| Ethereum completes London upgrade; Invesco submits Bitcoin ETF application to US SEC (August 6)
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Ethereum Mainnet Completes London Upgrade
headlines
Ethereum Mainnet Completes London Upgrade
According to statistics from the ultrasound.money website, within 100 blocks after the upgrade of Ethereum London, the network destroyed a total of 37.56 ETH. Since the introduction of EIP-1559 in the upgrade of Ethereum London, the Ethereum network will dynamically adjust the Base Fee of each transaction according to the transaction demand and block size, and this part of the fee will be directly burned and destroyed.
JPMorgan Partners with NYDIG to Launch Internal Bitcoin Fund for High Net Worth Clients
Asset Management Firm Invesco Submits Bitcoin ETF Application to SEC
digital currency
digital currency
The IRS has seized $1.2 billion in cryptocurrencies so far this fiscal year
"In fiscal year 2019, we intercepted approximately $700,000 worth of cryptocurrencies, in fiscal year 2020, that figure hit $137 million, and in fiscal year 2021, that number was 12," said Jarod Koopman, director of cybercrime at the IRS. billion U.S. dollars (this fiscal year will last until September 30).” It is reported that the U.S. government regularly auctions its reserves of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and other cryptocurrencies. (CNBC)
Melanion Capital to Launch First EU-Regulated Bitcoin Price Tracking ETF in France
Melanion Capital, a well-known French investment management company, is launching an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the price of bitcoin through a basket of stocks. The ETF will be listed and traded on Euronext Paris, and its UCITS (European Union Scheme for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities) status means it is regulated throughout the EU. While strict standards prevent Melanion Capital from offering physical bitcoins, its index has a 90% correlation to bitcoin prices. The fund is said to offer exposure to companies such as Galaxy Digital, Riot Blockchain, Voyager Digital, and others. (Financial Times)
CoinShares announces 2021 interim financial results with consolidated revenue totaling £58.7m
CoinShares has released its interim financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2021. CoinShares consolidated revenue totaled £58.7 million for the period. Adjusted EBITDA was £62.8m, representing a margin of 85%. Revenue and earnings generated by the Group Asset Management platform were £36.7 million. As at 30 June 2021, assets under management (AUM) were £2.2 billion. On May 19, both ETP platforms saw record trading volumes, with the CoinShares ETP changing hands over $490 million in one day, the highest volume of any European crypto ETP provider.
Ripple Reaffirms U.S. Headquarters Despite SEC Crypto Regulations Ambiguity
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said at the Aspen Institute virtual forum that the company is not willing to give up on the United States just yet. Yet companies are moving out of the country by recruiting in other countries. Garlinghouse further emphasized the lack of clarity on digital assets in the United States. He added that the U.S. is “late to the game” when it comes to cryptocurrency regulation, but he hopes the country will succeed because Ripple was founded in the U.S.
The Punk 3860, worth more than $69,000 in the CryptoPunk NFT series, was sold for less than 1 cent due to a mishandling. The CryptoPunk was last sold on July 29 for approximately $69,369. According to Jonathan Clark, co-founder of DeFi platform Float Capital, the owner intended to sell the NFT in a whitelist sale for less than 1 cent, but instead put it on the open market. This means that anyone who pays close attention to the market can see this NFT go live and snap up it. According to blockchain data, the buyer spent 22 ETH ($57,000) to "bribe" an ethereum miner to preferentially include his transaction in a block. Several people are bidding, trying to buy this NFT before it goes on sale. The highest bid so far has been 35 ETH ($91,000), while the buyer has offered 52 ETH ($131,000), and if someone chooses to buy at that price, the buyer will end up with a $74,000 profit. (The Block)
Etherity Chain to launch Messi-themed NFT collection on August 21
The first certified Argentine football legend Lionel Messi's NFT series "The Messiverse" will be available on the NFT platform Etherity Chain starting at 5:00 on August 21. "The Messiverse" consists of four pieces by Australian artist Bosslogic, who has previously worked for Marvel and Disney. In addition, Ethernity Chain has launched the NFT auction of football superstar Pele on May 8. This NFT collection was created by Ethernity Chain in collaboration with digital artists Visual Lab and Rafa Zabala.
