January 24, 2026

Capitalizations Index – B ∞/21M

Power Move

Power move

Power Move

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan but those who are flexible know how to take advantage of any situation. 


The US Government shutdown has affected many things, and the latest casualty seems to be the VanECK BTC ETF, which was up for review by the SEC. The deadline for a decision was February 27th but VanECK has now withdrawn its application.

Diligent readers of our daily market updates will not be dismayed by this latest update but delighted. As we have noted several times, this proposal had a very slim chance of success. SEC Chairman Jay Clayton has been stressing that the BTC market is not yet mature enough for an ETF.

Recent price action seems to confirm this, as we’ve seen a number of price spikes due to the low liquidity lately.

The government shutdown seems to have put further strain on this process. If there was a hope of convincing the SEC before the deadline, it has now disappeared. So, rather than letting the application be rejected, VanECK has simply withdrawn it — thus denying the SEC any opportunity to deny it. This is what we call a power move.

The price of BTC did decline slightly at the time of the news (purple circle) but is still holding well at the $3,500 support level.

Power move

The markets lackadaisical response to this news is a clear sign that investors are starting to understand…

The crypto market is not dependent on any government or financial institution and no single product or service has the power to make or break BTC. We call this maturity.

@MatiGreenspan
eToro, Senior Market Analyst

Today’s Highlights

Shutdown: Day 34 | Days to Brexit 64

Euro Data Smackdown

BTC TPS still growing

Please note: All data, figures & graphs are valid as of January 24th. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.

Traditional Markets

Markets are trudging forward today. Looks like there’s a whiff of risk appetite but clearly, the current geopolitical tensions are holding them back from any substantial moves at the moment and so markets are range bound.

Power move

The US government shutdown has now dragged the President’s approval below 40%. This graph from fivethirtyeight.com shows Trump’s rating since the inauguration. The blue dots show when the shutdown began.

Power move

The shutdown doesn’t seem to be coming any closer to resolution either. The squabbling between the two American political parties is only deteriorating.

Power move

Euro Data Smackdown

A string of data has hit the Euro today. The PMI is an index that measures how companies are feeling about the economy by surveying purchasing managers in the services and manufacturing sectors.

A measure above 50 indicates economic expansion and vice versa. As we can see, the overall numbers for Europe (bottom two lines) do show expansion but were well below what analysts were forecasting.

Power move

We can see the reaction in the EURUSD pretty clearly when zooming in on the short term chart.

Power move

Crypto Calm

Fortunately, not much to report in crypto land today, other than what we mentioned in the cover letter.

The transaction rate on the BTC blockchain is now at its highest level in a year, which is kind of cool. This is a good indicator that shows usage of BTC is growing despite the bear market.

Power move

There’s also this story about crypto adoption in Iran.

Power move

Unfortunately, however, there isn’t any real way to confirm this, other than the testimonials given in the article. The site I usually use to track this hasn’t updated in the last few weeks. They say they’re working on it though, so hopefully, we’ll get a good report soon. If anybody else has some other way to gauge, hook a brother up!

Let’s have an amazing day ahead!


eToro (UK) Ltd is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. eToro (Europe) Ltd is authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.

This is a marketing communication and should not be taken as investment advice, personal recommendation, or an offer of, or solicitation to buy or sell, any financial instruments. This material has been prepared without having regard to any particular investment objectives or financial situation and has not been prepared in accordance with the legal and regulatory requirements to promote independent research. Any references to past performance of a financial instrument, index or a packaged investment product are not, and should not be taken as, a reliable indicator of future results. eToro makes no representation and assumes no liability as to the accuracy or completeness of the content of this publication, which has been prepared to utilize publicly-available information.

eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers both investing in stocks and cryptoassets, as well as trading CFDs.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 65% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

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Published at Fri, 25 Jan 2019 03:00:18 +0000

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Estonia Considering Creating Its Own Cryptocurrency

Estonia is seriously thinking about creating its own digital currency called the estcoin. This move could bolster the country’s digital residents to almost ten times its actual population.


There’s no denying the stellar rise of cryptocurrency. What many initially scoffed at has now become a major economic force. Large financial institutions, such as Goldman Sachs and Fidelity Investments, have jumped onto the cryptocurrency bandwagon. Now a major seismic shift may occur as a country, Estonia, is considering creating its own digital currency: ESTcoin. Will this new currency become the Baltic bitcoin?

Estonia Occupies a Unique Position

Actually, the thought of Estonia creating its own virtual currency isn’t far-fetched. The small country occupies a unique position and is known for being extremely tech-savvy. It has the sixth-highest level of mobile broadband penetration in the world. In addition, the Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation have ranked Estonia as the sixth-freest country in the world, and the World Bank has ranked the country as number 12 in its Doing Business in 2017 report. The country’s income and corporate tax rates are very low as well, which does help draw in entrepreneurs.

Another point in Estonia’s favor when it comes to cutting-edge technology is its e-Residency program, which was started back in 2014. This program allows anyone in the world to become a digital resident of Estonia and gain specific benefits. All residents of the country (digital and real) are issued an ID card that allows them to use public and private sector services, encrypt files, and remotely sign documents. Digital residents can open and run a company online, conduct their banking online, declare taxes online, verify the authenticity of signed documents, and have access to international payment service providers. So far, over 20,000 people from around the world have become digital citizens of Estonia. Basically, a person sitting in Ghana or Brazil could become a digital resident, open a business in Estonia, and enjoy quite a few benefits of the country’s economic climate.

Using the Estcoin to Expand the Economy

The goal of Estonia’s estcoin is to raise funds to help expand the country’s economy and increase its global presence. The estcoin would be usable to purchase goods and services in the country and could be used to power domestic startups. Another thought is that the estcoin could be used to strike a blow for independence as more than 90% of the country’s market is controlled by foreign firms.

It appears that the estcoin could be based upon Ethereum, and Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, offered his opinion. He said, “An ICO within the e-Residency ecosystem would create a strong incentive alignment between e-residents and this fund, and beyond the economic aspect makes the e-residents feel like more of a community since there are more things they can do together. Additionally if these ESTcoins are issued on top of a blockchain (they could possibly be issued in multiple formats at the same time, nothing wrong with this) then it would become easy and convenient to use them inside of smart contracts and other applications.”

There are some proverbial flies in the ointment to consider. First is that all holders of estcoins will have a say in how the overall fund is used, which could mean that digital residents could have greater sway than the actual citizens of Estonia. It’s expected that the Estonian ICO would add 10 million digital residents, which would far outnumber the country’s 1.3 million current population. Another issue is whether an Estonian cryptocurrency would cause economic disruptions with their current currency, the Euro. Still, this plan is still in the early stages, but it’s exciting to see a country leaning towards creating its own digital currency.

What do you think about Estonia’s consideration of creating its own cryptocurrency? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Estonia Considering Creating Its Own Cryptocurrency appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.