PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($10,063): -3% / +169%
- ETH ($185): -5% / +39%
- LTC ($72): -7% / +136%
- XRP ($0.27): -6% / -23%
- Crypto Market Cap ($263B): -4% / +109%
- BTC Dominance: 69%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- According to a report from the Financial Times, three unnamed firms are considering backing out of Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency project due to growing pressure from regulators. The EU was recently reported to investigating the Libra Association over potential antitrust issues, while in the US lawmakers have called for Libra to be halted until regulatory issues are addressed. Since its debut in June, the Libra Association has reportedly been joined by 28 member firms who have signed a nonbinding letter of intent and committed $10 million to be a part of the project. This includes major firms such as Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Uber, and Coinbase. Link. 

- Binance, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, announced plans for Venus, a project that will develop regional stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies. The idea behind Venus is to build independent, autonomous, and regional versions of Libra across the world. Link. 

- Blockchain.com, one of the largest crypto wallet providers with 38 million users, announced a partnership with bitcoin payment processor, BitPay. Blockchain will integrate BitPay's payment architecture into its wallet service, allowing Blockchain.com wallet users to pay merchants online or on mobile. BitPay process approximately $1 billion in bitcoin every year for businesses and individuals. Link. 

- The FDA may incorporate blockchain to modernize the way health care providers, drug manufacturers, and regulatory agencies communicate. Using blockchain can improve interoperability and the reviewal process for new medicines due to increased real-time collaboration and data sharing. The new communication system could be rolled out as soon as the next few months. Link. 

- Crypto custodian Anchorage is adding Stellar and Tezos to its list of eligible assets, making it one of the first regulated entities to offer custody support for Stellar. Anchorage says these proof-of-stake protocols were nominated because they offer premium interest rewards (between 1-7%) for participating token-holders, and that clients would be able to nominate their staking set up. Anchorage raised a $40 million Series B last month, backed by Visa and Blockchain Capital.Link. 

- Litecoin's mining power has fallen 28% since it's recent "halving" event, which reduced Litecoin's block mining rewards from 25 LTC to 12.5 LTC. The decrease in block rewards has significantly reduced profitability for mining Litecoin, so many miners have taken to unplugging their machines. Litecoin's mining difficulty is designed to automatically adjust approximately 4 days, to ensure the block-producing interval remains about 2.5 minutes based on the average hashing power in the current cycle. Link. 

- Bitcoin rewards platform Lolli announced a partnership with delivery service Postmates allowing users of the delivery service to earn bitcoin similar to cash-back programs like Honey and Ebates. Lolli has over 750 online retail partners including Walmart, Sephora, Safeway, and Hotels.com.Link.

- Circle is hiring a new general partner to raise a $100 million venture capital fund, which will take advantage of deal flow coming through SeedInvest, the equity crowdfunding startup that Circle acquired in March 2019. At the time of the SeedInvest acquisition, Circle noted that there was a massive opportunity to use the platform to tokenize equity in new companies. Link. 

- Recruit Holdings, the $50 billion Japanese internet giant, has made a strategic investment in Blockstack PBC and is purchasing Blockstack's STACK tokens as part of the deal. The investment opens Blockstack, the decentralized computing and app network, up to expanding into the Japanese market. In July Blockstack conducted the first token offering approved by the SEC.Link. 

- For years Hamas has been using bitcoin for cross-border fundraising bringing awareness of cryptocurrency to that region. Now, civilian bitcoin usage in the Gaza Strip is up significantly and dwarfs the estimates of crypto-based terror financing. PayPal and other online services exclude the Palestinian territories, so bitcoin has become one of the few ways for people to receive international payments. Most civilians are cashing the bitcoin out in fiat, not holding or using it for secondary business transactions. Link. 

- Traki, one of the largest chains of department stores in Venezuela, is now accepting payments in 10 cryptocurrencies and tokens, including bitcoin and Binance coin. Singapore-based blockchain startup, Pundi X, has enabled its PoS device across Traki's 49 stores for the initiative. Venezuela's hyperinflation situation and lack of cash have led to an increase in the usage of cryptocurrencies, which provide a way to protect the value of liquid assets. Link. 

- A White House Advisory group warned that cryptocurrencies can and have been used to buy fentanyl from China. The report named bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum and monero as having been used for illicit substance purchases on the clear, deep, and dark nets. Link. 

- Problems with AWS disrupted services at some crypto exchanges last week. KuCoin and Binance both reported issues for their Asian markets. There are some reports that traders were able to buy 45 bitcoin for less than $1, when the price of bitcoin at the time was over $10,000. In other instances, some users were able to execute trades on bitcoin for as low as $0.32. Binance has since temporarily disabled deposits and withdrawals to address the problems. Link. 

- Stablecoin issuer Tether is going to issue a new stablecoin, dubbed "CNHT", pegged to offshore Chinese yuan (CNH). CNHT will be the fourth stablecoin launched by Tether, joining stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, euro, and the Japanese yen (which has yet to be launched). Link.