Weekly Crypto News Recap – July 7, 2023

GBTC shares up 57% since BlackRock Bitcoin ETF filing, discount narrowed to 30%

The Block
The Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) has risen substantially since asset management giant BlackRock filed for a spot bitcoin ETF on June 15. Meanwhile, GBTC’s discount to net asset value (NAV) — meaning the market price of each share is lower than the value of the bitcoin it represents — is trading at its lowest levels in over a year. The discount was ~42% before BlackRock’s application but has steadily narrowed since sitting beneath ~27% today. See GSR's latest coverage on Bitcoin ETFs and Grayscale's bid to convert.

Gemini’s Winklevoss demands $1.47 billion payment from DCG in ‘final offer’

The Block

Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini, issued a “final offer” to Barry Silbert, founder of Digital Currency Group (DCG), to repay a total debt of $1.46 billion or risk a lawsuit. In an open letter published Monday on Twitter, Winklevoss said that the “games are over” — with Gemini Earn users still stuck in limbo with over $1.2 billion of assets stuck in Genesis Global, which DCG owns. The letter added that if Silbert fails to agree to the deal by 4 p.m. ET on July 6 (yesterday), Gemini will file a lawsuit against DCG and Silbert on July 7 (today). Silbert did not respond publicly, and a lawsuit is expected later today.

Celsius moves altcoins to new wallets in preparation for Bitcoin and Ethereum conversion

CryptoSlate

On June 30, Judge Martin Gleen approved Celsius Network's plan to sell all its altcoins for the top two digital assets, and the bankrupt crypto lender has since moved around $70m worth of altcoins to sell them for BTC and ETH. The altcoins transferred included LINK, MATIC, SNX, AVAX, and others.

Starknet Plans ‘Quantum Leap’ Upgrade Next Week After Testnet Version Deployed

CoinDesk

Starknet, a layer 2 to the Ethereum blockchain, said a major upgrade known as “Quantum Leap” is now about a week away from being deployed on its main network after going live on testnet earlier this week. The upgrade aims to increase the blockchain's number of transactions per second (TPS), and reduce the time-to-inclusion – the length of time needed to confirm and report a transaction.

Threads Is Live, as Meta Launches Its Twitter Rival Early

Decrypt

"Hello world" posts are flooding into the timeline of the brand new text-based social media network, Threads, Meta's latest platform launched to compete with Twitter. The app bootstrapped user growth via its connection to Instagram, and it's on pace to become the fastest-growing consumer app in history after gaining more than 30m users in its first 24 hours. However, the quick burst of success has driven Elon Musk's personal lawyer to threaten litigation, accusing Meta of using Twitter's trade secrets in the development of the app.

BITCOIN

Vitalik Buterin says Ordinals have revived ‘builder culture’ on Bitcoin
Lightning Labs releases tools letting AI transact and hold Bitcoin
BlackRock CEO Praises Bitcoin for 'Digitizing Gold', Says BTC Could 'Revolutionize Finance'
Bitcoin’s unmoved supply hits all-time high amid institutional interest
BRC-69 Token Standard Promises To Reduce Ordinals Fees By 90%
Crypto ATM Company Bitcoin Depot Launches on Nasdaq

ETHEREUM

ETH DeFi ‘circuit breaker’ could cut hack losses by 70% — Developer
Ethereum Users Have Been Burning ETH To Mint VMPX Tokens
Pendle Attracts Over $125M In TVL With ‘Discounted Assets’
Vitalik Buterin declares he is not staking all of his ETH, merely a ‘small portion’

ALTCOINS

Avail, Spun Out of Polygon, Launches Data Attestation Bridge to Ethereum
Inside Sam Altman’s Worldcoin and its quest to catalog all humans
Shiba Inu-Based Shibarium Blockchain Expected to Go Live in August
IDEX unveils zkEVM Layer 2 chain based on Polygon Supernets
Uniswap v4 expected to go live after Ethereum’s Cancun upgrade and security audit
Centralization Comes to DeFi as Group Behind MIM, SPELL Tokens Mull Legal Shakeup
1inch sold 11,000 ETH to test Fusion transaction features
Rocket Pool promises to fix centralization concerns related to pDAO
Aave Holders Vote on Proposal for DeFi Protocol to Convert 1,600 Ether Into wstETH and rETH
Lido, Rocket Pool team members argue over decentralization
Optimism, Aptos and ApeCoin set for largest token unlocks in July
Phi Labs’ Archway goes live on mainnet in Cosmos ecosystem
Celsius to Potentially Sell More Than $170M in ADA, MATIC, SOL and Altcoins for BTC, ETH
Bitcoin Cash, FTX’s FTT Token and COMP Led Crypto Market Gains in June
Litecoin blasts past $100 amid surging hash rate, upcoming ‘halving’

