Bitcoin Price: US$ 23,396.62 (+4.30%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 1,542.32 (-2.45%)
MATIC Outperforms, Aragon and The MetaFactory, and Going Down The Gen Art Rabbit Hole
- Major layer-1s are staging a relief rally from a technical bottom in late June. In particular, Polygon’s MATIC token has outperformed all major layer-1 protocols. MATIC has gained more than 62% over the past week, while ETH, BNB, SOL, and AVAX have gained between 15-40%.
- This relative outperformance of MATIC can be largely attributed to Polygon’s selection as one of six companies for Disney’s accelerator program last week. Additionally, Polygon is set to unveil a scaling upgrade involving Ethereum on 20th-July.
- Meanwhile, ETH has gained 40% over the same time period, after Ethereum developers proposed 19th-Sept as a tentative target date for the Merge. While the proposed date is part of a roadmap, instead of an actual deadline, it will secure Ethereum’s transition to Proof-Of-Stake, if successful.
- During the previous bear market, BTC eventually found its bottom after falling 85% from its 2017 high, whereas ETH experienced a 94% drop. However, the current market drawdown appears to be macro-driven rather than crypto-native, implying that past performance may not be a useful guidepost. In this case, a crypto market bottom is unlikely until we see signs of a turnaround in the macro backdrop.
- 1inch has approved two proposals that affect their treasury.
- 1IP-08, creates a process for 1inch to diversify its treasury. Currently, 1inch swaps revenue solely to USDC. This proposal instead creates a process where 1inch retains revenue earned in ETH, WETH, WBTC, DAI, and USDT. The proposal is the beginning of 1inch diversifying its treasury in a more risk-diverse way, and halting swaps on these assets should allow the DAO to save on gas fees.
- 1IP-09, uses revenue to buy 1INCH tokens when the price is below $1.30 and reverts back to buying USDC tokens when the price is above $1.70. This creates a buyback process for 1INCH and an automatic risk-off process when the token is valued higher.
- Due to the Harmony Bridge exploit, Aave has voted to freeze all reserve assets on their v3 deployment on Harmony. This proposal disables the ability to borrow or deposit on the app. However, users will still be able to repay debt, liquidate debt, and withdraw their funds.
Skybridge announces suspension of withdrawals from of its one crypto-exposed funds
- Skybridge Capital has suspended withdrawals from its Legion Strategies fund – one of the firm’s funds with crypto exposure. Founder Anthony Scaramucci confirmed the move July 19 in an interview on CNBC, after Bloomberg reported it a day earlier citing anonymous sources.
- “Our board made the decision to temporarily suspend until we can raise capital inside the fund,” Scaramucci told CNBC. “The fund is unlevered, so there’s definitely no fear of any liquidation whatsoever and about 18% of the fund is in what we would call crypto exposure.” An independent board also took art in the decision, Scaramucci said.
Crypto.com secures regulatory license in Italy
- Digital asset exchange Crypto.com has received approval from Italian regulators to offer its services in the Mediterranean country — a move the company says aligns with its vision of “building lasting growth in the region.”
- On Tuesday, Crypto.com announced that it had officially received registration and regulatory approval from Organismo Agenti e Mediatori, also known as OAM, Italy’s primary Anti-Money Laundering regulator. The approval effectively grants Crypto.com the ability to offer its products and services to Italian customers.
- Crypto.com claims to have over 50 million customers around the world. In recent months, the exchange received regulatory licenses to operate in Greece, Singapore and Dubai.
- Italy is the European Union’s third-largest market by gross domestic product, and crypto services providers are targeting the country for expansion. As reported by Cointelegraph, United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase recently secured OAM approval to begin operating in the Mediterranean country. In May, Binance was given the OAM green light to serve the Italian market.
UFC fighter will receive full salary in Bitcoin, shrugs off crypto market volatility
- Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Luana Pinheiro announced that she has partnered with Bitwage to receive her salary in Bitcoin (BTC). Pinheiro said she continues to receive fiat payments from her sponsors but converts them to BTC immediately through Bitwage.
