updraftplus domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/aonyeani76/cryptocurrencypanther/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131hustle domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/aonyeani76/cryptocurrencypanther/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131wpforms-lite domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/aonyeani76/cryptocurrencypanther/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131The crypto market concludes another week with unprecedented developments sparking investor enthusiasm. A strategic Bitcoin reserve was announced in the U.S., whilst a crypto stockpile and summit followed. Simultaneously, despite the optimistic developments, BTC and major-league altcoins continued encountering market volatility.
Mentioned below are some of the most buzzworthy market updates reported by CoinGape over the past week.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced a strategic Bitcoin reserve for America this week. This reserve is expected to encompass roughly 200,000 Bitcoins, which are currently held by the government through the cessation of funds involved in criminal and illicit activities.
Intriguingly, Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick have been appointed officials who will focus on potential resources to help the reserve acquire more BTC ahead. Trump revealed that these BTC coins are also not to be sold ahead, offering the reserve more value.
Further, the nation expects to see a ‘crypto stockpile’ comprised of assets like Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and XRP ahead, per Trump’s announcement. The main difference between the two sagas is that while the government will put efforts into acquiring more BTC, no active efforts for upsizing the crypto stockpile are to be made. Altogether, these were the major pro-crypto advancements in the U.S. this week.
Simultaneously, the cryptocurrency market saw a White House crypto summit this week, which was hosted by President Donald Trump and Crypto Czar David Sacks.
Notably, Trump showcased strong efforts to end “Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” which has been putting regulatory pressure on banks, leading them to close accounts of crypto businesses. Further, the 47th U.S. President continued reflecting strong support for cryptocurrencies, hinting that the government’s stance is primed to be more favorable for digital assets ahead.
Overall, the Bitcoin reserve announcement, crypto summit, and a crypto stockpile launch ahead have sparked noteworthy market optimism.
However, despite the broader developments this week, BTC and major league altcoins face crypto market turbulence.
BTC price closed the week near $86K after riding a rollercoaster in the past seven days. ETH price lost nearly 2% and closed the week near $2,200. XRP price also faced turbulence and exchanged hands at $2.32 as the week closed, up by only 3% in 7 days. Lastly, SOL price lost 3.5% weekly and rested at $138, in line with the broader market trend.
Coingape Staff
CoinGape comprises an experienced team of native content writers and editors working round the clock to cover news globally and present news as a fact rather than an opinion. CoinGape writers and reporters contributed to this article.
Disclaimer: The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.
JPMorgan is inching closer to a new era in digital finance, according to a recent report on September 8th. Additionally, a deposit token built on the blockchain is in the final development phases despite the rollout being contingent on U.S. regulatory approval. Significantly, this new product will initially target corporate clients, aiming to expedite settlements and payments.
Unlike stablecoins, usually issued by non-banking entities, a depository institution will issue JPMorgan’s deposit token. Additionally, the deposit token diverges from the bank’s existing JPM Coin.
The latter only enables transactions within JPMorgan, whereas the new token will allow transactions with other banks. Moreover, it will be suitable for various blockchain-based settlements, including trades in tokenized securities.
JPMorgan has already laid most of the groundwork for this innovation. Last year, the deposit token was piloted in a collaborative project by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Like JPM Coin, the new token will adhere to compliance measures. Hence, all transactions will go through know-your-customer and anti-fraud processes.
A spokesperson for JPMorgan emphasized the bank’s cautious optimism;
“Deposit tokens bring plenty of potential benefits, but we also appreciate that regulators would want to be thoughtful and diligent before any new product gets developed and used,” they said.
This development adds another layer to the ongoing competition among crypto tokens to speed up financial settlements. Besides JPMorgan, PayPal recently launched its stablecoin, PYUSD, to get a slice of the pie. Consequently, established players like Circle are broadening the reach of their offerings to stay competitive.
According to Umar Farooq, CEO of JPMorgan’s web3 arm Onyx, deposit tokens on public blockchains are “the next step in the evolution of digitized commercial bank money.”
JPMorgan’s move into blockchain-based deposit tokens isn’t just a leap forward for the bank but also a significant marker for the financial industry. Although the system will be operational once regulatory approval is obtained, JPMorgan’s readiness suggests that the impact on cross-border transactions could be transformative once the green light is given.
The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.
Robinhood may soon be ready to launch a UK business as it recruits a CEO and publishes vacancies for other roles.
American financial services and trading firm Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ: HOOD) is seriously working on plans to launch in the United Kingdom. Robinhood has begun hiring for the UK arm and has appointed a CEO.
According to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Robinhood has now appointed former Barclays director Jordan Sinclair. The FCA approved Sinclair’s appointment on Tuesday, the 18th of July.
Sinclair’s LinkedIn page shows that the new CEO spent more than a year as the Managing director for Freetrade Europe, and also functioned in the international strategic initiatives capacity at Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC).
