Bitcoin Price: US$ 29,351.96 (+0.42%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 1,872.00 (+0.77%)
The Federal Reserve, in its recent two-day policy meeting, resumed its rate hikes after a one-meeting pause, raising the benchmark fed funds rate by 25 basis points to a targeted range of 5.25%-5.50%. This move marks a resumption of tighter monetary policy after a 15-month streak of consecutive rate hikes, which had been paused six weeks ago. The rate hike was fully expected by the markets, with a near-100% chance predicted by the CME FedWatch tool. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell emphasised the central bank’s data-dependent approach and noted that no decisions on future rate hikes or pauses have been made. The Fed also mentioned concerns about the potential impact of tighter credit conditions on economic activity, hiring, and inflation. At the same time, the House Financial Services Committee advanced several crypto and blockchain-related bills after a day-long markup session. Though some lawmakers expressed reservations, the majority voted in favor of the legislation, aiming to provide a unified legal framework for cryptocurrencies and address blockchain issues. Following the Fed’s rate hike, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices saw a temporary rally, but optimism remained regarding the potential for further rate increases.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed his ownership of bitcoin, revealing that he purchased two bitcoins for each of his seven children after speaking favorably about the cryptocurrency at the Miami-based Bitcoin Conference in May. With current prices around $29,500 per bitcoin, the 14 bitcoins are now worth almost $414,000. In other news, Paradigm Capital transferred 3,000 MakerDAO governance tokens (MKR) worth $3.5 million to an OTC trading wallet, following a similar move by Andressen Horowitz, who deposited $7 million of MKR tokens to Coinbase, potentially for selling, amid MKR’s price surge due to a buyback scheme. Meanwhile, investment funds linked to Stellar’s XLM, Ripple’s XRP, and Solana’s SOL experienced a surge in assets under management (AUM) in July, with positive sentiment surrounding XLM attributed to its partnerships with USDC’s Circle and entities like MoneyGram.
Palau, a country consisting of numerous islands in the Pacific Ocean, has initiated a trial of a stablecoin linked to the U.S. dollar. The project, running on Ripple’s XRP ledger, began in March with wallet design and saw the minting of the first stablecoin in July, continuing through August. Ripple has been assisting with technical support and personnel. Once the trial is complete, the country’s authorities will assess the stablecoin’s viability and decide on further steps. Additionally, Palau has partnered with Cryptic Labs to launch the world’s first digital residency program, offering NFTs representing resident ID cards for access to Palau-based perks. Moreover, the Bank of Italy’s innovation hub has selected a DeFi project involving Polygon Labs and Fireblocks to help financial institutions explore tokenised assets and experiment with security tokens in a safe, regulated manner. The project aims to allow traditional financial players to interact with DeFi protocols securely. In a separate development, the crypto robo-advisor Hedgehog will offer automated investing services based on CoinDesk Indices (CDI) for different digital asset sectors. Users will be able to invest in various sectors, including DeFi and smart contract platforms, with Hedgehog also providing exposure to all sectors through the CoinDesk Market Select Index. CoinDesk Indices (CDI) has become a prominent provider of digital asset indices, serving as a benchmark for measuring the performance of various segments in the liquid digital asset market.
Cryptocurrency payments platform CoinsPaid suspects that North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group was behind a hacking incident on July 22, where $37.3 million was stolen. The hack forced CoinsPaid to halt operations for four days, and the firm believes the cybercrime organization was aiming for a much larger sum. Meanwhile, the EOS Network Foundation (ENF) is preparing to sue Block.one for allegedly failing to honor $1 billion in investment commitments. Block.one is already dealing with another class-action lawsuit, and the ENF’s lawsuit is being prepared in response to the alleged failure to invest in the EOS Network and community. Additionally, the controversial crypto project Worldcoin struggled to attract users willing to scan their irises for 25 WLD tokens, with interest reportedly fading after the launch despite 2 million pre-sign-ups. On the first day, Hong Kong had the highest number of sign-ups with 600 overall across three designated locations.
Source:
https://coindesk.com
https://cointelegraph.com
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