Market Summary

Bitcoin Price: US$ 20,234.87  (+4.69%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 1,115.00 (+7.36%) 

FEI Supply Drop, Vesta Finance Liquidity Mining, Gamer’s Review of Pegaxy

• On 10th July, FEI token supply dropped by 45% as the project burned 159M of protocol-owned FEI tokens. The protocol continues to hold $83M in FEI. See the burn transaction on Etherscan here.
• This follows an all-time low price for TRIBE, which touched $0.148 per token on 6th July. TRIBE is down 72% over the previous quarter, while ETH is down by 65%.
• The Fei Protocol is a stablecoin issuer that owns and manages a reserve pool of tokens, termed protocol-controlled value, to support direct minting and redemption of FEI at $1 per token. Users can mint or redeem FEI using a variety of assets, depending on market conditions.
• Currently, $117 million of user-owned FEI is backed with a 156% collateralization ratio, consisting primarily of DAI (44%), ETH (40%), LUSD (10%) and VOLT (6%).
• Recent governance actions taken by TRIBE holders include the deprecation of ETH, LUSD and RAI as acceptable collateral for minting or redeeming FEI. Currently, the only accepted collateral is DAI.
• Additionally, TRIBE holders have voted to stop emissions and remove all incentives across Curve, Uniswap, Aave and Rari Capital.
• Vesta Finance is a Layer 2-first lending protocol that allows users to obtain maximum liquidity against their collateral without paying interest. Vesta’s V1 is based on Liquity, a collateralized debt platform. Users can lock up collateral and issue Vesta’s stablecoin VST to their own Ethereum address, and subsequently transfer those tokens to any other Ethereum address. 
• Notable Unlocks:
  • 25% (25M VSTA) of the total supply is allocated to Core Contributors and Advisors, vested linearly over two years with a six-month cliff
  • 14% (15M VSTA) of the total supply is allocated to Partners and Angels, vested linearly over two years with a six-month cliff
• Stability Pool depositors can expect to earn net gains from liquidations, as in most cases, the value of the liquidated Ether will be greater than the value of the cancelled debt (since a liquidated vault will likely have an Individual Collateral Ratio slightly below 110%).
• Elevator Pitch: Pegaxy is a game where you can compete, breed, rent, and earn by racing mythological horses. It has a governance token (PGX), and an earn token (VIS). At its core, Pegaxy is a game of numbers. You combine the best stats with the best elements and then find a lobby complementary to your stat distribution.
• Accessibility: From a user acquisition perspective, the initial experience for someone freshly landing onto the site needs work. A game like Roblox has fantastic UI/UX. You enter the site, receive a quick sign-up message, click on a game, and then get the prompt to download. Roblox has 50+ million DAU (daily active users). The experience is designed to be as simple as possible.

BREAKING: Celsius reportedly filing for bankruptcy ‘imminently’

• Crypto lending platform Celsius has reportedly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with its lawyers starting to notify individual U.S. state regulators as of Wednesday, July 13.
• The news was reported by CNBC and referred to an unnamed source, who asked not to be named as the proceedings were private. They said that the company planned to file the Chapter 11 paperwork “imminently.”
• It comes just days after the embattled lending platform replaced its previously hired law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP with Kirkland & Ellis LLP, the same firm that assisted Voyager Digital with its bankruptcy filing last week.
• Earlier in the day, Celsius closed off the last of its DeFi debts owed to Compound, Aave, and Maker, reducing its initial debt of $820 million to just $0.013 over the course of a month.

BIS committee and IOSCO issue guidance for regulation of stablecoin arrangements

• The principle of “same risk, same regulation” for crypto received further confirmation with the release Wednesday of new guidance on stablecoin arrangements (SAs). The guidance, issued by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), applies the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMI) for payment, clearing and settlement systems to systemically important SAs that transfer stablecoins. 
• The document is intended for use by SA designers and operators and extends the PFMI standards to SAs without establishing new standards. It notes:
• “An SA may need to make changes to its rules, procedures, governance arrangements and risk management framework taking the guidance into consideration in order for its practices to be consistent with the PFMI.”
• It defines a stablecoin arrangement as “an arrangement that combines a range of functions to provide an instrument that purports to be used as a means of payment and/or store of value.” The guidance suggests considerations for determining which SAs it applies to, since only to SAs that are “systemically important” are covered by it.

UK court allows lawsuit to be delivered via NFT

• According to a Tuesday notice from U.K. law firm Giambrone & Partners, a case brought by Fabrizio D’Aloia against Binance Holdings, Poloniex, gate.io, OKX, and Bitkub over allegations someone was operating a fraudulent clone online brokerage has resulted in a legal precedent offering a digital solution to serving someone. On June 24, the judge in the case allowed parties to be served by airdropping NFTs into wallets originally held by D’Aloia but stolen by unnamed individuals.
• Until now, Civil Procedure Rules in the U.K. allowed lawsuits to be served by personal services, mail, dropped off at a physical address, or by means of a fax or another type of “electronic communication.” However, using electronic methods to serve someone has usually been in cases where the parties agreed in advance to such th delivery, or a court authorizes it for a “good reason.” According to Giambrone & Partners, these methods have included Instagram direct messages, Facebook messages and a contact form on a website.
• “This order is a noteworthy development in the area of service of court documents and a welcome example of a court embracing new technology,” said the law firm. “This judgment paves the way for other victims of cryptoasset fraud to pursue persons unknown who have misappropriated their cryptocurrency in situations where they otherwise would not be able to.”
• Demetri Bezaintes, an associate at Giambrone & Partners, added:
• “I am confident that this latest judgment using NFT service has the potential to show the way to digital service over the blockchain, with all the benefits of immutability and authentication, becoming the usual practice in the future on legal matters related to the digital world […] It is clear that this method of service has a far greater level of success over conventional means of service, such as post, in this sector.”

