THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- Ethereum just completed a successful testnet simulation. Developers told CNBC that the latest test runs on Wednesday were very smooth, an important marker as the blockchain for the second-largest cryptocurrency gears up for its landmark move. The process is identical to what the main network (or mainnet) will execute this fall. Testnets allow developers to try out new things before they’re rolled out on the main blockchain. Read more here.
- The bipartisan crypto bill proposes sweeping oversight of digital assets. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis introduced a bill that proposes legal definitions of digital assets and virtual currencies while making a distinction between digital assets that are commodities or securities. Fully decentralized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum would be classified as commodities, and as such would be regulated by the CFTC. Read more here.
- $40 billion payments giant Checkout.com starts accepting stablecoins. Checkout.com says it will settle payments for its merchants round-the-clock using stablecoins. It is launching a feature that allows businesses to accept and make payments in USD Coin. Checkout.com said it is offering the new payment method through a partnership with Fireblocks, a crypto-security firm.
- PayPal now supports transferring cryptos to other digital wallets and exchanges. The company said it won’t charge fees for crypto transfers to other PayPal users. For transfers outside of PayPal, users will have to pay network fees, which are payments to the operators of blockchains like Ethereum or Bitcoin for processing transactions.
- Salesforce pilots NFT service. The service announced Tuesday is designed for consumer brands that want to sell NFTs for special access, such as admission to an event, rather than art or trading value, said Adam Caplan, who oversees emerging technology at Salesforce. It's a cloud-based service for creating and selling NFTs even as sales of digital assets have plummeted. Read more here.
- ApeCoin owners vote against leaving the Ethereum blockchain. About 54% voted in favor of keeping the token on Ethereum, according to tracker Snapshot. Around 3.8 million tokens voted in favor of staying with 3.3 million against, Snapshot showed. A large chunk of the coins belongs to its creators including Andreessen Horowitz and Animoca Brands.
- For the entire pandemic, the rolling 120d correlation between S&P 500 and Bitcoin has been positive; the relationship has weakened a touch recently but is still near its strongest over the past few years and relative to history.
- Chainlink announced a new staking feature. The new feature will offer crypto rewards and penalties -- to both users and operators -- to improve the operation of its blockchain using incentives. The staking of LINK in turn enhances the ability for nodes to receive jobs and earn corresponding fees within the Chainlink Network. It's unclear when the Chainlink staking will go live.
- Cardano's upcoming Vasil hard fork has created much buzz around ADA. The Vasil hard fork seeks to improve the network's overall performance and capability, allowing the network to process transactions faster and handle higher volumes of requests at one time. This upgrade is scheduled to drop on June 29, and this could be a major reason why the network's digital currency is rising now. Read more here.
- The majority of DeFi would be labeled a security. This is because the claim is that anything with profit, revenue, or a dividend is expressly not a commodity. Next to no chance that BTC gets labeled as security and low probability for ETH just due to the difficulty of ever controlling it. If the majority of DeFi are securities, assume that fees will go up big at exchanges. The silver lining is after the rules are made clear, we’ll see bigger players enter. Read more here.
- Citadel Securities is building a Crypto trading marketplace. The electronic trading giant is building a “cryptocurrency trading ecosystem” with the help of high-frequency trading and market-making firm Virtu Financial, as well as venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Paradigm, according to a source familiar with the plans. Source(47:53)
