PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($11,293): +3% / +201%
- ETH ($299): +2% / +124%
- LTC ($119): -3% / +291%
- XRP ($0.39): -2% / +12%
- Crypto Market Cap ($323B): +2% / +157%
- BTC Dominance: 62%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- The SEC is looking for a blockchain data provider to help it monitor risk, improve compliance, and inform crypto policy. The requirements specify that all data be sourced from hosted nodes rather than blockchain explorers, and that the vendor must cover bitcoin and ethereum blockchains since the genesis block. The SEC wants information such as send and receive addresses; timestamp and amounts; transaction fees; unspent send and receive balances; block hash; and block height. Coverage of bitcoin and ethereum are required, while Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Zcash, EOS, NEO, and XRP blockchain data are desired but not necessary. The SEC has said that as new blockchains gain increased prominence they would require support for them.Link. 

- US Rep Maxine Waters, Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling for a halt of development of Libra. The letter alleges the Libra system, which set up in Switzerland a few months ago, is intended to rival US monetary policy and the dollar. The letter also claims the system could become an under-regulated platform for illicit activity and money laundering. David Marcus, who is spearheading crypto efforts at Facebook, is testifying on Libra in front of the Senate and House later this month. Link. 

- US social media users say they are unlikely to use Facebook's cryptocurrency Libra, according to a new survey from Jefferies (n=600). 80% of those surveyed said they were “Unlikely” or “Very unlikely” to buy the cryptocurrency, pointing towards a lack of trust in the social media giant as their biggest concern regarding Libra (45%) despite the fact that Facebook will not have access to consumer transaction data. Almost 40% also indicated they already have a mobile payment wallet, and saw no reason for using the Libra wallet. Link. 

- Bitcoin was the most volatile but best performing major cryptocurrency in June. The currency hit annualized volatility of 102% and saw a 30% increase in price. The worst performing major cryptocurrency was TRON with an 11% price decrease in June. Link. 

- Bitcoin's hash rate has reached an all time high of 74.5 million tera hashes per second - up 109% year over year. The hash rate measures how much power the network is consuming to generate a new block every 10 minutes. The higher the hash rate, the more miners in the network and the more computing power required to win a block. Link. 

- CME bitcoin futures set multiple new records last month, with over 2,960 accounts trading BTC futures. Nearly 1,000 new user accounts have been created in 2019, a 30 percent increase in total client sign ups. Open interest reached new heights in June, with 6,069 contracts. The currency's volatility makes futures a more palatable investment for professional traders and large institutions since they reduce risk and increase stability. Link.

- Ethereum transactions are at their highest in over a year, surpassing 1 million transactions per day. Daily transaction volumes hit a peak of 1.3 million in January 2018. Link. 

- Messaging giant Telegram's unreleased Gram tokens are set for sale to the public at a price three times of its private placement. Korean company Gram Asia, the largest holder of Gram tokens in Asia, is selling Grams for $4/piece on crypto exchange Liquid. Gram is the yet-to-be-launched native token for the Telegram Open Network (TON), which is expected to launch on October 31. Link. 

- Users of Reddit, one of the top 20 internet sites in the world, will soon be able to tip one another using the Basic Attention Token (BAT) cryptocurrency. The tipping functionality will only be available to users of the Brave browser. Link. 

- Brazil's BTG Pactual, Latin America's largest standalone investment bank, is partnering with Dubai asset manager Dalma Capital to sell more than $1 billion of security tokens. The plan is to transform real assets into tradable digital contracts that live on a blockchain. Dalma plans to tokenize property and sports clubs, while BTG has already sold tokens backed by distressed real-estate assets in Brazil. Link. 

- Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the Bank of Venezuela to accept the petro, the government-issued cryptocurrency that went on sale in October. The bank must open petro-processing desks in all branches across Venezuela, with the hope that private banks would follow shortly thereafter. Maduro believes the petro can help Venezuela face the financial instability brought about by US sanctions. Link. 

- Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini is applying for a broker-dealer license from FINRA. Today Gemini is partnering with tokenized securities platform Harbor to sell its GUSD stablecoin, but with a broker-dealer license it could facilitate the trading of such securities on its own platform. Eventually the plan is to permit securities from external platforms to trade on Gemini. FINRA has so far been reticent to approve broker-dealer applications by companies interacting with cryptocurrencies, and is reportedly sitting on roughly 40 applications with some companies waiting as long as 14 months for approval. Link. 

- Crypto trading platform Coinsquare bought a majority stake in Just Cash, whose software allows any ATM to sell cryptocurrency. The software does not disrupt the ATM network, no hardware changes are required, and there are no additional costs to the operator. Link.

- Crypto custody startup Casa has rolled out a new mobile app that allows users to manage their lightning nodes straight from their mobile phone. Casa is also planning to add a rewards program for earning small amounts of bitcoin through the app, in an effort to teach people about earning bitcoin and node management. The startup is building a suite of products and services that enable users to hold their own bitcoin, rather than keeping it on exchanges. Link. 

 - Dogecoin price surged 27% following an announcement that it would soon be listed on Binance. Back in April Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted "Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It's pretty cool." He also briefly changed his Twitter bio to read: "CEO of Dogecoin". Link.