Robinhood has reportedly been trying its hands at the UK market for a few years now. In 2019, Robinhood decided to indefinitely postpone the launch, disappointing prospective UK customers who had joined a waitlist. At the time, a spokesperson said Robinhood was focusing its efforts on strengthening its US business.
However, Coinspeaker reported last Tuesday that Robinhood posted vacancies on LinkedIn in preparation for the new UK office. The trading platform posted a vacancy for a senior risk and compliance associate and a compliance officer, both based in London. In addition, there is a vacancy for an operations lead, expected to help with launching and scaling in the UK.
Robinhood has been facing regulatory problems in the US for a while now. In April, the company reached a $10.2 million settlement for “operational and technical failures” with the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI). The settlement came after the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) investigated complaints about outages, in collaboration with securities regulators from several states. Collaborators include regulators from California, New Jersey, Alabama, South Dakota, Delaware, Colorado, and Texas. The settlement concluded a two-year investigation that began in March 2020.
In February, Robinhood revealed it got into trouble with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Commission sent an investigative subpoena to Robinhood in December 2022 following crypto bankruptcies that happened throughout the year.
In August 2022, the New York District of Financial Services (NYDFS) fined Robinhood $30 million for not developing adequate measures to “maintain a culture of compliance”. In April 2021, the California Attorney General’s Office subpoenaed Robinhood, asking about the company’s coin listings, custody information, and general details about the trading platform. A month later, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined Robinhood $70 million for allegedly providing customers with false information.
Robinhood reportedly plans to lay off 7% of its staff as it tries to reduce running costs. Most of the affected staff were employed during the pandemic when Robinhood had heavy demand for crypto trading. Between 2020 and 2021, Robinhood’s staff count jumped 442% from 700 to about 3,800. Nonetheless, the company conducted two layoff rounds last year, firing 9% in April and 23% in August.
Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
When he’s not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.
It’s no secret that gamers have it in for NFTs.
But yesterday, Microsoft-owned Minecraft gave the NFT space a reason to fire back.
The team behind the game released a statement that essentially bans NFTs from integrating with its platform, going on to say that it has “no plans of implementing blockchain technology into Minecraft right now.”
A variety of NFT projects have been developing virtual worlds and accessories that are compatible with Minecraft, with plans to integrate with the actual game in the future. Chief among them is NFT Worlds, a collection of 10,000 metaverse lands.
Minted for free in October 2021, the NFTs surged to a floor price of nearly 18 ETH in February at the height of GameFi fever. Following the news, prices crashed by over 80% from 3 ETH to 0.5 ETH. The project’s WRLD token dived more than 60%.
World #5080Curiously, Minecraft explains NFTs as digital tokens “often purchased with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin”. While Bitcoin can certainly be used to purchase some NFTs like Rare Pepes, the vast majority of NFT sales are conducted in ETH.
Meanwhile, other gaming companies continue to keep an open mind about the metaverse.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney affirmed that his company doesn’t plan to reject blockchain technology. “I believe stores and operating system makers shouldn’t interfere by forcing their views onto others. We definitely won’t.”
Square Enix, the Japanese conglomerate behind the popular gaming franchises Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, plans to launch a digital collection of Final Fantasy VII 25th Anniversary cards and figures. The NFTs will be available to those who purchase items from the physical collection that is expected to launch in 2023.
The NFTs will launch on Efinity, a blockchain tailored towards NFTs in the Polkadot ecosystem, being developed by Enjin.
An NFT whale lost just under 100 ETH when a marketing ploy backfired on July 20.
Here’s how it happened. Franklin placed a bid of 100 ETH on an aptly-named ENS domain that he owned in an alternate wallet, in an attempt to generate market interest.
His plan seemed to work, as he received an offer of 1.9 ETH, which he accepted. Unfortunately, he forgot to cancel his original bid of 100 ETH as he rushed to tweet about the successful trade.
Fifteen minutes passed before the mystery buyer turned around and sold it back to Franklin, netting a profit of 95.6 ETH ($150,000). According to his Twitter bio, Franklin is the seventh largest Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holder with 58 apes, so the loss probably won’t bother him too much.
As for the buyer? They’ve gone on a shopping spree, having rebuffed Franklin’s request to undo the transaction, delivered via NFT.
They did, however, send Franklin a Milady NFT.
Moonbirds, the NFT collection that shattered OpenSea volume records when it launched in April, revealed the art for its Oddities collection on July 20.
Oddities were airdropped to “nested” Moonbirds holders two months ago and have remained unrevealed since. The art by Cryptoadz creator gremplin has received mixed reviews from the community.
The traits of the Oddities are apparently tied to the Moonbirds’, meaning that holders of rare birds received rare Oddities. Some community members voiced their displeasure at the lack of randomness.
The floor price of the collection has dropped 40% to 1.8 ETH post-reveal.
Sales volume ticked up to $196M in the week ending July 18. Volume was $13M higher than the prior week while the number of transactions dropped by 24,000.
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