The UK’s HM Treasury has officially rejected the House of Commons Treasury Committee’s recent recommendation to regulate crypto trading not as financial assets but as gambling instruments. Let’s find out more. Bitcoin Elon Musk’s Tesla has continued to hodl its BTC reserves for the fourth consecutive quarter after being forced to divest 75% of its reserves in 2022 Q2. After hitting the range bottom, BTC looks to be heading higher once more, with the bulls looking to test the $31,000 to $32,000 major resistance again. Ethereum In the midst of a rebounding crypto market, Vitalik Buterin has hinted at a forthcoming upgrade to the Ethereum network, which could potentially reduce costs by a factor of 100. DeFi DeFi protocol Conic Finance revealed that it had suffered an exploit, with the attacker draining over 1700 ETH worth $3.6 million from one of its Omnipools. Uniswap founder Hayden Adam’s Twitter account suffered a breach, with hackers sending out several tweets leading users to scam websites and phishing links. Leading DEX platform Spectrum Finance has revealed its strategic collaboration with Cardano, the innovative smart contract platform. Axelar has launched the Interchain Token Service, a solution designed to enhance the interoperability of ERC-20 tokens across all EVM-compatible chains. Altcoins Solana Labs has announced the rollout of the Solang compiler that will help EVM developers transition to the Solana ecosystem. The crypto world eagerly awaits upcoming Litecoin's third halving event, which is expected to happen on August 2, 2023, once the 2,520,000th block is mined. Technology Crypto experts have raised questions on central bank digital currencies like where are all the mainstream media articles or televised debates on the advantages or disadvantages of implementing CBDCs nationwide. Worldcoin has completed its migration to the Optimism ecosystem, with critical components such as the World ID and World App technology stack already migrated to the OP mainnet. Starknet has disclosed the initiation of "appchains," a framework designed to enable developers to construct several application-specific blockchains within the Starknet ecosystem. Business The recently uncovered personal diaries of Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison could be used as key evidence in the upcoming trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Venture capital firms Coinfund and Polychain Capital have successfully raised a total of $350 million in their latest fundraising rounds, showcasing returning confidence in the crypto space. American investor Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest sold another $50.5 million worth of Coinbase shares to cash in on the recent crypto market rally. Binance has abruptly ended its five-year partnership with the Argentine Football Association (AFA) after only one year. Regulation A bipartisan group of United States Senators has introduced the CANSEE Act to regulate DeFi platforms in order to curb money laundering and other financial transgressions. The UK government rejected a recent House of Commons Treasury Committee proposal, which suggested that retail crypto trading be regulated like gambling instruments. In the face of legal turbulence surrounding its co-founder, Do Kwon, blockchain firm Terraform Labs has appointed a new CEO. Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow government opposing the current military rule, is set to launch a crypto neobank operating on the Polygon blockchain network. Enforcement authorities in China’s northern province of Shanxi have uncovered an alleged USDT money laundering scheme amounting to over $55 million. Third largest French bank, Societe Generale, has become the first bank to procure a licence to provide trading and custody of cryptocurrency assets. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) underscored its views that crypto requires “comprehensive policies to safeguard economies and investors.” The founder and former CEO of the now-defunct Thodex crypto exchange, Faruk Fateh Ozer, has received a seven-month prison sentence after he failed to submit relevant documents requested during the trial. Representative Ritchie Torres becomes the latest US lawmaker to level criticism against the SEC and its Chairman Gary Gensler’s position on crypto. The clock has started ticking for the SEC to approve or reject BlackRock’s application for a spot Bitcoin exchange traded fund. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, is set to hold a private meeting with House Democrats on Wednesday, according to Democratic aides familiar with the agenda. US Judge Sarah Netburn has ordered the SEC and Ripple to agree to possible settlement dates should both parties believe them to be constructive at this stage. On Monday, the Financial Stability Board published its recommendations for a global regulatory framework for crypto-assets to “promote the comprehensiveness and international consistency of regulatory and supervisory approaches.” NFT Proof Collective is trying to rekindle interest in its Moonbirds NFTs with a brand new 20,000-piece Mythics collection, released almost a year after its initial mention in August 2022. Staking protocol EtherFi has called out the OpenSea marketplace for its decision to suspend the trading of the former’s EtherFan NFT collection last week. Web3 Andreessen Horowitz partner Sriram Krishnan expressed confidence that Web3 has the potential to remedy the issues plaguing current Web2-based social media platforms. The developers behind Polygon Labs have proposed changes to their governance system that are integral to their forthcoming Polygon 2.0 roadmap. The potential of AR games has yet to be fully realized, but developers have already created lots of highly original apps to enhance our experiences in the physical world. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
