Crypto weekly is co-authored by @serdave

PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($29,125): -4% / +76%
- ETH ($1,845): -4% / +54%
- SOL ($23.29): -15% / +139%
- UNI ($5.77): +1% / +12%
- MATIC ($0.72):  -7% / -4%

MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- Crypto Market Cap ($1.20T): -2% / +50%
- BTC Dominance: 48%
- ETH Dominance: 19%
- Tether ($84B): 0% / +26%
- USDC ($27B): -2% / -40%

NFT 3M TRADING VOLUMES

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- NASDAQ halted plans to launch a crypto custody product, citing a lack of US regulatory clarity. Link. 

- House Republicans introduced a draft bill aiming to clarify regulatory uncertainties for crypto. The legislation includes a certification process for decentralized blockchains, new disclosure requirements for digital asset issuers and clarity that the SEC would have authority over stablecoin use on its registered platforms, but not over the design and structure of stablecoins. Link. Link.

- Coinbase is shutting down its lending program, Coinbase Borrow, which allowed customers to receive fiat loans of up to $1 million against their BTC holdings. Borrowers have until November to pay back outstanding loan balances. Link. 

- SEC lawyers previewed a likely appeal of the recent Ripple Labs court ruling in filings for a  separate enforcement case against TerraUSD and Luna creators Do Kwon and Terraform Labs. The SEC said in its filing, “Respectfully, those portions of Ripple were wrongly decided, and this Court should not follow them”. Link. Filing.

- SEC chair Gary Gensler made a pitch to US senators to increase the regulators budget by $72 million, noting the crypto industry's “gross noncompliance” as one of the main reasons. Link.

- The United Kingdom’s Treasury rejected a House of Commons recommendation to classify crypto trading as gambling. Link.

- Russia is planning to start testing a digital Ruble CBDC in August, barring a veto from Putin. Link.

- The DOJ is doubling its staff for investigating crypto related crimes. Link. 

- The US Federal Reserve launched its instant payments service, FedNow, which allows for payments to be sent instantly in the US as opposed to a few hours or days. Link. 

- Crypto oracle Chainlink launched its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) which supports pricing across Avalanche, Ethereum, Optimism, and Polygon. Link. 

- Celsius Network reached a settlement that potentially clears a path for it to return assets to customers, settling the 30,000 claims seeking $78 billion of assets. Link. Link.  

- OpenSea released “Deals”, a peer-to-peer NFT swap function that allows collectors to trade NFTs as well as wrapped ETH (WETH). Link. Tweet. 

- VC funding in Web3 startups for 1H 2023 was $3.6 billion, down 78% compared to 1H 2022 which saw $16 billion in funding. Link. 

- The DOJ accused former FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried of leaking Alameda CEO Caron Ellison’s personal diary to the New York Times in an attempt to discredit her as a witness in his upcoming trial. Ellison admitted in her diary that she did not feel well suited to run Alameda and felt great when FTX collapsed. Link. Link. Link. 

- Canadian police have warned of a growing trend of home invasion robberies targeting wealthy cryptocurrency investors, where thieves steal seed phrases. Link. 

- The majority of crypto used to fund the fentanyl trade comes from centralized exchanges despite US politicians using the fentanyl crisis as a reason to strictly regulate DeFi. Link. 

- FTX filed a lawsuit against founder Sam Bankman-Fried and other former executives, seeking to recover $1 billion they are accused of misappropriating prior to the exchange's bankruptcy. Link. 

- A bipartisan group of senators introduced a draft bill that would require all DeFi protocols to follow anti-money laundering and US economic sanction rules. Link. 

- Neopets canceled plans for an NFT game after selling over 9,000 Solana NFTs and raising capital from Polygon and Avalanche. Link. 

- New York-based venture capital firm Coinfund has raised $158 million in its latest funding round. Link. 

- Polychain Capital raises $200 million for its fourth venture fund. Link. 

- A New York couple accused of laundering $4.5 billion of crypto related to the 2016 hacking of the Bitfinex exchange entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors and face up to 25 years in federal prison. Link. Link. Link. 

- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is meeting with House Democrats to discuss digital-asset legislation and related issues. Link. Link.