Your daily snapshot from our OnChainFX markets dashboard.

Does adding Bitcoin to a portfolio improve performance? There is no telling what will happen in the future but our historical models show that a small allocation would have made a lot of difference over the past five years.

Get more insights like this in our daily research briefs. When you subscribe now you also get access to our new Messari Pro, private Telegram group, and bi-weekly conference calls.

Community updates:

Over the last few weeks our community analysts have been hard at work building out the “Investopedia” of crypto. More than 80 pages have been completed with many with additional boards to take your learning to the next level.

Check out some of this weeks top pages like Burn and Mint Equilibrium and Decentralized Exchanges.

We have big things in store for our analysts, and are excited for what’s to come! If you’re interested in joining email jack@messari.io with some examples of work you’ve written.

Registry updates:

Across projects on the Messari Registry there were a few significant updates this week. Check them out on our weekly updates board and remember to create and share your own boards for a chance to be featured in Monday’s newsletter.

Upcoming events:

• Ryan will be leading a panel on Market Infrastructure and Data Transparency on September 17, 2019 at the second installment of The Path Forward for Digital Assets in NYC. Check out the event here.

• Ryan and Ben will be in Berlin for Web3 Summit and ETHBerlin. Make sure you catch Ryan speaking at Web3 on Tuesday and at ETHBerlin on Thursday.

• Jack will be at the CoinAlts Fund Symposium in Chicago on September 26. If you will be at the event let us know on Twitter.

Now, onto our weekend reads.

Messari’s weekend reads:

• Ampleforth + Compound is an entirely new instrument - Brandon Iles

• The Lightning Network - BitMEX Research

• The Lightning Network (Part 2) – Routing Fee Economics - BitMEX Research

• Lightning Network (Part 3) – Where Is The Justice? - BitMEX Research

• Lightning Network (Part 4) – All Adopt The Watchtower - BitMEX Research

• Blockchain based gaming - Wave Financial

• Vision Hill crypto hedge fund returns: Second quarter 2019 - Vision Hill

Have a good weekend y’all.

- The Messari Team

P.S. Share. Subscribe. Tweet at Messari for feedback, comments, or questions.

Messari Compression Algorithm

Content and thoughts from around the web as summarized by the Messari team.

Quick Bits (Don't read that, I read it for you)

Choke Points (Exchange News)

• ⛰ Coinbase has officially acquired the custody business of Xapo for $55 million and as a result now has over $7 billion in assets under management according to a source that spoke to Fortune. According to Xapo CEO Wences Casares the sale will allow Xapo to focus on its core business, a retail exchange for buying and selling bitcoin ($BTC). (share or read more)

• 🇺🇸 Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has revealed that its U.S. division will launch within the next two months and initially exclude users in New York. Zhao, better known as CZ, spoke about the importance of the U.S. market and being compliant with regulations during an interview with Cheddar. Binance is reportedly considering 30 assets for listing on the new exchange, which will be launched in partnership with BAM Trading Services. (share or read more)

Startup Signals (ICOs, Cryptos, and Startups)

• 🏷 Zcoin ($XZC) announced that it can now be used nationwide in Thailand at any of the five million merchants who registered to accept the privacy-focused currency through the Satang App. This application will allow any of the 50 million individuals that are already registered with a Promptpay account to use Zcoin by simply scanning a QR code. Transactions are instantly settled and allow merchants to be paid in Thai Baht. (share or read more)

• 💳 Monolith, an Ethereum-based alternative banking platform, is issuing a new Visa debit card, which allows users to spend Dai stablecoin anywhere in the world at stores that accept Visa payments. On Thursday, Monolith announced the news, saying that it has partnered with MakerDAO, for the initiative. The debit card is currently issued only in Europe. (share or read more)

• 💰 Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said that the exchange’s custody unit has been receiving $200-400 million per week in new cryptocurrency deposits from institutional customers. The CEO made the comments on Twitter on Friday, hours after Coinbase confirmed its acquisition of rival Xapo’s institutional custody business for $55 million. (share or read more)

• 🌕 Hxro, a crypto-gaming startup that built the popular MoonRekt trading game, announced that players will be able to spend bitcoin to play the game. The game originally allowed users to only play using the game's native $HXRO token. (share or read more)
  

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