CoinDesk Crypto

Russia’s central bank named 12 banks that will be involved in the initial testing of the nation’s future central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital ruble, the regulator announced Wednesday.

The list includes the largest credit organizations of Russia, including Sberbank, VTB, Alfa Bank, Gazprombank, and Tinkoff.

Previously, the Bank of Russia said it was planning to develop a prototype of the digital ruble by December and start piloting it next year. It’s not clear yet if the project will be built on a blockchain, and, if so, on which one. The initial concept of the digital ruble, published in October 2020, did not mention specific technological solutions and provided a list of options of how the project should be implemented.

Related: Russian Political Activists Urge Supporters to Learn About Crypto

The project rattled Russia’s banking community, as the banks were worried about the potential centralized design of the CBDC, which would mean direct competition between them and the central bank for Russian accounts.

Bank of Russia Chair Elvira Nabiullina brushed off those concerns last year, saying the digital ruble would not be not a threat for commercial banks. Still, the concept was then modified to sooth the banks’ fears, giving them the role of intermediaries, opening digital ruble accounts for users on behalf of the Bank of Russia.

Related Stories

• Russian Artists to Sell NFTs to Support Journalists Under Pressure
• Russian Political Candidates Will Have to Report Crypto Holdings
• Election Monitors Call Russia’s Blockchain Voting a Black Box: Report

U.K. financial-services companies not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will soon be barred from advertising on Google.

• Starting Aug. 30, Google will require advertisers to demonstrate that they are authorized by the FCA or qualify for one of the limited exemptions.
• The change in policy, which will be enforced from Sept. 6, is designed to tackle fraud, the company said in a blog post Wednesday.
• The requirement covers financial services providers even if their products are not regulated by the FCA.
• Crypto service providers currently have until March 31 next year to register with the FCA. Just six have successfully completed the process so far.
• It was reported this week that 64 companies have abandoned their bids for FCA registration, including 13 since the start of June.

Related Stories

• UK Bank NatWest Limits Amount Users Can Transfer to Crypto Exchanges
• Crypto Firms Are Giving Up UK Regulatory Registration Bids: Report
• A Reckoning for Binance and Other ‘Global’ Exchanges
• UK Police Seize Cryptocurrency Worth Almost $160M in Money Laundering Probe

HSBC has gone live on the United Arab Emirates’ know-your-customer (KYC) blockchain platform, becoming the fourth founding member and first overseas institution to do so.

• The multinational bank has gone live on the platform, which exchanges data between financial institutions for KYC purposes, an announcement June 27 said.
• Data is shared over the platform’s blockchain, enabling potential customers to be swiftly approved by member institutions using the credentials provided to others.
• For institutions, there are time and cost savings from using shared data to onboard customers rather than having to obtain it themselves.
• The platform is powered by Swedish firm norbloc’s Fides blockchain.
• Existing members of the consortium, launched in February 2020 by Dubai Economy, include Emirates Islamic, Emirates NBD, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, RAKBANK and Mashreq Bank.

Related Stories

• 3iQ’s Bitcoin ETF Rises on First Day of Trading on Nasdaq Dubai
• HSBC CEO Says Bank ‘Not Into Bitcoin’ Due to Concerns Over Volatility: Report
• Egypt’s Largest Bank Joins Ripple Network for Cross-Border Payments
• In-Person ID Checks May Be on the Way for Thai Crypto Exchange Users: Report

As popularity in cryptocurrencies has increased, so too have complaints against major U.S. exchanges that house them.

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, of the top three crypto exchanges operating in the U.S., Coinbase has received the most complaints in year-to-date terms.

Around 1,060 complaints have been registered against Coinbase, ranging from domestic and international money transfers, digital wallets, and foreign currency exchange, according to the bureau’s Consumer Complaint Database.

Related: USDC Stablecoin Could Soon Expand to 10 More Blockchains

Residents from California had the largest gripe against the U.S.’s most prominent exchange with 131 complaints, while residents of New York followed closely behind.

Washington, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas and Florida also registered a larger share of the total complaints received against Coinbase.

