THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- BlackRock teams up with Coinbase in crypto market expansion. Top clients will be able to use BlackRock’s Aladdin investment-management system to oversee their exposure to Bitcoin and other portfolio assets such as stocks and bonds and facilitate financing and trading on Coinbase’s exchange. The focus of the partnership with Coinbase, the biggest US crypto-trading platform, “will initially be on Bitcoin,” BlackRock said.
- Senate plan would put Bitcoin and Ethereum under commodity regulator’s watch. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) and top-ranking Republican John Boozman of Arkansas unveiled a plan Wednesday that would empower the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to regulate spot markets for digital commodities, a newly created asset class. Read more here.
- Solana users suffer a $5.8 million exploit. Starting Tuesday, customers of several crypto wallets, including Phantom and Slope, saw digital funds valued in the millions begin to evaporate from their online accounts. Developers of the Solana blockchain, used by both Slope and Phantom, said on Wednesday the incursion may have started at Crypto Wallet Slope.
- Hackers drain nearly $200 million from a crypto startup in a ‘free-for-all’ attack. Hackers drained almost $200 million in cryptocurrency from Nomad, a tool that lets users swap tokens from one blockchain to another. It’s not entirely clear how the attack was orchestrated, or if Nomad plans to reimburse users who lost tokens in the attack. The company, which markets itself as a “secure cross-chain messaging” service, wasn’t immediately available for comment when contacted.
- Binance.US delists cryptocurrency cited by SEC as a security. Binance on Monday said it was delisting the AMP token as of Aug. 15. The cryptocurrency trades for less than a penny with a market value of less than $400 million, according to CoinMarketCap. Despite its small size, AMP was one of nine cryptocurrencies cited by the SEC as unregistered securities as part of its investigation of insider trading at Coinbase.
- Crypto bank Silvergate Capital is poised to rally more than 40%, BTIG says. Analyst Mark Palmer said that SI’s better-than-expected 2Q22 report demonstrated the resilience of its business model amidst a severe downturn in the crypto space. The company’s shares as inexpensive, especially in light of the anticipated launch of its new stablecoin offering, which is expected to serve as an accelerant of its revenue and earnings growth. Read more here.
- CME unveils plans for Bitcoin and Ether futures tied to Euro. CME Group Inc. will introduce the futures on Aug. 29, the company announced Thursday in a press release. Ongoing uncertainty in cryptocurrency markets, along with the robust growth and deep liquidity of our existing Bitcoin and Ether futures, is creating an increased demand for risk management solutions by institutional investors outside the US, says Tim McCourt, global head of equity and FX products at CME.
- SEC charges 11 people in $300 million global crypto pyramid fraud. In January 2020, Mikhail Sergeev, Sergey Maslakov, and “Jane Doe,” also known as Lola Ferrari, launched the website Forsage.io, which allowed retail investors to carry out transactions using smart contracts that operated on the Binance, Tron, and Ethereum blockchains. Investors made profits by recruiting more people into this scheme, with Forsage using assets from new investors to pay older investors. Read more here.
- Cardano founder says no further delays are expected in the blockchain's upgrade. Charles Hoskinson took to YouTube on Monday to tell his 315,000 followers that he does not anticipate any additional delays in rolling out the Vasil upgrade to the network. The Vasil software enhancement was originally scheduled to be deployed on Cardano's blockchain in June, and it's expected to improve the blockchain's scalability, speed, and costs.
- Bitcoin Bull Michael Saylor resigns as MicroStrategy CEO. Saylor will continue as executive chairman of the board. At the same time, President Phong Le will assume CEO duties on Aug. 8. MicroStrategy reported a loss of more than $917 million, which was largely a result of the 59% decline in the price of Bitcoin since the crypto's price peak last November. Under Saylor's leadership, MicroStrategy spent about $3 billion since 2020 to buy 129,699 Bitcoin.
