This week's newsletter co-authored by @serdave

PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($18,801):  0% / -60%
- ETH ($1,294):  0% / -65%
- XRP ($0.49):  +44% / -41%
- UNI ($5.67):  +8% / -67%
- Crypto Market Cap ($924B):  +2% / -58%
- BTC Dominance: 39%
- ETH Dominance: 17% 

STABLECOIN MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- Tether ($68B): 0% / -13%
- USDC ($50B): -1% / +17%

NFT 3M TRADING VOLUMES

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- The CFTC filed a lawsuit against a DAO for its involvement with the bZeroX protocol. The SEC had settled charges with the founders of the protocol for “illegally offering leveraged and margined retail commodity transactions in digital assets,” as well as failing to KYC it’s customers. The CFTC alleges that the DAO violated the same laws. A dissenting CFTC commissioner called the action “blatant regulation by enforcement” and said it fails to “rely on the legal authority” of the Commission’s mandate. Link. Link. Dissenting statement. 

- Draft legislation for regulating stablecoins includes a 2-year ban on algorithmic stablecoins. Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin UST crashed in May and wiped out billions from the crypto ecosystem, and renewed regulator interest in stablecoins. The bill would also allow banks and nonbanks to issue stablecoins. Link. Link.

- Fraud detection platform Sardine raised a $51 million Series B led by a16z. Sardine’s platform  provides an instant ACH and card onramp to crypto, and also supports purchasing NFTs with fiat. Link. Link. 

- Crypto exchange FTX is in discussions to raise up to $1 billion at a $32 billion valuation. Link. 

- Crypto market maker Wintermute was hacked for $160 million. Roughly 90 assets were stolen  from an Ethereum wallet used for DeFi prop trading. Wintermute’s OTC products and market making services were unaffected. Link. Link. Tweet. 

- Coin mixer Tornado Cash’s source code is back on Github after being taken down last month following sanctions from the US Department of Treasury. Link.

- California governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required crypto companies to apply for a crypto license in order to operate in the state, similar to New York’s controversial BitLicense. Link. 

- Ethereum miners dumped over 16,000 ETH, worth more than $20 million, after the Merge. Miners still hold 245,000 ETH and could put pricing pressure on the currency. Link. 

- Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, called cryptocurrencies “decentralized Ponzi schemes”. Link.  

- Robinhood lists USDC as the first stablecoin offered on its trading platform. Robinhood customers can now trade 17 different cryptocurrencies on the platform. Link. 

- Nasdaq is launching an institutional crypto custody service, pending regulatory approval. Link. 

- The cost of a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain hit a two year low even though transaction count and active addresses are up 20% and 60% respectively. The decline in gas fees could be because transacting users are opting out of paying a premium to get their transactions confirmed faster. Link. 

- Disney is looking to hire a transaction lawyer to focus on NFT and blockchain projects. The job posting comes just two weeks after Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced that the company is exploring opportunities in the metaverse. Transaction lawyers typically review M&A deals and other complex business dealings. Link. Job Post. 

- OpenSea is launching a new UX for minting and selling NFTs directly on its platform. It is also releasing SeaDrop, an open source contract for NFTs. Link. Blog Post. 

- Tether’s USDT stablecoin is now supported on the Polkadot blockchain. Tether is the largest stablecoin with a market cap of roughly $67.5 billion. Link. Blog Post. 

- Chiru Labs, creator of popular NFT collection Azuki, is raising a $30 million Series A at a valuation between $300 million and $400 million. Link. 

- Autograph, the NFT platform co-founded by Tom Brady, is launching golf digital collectibles in partnership with the PGA Tour. The platform is expected to go live in 2023 and will sell NFTs of notable moments in golf history. Link. 

- Kraken’s CEO Jesse Powell is stepping down, and COO Dave Ripley is taking over in the interim. Kraken launched in 2011 and is currently the fourth largest crypto exchange by spot volumes. Link. 

- OpenSea is adding support for Layer 2 chain Arbitrum. The platform currently supports the Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and Klaytn networks. Link. 

- Helium developer Nova Labs is launching a decentralized 5G network in partnership with T Mobile. Helium Mobile is set to launch in Q1. Link. 

- Colorado is the first state to accept cryptocurrency for state taxes. Taxpayers can pay their taxes using PayPal, which supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. Link. 

- Immortal Games raised a $12 million Series A from TCG Crypto. The startup wants to turn chess into a web3 game with NFTs, play-to-earn rewards, and quests. Link. 

- Nibiru, a new crypto derivatives protocol, raised a $7.5 million Seed round at $100 million valuation from Tribe Capital. Link.

- BUSD, the stablecoin from Binance and Paxos, is now available on Polygon and Avalanche. Binance had effectively delisted its competitors USDC and USDT by converting its customers holdings of the two competing stablecoins into BUSD. BUSD is the third largest stablecoin with a market cap of over $20 billion. Link. 

- The SEC charged YouTuber Ian Balina for his involvement with an unregistered ICO. In 2018, Balina had promoted the $30 million ICO for no-code development platform Sparkster without disclosing he was being compensated by the team. Link. The SEC claimed jurisdiction over the ICO because the majority of Ethereum nodes reside in the US. Case Filing. 

- Coinbase secured registration from the Netherlands central bank, bringing it one step closer to eventually operating in the entire European Union. Coinbase is the third exchange to gain tentative EU regulatory approval, after Binance and Bitstamp. Link. 

- Crypto firm Chain signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with the New England Patriots. Link. 

- According to a new Chainalysis report, crypto adoption in Central and South Asia is being driven by NFTs. Roughly 58% of the region’s crypto-related web traffic in Q2 was NFT related. 21% of traffic went to play to earn blockchain games. Link. Report. 

- DARPA is developing a digital mapping tool that will help the U.S. government and the private sector understand how crypto may be linked to money laundering, terrorist financing and sanction evading. The agency also wants to understand how cryptocurrency can affect traditional financial systems and vice versa. Link.