Binance.US, operated by BAM Trading and a separate entity from Changpeng Zhao’s Binance, has received around 184 complaints in the same categories while Kraken, another major exchange, has received 34.

The complaints stretch from the end of June last year through to this year and capture a time when the market was beginning to shake off prior bearish sentiment as prices began to recover from a particularly nasty sell-off in May 2020.

Related: CEO Brian Armstrong Flags Self-Custody, DeFi Access as Coinbase Priorities

By comparison, the same period of the previous year saw far fewer complaints, with Coinbase clocking around 241, Binance with 17 and Kraken receiving none, the Bureau’s data shows.

Coinbase, Kraken and Binance.US have yet to reply to requests for comment from CoinDesk.

Related Stories

• Crypto Exchange Kraken Slashes Deposit Fees Across All Digital Assets to Zero
• Coinbase Debuts Savings Product With 4% APY on USDC Deposits

Insight Investment, a global asset manager with $1 trillion in assets under its belt, said it fails to see the long-term merits of bitcoin as a method of payment, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

• The manager’s head of currency solutions, Francesca Fornasari, said her firm was “skeptical” of the ability for bitcoin to take over a “means of payment.”
• Insight is a subsidiary of the world’s largest custodian bank, BNY Mellon, which safeguards over $41 trillion in assets. BNY announced its move into crypto in February.
• Yet despite its parent company’s recent foray into the industry, the subsidiary is calling for caution on investing in assets like bitcoin.
• “There’s a whole number of different factors … that are going to affect the value of your investment, that have nothing to do with inflation or inflation hedges,” said Fornasari.
• The currency solution head also said bitcoin was difficult to evaluate due to its volatility, which made it difficult to determine how the crypto would react in an inflationary environment, Bloomberg reported.

See also: BNY Mellon Would Be Service Provider for First Trust, SkyBridge’s Proposed Bitcoin ETF

Related Stories

• Bitcoin Upside Stalls; Could Find Support Near $30K-$33K
• Bitcoin Set for Record Second-Quarter Price Drop
• Australia’s Financial Watchdog Says Bitcoin ETP Could Create ‘Risk,’ Seeks Feedback
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Pushes Higher as Short Bets Unwind

Insight Investment, a global asset manager with $1 trillion in assets under its belt, said it fails to see the long-term merits of bitcoin as a method of payment, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

• The manager’s head of currency solutions, Francesca Fornasari, said her firm was “skeptical” of the ability for bitcoin to take over a “means of payment.”
• Insight is a subsidiary of the world’s largest custodian bank, BNY Mellon, which safeguards over $41 trillion in assets. BNY announced its move into crypto in February.
• Yet despite its parent company’s recent foray into the industry, the subsidiary is calling for caution on investing in assets like bitcoin.
• “There’s a whole number of different factors … that are going to affect the value of your investment, that have nothing to do with inflation or inflation hedges,” said Fornasari.
• The currency solution head also said bitcoin was difficult to evaluate due to its volatility, which made it difficult to determine how the crypto would react in an inflationary environment, Bloomberg reported.

See also: BNY Mellon Would Be Service Provider for First Trust, SkyBridge’s Proposed Bitcoin ETF

Related Stories

• Australia’s Financial Watchdog Says Bitcoin ETP Could Create ‘Risk’, Seeks Feedback
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Pushes Higher as Short Bets Unwind
• How the Macro Landscape Is Shaping Bitcoin Markets
• Musk’s Tweets Swayed Some Investors on Bitcoin Environmental Concerns, Survey Shows

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.), who also co-chairs the blockchain caucus, believes a trusted third-party, such as the courts, should have access to a crypto backdoor.

In an interview with Axios on Tuesday, the congressman said until the industry could grapple with crypto-ransomware attacks, total anonymity would be “very hard to sustain.”

Foster said new legislation and rules could establish a type of pseudo-anonymity where only judicial powers would have access to certain information. The congressman suggested allowing the court to use its access to a “very heavily guarded key” a “cryptographic backdoor in essence” allowing it to reverse transactions on the blockchain.