STABLECOINS

Crypto market comeback hasn’t helped stablecoin volumes, says Fitch
Tether Touts Gold Standard Stablecoin XAUT to Beat Inflation
USDC-Issuer Circle Looking to Launch Stablecoin in Japan
Advocates call for Hong Kong govt stablecoin to compete with Tether and USD Coin
Tether Strikes Partnership Deal with Georgia Government

CRYPTO ECOSYSTEM

Billionaire CEO of Galaxy Digital Announces Overseas Move, Cites Similar Moves by Other Firms
Anchorage Digital's Assets Under Custody Surge Amid Increased Demand for Safe Crypto Storage
DeSo offers $1M bounty for building decentralized Reddit
Crypto Volumes Climb First Time in 3 Months amid TradFi Push for Spot BTC ETF
Bitwage halts USDC payments for US residents, cites ‘strict regulations’
Prometheum left the Chamber of Digital Commerce in April 2023
Binance and Coursera link up to tap into demand for blockchain developers
Crypto Custodian Cobo Argus Scores $100M in Value Locked One Week After Going Live
Twitter rival Mastodon’s active user base increases by 100K+
QuickNode adds support for XRP Ledger

NFTS / GAMING / METAVERSE

Sega rethinks plans on ‘boring’ blockchain gaming: Bloomberg
Sale of rare Bored Ape underscores NFT market slump
Animoca still bullish on blockchain games, awaits license for metaverse fund
Tezos Generative Art Platform fxhash Adds Ethereum in Multichain Push
Blue-chip NFTs hit hard as over 1,200 liquidations rock market
Ethereum NFT trading volume sees highest spike since February
AzukiDAO Votes on 'Reclaim' of 20K Ether After Botched Elementals NFT Mint
Ubisoft Reveals Next Blockchain Game, Champions Tactics
Azuki Teases Anime Series, New Artwork After Missing the Mark on Elementals Mint

MINING

Hut 8 Reports Double-Digit Decline in Bitcoins Mined in June
UAE emerges as a pro-Bitcoin mining destination in the Middle East
Bitcoin Mining Revenue Hits $184 Million in Q2 Amid Ordinals Fervor
Heating a home with a Bitcoin miner: Staying warm with sats
Record-breaking Texas power demand amid largest Bitcoin hash rate drawdown of 2023
Hut8 relocates 6,400 rigs, sees growth in AI and high-performance computing

EXCHANGES

Binance to Transfer Dutch Clients to Local Rival Coinmerce
Binance boss brushes off senior departures as ‘FUD’
OKX to Offer Crypto Trading Signals to Retail Traders
Bakkt eyes Hong Kong, UK and EU for international crypto plans
Binance Australia Under Fire Again as Offices Searched
South Africa to mandate crypto exchange licenses by end of 2023: Report
Bitget Launches 'Dual-Coin' Crypto Loans to Boost Investor Liquidity
Thailand Follows Singapore, Bans Crypto Exchanges From Offering Lending Services
Huobi fixes data breach that leaked contact details for 4,960 users
CME’s ether options market sees open interest hit all-time high
Crypto Exchange Kraken Ordered to Submit User Transaction Data to IRS – Here's the Latest
Bittrex challenges SEC’s authority in crypto lawsuit, seeks dismissal
OKX, Man City Sign $70M Deal after Shaking Off Club’s FTX-Related Fears

CAPITAL RAISES

CryptoQuant Parent Raises $6.5M Round Led by Atinum Investment
Privacy startup Ola raises $3 million in seed funding
Mind Network Secures $2.5M Seed Funding from Binance Labs, Other VCs

INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

Leveraged bitcoin futures ETF sees trading surpass 500,000 shares
Nasdaq Refiles Valkyrie's Bitcoin ETF Application with Coinbase Surveillance-Sharing Agreement
CoinShares Report: Bitcoin Receives Major Investor Attention Amidst New Highs for 2023
Probability for U.S. Approval of a Spot Bitcoin ETF Is Fairly High: Bernstein
Bitcoin ETFs will be ‘winner takes most’ market, says Bitwise exec

