BIS Research Report Highlights the Global Precision Medicine Market to Reach $278.61 Billion by 2030 – PRNewswire

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FREMONT, Calif., Sept. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global precision medicine marketis projected to reach $278.61 billion by 2030, reveals a premium market intelligence report by BIS Research. The study also highlights that the market is set to witness a CAGR of 11.13% during the period between 2020 and 2030.

The comprehensive study of the global precision medicine market by BIS Research extensively covers the following:

The detailed report is a compilation of 19 Market Data Tables and 330 Figures spread through 529 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Global Precision Medicine Market"

Besides these parameters, the report also encompasses the market growth drivers, opportunities, market restraining factors, competition mapping, segmental analysis, and a visual dashboard of 1400+ products.

The BIS Research report indicates that the increasing number of genetic tests taken, the growing demand for reliable next-generation sequencing (NGS) results, the rising prevalence of infectious diseases, and the improving funding scenario in the field of precision medicine, among others, are fueling the growth of the market.

It also highlights the various emerging opportunities, such as growth in emerging nations, capitalization on the high prevalence of cancer, and the evolution of technology in healthcare, that can be leveraged by players operating in the market.

Additionally, the market intelligence report by BIS Research throws a spotlight on the key industry trends that have a humungous influence in shaping the industry going forward. Some of these trends include the emergence of advanced stabilization products, regulated vs. multimodal analysis, collaborations and partnerships, and several other key trends.

View the Report from BIS Research: Global Precision Medicine Market

Data from different segments of the market has been analyzed minutely to gain a holistic view of the market. These segments include types of products offered, technologies used, sources used, applications, and regions. Each of these segments is further categorized into sub-segments and micro-segments to compile an in-depth study.

The technology and ecosystem analysis of the global market includes data analysis on the satisfaction level of different pricing analysis of preferred instruments, accessories and components, and consumables. The study is majorly centered on the sub-segments and micro-segments of the different product markets, such as consumables and instruments. The consumables are further categorized into kits and reagents.

Emphasizing the dominance of North America in global precision medicine market in 2019 and 2020, Nitish Kumar Singh, Lead Analyst BIS Research, states, "InNorth America, several established diagnostics manufacturers are focusing on expanding their portfolio in NGS-based molecular diagnostics and are collaborating with service providers and pharmaceutical giants to co-market molecular diagnostics solutions with its complementary precision medicine solutions. Moreover, the U.S. government is undertaking a number of initiatives to develop of precision drugs and tests for oncology and non-oncology diseases and provide funds to new startups in the molecular diagnostics and precision medicine field."

Request for a Sample: https://bisresearch.com/requestsample?id=964&type=download

Key insights are drawn from in-depth interviews with the key opinion leaders of more than 40 leading companies, market participants, and vendors. The key players profiled in the report includeAbbott Laboratories, Almac Group Ltd, Amgen Inc., ANGLE plc, Astellas Pharma Inc., Astra Zeneca PLC, ASURAGEN INC., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., bioMrieux SA., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Cardiff Oncology, CETICS Healthcare Technologies GmbH, Danaher Corporation, Eli Lilly and Company Limited, Epic Sciences, Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, GE Corporation, Gilead Sciences, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Illumina, Inc., Intomics A/S, Johnson & Johnson Company, Konica Minolta, Inc., Laboratory Corporation of America, MDx Health, Inc., Menarini Silicon Biosystems, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., Myriad Genetics, Inc., Novartis AG, Oracle Corporation, Partek, Inc., Pfizer, Inc., QIAGEN N.V., Quest Diagnostics Inc, Randox Laboratories Ltd., Sanofi SA, Sysmex Corporation, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., and Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.

The report also offers strategic recommendations that can help organizations in tracking various products, trends, and technologies that are changing the dynamics of the market. The recommendations by BIS Research also offer bespoke research services to help organizations meet their objectives.

Who should buy this report?

How can this market intelligence report on precision medicine add value to an organization's decision-making process?

Insightful Questions Covered to Enable Companies take Strategic Decisions

Related BIS Research Market Reports:

Global NGS Sample Preparation Market - Analysis and Forecast, 2019-2025

Global Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market - Analysis and Forecast, 2019-2024

Global Rare Disease Diagnostics Market - Analysis and Forecast, 2018-2025

About BIS Research:

BIS Researchis a global B2B market intelligence and advisory firm focusing on deep technology and related emerging trends which can disrupt the market dynamics in the near future. We publish more than 200 market intelligence studies annually that focus on several deep technology verticals.

Our strategic market analysis emphasizes on market estimations, technology analysis, emerging high-growth applications, deeply segmented granular country-level market data, and other important market parameters useful in the strategic decision-making for senior management.

BIS Research offers syndicate as well as, custom studies, and expert consultations to firms, providing them specific and actionable insights on novel technology markets, business models, and competitive landscape.

BIS Healthcare vertical offers intelligence in the healthcare technology market for Medical Devices, Digital Health, Life Sciences, Robotics and Imaging, Information Technology, Precision Medicine, and other emerging healthcare technologies, covering the entire industry spectrum. In the past 5 years, BIS Healthcare has published more than 50 reports under the precision medicine banner. Additionally, BIS Research has been nominating Top 25 Voices in Precision Medicine on its Insight Monk platform for the past two years successfully.

Contact:

Bhavya BangaEmail: [emailprotected] BIS Research Inc.39111 PASEO PADRE PKWY STE 313,FREMONT CA 94538-1686Visit our Blog @ https://blog.bisresearch.com/ Connect with us on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bis-researchConnect with us on [emailprotected] https://twitter.com/BISResearch

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BIS Research Report Highlights the Global Precision Medicine Market to Reach $278.61 Billion by 2030 - PRNewswire

Why This Genomics ETF Is a Long-Term Winner – ETF Trends

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The ARK Genomic Revolution Multi-Sector Fund (CBOE: ARKG) turns six years old next month and over that time, its developed a reputation as one of the best-performing healthcare ETFs, biotechnology or otherwise.

That success is attributable to the ability of ARK Invests managers to identify disruptive genomics equities well before markets fully appreciate the growth stories behind those names.

Consider the investment opportunity found in the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, or CRISPR, genome-editing platform. CRISPR is a genome-editing platform that will address the worlds most salient health issues. It is like a molecular swiss army knife with a rapidly expanding number of tools that perform different functions.

The major premise behind ARK Funds, and likely the reason for the success is the belief that the market at large does not know how to efficiently price and value the type of innovation these ETFs are investing in, according to Seeking Alpha. The returns of the individual funds are excellent, and they are excellent over extended periods of time.

The actively managed ARKG offers investors a thematic multi-capitalization exposure to innovative elements that cover advancements in gene therapy bio-informatics, bio-inspired computing, molecular medicine, and pharmaceutical innovations.

ARKG includes companies that merge healthcare with technology and capitalize on the revolution in genomic sequencing. These companies try to better understand how biological information is collected, processed, and applied by reducing guesswork and enhancing precision; restructuring health care, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and enhancing our quality of life.

Theres potentially epic growth to be had with ARKG because of where many of the funds components are in the clinical trial stages.

One of the biggest drivers for this placement, in my mind, is centered in the stages of clinical trials that most of the vaccine and therapeutics in the holdings are in, according to Seeking Alpha. They are mostly, if not all, pre-phase 1 through phase 3, placing them at least a year or two away from being in the market. This means they are some time away from generating significant earnings and bringing valuation metrics more in line with the broader market.

Genomics companies try to better understand how biological information is collected, processed and applied by reducing guesswork and enhancing precision; restructuring health care, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and enhancing our quality of life.

For more on disruptive technologies, visit our Disruptive Technology Channel.

The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.

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Why This Genomics ETF Is a Long-Term Winner - ETF Trends

UK research getting to bottom of COVID clots – ABC 36 News – WTVQ

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The research led by Jeremy Wood, Zach Porterfield and Jamie Sturgill in the Department of Internal Medicine; Beth Garvy in Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics; and Wally Whiteheart in Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry, suggests localized inflammation in the lungs caused by COVID-19 may be responsible for the increased presence of blood clots in patients.

The study also provides evidence suggesting the risk of thrombosis could persist after the infection clears.

The study examined the blood of 30 COVID-19 patients including 15 who were inpatients in the intensive care unit, and 15 who received care as outpatients at UKs Infectious Diseases Clinic, along with eight disease-free volunteers who acted as a control group.

Compared to baseline, the COVID-19 patients had elevated levels of tissue factor, a protein found in blood that initiates the clotting process. Patients also had reduced levels of protein S, an anticoagulant that helps prevent blood clotting.

The researchers concluded that lung inflammation caused by COVID-19 is what leads to a decrease in protein S. Thisinflammation also causes immune and possible endothelial cell activation, which leads to increased tissue factor protein.

What weve learned is that the clotting is not caused by anything systemic. Localized inflammation in the lungs is whats driving this whole process, Wood said. With an increase in tissue factor and a deficiency in protein S, COVID-19 patients get more blood clotting without the ability to shut it down or control it.

The study additionally showed that protein S levels remained low in some patients even after they tested negative for COVID-19, which suggests that blood clotting issues may persist after infection and long-term monitoring of thrombotic risk may be necessary.

Wood says this preliminary data could be a cause for concern. Certain viruses like HIV are linked to a long-term deficiency in protein S, which causes an ongoing risk of thrombosis in patients. It is not yet known if COVID-19 could cause a similar persisting protein S deficiency.

Tissue factor and protein S are good markers to monitor for long-term thrombosis risk and the data suggest that we need to be monitoring these patients because were not seeing these parameters corrected immediately, Wood said.

The research team recently received a grant from UKsCenter for Clinical and Translational Science(CCTS) to begin a longitudinal study to look at these levels in patients over the next year.

This will help answer the question: will this risk remain like it is in the HIV patients or will it go away?

The study was funded in part by anAlliance Grantthrough the College of Medicine as well as UKsCOVID-19 Unified Research Experts (CURE) Alliancethroughthe Vice President for Research and the College of Medicine and the CCTS. It was a product of collaboration between a number of different groups at UK that have been studying COVID-19.

Additional collaborators includeMartha Sim, Meenakshi Banerjee and Hammodah Alfar in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry; Melissa Hollifield and Jerry Woodward with Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics; Xian Li with the Saha Cardiovascular Research Center; Alice Thornton with the Division of Infectious Disease; and Gail Sievert, Marietta Barton-Baxter and Kenneth Campbell with CCTS.

