One week in review:
Aug. 8–14 We've selected the hottest materials of the past week for you to stay up to date with the latest crypto news: | | #1. Infrastructure bill passes US Senate — without clarification on crypto | | | On Tuesday, the controversial infrastructure bill passed in the U.S. senate In a 69-30 vote. | | | The bipartisan bill proposes roughly $1 trillion of funding into transportation and electricity infrastructure projects. The bill also puts forward more stringent rules for firms handling crypto assets while expanding reporting requirements for brokers, who will be required to report digital asset transactions worth more than $10,000 to the IRS. | | | Six senators, including Pat Toomey, Cynthia Lummis, Rob Portman, Mark Warner, Kyrsten Sinema and Ron Wyden, proposed an amendment to the buzz-kill bill on Monday that would exempt software developers, transaction validators and node operators as brokers, while proposing that tax reporting requirements "only apply to the intermediaries." | | | Their efforts didn't bear fruit, however, with further clarification on crypto not provided. Senator Toomey flamed the bill in the aftermath, noting that the legislation was "too expensive, too expansive, too unpaid for and too threatening to the innovative cryptocurrency economy." | | #2. Hackers stole at least $600M in Poly exploit across three chains | | | In what has been described as the largest hack in DeFi to date, a suspected "white-hat hacker" exploited cross-chain protocol Poly Network to steal around $600 million worth of assets from Ethereum, Binance Chain and the Polygon network. | | | Throughout this week, the hacker communicated with the Poly Network team and others through messages embedded in Ethereum transactions. While they consistently stated their intentions to return the funds, some of their comments and actions were rather confusing. | | | For instance, when asked why they were hacking, the attacker responded with "for fun" and because "cross-chain hacking is hot." While users on Twitter spotted, at one stage, that the hacker was asking for guidance on how to deposit funds into Tornado Cash, which is a decentralized protocol that enables private Ethereum transactions. | | | Nearly all of the funds except for $33 million in frozen Tether (USDT) have since been returned, however, with the Poly Network team confirming the news on Aug. 13. | | #3. Coinbase's Q2 profits top $1.6B as ETH volume surpasses BTC's for the first time | | | Coinbase, the crypto exchange led by media-shy co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong posted Q2 profits of $1.6 billion this week. | | | The firm released its Q2 report on Tuesday, and its net profit of $1.6 billion marked a mammoth increase of 4,900% compared to the $32 million recorded in the same period of 2020. Coinbase's total revenue for the quarter was $2.23 billion, beating out analysts' predictions of $1.78 billion in expected revenue. | | | Interestingly, for the first time since Coinbase was founded nine years ago, Ethereum (ETH) had a higher trading volume than Bitcoin (BTC), with the assets representing 26% and 24% of total volume, respectively. | | #4. Prediction of the week. Bitcoin Technicals: Why BTC price breaking $48K resistance is the key to new all-time highs | | | Bitcoin has recovered a notable amount of ground in recent weeks. The asset hit its all-time price high of almost $65,000 back in April, but subsequently fell in price in the days and weeks after, finding its way down to around $30,000. Some points saw the asset fall below $30,000. | | | Recent weeks, however, have shown bullish price movement for Bitcoin, as the asset has posted chart action seemingly indicative of a reversal, based on analysis from Cointelegraph's Michaël van de Poppe. | | | The $48,000 price range on Bitcoin's chart sits as notable resistance. A move past the price zone of $47,500 to $49,000 could signal a possible further move up to eventual fresh all-time price highs for the asset, although van de Poppe noted $55,000 as a nearer-term target following a break of the mentioned resistance zone. Alternatively, should Bitcoin's price break down, a number of levels of price support exist, with $37,500 as an important level to hold. | | #5. FUD of the week. Coinbase removes 'backed by US dollars' claim for USDC stablecoin | | | Earlier this week Coinbase tweaked its description of number-two stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) to paint a picture of a slightly less-than-stable coin. | | | Coinbase made the change following an audit which showed that USDC's reserves weren't all held in cash. The previous statement read: "Each USDC is backed by one U. dollar held in a bank account." | | | The new statement reads: "Each USDC is backed by one dollar or asset with equivalent fair value, which is held in accounts with US regulated financial institutions." | | | While this might be a blow to USDC owners Circle, the firm's stablecoin cash reserves are still most likely larger than Tether's and its USDT. Allegedly. | | #6. FUD of the week. Alex Saunders sued for $350K by Nuggets News follower | | | Alex Saunders, the Aussie behind popular crypto YouTube channel Nuggets News, is being sued by a disgruntled investor for almost 479,270 Australian dollars, worth roughly $353,027. | | | Plaintiff Ziv Himmelfarb filed a formal written order demanding that the YouTuber pay the amount in losses and damages for unpaid loans and allegedly bogus investments. | | | Himmelfarb stated that it was a "no-brainer" to trust Saunders when he was asked for loans and offered investment opportunities by the crypto influencer, as he had been following him since 2017 and found him to be a reputable figure in the space. | | | "When he told me he had temporary liquidity issues in May, I was glad to help with a short-term loan, but couldn't get any of my money back since then. Hopefully I can get repaid," Himmelfarb said in regard to his alleged 30 ETH loan to Saunders. | | | Feel free to explore the most important news with Hodler's Digest: | | | |