TRADFI / TECH

Elon Musk accuses Mark Zuckerberg of cheating: Twitter vs. Threads
ChatGPT sees traffic fall 10% in June after initial rush from users
Payment processor Worldpay sells to private equity firm GTCR at valuation of $18.5 billion
Decentralized Twitter Rival Bluesky Announces $8M Fundraise, Paid Services
Twitter Awarded Three State Money Transmitter Licenses
Saxo Bank Ordered To Get Rid of All Crypto Asset Holdings by Danish Regulators
HSBC trialing quantum-safe financial transaction network in the UK
Meta’s Twitter rival Threads to launch July 6, but will the crypto community budge?
Google updates its privacy policy to allow data scraping for AI training
Elon Musk imposes ‘rate limit’ on Twitter, citing extreme ‘system manipulation’

CBDC

NY Fed, banks wrap up regulated liabilities network proof-of-concept using wCBDC
Brazil’s Central Bank Uploads CBDC Files to GitHub – Digital BRL Rollout Imminent?
Bank of England taps self-sovereign ID platform Nuggets to develop privacy layer for digital pound
Crypto-friendly DBS Bank launches digital yuan transaction tool
Chinese city of Jinan accepts CBDC payments for bus rides

REGULATORY / COUNTRIES

SEC Investigation Triggers Pause at DeFi Protocol BarnBridge
European trade body warns against excluding DeFi from MiCA regulation
Bitcoin Tax Evasion Can’t Be Stopped With Just Anti-Money Laundering: IMF Report
Namibia passes bill to regulate crypto and digital assets
U.K. Blazes Trail With New Cryptocurrency Rules
US reportedly plans to restrict China’s access to cloud computing services
Coinbase officer argues U.S. student loan ruling sets precedent for SEC on crypto regulation
BNY Mellon, Franklin Templeton Heads to Co-Chair New Digital Asset Panel
Bittrex Accuses SEC of Failing, Again, to Define Securities
SEC Allegedly Attempts To Reshuffle Bitcoin ETF Fillings
Thai SEC bans the use of customer crypto assets for lending and investment
SEC dismisses rumors of chairman Gary Gensler’s resignation
Belarus wants to ban P2P cryptocurrency transactions
Executives From Franklin Templeton and BNY Mellon Co-Chair New Digital Assets Panel at CFTC
Italian central bank calls for stablecoin regulations in new report

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, GOVERNANCE

Hut 8 Starts Miner Recycling Program, Carbon Neutrality Dedication

SURVEYS, HACKS, MISC

Kraken’s Jesse Powell under federal investigation but exchange remains uninvolved
Multichain Bridges Exploited for Nearly $130M Across Fantom, Moonriver and Dogechain
Aptos Foundation Twitter account hacked to promote fake airdrop
FTX, Three Arrows, and SEC Join Forces Against BlockFi's Bankruptcy Plans, Unveiling Billion-Dollar Dispute
Axiom’s Zero-Knowledge Proofs Might One Day Help Detect Deepfakes
Kyle Davies to donate future OPNX earnings to 3AC creditors for ‘karma’
Poly network services ‘remain suspended’ after another major hack
Half of stolen NFTs are sold within 3 hours: PeckShield

View Weekly Crypto News PDF

This material is provided by GSR (the “Firm”) solely for informational purposes, is intended only for sophisticated, institutional investors and does not constitute an offer or commitment, a solicitation of an offer or commitment, or any advice or recommendation, to enter into or conclude any transaction (whether on the terms shown or otherwise), or to provide investment services in any state or country where such an offer or solicitation or provision would be illegal. The Firm is not and does not act as an advisor or fiduciary in providing this material.

This material is not a research report, and not subject to any of the independence and disclosure standards applicable to research reports prepared pursuant to FINRA or CFTC research rules. This material is not independent of the Firm’s proprietary interests, which may conflict with the interests of any counterparty of the Firm. The Firm trades instruments discussed in this material for its own account, may trade contrary to the views expressed in this material, and may have positions in other related instruments.

Information contained herein is based on sources considered to be reliable, but is not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. Any opinions or estimates expressed herein reflect a judgment made by the author(s) as of the date of publication, and are subject to change without notice. Trading and investing in digital assets involves significant risks including price volatility and illiquidity and may not be suitable for all investors. The Firm is not liable whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss arising from the use of this material. Copyright of this material belongs to GSR. Neither this material nor any copy thereof may be taken, reproduced or redistributed, directly or indirectly, without prior written permission of GSR.