Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Chilz CHZ, rising 21.88%.
- Crypto.com said it received approval from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority to be registered as a crypto-asset service provided in the country, a key step to expanding operations there. The CEO of Crypto.com Kris Marszalek said that “the U.K. has become a strategic, important market for the firm and one of the most important markets globally for crypt0,” according to Bloomberg.
- Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes is getting behind NFT firm Dapper labs, making him one of the first major celebrities to endorse a crypto company after the industry’s dramatic crash. The company hopes Mahomes will drive fan engagement with in-product features and events, among other things, writes Bloomberg.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performing for the week was Convex Finance CVX, down 28.24%.
- Coinbase shares fell as much as 7% upon announcing in a blog post that it will temporarily pause new Ethereum and ERC-20 token deposits during the Merge. Deposit and withdrawal pause is a temporary precautionary measure, according to Bloomberg.
- Ether, which led gains amid optimism over the blockchain software update known as the Merge, was down almost 2% to $1,904. It touched $2,000 last Saturday and has surged about 75% since mid-June. The token has dropped after reaching $2,000, cooling the crypto markets.
Opportunities
- The core developers working on the much-anticipated software upgrade of the Ethereum blockchain, firmed up September 15 as the likely official date of the so-called Merge. This is possibly the final forecast for the timing of the upgrade, which will make the network more energy efficient, according to a developer’s conference call Thursday, writes Bloomberg.
- CME Group, a derivatives marketplace, plans to launch options on Ether futures tied to the dollar on September 12. These new contracts deliver one ether futures, sized at 50 ether per contract and based on the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate. The new contracts will also expand CME Group’s existing suite of crypto options contracts, which include Bitcoin options as well as micro-sized Bitcoin and Ether options, writes Bloomberg.
- BKCoin Capital, a digital assets hedge fund, is planning to expand into ETF trading and move transactions to traditional exchanges, where crypto-tracker products are listed. The fund’s strategy will be able to capture the differences in prices of passive ETFs that track crypto and the spot market, writes Bloomberg.
Threats
- The value of funds lost to cryptocurrency hacks has soared this year as decentralized-finance protocols have become an easy target for attackers, a report from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis show. Around $1.9 billion worth of digital tokens has been stolen in hacks this year through July, up 58% from the same period of 2021, Bloomberg reports.
- Regulators at the Federal Reserve have a blunt warning for banks looking to take advantage of new opportunities that involve cryptocurrencies: make sure they’re legal first. As reported by Bloomberg, the central bank on Tuesday released a supervisory letter that recommended steps that lenders overseen by the Fed should take before getting involved in the digital asset industry.
- Cryptocurrencies suffered a sharp selloff as global markets retreated on the back of growing uncertainty about the direction of monetary policy. Bitcoin tumbled as much as 8.3% reaching the lowest level since late July. Ether and smaller virtual coins saw sharper declines. Avalanche, Cardano, and Solana fell more than 10% at one point, writes Bloomberg.
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