<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters/Christinne Muschi</span></p><p class="caption">A worker checks the fans on miners, at the cryptocurrency farming operation, Bitfarms, in Farnham, Quebec, Canada.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Here is what you need to know. </p><p><strong><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/government-shutdown-2018-budget-deal-in-sight-2018-2?r=UK&amp;IR=T">Congress just reached the mother of all budget deals of the Trump era</a>. </strong>The bipartisan deal, announced by Senate leaders on Wednesday, is expected to increase defense and domestic spending by just under $300 billion over two years, as well as provide billions of additional dollars in disaster-relief funding. It still must be passed by Congress. </p><p><strong><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-selloff-biggest-reasons-not-rates-inflation-2018-2">One of the biggest narratives behind why the stock market just went haywire is wrong</a>. </strong>The idea that this was a rate-induced sell-off is incorrect, because "we would have seen the interest rate-sensitive sectors underperform broader equity indices severely, which was not the case," Pavilion Global Markets wrote. </p><p><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-chinese-yuan-has-taken-a-tumble-2018-2">The Chinese yuan hits its weakest level 2.5 years</a>. </strong>The People's Bank of China set its midpoint versus the US dollar at 6.2822, the weakest for the yuan since August 2015.</p><p><strong><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-ethereum-ripple-cryptocurrency-prices-february-8-2018-2?r=UK&amp;IR=T">Cryptocurrencies are rising despite the World Bank president calling them a Ponzi scheme</a>. </strong>Bitcoin, Ethereum, and bitcoin cash are all up at least 11% despite World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim comparing them to Ponzi schemes.</p><p><strong><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-earnings-q4-2017-2018-2">Tesla reports a smaller than expected loss, slows cash burn</a>. </strong>The electric-car maker lost $3.04, topping expectations, and said it burned through <span>$276.8 million of cash, down from a record $1.42 billion cash burn in the previous quarter.</span></p><p><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/snap-stock-price-may-have-hit-an-inflection-point-2018-2">Snap skyrockets 45% after earnings</a>. </strong>"<span>This is what happens to a stock when sentiment is overwhelmingly negative, expectations are super low, and the company shows what seems to be an inflection point," RBC Capital Markets' Mark Mahaney told Business Insider.</span></p><p><strong><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/samsungs-chairman-tax-evasion-2018-2">Samsung's chairman is suspected of evading taxes</a>. </strong>South Korean police allege Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee <span>used bank accounts held in someone else's name that held about 400 billion won ($368 million), Reuters says, citing Yonhap News. </span></p><p><strong><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/indices">Stock markets around the world trade mixed</a>. </strong>Japan's Nikkei (+1.13%) lead the gains in Asia and Britain's FTSE (-0.84%) trails in Europe. The S&amp;P 500 is set to open lower by 0.62% near 2,665.</p><p><strong><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/earnings-calendar">Earnings reporting remains heavy</a>.</strong> CVS Health, Twitter, and Yum Brands report ahead of the opening bell while Nvidia releases its quarterly results after markets close.</p><p><strong><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/economic-calendar#date=02/08/2018&amp;name=&amp;countries=us&amp;eventtypes=&amp;tab=1,2,3">US economic data trickles out</a>. </strong>Initial claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 2.83%.</p>