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UK research getting to bottom of COVID clots - ABC 36 News - WTVQ

Jumpcode Genomics Exits Stealth Mode, Unveils Technology that Addresses the ‘Needle in the Haystack’ Problem of Molecular Biology – Bio-IT World

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Patented CRISPRclean Technology is a Foundational Tool that Improves the Performance of Next-Generation Sequencing and Other Molecular Workflows by Increasing Sensitivity, Reducing Costs and Enabling Novel Discovery

CARLSBAD, CA, UNITED STATES - Sep 17, 2020 - Jumpcode Genomics - a genome technology company founded by industry veterans in 2016 focused on improving the understanding of human disease - today exited stealth mode and announced the commercial launch of its CRISPRclean technology. Initially available via three kits, CRISPRclean unlocks the power of next generation sequencing (NGS) by improving sensitivity, reducing costs and simplifying workflows. The company also announced that it has strengthened its leadership team with the addition of Yaron Hakak, Ph.D., as CEO. In addition, the company has added new advisors, including Dr. Stanley Nelson, vice chairman of Human Genetics at UCLA as consulting chief scientist, and Gary Schroth, Ph.D., vice president and distinguished scientist at Illumina, as a member of the companys scientific advisory board.

CRISPRclean technology is based on the in-vitro utilization of the CRISPR/Cas system to cleave and physically remove nucleic acid sequences pre- or post-NGS library preparation. This enables researchers to remove overabundant and uninformative sequences to allow discovery and detection of molecules previously undetectable (the needles). Like polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the technology broadly applies to many molecular biology techniques, particularly sequencing technologies.

Initial research applications focus on ribosomal RNA depletion, single cell analysis and repeat removal for whole genome sequencing. Additionally, Jumpcode Genomics is pursuing clinical applications, including the removal of human host molecules for a universal pathogen test and depletion of wild type alleles for somatic mutation detection in oncology. The technology seamlessly integrates into existing workflows and is agnostic to library preparation methods and sequencing platforms.

We aim to revolutionize the practice of molecular biology with our technology and to drive better results for researchers today and ultimately patients tomorrow, said Dr. Hakak, CEO of Jumpcode Genomics. When researchers perform NGS on biological samples, most molecules sequenced are uninformative, which results in a needle in a haystack problem. CRISPRclean solves this problem by simply removing the haystack.

The expansion of the leadership team and scientific advisory board enables Jumpcode Genomics to commercialize its technology and strengthen direct access to thought leaders in the scientific community.

About Jumpcode Genomics: Founded in 2016, Jumpcode Genomics aims to improve the understanding of human biology and the contribution to disease. The companys proprietary CRISPRclean technology utilizes the CRISPR/Cas system to deplete unwanted nucleic acid molecules from sequencing libraries. The process fits seamlessly within standard next generation sequencing workflows and works with most commercially available library preparation solutions. For more information, please visit: http://www.jumpcodegenomics.com

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Jumpcode Genomics Exits Stealth Mode, Unveils Technology that Addresses the 'Needle in the Haystack' Problem of Molecular Biology - Bio-IT World

HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. [HTGM] Is Currently 1.85 above its 200 Period Moving Avg: What Dose This Mean? – The DBT News

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HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. [NASDAQ: HTGM] surged by $0.0 during the normal trading session on Thursday and reaching a high of $0.35 during the day while it closed the day at $0.34. The company report on September 8, 2020 that HTG Molecular Diagnostics to Present Corporate Overview at Fall Investor Conferences.

HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. (Nasdaq: HTGM), a diagnostic company whose mission is to advance precision medicine, today announced John Lubniewski, President and CEO of HTG, will present virtually at the H.C. Wainwright 22nd Annual Global Investment Conference and at the Cantor Fitzgerald Global Healthcare Conference. Details are as follows:.

About HTG.

HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. stock has also gained 6.01% of its value over the past 7 days. However, HTGM stock has declined by -52.85% in the 3 months of the year. Over the past six months meanwhile, it has lost -1.16% and lost -51.28% year-on date.

The market cap for HTGM stock reached $25.48 million, with 65.76 million shares outstanding and 49.64 million shares in the current float. Compared to the average trading volume of 4.77M shares, HTGM reached a trading volume of 2065978 in the most recent trading day, which is why market watchdogs consider the stock to be active.

Cantor Fitzgerald have made an estimate for HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. shares, keeping their opinion on the stock as Overweight, with their previous recommendation back on May 11, 2020. The new note on the price target was released on March 26, 2020, representing the official price target for HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. stock. Previously, the target price had yet another raise from $4.50 to $6, while Rodman & Renshaw kept a Buy rating on HTGM stock.

The Average True Range (ATR) for HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. is set at 0.04, with the Price to Sales ratio for HTGM stock in the period of the last 12 months amounting to 1.77. The Price to Book ratio for the last quarter was 1.22, with the Price to Cash per share for the same quarter was set at 0.44.

HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. [HTGM] gain into the green zone at the end of the last week, gaining into a positive trend and gaining by 6.01. With this latest performance, HTGM shares dropped by -27.00% in over the last four-week period, additionally sinking by -1.16% over the last 6 months not to mention a drop of -56.99% in the past year of trading.

Overbought and oversold stocks can be easily traced with the Relative Strength Index (RSI), where an RSI result of over 70 would be overbought, and any rate below 30 would indicate oversold conditions. An RSI rate of 50 would represent a neutral market momentum. The current RSI for HTGM stock in for the last two-week period is set at 37.10, with the RSI for the last a single of trading hit 41.28, and the three-weeks RSI is set at 37.50 for HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. [HTGM]. The present Moving Average for the last 50 days of trading for this stock 0.5115, while it was recorded at 0.3292 for the last single week of trading, and 0.5346 for the last 200 days.

Operating Margin for any stock indicates how profitable investing would be, and HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. [HTGM] shares currently have an operating margin of -102.09 and a Gross Margin at +53.60. HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc.s Net Margin is presently recorded at -100.49.

Return on Total Capital for HTGM is now -49.79, given the latest momentum, and Return on Invested Capital for the company is -53.22. Return on Equity for this stock declined to -85.65, with Return on Assets sitting at -43.42. When it comes to the capital structure of this company, HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. [HTGM] has a Total Debt to Total Equity ratio set at 71.00. Additionally, HTGM Total Debt to Total Capital is recorded at 41.52, with Total Debt to Total Assets ending up at 37.72. Long-Term Debt to Equity for the company is recorded at 50.39, with the Long-Term Debt to Total Capital now at 29.47.

Reflecting on the efficiency of the workforce at the company, HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. [HTGM] managed to generate an average of -$172,301 per employee. Receivables Turnover for the company is 4.70 with a Total Asset Turnover recorded at a value of 0.43.HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc.s liquidity data is similarly interesting compelling, with a Quick Ratio of 7.10 and a Current Ratio set at 7.40.

With the latest financial reports released by the company, HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. posted -0.15/share EPS, while the average EPS was predicted by analysts to be reported at -0.16/share. When compared, the two values demonstrate that the company surpassed the estimates by a Surprise Factor of 6.30%. The progress of the company may be observed through the prism of EPS growth rate, while Wall Street analysts are focusing on predicting the 5-year EPS growth rate for HTGM.

There are presently around $6 million, or 34.30% of HTGM stock, in the hands of institutional investors. The top three institutional holders of HTGM stocks are: NANTAHALA CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LLC with ownership of 5,060,160, which is approximately 0% of the companys market cap and around 0.80% of the total institutional ownership; COWEN PRIME SERVICES LLC, holding 4,579,500 shares of the stock with an approximate value of $1.57 million in HTGM stocks shares; and PERKINS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT INC, currently with $0.83 million in HTGM stock with ownership of nearly -3.68% of the companys market capitalization.

Positions in HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. stocks held by institutional investors increased at the end of August and at the time of the August reporting period, where 17 institutional holders increased their position in HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. [NASDAQ:HTGM] by around 1,592,904 shares. Additionally, 17 investors decreased positions by around 3,162,056 shares, while 8 investors held positions by with 11,662,409 shares. The mentioned changes placed institutional holdings at 16,417,369 shares, according to the latest SEC report filing. HTGM stock had 7 new institutional investments in for a total of 1,062,389 shares, while 11 institutional investors sold positions of 2,750,997 shares during the same period.

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HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc. [HTGM] Is Currently 1.85 above its 200 Period Moving Avg: What Dose This Mean? - The DBT News

Scientists outraged by White House appointees’ meddling with coronavirus information: ‘Outright egregious’ – USA TODAY

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Without masks and a vaccine, we could reach Herd Immunity from COVID-19, but deaths would skyrocket. We break down the science of it. USA TODAY

Scientists and physicians reacted with words such as aghast, despicable and outrageous over the weekend as news spread that White House appointeesinterfered with a basic national public health reportwhen it conflicted with PresidentDonald Trump'scoronavirus messaging.

Michael Caputo, the Health and Human Services assistant secretary for public affairs, acknowledged Saturday that since June, he and an adviser havescrutinized and at times pushed for changes toa weekly health report distributed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The meddling, first reported by Politico,included efforts to stop the publication of a report last week on the use of hydroxychloroquine,a malaria drug often touted by Trump, delaya10-state study of COVID-19 infection statistics in Juneand another on the spread of coronavirus at a Georgia sleep-away camp.

The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report is a series of dry and sometimes dense briefupdates on public health incidents that comeout on Thursdays. They typically describeevents or topicsand are an important way for doctors and health officials to get the latest data.

Monday, members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis sent a letter to HHS Secretary AlexAzar and CDC Director Robert Redfield requesting documents pertaining to the efforts to block the publicationof "accurate scientific reports."

"We are gravely concerned by reports showing that the Presidents political appointees at HHS have sought to help him downplay the risks of the coronavirus crisis by attempting to alter, delay, and block critical scientific reports from CDC," the letter said.

Approving a vaccine in the U.S. usually takes years, but COVID-19 vaccines are moving through in record time. What does that mean? USA TODAY

The sprint to create a COVID-19 vaccine started in January. The finish line awaits.

Dr. William Schaffner, who is on the publications editorial board, said he was aghast and appalled" by the reported attempts to delay, stop or change reports.He described the publication as a vital part of the global conversation among public health officials who track diseases and dangers.

