Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Investments news
- Major US-based crypto investment company Grayscale Investments said it has sold some existing constituents of its Digital Large Cap Fund and used the proceeds to buy cardano (ADA). At the end of the day on July 1, the Fund Components were a basket of 67.47% bitcoin (BTC), 25.39% ethereum (ETH), 4.26% ADA, 1.03% bitcoin cash (BCH), 0.99% litecoin (LTC), and 0.86% chainlink (LINK).
- Two senior analysts at banking giant JPMorgan said that Ethereum’s move to staking might generate a USD 40bn industry by 2025, whereas it generates around USD 9bn annually at this point, per a report on Forbes. They further predict that staking will become a growing source of income for cryptoasset intermediaries.
- USD 200m crypto hedge fund by a JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs alumni, Nickel Digital Asset Management, cycled into a cash position following the crypto market collapse in May, Bloomberg reported. The company redeployed its capital in anticipation of another explosive price run for cryptocurrencies.
- Bling, a platform that enables game developers to give bitcoin rewards, said it closed an unspecified seed round to grow its team and further develop its platform. The round included a strategic investment by Coinbase Ventures, they added.
Economics news
- In the US, in May, payrolls increased by 559,000 after a revised 278,000 gain in April, Bloomberg reported. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for a 675,000 rise. The jobless rate dropped to 5.8%, while the labor participation rate was little changed, it added.
Exchanges news
- Crypto exchange Huobi Global said it has introduced a 24-hour token withdrawal delay for all over-the-counter (OTC) trades. This is a part of the effort to “gradually introduce a number of risk control strategies encompassing a larger section of users,” the exchange said, adding that it expects the delay to “effectively avoid user losses caused by the inflow of risky funds and protect the safety of users’ assets.”
- Coinbase has started offering institutional customers access to more trading pairs and payments options through fiat currencies, it said. It now offers the fiat rails to enable deposits and withdrawals in USD, EUR, or GBP and access to the related trading pairs, in a move that it described as “a top request from international clients [which] has the potential to unlock billions of dollars in trading volume through improved access to major pools of liquidity.”
- Bithumb has banned its employees from using internal accounts to trade crypto in a bid to prevent insider trading. It said it ordered its executives and employees to withdraw funds from their accounts before the end of June.
- Overseas crypto exchanges that have a customer base in India may have to pay additional tax in the form of goods and services tax (GST), The Economic Times reported, adding that “the department of indirect taxes is looking into whether these exchanges are required to pay GST in India as they provide certain “data” services.”
CBDCs news
- Ukraine has given the clearest signal yet that it is on course to issue a digital form of its currency, the hryvnia. In a new law pertaining to the use of e-payments platforms, the law, which has been approved by the Rada (Ukraine’s parliament), puts a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC) on an even footing with cash and electronic payment solutions. The terms of the law, published by the central bank, refer to a “digital money issued by the National Bank of Ukraine.” The terms add that the aforementioned currency is an “electronic form of a unit of account,” the “issuance of which is operated by” the central bank.
Regulation news
- An unnamed South Korean regulatory chief has successfully moved to a new post at the crypto exchange Upbit after the regulator’s ethics committee approved their application. As previously reported, a Deputy Director of the Financial Supervisory Service, was forced to ask the body for its blessing, over fears of a possible conflict of interests. The regulator signed off on the move, per News1, after ruling that the individual in question had not worked directly in the field of crypto policy development.
- South Korea’s top crypto regulatory chief has insisted that all risks pertaining to crypto exchanges must be absorbed by their partner banks, reported Newsis. Banks have previously stated that they do not want the buck to stop with them on anti-money laundering-related risk assessments. But the Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Seong-su insisted that “for now,” the “primary responsibility for money laundering and such matters related matters lies with the bank.” The ruling could further damage exchanges’ chances of finding banking partners before a fast-approaching September 24 deadline.
Mining news
- Crypto mining company HIVE said it has joined the NVIDIA Partner Network Cloud Service Provider program and entered into purchase agreements for NVIDIA GPUs with a total contract value of more than USD 66m.
Crime news
- Criminals are using exchanges with little to no know your customer (KYC) procedures to sell fraudulent COVID-19 vaccine certificates in return for BTC, blockchain analysis company Coinfirm stated. One such address has received USD 40,800 in BTC in less than a year.
- Esports organization FaZe Clan has fired one member and suspended three others due to allegations that they have knowingly promoted a crypto scam. The team members have allegedly participated in promoting a “Save the Kids” charity that has its own token, and then dumped their investments as part of a pump and dump scheme.
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