📊 4 Key Metrics for Better Crypto Investments

In today’s edition: 😠 Vitalik criticizes celebrity crypto projects, 💬 Robinhood GM Q&A, ⏱️ Cosmos Hub restores block production, 📱Coinbase debuts smart wallets, and more!

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How the U.S. Government Can Protect the Dollar Through Stablecoins - Ep. 655

In this episode, Laura Shin speaks with former CFTC chairman Chris Giancarlo and former CFTC chief innovation officer Daniel Gorfine on the pressing need for the US to safeguard the dollar. They explain why they believe the future of regulation is the government operating nodes on blockchains rather than regulating intermediaries, why even private USD stablecoins will want a USD central bank digital currency, and how China might export the technology behind the digital yuan—and its surveillance capabilities—to other countries. They also touch on how the upcoming US elections could influence crypto policy, why stablecoins are more than just trading instruments, and what the US must do to maintain its financial leadership.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.

What’s Poppin’?

by Sage Young, Dilin Massand and Sam Sriram

Using onchain data, investors can cut through the noise of “Crypto Twitter” and understand the fundamentals of cryptocurrencies.

Celebrity memecoins have been the latest craze to dominate the crypto space, but Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says there needs to be more to these projects than what’s currently on offer.

Johann Kerbrat, crypto general manager at Robinhood, gave his perspective about the upcoming spot ether ETFs, Uniswap Labs’ response to receiving a Wells notice, and how the US regulatory landscape compares to others.

Cosmos Hub saw a temporary halt to block production as validators patched a security vulnerability with the Liquid Staking Module (LSM) during the v17 upgrade.

The launch of Coinbase’s smart wallets, which don’t require seed phrases or the downloading of a browser extension or an application, aims to help bring a billion users onchain.

Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍️

  • 📈 VanEck predicts ether (ETH) will reach $22,000 by 2030, driven by Ethereum’s disruptive potential and free cashflows, according to their latest report.

  • 💰 Restaking protocol EigenLayer’s total value locked (TVL) surpassed $20 billion, becoming the second-largest DeFi protocol behind Lido. 

  • 🚫 A new US law grants the president broad authority to block access to digital assets, raising significant concerns about its implications. Critics argue it could lead to user-level bans on protocols deemed to be controlled by foreign sanctions violators.

  • 🔒 Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin outlined plans to cover over $300 million in losses from a recent hack. The exchange secured 5 billion yen ($32 million) through borrowing and plans to raise an additional 50 billion yen ($320.4 million) to fully cover the stolen funds.

  • ⛽ The MEV bot operator “jaredfromsubway.eth” spent over 210 ETH ($810,000) on Ethereum gas fees in the past 24 hours, making it the top gas spender, primarily targeting onchain memecoin traders.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

  • 💸 Paxos International launched a yield-bearing stablecoin called Lift Dollar (USDL) in Argentina, offering around 5% yield and backed one-to-one with the US dollar. The stablecoin is regulated by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market.

The $$$ Corner…

  • 💰 Bain Capital Crypto led a $35 million Series A funding round for stablecoin minting protocol M^0. Other investors included Galaxy Ventures and GSR. The protocol is set to launch on Ethereum in the coming weeks.

What Do You Meme?

📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is up .2%, trading at $70,969

  • ETH is up 1.4%, trading at $3,850

  • BTC dominance: 50.28%

  • Crypto market cap: $2.78T

*All data as of today, 07:00 am ET. Source: CoinGecko

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