It has been the voice of the U.S. governments health system, of integrity and scientific rigor, for years," said Schaffner, a professor and infectious disease expert at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee."Indeed, the MMWR has been a model for other countries ministries of public health for creating similar newsletters in their countries.

The interference is not just anti-science butdisinformation intended to deceive the American public, said Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

This is outright egregious. Its despicable, Topol said, accusing Redfieldand otherleadersof allowing the agency to be hijacked by politics.

Coronavirus in America: Here's how the virus is spreading, state by state

What were seeing is multiple actors, important people who are just laying down, who are complicit with the anti-science machinations of the Trump administration, he said.

In an interview Saturday with The Washington Post,Caputo alleged the content of the MMRWis being politicized by the agency itself.

But in an election year, and in the time of COVID-19,its no longer unanimously scientific. Theres political content, The Post quoted Caputo as saying.

On a Facebook livestream on Sunday night, Caputo railed against what he termed"sedition" among CDC scientists, the New York Times reported Monday.They havent gotten out of their sweatpants except for meetings at coffee shops to plot how theyre going to attack Donald Trump next, the Times reported him as saying. The Facebook video has since been removed.

On Twitter,Dr. Sherri Bucher, a global health researcher, wrote,There are no words to articulate how horrific this is. Trust & credibility, shattered, overnight. MMWR has been, for a long time, one of the most reliable, steadfast, scientific resources; unquestioned veracity, impeccable reputation for quality of data/analysis. No longer.

It is not unusual for communicationpeople within the CDC to be involved in an MMWR report before publication, said Dr. Patrick Remington, a member of the journals editorial board and a former CDC staffer.

That involvement was previously restricted to officials within the agency who let political leaders know what was coming so they could be prepared with a communicationstrategy, said Remington, associate dean for public health at the School of Medicine and Public Health at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison.

What is unusual is the allegation that the political process is attempting to influence the scientific conclusions. And thats a concern, Remington said.

A member of the editorial board for 14 years, Remington said the body meets roughly once a year to help decide the publication's big-picture vision. Its most recent meeting was in February.

Coronavirus Watch: An American dies of COVID-19 every 2 minutes

The board is not involved in the publication's day-to-day operations, and members knew nothing about the accusations of interferenceuntil they read about them, he and others said.

Jeff Niederdeppe, another member of the MMWR editorial board and a professor of public health communicationat Cornell University, said political meddling could erode public faith and cause long-term damage to the publication.

The big issue here in my mind is the fundamental undermining of trust, he said, both in the CDC generallyand among the public health practitioners who rely on the MMWR to make policy decisions. If that very foundation is being politicized, its incredibly alarming.

Regaining trust is a challenge, he said, and should begin with an immediate response from the CDC, which has not commented on the allegations.

If the concerns are confirmed, Niederdeppe said, Id be interested in convening with the other members of the MMWR editorial board to figure out what we could do in this role.

The Notes from the Field section of the MMWR previews small investigations by state or local health departments that illustrate a specific problem.

Theyre like an alert mechanism, Schaffner said.

MMWRs have described American heat-related deaths by sex and age, top foods contributing to high-salt intake, an outbreak of tuberculosis among workers at food processing plants and drinking rates among pregnant women.

Dr. Jennifer Kates, senior vice president of the nonprofit Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which focuseson health issues, described the MMWR as the go-to public health publication.

The MMWR predates the CDC, beginning as a publication of the U.S. Public Health Servicein 1878.

Kates said she was disturbed by what appears to be the insertion of politics into a well-respected scientific journal. In general, the politicization of COVID has been the enemy of public health, she said.

MMWR reports are written by CDC staff, as well as public health workers and physicians nationwide. The one- to two-page reports are known for their meticulous and careful editing, a process those who'vegone through it described as harrowing.

If youve ever been involved as a co-author of one of those reports, its painful how carefully every sentence is reviewed for scientific rigor, for precision,Schaffner said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report every Thursday.(Photo: Jessica McGowan, Getty Images)

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Scientists outraged by White House appointees' meddling with coronavirus information: 'Outright egregious' - USA TODAY

Synthekine Launches with $82 Million Series A Financing to Advance Pipeline of Engineered Cytokine Therapeutics Optimized for Cancer and Autoimmune…

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DetailsCategory: Proteins and PeptidesPublished on Friday, 18 September 2020 10:55Hits: 190

- Series A led by Canaan Partners, Samsara BioCapital and The Column Group- Foundational research into cytokine structural biology and immune function licensed from Stanford University- Nils Lonberg joins founding investors on board of directors

MENLO PARK, CA, USA I September 17, 2020 I Synthekine Inc., an engineered cytokine therapeutics company, today announced the closing of an $82 million Series A financing. The financing was co-led by Canaan Partners, Samsara BioCapital and The Column Group, with participation from other undisclosed investors. Synthekine was founded by K. Christopher Garcia, Ph.D., to leverage discoveries showing that cytokines can be tuned to enhance their therapeutic effects.

Synthekine combines strengths in immunology, structural insights on cytokines and multiple engineering technologies to create optimized therapeutics against new and validated cytokine targets for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disorders. Proceeds from this Series A financing will be used to advance Synthekines lead therapeutic programs into clinical studies, expand its discovery pipeline and hone its proprietary cytokine engineering platforms. The company currently has two lead programs in IND-enabling development: STK-012, an engineered Interleukin-2 (IL-2) partial agonist for the treatment of cancer, and the combination of STK-009 and SYNCAR-001, an orthogonal IL-2 ligand and a CD-19 CAR-T-cell therapy being studied in combination.

Cytokines have a fundamental role in the immune system and represent an enormous opportunity for innovative therapeutics. However, most cytokines broadly activate a wide range of cells that can simultaneously stimulate and suppress the immune system, making drug development against these targets challenging, said Debanjan Ray, chief executive officer of Synthekine. Chris Garcia has shown, for a wide range of therapeutically important cytokines, that cytokine efficacy and toxicity can be decoupled through structure-based protein engineering. These findings mean that many cytokines previously thought to be unsuitable as therapeutics can be transformed into safe and effective drugs. In addition to our highly differentiated IL-2-based programs, we have assembled multiple best-in-class technologies and an accomplished team to develop cytokine therapeutics by engineering them at the molecular level to enhance their activity and selectivity.

Unlocking cytokine therapeutics through unique structural biology insights

Cytokines are small, soluble proteins that are powerful regulators of the immune system and can stimulate a wide range of immune cells, primarily driven by their binding and interaction with cell surface receptors. Most cytokines are pleiotropic, meaning that a given cytokine can exert a range of responses across multiple cell types. Pleiotropy has proven to be a significant obstacle in the development of cytokine therapeutics. Existing cytokine therapeutics, such as aldesleukin (Proleukin) and interferons, demonstrate meaningful efficacy in cancer and other diseases but are limited by significant side effects.

Synthekine has licensed several cytokine programs and platforms from Stanford University. Research conducted in the Garcia lab at Stanford led to insights into the interaction of cytokines and their receptors, allowing researchers to engineer modified cytokines to deliver selective activity to particular cell types of therapeutic interest, giving them the potential for optimized efficacy, a larger therapeutic window and improved safety for patients. This research has been responsible for determining the three-dimensional structures for many different cytokine/receptor complexes, including IL-1, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-13, IL-15, IL-17, IL-23 and the three different classes of interferons.

A deep preclinical pipeline and proprietary platform

Synthekine is advancing several preclinical programs and innovative platform technologies. These include:

A collaborative company formation effort and seasoned leadership team

The founding members of Synthekines board of directors include Tim Kutzkey, Ph.D., managing partner of The Column Group; Srinivas Akkaraju, Ph.D., founding partner of Samsara BioCapital; and Julie Grant, general partner at Canaan Partners. Synthekine has also appointed biopharma veteran Nils Lonberg as an independent member of its board of directors.

Synthekines executive team is led by Debanjan Ray as chief executive officer. Mr. Ray was previously chief financial officer and head of business development at CytomX Therapeutics, where he was responsible for leading financing efforts and securing multiple strategic collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies that generated more than $400 million in upfront payments and up to $4 billion in milestones. The executive team also includes Martin Oft, M.D., as chief development officer, Rob Kastelein, Ph.D., as head of therapeutic discovery and Gregory Yedinak as senior vice president of technical operations.

Synthekines scientific advisory board is led by its founder, K. Christopher Garcia, Ph.D., professor of molecular and cellular physiology and structural biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator and a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

About Synthekine

Synthekine is an engineered cytokine therapeutics company developing disease-optimized treatments. The company uses immunological insights to guide targeted protein engineering to generate transformative medicines for cancer and autoimmune disorders. Using the principles of cytokine partial agonism and immunological specificity, Synthekine designs differentiated therapeutics to be both safe and efficacious. Its lead programs have shown promising efficacy and tolerability in preclinical studies, and it is developing additional cytokine partial agonists that selectively modulate key pathways of the immune system. For more information, visit http://www.synthekine.com.

SOURCE: Synthekine

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2bPrecise Wins Industry Innovation Award – Bio-IT World

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Fierce Healthcare honors the precision medicine platform for clinical information management capabilities

RALEIGH, NC, UNITED STATES - Sep 16, 2020 - Fierce Healthcare released its annual Fierce Innovation Report this week, naming 2bPrecise the industrys top clinical information management solution. The intent of the awards program, according to Fierce Healthcare, is to showcase organizations that over the past 12 months have demonstrated innovative solutions that have the greatest potential to save money, engage patients, or revolutionize the industry.

Cloud-based, the 2bPrecise platform consumes molecular data from labs and clinical information from the EHR, synthesizing them into a clinical-genomic ontology. The resulting precision medicine insights are delivered to providers within their familiar workflow across any EHR. Plus, the solution is built to interact with evolving knowledge sources and care guidelines.

These unique capabilities enable health systems to leverage precision medicine insights in myriad ways - driving efficient workflows for genomics interventions, extracting population analytics, building cohorts for trial recruitment, enabling participation in research studies and more.

2bPrecise was similarly honored with the MedTech Breakthrough award as Best Overall Genomics Solution earlier this year, and the company received Microsoft Corp.s 2020 Health Innovation Award in the category of Reimagine Healthcare. Industry Wired magazine further recognized 2bPrecise as one of the Top 8 Precision Medicine Companies in the USA this year.

