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A curated weekly summary of forward-focused crypto news that matters. This week, the Bitcoin lightning network established a new all-time high capacity, Opensea laid off 20% of its staff, and a new proposal aimed to defend the rights of crypto holders in Texas.
Bitcoin (BTC) recovered with an upswing this week, rising over 7% in the last week and currently trades around ~US$23K. Ether (ETH) and Binance-coin (BNB), the second and third largest (non-stablecoin) assets by market cap, experienced ~19% and ~6% recoveries this week, and sit at ~US$1.6K and US$265 respectively.
Bitcoin’s Lightning Network use is thriving according to at least one important indicator, even during this so-called “crypto winter”. As of July 22nd, Lightning’s network capacity reached over 4,300 bitcoins via payment channels. That is, Lightning node-created payment channels, funded in bitcoin rose. Among the reasons why this many bitcoins have been allocated towards this second-layer technology is it was (and still is) developed for micro and small payments in mind. With the Lightning Network you can buy small items like coffee without paying high on-chain transaction fees.
As the Lightning Network gains wider adoption (and can even be used as “rails” to facilitate nearly-free fiat remittances), Bitcoin’s overall utility increases — especially over the long-term.
NFT marketplace OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer announced over Twitter that the company would be laying off 20% of its team, citing “an unprecedented combination of crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability”. OpenSea’s announcement follows similar recent layoffs from companies such as BlockFi, Gemini, Coinbase, Crypto.com, among others.
The Republican Party of Texas published a proposal to add certain protections into the state’s Bill of Rights. Among them being “The right of the people to own, hold, and use a mutually agreed upon medium of exchange, including cash, coin, bullion, digital currency, or scrip…” The document goes on to say that “No government shall prohibit or encumber the ownership or holding of any form or amount of money or other currency” and even calls to abolish the Federal Reserve.
HashrateIndex.com refers to Texas as “a mecca for Bitcoin mining”, citing its business-friendly regulatory environment, tax environment, and natural gas infrastructure.
The digital asset-friendly language stamped into the Lone Star State’s Bill of Rights looks set to encourage innovation, attract talent, and allow digital assets to thrive in Texas.
25 July The Avalanche blockchain will be airdropping a FLUX-AVAX “parallel asset” to wallets that held FLUX on May 5th.
27 July The U.S. Federal Reserve will meet to decide on its next interest rates increase. Economists predict at least another 75 basis point rate hike.
28 July The Hedera project announced that it will be resetting its testnet on a quarterly basis beginning July 28th.
End-of-month in July The smart contract platform Cardano (ADA) has delayed the “Vasil hard fork” of its blockchain. The upgrade will increase the block size limit (allowing for more transactions per block) and hopes to achieve lower transaction fees.
Some signs of recovery this week across all top-ten digital assets by market cap. Ether (ETH) had a particularly bullish week — up over 19% versus the previous week following an announcement of the Ethereum blockchain “Merge” from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) projected timeline of the week of September 19th. Cardano’s (ADA) price jump precedes its blockchain’s “Vasil hard fork”, deadlined for the end of July.
Has Bitcoin reached its price floor during this present “winter”? There are a few reasons to think that it may have already. Looking at sums of realized losses, since the Terra/LUNA debacle from early May, we realized US$27B in a 30-day period and then US$35B thereafter. Together, these are the largest realized losses in Bitcoin’s history. Glassnode on-chain analytics concludes from this that the vast majority of would-be sellers have capitulated already. Additionally, roughly 80% of Bitcoin’s supply is older than 3 months. This points to a HODLer “conviction” of BTC’s long-term value — especially, as we’ve seen from previous weeks, these long-term HODLers are buying up coins from more price-sensitive short-term sellers.
A curated weekly summary of forward-focused crypto news that matters. This week, the digital asset markets deal with more firms facing liquidity challenges, traders attempt to short Tether, and Cardano’s Vasil Hard Fork is delayed.
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A curated weekly summary of forward-focused crypto news that matters. This week, derivatives dilute the value of Bitcoin, FTX extends a credit line to BlockFi, and Federal Reserve Chairman Powell says crypto needs a “better regulatory framework.”
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A curated weekly summary of forward-focused crypto news that matters. This week, Crypto continues to suffer from the effects of the Celsius collapse, The Fed introduces a significant rates hike and Cardano prepares itself for the Vasil Hard Fork.
