launch in July of 2015.
Ethereum’s core developers are currently searching for any critical errors in the code, and if any are discovered the launch date will be pushed back to January.
Ripple and XRP
Ripple is investing a final $20 million in payments giant MoneyGram.
Back in June of this year, Ripple invested an initial $30 million in MoneyGram. With the new round, Ripple now owns 9.95% of the company’s outstanding common stock.
Since the partnership began, MoneyGram has quickly become the most high-profile user of Ripple’s XRP-based payment solution known as On-Demand Liquidity (ODL).
MoneyGram says it is now moving about 10% of its Mexican peso foreign exchange trading volume through ODL. It’s launching four new cross-border corridors using ODL, including Europe, Australia and the Philippines.
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