PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($10,412): -9% / +178%
- ETH ($195): -9% / +46%
- LTC ($77): -14% / +154%
- XRP ($0.29): -6% / -19%
- Crypto Market Cap ($272B): -9% / +117%
- BTC Dominance: 68%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- Ethereum-based banking platform Monolith is issuing a new Visa debit card, which allows users to spend Dai stablecoin anywhere in the world at stores that accept Visa payments. Users add tokens to the platforms wallet app and on the backend Monolith trades those assets and puts the equivalent fiat value on the cards. Merchants receive British pounds or euros, depending on the jurisdiction. The debit card is currently only issued in Europe. Link. 

- Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase Custody, has said that the exchange's custody unit has been receiving $200-400 million per week in new crypto deposits from institutional customers. The comments came hours after Coinbase confirmed its acquisition of rival Xapo's institutional custody business for $55 million. With this acquisition Coinbase says it has over $7 billion in digital assets under its custody. Link. Link. 

- Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by volumes, is preparing for a US launch that could go live by November, though it won't serve NY residents initially. Binance announced plans to launch a fiat-to-crypto exchange in the US last month and is considering 30 tokens for listing at launch. Its main website, Binance.com will be unavailable to US residents in September. So far Binance has only launched three international fiat-to-crypto exchanges in Uganda, Jersey and Singapore; the US would be its fourth international fiat-to-crypto exchange. Link. 

- Bakkt, a subsidiary of the Intercontinental Exchange, received regulatory approval to launch its platform for trading physically-settled bitcoin futures contracts. The company intends to launch on September 23. Bakkt will offer two types of contracts: a daily and a monthly contract. While Bakkt is first to market with this product, derivatives provider LedgerX and TD Ameritrade-backed ErisX are also looking to offer bitcoin futures contracts to investors. Link.  

- A new report from Coin Metrics says that only about 300 entities control around 80% of Tether, a controversial stablecoin that serves as a conduit for trading on many of the world's largest crypto exchanges. The concentration of Tether brings risks that a few central players can swing Bitcoin prices. The currency was used in 40% and 80% of all transactions on two of the world's top crypto exchanges, Binance and Huobi, respectively. Tether whales include some of the world's largest exchanges like Binance and Bitfinex, whose owners also issue Tether. A finance professor from the University of Texas has linked Tether to market manipulation and the dramatic surge in Bitcoin's price in 2017. Link. 

- Ripple's subsidiary, Xpring, has granted 1 billion XRP to Coil, a micropayments platform for content creators. The grant is worth roughly $262 million at today's XRP price. Coil makes it easier for content creators, such as journalists and video creators, to monetize and distribute their content across the web, and uses Ripple's Interledger Protocol to enable streaming micropayments. Coil recently invested $20M in Imgur to bring its monetization platform the photo sharing site. Link. 

- Blade, a newly launched crypto derivatives exchange, raised $4.3 million in seed funding from investors like Coinbase, SV Angel, A Capital, Slow Ventures, and Justin Kan. The company was founded by Jeff Byun and Henry Lee, who previously founded OrderAhead, a delivery startup platform that was eventually in-part by Square in 2017. The exchange is offering perpetual swap contracts, a crypto-native trading instrument that allows traders to bet on the future values of cryptocurrencies in relation to another with no expiration dates. Link. 

- Crypto lending is valued at over $4.7 billion but lenders have earned back only $86 million (1,83 percent). A new report from crypto credit assessment startup Graychain shows that approximately 244,000 loans have been originated over the past 18 months. Celsius and Genesis have the highest volume with 65% of loan originations. Graychain sourced its data from public blockchains, including MakerDAO, Compound, dydx, and Nuo, self-reporting, and public data such as press releases. Link.

- The SEC postponed a decision on approving two Bitcoin ETFs, the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Trust and the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust. The head of the commission has said previously that concern over a lack of investor protections makes it unlikely his agency will approve a Bitcoin ETF anytime soon. Link. 

- Walmart filed a patent for blockchain-backed drone communication. According to the patent, blockchain technology is used to transmit information like drone ID numbers, flight heights, flight speeds, flight routes, battery info, or loading capacity, ot other drones. The benefit of blockchain tech lies in data integrity. Link. 

- After a proposed cryptocurrency bill failed to pass, Nevada crypto ATM operators will be required to file for state money transmission licenses and pay a surety bond fee of $5,000 per kiosk. Link. 

- Crypto exchange Poloniex announced it was removing 23 trading pairs of cryptocurrencies due to "low volume". This includes pairs like litecoin/monero, zcash/XMR, and Civic/ether. Poloniex's market share has collapsed to 1.1% as compared to Binance's 56%. In an attempt to gain market share, the exchange recently started offering fiat-to-crypto trading. Link. 

- Coinmine, a consumer-facing cryptocurrency mining startup, has raised a $2.5 million seed round led by M13. The company previously raised $2 million in November. Coinmine is best known for its plug-and-play mining device, the Coinmine One, which enables everyday consumers to mine bitcoin, ether, zcash, monero, and Grin. Link.