Related: State of Crypto: Inside the NRCC’s Plan to Accept Crypto Donations

“You (authorities) have to be able to go to court to unmask participants under some circumstances,” said Foster. “It does not have to be visible to the whole world.”

The congressman also drew a distinction between digital and physical assets in the context of ransomware attacks, providing an example of unmarked dollar bills being put in a trash can versus total anonymity afforded to hackers.

Asked whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s retrieval of bitcoin from the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attackers last month afforded a solution to the problem, the congressman said recouping funds would eventually become “more difficult.”

The fundamental decision one has to make when it comes to crypto is between retaining true anonymity versus being able to unmask participants and reverse fraudulent or mistaken transactions, the congressman noted.

Related: NYC Mayoral Front Runner Eric Adams Says City Will Become ‘Center of Bitcoins’

“There’s not a technological alternative that I am aware of,” said Foster. “I think for most people, if they are going to have a big part of their net worth tied up in crypto assets they’re going to want to have that security blanket of a trusted third-party.”

Related Stories

• Examine Blockchain for Ways to Stop Forced-Labor Goods, Australian Committee Says
• Republican House Campaign Arm to Accept Donations in Crypto

U.S. Representative Bill Foster (D-Ill.), who also co-chairs the blockchain caucus, believes a trusted third-party, such as the courts, should have access to a crypto backdoor.

In an interview with Axios on Tuesday, the congressman said until the industry could grapple with crypto-ransomware attacks, total anonymity would be “very hard to sustain.”

Foster said new legislation and rules could establish a type of pseudo-anonymity where only judicial powers would have access to certain information. The congressman suggested allowing the court to use its access to a “very heavily guarded key” a “cryptographic backdoor in essence” allowing it to reverse transactions on the blockchain.

Related: State of Crypto: Inside the NRCC’s Plan to Accept Crypto Donations

“You (authorities) have to be able to go to court to unmask participants under some circumstances,” said Foster. “It does not have to be visible to the whole world.”

The congressman also drew a distinction between digital and physical assets in the context of ransomware attacks, providing an example of unmarked dollar bills being put in a trash can versus total anonymity afforded to hackers.

Asked whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s retrieval of bitcoin from the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attackers last month afforded a solution to the problem, the congressman said recouping funds would eventually become “more difficult.”

The fundamental decision one has to make when it comes to crypto is between retaining true anonymity versus being able to unmask participants and reverse fraudulent or mistaken transactions, the congressman noted.

Related: NYC Mayoral Front Runner Eric Adams Says City Will Become ‘Center of Bitcoins’

“There’s not a technological alternative that I am aware of,” said Foster. “I think for most people, if they are going to have a big part of their net worth tied up in crypto assets they’re going to want to have that security blanket of a trusted third-party.”

See also: NYC Mayoral Front Runner Eric Adams Says City Will Become ‘Center of Bitcoins’

Related Stories

• Examine Blockchain for Ways to Stop Forced-Labor Goods, Australian Committee Says
• Republican House Campaign Arm to Accept Donations in Crypto

Australia needs to tread carefully should it eventually launch a crypto exchange-traded product (ETP), the country’s financial regulator said Wednesday.

In a consultation paper from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), the regulator is reaching out to market participants for feedback on whether crypto underlying products can meet existing ETP expectations.

ASIC said it is attempting to evaluate whether cryptos are appropriate underlying assets, whether they could be reliably priced, and how they should be classified with respect to underlying asset rules, according to the paper.

Related: Bitcoin Upside Stalls; Could Find Support Near $30K-$33K

The paper seeks feedback in two main areas on how an ETP may affect the market including compliance costs and effects on competition. ASIC’s request for feedback comes as the Australian Securities Exchange, one of the country’s major bourses, is considering applications for the launch of a domestic ETP by year’s end.

“At this point in time, in our view, the only crypto-assets that are likely to satisfy these factors are bitcoin and ether,” the regulator said.

How product issuers can ensure these products are compliant with the existing regulatory framework, including with respect to custody, risk management, and disclosure were also mentioned for consideration.

