PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- BTC ($50,364): -10% / +74%
- ETH ($2,340): +4% / +217%
- XRP ($1.15): -16% / +422%
- UNI ($35): +11% / +604%
- Crypto Market Cap ($1.9T): -6% / +146%
- BTC Dominance: 50%
STABLECOIN MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Tether ($49B): +4% / +139%
- USDC ($11B): -1% / +189%
THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- The founder of Thodex exchange, a crypto exchange based in Istanbul, reportedly froze trading on the exchange and left the country holding $2 billion in investors assets. Media reports that the founder flew to either Albania or Thailand. Thodex went dark after running a promotional campaign that sold Dogecoins at a quarter the price at which they were trading at on other exchanges. The exchange locked in those investments and didn't allow any users to sell or convert to other cryptos. Link.
- Bitcoin dropped below $50,000 for the first time since early March. The steep drop followed the drop in prices across US stocks, which occurred after the Biden administration announced a plan to raise the capital gains tax. Link.
- Coinbase shares closed 32% lower from its opening day price, after its second week of trading. Shares closed on Friday at $293 after its opening day high of $429. The stock debuted via direct listing at a price of $381. Link.
- Venmo has supported the buying, holding and selling of bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash and litecoin. Link.
- Crypto exchange volumes hit $1.26 trillion in April, nearly half the volumes of NYSE in February. NYSE, the largest exchange venue, makes up about 20-25% of US equity exchange trading. Link.
- A hacker 'sleepminted' a supposed 'second edition' of Beeple's Everydays digital work and listed it on marketplaces Opensea and Rarible. Sleepminting allows someone to mint an NFT for, and to, the crypto wallets of other artists, then transfer ownership back to the user without the artist's consent or knowing participation. The hacker did this to show the security vulnerabilities of NFTs. Link. Etherscan link.
- Fidelity, Coinbase, Square and Paradigm have launched the Crypto Council for Innovation which will focus on government relations, education and key research in the space. Link.
- Wyoming became the first state to sign a bill that recognizes decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) as a new type of LLC. Proponents of the law say it will protect DAOs from being sued as general partnerships in court. Link.
- 22% of Americans, including 35% of Millennials and 30% of Gen Zs, own some form of cryptocurrency. About 27% of Gen Zers and Millennials are bidding on NFTs. Link.
- Coinbase Pro is adding Tether (USDT) stablecoins to its exchange. Link.
- Digital subscribers of TIME Magazine can now pay for their subscription in bitcoin. Link.
- Winklevoss-backed exchanged Gemini has doubled its AUM in 3 months, reaching more than $25 billion of AUM. Link.
- Mastercard is using NFTs as part of a project to offset carbon emissions. Mastercard says its system provides very granular details so that consumers can choose the most environmentally friendly products by interacting with their directly related carbon credits, represented by an NFT. Link.
- A group of 1,200 investors bought 450,000 Bitcoin worth over $24 billion over the last 3 months. Link.
- The NYSE has filed to list a bitcoin ETF on its exchange. The SEC has yet to approve a bitcoin ETF application. Link.
- The Centre Consortium, the org behind stablecoin USDC, blacklisted seven Ethereum addresses on Wednesday. This is the first time Centre has blacklisted USDC-containing addresses since July 2020 when it blacklisted a wallet with 100k USDC, at the request of law enforcement. Link.
- The SEC has accused Ripple of "harassment" after its execs were granted access to internal documents from the regulatory agency. The documents contain info about three currencies - BTC, ETH, and XRP-- classifying them as "digital currencies". Link.
- WeWork is partnering with Coinbase and BitPay to accept crypto payments. Link.