We are honored to receive this latest recognition from Fierce Healthcare, said 2bPrecise CEO Assaf Halevy. The entire 2bPrecise team is driven to create excellent solutions to support clinical decision making within the providers workflow - while simultaneously helping improve outcomes and the patient experience.

Additional winners announced by Fierce Healthcare include Roche (data analytics/business intelligence), Walgreens (digital/mobile health solutions), XSOLIS (financial/operational) and Centivo (population health management/patient engagement).

About 2bPrecise

The cloud-based 2bPrecise platform consumes genetic/genomic data from molecular labs and clinical information from EHRs, synthesizing them into a clinical-genomic ontology. The 2bPrecise Genomic EHR Mentor (GEM) brings the resulting precision medicine insights into a physicians EHR workflow for immediate and timely use. With discrete test results consolidated into an invaluable data set, provider organizations are likewise equipped to drive efficient workflows for genomic interventions, extract population analytics, design clinical intervention programs, build cohorts for trial recruitment, enable participation in research studies and more. Learn more at http://www.2bPreciseHealth.com.

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Erica Navar

Account Executive

Aria Marketing (for 2bPrecise)

(909) 538-9541

enavar@ariamarketing.com

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These 8 books will school you in psychedelics – Big Think

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UC Berkeley recently announced the launch of its center for psychedelic research and education, thanks to an anonymous $1.25 million donation. This follows Imperial College London's 2019 founding of The Centre for Psychedelic Research and Johns Hopkins's Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research. The U.S. company, MindMed, which is working on clinical studies on ibogaine's efficacy in treating addiction, is planning an IPO. A host of similar Canadian companies have already entered that country's stock market.

What a long, strange trip it's been.

As psychedelics are catapulted into the mainstream, the following eight books cover a range of related topics, including clinical research and anecdotal tales. Whether you're an advocate, a newbie, or just curious, these books provide a great education on the therapeutic and spiritual potential of the psychedelic ritual.

Science journalist James Kingland takes a broad view of altered states of consciousness, including lucid dreaming, virtual reality, hypnotic trances, and microdosing (and larger doses) with psychedelics. His journeys with ayahuasca, LSD, and psilocybin recount intense personal experiences and are worthwhile for anyone interested in the science behind these substances. In the end, Kingsland reminds us the real work of any trip is done in sobriety.

"In some ways the trip is the easy bit. The hard work starts when you try to integrate the lessons you have learned into ordinary life."

Northwestern pharmacology professor Richard J Miller was exposed to the power of psychedelics while attending Woodstock. This "religious experience" inspired his career in pharmacology. He wanted to discover how substances can alter neurochemistry this profoundly. In "Drugged," Miller investigates a range of mind-changing substances, including coffee, opium, cannabis, and antidepressants. The chapters devoted to psychedelics provide a great overview of their clinical and spiritual applications.

"The powerful effects of natural products such as Amanita muscaria or ergot suggest that they contain important chemical substances that, if isolated and understood from the structural point of view, might provide us with new insights into disease mechanisms or potential therapeutic opportunities for treating diseases."

UCLA Medical Center professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, Charles Grob, was the first researcher approved to clinically study MDMA and ayahuasca in the '90s. His pioneering (and continued) work in these fields has pushed the field of psychedelic research forward. This 2002 collection features the writings of Ralph Metzner, Terence McKenna, Huston Smith, Rick Strassman, and an interview with Dr. Andrew Weil. The book closes with three exceptional essays by Grob on the psychology of ayahuasca, the politics of MDMA research, and psychiatric research with hallucinogens.

As Weil says of his experiences with psychedelics,

"It can give you a vision of possibility, but then it doesn't show you anything about maintaining that possibility. When the vision goes, the drug wears off, you are back where you were, you haven't learned anything but you have seen that something is possible. It is then up to you to figure out how to manifest the possibility.

This 1998 encyclopedia of psychedelic plants and fungi is the bible of cosmonauts. Everything is covered: history, culture, pharmacology, therapeutic applications, regional distinctions, chemistry, maps, and tons of photos. This resource should be in any serious cosmonaut's library. While grounded in research and respectful of the cultures that practice plant medicine, the trio of experts also understand their broader context.

"The psychic changes and unusual states of consciousness induced by hallucinogens are so far removed from similarity with ordinary life that it is scarcely possible to describe them in a language of daily living. A person under the effects of a hallucinogen forsakes his familiar world and operates under other standards, in strange dimensions and in a different time."

American writer William Seward Burroughs (1914-1997), author of the cult novel "Naked Lunch."

Credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images

Richard Louis Miller has been a clinical psychologist for over a half-century. He's also the host of a popular syndicated talk radio show, where he discusses health, mindfulness, and politics. This platform led him to explore psychedelics in a broad scientific and political context.

This book is a collection of interviews from his show, featuring David Nichols, Stanislav Grof, Charles Grob, Roland Griffiths, Amanda Feilding, and Dennis McKenna. They cover a range of issues, such as MDMA as a therapy for PTSD, the efficacy of the current psychiatric paradigm, and psilocybin in depression treatment. These invaluable conversations include this important insight from MAPS founder, Rick Doblin.

"The fundamental problem with our drug policy is that it ascribes good and bad qualities to drugs themselves"this is a good drug, that's a bad drug"when really it's the relationship that you have with the drug that determines the value of it and whether it's harmful or helpful."

Aldous Huxley's landmark 1954 book on mescaline remains fundamental to psychedelics advocates. Huxley wanted to experience mystic visions, a feat mescaline offered. Yet he never fell prey to the whims of useless metaphysics. This stunning essay details a political and spiritual thinker applying pragmatic as well as transcendental understandings of the psychedelic vision.

"The other word to which mescalin admitted me was not the world of visions; it existed out there, in what I could see with my eyes open. The great change was in the realm of objective fact. What had happened to my subjective universe was relatively unimportant."

When you get the message, hang up the phone. That summates the British philosopher's take on psychedelics. While his lane was more meditation and philosophy than drugsthough he was known for enjoying a drinkWatts has plenty to offer on altered states. Watts applies a critical eye to the slacker looking to get off on drugs, yet also recognizes the essential need for connection to nature in an ever-speedy societythis book was published in 1962. That's the thing about reading Watts: it always catches up to you, wherever you happen to be, trademark humor and all.

"It is not really healthy for monks to practice fasting, and it was hardly hygienic for Jesus to get himself crucified, but these are risks taken in the course of spiritual adventures."

This correspondence between two of the Beat generation's top writers is a gem. Burroughs spent months traveling around South America looking for the legendary ayahuasca (yage), long before private planes shuffled Silicon Valley execs to glamping retreats. That meant purchasing bootleg ayahuasca and having colorful run-ins with locals. Many remember Burroughs as a junkiehe had his momentsbut the writer also meticulously documented the pharmacology of his drugs. Kerouac owned the road, but Burroughs claimed the sky.

"Yage is not like anything else. This is not the electric euphoria of coke which activates the channels of pure pleasure in the brain, the sexless, timeless, negative pleasure of opium. It is closer to hashish than to any other drug. There are also similarities between Peyote and yage. But while hashish intensifies all sensual impressions, yage distorts or shuts down ordinary sensations, transporting you to another level of experience."

When you buy something through a link in this article or from our shop, Big Think earns a small commission. Thank you for supporting our team's work.

--

Stay in touch with Derek on Twitter, Facebook and Substack. His next book is "Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy."

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Red Light Holland’s Science and Innovation Division, Scarlette Lillie Joins Medical Psychedelics Working Group with Leading Academics; Professor David…

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September 17, 2020 (Source) Red Light Holland Corp. (CSE: TRIP) (FSE: 4YX) (OTC: TRUFF) (Red Light Holland or the Company), an Ontario-based corporation positioning itself to engage in the production, growth and sale of its brand of magic truffles to the legal, recreational market within the Netherlands, is pleased to announce that Red Light Hollands Science and Innovation division, Scarlette Lillie Science and Innovation (Scarlette Lillie), has joined the Medical Psychedelics Working Group (MPWG), a consortium of drug science experts, leading academics and researchers, policy specialists and industry partners. MPWGs aim is to create a rational and enlightened approach to psychedelic research and clinical treatment. MPWG will explore innovation within the psychedelic space with a specific focus on how psychedelics can be integrated into primary and secondary healthcare. The Company believes that evidence-based science, sharing data, and strong partnerships are keys to success for the psychedelic community.

We are elated to join the most respected experts in the industry. To be able to have open communication with leading academics like Professor David Nutt, Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris and Dr. Jo Neill is a major development for Scarlette Lillie Science and Innovation. Access is key in life and having access to the top minds in this sector is something we are all very excited about, said Red Light Holland CEO and Director, Todd Shapiro.

When we were approached by Red Light Hollands Scarlette Lillie Science and Innovation, we were more than happy to include them in this very important working group. We are grateful for their support and we recognize the Companys genuine and authentic approach to helping make positive change in this world through psilocybin research, education and information. We are thrilled to have Scarlette Lillie join our very MPWG, stated Professor Jo Neill.

Both Sarah Hashkes and I are pleased to be able to brainstorm and continue developing these important synergies with our peers in the field of Medical and Science Research to help elevate the Psychedelic Sector as a whole, added Dr. Joe Geraci, Scarlette Lillies Scientific Advisor and CEO of Netramark.

About MPWG

MPWG is a working group of experts, policy makers and scientists. Its primary role is to campaign for the rescheduling of all psychedelic drugs for research and medical purposes.

About Red Light Holland Corp.

The Company is an Ontario-based corporation positioning itself to engage in the production, growth and sale (through existing Smart Shops operators and an advanced e-commerce platform) of a premium brand of magic truffles to the legal, recreational market within the Netherlands, in accordance with the highest standards, in compliance with all applicable laws.

For additional information on the Company:

Todd ShapiroChief Executive Officer & DirectorTel: 647-204-7129Email:[emailprotected]Website:https://redlighttruffles.com/

Forward-Looking Statements

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (the CSE) nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Companys beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Companys control.

Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, will continue, will occur or will be achieved. The forward-looking information and forward- looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, MPWG and the Companys intention and aim in researching psychedelics in the healthcare space. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward- looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. In particular, there is no guarantee that MPWG or the Company will be able to continue researching psychedelics in the ways described in the press release. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

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How COVID-19 Has Impacted the Psychedelic Community | High Times – High Times

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Doug, a 43-year-old startup CFO in San Francisco, attended several ayahuasca ceremonies during the COVID-19 quarantine but he didnt leave his home for them. Instead, the leader shipped him and other experienced participants the ayahuasca, and they prepared over Zoom calls and Signal threads. Then, they all held their own ceremonies at the same time, physically solo, but energetically together, he explains. I sure miss the physical container, and you can feel the difference in terms of energy, but you can build a different level of intimacy with the medicine.

John White, owner of the online cannabis resource CNBS.org, attended a virtual ayahuasca ceremony during the pandemic as well after receiving the ayahuasca at an in-person ceremony in anticipation of lockdown. In his case, the participants actually communicated with one another over Skype. Having to set up your own space is quite therapeutic in itself, as you can tailor the conditions for yourself, he says.

Its not just clandestine ceremonies that are adapting their operations to the digital age in the face of the coronavirus. The New York City mental health clinic Mindbloom began offering remote ketamine therapy sessions before the pandemic, and social distancing imperatives motivated the company to further develop it. Patients are prescribed ketamine tablets that they can take at home, and a clinician video-chats with them while theyre under the effects.

With the onset of COVID, weve seen an astounding increase in both the number of people seeking treatment and severity of their symptoms, says Mindblooms founder and CEO Dylan Beynon. This pandemic has changed the paradigm for increasing access to mental healthcare. Telehealth is the future, and harnessing the dual powers of technology and psychedelic medicine has allowed us to help more people in more places than we could have imagined.

Virtual ceremonies and treatments constitute several of many ways the psychedelic community has responded to the coronavirus pandemic. Some practitioners, in fact, have continued their operations and made modifications to protect clients. The Inscape Recovery program, an ibogaine aftercare drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in Central Mexico that uses ayahuasca as part of their treatment protocol, restricted guests to those already in Mexico and required that they sit spaced apart during ceremonies, according to David Wagner, who runs the program.

David Mahjoubi, MD, founder of Ketamine Healing Clinic of Los Angeles, similarly decided to keep his clinic open, but he spread out appointments to minimize the number of people in the reception area, required that staff wear face masks, and asked patients who had recently traveled, felt sick, or come in contact with someone who was sick to wait two weeks before coming in.

I realized the quarantine was becoming very difficult for many people based on the calls we were getting, he says. So we decided to stay open to offer infusions for depression and anxiety exacerbated or caused by the quarantine and world events. Additionally, I have many patients who come in for maintenance infusions every month. Leaving these patients without a much-needed treatment wasnt something I was willing to do.

Whether a psychedelic ceremony or healing session can be safely carried out amid the virus depends on how effectively social distancing guidelines are upheld, says James Giordano, professor of neurology and biochemistry at Georgetown University Medical Center. Practitioners would need to make sure that participants were spaced apart, that there was no smoke being blown into the air, and that no utensils were being shared.

The other problem with ceremonies is that sometimes the emotionality of the ceremony is such that people might become cavalier in some of their precautions, which is why its important to have a mediator whos able to enforce that level of non-exchange, he adds.

For this reason and others, some have made the choice to play it safe and cease operations until the pandemic is over. Dimitri Mugianis, who facilitates iboga retreats through his company Iboga Revolution, finds it concerning that some have continued holding plant medicine ceremonies during the pandemic. Youre talking about really close quarters, he says. Often, you have to touch someone to comfort them. Theyre not aware of normal boundaries, and some people are vomiting. And the reality is, its not an emergency situation.

Mugianis says his business has been down 70 percent since hes canceled ceremonies. To compensate, hes been running an online version of his Psychedelic Disintegration group, where people discuss their experiences with psychedelics, and counseling people regarding their psychedelic and addiction recovery experiences over the phone.

Tricia Eastman, whose company Psychedelic Journeys organizes psychedelic retreats, made a similar decision to halt retreats and focus on counseling work that can be done remotely. She was concerned that participants could either spread the virus to one another or have to miss the retreats if they got sick.

The fact that Eastmans retreats require travel also would have complicated matters and increased risk. It really doesnt make sense to have people going through airports when things are very stressful. Its not a good energy, she says. We want the experience to be as comfortable as possible because youre going to do hard work with yourself.

While many psychedelic therapy and ceremony providers businesses have taken a hit, the pandemic has also forced people to innovate in ways that can help people long after its over. Virtual ceremonies, remote psychedelic therapy sessions, and online integration groups have opened up the potential to make these services available to people all over the world who might not otherwise access them.

Eastman, in fact, believes this is an opportunity to exercise the attitude of surrender that psychedelics teach us, and we will come out better on the other side. This is a time of global reset, she explains. This is a time where we kind of already are in a plant medicine journey. This is an initiation. It has a lot of the same qualities that you would experience in terms of the different things that are being purged out of the collective and the inner reflection that is happening by shutting down the planet and having to sit and be with yourself. Im just listening to what I feel is the trajectory that were on, and I really have learned from this work that when you trust, you dont resist whatever is happening and how that wants to happen.

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Bitcoin sentiment at record lows Does it mean the price will go up? – Cointelegraph

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A number of metrics indicate that social and trading sentiment for Bitcoin is still low despite its price breaking above $11,000 a couple of hours ago.

On-chain analytics provider Santiment has revealed that weighted social sentiment for Bitcoin is at its lowest level for two years. The metric takes into account the overall volume of Bitcoin mentions on Twitter and compares the ratio of positive vs. negative commentary on the platform.

Social sentiment surged a few months ago when Bitcoin started its strong recovery following the pandemic-induced market crash in mid-March. However, for most of May, June and July, when the asset was consolidating in the low $9,000 range, it fell into negative territory again.

The analytics provider noted that, counterintuitively, negative sentiment at extremely low levels correlates with price rises, whereas extreme highs correlate with price retracements.

Bitcoin reached a 2020 high of $12,400 in mid-August, but has failed to top 2019s peak of $13,800 leading a number of analysts to assert that the lower high on the longtime frame indicates that we are not in a bull market just yet.

Another market sentiment gauge is the Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index, which is currently showing a neutral reading of 48 at the time of writing. This metric is derived from a combination of factors such as volatility, market momentum and volume, social media interaction, market dominance, and current trend.

For most of August, the index was in the extreme greed zone at around 80 as Bitcoin traded in the high $11,000 range. Its lowest levels unsurprisingly were in March and April when extreme fear gripped global markets.

Popular charting platform Tradingview also has its own sentiment indicators for the asset derived from a number of technical indicators. On the daily and weekly views, they are flashing buy signals, whereas things are more neutral on the shorter time frames.

Bitcoin has been largely correlated to stock market movements for much of this year; however, the September effect is a term that has come about because it is a historically weak month for stock market and cryptocurrency price returns (as Kraken pointed out in its most recent update). This could be reflected in social sentiment as reported by Santiment.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was still trading just above $11,000, a gain of 2.8% on the day and almost 8% on the week.

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Bitcoin sentiment at record lows Does it mean the price will go up? - Cointelegraph

Its a bull trap! 3 key metrics forecast Bitcoin price rejection at $11K – Cointelegraph

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Traders are usually skeptical as Bitcoin (BTC) approaches key resistances, and there was no exception as the price added 7.7% to attack the $11K level.

Not every rally will shift technical indicators to overbought levels, but there is usually some gain in volume and futures contracts sentiment that may transition from neutral to bullish. Derivatives markets are especially sensitive to trend changes due to leverage.

Yesterday, as Bitcoin price closed in on $11K, Cointelegraph cautioned that the move shouldn't raise hopes too high as rejection at this level could be followed by heavy downside.

Let's analyze the most recent price movement that culminated with yesterday's $10,960 close.

BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Take notice how there hasn't been much resistance over the past three days during the 8% rally. $11K seems more a psychological barrier than a resistance, but there are currently no signals that traders are confident after the recent price recovery.

Considering the price increase over the past three days, derivatives indicators and the top traders net long/short ratio should have shifted accordingly. Thus, the best place to start is by looking at BTC futures activity

Any optimism from buyers should be reflected in the futures contracts funding rate. These perpetual futures contracts, also known as inverse swaps, have an embedded fee for margin usage.

At most exchanges, the funding rates are usually changed every 8 hours. If buyers are using more leverage than sellers, the funding rate will be positive; hence buyers are the ones paying it. The opposite occurs when future contracts sellers (shorts) are demanding more margin.

Not every bull run will lead to a positive funding rate. Nevertheless, it is very unusual for positive moves to happen during periods where the funding is negative.

Even if there are no additional positions created during bull runs, the liquidation of short-sellers will cause the funding rate to go up. This is caused by decreasing demand for leverage shorts traders, but usually it is also accompanied by buyers adding long positions.

Bitcoin perpetual swaps 8-hour funding rate. Source: Skew

The data above shows a brief moment of optimism as the funding rate turned positive on Sept. 2 ahead of the drop below $11K. Since then, the indicator turned negative, and there is no indication of bullishness.

Variations between -0.05% and +0.05% fees per 8-hours are considered quite normal and, therefore, a neutral indicator. This is equivalent to -1% to +1% per week, so unless it is kept for an extended period, it is uneventful.

Volume is the one unquestionable indicator, regardless of whether one is doing technical or fundamental analysis. Any significant move not backed by a sizable trading activity becomes doubtful in traders and analysts' minds.

7-day Bitcoin aggregated average volume. Source: Messari

Data from Messari shows the adjusted aggregated volume at $2.15 billion Bitcoin for Sept. 15 and 16. Although 13% above the previous 7-day average, it is still far below the $3 billion peak levels seen over the past two months.

This is another telling signal that the BTC rally initiated a week ago seems to be fading away rather than gaining strength for continuation to $12K.

Binance provides data on the top traders' long-to-short net positioning. This is an excellent indicator to determine whether professional traders are leaning bullish or bearish.

OKEx has a slightly different indicator, measuring top traders sentiment. Considering the difference in methodologies, one should monitor changes in each index instead of absolute numbers.

Top traders sentiment & net long/short. Source: OKEx, Binance

Binance futures top traders remain net long, although the current 1.12 ratio is the lowest figure recorded since July 25 (8 weeks ago). A similar trend is depicted in the OKEx top traders sentiment metric, which has declined to 0.80 from a 1.18 peak on Sept. 3.

