Another month, another set of opportunities for crypto traders! Contentworks, the go to agency for forex and cryptocurrency content marketing is here with your monthly outlook.

July was a good month for cryptocurrencies. The combined value of all cryptocurrencies rose by more than $100 billion. This happened after Blackrock released its second quarter earnings report. In the report, Blackrock announced that it would form a committee to explore future investments in cryptocurrencies.
This was a big news for cryptos because of the value Blackrock would bring to the space. The company has more than $6 trillions in assets under management. Therefore, even if it allocated a tiny percentage of its assets into crypto, the value would be a lot. In addition, other competing asset management companies like Vanguard, Blackstone, and PIMCO would likely follow Blackrock into these investments.

As this news came in, it emerged that some companies like VanEck were pursuing cryptocurrencies ETFs with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These ETFs would make it easier for large institutions to invest in cryptocurrencies without the fear of hacking and dealing with the vulnerable cryptocurrencies’ exchanges. Without the ETFs, large investors are forced to use the few OTC exchanges, which too are unsafe.

This month, the focus will remain on the SEC, which is expected to give its opinion on the ETF proposal by VanEck. Last month, it declined another proposal submitted by the famous Winklevoss twins. However, VanEck is one of the largest ETF companies in the world, which means that there are chances that their proposal will be accepted.

Cryptocurrencies traders love blockchain-related events. During these events, they love hearing the opinions of large blockchain investors and regulators. As such, during these events, the price tends to be volatile. Two months ago, an event in New York called Consensus failed to excite traders leading to a huge sell-off in cryptocurrencies. This month, a few major events will take place.

Mid this month, crypto enthusiasts in Canada will meet in Toronto for the Blockchain Futurist Conference. This will be the biggest blockchain event in Canada this year and will feature top people in blockchain like the CEO of Dash, Larry King, and the founder of Ethereum.

At the end of the month, the Black Hedge event in Asia will happen in Bangkok. This will be the third edition of an event that attracts participants from all over Asia. The event will have participants from top blockchain companies like Monero, Everex, CEX, and CoinGeek.

This weekend, the International Blockchain Congress will take place in India. This will be the second edition for an event that attracted more than 3000 people in the first year. Among the key people who will address the event will be Tim Draper, India’s IT minister, head of international business for Binance, and the founder of Altonomy.

Other than these events, traders will focus on regulations and hackings. Yesterday, the SEC announced that it will seek to enhance the security of cryptocurrencies. In response, all the cryptocurrencies fell with bitcoin falling by more than 4%. Other statements by the SEC and other global regulators will be of importance to traders.

Every day, hackers are trying to find vulnerabilities in major exchanges. In the past, traders have reacted to hackings by selling off their cryptocurrencies. This month, any news of an exchange hacking will take cryptocurrencies lower.

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A couple days ago even outlets considered to be 'mainstream news' were dropping headlines like "New Starbucks partnership with Microsoft allows customers to pay for Frappuccinos with bitcoin" (CNBC) and "Starbucks Will Accept Bitcoin For Lattes Later This Year" (Fortune).

Today however, Starbucks is clarifying their position:

“We are not accepting digital assets at Starbucks. Rather the exchange will convert digital assets like Bitcoin into US dollars, which can be used at Starbucks” a spokesperson for Starbucks said in an email.

What they're referring to is their new cryptocurrency venture with the owners of New York Stock Exchange and Microsoft, called "Bakkt" - the full story on that can be found here.

But Starbucks is being careful - they aren't saying they won't accept cryptocurrency in the near future either, adding:

"We will continue to talk with customers and regulators as the space evolves.”

Here's my issue with all of this - why is Starbucks taking a major role in a cryptocurrency based company if accepting cryptocurrency in their stores isn't part of the plan?

Well, in my opinion - it is part of the plan!  What isn't part of the plan is announcing it yet.

What we're seeing is a company 'controlling the narrative' - that means they don't want people talking about Starbucks accepting cryptocurrency until Starbucks officially announces that it's happening. 

Bakkt will launch months before Starbucks would accept cryptocurrency anyway, but if the public expects this to all happen at once and it doesn't, it looks like a failure when it isn't. 

Starbucks wants to make sure they have the time, and freedom needed to privately figure out how all this will work - without worrying about meeting any expectations from the public.

Here in Silicon Valley the response to today's news was a bit funny to watch, and mine seemed to be inline with most in the cryptocurrency world.  That is - for how long I've been preaching that cryptocurrency "mass adoption is coming" every time a big move like this actually happens - i'm still somehow wowed by it. 

Sure, there was always a little voice in the back of my head saying 'maybe it won't happen' but today, that voice has gone mute.

So first let's get an understanding of how this whole thing is structured, learn who the players are, and find out what they're trying to accomplish.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is actually owned by another company, that parent company is called 'Intercontinental Exchange' and can be viewed as the lead organization of the project.

Intercontinental Exchange then brought in both Microsoft, Starbucks and the lesser known Boston Consulting Group - these are the main players in the venture.  Behind them are investment groups Fortress Investment Group, Eagle Seven, and Susquehanna International Group - and we believe there's more partners yet to be named in this deal.

Now let's get an understanding of what they're up to.

Together, they are creating a new company, called "Bakkt" with a fairly simple to understand outline of goals:

- Offer Bitcoin/Crypto mutual funds.
- Offer Bitcoin/Crypto retirement/pension funds.
- Offer Bitcoin/Crypto ETF's and bridge the gap between the crypto and stock markets.
- Bring cryptocurrency assets into the world of 401k's and IRA's.

