Crypto weekly is authored by maaria

PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- BTC ($8,520): -2% / -36%
- ETH ($719): -2% / -1%
- LTC ($140): -3% / -36%
- XRP ($0.70): -5% / -64%

TWEET OF THE WEEK: hat tip to Abe Burns for finding thisLink. hilarious tweet about blockchain ICO’s.

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- According to Wall Street Journal reporting, investors have poured more than $1 billion into 271 initial coin offerings that were identified by WSJ as likely frauds — that’s roughly one in five ICOs. Investors have claimed losses up to $273 million in these projects, according to lawsuits and regulatory actions. Link.

- Circle, a Boston-based crypto startup, raised $110 million in Series E funding at a valuation just south of $3 billion. China’s Bitmain led the round, and was joined by Blockchain Capital, Tusk Ventures and return backers IDG Capital, Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, Accel, Digital Currency Group and Pantera. Circle launched four years ago as an easy bitcoin wallet and payment application, and earlier this year acquired crypto exchange Poloniex for $400 million. Circle also announced it would launch a new product called “USD Coin”, a stable coin tied to the value of the USD. Link.

- Coinbase’s new venture fund makes its first investment in crypto startup, Compound. The $8.2 million seed round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, and Bain Capital Ventures. Compound wants to create liquidity in cryptocurrency by allowing users to borrow cryptocurrency, or lend it to earn an interest rate. It is essentially letting users gamble by barring and then short-selling coins they think will decline. Link.

- Blockstack releases the first universal Dapp store with over 150 Dapps on launch. According to the announcement, the store is “a discovery tool for decentralized apps built on Blockstack, Ethereum, EOS, IPFS, Steem and more… serving as an aggregator of usable Dapps for gaming, social networking, productivity, and financial services”. At launch the store has early versions of Dapps competing against popular applications like WhatsApp (Stealthy), YouTube (DTube), Twitter (Peepeth), and Google Docs (Graphite). Link.

- At Consensus 2018 conference in New York City, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square, sat down with Elizabeth Stark of Lightning Labs to talk more broadly about his company’s goals for bitcoin. “I’m just approaching with the principle that the Internet deserves a native currency. It will have a native currency. I don’t know if it will be bitcoin… I hope it will be bitcoin. I’m a huge fan.” Dorsey said during the fireside chat. Link.

- Steem, a blockchain rewards platform that allows content publishers to monetize their work, reaches one million registered accounts. Steemit is a social platform that encourages quality content production and discussions with a voting system, powered by Steam tokens. The Steemit platform is an alternative way for content publishers to earn income, apart from ads or paywalls. Link.

- 5 months into 2018 and dollar volume invested in VC rounds (excludes ICO’s) raised by blockchain companies surpassed 2017’s total. Nearly $1.3 billion globally was invested in blockchain and blockchain related startups. Link.

- Nokia is partnering with crypto startup Steamr to build an IoT network and integrate its device data with the Steamr Data Marketplace. Initially, Nokia believes this could be valuable in remote communities who want access to additional revenue-generating opportunities. Steamr raised $31 million last year in its ICO. Link.

- Blockchain identity startup, Civic, has launched its ID verification system on a social media platform for the crypto community. Hilo, a social network for cryptocurrency traders, will use ID codes to authenticate user identity and company profiles. Link.

- Lightspeed Venture Partners is considering setting up a fund to invest solely in cryptocurrency related investments, similar to Andreessen Horowitz’s recently unveiled offering. More likely, Lightspeed would carve out some capital from its newly raised fund exclusively for crypto deals, rather than creating an entirely separate fund. Link.

- HTC announces it is launching a blockchain phone, called the HTC Exodus. It’s unclear what applications the phone will support, but most likely will include security and cryptocurrency support. At launch the Exodus will support bitcoin, ethereum and decentralized applications. Link.

- The New York Department of Financial Services provides Genesis Global Trading a BitLicense, making it only the fifth firm in three years to receive the license. BitLicense was one of the first regulatory outlines created to manage the crypto market in 2014, but it has come under intense criticism from crypto entrepreneurs because of its heavy limitations. Link.

- Founders of Centra Tech, the crypto startup that raised a $32 million ICO backed by Floyd Mayweather, were indicted for wire fraud and securities fraud, charges that could lead to a minimum of five years in jail. Link.

- According to Wall Street Journal reports, Coinbase is in talks with U.S. Regulators about the possibility of obtaining banking licenses, a move that would allow the status to broaden the types of products it offers. The federal banking license would allow Coinbase to swap multiple state regulators for one primary federal one. Link.

- Bitmain’s CEO believes its ASIC chips, which are used to power cryptocurrency miners, are also important component for deep learning. The company believes that as much as 40 percent of its revenue could come from its AI division in 5 years. Bitmain made as much as $4 billion in operating profit last year, primarily from its mining operations and ASICs. Link.

- Bitfinex has recently notified its users that they are required to submit their tax information so Bitfinex can share with the British Virgin Island’s government, which may exchange the info with tax authorities of its users’ country of residence. The exchange set May 24 as the deadline for users to submit the forms. Users took to Twitter and suggested users withdraw their funds from the exchange. Link.