After more than 12 days of sideways trading, Bitcoin took a bearish turn and dropped to $6,211. Ethereum also dropped below $200 and currently trades for $197.93. Up until today, Bitcoin and the wider crypto market had been uncharacteristically stable, but as Bitcoin trading volume rose by 20 percent ($3.5 billion) on Sunday, analysts began to speculate that a large swing in either direction could occur. Currently, there are no known news events that could have impacted BTC price and the move appears to be largely technical.

In other news, Bitcoin volatility has reached a 22-month low. The cryptocurrency’s 30-day volatility index fell to 1.42% on Saturday, which is the lowest level seen since December 2016. Also, Daniel Masters, the former Head of Global Energy Trading at JP Morgan says “Coinbase could compete with Nasdaq and the NYSE.” In an interview with Bloomberg, Masters explained that Coinbase essentially has developed their own “stock market” with “12.5 million customers” and he also believes that security tokens represent “the third wave” of crypto that will bring institutional investors and ICOs back into the cryptocurrency market.

1) Tom Jessop, President of Fidelity Digital Asset Services discussed his firm’s crypto efforts on Laura Shin’s Unconfirmed podcast. When asked if Fidelity would build its own crypto exchange, Jessop responded that there is no need for one as existing exchanges already do a good job. Instead, they’ll be focusing their efforts on offering custodial services for institutions looking to get involved with cryptocurrencies. Jessop also said Fidelity will build a traditional investment platform that allows users to execute trades on one or more exchanges at the best price. Fidelity is one of the world’s largest asset management firms, with more than $7 trillion in assets. (Read More)

2) MapleChange, a small Bitcoin exchange in Alberta, Canada, announced that they were hacked and “[have] no more funds to pay anyone back.” One hour before deleting their Twitter page, the exchange explained that a “bug” had allowed “some people” to withdraw all of the digital assets from the exchange. Many experts suspect that the exchange pulled off an exit scam as the exchange abruptly deleted all of its social media pages which is not characteristic behavior exhibited by other exchanges that have been hacked. Also, the speed at which the announcement of a “bug” occurred and the fast disappearance of all investor funds and MapleChange staff suggest this is nothing more than an exit scam. Research shows that the exchange is registered to “Flavius P” and the lack of professionalism and details about the business also raise suspicions. Finally, the timing of the “hack” is odd as the exchange had registered uncharacteristically high user traffic last week and the “hack” occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning when most clients would have been sound asleep. (Read More)

3) NXMH has acquired London-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp for an undisclosed amount. NXMH is an investment firm based in Belgium and owned by the South Korean conglomerate NXC. NXC also owns the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Korbit. In a deal signed last Thursday, NXC took a majority ownership stake in the exchange. However, Bitstamp CEO Nejc Kodric will retain a minority ownership stake and continue running the exchange. Pantera Capital, an early investor in Bitstamp will retain its 6% ownership stake in the exchange. Kodric said customers will not experience any changes, and they will move forward with their future goals. Bitstamp saw a volume of $21.5 million over the last 24 hours. (Read More)