10 things you need to know before the opening bell

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters/Christinne Muschi</span></p><p class="caption">A worker checks the fans on miners, at the cryptocurrency farming operation, Bitfarms, in Farnham, Quebec, Canada.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>JPMorgan in a recent note outlined how bitcoin, since it is decentralized, would hit a speed bump if there were a shock to the economy. </strong></li><li><strong>Since bitcoin are released at a set rate, there's no way for the system to handle a liquidity crisis during such an event, the bank said. </strong></li></ul><p><br />A key component of bitcoin's design might be its achilles heel during a financial meltdown, according to JPMorgan. </p><p>In a big note on crypto and blockchain, the bank said bitcoin's decentralized network would not be able to address a liquidity shock. When such events have occurred in the US - most notably after the financial crisis - central bankers pumped extra cash into the economy to make up for a decline in lending and spending in the private sector. Since there's no central entity that controls the bitcoin network and the number of coins released each year is fixed at a certain rate, such a liquidity infusion would be close to impossible. Here's the bank:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"The ability to provide adequate liquidity is a hallmark of a well-functioning market, but more so during times of crisis. One benefit of fiat money (legal tender issued by a central bank), is that it can be used to provide emergency liquidity from the outside. This is the role central banks play as the lender-of-last resort."</p><p>Bitcoin evangelists, however, told Business Insider that JPMorgan's case rests on the assumption that printing money to shore up an economy is a good thing. </p><p>"This is a classic case of creating the problem you offer to solve, and exactly why bitcoin exists," said Aaron Lasher, the chief marketing officer at Breadwallet, a cryptocurrency tech company.</p><p>"Why do we have the need for "emergency liquidity" in the first place?"</p><p>Lasher says it all boils down to the fact that economies are based on fiat currency, which can be printed at the whim of central bankers. </p><p>"So banks have no incentives to manage liquidity risk precisely because the marginal cost of printing more dollars by the central banks is zero, providing a guaranteed backstop against sustaining losses incurred by excess risk taking," he said. </p><p>Arthur Hayes, the chief executive at BitMEX, a peer-to-peer crypto trading platform, said in an email to Business Insider that such policies ultimately translate into inflation in other financial assets.</p><p>"If money printing solved the ills of economic collapse, Weimer Germany, Zimbabwe, and most recently Venezuela would be the most productive and economically sound societies on earth," Hayes said.</p><p>"Money printing delays the inevitable," he added. "Without the ability to print base money at all, any institutional that extended credit would be evaluated by the market on its ability to responsibly originate loans."</p><p>Business Insider's Fed watcher Pedro da Costa said it's important to note the difference between failed states printing money "willy nilly" and developed countries such as the US implementing certain monetary policy. </p><p>"The US is not Venezuela," he said. "From a monetary standpoint, the US dollar is the reserve currency. Venezuela is exposed to currency risk, needs to sell oil in dollars. Apples and oranges."</p><p class="tagline"><div id="categorypromo" style="border:1px solid silver; min-height:90px; padding:10px;vertical-align:top;"><a href="http://read.bi/bitcoin-101-free"></a><strong>EXCLUSIVE FREE REPORT:</strong><br>The Bitcoin 101 Report by the BI Intelligence Research Team.<br><strong><a href="http://read.bi/bitcoin-101-free">Get the Report Now »</a></strong></br></br></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blockchain-explainer-and-potential-2018-1">Here's a great explanation of what the blockchain is from the person tasked with explaining it to the world</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

JPMORGAN: A key component of bitcoin's design might be its achilles heel during a financial meltdown

