PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- BTC ($9,039): -1% / +25%
- ETH ($226): -1% / +73%
- LTC ($41): -1% / 0%
- XRP ($0.18): -2% / -9%
- Crypto Market Cap ($256B): -1% / +35%
- BTC Dominance: 64%
THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- PayPal and Venmo are planning to allow their combined 325 million users to buy and sell crypto directly from the platforms. It is unclear which or how many cryptocurrencies would be available. The service could be expected in the next three months. Link.
- Users transacted more than $180 billion in bitcoin in Q2 2020, an average of almost $2 billion per day. Users transacted $178 billion in Q1 2020 so spending was relatively flat. Link.
- USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin projected founded by Coinbase and Circle, just broke $1 billion market cap for the first time since it launched in October 2018. It is now the second-largest USD-backed stablecoin after Tether (USDT), and is currently the 18th largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Link.
- Telegram will pay an $18.5 million fine to the SEC over its failed TON offering. It will also repay investors $1.19 billion, roughly 70% of their initial investment. The SEC sued Telegram last year over its $1.7 billion ICO, which it alleged was an unregistered securities offering. Link.
- A Fifth Circuit panel of judges ruled that BTC transaction data is not protected by the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. The ruling occurred in connection with a case in which someone used cryptocurrency to pay for access to illicit child pornography websites. The FBI subpoenaed Coinbase to track payments to the websites. The court's decision means that in criminal proceedings Bitcoin account balances are treated like bank records. Link.
- Decentralized cloud computing startup Dfinity has opened its "Internet Computer" to third-party developers. It is already operating a network of independent data centers across the US and Europe. Projects already being built atop Dfnity include a decentralized payment app, platform for luxury goods, and now a TikTok competitor called CanCan. Link.
- Football Club Barcelona, one of the most popular in the world, had its first ICO raising over $1.3 million in just two hours. 600k digital tokens were sold to fans across 106 countries. The tokens can be used for a variety of purposes mostly to do with voting and winning rewards. First up, fans will be voting for a fan designed mural that will be installed in the team's locker room. Next they will be launching a leaderboard and games for fans. Link.
- A Russian district court has dismissed bitcoin theft as a crime since the cryptocurrency is not regulated in Russia and has no legal status. Thieves who stole 5 million rubles and cryptocurrencies worth 55 million rubles were ordered to repay the fiat, but not the cryptocurrencies. Link.
- The IRS is seeking tools to trace privacy-centric cryptocurrency tokens, as well as Layer 2 off-chain transaction protocols such as Lightning Network. The IRS issued a Request for Information for an interactive prototype with a graphical interface that will let it cluster a users transactions and understand their peer graphs. IRS specifically called out: Monero, Zcash, Dash, Grin, Lightning Network, and side chains such as Plasma and OmiseGo. Link.
- Dapp transaction volume hit $12 billion in Q2 2020, a $4.5 billion increase (+37%) from the previous quarter. 82% of that volume came from Ethereum-based Dapps. Financials Dapps benefited the most; Compound (COMP) is the most valuable Dapp by transaction volume, with $1.2 billion passing through the lending protocol. Gaming Dapps saw an 80% drop quarter over quarter as Ethereum gas prices and transaction fees increased. Link.
- Blockchain analytics platform Elliptic has added coverage for privacy coins Zcash and Horizen. Link.
- Crypto custody tech provider Curv closed a $23 million Series A round with participation from investors like Coinbase Ventures, DCG, and Team8. The company uses a technique called multi-party computation (MPC), which involves several parties each with different strings of numbers that interact using a protocol instead of single private key. The process creates a public key to receive funds, and a distributed and separate way to sign transactions in order to send funds. Link.
- Prediction markets platform Augur is launching a new and improved platform at the end of July. The upgrade brings about a number of changes such as DAI denominated markets and "Invalid" as a tradable outcome. Augur v2 hopes to improve the experience of creating and trading any arbitrary market. Link.
- Lawyers in Washington DC can now accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment for their services, the DC Bar has said. DC is the fourth Bar to allow crypto as a form of payment following North Carolina, Nebraska, and New York City. Link.
- Recent reports show that Baby Boomer and Gen X investors in the UK are putting more money into Bitcoin during the global pandemic. Link.