Daily Crypto Update: 23rd Feb 2018 - Telegram ICO for 1.6 billion?!

This is NOT Financial Advice

• Markets dipped earlier today, reaching a lowest point since Feb 14th
• Kimchi premium is at about 10% for BTC and 9.5% for ETH
• Market volume has been trending down slightly since the Lunar New Year holiday, perhaps people are deciding to hold onto their new year cash and are waiting for a clear sign of movement
• Although things are generally red today, Nano has risen over 20%. Probably price correction from its recent slump because of the BitGrail fiasco and also bcause they recently released their android wallet.

Daily News

• Exclusive: Telegram is holding a secretive second pre-ICO sale
  https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/21/17037606/telegram-open-network-app-ico-cryptocurrency-ton

After already raising $850 million, Telegram wants to double that to over $1.6 billion in a second round of sales. Discounts on the presale coins ranged from 30 to 80 percent of the expected public price, according to multiple investors who were pitched on the first presale.
Also, the SEC has also been increasing its oversight of ICOs, which means Telegram may not make its public ICO available in the US.

• South Korea’s Cryptocurrency Exchanges Will Scrutinize Themselves: Report
  https://www.ccn.com/south-koreas-cryptocurrency-exchanges-will-scrutinize-report/

South Korean exchanges aim to improve transparency among a growing cryptocurrency trading market. This comes as a response to increasing scrutiny by the Government.
However, the recent news out of Korea has been positive as “ the country’s financial regulator backed cryptocurrency exchanges to carry out ‘normal’, non-anonymous transactions... Furthermore, the regulator called on the government to focus on developing a framework for the ‘normalization’ of cryptocurrencies in society, instead of increasing regulation.”

• Robinhood’s Zero-Fee Bitcoin, Ethereum Trading Is Live In Five US States
  https://cointelegraph.com/news/robinhoods-zero-fee-bitcoin-ethereum-trading-is-live-in-five-us-states

This move should increase liquidity and also make it easier for new hands to get into crypto. Increased competition should also be good for the industry as a whole, it will be interesting how US based exchanges like coinbase and bittrex respond to this.
(https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/7zftoy/robinhood_crypto_is_not_an_exchange_they_will_be/
Additional reading on the matter)

Other News
Why Venezuela's Citizens Should Worry About a National Cryptocurrency
https://www.coindesk.com/venezuelas-citizens-worry-national-cryptocurrency/

Venezuela Announces New ‘Petro Gold’ Cryptocurrency, One Day After Launching the Petro
https://www.ccn.com/venezuela-announces-new-petro-gold-cryptocurrency-one-day-after-launching-the-petro/

Bitcoin Developer Jimmy Song To Train And Pay Bitcoin Devs In ‘Platypus Labs’
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-developer-jimmy-song-to-train-and-pay-bitcoin-devs-in-platypus-labs

S&P Global Platts Launches Blockchain Network To Track Oil Data In UAE
https://cointelegraph.com/news/sp-global-platts-launches-blockchain-network-to-track-oil-data-in-uae

UK Treasury Committee To Examine Crypto’s Effect On UK Businesses, Investors
https://cointelegraph.com/news/uk-treasury-committee-to-examine-cryptos-effect-on-uk-businesses-investors

Ubisoft Eyes Digital Collectibles On Blockchain
https://www.ethnews.com/ubisoft-eyes-digital-collectibles-on-blockchain

Cryptocurrency startup LoopX pulls exit scam after raising $4.5M in ICO
https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/02/12/cryptocurrency-loopx-scam-ico/