Blockchain Industry Update (Dogecoin, JPMorgan, Circle K)

This week check out the DeFi market position and its impact on the Industry.

Crypto

• Former BitGo employee will help deploy Andreessen Horowitz’s $2.2B crypto fund. Arianna Simpson has been a general partner at the venture capital firm for more than a year as a16z led several high-profile raises for crypto and blockchain companies.
• Binance burns $390M in BNB, implying $2B Q2 Profits
• The Turkish government has prepared a bill designed to implement new regulations for the country’s crypto space.
• Dogecoin becomes the 7th cryptocurrency accepted on Coinbase Commerce. Coinbase’s e-commerce platform now offers a new way to spend Elon Musk’s favorite meme cryptocurrency.
• FTX bought out Binance’s shares in its company, ending their investment relationship. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried says, I think there are some differences between how we run our businesses.
• Tether has announced that it will conduct an official and independent audit of its stablecoin reserves.
• Natwest, a major high street bank in the U.K., has blocked payments to crypto exchange Binance.
• Crypto exchange FTX has lowered its limit on leverage trading from 101X to 20X, according to FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, mainly due to a lack of use.
• Robinhood eyes crypto lending and staking services. Robinhood has decided how to bulk out its upcoming crypto wallet.

Bitcoin

• Robinhood says Bitcoin is its most-traded cryptocurrency ahead of IPO. The S-1 form revealed bitcoin grew 575% on the trading platform from about $8 billion in February 2018 to $54 billion in March 2021.
• Trading firm of richest crypto billionaire reveals buying a lot more Bitcoin below $30K. Alameda Research, headed by Sam Bankman-Fried, whose net worth lately reached over $8 billion, has upped its Bitcoin buying around its key psychological support of $30,000.

• Many JPMorgan clients see Bitcoin as an asset class, says senior exec. The volatility you see in it today just has to play itself out, JPMorgan’s director of asset and wealth management said.
• ARK Invest buys another $10.8M in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust. Cathie Wood doubles down on Bitcoin-focused stocks as ARK Invest snaps more shares in Coinbase and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust.
• Elon Musk has stated that Tesla will most likely resume accepting Bitcoin for car payments. He pointed out that Bitcoin mining had shifted more towards renewables as China clamped down on coal-powered BTC mining within its borders.
• Global X, a New York-based global provider of exchange-traded funds with $30 billion in AUM has filed for a Bitcoin ETF with the US SEC.
• $10B asset manager registers new Bitcoin fund with SEC. Stone Ridge Asset Management, has been actively pursuing new investment vehicles for Bitcoin. On Friday, Stone Ridge’s open-end mutual fund revealed a new Bitcoin-focused investment strategy.
• Circle K, a leading convenience and fuel retailer, is deploying bitcoin ATMs in its stores across the U.S. and Canada. More than 700 machines operated by Bitcoin Depot have already been installed.
• Brazilian Police seize $33m in Bitcoin Exchange Investigation. Brazil has launched Operation Exchange, a probe into local crypto exchanges that helped criminals launder money.
• Bitcoin price is currently in recovery mode after briefly plummeting below $30,000. According to PrimeXBT market analyst Kim Chua, the recovery has legs and could take Bitcoin to $42,000.
• Major Thai telecom operator plans to out-mine all of South-East-Asia. Jasmine Telecom Systems has announced its ambitious Bitcoin mining plans to become the largest BTC miner in Southeast Asia.

Blockchain

• Grayscale Investments and CoinDesk Indexes, a subsidiary of CoinDesk, launch the GrayscaleDecentralized Finance Fund, a diversified investment product, and the CoinDesk DeFi Index. The Fund is now open for daily subscription by eligible individual and institutional accredited investors.
• JPMorgan is on a hiring spree for its blockchain unit Onyx. It appears that it wants to beef up its marketing and external presence through some of these hires
• BSC DeFi app Pancakebunny releases post-mortem of $2.4 million exploit. 1,281 Ethereum worth approximately $2.4 million stolen in a flash loan attack.
• Blockchain Startups raised over $4 Billion in VC Funding in Q2 2021. Most blockchain-based startups have seen funding from venture backers, despite the current cryptocurrency market downturn, recording over $4 billion in Q2 alone.
• Litecoin whales holding 1k to 100k LTC have increased their holdings by 270k in the month of July. Unique addresses on the Litecoin network have also grown by 47.5% in the last 10 days.
• Countries representing over 90% of global GDP are exploring CBDCs. Governments around the world are pouring more resources into CBDC research and exploratory use cases.
• DeFi tokens book double-digit gains after Bitcoin rallies above $39,000. AMP, XVS and RSR price saw strong breakouts after a short squeeze sent Bitcoin price within a hair of the $40,000 level.
• Lyra, a DeFi platform focused on options trading and built on the Ethereum layer 2 protocol Optimism, has raised $3.3 million in seed funding.
• Aave to launch institutional DeFi platform Aave Arc within weeks.

Credit: Telegram VYSYN – Capital News

Read our previous blogs here