This week's newsletter co-authored by @serdave
PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- BTC ($19,493): +2% / -59%
- ETH ($1,331): +3% / -64%
- XRP ($0.46): -3% / -45%
- UNI ($6.17): +1% / -64%
- Crypto Market Cap ($934B): +2% / -58%
- BTC Dominance: 40%
- ETH Dominance: 18%
STABLECOIN MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Tether ($68B): 0% / -13%
- USDC ($44B): -2% / +4%
NFT 3M TRADING VOLUMES
THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried outlined suggestions for crypto regulations, including OFAC compliance, regulating websites that facilitate trading on Dexes, and standardizing risk disclosures. SBFs post received a lot of backlash, with critics arguing the billionaire is benefiting his own company and hurting the broader crypto community. Link. Link. SBF tweet. SBF tweet (part 2).
Maaria note: if you care about crypto regulation I strongly urge you to read SBF’s policy suggestions and Eric Voorhees’s response.
- Crypto adoption slowed in the first half of 2022 compared to Q2 and Q4 2021, but remains higher than pre-bull market levels. Adoption is highest in countries where crypto is used for remittances and to protect against inflation. Link.
- The U.S. ranks fifth in the world on crypto adoption, and is the global leader in DeFi which accounts for 37% of US transaction volumes. DEXes lead in total value received, but lag well behind NFTs in website traffic and number of individual transfers. Link. Chainalysis Report (PDF).
- Coinbase is waiving commission fees for USDC. Link. Blog Post.
- Over a fifth of enforcement cases brought by the CFTC in 2022 were crypto-related. Link.
- More than 3 million wallets have bought and traded Reddit NFTs since the platform’s launch in July. Reddit partnered with 30 artists to create 40,000 NFT avatar designs that can be purchased via the Reddit mobile app at prices ranging from $10 to $100. The NFTs are minted on Polygon. Link. Link.
- Fintech platform Plaid released its first crypto-native product called “Wallet Onboard”. The new wallet interface will enable Web3 builders to access over 300 wallets, including Metamask, Ledger and Coinbase Wallet. Link.
- The IRS released its 2022 tax year guide and NFTs, stablecoins, and cryptocurrencies are all set to be taxed under the same rules. Link. 2022 Guide (PDF).
- Bitcoin’s volatility fell to two year lows, and has slightly deviated from its typical tight correlation with tech stocks. Link.
- Ripple won a court order against the SEC and was granted access to the famous “Hinman docs”, internal SEC emails around its discussion of bitcoin and ethereum. The documents revolve around a 2018 speech by former SEC director William Himan where he said that Ethereum - like Bitcoin - was “sufficiently decentralized” and thus not subject to federal securities regulation. Link. Ripple GC Tweet.
- NFT creators earned $1.8 billion in royalties from secondary sales according to a new report from Galaxy Digital. 27% of those royalties were earned by 10 companies. Average royalty amount has doubled over the past year from 3% to 6%. Link. Report.
- Stablecoins make up almost 16% of the crypto market. Stablecoin dominance peaked in June at around 18.5%. Link.
- Ethereum token supply is on track to drop below pre-merge levels in the next 5-7 days due to heightened network activity. The switch to proof of stake combined with EIP-1559, has the potential to make ETH deflationary. Link.
- MakerDAO, the issuer of the stablecoin DAI, is set to approve a governance proposal that would transfer $1.1 billion USDC to Coinbase Prime to participate in its institutional rewards program. The DAO will earn an estimated $15 million in annual rewards. Link.
- Binance accidentally made itself the second-largest Uniswap delegate with 5.9% voting power. The exchange, which custodies UNI tokens on behalf of its customers, accidentally delegated the custodied tokens to itself. Binance clarified it has no plans to participate in governance with its users tokens. Link.
- The launch of Aptos, the new Layer 1 founded by ex-Meta / Diem employees, was widely panned for its opaque tokenomics, inconsistent communications, and lower transaction throughput than promised. Aptos eventually released more info on its tokenomics, which included a 49% allocation to developers and private investors. The Aptos token fell 40% its first day. Link. Link. Tweet.
- Upcoming elections mean the stablecoin and CTFC bill likely will not pass before the current term of Congress ends in January. Rep Jim Himes said, “Four years ago if you said Bitcoin, crypto, and DeFi in the halls of Congress nobody would have known what you were talking about. The progress that has been made in Congress is pretty remarkable.” Link. Link.
- Institutional clients of Fidelity Digital Assets, one of the largest asset managers in the world, will be able to trade ETH at the end of this month. Link.
- The former head of policy and regulatory affairs at bankrupt crypto lender Celsius is joining JPMorgan as its head of crypto regulatory policy. Link.
- New NFT marketplace Blur is airdropping tokens to users that list NFTs on its platform The marketplace is backed by Paradigm and has been in private beta phase for about 4 months. Link.
- Bankrupt crypto lender Voyager wants its CEO Stephen Ehrlich to pay $1.1 million in cash to the firm as a settlement for his negligence in approving a $1 billion crypto loan to 3AC without requiring very much financial disclosure. Link.
- Grayscale Investments is getting support from tradfi and DeFi as it seeks to overturn the SEC’s rejection of its bitcoin ETF. Link. Link.
- Decentralized stablecoin issuer Frax Finance is making its liquid staking protocol publicly available in two weeks. Similar to Lido, users will be able to stake ETH and will receive Frax Ether (frxETH) which will be freely tradable on DeFi platforms. Link.
- Texas regulators are investigating whether FTX US offered unregistered securities in its yield-bearing accounts. Link.
- XRP is testing an EVM sidechain that aims to bring ethereum-based smart contracts to XRP, the cross-border payments protocol from Ripple. The side chain expects to be deployed to mainnet in Q2 2023. Link.
- Mastercard is launching Crypto Secure, a new software product designed to help banks and card issuers identify and block suspicious transactions from crypto exchanges. Link.
- Mango Markets, the decentralized exchange that was exploited for $114 million last week, is proposing to pay back users using various tokens. The Mango community had voted to allow the exploiter to keep $47 million, while returning the remaining $67 million to the community. This ‘bounty’ is one of the highest ever paid. Link.
- NFT marketplace Rarible introduced an NFT aggregator that allows users to browse listings across several marketplaces and compare prices. Link.
- A real estate investor purchased a three-bedroom home in South Carolina via Roofstock onChain for $175,000 paid in USDC. Each rental property sold on Roofstock via NFT is owned by an LLC registered in Wyoming, and the NFT sold is under the sole ownership of the LLC. Link.
- The SEC and CFTC are investigating Three Arrows Capital (3AC) for misleading investors. Link.
- Nubank, the largest Brazilian digital bank, plans to release its own token called nucoin on Polygon. Nucoin will be built on Polygon and will be available to Nubank’s 70 million users in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Link.
- Tether will make USDT available at 24,000 ATMs in Brazil. The ATMs allow users to easily convert between USDT and fiat like Brazilian Real. Link.
- A16z crypto is launching a crypto accelerator program in Los Angeles. Participants in the 12-week program will receive $500,000 in seed funding as well as access to mentors and advisors. Link.
- South Korean authorities said that reports of Do Kwon leaving Singapore for Dubai are “not false”. The Terra founder has been the subject of an Interpol red notice since September. Link. Link.
- Telegram is auctioning off usernames on The Open Network blockchain. The social media company also hinted at selling other parts of the app such as channels and emojis. Link.