PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- BTC ($9,127): -1% / +27%
- ETH ($235): -1% / +79%
- LTC ($42): -5% / +1%
- XRP ($0.20): 0% / +3%
- Crypto Market Cap ($271B): 0% / +41%
- BTC Dominance: 62%
STABLECOIN MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Tether ($9.1B): -1% / +121%
- USDC ($1.1B): +1% / +113%
THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- More than 130 high profile Twitter accounts were targeted by hackers this week; their accounts were used to send tweets asking for bitcoin. These included verified accounts for mainstream figures including Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Elon Busk, Coinbase, and CoinDesk. Users sent more than $125,000 worth of bitcoin before Twitter locked down verified accounts. The hackers have yet to be identified. Link. Link.
- Twitter is now restricting posts that contain crypto addresses. Link.
- UK fintech platform Revolut is expanding its crypto trading services to US users in 49 states. Revolut has 60,000 users in the US and hopes its crypto offering will drive more US users to sign up. Initially users will only be able to trade BTC and ETH. Link.
- BitOoda research shows that China makes up roughly 50% of bitcoin mining power, not the 65% historically cited. The US makes up about 14% of bitcoin mining. Link.
- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), the fifth largest bank in the world, is reportedly planning to issue its own digital currency in the second half of 2020. It will also launch mobile retail payments powered by the digital currency across nearly 1 million member stores as part of the launch. Link.
- Algorand (ALGO) is now available to trade on Coinbase.com. It had been available on Coinbase Pro since August 2019. Link.
- A report by Flipside Crypto shows that investors have been liquidating their Compound (COMP) holdings as soon as major exchanges listed the token. Vast majority of the tokens are held by speculators, who do not engage in lending and borrowing. Compound users hold 24k of the active supply, while wallets who are not using the protocol hold 680k. Link.
- Jesse Walden, ex a16z crypto, is launching a new crypto fund called Variant that will focus on decentralized marketplaces. The fund has raised $20 million to date, and is backed by investors like Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Union Square Ventures and Compound CEO Robert Leshner. Link.
- China wants to trial its digital yuan of Tencent-backed online food delivery platform, Meituan-Dianping, which is one of the largest in the world. Tencent is set to be one of the primary commercial issuers for the digital yuan when it goes live. Just last week, ride hailing startup Didi Chuxing also said it would trial the digital yuan as a new payment option. Link.
- Fidelity Digital Assets will be the exclusive Bitcoin custodian for Kingdom Trust's recently launched Choice retirement solution, which will allow users to invest in both digital and traditional assets. Fidelity will hold control of the accounts and will charge a 1% fee on assets held. Link.
- The SEC and CFTC accused crypto investment platform Abra of offering unregistered securities on its platform. Abra allowed users to buy digital tokens that represented stocks; the regulatory agencies said this was akin to offering security-based swaps and was subject to US securities laws. Abra must pay $300,000 in fines as well as stop offering tokenized versions of stocks. Link.
- Bitcoin security firm Casa announced a consultancy partnership with the Human Rights Foundation to help activists and dissidents around the world protect their Bitcoin. Casa's multsig self-custody system helps users secure their own BTC, which is especially important in geographies where activists can have their bank accounts frozen. Link.
- Canada-based fintech firm BlockCrushr filed a lawsuit accusing blockchain tech company ConsenSys of stealing trade secrets. BlockCrushr, which was in Consensy's accelerator program, claims that ConsenSys launch a recurring payments platform called 'Daisy Payments' one day before the Canadian firm launched its own product. BlockCrushr says ConsenSys had access to all of its source code and marketing, financial, and regulatory strategies. Link.
- Malaysia Securities Commission has said that Binance is breaking securities laws by operating in the country. Binance said it had no plans to stop operating in the country after being blacklisted though it risks a $2.3 million fine and 10 years imprisonment. Link.