In Australia, there are three types of categories that fall under an ETP including exchange-traded funds, managed funds, and structured products – a security or derivative which gives financial exposure to the performance of underlying instruments.

Related: Bitcoin Set for Record Second-Quarter Price Drop

“We are aware of interest in, and demand for, domestic crypto-asset ETPs,” said the regulator. “However, we are also aware of the real risk of harm to consumers and markets if these products are not developed and operated properly.”

Comments need to be submitted to the regulator by July 27 with those wishing to provide feedback having the option to remain anonymous or use an alias.

See also: ASX Boss Says His DLT Settlement System Will Be Bigger Than All of Crypto Market

Related Stories

• BNY Mellon Subsidiary Doubts Bitcoin as Payment Solution, Contrasting Parent’s Offerings
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Pushes Higher as Short Bets Unwind

Australia needs to tread carefully should it eventually launch a crypto exchange-traded product (ETP), the country’s financial regulator said Wednesday.

In a consultation paper from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), the regulator is reaching out to market participants for feedback on whether crypto underlying products can meet existing ETP expectations.

ASIC said it is attempting to evaluate whether cryptos are appropriate underlying assets, whether they could be reliably priced, and how they should be classified with respect to underlying asset rules, according to the paper.

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Pushes Higher as Short Bets Unwind

The paper seeks feedback in two main areas on how an ETP may affect the market including compliance costs and effects on competition. ASIC’s request for feedback comes as the Australian Securities Exchange, one of the country’s major bourses, is considering applications for the launch of a domestic ETP by year’s end.

“At this point in time, in our view, the only crypto-assets that are likely to satisfy these factors are bitcoin and ether,” the regulator said.

How product issuers can ensure these products are compliant with the existing regulatory framework, including with respect to custody, risk management, and disclosure were also mentioned for consideration.

In Australia, there are three types of categories that fall under an ETP including exchange-traded funds, managed funds, and structured products – a security or derivative which gives financial exposure to the performance of underlying instruments.

Related: How the Macro Landscape Is Shaping Bitcoin Markets

“We are aware of interest in, and demand for, domestic crypto-asset ETPs,” said the regulator. “However, we are also aware of the real risk of harm to consumers and markets if these products are not developed and operated properly.”

Comments need to be submitted to the regulator by July 27 with those wishing to provide feedback having the option to remain anonymous or use an alias.

See also: ASX Boss Says His DLT Settlement System Will Be Bigger Than All of Crypto Market

Related Stories

• Musk’s Tweets Swayed Some Investors on Bitcoin Environmental Concerns, Survey Shows
• Bitcoin’s ‘Puell Multiple’ Flashes Misleading Bullish Signal as China Bans Mining

Decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform Cream Finance on Tuesday announced an upcoming integration with the Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution Polygon.

Cream Finance’s smart contract money markets allow users to borrow and lend supported assets.

According to Cream, the integration with Polygon, which has $8.64 billion in total value locked, will lead to faster transaction speeds, lower gas fees, and access to additional markets for its users. At the time of the launch, which has not yet been specified, Cream’s users will be able to lend and borrow 10 digital assets, including USDC, USDT, DAI, WMATIC and LINK.

Related: More Energy-Efficient Blockchains Are Possible. Here’s How

The Polygon network is growing: Institutional investors are pouring money into Polygon as demand for Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks grows, and DeFi developers and users are flocking to the platform in search of cheaper gas fees and fast block times. And Cream isn’t the only lending platform to join forces with Polygon. Earlier this month, Kyber Exchange announced its own integration with the platform.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Cream confirmed its Polygon markets will be incentivized by $MATIC liquidity mining opportunities.

The announcement also confirmed that Cream’s assets on Polygon will be covered by Chainlink oracles.

Related Stories

• Market Wrap: Cryptocurrencies Rise Despite Binance UK Warning
• Ethereum Gas Fees at 6-Month Low as Market Cools, Layer 2 Solutions Ease Congestion
• Ethereum Investment Funds Saw Record Outflows of $50M

The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), the governing political body in Spain, has proposed creating a national digital currency.

