Issue #48

Market Overview

As of the time of writing (Monday 5pm), the total market cap of the crypto asset market is $US1.25T, up (2.5%) from last week.

Below is the weekly performance of the top crypto and NFT assets. 

News Headline Highlights

• Fidelity Investments, the world’s third largest asset manager (US$4.2T), re-filed paperwork for their Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust, a spot bitcoin ETF, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
• HSBC, one of Hong Kong’s largest banks, launched Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF trading for clients. The ETFs have been added to HSBC’s “Easy Invest” mobile app.
• Over the last month, Microstrategy, the software company turned bitcoin accumulator, acquired an additional 12,333 BTC for ~$347.0m at an average price of $28,136 per BTC. This brings their total holdings to 152,333 BTC, with an average price of $29,668 per BTC.
• SAP, a multinational enterprise software company that powers the underlying payment structure of a range of Fortune 500 companies, is now testing cross-border USDC payments on Ethereum’s Goerli testnet.
• Mastercard announced plans to launch its Multi Token Network (MTN), starting with a beta in the U.K. in the coming months. The MTN can be thought of as an “app store powered by blockchain technologies for building regulated financial applications,” commented Mastercard executive vice president Raj Dhamodharan.
• ARK has amended their 19b-4 for spot bitcoin ETF to include a surveillance sharing agreement between CBOE and Coinbase. This makes their ETF  application similar to BlackRock's, and puts them in pole position to be approved first as they filed first.
• CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, announced plans to launch Ether/Bitcoin Ratio futures on July 31. The Ether/Bitcoin Ratio futures will be cash-settled to the value of CME Group Ether futures final settlement price, divided by the corresponding CME Group Bitcoin futures final settlement price.

 Crypto Asset Project Updates

• Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, a second-layer payment protocol, has reached a new all-time high bitcoin (and USD) capacity (i.e. the amount of bitcoin locked in payment channels on the network).

Regulation Station

• Coinbase filed an answer to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) lawsuit against them, arguing the regulator violated its due process and is reaching beyond its jurisdiction. The crux of Coinbase’s argument centres around the claim that digital assets listed on its platform are not securities, and thus fall outside the purview of the SEC.
• The Canadian House of Commons Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry and Technology has published a report recognising blockchain as an emerging industry with significant economic opportunities. The report emphasises consumer protection and regulatory clarity, advocates for a national blockchain strategy, and proposes an innovative regulatory approach to stablecoins.
• The North Carolina House has passed a bill directing their Treasury Department to study the process of buying and holding bitcoin as a "hedge against inflation". The bill will now be voted on in the Senate.
• In a recent post discussing central bank digital currencies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) commented that banning crypto assets may not be an effective approach for countries to manage risk over the long run.

The Weekly Deal Room

• Mythical Games, a web3 gaming studio, raised $37m in the first part of their Series C extension round led by Scytale Digital.
• One Trading, formerly Bitpanda Pro, has spun out and raised $33m in a funding round led by Valar Ventures.
• Pixion Games, a web3 gaming studio, raised $5.5m in a Seed Round backed by Avalanche, Shima Capital and others.
• Superstate, a company seeking to bring regulated financial products to blockchain networks, raised $4m in equity funding from ParaFi Capital, 1kx, Cumberland Ventures and others.
• Outdid, an end-to-end private ID verification solution leveraging zero knowledge ("ZK") proofs, raised $2.5m in a Seed Round led by Jump Crypto.
• AlloyX, a decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol that aggregates tokenized credit, raised $2m in a Pre-Seed Round led by Hack VC.