These indicators reinforce the previously discussed volume and funding rate analysis and show a lack of strength behind the recent BTC recovery from the sub-$10K level.

It is also worth noting that there are absolutely no bearish signals from any of these indicators. Instead, the market shows that traders are either in mild disbelief or simply are disinterested in participating at the current levels.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Its a bull trap! 3 key metrics forecast Bitcoin price rejection at $11K - Cointelegraph

Bit Digital, Inc. Announced Officially to Cooperate with the World’s Leading Bitcoin Colocation Partner In US – PRNewswire

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NEW YORK, Sept.17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Bit Digital, Inc. (Nasdaq: BTBT) (the "Company"), an emerging bitcoin mining company headquartered in New York, U.S. today announced that the Company has contracted to cooperate with the colocation partner in U.S.

On September 1, 2020, the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary Bit Digital USA, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware, United States and on September 15, 2020 Bit Digital USA, Inc. entered into a certain service agreement with Compute North LLC. Compute North is the world's leading bitcoin colocation company headquartered in Nebraska U.S. Pursuant to the service agreement, Compute North will provide bitcoin mining facilities for the Company's colocation, managing mining equipment which will save the Company's operating cost, including utilities and rent.

The pilot test with Compute North LLC represented the Company's strategy to source the best bitcoin and bitcoin mining resources in North America and further help the Company to balance its operations worldwide.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" relating to the business of Bit Digital, Inc. and its subsidiary companies. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects" or similar expressions, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Company's periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website at http://www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Bit Digital, Inc.

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Bit Digital, Inc. Announced Officially to Cooperate with the World's Leading Bitcoin Colocation Partner In US - PRNewswire

How Bitcoin Correlations Drive the Narrative – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

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Every week theres usually at least one article in CoinDesk, a blurb in a newsletter and several charts in the Twittersphere about bitcoins correlation with something or other.

This week,we were told that the 60-day correlation between gold and bitcoin (BTC) had reached all-time highs. Last week,our monthly report featured a chart of BTCs correlation with the DXY dollar index. A few weeks before that, the correlation with the S&P 500 was in the headlines.

If you feel dizzy from the rapid turns in attention on which correlation metric matters, youre not alone. But, you had better get used to it because the fascination with BTCs correlation status is unlikely to fade any time soon.What this reveals about bitcoin is intriguing. Its not so much the correlation measures per se they are fun to watch go up and down, but theyre not the deeper story. The deeper story is why it matters so much to us.

When we point to BTCs increasing correlation with the S&P 500, gold, avocados or whatever, we are searching for a handle on its prevailing narrative. We hope that correlations will give us a clue.

BTC is a difficult asset to pin down. It is a scarce asset like gold, yet with a harder cap. It can be used for pseudonymous transactions, as can cash. It is a speculative holding for many, like equities. It is a bet on a new technology, like a growth stock. It is a hedge against a dollar collapse, a way to spread financial inclusion, an investment in financial evolution, a political statement. It is all of these, or none of these, depending on your intellectual leanings, economic philosophy and mood.

The narrative we choose for bitcoin matters, though. Not only does it form our investment thesis around the asset, but it also influences our valuation methods. Do we extrapolate its potential price using the size of the gold market? The payments universe? Transaction fees? Something else entirely?

So, faced with such a slippery narrative, we look to correlations to tell the story. If its highly correlated with gold, then the market views it as a safe haven. If its more closely correlated to the S&P 500, then its a risk-on investment. If bitcoins correlation to the dollar index plummets, then its a hedge.

We look to the market to tell us what bitcoins narrative is. But this creates a feedback loop (Follow gold! Follow Nasdaq!) that helps to perpetuate bitcoins momentum-fueled volatility, and which is often thrown off course by the evolving nature of markets.

BTCs 60-day correlation with the S&P 500 has been coming down recently. That must mean its no longer a risk-on asset. Its increasing correlation with gold corroborates that, putting BTC back in the safe haven story.

But wait. Youll have heard that BTC has not had a good run over the past few days. Youll probably also have heard that Tesla has had a particularly bad time this week. I wonder if theyre correlated.

What do you know, it looks like BTCs correlation with TSLA is increasing! BTC is now more correlated to TSLA than to the S&P 500. That must mean that bitcoin is now being seen as a tech stock. No wait, its being seen as a proxy for market hype. No wait, I mean its being seen as a moon shot.

Obviously, Im kidding, but point Im trying to make is that short-term correlations can tell a good story, but theyre not that meaningful.

With a happy ending

Correlations are based on price movements, which, especially in these crazy times, do not always respond to common sense. Prices have, on the whole, become untethered from fundamental factors and are being pushed around by sentiment. Sentiment fuels momentum, which we often mistake for a trend; it also perpetuates the directionality of prices, which can exaggerate correlations.

Yet, sentiment can turn fast when investors are jittery, and theres plenty to be jittery about. The story changes again.

This grasping for data to back a story reveals our very human need to put bitcoin in context of things were already familiar with. If it goes into a certain mental box, its easier to understand and easier to make decisions about. Boxes are comfortable. Yet, in the long run, they are unsustainable.

In the short run, too: These markets are nuts, and boxes are being smashed all over the place. Bitcoin, which never did belong in any box that we know, is hopping from one story to another, as told by correlation metrics.

I like a good chart as much as anyone, probably even more so (after all, I am an analyst), and I plan to continue to watch the numbers stories with interest. But rather than use return relationships as a narrative crutch, Ill be keeping an eye on what they say about what investors are looking for.

For short-term market movements, what we think bitcoins narrative is doesnt matter as much as what other peoplethink bitcoins narrative is. Other people move the market, so we should know what asset framework theyre using. The correlation stories are useful for that.

For long-term market movements, correlations matter more for portfolio diversification than for anything else. In the not-too-distant future, markets will hopefully be less confusing and even short-term covariance and other relationships might be steadier, and easier to use for planning purposes. By then, even bitcoins correlations might start to matter less for the story and more for the allocation calculations.

By then, we will hopefully no longer need to put bitcoin in a pre-conceived box. It will have found its own narrative, understandable by all.

Drawing lines

Investor activism comes to crypto. Technically its not the first time, but as far as I know its the first initiated by an institutional investor, which pushes it into a more public arena with potentially far-reaching consequences.

California-based hedge fund manager Arca is stepping up its campaign to overhaul decentralized exchange and prediction market platform Gnosis, which raised $12.5 million in a 2017 initial coin offering (ICO). Arcas complaint is that the project has seen its initial ICO proceeds and therefore its balance sheet multiply simply due to the increase in the price of ETH, and yet has not produced anyproducts that accrue value to the token holders.

Arca insists Gnosis should at least trade at the net asset value of its treasury, which is at current prices $139 per GNO (the platforms token, which at time of writing has a market price of $67), and that the mispricing is due to poor decisions on the part of management.The investor has suggested to management that it use the bulk of its treasury to make a tender offer for all outstanding GNOs. This would value each token at approximately $90, providing a decent return for early investors. Since the report of Arcas proposal came out last week, GNO has increased 34% in price (at time of writing), while bitcoin has fallen 4% overthe same period.

The interesting part is not the potential flip for investors as they crowd out the upside. Whats important about this is how it changes the conversation around token investments, on so many levels.

First, it will unleash a healthy discussion around responsibility. Token sales, especially those issued in the heyday of 2017, are lightly regulated if at all, with no clearly defined lines of obligations. This discussion could professionalize the field and encourage other institutional investors to take an interest.

Second, it could refine the definition of token. Is it like a venture investment, where investors are expected to help their portfolio companies in exchange for greater potential returns? Yet venture investments arent liquid, and tokens to some extent are. So, is it more like equity, in which case, do token holders have stakeholder rights? ArcaCIO Jeff Dorman believes his firms holdingis like an interest-free loan, which comes with the expectation that lenders are kept informed of the borrowers progress and plans for the proceeds.And, third, it could influence investment strategies. Weve seen the price of GNO jump over the past few days, presumably in the expectation that management will listen to Arcas demands. Will we see activists intentionally accumulate tokens in order to influence a companys direction?

Finally, this could trigger some governance innovations. Apart from investors collectively insisting on more transparency and accountability, we could start to see some protocol or algorithm adjustments. What could investor activism look like on staking networks, where the amount of tokens you hold programmatically determines the say you have in certain governance issues? What if an investor wants to leverage that position to influence more than the protocol had contemplated? How can a project protect itself against predator stakes?

Given the scope of the problem and what it means for the evolution of token issuance as a fund-raising mechanism and as a value proposition, this situation is worth keeping an eye on. Arcas initiative will most likely end up being about much more than a fair return on an investment.

Anyone know what's going on yet?

As the relentless growth in COVID-19 cases around the world shines greater focus on the bumpy road to a vaccine, uncertainty in the timing of an economic recovery seems to be spilling over into stock market valuations. The S&P and Nasdaq look on track to have their second week of declines, for the first time since March.

Amidst the growing uncertainty, BTC also had a down week, significantly underperforming gold and equities and giving a boost to its 30-day volatility.

While it may feel like stock market volatility is back with a vengeance, the VIX is still well below its June level, and about where it was in December 2018. In other words, this isnt too unusual.

Both the latest U.S. unemployment and consumer price indexfigures came in slightly higher than expected, adding to the overall unease. As renowned investor Stanley Druckenmiller re-ignited the heated debate between those that expect inflation and those that expect deflation, expect greater focus on bitcoins narrative as an inflation hedge.

CHAIN LINKS

My colleague Nathan DiCamillo shows how we can follow the initial public offering of INX, the first registered offering of security tokens in the U.S., and gives more insight into how the issuance will work. TAKEAWAY: This is an eye-opening peek at the transparency of a security token offering, vs. a normal security offering. You can actually watch the securities move, in real time. That, plus the innovative business model behind them, and the evolution of capital markets they represent, andthe fact that its the first token sale to register for retail distribution with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, make this issuance worth following.

