NexChangeNOW Briefing – Monday July 06, 2020

What Moved Global Markets
Coronavirus update:
– Global cases: More than 11.42 million
– Global deaths: At least 533,800

  1. Coronavirus cases exceeded 11 million globally.
  2. Hundreds of scientists say there is evidence that novel coronavirus in smaller particles in the air can infect people and are calling for the World Health Organization to revise recommendations, the New York Times reported on Saturday. The WHO has said the coronavirus disease spreads primarily from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth, which are expelled when a person with COVID-19 coughs, sneezes or speaks.
  3. In the US, Florida and Texas, two states that have emerged as the latest hot spots of the coronavirus outbreak, both reported record daily increases in confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday, after the 4th of July celebrations.
  4. Fresh US sanctions have cut off access to vital American technology for Huawei – to a greater extent than ever before. Countries and mobile network operators around the world are now questioning whether Huawei will be able to deliver on its 5G promises
  5. Huawei has clear conditions to meet for Britain to continue to allow its involvement in the development of 5G telecoms infrastructure, Britain’s health minister said on Sunday, after a report that the firm would be banned from the project. Officials are drawing up proposals to stop installing Huawei Technologies equipment in as little as six months, the Sunday Telegraph reported, in a reversal of a decision earlier this year. The head of the French cybersecurity agency ANSSI said there would not be a total ban on using equipment from Huawei in the rollout of the French 5G telecoms network, but that it was pushing French telcos to avoid switching to the Chinese company.

Crypto Prices (from CoinMarketCap)
Bitcoin: Down 0.20% to $9,087.70
Total trading volume (24h): $13.21+ billion USD

Ethereum: Up 0.14% to $228.02
Total trading volume (24h): $5.42 billion USD

3 biggest movers 24 hours
Biggest Mover 1: BitCash (BITC) is up 201.56% to $0.071926
Biggest Mover 2: UniDollar (UNIUSD) is up 101.17% to $0.000406
Biggest Loser: Acash Coin (ACA) is down 60.78% to $0.078904

What Moved Crypto Markets (i.e. digital assets)

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  1. Binance has confirmed a partnership with Swipe for its debit card launch in a now-deleted webpage. The Block reported earlier this week that Binance is launching its card with Swipe. The cached version of the webpage says Binance Card would enable “real time” conversion of crypto to fiat currency to use at merchants globally.
  2. Decentralized exchanges saw their busiest month ever in terms of trade volume, according to new market data. The raw figures, collected from Dune Analytics, show that DEXs posted a monthly volume of $1.51 billion for June. This represents a month-over-month increase of 70%.
  3. The one-month bitcoin-S&P 500 realized correlation rose to a record high of 66.2% on June 30 and stood at 65.8% on Thursday, according to crypto derivatives research firm Skew, which began tracking the data in April 2018.
  4. Bitcoin mining revenue dropped 23% in June to approximately $380 million.

Other Specialties
Fintech: Brazil’s central bank president said on Thursday last week that Facebook Inc messaging service WhatsApp would be allowed to launch its new payments service in the country, but called for proof it can operate safely in terms of data protection in a competitive market.

Healthtech: Health benefits platform Accolade made its initial public offering Thursday morning, pricing its stock at $22/share, above the expected range of $19 to $21, and raising $220 million at a valuation of $1.2 billion in its debut on the Nasdaq stock market. The company’s shares climbed in early trading, rising more than 40% to $30.90/share as of 10:30 a.m. Pacific time.

Smart Cities: Tesla blows past Toyota to become the most valuable automaker in the world. In 10 years, Tesla has gone from public market newbie to the most valuable automaker in the world by market value. The electric automaker had long since passed the valuations of Ford and GM, and in January became the most valuable U.S. automaker ever when its market cap hit $81.39 billion. Still, a few automakers remained ahead of Tesla. Until today. Tesla shares popped Wednesday after the market opened, rising nearly 4% to $1,129.18 — hitting a new 52-week high. The company’s market capitalization now stands at nearly $208 billion, surpassing Toyota to become the world’s most valuable automaker by market value. Toyota’s market cap is $202.74 billion.

AI: Sushi meets AI: Japanese inventor’s app scopes out choice tuna cuts. Shimura, a director at advertising firm Dentsu Group’s Future Creative Center, came up with the concept for “Tuna Scope” AI as he chewed his raw dish while watching a television show on fish merchants who spend a decade mastering the skill of selecting high-quality tuna for sushi restaurants. Using a deep learning algorithm to crunch through grading data from merchants, Tuna Scopean AI-based system that judges the quality of natural tuna using cross-sectional images of their tails, has now evolved into a smartphone app.