PSOE, which holds the presidency of the country and is the leading force in the Chamber of Deputies, presented a non-law proposition (PNL) which looks to launch a national digital currency in response to decreased usage of physical cash, according to the Spanish newspaper El Economista. 

The PNL argued that new payment trends lead to a “purely private and more insecure money” while its proposal is committed to “the recovery of money as a public good, more stable and under democratic control.” 

Related: Power, Privacy and China’s Digital Currency

PSOE promoted this measure after the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its intentions to create a digital euro, the report added. 

Last week, the European Union designated the Bank of Spain and the National Securities Market Commission, Spain’s stock market regulator known as CNMV, to oversee crypto assets in the country. 

Carlos Conesa, general director of the financial innovation division at the Spanish Central Bank (Banco de España), said this month that “the decision to launch a project on the digital euro is very close,” the report added.  

PSOE considered that a national digital currency would allow more liquidity in the system. “In the event that a monetary expansion is necessary, it allows a more direct mechanism, by injecting liquidity directly into current accounts and thus transferring it immediately and without intermediaries to economic activity”, the PNL pointed out.

Related: Stablecoins and CBDCs: Private Vs. Public Monetary Innovation

If the proposal prospers, it would serve the government to eliminate the brake mechanisms that limit inflation such as the money supply, the article added, citing specialists. 

“It would be subject, as at present, ultimately to control by the representatives of the citizenry, who set its monetary policy objectives,” PSOE argued in its PNL presented in Congress.

PSOE insisted that the project would be achieved “without the nationalization of the banking system or the nationalization of credit.”

A digital currency would end the “privilege” of banks over money, the text stated, defining a national digital currency as “a digital public money, intangible and perfectly usable to make electronic payments, but in this case backed by the state, making it a safe money.” 

“At present, it is perfectly feasible that each individual can have his own account with his digital money directly at the central bank. A privilege, for the moment, restricted to banks,” the text added. 

Related Stories

• Singapore’s Central Bank, IMF Launch Global Challenge for CBDC Solutions
• Swiss National Bank Has No Plans for a Digital Currency: Report

USDC, the stablecoin now native to four blockchains, could soon be on eight to 10 more networks, CoinDesk has learned.

It’d be the broadest expansion of the $25 billion stablecoin to date, potentially surpassing the eight blockchains that support Tether’s USDT, the market leader with a $63 billion market cap.

“We anticipate that in the coming months USDC will become available on Avalanche, Celo, Flow, Hedera, Kava, Nervos, Polkadot, Stacks, Tezos, and Tron,” according to a draft announcement from USDC administrator CENTRE obtained by CoinDesk.

Related: CEO Brian Armstrong Flags Self-Custody, DeFi Access As Coinbase Priorities

The expansion comes as stablecoins draw increasing scrutiny from regulators, with Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, specifically mentioning USDT and even the relatively obscure TITAN in a recent talk about emerging systemic risks. While Fed Vice Chair Randal Quarles followed with more positive remarks about stablecoins, it is clear the sector is squarely on Washington’s radar.  

CENTRE, which is a consortium run by crypto exchange Coinbase and payments firm Circle, said expanding to other chains helps “drive individual and enterprise adoption of open blockchain technologies.”

“We anticipate that USDC on these blockchain platforms and multichain protocols will further accelerate the use of the world’s fastest growing digital dollar currency,” CENTRE said in the draft announcement.

USDC was launched on Ethereum in 2018 and expanded to Algorand, Stellar and Solana in the second half of 2020.

Related: Stablecoins and CBDCs: Private Vs. Public Monetary Innovation

The potential expansion to other blockchains follows a pair of announcements showing momentum behind USDC as an interest-generating savings vehicle. Circle announced its Circle Yield and DeFi API products late last week.

In its draft announcement, CENTRE said updates on the timing of the further integrations would be issued “over the balance of the year.”

