Market Watch

Prices as of 5:00 p.m. ET

U.S. Dept. of Justice announces the "largest ever" seizure of terrorist cryptocurrency accounts. Authorities seized cryptocurrencies held in 300 wallets linked to Hamas, al-Qaeda, and ISIS.

Details:

• Authorities seized assets from web properties (facemaskcenter.com, alqassam.net, alqassam.ps, and qassam.ps), social media accounts (RemindersFromSyria, TheMercifulHands and AlSadaqahSyria), and cryptocurrency exchange accounts at BitcoinTransfer.
• Forensic blockchain company Chainalysis provides a detailed review of its assistance in the raid.
• Chainalysis estimates the seizure amount at $1m. Bloomberg estimates closer to $2m. Regardless, the amount is far less than the $1.7b restraining order against Telegram (TON) or even the $8m freeze against Veritaseum (VERI). Technically, these SEC actions were not seizures.

Germany advances crypto-friendly legislation to allow bearer bond registration on decentralized ledgers. According to the draft bill, Germany's Financial Supervisory Authority will oversee the issuance and the maintenance of "decentralized registers as new financial services" (translated from German).

Modernizing Germany:

• The bill distinguishes between a centralized electronic securities depository and the keeping of registers by distributed ledgers.
• The bill focuses on bearer bonds, more common in Germany than the U.S. Under current German civil law, issuing non-governmental bearer bonds requires a paper document with a wet ink signature.
• The bill aims to modernize German securities laws in order to strengthen the appeal of the country as a financial hub. Other countries already allow the electronic issuance of securities and regulate blockchain securities.
• In January, Germany introduced regulations for cryptocurrency custodians regarding new licensing requirements.

Ripple is pivoting to an "Amazon of payments" strategy. The Financial Times reports that Ripple is struggling to find compelling uses for XRP.

Limited adoption:

• XRP is the third-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $12b.
• Ripple has paid over $600m to incentivize the use of XRP, including at least $81m to MoneyGram to incentivize XRP in remittances.
• CEO Brad Garlinghouse claims that by 2023, Ripple will be to payments "as Amazon was to books."
• Various XRP lawsuits are ongoing.
• Class action plaintiffs allege that Garlinghouse personally liquidated at least $100m of XRP during 2017.

Ethereum transactions cost over $6 apiece yesterday. Experts blame the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) fad.

Why so expensive?

• Initiating a transaction on Ethereum requires the sender to pay for "gas," typically just a few cents.
• Due to overwhelming network usage, fees climbed to over $6 last night and, reaching their most expensive levels since 2015.
• According to Digital Currency Group portfolio company Etherscan, the DeFi exchange Uniswap accounts for 17% of Ethereum's gas usage within the last 24 hours.
• This morning, median gas fees averaged $3. They have subsequently fallen to $1.02 as of the time of publication.
• Ethereum 2.0 is still in Medalla testnet.

J.P. Morgan (NYSE:JPM) could lead $20m of a $50m debt financing for ConsenSys. ConsenSys is Joseph Lubin's Ethereum-focused conglomerate.

More:

• The rumored convertible note deal has not closed; figures are subject to change.
• Lubin is the billionaire co-founder of Ethereum (ETH).
• ConsenSys is his "full-service software provider for the Ethereum network."
• J.P. Morgan already uses ConsenSys' Quorum to run its Interbank Information Network and bank settlement token, JPM Coin.
• J.P. Morgan and ConsenSys have worked together on major banking projects since at least 2016.

Quick Hits:

• The SEC charges Boon.tech and CEO Rajesh Pavithran with fraud and failing to register a $5m ICO that they claim constituted a securities offering. 
• Yesterday, we raised a cautionary hand about the faddish DeFi "meme token" YAM. Today, its market capitalization fell to $0 within one hour.
• Cash App, a popular fiat and cryptocurrency payment service by Square (NYSE:SQ), is offering short-term loans of up to $200 at 60% annualized interest.
• As early as autumn, Coinbase will offer cash loans collateralized by bitcoin in certain U.S. states.
• Bitpay now allows customers to make retail purchases from their Coinbase portfolio without the need to transfer assets into a separate account.
• Chainalysis reports an all-time high of $806m worth of Tether (USDT) flowed into cryptocurrency exchanges on Monday. Representing 9% of total Tether supply, Chainalysis estimates the median large exchange enjoys 19 transactions per one Tether deposit.
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