OVERNIGHT MOVERS
(24hrs)

Bitcoin  U$7,918.00;  -7.22% | XRP  U$0.4170; -8.10%
Ethereum  U$246.90; -6.23% | EOS  U$6.5648; -9.52%
Litecoin  U$105.35; -7.71% | Bitcoin SV  U$228.61; +1.90%

Two Sentence Summary: Crypto posting one of its worst sessions in over a month. Bitcoin is back below the USD 8,000 mark for the first time since May 26.

STORY OF THE DAY

Yesterday Binance Announced That Their Decentralized Exchange (DEX) Would Be Elminiating Access From 29 Countries, Including The US, By July 1 - The Move Continues To Underscore The Liquidity Advantages Held By Certain Regions And Particularly Regulatory Uncertainty / Fears In The US

• A Decentralized Exchange is one that allows for peer-to-peer, crypto-to-crypto trading without the need for a centralized system. Benefits include heavily reduced likelihood of a hack, as traders hold sole custody of the crypto just up to the point of the actual transaction and more democratized decision making over some operational components of the exchange. The more controversial 'benefit,' however, is that due to the exchange being trustless and crypto-to-crypto there is no need for KYC documentation. Of the 29 countries that were excluded from the DEX, the US was the only G20 nation and the majority of the others were the subject of clearly identifiable geopolitical risk or sanctions (i.e Iran, Crimea, Congo, Libya etc...).

Takeaway: We have long held that operating from some regions outside the US (from our perspective Canada) holds major liquidity advantages. The foremost source of liquidity excluding US participation is clearly BitMEX. The crypto-settled derivatives platform frequently does multiples higher volume than the next largest spot exchange. When considering that Bitfinex has all but shut operations (among a slew of other exchanges) it's easy to make the argument that one has access to at least 5x more liquidity by not being a US-resident. Furthermore, the fact that the US is included with war-torn states on these lists underscores the degree to which these crypto companies believe the country's regulators are being restrictive relative to other developed nations. The fact that one of the most high-profile and newest DEX's has taken the same view, demonstrates that this perspective is not set to change in the near-term.