Related Stories

• Coinbase Debuts Savings Product With 4% APY on USDC Deposits
• Fed Vice Chair: ‘We Should Be Saying Yes’ to Stablecoins

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is “the future of where the industry is going,” according to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. In a Tuesday blog post he delineated how his cryptocurrency exchange will serve the growing demand for DeFi products and services.

“We’re seeing crypto quickly mature … to the trading of thousands of new assets, and the adoption of new use cases” including DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFT), smart contracts, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and more, Armstrong wrote.

Just as Coinbase has “helped people access bitcoin for the first time … we need to do the same for the decentralized cryptoeconomy,” he said.

Related: USDC Stablecoin Could Soon Expand to 10 More Blockchains

Armstrong wrote that Coinbase expects to add assets to the platform more quickly, broaden its geographic focus to ship products “that work globally” and construct a crypto app store, akin to Apple’s.

In the more immediate future, Armstrong wrote, Coinbase would cut the length of its legal review to evaluate asset issuers from 70 to 12 questions and create a more efficient compliance and security review process. Coinbase will also construct what he termed “an experimental zone for new assets” ensuring the company can provide a fuller picture of their risks for customers, and take steps so that users can access “most assets for basic wallet functionality.”

Armstrong promised to send more products to new international markets, while still working with regulators “in more established markets,” and that “any app built on decentralized crypto rails will be accessible to users of the Coinbase app.”

He added that customers would have “the option to do self-custody of their crypto in the main Coinbase app.”

Related Stories

• Coinbase Debuts Savings Product With 4% APY on USDC Deposits
• DeFi Meets AI: Fetch.ai Launches ‘Intelligent Automation’ for Uniswap V2 and PancakeSwap
• A16z Leads $12M Investment in DeFi-Native Crypto Tracing Firm Nansen

Bitcoin traded higher on Tuesday, rising about 6% over the past 24 hours. Cryptocurrencies are in relief mode as selling pressure from May stabilizes in a tight range between $30,000 and $40,000. Traders are watching for signs of capitulation as bitcoin appears to be oversold and shorts unwind positions.

Crypto markets have been resilient despite regulatory crackdowns in China and the U.K. On Monday, Reuters reported that several companies have abandoned their efforts to register with the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority amid mounting regulatory scrutiny on the industry.  

“Prices rising in the face of bad news may be a sign of the seller exhaustion we need to go higher,” David Grider, a strategist at FundStrat, wrote in a newsletter on Monday.

Latest prices

Related: How the Macro Landscape Is Shaping Bitcoin Markets

Cryptocurrencies:

• Bitcoin (BTC) $36387.21, +5.74%
• Ether (ETH) $2221.89, +5.27%

Traditional markets:

• S&P 500: 4291.67, +0.025%
• Gold: $1761.22, -0.97%
• 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.475%, compared with 1.472% on Monday

Where to from here

“We do think this could continue to be a choppy market for a bit as prices reestablish their trend, and we could even retest the $31K level, but overall, we remain in the bullish camp over the balance of the year,” Grider wrote.

From a technical perspective, bitcoin’s long-term trend remains intact despite the loss of intermediate-term momentum. The $34,000 price level has prevented secondary support near $27,000 from becoming relevant, according to Katie Stockton, managing partner at Fairlead Strategies.

Related: Musk’s Tweets Swayed Some Investors on Bitcoin Environmental Concerns, Survey Shows

“We would view a breakout above the 50-day moving average [around $38,000] as a positive catalyst supporting a test of secondary resistance near $44K,” Stockton wrote in a report published Monday. 

The big economic data point analysts are awaiting this week is Friday’s U.S. jobs report, which could affect assets that are deemed to be risky, including cryptocurrencies. 

“If Friday’s employment numbers come in stronger than expected, market participants could anticipate the Fed raising rates sooner than expected,” Alexander Blum, managing partner at digital asset manager Two Prime, wrote in an email to CoinDesk.

A strong jobs report could be bearish for digital assets in the near-term, according to Blum, while a weaker-than-expected number would be bullish. 

Returns collide

Bitcoin’s year-to-date return of about 20% is beating the S&P 500 Index, but trailing the Thomson Reuters Core Commodity Index. 

