This week's crypto weekly was co-authored by @serdave
PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- BTC ($26,580): +2% / +61%
- ETH ($1,718): -2% / +44%
- SOL ($15.68): +1% / +61%
- UNI ($4.42): +3% / -14%
- MATIC ($0.61): -6% / -19%
MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Crypto Market Cap ($1.1T): +2% / +36%
- BTC Dominance: 48%
- ETH Dominance: 19%
- Tether ($83B): 0% / +26%
- USDC ($28B): +1% / -36%
NFT 3M TRADING VOLUMES
THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- The SEC and Binance.US reached an agreement allowing Binance.US to continue operating amidst their ongoing lawsuit. The judge presiding over the case rejected the SEC’s request to freeze Binance.US assets. Link. Link. Link. Link.
- The IMF is working on a global infrastructure that would ensure interoperability of settlements between central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Link. Link.
- Blackrock, the largest asset manager in the world, filed an application with the SEC for a spot Bitcoin ETF. The SEC is in a lawsuit with Grayscale over its rejection of a similar application. Link. Link.
- The SEC said it has not made a decision on whether it will respond to Coinbase’s petition for rulemaking, and would require at least 4 months to decide. Coinbase sued the SEC earlier this year for failing to respond to its rule-making petition. The SEC argued that its recent lawsuit against the exchange for offering unregistered securities was not in retaliation to the lawsuit. Link. SEC filing.
- Internal SEC documents related to Bill Hinman’s 2018 speech regarding crypto securities law were finally released to the public as part of the SEC’s ongoing lawsuit with Ripple. Hinman’s speech, which was the last time the agency provided guidance around crypto regulations, suggested that BTC and ETH were ‘sufficiently decentralized’ and were not considered securities, a view that seems to have been supported by the staff based on the released emails. Link. Link. Link. Hinman emails. 2018 speech.
- Uniswap Labs released a whitepaper for Uniswap v4, the latest version of the decentralized exchange. V4 introduces ‘hooks’ and custom liquidity pools that can bring new customization features such as on-chain limit orders and dynamic fees. Uniswap v3 debuted in 2021 has processed over $1 trillion in transactions since its inception. Link. Blog Post. Whitepaper.
- Crypto executives from companies such as Ava Labs and Circle testified before the House Financial Services Committee in support of the proposed Digital Asset Market Structure bill, which would offer a pathway for digital assets that begin as securities to eventually be regulated as commodities. Link. Link. Hearing.
- The Blockchain Association submitted a FOIA request to the SEC about Prometheum, the first crypto Special Purpose Broker-Dealer approved for trading digital assets. Suspicions around Prometheum’s legitimacy emerged after its CEO testified before Congress that BTC and ETH would not be available to trade on its platform, which has yet to be launched. Public information shows that Prometheum has hired former SEC and FINRA staff to its team, and that it has plans to launch its own blockchain and token. Link. Tweet. Tweet.
- The SEC reopened comments for its proposal to broaden the definition of Alternative Trading Systems (ATSs) to include decentralized exchanges. Link. Proposed Rule.
- New reports show that USDT issuer Tether held billions in short-term loans to Chinese companies in 2021. Tether has since sold most of that commercial paper and is now backing its USDT stablecoin with more traditional instruments. Link. Link. Tether Blog Post.
- USDT briefly lost its peg after a large sell-off on Curve and Uniswap liquidity pools, falling to a low of $0.9961. Link.
- Eigenlayer, the protocol that allows users to “restake” ETH to secure other networks and earn rewards, launched on mainnet and saw more than $16 million of deposits on the protocol within 24 hours. Link.
- Adidas is partnering with NFT artist Fewocious on a physical sneaker collaboration. Link.
- Miami mayor Francis Suarez, a noted advocate for cryptocurrency, announced he is running for US president as a Republican. Link. Link.
- Crypto on-ramp provider Wyre is shutting down, months after it was expected to be acquired by Bolt Financial for $1.5 billion. Link.
- The FDIC sent a cease and desist letter to crypto exchange OKCoin over false advertising on its website that claim certain products are FDIC insured. Link.
- Alchemy is launching a Chat-GPT4 plugin for blockchain exploration called AlchemyAI. Link.
- Dmitri Cherniak's generative art piece "The Goose" sold at a Sotheby’s auction for over $6.2 million, beating its 2021 sale price, as part of an auction of defunct crypto hedge fund 3AC’s NFT collection. 3AC’s collection has netted over $11 million total so far. Link.
- Apple said it would remove Web3 social network Damus from its app store unless it removed Bitcoin tipping functionality from the app. Link.
- Avraham Eisenberg, the trader accused of a multimillion-dollar exploit of the DEX Mango Markets, will face trial in December on charges of commodities fraud, manipulation, and wire fraud. Link.
- Bankrupt hedge fund Three Arrows Capital wants its co-founder Kyle Davies to be found in contempt of court for failing to comply with bankruptcy proceedings. Link.
- Over the last 3 months FTX has paid $120 million, or $10 million per week, for legal and advisory fees related to bankruptcy proceedings. Link.
- The state of Texas sent a cease and desist order to crypto lender Abra, claiming the company has been insolvent since the end of March. Link. Link.
- Binance's French subsidiary is under investigation by local authorities for "acts of aggravated money laundering." Link. Link.
- Federal prosecutors dropped five of the thirteen charges against Sam Bankman-Fried and are planning for trial in October. Link.
- NFT influencer Machi Big Brother is suing pseudonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT for defamation over allegations of embezzlement. Over $500k has been raised via crowdfunding for ZachXBT’s legal costs. Link. Link.
- Binance.US laid off 50 people this week as a result of mounting legal costs in its lawsuit with the SEC. Link.
- eToro is delisting Algorand, Decentraland, Dash and Polygon after the tokens were named by the SEC as unregistered securities. Link.
- Terra and Luna co-founder Do Kwon was sentenced to four months in prison in Montenegro for attempting to travel with a forged passport. Do Kwon was caught in Montenegro after Interpol issued an international Red Notice for his arrest. Link.
- Holders of Donald Trump’s NFT collection were encouraged to redeem their in-person rewards ASAP after the former president was indicted on more criminal charges this week. Link.