"Bakkt is designed to serve as a scalable on-ramp for institutional, merchant, and consumer participation in digital assets by promoting greater efficiency, security, and utility” says Kelly Loeffler, who is currently Intercontinental Exchange's head of digital assets, but will soon be known as the CEO of Bakkt.

Now i'm sure you're wondering - what's Starbucks doing here? Will we be soon buying our coffee with crypto? In short, YES!

“As the flagship retailer, Starbucks will play a pivotal role in developing practical, trusted, and regulated applications for consumers to convert their digital assets into U.S. dollars for use at Starbucks” Bakkt’s founders tell Fortune Magazine.

Microsoft's role is pretty clear, from the code to the hardware needed to execute their plans - they can handle the workload.

While we're just learning about all this today it's important to note this isn't coming as 'out of the blue' as it seems - today's announcment is the result of 14 months of behind the scenes planning.

Also probably worth mentioning my article from earlier in the week "Wall Street insiders are holding secret meetings on how to take cryptocurrency into the mainstream" which is about another big project separate from this one, involving more big players, with the full details still unknown.

In closing, I believe three words sum up what this all means - here we go!

Popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance has acquired it's first company - The US based "Trust Wallet".

Trust Wallet provides a mobile app based wallet, focused on ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain - since ERC20 is the most popular token type, this means Trust Wallet works for over 20,000 cryptocurrencies.

Never heard of Trust Wallet? Neither have we - and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (known as CZ in the crypto world) knows most people haven't, which is why he calls it “diamond in the dirt”.

“Wallets are the most fundamental interface to the crypto economy, and a secure and easy-to-use wallet is key to proliferate the adoption of cryptocurrencies. Trust Wallet is simply the best in this category in my opinion. Trust Wallet is an on-chain wallet, where user private keys are decentralized, ie, stored on user devices. This compliments the centralized architecture of Binance nicely. Now we have the best of both worlds, and users have their choice” says CZ.

While we don't know what they paid for the company, CZ says the payment was done with a mixture of company stock, fiat cash, and BNB tokens.

We believe this is Binance's response to the old rule of crypto pro's:  never leave funds sitting on an exchange. Now Binance has their own off-exchange storage solution to offer it's users.

Former President Bill Clinton has just been announced today as the keynote speaker at Ripple's upcoming event "Swell". In a press release Ripple stated:

"Today, we’re thrilled to announce 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton as the keynote speaker for Swell – where the world’s leaders in policy, payments and technology connect.

At a time when groundbreaking technology and regulation were often on a collision course, President Clinton helped usher in a period of extreme growth and adoption of the Internet, shaping what it is today. He also established programs that bridged the “digital divide” and brought new technology to underserved communities around the world."

What is unclear is if the former President will touch on the topics of cryptocurrency or blockchain technology - he's never mentioned either in the past.

Swell takes place in San Francisco October 2nd and 3rd.

We covered the first announcement of HTC's plan in an article titled "HTC's new phone will be powered by blockchain" back in May of this year.

Now, Litecoin founder Charlie Lee confirmed his role as an adviser to HTC and their new blockchain enabled phone, tweeting:

"Met the HTC Exodus team last week and was really excited to hear the phone will support LTC and Lightning Network on Litecoin natively! I will be an advisor as I see having a secure crypto phone that makes LN simple is needed for mass adoption.

P.S. No, they will not remove BTC. "

HTC describes the new phone and project as:

"Our vision is to expand the blockchain ecosystem by creating the world’s first phone dedicated to decentralized applications and security. With the release of the HTC Exodus we can now make this a reality.

With over two decades of experience manufacturing the world’s leading smartphones, and shipping over 100 million phones, we believe we can help reshape the internet with the HTC Exodus. Join us and together we will make decentralization a reality."

The phone is set to release in the 3rd quarter of this year.  Updates will be posted on their website at https://www.htcexodus.com

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We have confirmed that a secret meeting just took place, hosted by the world's second largest stock exchange NASDAQ, with a mystery guest list of insiders from both the Wall Street and the cryptocurrency worlds.

"We've approached countless large investors over the last few months and they've told us two things - they want in, but first there's a few steps the cryptocurrency world needs to take. Without going into all the specifics - we're taking those steps" says my source from a major San Francisco based cryptocurrency company - who wishes to remain unnamed for now.

Among topics discussed were how these large firms working together could work to "validate [cryptocurrency's] potential role in global markets" and the "implications of future regulation for cryptocurrencies" as well as "what the necessary tools are and what surveillance will be needed" a source told Bloomberg.

Expanding on the topic of 'surveillance' this week was the denial of an application to launch the first Bitcoin ETF, placed by the Winkelvoss Twins who first reached fame for suing Mark Zuckerberg claiming they created Facebook.  Zuckerberg settled out of court, they then launched the Gemini exchange. 

Gemini recently hired NASDAQ for this exact reason, to use the tools they developed to provide surveillance over the stock market and spot manipulation, and apply it to the cryptocurrency markets.

While they were denied this week, as surveillance capability expands SEC commissioner Hester Peirce has made her position clear - the end goal for her is to approve a Bitcoin ETF.  These comments triggered the green we're seeing on the charts today.

"This will not be the last meeting of this nature" says Bloomberg's inside source.

The world's top rated exchange is Binance and to their credit they have made sure not to expand new user signups faster than their network capabilities can grow.