BitGo's Change Sparks Drama 💥

In today’s edition: 🚨 MakerDAO may drop WBTC integration, 📞 Crypto unbanking discussed with Democratic officials, 💸 $88K fee on $2.2K Ethereum transaction, and more!

August 12, 2024

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Laura is coming to Seoul for an exclusive book event, with the support of DeSpread 🎉

The event will take place at Kemistri in Gangnam on Monday, August 19 at 7 pm.

Jason Pagoulatos, head of markets at Delphi Digital, explains why crypto markets rebounded quickly from the rout this week, why ETH has underperformed BTC and SOL in 2024, and how Fed and election uncertainty might affect crypto.

After the unwinding of the Japan carry trade, the weak jobs report, and Jump’s dumping of ETH slammed crypto prices earlier this week, Jason Pagoulatos, head of markets at Delphi Digital, gives his insights on where prices are headed. He explains why he thinks Ethereum has underperformed so far in 2024, how the ETH ETFs might impact the price as outflows from Grayscale’s ETHE dwindle, and how the election, moves by the Fed, and the adoption of Bitcoin ETFs by Morgan Stanley advisors will affect BTC.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

What’s Poppin’?

by Sage D. Young and Sam Sriram

MakerDAO’s risk unit BA Labs proposed removing WBTC integrations on Maker and SparkLend, citing BitGo’s upcoming plans to split custody across multiple jurisdictions.

A Zoom meeting on Thursday with Democratic Party leaders highlighted a longstanding grievance held by those in the crypto space. 

MakerDAO is one of the top protocols by revenue generated and yet it has had one of the weakest rebounds over the last seven days.

An Ethereum user spent 40 times more in fees than the value of the transaction in what looks to be a “fat finger” trade.

Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍️

  • 📊 The IRS unveiled a new draft of its tax form, the 1099-DA, which crypto brokers and investors will use starting in 2026 to report taxable events, with significant privacy improvements made from the initial version.

  • ⚖️ Celsius filed lawsuits against several crypto entities — including Tether, Badger DAO, and Compound — with aims to recover billions in losses for its creditors, while Tether strongly disputes the claims.

  • 🛠️ Canto, a Cosmos-based layer 1 blockchain, has been offline since Saturday afternoon due to a "consensus issue" following a software upgrade, with a fix scheduled for today at 12:00 UTC.

  • 🎮 Coinbase is challenging the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's broad definition of '“gaming” in proposed prediction market rules, urging the regulator to assess contracts individually rather than categorizing them broadly.

  • ⏳ The SEC has postponed its decision on Hashdex's proposed ETF that would include bitcoin and ether, extending the deadline for its ruling to September 30, 2024.

  • 💱 Ripple started testing its new stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), on both Ethereum and XRP Ledger, though it is not yet tradeable as it awaits regulatory approval.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

  • 🇹🇭 Thailand launched a regulatory sandbox to allow participants to test and develop crypto-related innovations and services, under the oversight of its Securities and Exchange Commission.

What Do You Meme?

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📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is down 2.5%, trading at $59,267

  • ETH is down 0.5%, trading at $2,656

  • BTC dominance: 53.5%

  • Crypto market cap: $2.18T

*All data as of today, 07:10 am ET. Source: CoinGecko

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