Hi everyone! Passing along news that the Circle exchange released its criteria for listing new coins ans tokens this week, they are calling it The Circle Asset Framework.

Why should you care? Two reasons, really: One, they are looking to become an SEC registered brokerage and trading venue; and two, they are actively pursuing a federal banking license with the Comptroller of the Currency.

If Circle is successful in getting these designations, it may become one of the go-to exchanges moving forward. Further, Circle is being transparent about how coins/tokens will be listed.

And to be honest, they legit have the highest standards we at Crypto Mouse have seen since we started tracking this space.

If you notice, you will see a lot of similarities to how we look at crypto projects, it is refreshing to see someone else look at these so meticulously.

We’ve recapped them below:

• Does this project add fundamentally new infrastructure to the industry?

• Does the problem solved by this project benefit from decentralization and/or peer-to-peer networks?

• Is there a prototype available?

• Is the project well-documented, peer-reviewed, and open source?

• Does the leadership team have experience building cryptocurrency projects?

• What specific pain point or problem does the project aim to address in the long term?

They are definitely running contrary to many of their peers. Many exchanges will list any coin for a listing fee, it’s quite common actually, and why you will see some exchanges list a massive amount of coins and tokens. Very easy in some cases to pay a toll so to speak and have your currency listed almost instantaneously.

Circle does not have to go this route, but they are doing it anyway: they are underscoring their intention to only pick those coins/tokens that add value for their customers, that they will not accept a listing fee. If you want your coin listed, it must meet the standards detailed in their Framework.

Well done, Circle!

A note to all of our dear readers who use Ledger Manager – they have reported a network outage at one of their datacenters, which is obviously affecting the Ledger Manager.

What is Ledger Manager? It is the app you use when setting up a new Ledger hardware wallet, also what you need to upgrade your firmware and download specific wallets for coins/tokens.

Already have cryptos on your Ledger Nano S (hardware wallet for cold storage)? Don’t panic! Any cryptocurrency on a Ledger Nano S is safe.

Ledger Manager is a different story though, it has alternated from working intermittently to down entirely since yesterday, which might affect your ability to update the firmware on your Ledger Nano S or download individual wallet apps.

Ledger supposedly released a temporary fix this morning, which they indicated might be slow, meaning any downloads or firmware upgrades could fail. But to reiterate again, your funds are not at risk if in cold storage on the Ledger Nano S. Ledger is only reporting difficulties with their app, and expects to have it back up online later today.

Coinbase announced earlier today that they will add ethereum classic (or ETC) to their platform (IMPORTANT NOTE FOR ALL OF OUR DEAR READERS SITTING IN THE BACK!) in the next few months.

This announcement immediately caused the price for ETC to jump almost 25%.

As a reminder, Ethereum classic was created in June 2016 via a fork in the cryptocurrency. Forgot what a fork is? No worries, we’ll break it down for you: a fork is when one cryptocurrency splits into two independent and separate cryptos.

This particular fork resulted in two cryptocurencies: ethereum (ETH) and ethereum classic (ETC).

Note: Ethereum classic (ETC) is currently ranked as #18 among all cryptos by market cap.

But Team Crypto Mouse, you may be asking, you haven’t recommended Ethereum classic in the past – what gives? Well dear readers, we have been tracking Ethereum classic since the fork, but we’ve never recommended it because we teach to invest in cryptos to build wealth over a longer time horizon (5-10 years).

This IS NOT a get rich quick scheme, true wealth creation is our goal.

And like our prior recommendations, we believe ethereum is the best long term play when analyzing the two.

Will Coinbase listing Ethereum classic cause the price to spike? Definitely, and remember, it is likely more people will buy ETC simply because Coinbase has the most customers.

If you remember, this happened before when Coinbase listed bitcoin cash, causing a 300% climb almost instantly.

And again in 2017 when Coinbase saw a spike in new accounts. Litecoin skyrocketed up in price simply because it was one of the only cryptos available on that exchange.

Sure, go abead and buy a little ETC if it tickles your fancy, then sell once its Coinbase listing goes live and the price jumps.

But do not lose sight of the end goal here – true wealth creation.

We are still in early days in the crypto space, strive to accumulate to hold for the long term. We’re in the second inning, overall crypto prices are down or even going sideways, and we at Team Crypto Mouse expect this to continue for the foreseeable future.

Isn’t it interesting just how emotional cryptocurrencies are, dear readers?

A sell off ensued when it came to light that a small cryptocurrency known as verge (XVG) was hacked. Many crypto investors then immediately assumed (very incorrectly) that bitcoin and ethereum are vulnerable and P-A-N-I-C set in.

Last week Italy was dominating headlines, many fearing a newly formed right-wing coalition could attempt to force an election to leave the eurozone. Cryptocurrencies dropped following the news, but have since rebounded, as a compromise has been found between the major political parties has made new elections unlikely. We should note that bitcoin and ethereum bottomed at $7,100 and $520, at their lowest points.

We at Team Crypto Mouse believe that the cryptocurrency sell-off in the aftermath of both of these two events is unjustified. Here’s why:

Firstly, the beauty of cryptocurrencies is that they offer an alternative to traditional fiat currencies (such as the Euro). Remember back in 2013 when the price of bitcoin spiked when the government of Cyprus taxed some bank deposits by more than 40% to bail out the country’s banking industry.

Next, remember, dear readers, hacks of smaller (and often scam) currencies have absolutely no bearing on legitimate projects like bitcoin and ethereum.

Markets have been focused on the potential bad news, which is often what saturates media headlines daily.

You might have missed some promising new developments though, namely…

Earlier this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping praised blockchain during a speech at the Academy of Sciences. Could China be readying for new pro-blockchain regulation? Could be.

And don’t sleep on South Korea’s National Assembly proposing new legislation to lift the ban on initial coin offerings.

Taking all of the above into account, Team Crypto Mouse believes cryptocurrencies are currently trading at a discount to their long-term potential.

Discount shopping is in full effect, dear readers, especially when promising crypto developments in China and South Korea could be just be around the corner, AND have not yet strongly impacted the cryptocurrency markets.

The SEC Investor Conference is in Atlanta this year (June 13th) at Georgia State University.

This is how the SEC’s site advertises the event:

“Meet the people who help make Wall Street work for Main Street. All five SEC Commissioners are coming to Atlanta to meet with you: young people, the military, urban and rural, those saving for retirement, and seniors—the diverse, the dynamic people of the southeast region.”

There is some nervous speculation that the breakout session on bitcoin and ICOs will have definitive remarks as to whether all cryptocurrencies are defined as securities by the SEC, which would have immediate effects on the market, likely with strict regulations on taxes, and who can or cannot legally own/invest in cryptocurrencies.

Don’t panic just yet, dear readers. Chairman Jay Clayton, who spoke earlier this year about cryptocurrencies and ICOs at Princeton University, explained his hope for any regulation introduced by the SEC, would have a positive impact on the cryptocurrency space: eradicating bad actors and paving the way for legitimate projects to thrive.

Time will tell, more to come.