PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($9,495): 0% / +32%
- ETH ($237): +1% / +81%
- LTC ($46): 0% / +11%
- XRP ($0.20): -3% / +4%
- Crypto Market Cap ($270B): +1% / +41% 
- BTC Dominance: 65%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- Coinbase is reportedly looking to sell blockchain analytics software to the US government, including the DEA and IRS who have expressed interest in using Coinbase Analytics. Public documents show that Coinbase Analytics allows for tracking crypto flows across multiple blockchains, and provides enhanced law enforcement capabilities not found in other tools. The reports come just a year after Coinbase purchased intelligence firm Neutrino. Link.

- Food stamps startup All_EBT is using the Telos blockchain for a virtual food stamps card. All_EBT allows EBT recipients to transfer their food stamp benefits to a virtual card, which can be used for online ordering on grocery / food delivery apps like Instacart and DoorDash. 54 million Americans rely on food stamps but the government hasn't prioritized digitizing the program over fears of fraud. Blockchain can mitigate the fraud risks by providing an immutable record of EBT transactions. Link. 

- Coinbase is slashing rewards for holding USDC on its platform from 1.25% to 0.15%. The 88% reduction brings the annual interest rate closer to those offered by major banks like Wells Fargo and Chase, and well below savings rates offered by other financial institutions like Wealthfront, Ally, and Capital One. Link. 

- A new report shows CryptoKitties generated $27 million in revenue in its first year, with $7 million going to the company and $20 million to the breeders on the platform. Gods Unchained made $4.2 million in its first year and My Crypto Heroes made $1.5 million - however in both cases the companies kept most the revenue. Link. 

- Bitcoin mining company Bitmain's co-founder and ousted CTO Micree Zhan hired a dozen security guards to take back control of Bitmain's China office. Zhan sent a letter to Bitmain shareholders and employees saying he had taken control, and that employees should return to work. Bitmain is currently pursuing litigation. Bitmain's troubles began in October 2019 when Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu ousted Zhan over difference in opinions over the direction of the business - Zhan wanted to expand Bitmain's offering to AI while Wu wanted to focus on mining. Link. 

- Crypto privacy browser Brave has surpassed 15 million monthly active uses and 5 million daily active users. Link. 

- Blockchain journalism startup Civil is shutting down. The startup intended to decentralize the newsroom by letting readers directly support journalists and helping journalists collaborate to build their own publications. Link. 

- Crypto exchange KuCoin is now using Chainalysis for AML/KYC purposes. The exchange has over 5 million registered users from 200+ countries and regions. Link. 

- The price of bitcoin fell by over 8% in less than 5 minutes earlier this week. The drop occurred with the currency was trading above $10,100; Bitcoin has struggled multiple times over the past 12 months to establish a strong base above $10,000. Analysts were expecting bitcoin to continue rising towards $11,000. Link. 

- Coinbase crashed earlier this week as the price of bitcoin rose above $10,000. Coinbase is the largest crypto exchange in the US and has experienced a number of outages over the last few years especially when the price of bitcoin becomes volatile. Coinbase went down in March, leaving users locked out of their accounts during the covid market crash that wiped more than 20% from bitcoin's value in mere minutes. Link. 

- Bitcoin ATMs are expected to face stricter regulations worldwide, as countries look to tighten up AML requirements. A report from CipherTrace found that 74% of transactions made from US Bitcoin ATMs were sent out of the country during 2019. Last year Spanish police had identified a single local gang that had laundered roughly $10 million for Columbian drug traffickers using bitcoin ATMs. Link. 

- The US government is offering a $5 million bounty on Joselit Ramirez, Venezuela's head of cryptocurrency. The US government alleges Ramirez has "deep political, social and economic ties to multiple alleged narcotics kingpins". Link. 

- High gas fees saw Ethereum dapps daily activity drop 14% month over month but volumes through DeFi and exchange dapps remained strong with total value during May up 25% to $1.2 billion. Gaming and marketplace saw the biggest decline in usage. Link. 

- Tencent Cloud is preparing to bring together 100 organizations this year to establish the Industry Blockchain League. Members will be from various sectors and will collaborate around the collective goal of standardizing blockchain and working on industrial applications and implementation. Link.

- Tim Draper is giving away $1 million in Bitcoin to attendees of the Los Angeles blockchain summit in October. All attendees will receive $100 from Draper's blockchain-centric VC fund. Organizers are hoping for over 20k attendees though only 1k have signed up so far. Link. 

- Numerai, the startup known for hosting data scientist tournaments to find the best trading strategies for its hedge fund, has raised $3 million via a token sale of NMR. The capital will be used to develop an information staking protocol called Erasure, which sits separate from the hedge fund business. Token purchasers include Union Square Ventures, Placeholder, and CoinFund. Link.

- Anchorage is expanding its product team with a new engineering hub in Portugal. Link.