<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters/Christinne Muschi</span></p><p class="caption">A worker checks the fans on miners, at the cryptocurrency farming operation, Bitfarms, in Farnham, Quebec, Canada.</p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p><ul><li><strong>The city of Plattsburgh, New York is imposing an 18-month moratorium on commercial cryptocurrency mining.</strong></li><li><strong>Due to its low electricity costs, Plattsburgh is an attractive place to set up a commercial cryptocurrency mining operation, since it uses up a lot of electricity. </strong></li><li><strong>Commercial cryptocurrency mining has caused Plattsburgh to exceed its allotted monthly power budget, which forced the city to buy power on the open market for a higher cost. </strong></li><li><strong>The purchase of electricity from the open market has caused significantly higher electricity bills for Plattsburgh residents. </strong></li></ul><p> </p><p>The city of Plattsburgh, New York announced on Thursday that it is temporarily <a href="http://www.cityofplattsburgh.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=229">banning the commercial mining of cryptocurrency</a> for 18 months.</p><p>The official reasoning for the moratorium is to "protect and enhance the City's natural, historic, cultural and electrical resources."</p><p>Plattsburgh residents have seen skyrocketing electrical bills <span>- as much as $100 to $200 increases -</span> as a result of commercial cryptomining operations that mine for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, according to Plattsburgh Mayor Colin Read, who spoke with <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xk4qv/bitcoin-ban-plattsburgh-coinmint-mining">Motherboard.</a> The city is taking action to protect its citizens from those rising electrical bills that the city of Plattsburgh says is caused by cryptomining operations.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">A collection of Bitcoin (virtual currency) tokens are displayed in this picture illustration</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>It turns out that commercial cryptocurrency mining operations used up so much electricity that the city of Plattsburgh exceeded its allotted monthly budget of electricity. One single cryptocurrency mining operation called Coinmint used up around 10% of the city's allotted power supply alone in January and February, according to Motherboard.  </p><p>When its electrical budget was exceeded in January, the city had to buy electricity from the open market at a higher cost, which was distributed among its residents. </p><p>Mining for cryptocurrency involves powerful computer components that use a large amount of electricity in order to solve complex computational problems. The problems being solved are used to verify the transfer of cryptocurrencies independently of a central bank. Those components are usually dedicated cryptocurrency-mining components called "ASIC" cards. Some operations use graphics cards that are normally used to run high-resolution PC games. </p><p>Plattsburgh was a particularly attractive place to set up a large-scale commercial cryptocurrency mining operation due to its low electricity costs compared to the national average. The city charged 4.5 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) when the <a href="https://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/">national average is about 10 cents per kWh</a>. And industrial operations, which include cryptocurrency operations, paid even less at 2 cents per kWh for electricity. Plattsburgh obtains its electricity from a hydroelectric power dam on the St. Lawrence River. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Wikipedia/ceedub13</span></p><p class="caption">The Moses-Saunders Power Dam on the St. Lawrence River.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The city's moratorium isn't designed to remove cryptocurrency mining from Plattsburgh. During the 18-month moratorium, the city will work with residents and commercial cryptocurrency miners to come up with a solution, like applying overages on miners when the city's power budget is exceeded, according to Motherboard. </p><p>Local cryptocurrency miners who spoke with Motherboard say they're willing to work with the city to come up with a solution. </p><p>The city will issue a penalty of $1,000 per day of operation for any "firm, person, corporation, or other entity" that established or runs a commercial cryptocurrency mining operation when the moratorium goes into effect. The effective date of the moratorium has yet to be approved. </p><p class="tagline">Get the latest Bitcoin price <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/BTC-USD">here.&gt;&gt;</a><br><br><br><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/bitcoin-101?IR=T&amp;utm_source=businessinsider&amp;utm_medium=ctgr&amp;utm_term=ctgr_leadgen&amp;utm_content=fintech_ctgr_leadgen&amp;utm_campaign=fintech_ctgr_leadgen_bitcoin-101"></a></br></br></br></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-bluetooth-sucks-bad-problems-issues-disconnects-2018-2">Why does Bluetooth still suck?</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