Over the past year, bitcoin and ether had a similar risk-adjusted performance to popular U.S. stocks such as Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).

Bitcoin cycle decoupling

The current bitcoin bull cycle has decoupled from the 2013 and 2017 cycles. This is due to a combination of factors including regulatory crackdowns, environmental concerns and an occasional tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, which interrupted the 2021 bull cycle. 

“It’s important to note that each cycle is ultimately unique,” wrote Coin Metrics, in a newsletter published Monday. “Every halving has effectively signaled the start of a new cycle, with the 2013 cycle peaking 370 days after the first halving, and the 2017 cycle peaking 524 days after the second halving.”

Bitcoin is currently 413 days after the third halving, which occurred in May 2020, as shown in the chart below. 

Hedge funds unwind short positions

The open interest of bitcoin futures at CME Group in June is at a yearly low, with the open interest currently standing at $1.39 billion, according to data from Skew. 

It shows that hedge funds are now unwinding their short positions as cash-and-carry trades, a strategy that aims to exploit differences between spot and futures market, are not lucrative anymore, according to Arcane Research. 

Hedge funds were net shorting $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin contracts at its peak, and the number has fallen to $400 million, according to Arcane. 

Altcoin roundup

• Ethereum transaction fees: Ethereum transaction fees have dropped to their lowest since December because blockchain activity has cooled while use of Ethereum layer 2 solution protocols such as Polygon (MATIC) has heated up. Gas refers to the computational efforts required to execute specific operations on the Ethereum network. A fee, paid in ether, is required to successfully conduct a transaction on Ethereum.
• DeFi Meets AI: Fetch.ai, a Cambridge, U.K.-based artificial-intelligence lab with a penchant for crypto, has launched a service to combat the risk of losses across the experimental decentralized finance (DeFi) market. The DeFi Agents toolkit can be set to automatically withdraw users’ funds from Uniswap v2 and PancakeSwap based on predefined conditions such as the exchange rate for a given token dropping to a certain level.

Relevant news

• Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, 21Shares Team Up to Enter Bitcoin ETF Race
• Coinbase Debuts Savings Product With 4% APY on USDC Deposits
• Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen Become Part Owners of FTX

Other Markets

All but one digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 ended up higher on Tuesday.

Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): 

xrp (XRP) +11.95%

stellar (XLM) +8.99%

filecoin (FIL) +8.27%

Notable losers: 

USD Coin (USDC) -0.01%

Related Stories

• Bitcoin’s ‘Puell Multiple’ Flashes Misleading Bullish Signal as China Bans Mining
• Bitcoin Gathers Upside Momentum, Faces Resistance Near $40K

Argo Blockchain (LON: ARB) announced that it has secured a £14 million (US$20 million) loan from Galaxy Digital to expand its West Texas data center.

• Argo Blockchain said the loan agreement is for a term of six months and includes a portion of the company’s bitcoin holding as collateral.
• Proceeds will be used to continue the expansion of the company’s data center in West Texas and to meet its operating cash flow requirements. 
• In March, London-based Argo acquired the New York firm DPN LLC, bringing it ownership of a chunk of land in West Texas for the construction of a new cryptocurrency mining facility.
• “This agreement allows Argo to secure competitive terms on a loan facility while also allowing us to continue to HODL our bitcoin,” Argo CEO Peter Wall said.

Read more: Argo and DMG Join Group Working to Lower Bitcoin Miners’ Carbon Emissions

Related Stories

• Digital Ownership Is Getting Heated
• Texas State Regulator Greenlights Banks to Custody Crypto
• Texas Governor Signs Law Creating Legal Framework for Crypto Investments
• Argo Blockchain’s Bitcoin Holding Passes 1,000

Just under half of U.S. investors have a problem with bitcoin’s environmental issues, with some of them apparently swayed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tweets on the matter, a new survey shows.

Some 49% of 1,103 respondents to the Investing.com survey said that “bitcoin being environmentally unfriendly” is an issue for them as an investor, according to a summary of the results posted on the information service’s website. 

