BTC is currently trading around $22,700 and ETH around $1,500. Notable gainers in the last 24 hours are ATOM, XCN, and CRV. The global crypto market cap is $1.07T, down 4.7% over the last day. DeFi Total Value Locked is ~$84b and BTC dominance is around 43%.
Global equities are mixed this morning and crypto is down. Bond yields in the U.S. are not moving much, but yields throughout European countries are surging in the wake of the ECB rate hike. The ECB raised its deposit facility rate by 50bps, increasing rates from negative territory back to zero. The hike exceeded market expectations of 25bps, and it was the ECB’s first hike in over a decade. Earnings season continues to sit front and center on investors’ minds. Microsoft joined Alphabet, Meta, and Apple with its recent decision to slow its pace of hiring given the uncertain economic backdrop.
Notable news includes: South Korean authorities raided at least seven crypto exchanges as part of its ongoing investigation into Terraform Labs; South Korea postponed its 20% tax on crypto gains until 2025; Nigerian banks are reluctant to promote the e-Naira due to concerns about losing banking revenue; Matter Labs revealed plans to launch zkSync 2.0 on Ethereum mainnet in October; Celsius offered its customers the choice to “recover either cash at a discount or remain long crypto”; Vauld is seeking a moratorium in Singapore for protection against its creditors, a move similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy; Zipmex said it’s exploring all options as it prepares to allow some withdrawals; Blockchain.com laid off a quarter of its staff; a proposal to turn on the frequently discussed Uniswap ‘fee switch’ has gained early support; Minecraft banned NFT use on its servers; Tesla sold ~75% of its bitcoin in the second quarter; Compass Mining partnered with Compute North for a new 75MW mining facility in Texas; Aave executed a $1m treasury swap with Balancer; Bit2Me acquired a majority stake in Peruvian crypto exchange Fluyez, further revealing a desire to purchase multiple other small crypto exchanges throughout South America; Blockdaemon acquired wallet security startup Sepior; SkyBridge revealed plans to launch a new fund investing in web3 and fintech startups; Justin Sun revealed his desire to acquire Tencent’s recently closed NFT division; The Sandbox hired BrandShield to help prevent rising NFT fraud; FTX is reportedly looking to raise capital at a $32b valuation; KuCoin raised $10m from SIG to fund growth plans; NFT authentication company Optic raised $11m; and, Finnish authorities sold ~$47m of confiscated bitcoin and will donate the proceeds to Ukraine.
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