- Pinheiro is currently ranked 15th in her UFC division and has won eight consecutive fights. The fighter said she chose to receive her salary in Bitcoin after her boyfriend and fellow mixed martial artist Matheus Nicolau encouraged her.
- Comparing Bitcoin to her fighting style, jiu-jitsu, Pinheiro highlighted that she prefers to get paid in BTC and that she does not care about the volatility of the cryptocurrency. According to her, volatility is the key factor that drives asset appreciation.
- “If it weren’t volatile, it wouldn’t go up either,” she said, further explaining:
- “Think about it: it takes an average of 10–15 years for an individual to obtain a black belt in Brazil in Jiu Jitsu, so my time preference here is just as long, if not longer. Everything else is just noise to me and the lower the price, the more Bitcoin I can secure for the future.”
Yuga Labs warns of ‘persistent threat group’ targeting NFT holders
- Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creator Yuga Labs has warned there may soon be a “coordinated attack” targeting multiple nonfungible token (NFT) communities.
- The NFT company told its Twitter followers on Tuesday that its security team has been tracking a “persistent threat group” targeting the NFT community through compromised social media accounts, urging followers to be on the lookout.
- This isn’t the first time the company has warned its community of a possible social media-led attack by hackers.
- In June, Gordon Goner, pseudonymous co-founder of Yuga Labs, issued a warning of a possible incoming attack on its Twitter social media accounts.
- The month also saw two official Discord groups linked to BAYC and OtherSide NFTs were compromised, allowing scammers to share various phishing links into the official BAYC, Mutant Ape Yacht Club and OtherSide groups on discord.
- Yuga Labs’ new warning comes only days after threat actors hacked popular NFT platform Premint NFT, stealing approximately 314 NFTs and $375,000 in Ether (ETH), making it one of the largest NFT hacks in 2022.
- According to blockchain security firm Certik, the thefts occurred on Sunday after hackers inserted malicious code into Premint’s website.
Marathon inks new arrangements to achieve 2023 hash rate target
- Bitcoin (BTC) miner Marathon Digital Holdings has secured a deal that provides electricity to generate enough power to contribute 23.3 exahashes per second (EH/s) to the Bitcoin network.
- Marathon revealed in a Monday announcement that data center operator Applied Blockchain would host 254 megawatts of power, with an option to add 70 megawatts from various other providers, including Compute North. Marathon expects this hosting deal will help it achieve its goal of 23.3 EH/s in computer power by 2023.
- Exahashes per second (EH/s) refers to the amount of hashing power a miner contributes to secure the Bitcoin network.
- Applied Blockchain will supply 90 megawatts to Marathon’s Texas facility and 110 to 180 megawatts to a North Dakota facility. Combined, they will contribute about 9.2 EH/s.
RUNE pumps 18% as THORChain deactivates non-native tokens
- Cross-chain exchange and proof-of-bond network THORChain has finally activated the killswitch that will progressively wind down support of the BEP-2- and ERC-20-based variants of the RUNE token.
- BNB.RUNE and ETH.RUNE, also known as IOU Tokens, are being swapped out for the upgraded and completely native RUNE token after THORChain’s long-awaited mainnet late last month.
- Moving forward, these tokens will progressively lose their value over the next 12 months, as the project aims to foster the adoption of its fully unified variant of RUNE, enabling stronger asset interoperability.
- Users who hold their IOU Tokens on centralized changes will have their tokens automatically upgraded to the new native RUNE. Those who keep their tokens in private wallets must create a new wallet supported by THORChain and then click an upgrade button to make the switch.
- The THORChain team stated via Twitter on Monday that killswitch will go live at block 6,500,000 and that 1:1 exchange rates will “linearly tick down to 1:0 over the next 12 months” as the IOU Tokens become worthless.