Brazil beams Bitcoin from space: A case for BTC satellite nodes

• A Bitcoiner in Brazil has beamed the blockchain from space. Alessandro Cecere, product manager at Ledn and a Venezuelan national, has established the purported first Bitcoin (BTC) satellite full node in Brazil. 
• The full satellite node that Cecere has established downloads the Bitcoin blockchain directly from the Blockstream Satellite Network, negating the need for a reliable internet connection. It’s a small step for Bitcoin’s web of nodes but a giant leap for Bitcoin adoption, evincing that those in remote or hard-to-reach areas could run nodes.
• A refresher for those new to nodes: A Bitcoin full node is software that continuously monitors the blockchain and its complete transaction history. A full node prohibits non-legitimate transactions and thwarts attempts to spend Bitcoin twice, known as a “double-spend.” Cecere explains that nodes “grant their owners decentralized access to the only uncensorable monetary network that we know of today.”
• However, up until 2020, configuring a Bitcoin node (sometimes called a Bitcoin peer, as Bitcoin is a “peer-to-peer version of electronic cash”) was wholly dependent on local internet providers. Thanks to upgrades in Bitcoin company Blockstream’s Satellite Network, Bitcoin believers around the world can download a full node without an internet connection.

Shanghai included blockchain, NFTs and Web3 in its 5-year plan

• China’s biggest city Shanghai officially intends to boost the development of innovations such as blockchain, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), the Metaverse and Web3 during its next five-year plan. 
• On July 13, Shanghai’s Municipal Government published a draft of its “14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Shanghai’s Digital Economy.” The document sets its mission of “promoting the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy,” with “scientists judging technology prospects” and “entrepreneurs discovering market demand.”
• The plan suggests supporting the enterprises that plan to construct the NFT trading platforms and “research and promote the digitization of NFT and other assets.” A separate section is dedicated to blockchain, with a voiced commitment to promote the development and application of “blockchain+” technology and build a blockchain development ecosystem with strong innovation capabilities and independent control.
• There is also a place for Metaverse ambitions, as the municipal government plans to accelerate the research and deployment of the platform for the interaction between the virtual world and the real society by carrying out the development of core technologies and encouraging the creation of new platforms with richer and more diverse content scenarios. The plan emphasizes the significance of new forms of digital entertainment consumption, such as virtual concerts, idols and sports.
• A planned exploration of Web3 opportunities would include researching a multi-platform OpenID, distributed data storage, a decentralized domain name resolution system (DNS) and end-to-end encrypted communication technology, complemented by the update of itshardware base and deployment of 6G, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), sixth-generation wireless network technology (Wi-Fi6) and quantum communication.

Crypto winter presents an opportunity amid chaos, says asset group exec

• Bear markets often result in investors showing extreme fear in tools that measure the market’s sentiments. However, despite the uncertainties during a crypto winter, some prefer to focus on the opportunities that it can bring. 
• Alex Tapscott, managing director at Ninepoint Digital Asset Group, told Cointelegraph that the bear market is a time to focus on building. Tapscott highlighted that it’s essential to look beyond the market’s prices and see the foundations that are being laid. Tapscott explained that:
• “Crypto winters are always the best time to drill down on these core concepts, do the work and build for the future. The last bear market brought us the NFT revolution, decentralized finance, stablecoins and play-to-earn gaming.”
• According to the executive, the current bear market will also prepare the groundwork for realizing Web3’s full potential. As an example, Tapscott said that decentralized finance (DeFi) can grow further and continue its trajectory as the financial system of the new internet. He said that:
• “If Bitcoin was the spark for the financial services revolution, then DeFi is the accelerant. The fire spreading will engulf many firms that fail to innovate, adapt and embrace this hot new industry.”

Institutional investor sentiment about ETH improves as Merge approaches

• Ether (ETH) prices may have dipped again on Wednesday, but there are signs that professional investors are warming to the asset as the highly anticipated Merge draws closer.
• In its digital asset fund flows weekly report, fund manager CoinShares reported that Ether-based products saw inflows for the third consecutive week. There was an inflow of $7.6 million for institutional Ether funds, whereas those for Bitcoin (BTC) continued to outflow with a loss of $1.7 million.
• Referring to the Ether funds, CoinShares stated: “The inflows suggest a modest turnaround in sentiment, having endured 11 consecutive weeks of outflows that brought 2022 outflows to a peak of US$460M.” It added that the change in sentiment may be due to the increasing probability of the Merge happening later this year.
• The Merge is a highly anticipated Ethereum upgrade that changes its consensus mechanism from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). It is currently preparing for one final test run, and the Merge proper is expected before October.