Morning Report: Cryptos Have Shed A Third Of Their Value So Far This Month

Morning Report: The crypto market is taking blows this month. With recent news about a crackdown in the Chinese market, it’s a choppy September for the nascent industry.

Cryptos have posted stellar gains this year. Collectively, the market cap for cryptos went from around $17 or $18 billion at the start of the year to ten times that amount—kissing the $179 billion mark in early September, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

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The commodity-asset-token-coin-currency cohort has since pulled back steeply, dropping from its $179 billion peak to $121.5 billion. That’s a loss of just over 32 percent.

Here’s the one month market cap chart for cryptos:

And here’s how that one month chart belies the year’s action to-date:

The downturn serves as a great reminder that the crypto run is not permanent. And for those who bought bitcoin near $5,000 or ethereum near $400, it’s tough innings.

Something that we can take refuge in, however, is the small fact that the crypto market is testing new boundaries in both technology and finance. Sure, it could implode under sell-side pressure, rising government intervention, and new coins driving prices of older coins down. But for now, cryptos are still liquid and worth about two Ubers.

From The Crunchbase Daily: 

Uber nears close of massive financing

• Uber is close to finalizing an investment from U.S. firm Dragoneer and Chinese ride-sharing leader Didi Chuxing that could be valued at between $8 billion and $10 billion, according to a TechCrunch report citing unnamed sources. The financing would reportedly include a direct investment in Uber as well as the purchase of shares from employees and early backers.

Real estate startups raise $59M

• Real estate has been a hot space for venture investors lately, and this week was no exception. Two real estate-focused companies, HouseCanary and RealtyShares, just closed rounds of $31 million and $28 million, respectively. HouseCanary makes tools to predict home resale value, while RealtyShares offers a platform for investing in commercial real estate.

Samsung launches $300M auto tech fund

• Samsung announced the creation of a new $300 million fund, the Samsung Automotive Innovation Fund, that will focus on connected car and autonomous driving technologies, including smart sensors, machine vision, and AI.

No room for Slack to slack

• If it’s possible to be a cool kid in enterprise software, Slack has managed it. The fast-growing enterprise messaging application has raised over half a billion dollars, pushing its valuation over $3 billion. But that growth has also attracted competitors, Crunchbase News reports, some of which are formidable in size and ambition.

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