  Weekly insights, news and analysis for the professional investor By Galen Moore, Director of Data & Indexes July 4, 2021 Sponsored by  Prices as of 07/04/21 @ 8 a.m. UTC If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.
Friends:
It's a holiday weekend (Independence Day in the U.S.), so no column this week. Just the usual suite of news briefs to provide context and keep you up to speed on the week's events in cryptocurrencies.
– Galen Moore, Director of Data & Indexes
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CHAIN LINKS Digital asset investment products saw net outflows of $44 million last week, making the last six out of seven weeks net negative. TAKEAWAY: Falling prices and high volatility played a key role in investment fund redemptions during May and June.
Huobi, a large offshore exchange, announced that users from mainland China, Taiwan, Israel, Iraq, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and the U.K. are now banned from using its derivatives trading venue. TAKEAWAY: Exchanges have to operate in a changing regulatory environment. Most of the recent regulatory news in Asia has been related to mining, but countries around the world are looking to firm up regulation of exchanges.
Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen became partial owners of crypto exchange FTX. TAKEAWAY: Sam Bankman-Fried made another large move in the U.S. sporting industry, bringing the seven-time Super Bowl champion and the Brazilian-born supermodel as equity owners in his trading company. Brady has been an open advocate of bitcoin, and FTX has now committed over $350 million to sporting deals and partnerships.
Last week marked an ATH for realized losses on bitcoin, with over $3.4 billion in losses being realized. TAKEAWAY: Glassnode tracks on-chain wallet activity to estimate when coins are bought and sold. (This is distinct from transactions that occur on exchanges, but often mirrors that activity.) May and June have both seen new ATHs in coins spent at a loss, with short-term holders bearing the brunt of the losses. The market may have already seen the worst of short-term holder capitulation in the near term.  Soros Fund Management, a family office for legendary investor George Soros, recently approved trading of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. TAKEAWAY: Chief Investment Officer Dawn Fitzpatrick cited bitcoin's use as a commodity, especially in times of changing monetary policy. Soros has not given any transparency to what his fund's position might be, but he is the latest billionaire to join the digital asset markets. |
Crypto.com and Circle are working together to develop on-ramps for the stablecoin USDC. TAKEAWAY: A previous partnership between Crypto.com and Visa allows payments to be settled in USDC, so clients can make real-world transactions with their stablecoins. The transparency of USDC and partnerships like these are contributing to USDC's growth versus the larger tether stablecoin (USDT).
TP ICAP, Standard Chartered and Fidelity await U.K. approval to launch a cryptocurrency trading platform. TAKEAWAY: The entry of a large forex intermediary is notable.
Regulators from Thailand and the Cayman Islands were the latest to take action against Binance, a large offshore crypto exchange. TAKEAWAY: Binance's exchange reports the most volume of all cryptocurrency exchanges and has recently come under fire from regulators across the world. The recent complaints stated that Binance was not licensed to operate in either Thailand or the Cayman Islands.
Robinhood released its S-1 on July 1, revealing that 17% of its first-quarter revenue stemmed from cryptocurrency transactions. TAKEAWAY: Robinhood's tactics and retail focus have brought unwelcome regulatory attention, including a focus on its cryptocurrency services. Notable: The company also announced that almost 34% of its crypto revenue (6% of its total revenue) came from Dogecoin transactions.
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Podcast episodes worth listening to:
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Crypto's Place in the ESG Investing Zeitgeist: Trusted Data and Aligned Incentives – Michael Casey and Sheila Warren, Money Reimagined.
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Are We on the Verge of a New Regulatory Era in Crypto? – Nathaniel Whittemore, The Breakdown.
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Easier Said Than Done: Why This Change on Eth 2.0 Would Require 'Immense' Work – Christine Kim and Ben Edgington, Mapping Out Eth 2.0.
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The Investor's Perspective on the Bitcoin Taproot Upgrade
Taproot is a bundle of three upgrades to Bitcoin aimed at improving network security, privacy and scalability. At the same time, it poses some potential drawbacks to Bitcoin including risks of low adoption, unintended privacy shortcomings and Bitcoin community disappointment and fracturing.
CoinDesk Research's newest report dives into the economic impact and investment implications of the Taproot upgrade.
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