Bitcoin has closed lower for the week, residing at US$27,337 down just under US$1k at the time of reporting. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has been experiencing network congestion and upward pressure on transaction costs due to the popularity of Bitcoin Ordinals and the increased interest in BRC-20 memecoins such as Pepe. Stablecoin issuer Tether announced on Wednesday it will use as much as 15% of its net operating profit to purchase Bitcoin from this month.
Ethereum followed a similar trajectory to bitcoin over the last week, but is currently at US$1,822, close to the same level as 7 days ago.
Litecoin rose the most out of the majors for the week up 16%. Litecoin has a finite supply and works on a proof-of-work model. It faced a surge in interest due to the higher transaction fees affecting Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency is having its quadrennial block halving event on 3 August 2023. Halving refers to a pre-programmed reduction of the rate at which new tokens are created, which reduces supply and can drive prices higher.
The NFT market overall fell 1.5% for the week. 24-our NFT sales on Ethereum decreased 3.84% to US$18.5 million, as sales for the Bored Ape Yacht Club fell 17.05% to US$2.2 million. Mutant Ape Yacht Club sales also fell 22.21% to US$1.09 million, while Milady Maker saw a 113.46% surge to US$1.1 million.
EU Council approves MiCA for clear crypto regulation – The EU brings crypto-assets, crypto-assets issuers and crypto-asset service providers under a regulatory framework. MiCA will protect investors by increasing transparency and putting in place a comprehensive framework for issuers and service providers including compliance with the anti-money laundering rules.
SEC warns Filecoin ‘meets definition of a security’- The regulator has asked Grayscale to withdraw its application for a Filecoin Trust product, saying its underlying asset “meets the definition of a security.”
BIS issues offline CBDC payments paper – The BIS Innovation Hub Nordic Centre published a comprehensive handbook exploring how CBDCs could work for offline payments. There was a heavy focus around some of the risks in this sphere including counterfeiting, fraud and privacy risks.
Binance pulls out of Canada amid new crypto regulations – Binance said late last week it was withdrawing from Canada, weeks after the country issued a series of new guidelines for cryptocurrency exchanges including investor limits and mandatory registrations. Canada has tightened regulations for crypto asset trading platforms in recent months, with the introduction of a pre-registration process.
AI x Crypto combine – MakerDAO releases its roadmap featuring funding for open-source AI projects – The intersection of Crypto Communities and AI is happening. The DAI stablecoin proprietor MakerDAO offered up an AI-heavy roadmap for the future with plans for a new blockchain.
Line popular across SE Asia expands into Web3 gaming – Line Next, an NFT-centric, United States-based subsidiary of the company behind popular Asian social app Line, revealed the first five games that it plans to release on its Web3 gaming platform Game Dosi in the second half of 2023. This isn’t the first foray into NFTs for the Line brand. IPX, the parent company for the popular Line Friends characters, recently revealed a collaborative partnership with Chiru Labs, the company behind the Ethereum-based NFT project, Azuki.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman nears $100mn funding for Worldcoin crypto project – Worldcoin was founded by Altman and Alex Blania in 2019. It has grand ambitions, with plans to use eyeball-scanning technology to create a global identification system which could be used to gain free access to its own global currency, Worldcoin
Ripple heads into the custody business through the acquisition of Crypto Custody Firm Metaco for $250M – The growing institutional crypto custody market is expected to reach a staggering $10T by 2030. Diversifying into custody solutions will bring new revenue opportunities. Metaco will continue to operate as an independent business unit led by its founder and CEO Adrien Treccani. Ripple is to become the sole shareholder of Metaco.
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