🇺🇸 How Crypto Can Secure Bipartisan Support

👯‍♀️ Refer Unchained with a friend and earn a Premium subscription

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.

OPINION: In the Ongoing SAB 121 Fight, Here’s How Crypto Can Move Forward With Bipartisan Support

by Kristin Smith

Despite the Biden veto, Congress is already displaying bipartisanship. The Blockchain Association plans to capitalize on this momentum—and the crypto community can help.

What’s Poppin’?

by Sage Young, Juan Aranovich, and Sam Sriram

Bitcoin Rises to $71,200 as ETFs Clock Second Best Day of Inflows

Bitcoin surged past $71,000 as spot bitcoin ETFs saw their second highest day of inflows on record.

Traders Coping As Iggy Azalea’s MOTHER Token Surpasses $100 Million Market Cap

After MOTHER’s initial bleed out to fractions of a penny that lasted until the start of June, the token has since reached a market cap of $108 million.

FTX Reaches Settlement With IRS Over $24 Billion Tax Claim

The IRS will receive a $200 million priority claim from FTX, and a $685 million lower priority claim payable to the extent that funds are available.

Investors of BlackRock’s BUIDL Fund Receive $1.7 Million in Monthly Dividends on Ethereum

Ondo Finance’s crypto wallet, labeled on Etherscan as “OUSD Instant Manager,” is the largest recipient of BlackRock’s BUIDL’s monthly dividend, receiving roughly 42% of the total pot.

ZkSync Airdrop Could Be Valued Higher Than the Entire Network’s TVL

A 10% airdrop of ZkSync tokens could be worth over $1.3 billion, which is almost double zkSync’s current TVL of $852 million.

ZK Firm StarkWare to Create $1 Million Fund for Research Into Bitcoin’s OP_CAT Proposal

Implementing OP_CAT is a preliminary step to incorporating a new layer 2 that could connect Bitcoin and Ethereum.  

Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍️

• 📝 U.S. lawmakers urged President Biden to treat the detention of Binance exec Tigran Gambaryan in Nigeria as a hostage situation and work to bring him back. Gambaryan, who has been held for nearly three months, may be suffering from malaria.

• 📈 BNB token surged to a new all-time high of over $700, rising more than 11% in 24 hours. The rally, supported by Binance Launchpool's popularity, brings BNB's market cap to $107 billion.

• 🚫 Sahil Arora, alleged celebrity memecoin scammer, was banned from social media platform X after celebrities, such as Caitlyn Jenner and Iggy Azalea, accuse Arora of running “pump and dump” schemes.

• 💼 The SEC will close its Salt Lake City office after seeing “significant attrition” amongst its staff, following a judge's dismissal of the DEBT Box fraud lawsuit and sanctions against SEC lawyers.

• 🐕 DWF Labs will buy $12 million worth of Floki tokens to support the ecosystem's growth, following a previous $10 million purchase that boosted FLOKI's price by 50%.

The $$$ Corner…

• 📈 Avail, a data availability blockchain project spun off from Polygon, raised $43 million in Series A funding co-led by Founders Fund, Dragonfly, and Cyber Fund.

• 💸 Tether announced an $18.75 million investment in Taiwan-based cryptocurrency exchange XREX to enhance cross-border payments in emerging markets using USDT. 

• 🛡️ Fhenix, an Ethereum layer 2 network focused on data confidentiality, garnered $15 million in a Series A round led by Hack VC. The firm also launched its open testnet.

• 🎨 Stashh Labs raised over $3.3 million from investors including Animoca and 6th Man Ventures to upgrade its NFT platform. The new iteration supports encrypted NFTs and multiple new use cases.

• 💰 El Dorado, a stablecoin-powered “superapp,” secured $3 million in seed funding from Multicoin Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and others to expand in Latin America.

• 🔒 Polygon Labs acquired blockchain research firm Toposware, adding to its zero-knowledge cryptography portfolio, with the company valued between $30-50 million.

What Do You Meme?

📈 Your Market Update 📉

• BTC is up 2.4%, trading at $70,729

• ETH is up .6%, trading at $3,791

• BTC dominance: 50.32%

• Crypto market cap: $2.77T

*All data as of today, 07:05 am ET. Source: CoinGecko

Recommended Reads

1. Unchained: What Are Sequencers in Layer 2 Protocols Such as Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base? 

2. The intern on which virtual machine has a lead in crypto: EVM or SVM

3. Decrypt: Ethereum Layer-2 Networks Are Raking in Millions—With Base Leading the Way 

We Are Hiring!

1. A Bitcoin Reporter to cover all things Bitcoin. See the details and apply here. 

2. A Regulatory Reporter to cover regulatory topics in the space. See the details and apply here.

3. A Senior Editor to help assign and edit daily news stories, as well as work on features and other editorial projects as needed. See the details and apply here.

4. An Audience Development Director to broaden the reach of the publication’s content, whether through the web, social media, newsletters, podcast platforms, or videos. See the details and apply here.

🔝 Are you hiring and want to promote the postings in the Unchained newsletter? Let us know!

Thank you for reading Unchained. This post is public so feel free to share it. 📩📤