Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Investments news
- Digital asset investment products saw inflows totaling USD 80m last week, per CoinShares data. Bitcoin (BTC) saw the largest inflows, totaling USD 70m, marking the 5th consecutive week of inflows. However, the weekly inflows remain much lower than inflows seen in Q1 this year, where there was much greater participation by US investors, per the report. BTC futures ETF could prompt further significant inflows in the coming weeks as US investors begin to add positions, it added. Meanwhile, despite ethereum (ETH) saw its second week of outflows, these flows are not significant to define a trend at present, according to CoinShares.
- Global brokerage firm Interactive Brokers Group announced its launch of crypto trading for Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) in the US, enabling these RIAs to trade and custody bitcoin, ethereum (ETH), litecoin (LTC), and bitcoin cash (BCH) via Paxos Trust Company on behalf of clients. RIAs will benefit from the ability to manage their client’s positions in crypto in addition to stocks, options, futures, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), said the company.
- Digital asset marketplace Bakkt has announced that it has completed a business combination with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings. Bakkt’s shares of Class A common stock and warrants begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols ‘BKKT’ and ‘BKKT WS’, respectively, starting today.
- El Salvador’s mainstream bitcoin adoption is gaining momentum during the ongoing bull run as citizens are increasingly exchanging their US dollar savings for BTC, according to President Nayib Bukele.
Legal news
- New York Attorney General Letitia James said she ordered two crypto lending platforms to “immediately cease their unregistered and unlawful activities in New York” and directed three other platforms to “immediately provide information about their activities and products.” “Today’s actions build on that work and send a message that we will not hesitate to take whatever actions are necessary against any company that thinks they are above the law,” James was quoted as saying. The Office of the Attorney General redacted the names of the firms. However, the files initially retained the names “Nexo Letter” and “Celsius Letter” before they were corrected.
Mining news
- Bitcoin mining difficulty, or the measure of how hard it is to compete for mining rewards, is expected to go up by around 1% today to USD 20 T, per BTC.com estimations. This is its seventh rise in a row, and is heading towards its all-time high of 25.05 T, seen in mid-May.
- Payments service provider Square is considering developing a Bitcoin mining system, the company’s CEO Jack Dorsey said. He added that he believes the project should be built in collaboration with the community, and has urged others to join the conversation on key questions relating to BTC mining.
- Crypto mining company BIT Mining Limited said it has strengthened its collaboration with Viking Data Centers. The company aims to increase its investment in the Ohio, US crypto mining data center (the Ohio Mining Site), which is being jointly developed with Viking Data Centers, to add up to 65 megawatts (MW) of power capacity in addition to the 85MW per the original design, bringing the Ohio Mining Site’s total planned power capacity up to 150MW.
Stablecoins news
- Global financial technology firm Circle announced support for USD coin (USDC) on the Hedera Network (HBAR), an enterprise-grade public networks for the decentralized economy. USDC on Hedera is now available to use within the Circle Account, where customers can deposit, withdraw and send USDC on the Hedera network and use Hedera for USDC payment and settlement transactions. The announcement added that Circle’s entire suite of developer APIs have also been updated to support USDC on Hedera.
Exchanges news
- Huobi Japan said it has received approval from Japan’s Financial Services Agency to register as a Type I Financial Instruments Business. It will enable the company to not only develop derivatives products, but also offer trading and market-making services for customers in this market, the exchange said.
Gaming news
- Online gaming giant Steam is not allowing blockchain-based video games on its platform, according to their updated rules and guidelines. Among the games that are removed due to the new rules is Age of Rust, a sci-fi adventure game where players hunt for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and BTC rewards, their team announced.
DeFi news
- Decentralized finance (DeFi) incubator Dispersion Holdings has announced the planned acquisition of trading and yield farming platform Accru Finance. The acquisition is valued at GBP 8.75m (USD 12m) and the co-founders of Accru Finance will join Dispersion’s board of directors.
Crime news
- Exchanges and other financial institutions reported more than USD 590m in payments tied to ransomware attacks, including cryptocurrency payments, to the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in the first half of 2021, outstripping a 2020 total of just USD 416m. However, the watchdog has not clarified what percentage of this total is made up of cryptocurrencies.
- Data from Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting center for fraud and cyber crime, reveals that GBP 146m (USD 200m), has been lost to crypto fraud since the start of this year – which is 30% more than was lost throughout the whole of 2020, the center said.