The survey provides some evidence of how drastically some investors’ opinions on bitcoin changed after  Musk tweeted his concerns in May, when he reversed an earlier policy of accepting the cryptocurrency as payment for Tesla’s electric vehicles.

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Pushes Higher as Short Bets Unwind

Since then, there’s been about a 40%% price drop for the world’s largest cryptocurrency, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index. Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Investments, said at the Robin Hood Investors Conference on June 16 that the downturn was due to investors’ growing awareness of the sheer amount of electricity it takes to mine the cryptocurrency. 

Some 70% of investors who took part in Investing.com’s survey said they would favor a more “green” cryptocurrency, while 36% didn’t even realize that bitcoin had environmental implications before Musk’s comments on the issue. 

According to Investing.com, 30% of the respondents sold their bitcoin last month, with one in five attributing the decision to Musk’s comments about the environment. 

Musk’s tweets on cryptocurrency were seen as “annoying” by 33% of respondents, “unfair” by 22% and “entertaining” by 27%, the summary reads. 

Related: How the Macro Landscape Is Shaping Bitcoin Markets

“After being hailed and crowned as king of the crypto community, Elon Musk has made himself some new enemies lately, following his recent shock about-face on bitcoin,” said Jesse Cohen, an analyst at Investing.com. “For an asset whose price is driven mostly by psychological sentiment and momentum, bitcoin could have a hard time recovering.”

When respondents were asked if Musk’s “manipulation of cryptocurrency values has changed their view of that investment,” 51% said Musk has “too much power” and 24% said they don’t believe the billionaire has too much influence. 

Related Stories

• Bitcoin Miner TeraWulf to Buy 30K Bitmain Mining Machines
• Bitcoin’s ‘Puell Multiple’ Flashes Misleading Bullish Signal as China Bans Mining

Bitcoin mining company TeraWulf has agreed to purchase 30,000 mining machines from Bitmain.

• In a blog post on Tuesday, Bitmain said TeraWulf will buy Bitmain’s latest generation of miners dubbed the Antminer S19j Pro, which will be delivered from January to June 2022.
• Once the machines have been delivered and deployed, TeraWulf is expected to increase its total mining hash rate by 3 exahashes per second, which means the machines will be able to compute an extra 3 quintillion calculations per second. Quintillion is a number followed by 18 zeros.
• TeraWulf is set for a Nasdaq listing after it agreed to merge with Ikonics, an imaging-technology company whose stock trades on Nasdaq. The combined company will trade under the ticker symbol, “WULF.”

Read more: Bitcoin Miner TeraWulf to Merge With Nasdaq-Listed Ikonics

Related Stories

• Musk’s Tweets Swayed Some Investors on Bitcoin Environmental Concerns, Survey Shows
• Bitcoin’s ‘Puell Multiple’ Flashes Misleading Bullish Signal as China Bans Mining
• Market Wrap: Cryptocurrencies Rise Despite Binance UK Warning
• Bitcoin Mining Hashrate Drops to 1-Year Low; Difficulty Set for 25% Decrease

Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, plans to expand internationally and seeks to list every crypto on its exchange.

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken said it has reduced deposit fees to zero across all its more than 70 digital assets, starting today.

• The reduction is expected to bring more stability to pricing between Kraken and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and applications, Kraken said.
• “By cutting out deposit fees, clients can experience the lowest possible friction on their crypto journey,” said Jeremy Welch, chief product officer at Kraken.
• Kraken said it is preparing for its long-term ambition to provide DeFi products and services from the exchange.

Read more: Kraken to No Longer Offer Margin Trading for US Investors Who Don’t Meet ‘Certain’ Requirements

Related Stories

• Dogecoin Sees Uptick After Elon Musk Tweet Supporting Fee-Change Proposal
• US Crypto Giants Build First Version of FATF-Compliant ‘Travel Rule’ Tool
• Brazil Stock Exchange Lists First Bitcoin ETF in Latin America
• UK Financial Markets Regulator Warns About Unregistered Crypto-Asset Firms: Report