Trading Desk Market Update: 11/18

November 18, 2021

BTC is currently trading around $59,200 and ETH around $4,200.  Notable gainers in the last 24 hours are GALA, SAND, and MANA.  The global crypto market cap is $2.71T, down 2.3% over the last day.  DeFi Total Value Locked is ~$256b and BTC dominance is around 44%.

There appears to be continued support in the US Congress to amend or repeal the controversial crypto tax reporting requirements included in the recently passed infrastructure bill.  Later today, two congressmen from the US House of Representatives will introduce a new bill aiming to do just that.  This marks the third bill looking to restrict or repeal the IRS definition of a digital asset broker, and the first of its kind introduced in the House.  In addition, ten US Democratic congresspeople issued an open letter yesterday, also calling for revisions to the definition of a broker in the infrastructure bill.

Other notable news today includes: ConsenSys closed a $200m financing round, valuing the Ethereum infrastructure company at $3.2b; Bitcoin miner Bitdeer plans to go public via a merger with a SPAC at a ~$4b valuation; Fidelity Clearing Canada became Canada’s first regulated entity to offer Bitcoin custody; the US SEC is reportedly investigating BlockFi to see whether its high-yield crypto savings accounts are securities; and the Reserve Bank of India is said to be examining the feasibility of a CBDC and may launch a pilot project early next year.

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