For the first time, a US city has banned cryptocurrency mining

<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">A wall of miners seen at the cryptocurrency farming operation Bitfarms in Farnham, Quebec</p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p><ul><li><strong>The Chicago Stock Exchange hit a brick wall when the SEC denied its request to merge with a Chinese-based company. </strong></li><li><strong>A pivot to crypto might help revitalize the exchange, which commands a paltry 0.5% of the market, writes Richard Johnson, a vice president at Greenwich Associates. </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></li><li><strong>If a Chicago crypto exchange does come about, it would probably occur through an acquisition, Johnson writes in this op-ed. tZERO is one potential acquirer.</strong></li></ul><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On February 15, the SEC blocked the sale of the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX) to a China-based consortium, due to concerns over the proposed ownership structure. This is the latest blow to the storied exchange, which was founded in 1882 but has struggled to stay relevant in a space dominated by ICE, Nasdaq and Cboe Global Markets. Back in October, the SEC also put a halt on their plans to implement a speed bump that the CHX hoped would attract new business and boost their market share from a paltry 0.5%.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With both initiatives scuppered, many are wondering what's next for the exchange and whether it can continue to survive. At first glance, the prospects look bleak: There is no clear strategy to grow market share, and the incumbent domestic exchange operators are unlikely acquirers, as they already have multiple U.S. equity exchange licenses.</span></p><h2><strong>Transforming the CHX?</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But another angle or alternate type of listing could revitalize the exchange and leapfrog it ahead of the competition-the CHX should pivot toward being a cryptocurrency exchange.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">By this I don't (just) mean bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies, but rather the nascent market for "securities tokens" or "crypto-securities." These are assets issued on a blockchain that are fully compliant with U.S. securities regulations. These differ from the vast majority of ICOs, which purport to be "utility tokens," whereby the holder of the utility token can use it on the blockchain network-for example, to purchase file storage on a decentralized cloud network.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a recent </span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/regulators-are-looking-at-cryptocurrency-1516836363"><strong>op-ed</strong></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, SEC Commissioner Jay Clayton and CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo expressed concern that many companies launching initial coin offerings (ICOs) were actually selling securities and bypassing federal regulations designed to protect investors. Commissioner Clayton has </span><a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/testimony/testimony-virtual-currencies-oversight-role-us-securities-and-exchange-commission"><strong>gone on to say that every ICO</strong></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> he has seen is, in fact, a security and that "platforms that effect or facilitate transactions in these products…may be operating unregistered exchanges or broker-dealers that are in violation of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934."</span></p><h2><strong>More Regulations for Cryptocurrency Markets</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This toughening regulatory stance suggests we are entering a new stage in the evolution of crypto markets. Future token issuances will need to be compliant with securities regulations, some existing tokens may be restructured for regulatory compliance, and marketplaces for these tokens may need to become compliant under the Exchange Act of '34. Thus the exchange license that the CHX owns is now a potentially valuable asset for a crypto exchange.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There is already an example of a company that is building a crypto-security trading system compliant with the federal securities regulations. tZero (t0), a subsidiary of Overstock.com, owns and operates an ATS (which is governed by Reg ATS of the Exchange Act of '34), and is currently conducting their own ICO in which the tokens will be "Reg D" securities issued only to accredited investors. These tokens will likely be the first to trade on its platform.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If a Chicago crypto exchange does come about, it would probably occur through an acquisition. tZERO is one potential acquirer. Although they already operate an ATS, an exchange license is an additional level of regulatory compliance and can offer added benefits as a listing venue. tZERO is raising $250 million in their ICO, so they could certainly afford the reported $20 million that was the price agreed to in the failed Chinese transaction.</span></p><h2><strong>Other Suitors for CHX</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Other potential acquirers could include Circle, which this week agreed to buy Poloniex, a crypto-exchange, for $400 million. Circle/Poloniex buying the CHX would make a lot of sense: Circle is well capitalized and has embraced regulation, first by gaining a rare New York State Department of Financial Services (NY DFS) BitLicense, and by further seeking a federal banking charter. Poloniex has focused more on the digital-token space, which can be thought of as pre-cursors to crypto securities.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Coinbase, whose investors include ICE's NYSE, is another potential acquirer. They have shown little interest in the token space, however, preferring to focus on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin. Kraken and Bittrex are other U.S.-based exchanges that trade digital tokens and could potentially benefit from a tie-up with the federally regulated CHX.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nevertheless, there are significant obstacles to a crypto-CHX merger. Crypto exchanges may not want to make a move before there is more certainty around the future regulatory structure, and the tokens that they currently trade may have to be delisted if they deemed securities and not utility tokens. But the regulatory landscape for cryptocurrencies and tokens is evolving rapidly, and increased regulation in the space is only a matter of when not if. Even if a Chicago crypto exchange doesn't happen now, an Exchange-Act-regulated crypto exchange will soon have a place in U.S. markets. </span></p><p><em><a href="https://www.greenwich.com/member/richard-johnson">Richard Johnson</a> is an equities and financial technology expert in Greenwich Associates' Market Structure and Technology practice. He has 20 years of industry experience in financial markets.</em></p><p class="tagline">Get the latest Bitcoin price <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/BTC-USD">here.&gt;&gt;</a><br><br><div id="categorypromo" style="border:1px solid silver; min-height:90px; padding:10px;vertical-align:top;"><a href="http://read.bi/bitcoin-101-free"></a><strong>EXCLUSIVE FREE REPORT:</strong><br>The Bitcoin 101 Report by the Business Insider Intelligence Research Team.<br><strong><a href="http://read.bi/bitcoin-101-free">Get the Report Now »</a></strong></br></br></div></br></br></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rise-and-fall-of-hooters-airline-myrtle-beach-bob-brooks-atlanta-airplanes-2018-2">The rise and fall of Hooters Air - the airline that lost the 'breastaurant' $40 million</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

You Searched For "bitfarms" and got 4 results

10 things you need to know before the opening bell

Jonathan Garber

JPMORGAN: A key component of bitcoin's design might be its achilles heel during a financial meltdown

Frank Chaparro

For the first time, a US city has banned cryptocurrency mining

Antonio Villas-Boas

The storied Chicago Stock Exchange could be a takeover target for a crypto company

Richard Johnson, Greenwich As…