Another issuance worth watching is that of Diginex, the Hong Kong-based company behind the newly launched EQUOS.io crypto exchange. This week it announced that it has raised $20 million from four family offices and a hedge fund, ahead of an anticipated Nasdaq listing later this month via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). TAKEAWAY: This will be the first crypto exchange to publicly list in the U.S., as well as an indication of public interest in crypto market infrastructure. For investors, its a listed play on the growth of the ecosystem. For analysts, its a welcome peek at the accounts of a market infrastructure participant, which could be even more interesting as rumors of a Coinbase listing continue to circulate.

Options market data shows an upward trend over the past couple of months in the traded volume of ether (ETH) puts vs. calls, which hints at a growing fear of a price drop. TAKEAWAY: The bitcoin (BTC) put-call ratio is flat over the same period, which implies that the hedging is specific to ETH. This could indicate greater concern about the fragility of the recent inflows into some decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, and the potential impact on the networks congestion and token price.

The recent growth in bitcoin accumulation addresses, or addresses with at least two incoming bitcoin transfers in the last seven years and no spends, could indicate growing support for bitcoin in spite of lackluster price performance. TAKEAWAY: That we can even extract this metric is an example of the unique data sets available to crypto asset investors. Imagine having this level of information with traditional assets.

More than 30% of new customers at bitFlyer, one of the leading Japanese crypto exchanges, are in their 20s, according to a recent survey. TAKEAWAY: Its not news that millennials are interested in crypto assets. Last year investment management firm Charles Schwab revealed in a quarterly report that bitcoin was the fifth most popular investment among its millennial customers. A JPMorgan report issued last month also flagged millennials penchant for bitcoin over gold.

Investment management firm Wave Financial has received its first round of investment from clients for the Wave Kentucky Whiskey 2020 Digital Fund, which it plans to tokenize in a year or two. TAKEAWAY: I include this as an example of how interesting the tokenized security field will soon get. It should be clarified that holding a fund token does not give you access to the whiskey. It does allow you to share in the profits when the whiskey is eventually sold to wholesalers. Yes, this could be achieved without tokenization. And it remains to be seen how comfortable investors will be with this concept. The investment so far is still relatively small, but will be worth watching.

Podcast episodes worth listening to:

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How Bitcoin Correlations Drive the Narrative - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Bitcoin hardware devices need to improve to handle complex transactions – Cointelegraph

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Jameson Lopp, co-founder and CTO of Casa, a crypto custody firm has released a test result report on Bitcoin multi-signature hardware signing performance on the Casa blog on Sep. 13.

The result shows that hardware crypto wallet devices can handle small, simple transactions well. However, they have trouble performing once the transaction becomes complicated. Casa is said to be built upon geographically distributed multisig, dedicated hardware devices to secure keys, designed user experience, and client services.

Lopp pointed out that while the company has no control over the hardware devices, the goal is to support any device at the end of the day. Thus, he decided to conduct research and hoped to draw some conclusions and help multisig software providers better understand the limits of hardware and customize wallet software for better performance.

Casa is currently compatible with six hardware including Trezor, Ledger, Coinkite and Coldcard The test was done on all the supported hardware devices and also BitBox.

Lopp set up the test by leveraging Electrum's 4.0.2 appimage on Debian Linux and created a variety of P2WSH (native segwit) multisig wallets that use Bitcoins testnet and with the hardware devices plugged in via USB. In each wallet, there was a deposit of 100 UTXOs.

Lopp created a series of tests to determine these hardware wallet capabilities when signing multi-signature transactions of varying complexity. He repeated these tests and concluded that its better and more secure if hardware devices can show progress indicators for loading and signing. He added that:

I came to really dislike hardware devices that don't show progress indicators for loading and signing. As such, I highly prefer Coldcard and Trezor in this respect. BitBox and Ledger are anxiety-inducing because you have no idea if anything is actually happening.

When it comes to overcoming transaction size limitation and delay of transaction processing time, Lopp suggested that hardware wallets could try to break up a send into multiple smaller transactions that are below its limits.

When the transaction process takes too long, some devices will lock itself from inactivity. Lopp suggests that the least device manufacturers could do to avoid such inconvenience is to disable the screen lock timeout while the device is still working on the transaction.

According to Lopp, hardware devices should also support Partially signed Bitcoin transactions (PSBT) and all possible valid multisig transactions. He added that:

I believe it's time for hardware manufacturers to start acting like platform providers and ensure that they are providing robust platforms that can be used to build a wide variety of solutions.

There are two steps for hardware devices to follow when signing a Bitcoin transaction, according to Lopp:

First, The transaction gets loaded onto the device, it parses the details and displays them on the screen for user confirmation. These details are generally the address(es) to which funds are being sent, the amount(s) being sent, and the fee being paid. Then, Upon user confirmation, the device signs each transaction input and then returns the signed transaction to the wallet software.

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First Mover: Bitcoin Investors the Sane Ones as Federal Reserve Cheers Inflation, Price Nears $11K – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

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One of the interesting things about cryptocurrency investors is they really dolook at the world very differently from many of their counterparts in traditional finance.

The thinking goes something like this: The efforts of governments and central banks to repair the economy are doomed to fail, and likely to make the situation worse. There is no point in moving to a defensive investment strategy because prices for digital assets are going to the moon. Every time the stock market goes up, it just validates the reality that the dollar is being debased by trillions of dollars of central bank money printing.

The latest turn-logic-on-its-head zinger came Monday from Dan Morehead, a former Wall Street trader and hedge fund executive who now heads the cryptocurrency-focused investment firm Pantera Capital in the San Francisco area.

In amonthly letter, Morehead was discussing how central banks typically succeed when they pointedly attempt to increase inflation, as the Federal Reserve is now pursuing as an official policy. Hecited Venezuela and Zimbabwe as twoprior success stories, as it were.

Morehead then pivoted to the argument that asset prices are not rising because stock fundamentals have improved, but because a huge wave of money is being printed.

Gold is at a 5,000-year high, Morehead wrote. Or, said another way, paper money is at an all-time low.

Its that counterintuitive,put another way perspective that can sometimes seem refreshing, partly because the crypto investorkeeps getting proven right. Audiences on both Wall Street and in broader society are now becoming more receptive to the idea that thetraditional financial system and economy arebothunsustainable and unfair.

The Federal Reserves top monetary officialsmeet this week to discuss their next steps for healing the U.S. economy, which at this point appears to consist of doingnothing for the next several yearsuntil inflation rises above the central banks historic 2% targetand stays above that level for a while.

Asreported byFirst Mover Monday, its possible the Feds next move would come if the stock market takes a fresh dive, prompting the central bank to step in and pump more money into the economy to keep markets functioning smoothly.

Jeff Dorman, another former Wall Street veteran whos now chief investment officer of the cryptocurrency-focused investment Arca Funds in Los Angeles, wrote Monday in hisweekly columnthat Congress, which has been gridlocked over a newcoronavirus-related stimulus package, might alsobe prone to a similar do-nothing-until-you-have-to dynamic.

He has written in the past that it would likely take an equity temper tantrum before Congress acts, and he wrote this week, Methinks Congress will be acting soon.

Moral hazard never left, but its definitely back, according to Dorman.

What tips the scalestoward the crypto investors being the sane ones and not the other way around is that market signalsare currently validating the crypto investment thesis.

Bill Gross, the legendary former Pimco bond fund manager, is encouraging investors to get defensive because there is little money to be made almost anywhere in the world,CNBC reported Monday.

Tell that toMorehead of Pantera, whose Digital Asset Fund has returned 168% so far this year, according to the letter.

Morehead said bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are winning because they have a relatively fixed supply, similar to gold, and improved usage/fundamentals, similar to tech stockslike Amazon and Netflix.

Just compare the following chart of year-to-date asset-class performance from Pantera:

To this one fromGoldman Sachs (off by a few days so the percentages are a touch different):

One includes crypto, and goes up to 244%; the other doesnt include crypto, and it goes up to 29%. So far this year, based on the track record so far anyway, it turns out thesmart money was in crypto.

Bitcoin Watch

Bitcoin looks north, having breached a 10-day-long sideways trend with a move above $10,500 on Monday.

Bullish developments on key technical indicators back the range breakout. For instance, the 14-day relative strength index has violated a descending trendline, signaling an end of the price pullback from the August high of $12,476.

Further, the MACD histogram, an indicator used to gauge trend strength and trend changes, has crossed above zero, indicating a bullish reversal.

As such, resistance levels at $11,000 and $11,200 could soon come into play. That said, the cryptocurrency remains vulnerable to a potential sell-off in equity markets, according to analysts.

Previous sell-offs have been exacerbated by risk-off momentum in stocks, particularly the tech-heavy Nasdaq index, Matthew Dibb, co-founder and COO of Stack Fund, told CoinDesk in a WhatsApp chat. We remain cautiously bullish this week.

Token Watch

BZx (BZRX):DeFi lending projectrecovers $8M of cryptocurrencyfrom attacker who exploited code bug.

Aave (LEND), Yearn.Finance (YFI), Compound (COMP), Synthetix (SNX), MakerDAO (MKR), REN (REN), Kyber Network (KNC), Loopring (LRC), Balancer (BAL), Augur (REP):New 10-token DeFi Pulse Index provides way for traders to get exposure to DeFi without having to go and buy every token individually.

Tether (USDT), Tron (TRX), Ethereum (ETH):Tether moves 1B of its dollar-linked USDT stablecoins toEthereum blockchain from Tron.

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First Mover: Bitcoin Investors the Sane Ones as Federal Reserve Cheers Inflation, Price Nears $11K - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Why We Get Obsessed With Bitcoin – Decrypt

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Youve probably seen the comic posted in one of the many online crypto communities; an adaptation of a popular Reddit meme. A jolly little character offers up two games, one adventurous, the other challenging.

His friend asks about a third option.

When you play that game, the first little guy replies, days will blur together. Regular meals are a thing of the past. Friends will become concerned. And the whole time youll be unsure if youre even having fun.

That third game is, of course, Bitcoin.

That comic is familiar to those of us in the crypto industry. From traders staying up until the early hours, to crypto journalists working day and night to cover the fast-growing space, we all relate to it and thats why it makes us laugh.

But what is it about Bitcoin that initially grabs us and sends us down the rabbit hole? Why do these lines of code reach out of the computer screen, grab our imaginations and pull us in?