It is reported that this is not the first time that Ethernity Chain has launched a Messi-themed NFT. Previously, it was reported on July 13 that CONMEBOL, the South American football governing body, will cast the Copa America trophy as an NFT. In the 47th Copa America (Copa America), Argentina defeated Brazil 1-0 in the final. To commemorate the competition, CONMEBOL, together with Ethernity Chain, minted the trophy into an NFT. In addition, four digital collectibles are also being released: one for each of the Brazil and Argentina teams, one for Argentina captain Lionel Messi, and one for the World Cup winner "Goleadot" trophy for top scorer. (CoinDesk)
Industrial blockchain
Industrial blockchain
IBM launches enerT, a token and blockchain-based solution for renewable energy certificates
IBM has announced the launch of enerT, a token and blockchain-based solution for renewable energy certificates. In the past, the transaction of energy certificates was expensive, complicated and often handled by intermediaries, making them difficult to trace and verify. enerT will eliminate third-party involvement in transactions, allowing suppliers and consumers to trade energy certificates with greater efficiency and lower costs. Developed using Hyperledger Fabric and the new Fabric Token-SDK, IBM's enerT solution can quickly process a large number of transactions on the blockchain platform, speeding up and automating the renewable energy certification process. Every transaction is permanently recorded and traceable on the platform. Tokens can also store other useful information, such as carbon emissions in energy supply chains. Previously, startups such as PowerLedger, LO3, Energy Web, etc. have launched similar blockchain solutions. (Ledger Insights)
China Telecom uses blockchain technology to help Yunnan's digital economy develop
Blockchain technology company TBCASoft raises $25 million, led by Naver Financial and participated by SoftBank
Investment and Financing
Blockchain technology company TBCASoft announced the initial completion of US$25 million in Series B financing. Naver Financial Corporation, a subsidiary of South Korean Internet giant Naver Corporation, led the investment of US$20 million, and the original investor SoftBank (SoftBank) followed with US$5 million. After this round of financing, Naver Financial became the second largest institutional investor after Softbank. TBCASoft will use the funds to expand its payment network HIVEX, launching first in Northeast Asia, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and then expanding to Southeast Asia. At the same time, the company will recruit more talents and drive more innovations.
Blockchain data provider Messari closes $21 million Series A round led by Point72 Ventures
TrustToken raises $12.5 million led by a16z, Alameda Research and Blocktower Capital
TrustToken raises $12.5 million led by a16z, Alameda Research and Blocktower Capital
TrustToken, the operator of the DeFi lending agreement TrueFi and the stable currency TUSD, completed a new round of financing of US$12.5 million, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Alameda Research and Blocktower Capital (by purchasing TrueFi's native token TRU). TrustToken said it will use the funds to expand its team and TrueFi’s operations.
Data analysis platform CryptoQuant completes $3 million in Series B financing, led by Hashed
TrustToken, the operator of the DeFi lending agreement TrueFi and the stable currency TUSD, completed a new round of financing of US$12.5 million, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Alameda Research and Blocktower Capital (by purchasing TrueFi's native token TRU). TrustToken said it will use the funds to expand its team and TrueFi’s operations.
Data analysis platform CryptoQuant completes $3 million in Series B financing, led by Hashed
Data analysis platform CryptoQuant completed a $3 million Series B round of financing, led by Hashed, with participation from Mike Novogratz’s game company Galaxy Interactive, Mirae Asset Capital and Youbi Capital. The funds will be used to develop Crypto Quant's data and analytics infrastructure, helping the crypto industry as it moves into the mainstream. (Cryptopotato)
18 Ventures Announces Strategic Investment in Blockchain Social Collectibles Application Showcase
It is reported that since the release of the SHO token, Showcase has expanded its development team to complete the Showcase application. Its full development team now consists of front-end mobile developers, back-end developers, blockchain developers, DevOps developers, product managers and QA testers. Major participants, partners and supporters of Showcase include 0Chain, OpenSea, Genesis Block Ventures, Moonrock Capitall, etc.
