Strengthens
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Chilz CHZ, which rose 21.88%.
- Crypto.com said it received approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to be registered as a crypto asset service provided in the country, an important step to expand its business there. Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said that “the UK 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 behind NFT firm Dapper labs, making him one of the first major celebrities to back a crypto company after the industry’s dramatic crash. The company hopes Mahomes will drive fan engagement with features and events in the product, among other things, writes Bloomberg.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer this week was Convex Finance CVX, down 28.24%.
- Coinbase shares fell as much as 7% after announcing in a blog post that it will temporarily pause new Ethereum and ERC-20 token deposits during the merger. The pause for deposits and withdrawals is a temporary security measure, according to Bloomberg.
- Ether, which led gains amid optimism over the blockchain software update known as Merge, was down nearly 2% at $1,904. It hit $2,000 last Saturday and is up about 75% since mid-June. The token has fallen after reaching $2,000, cooling the crypto markets.
Possibilities
- The core developers working on the much-anticipated software upgrade of the Ethereum blockchain confirmed September 15 as the likely official date for the so-called merger. 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 dollar-linked Ether futures on September 12. These new contracts deliver one ether futures, size 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 asset hedge fund, plans 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 the prices of passive ETFs that track crypto and the spot market, writes Bloomberg.
Threats
- The value of funds lost to cryptocurrency hacking has increased this year as decentralized financial protocols have become an easy target for attackers, according to a report by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. About $1.9 billion worth of digital tokens have been stolen in hacks this year through July, up 58% from the same period in 2021, Bloomberg reports.
- Federal Reserve regulators have a stark warning for banks looking to take advantage of new opportunities involving cryptocurrencies: make sure they’re legal first. As reported by Bloomberg, the central bank on Tuesday issued a supervisory letter recommending steps lenders overseen by the Fed should take before engaging in the digital asset industry.
- Cryptocurrencies saw a sharp sell-off as global markets retreated amid growing uncertainty about the direction of monetary policy. Bitcoin fell as much as 8.3%, hitting its lowest level since late July. Ether and smaller virtual coins saw sharper falls. Avalanche, Cardano and Solana fell more than 10% at one point, writes Bloomberg.