During four interviews, with diehard Bitcoiners, Decrypt identified some common traits: a dislike for authority, with a political stance that leans towards libertarianism. But while they revel in Bitcoins attributes as a hedge against inflation, or its security, it wasnt those factors that initially drew them in. Rather, it was the moment they first used Bitcoin or were able to visualise it, that flicked a subliminal switch. So, while the current narratives are important, what gets us obsessed with Bitcoin is something a little more intimate.

On a day in September 2015, David Bennett, senior administrator at the Texas Tech University, felt confined.

He was at work in his cubicle, lit by a lamp instead of the overhead fluorescent lights that were never turned on. The office was so buried in the middle of the gray, chunky concrete building that was the universitys library, he couldnt even hear it when it rainedan event that, in the southern end of the High Plains desert landscape, would typically bring everyone running to the windows.

Bennett looked at his monitor. He was just about to send 0.2 Bitcoin, worth $80, from his Coinbase account to Jack Spirko of the Survival Podcast, so he could become a member. He had heard about Bitcoin online a few years ago, but it was only from listening to these podcasts that he was starting to learn more. He popped in Spirkos address and hit send.

It quickly dawned on him that there were so many things he hadnt done. He hadnt put in his bank account details, his home address, his telephone number. He hadnt authorised someone to take payments from his account. There would be no phoning the bank up to complain that further scam payments had been taken from his account. That was it, done.

He felt liberated.

That started the whole trip down the rabbit hole, he told Decrypt. I sat back. I didnt say anything then, but later told my co-workers about Bitcoin.

Bennett soon became a regular listener of Bitcoin educator Andreas Antonopoulos as well as Trace Mayers weekly Bitcoin Knowledge podcast. Finding himself ill-content with just one podcast episode every week, he set up his own called Bitcoin and where he discusses news on a daily basis.

To this day, he continues to maintain that Bitcoin is a weapon, but, in the words of Parallax Digital CEO Robert Breedlove, one for peace.

It was a cold day in late October, 2019, when Phil Gibson, a software salesman, drove home for his lunch hour. His friend had convinced him to buy a range of altcoins, such as the Brave browsers Basic Attention Token and business-focused Syscoin, on crypto exchange Binance. Only the friend had warned him to get a VPN first.

Standing at the kitchen table with his laptop out, Gibson tried paying for NordVPN. But his debit card refused to work, flagging an error message. He tried his credit card. Still no dice. He got on the phone to his bank, to find out what was going on. While he was waiting on hold, it dawned on him that it was probably to do with what he was buying. The customer service assistant came back on and confirmed his suspicions.

Gibson was angry that the bank was banning him from spending his money how he wanted. He ignored the idea of calling his local branch and looked for another way. He noticed the VPN provider accepted Bitcoin, so he took out CashApp, bought Bitcoin and paid for the VPN directly.

Once I saw that it worked, it was just amazing, he said. Bitcoin is FU moneyits a hell of a drug.

While he had heard about Bitcoin in 2017 during its epic run to $20,000, this was the moment he truly understood its value. It slotted straight into his libertarian-leaning beliefs and he started binging Bitcoin information, such as the Bitcoin audible podcast by Guy Swann.

But there was one thing about Bitcoin thatunlike the fiat money he had in his bank accountreally resonated with him.

Its mine, he said. Even if I sound like Gollum.

Economics student Marty Bent was sitting alone in the library of DePaul University in Chicago, one evening in the summer of 2012. Outside of his evening classes, he had spent the day working at a managed futures fund where he wrote almost exclusively about central banks and monetary policy. With his anti-authority bent, it was clear to him that governments were getting it all wrong.

I was pretty glued to what the central banks were doing for three to four years. In the depths of QE2, QE3, Operation Twist, I quickly learned the central banks didnt really have any idea of what they were doing, he said, referring to examples of quantitative easing and bond buying by the Federal Reserve.

In that moment, he wasnt studying for his economics lessons the next evening, nor was he preparing for the next days commentary at his day job. Instead, he was on BitcoinTalk, poring over everything there was to know about Bitcoin.

Bent said, I was reading up on Bitcoin and getting a better understanding of the technology and the monetary policies behind itand it sort of clicked.

Bent soon started making Twitter lists of prominent Bitcoiners to keep track of what was going on. In the winter of 2013, he used his bonus check to buy his first Bitcoin for $800. Soon after that, it shot up to $1,200 and, driven by the feeling of euphoria, he was suddenly telling his coworkers all about it.

Bent now writes a daily newsletter called Marty's ent and is host of the Tales from the Crypt podcast. Both of which are focused, as you might expect, on Bitcoin.

In early 2017, Robert Breedlove was in his home office in Las Vegas, reading a paper on his iMac. Breedlove was a libertarian who had long wondered about moneywhat it was, and why governments had a monopoly on it. He had read a book called The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve, and one Christmas, he had even handed out copies of an abridged versioncalled Dishonest Moneyto his family.

So, its unsurprising that, at that very moment, he was reading Nick Szabos explanation of smart contracts, a technology for coding agreements between two parties. Breedlove had known about Bitcoin for several years but it was at this moment, when he finally got what it was for.

When i read Nick Szabos work on smart contractswhich was actually written in the late 90sthat was when I had my lightbulb moment, he said. Oh my gosh, this whole finance industry is basically this intermediate function that could be disrupted by smart contracts.

It was Szabos example of a vending machine that struck him. A canonical real-life example, which we might consider to be the primitive ancestor of smart contracts, is the humble vending machine, Szabo wrote.

At that moment, Breedlove could visualize how Bitcoin or Ethereum could play the part of the vending machine, removing the need for the legacy finance industrywhile rivalling state-backed fiat currencies. Thats when I realised that the tech was really going to be a big deal, he said.

He soon came to believe that it was Bitcoin that had the strongest foundation to disrupt the concept of money. After reading The Bitcoin Standard, by Saifedean Ammous, he devoured books by economists Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard and Friedrich Hayek. He went on to become the CEO of Parallax Digital, which invests in Bitcoin-focused products, and has written a 62-tweet-long thread that sheds light on Bitcoin in an exoteric nutshell.

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Why We Get Obsessed With Bitcoin - Decrypt

Bank of England talks negative interest rates in best ad for Bitcoin – Cointelegraph

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Bitcoin (BTC) is getting its best advertisement once more as another major central bank floats the idea of charging people to save their money.

As Bloomberg reported quoting minutes of a meeting held Thursday, the Bank of England (BoE) has become the latest central bank to discuss negative interest rates.

According to the results of the meeting, the BoE will enter discussions with banking regulators over negative rates, which effectively mean lending institutions, and, hence, savers must pay to store cash.

The reason is the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on the economy, along with the looming prospect of Brexit, deal or no deal.

The bank is leaving all options on the table, due to elevated uncertainty, one analyst told the publication in light of the news.

The pound slid against major currencies Thursday, as policymakers further confirmed that they had voted to keep interest rates at 0.1% for the time being.

Bank of England balance sheet chart (GBP). Source: TradingEconomics/ Bank of England

Bitcoin proponents immediately seized on the BoEs troubles, arguing that such a policy simply undermined both fiat currencys reputation and its own position.

Wow, the Bank of England discussing negative interest rates. If they adopt this, they would be paying you to borrow, Tyler Winklevoss wrote on Twitter.

You couldnt buy a better advertisement for Bitcoin but u can take their money and go long bitcoin.

Veteran trader Tone Vays had similar thoughts.

I don't think any Bank would pay you to borrow but they will charge you to store/save your money at the Bank, what more can a Bitcoin Hodler as for! he said, responding to Winklevoss.

Thanks Bank of England, you will help drive $BTC adoption.

Others took aim at the interim interest rate decision.

One of the most important prices in our society is determined by vote, Christopher Bendiksen, head of research at digital asset investment strategist Coinshares, tweeted.

You read that right. In 2020, 8 middle-aged men and one woman literally come together several times a year to determine the price of credit. This will seem unbelievably archaic to our descendants.

As Cointelegraph reported, the BoE is particularly infamous in Bitcoin circles, the United Kingdom government bailing out the banking sector en masse on the eve of Bitcoins birth in 2009. An article from the national newspaper, The Times, was even included in the Bitcoin genesis block.

More recently, central banks reactions to coronavirus have fuelled the idea that Bitcoin will increasingly function as a hedge against fiat.

This week, the United States Federal Reserve fielded queries about its plans to overshoot inflation targets, a process that would weaken the U.S. dollar and provide a likely further boost to safe havens such as gold and Bitcoin.

For its part, the BoE had said that negative interest rates would be damaging to the U.K. economy as recently as last month.

The European Central Bank, or ECB, has administered negative rates since 2016, but such a move would be a historical first for the U.K.

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Bank of England talks negative interest rates in best ad for Bitcoin - Cointelegraph

Tevoro.com Announces New Book Revealing What’s Missing from Bitcoin, Ethereum and Other Cryptocurrencies – PRNewswire

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --In Redefining the Future of the Economy: Governance Blocks and EconomicArchitecturethe authorsreveal what the first generations ofblockchainare missing. Norman Augustine, distinguished engineer and former Lockheed Martin CEO, states:"Your book is fascinating the way it moves from economics to governance to mathematics to philosophy to poetry."

Futurist George Gilder, author of Life After Google: the Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy, Wealth and Poverty, Microcosm, Telecosm, Life After Television, and the Silicon Eye, writes: "[Redefining the Future of the Economy] is a just-in-time blockbusting chain-reactive manifesto for a revolutionary second generation of blockchain for finance. If you are involved with the Cryptocosm, or with finance, or with artificial intelligence, you have to read it. . Talbot, a super savvy investment strategist, and Benko, a paladin of money theory, actually know why the movement is bogging down and how to fix it."

They prescribe the missing ingredients: Layering consensus algorithms for the creation of sophisticated financial systems and using combinatorial mathematics to provide an organizational structure bringing order to the autonomous chaos of AI, providing accountability and regulatory compliance.

Dawn Talbotis a Wall Street veteraninstitutional research analyst, corporate finance professional, and portfolio manager. Ralph Benko is a Washington insider, aReagan White House deputy general counsel and former senior counselor to the blockchain sector's trade association.The book is available from Amazon and we offer complimentary review copies to journalists and thought leaders. The authors are available for interviews to discuss their breakthrough findings.

Contact: Ralph Benko [emailprotected] 202.800.6550

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Tevoro.com Announces New Book Revealing What's Missing from Bitcoin, Ethereum and Other Cryptocurrencies - PRNewswire