PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($9,568): -9% / +155%
- ETH ($209): -6% / +57%
- LTC ($90): -9% / +195%
- XRP ($0.31): -6% / -12%
- Crypto Market Cap ($265B): -8% / 110%
- BTC Dominance: 65%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- The IRS is sending letters to over 10,000 cryptocurrency investors, urging them to report and pay their tax properly. Although the IRS doesn't specify how it identified crypto investors it is likely the regulator obtained some of these names from Coinbase, which turned over information on 13,000 accounts on its exchange platform in 2018. Link. 

- The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrencies and blockchain next week. The open session will take place on July 30th and will be livestreamed. The Senate Banking Committee has held a number of hearings around the space, with the most recent taking place last week and focused on Facebook's Libra project.Link. 

- The SEC approved the first-ever Ethereum token sale form blockchain-based gaming startup Pocketful of Quarters. The ruling means PoQ can sell its Quarters tokens without registering them as securities. The approval came with a number of conditions though, including that the Quarters tokens be immediately usable for their intended purpose of gaming at the time they are sold and only developers and "influencers" with approved accounts be able to transact. Link. 

- Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun cited health issues and postponed his charity lunch with crypto skeptic Warren Buffet this week. Some speculated that Sun was actually being detained by Chinese regulators, and that his crypto company, Tron, is under investigation. Tron lost roughly 16% of its value this week on the news. Earlier this year Sun bid $4.57 million and won a lunch with Buffett - Sun was hoping to educate Buffett on the benefits of digital currencies and their underlying technology, blockchain. Link. 

- Online shopping and rewards platform Lolli announced a partnership with American grocery chain Safeway earlier this week. Safeway customers can earn 3-5% in bitcoin for shopping online and ordering groceries, beauty products, or pharmacy items online at Safeway.com for pickup at any of the retailers 900 US locations. Link. 

- The New York Times is testing a new project to combat misinformation and adulterated media. The News Provenance Project is going to use Hyperledger Fabric's permissions blockchain to authenticate news photographs in partnership with accelerator IBM Garage. The project will store a news items contextual metadata on a blockchain, including when and where a photo or video was shot, who took it, and information related to how it was edited and published. New York Times will run a proof-of-concept from July until late 2019 to test the platform's effectiveness in building trust in digital files. Link. 

- Decentralized identity startup Civic Technologies is building a crypto wallet that will provide a back-up solution for BitGo's multisg custodian platform. The Civic Wallet will store minimal user data for account recovery and compliance purposes, and will verify users through Identity.com, which Civic purchased in 2018. Civic plans to release the wallet in Q4 2019. Link. 

- Verizon appears to be moving into the blockchain space and is looking to hire at least five blockchain engineers. Details about the roles suggest that Verizon is looking to build a consumer-facing product geared towards privacy, security and payments. Some of the job descriptions also state the company is looking to build a "distributed network", with "various use cases". Link. 

- A new survey from crypto asset manager Grayscale found that one-third of Americans between the ages of 25 and 64 are interested in buying bitcoin, but are concerned with issues such as hacks and lack of regulation. Grayscale said that the bitcoin-interested investors were often middle-aged, middle-class, and suburban, and most (70%) are parents and nearly half (49%) make less than $100,000 per year. Link. 

- Monex Group, the Japan-based online brokerage that also owns crypto exchange Coincheck, submitted an application to join Facebook's Libra project. The Libra Association will reportedly be reviewing the group's application around the end of September. Link. 

- Bakkt, the ICE-backed project, is gearing up for a Q3 launch date. The project is still waiting for approval from New York regulators to operate the "Bakkt Warehouse" which would allow Bakkt to serve as a qualified custodian for the bitcoin that underpins its physically delivered futures. Initially Bakkt is building The first end-to-end regulated environment for traders to deliver and receive bitcoin in exchange for USD in standardized settlement cycles, but eventually it wants to apply these same fundamentals to any and all physical futures contracts. Link. 

- Ripple sold $251 million in XRP in Q2 2019, the highest quarterly sum the company has ever sold. Ripple has sold a total of $1.1 billion of XRP since Q4 2016, 36% to exchanges and the remainder to institutions. Link.