Crypto Back Over $1 Trillion Market Cap

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Today’s Crypto Goings On …

The crypto market cap reclaims $1 trillion. Nothing about this says it couldn’t dip below $1 trillion again. While BTC is over $23,000 and ETH is over $1,600, there is still inherent volatility in the crypto markets. It could go down before it goes up again.

Ethereum rallies 80 percent from June lows. Is the Merge driving this rally? Or maybe it’s the calming of macroeconomic fears. Analysts expect Ethereum to bottom out at $675 this year before bouncing back to $1,700. The Merge appears to be the next narrative in crypto. Meanwhile, ETH staking service Lido Finance plans to expand staked ether support across Layer-2 solutions. Ethereum developers have set a hard date on the Merge. That certainly boosted investor confidence and could be a prime cause for the rally, but there are other reasons to be hopeful about the economy overall.

Has Tether stood the test of time? Let’s just say it’s stood.

Since 2014, Ripple founder Jed McCaleb has been selling off his XRP and has made about $3 billion. Ripple says they made Jed McCaleb an accidental billionaire. And a U.S. Congressman has weighed in on whether XRP is a security. One could say every crypto billionaire is an “accidental” billionaire.

Coinbase users experienced difficulty accessing funds over the weekend. The crypto exchange cited “technical issues.”

Binance holds more bitcoin than Coinbase. Binance will soon announce a corporate headquarters. The crypto exchange has also been fined $3.4 million by the Dutch Central Bank. One might expect Coinbase and Binance to make the top three crypto exchanges list, but what about Kraken? With so many contenders, Kraken has managed to make the list twice consecutively.

The NFT creator economy is booming. However, from May to June, NFT trading volume plunged 74 percent. These are the top 10 NFT collections by sales earnings in the last 30 days (sent by email from Crypto.News):

• Bored Ape Yacht Club - 368 sales totalling $41.5m

• CryptoPunks - 528 sales totalling $37.7m

• Otherdeed for Otherside - 4,690 sales totalling $25.4m 

• Mutant Ape Yacht Club - 991 sales totalling $20.9m 

• CLONE X - 1,001 sales totalling $13.7m

• Moonbirds - 535 sales totalling $13m

• goblintown.wtf - 2,912 sales totalling $12.7m

• Doodles - 652 sales totalling $10.6m 

• Moonrunners - 22,349 sales totalling $9m

• Azuki - 612 sales totalling $8.5m

Litecoin trolls Twitter account of Shiba Inu’s lead developer. A Has-Been and a Never-Was walk into a bar ….

The American Hospital Association tells health professionals how they can advance in the metaverse. Meanwhile, an Egyptian teen creates his own metaverse. If you have any interest in the metaverse, you’ll want to know if it’s going to suck.

How to leverage your NFTs for crypto loans. There’s no doubt that NFTs are digital assets. Therefore, there’s no reason they can’t be used as collateral for loans.

A new token standard promises to lower costs of NFT creation.

What do recent crypto lender collapses mean for the broader crypto market? Beware!

The SEC wants to play “nice but firm” with crypto. Isn’t that sweet?

Auction house Christie’s launches Web3 venture fund.

Top Monero developer “Fluffypony” ordered to appear in Western Cape Regional Court. Who’d expect someone going by the name of Fluffypony to be accused of fraud? I’d expect something like “cuddling with animals.” But, no, that would be too cute.

The Simpsons animator to launch a film- and TV-focused NFT and DeFi marketplace.

Exploring the Web3 paradox. It’s an interesting analysis. Web3 promises more freedom and control over one’s assets, identity, and data, but it won’t be free. Web2 isn’t free either. You pay with the loss of your digital assets and less control over your identity. With Web3, you’ll pay with your digital assets but have more control, and the internet will be decentralized. The natural outcome of this will be a digital class system that mirrors the real world.

8 things you should know about crypto taxes.

U.S. government officials must now declare NFT holdings.

Are museums and NFTs a match made in heaven?

Major crypto bill to be deferred until next year.

Will digital dollars ever replace hard currency in the U.S.? Money changes over time. It’s possible, but not likely any time soon.

How DAOs can combat hostile takeovers. 6 problems inherent with DAOs. There are upsides and there are downsides.

MetaMundo to bring 3D art to multiple metaverses.

Three Arrow Capital’s biggest creditor was Digital Currency Group.

The credit union that wants in on decentralized finance.

The Twitter account of a popular NFT influencer has been hacked. In fact, a hacker group may be targeting NFT communities on a broader scale.

Former Tencent exec to join Animoca Brands.

Snark and commentary in italics.

Cryptocracy is a decentralized newsletter published several times a week. I curate the latest news and crypto analysis from some of the brightest minds in crypto, and sometimes offer a little insightful and snarky commentary. Always fresh, always interesting, and always crypto.

First published at Cryptocracy. Not to be construed as financial advice. Do your own research.