More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity! (weekly crypto updates)
What happened in the past week? Coinbase was in the news, with both good ones (Base launch) and bad ones (the boxing match with the SEC). SBF and the BALD rug pull? Curve Protocol was exploited. What else? Read below:
Bitcoin: Human Rights Foundation launched a bug bounty program worth 20 BTC, to encourage open-source development on the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin Mining hardware is lately moving out of the US, all the way to Russia, where you can find cheap electricity and freezing temperatures, now that the government is kind of friendly once more, despite sanctions. CME Group Bitcoin Futures volume hit a yearly high in July, but Greyscale's GBTC discount continues to shrink, with a further 26% in July, reaching the lowest level since May 2022. MicroStrategy's BTC holdings reached $4.4B. BTC's price right now is $29281.
Ethereum: Direxion, a financial services firm with more than $27B in assets, has filed for a BTC and ETH futures ETF. ETH's price right now is $1833, going below the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) of $1,871 on Aug. 2, which suggests that the bears are trying to gain the upper hand. Going under $1816, bulls may lose control, leading to a further possible drop.
Altcoins and stablecoins: Curve liquidity pools were exploited, and more than $24M were stolen by the attackers, using the Vyper bug. Other projects using the Vyper programming language may be vulnerable. Binance obtained Operational License in Dubai. Fantom average daily active addresses declined by 18%, but new unique addresses increased by 146%, due to some increased activity on LayerZero and Galxe. To be honest, I do not even remember the last time I checked my Fantom account. They will make soon an Ecosystem Vault and Gas Monetization program, a new StateDB storage system, a Fantom Virtual Machine (FVM), and account abstraction, so maybe there is some potential in using it. Coinbase's Base Blockchain activity and TVL both surged, the Bald memecoin (now a rug pull) had something to do with it, attracting $68M in ETH, and exceeding $200M in trading volumes. Many crypto natives were stuck on Base, but Rebase and Synapse deployed their own solutions, allowing users to bridge their funds back to other networks. Yet, Coinbase's revenue is expected to decline by 9% in Q2. The public launch for Base blockchain is set for 9.08.2023.
Blockchain games and NFTs: Is anyone out there still not playing Golem Overlord? By the way, did everyone get their free Fox NFT from Shapeshift? Wombat Dungeon Masters' new season will start soon, with MATIC NFTs added to WAX and EOS ones, with more rewards and some new NFT blends. On Splinterlands finally, we got a Modern format with no bots, and it seems incredible, other than that, the Land 1.5 upgrade will be available soon, and then the real deal starts. I need more DEC tokens.
Good news: HSBC-owned Hang Seng Bank will offer crypto companies simple accounts, without defining which services are banned, despite Hong Kong Monetary Authority's efforts to promote the region as a crypto hub. Upbit overtakes Coinbase and OKX becoming the second largest crypto exchange by volume. BlockFi seems to return some of the crypto assets to its clients very soon, getting ready for withdrawals.
Bad news: Bank of Korea chooses 3 regions to test its CBDC program. Hex Founder Richard Heard was just charged by the SEC for raising $1B through unregistered securities (the guy with HEX, Pulse, and PulseChain, after he was found to use millions of dollars from PulseChain investor funds for personal advantage). The SEC asked Coinbase to halt trading all the crypto except Bitcoin before taking legal against the firm. Gamestop will shut down the crypto wallet service, citing legal uncertainty. The US Department of Justice is considering taking legal action against Binance but fears a financial fallout for customers. RobinHood's crypto revenue falls 18% in Q2.
Joke of the week: So, do you remember when everyone was talking about how SBF and FTX were illegally instructing its associates to donate millions of dollars to political campaigns, Left and Right? Surprise, this allegation was just dropped as it did not look well on our politicians, but do not worry, he is still charged with seven other counts of defrauding or conspiring to defraud clients, investors, and lenders. Only in America! And the second place, worthy to mention, goes to US Rep George Santos, serving his first term, charged with 13 offenses, including embezzling campaign donations, falsely receiving unemployment benefits, and lying to the House of Representatives, to count a few of them. Who said that politics are not entertaining? Funnier enough, to add some fuel to the fire, some blockchain people think that SBF or some Alameda intermediary is behind the BALD memecoin rug pull. We do not know how true this is, but some people are connecting the dots.
All the best,
George
Why not...
...have fun and win rewards on my favorite blockchain games (Splinterlands - Hearthstone-like card game) (Mobox - GamiFI NFT platform) (Wombat Dungeon Masters NFT staking on WAX) and (X-Portal - Elrond all in one app, free NFTs, and more).
...get crypto while writing on Publish0x blog, using Presearch search engine to maximize your income with PRE tokens. Use Torum instead of Twitter. I am also writing for crypto on Read.cash and Hive.