Fidelity has bought a 7.4% stake in bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital through four index funds
JPMorgan Partners with NYDIG to Launch Internal Bitcoin Fund for High Net Worth Clients
global policy
global policy
On August 5, the Business Management Department of the People's Bank of China held a work conference for the second half of 2021 in a combination of the main venue and branch venues. The meeting pointed out that the construction of financial regulatory coordination mechanisms has been continuously deepened, and the construction of mechanisms such as bond risk, asset management business supervision, judicial auctions, and virtual currency governance has been promoted. Carry out the supervision of Internet platform financial activities. Deepen the prudent management of real estate finance, and strengthen the concentration management of real estate loans of local corporate banks. (Business Management Department of the People's Bank of China)
US Senators Have Filed Amendments to Crypto Tax Provisions in Infrastructure Bill
U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden and Senators Pat Toomey and Cynthia Lummis have submitted amendments to the cryptocurrency tax provisions of the infrastructure bill. The amendment proposes to exclude miners and software developers from the definition of crypto “brokers” so that such crypto companies would be excluded from the tax reporting provisions of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. It is reported that vague language is used in the provisions of the infrastructure bill, which critics believe may make it too burdensome to regulate companies that are not involved in the actual brokerage of digital assets. Sen. Rob Portman, the lead author of the infrastructure bill, defended the provision on Twitter Thursday, saying: “This legislation does not impose new reporting requirements on software developers, crypto miners, node operators, or other non-brokers.” Additionally, crypto industry firms including Coin Center, Blockchain Association, Coinbase, and Ribbit Capital issued a joint statement of support on Wednesday, saying that "the wording (in the bill) would raise unrealistic demands on a fledgling industry." Request, the Senators are correct, and we support their amendment to that provision.” (The Block)"Monetary Authority of Singapore: 170 digital payment token license applications received, 30 have been withdrawn and 2 have been rejected"A spokesperson for the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said that MAS has currently received 170 applications for digital payment token (DPT) licenses from service providers. Recently, MAS has notified some applicants and is preparing to apply for payment services under the Payment Services Act (
) issue payment service licenses to them. However, applicants who have received such notification from MAS do not yet hold a Payment Services Licence. If the applicant takes the necessary steps to meet the MAS requirements for a licensed operation, it will then receive a license from MAS to the applicant. The spokesperson also said that 30 DPT applications (or 18 per cent of applications) have now been withdrawn and two more have been rejected. MAS will be very cautious about applications that are lacking in ML/TF and technical risk control, and will also reject applicants that do not meet the required standards.
Guangdong: Support Shenzhen to try first in the application of digital renminbi
Character·Voice
Character·Voice
V God released an alternative design concept for the finality model for the beacon chain
Vitalik published the article "Committee-Based Cumulative Finality Model" on the Ethereum technology forum ethresear.ch. V God said that this is an alternative design proposal for the Beacon chain (Beacon chain), which can be switched in the long run (replacing the currently planned CBC switch), and it tries to provide some key attributes:
- Provides meaningful single-slot economic finality (i.e. Tendermint-like properties) under normal conditions, making single-slot reorganizations even more expensive to execute even with a colluding majority, reducing consensus extractable value (CEV );
- Get rid of heavy reliance on LMD GHOST fork choice, avoid known bugs and the need to introduce complex hybrid fork choice rules to fix bugs.
- Potentially allow lower minimum deposit size and higher number of validators.
- Preserves the property that economic finality ends up approaching a very large number (millions of ETH).
Bridgewater Fund Dalio: If I had to choose between gold and Bitcoin, I would choose gold
Ray Dalio, co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Fund, said in a recent interview that he still doesn’t understand (or still doesn’t believe) why Bitcoin is a better store of value than gold. He said: “ If you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose between gold and bitcoin, I would choose gold."
Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) wrote to the US Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell, expressing support for the amendments proposed by US Senators Wyden, Lummis and Toomey to the infrastructure bill, and said that the current regulations on cryptocurrency transactions The terms of the tax would be too broad, would sweep across non-intermediaries such as network validators and software developers, and would stifle innovation by imposing unfeasible reporting requirements on these groups. The scope of the cryptocurrency world extends far beyond its financial origins to include works of art, community development, and new ways of forming organizations, and these use cases will only continue to grow as entire new economies are built on decentralized protocols, different cryptocurrencies Uses apply to different regulatory rules. a16z stresses that if the bill is not updated with the amendments, it will run counter to this infrastructure goal. The state can provide an alternative by building participatory and inclusive infrastructure.
Coinbase CEO: I hope the new infrastructure bill will remove the requirement for comprehensive monitoring of cryptocurrency holders
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted that the new bipartisan infrastructure bill proposed by the U.S. Senate involves provisions related to encrypted assets, which may have a profound negative impact on the U.S. cryptocurrency industry and inadvertently promote more overseas innovation. Policymakers, who play a key role in ensuring technological innovation thrives in the U.S., hope that regulation will not impose a heavy burden on the innovative crypto industry as it grows in the future. The bill originally defined “broker” to include anyone who transfers digital assets, which is meaningless. Fortunately, however, an amendment has been proposed to exclude miners and software developers from the definition of crypto “brokers.” In addition, all senators are expected to remove the requirement for comprehensive monitoring of cryptocurrency holders. In addition, the infrastructure bill also stipulates comprehensive and unprecedented reporting requirements, which will force exchanges such as Coinbase to monitor their customers' transactions in a more intrusive way than other traditional financial institutions. All crypto practitioners demand is a level playing field with traditional finance, without unfairly penalizing the cryptocurrency industry.
