Summary of important events (07.15-07.21)

1. Top 1 Hot Events of Last Week 

 

Tesla's official website briefly showed Bitcoin as a payment option.

 

On July 20, crypto KOL @LilMoonLambo tweeted that Tesla added Bitcoin to its official website's payment code, but the "Bitcoin" related code was later removed from the payment page on July 21.

It is worth noting that Tesla previously announced support for Bitcoin payments for its cars on March 24, 2021, but later canceled Bitcoin payments due to environmental concerns about energy consumption on May 13, 2021.

 

2. Cryptocurrencies & Exchanges

 

On July 15, Huobi burned over 1.95 million HT in Q2 2023.

 

On July 15, Coinbase temporarily suspended its retail crypto staking service in California, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.

 

On July 15, Filecoin averages 954.2 pebibytes (1.07 billion gigabytes) worth of storage deals on its network, compared with 12.2 exbibytes (14.1 billion gigabytes) worth of raw storage capacity, storage utilization surpasses 7% in Q2.

 

On July 19, Binance completed its 24th quarterly burn of its native token, burning 1,991,854 BNB. 

 

On July 19, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) canceled FTX's financial services (AFS) license.

 

On July 19, MakerDAO initiated its buyback. The so-called Smart Burn Engine periodically allocates excess DAI stablecoins from Maker’s surplus buffer to purchase MKR from a UniSwap pool.

 

 

3. Regulatory Updates

 

On July 18, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) finalizes global regulatory framework for crypto-asset activities.

 

On July 19, Societe Generale, France, obtained a cryptocurrency license from the French regulatory authority.

 

On July 20, Kuwait banned cryptocurrency and virtual asset trading.

 

On July 20, some U.S. Senators are introducing a new bipartisan bill that would place stringent anti-money laundering (AML) requirements on decentralized finance protocols.

 

On July 21, the US Department of Justice has restructured its national cryptocurrency enforcement team.

 

On July 21, the US House of Representatives formally unveiled a bill to establish rules for oversight of crypto markets.

 

On July 21, the South Korean Financial Services Commission plans to establish regulations for stablecoins and review the establishment of a virtual asset disclosure system.

 

4. Market Updates

 

On July 15, the Ethereum core developers' consensus meeting revealed that the next upgrade after the London Hard Fork will be named starting with the letter "E".

 

On July 15, the Fantom Foundation froze over $60 million worth of stablecoins in the Multichain wallet.

 

On July 16, the SEC accepted Bitwise's application for a spot Bitcoin ETF review.

 

On July 17, the four largest banks in Australia blocked users from making payments to high-risk cryptocurrency exchanges.

 

On July 18, the SEC accepted Valkyrie's Bitcoin spot ETF application.

 

On July 18, the SEC v. Ripple case was transferred to the to the magistrate’s office.

 

On July 19, Nasdaq halted plan for crypto custody service due to U.S. regulatory conditions.

 

On July 20, Tesla did not buy or sell Bitcoin in the second quarter, maintaining a constant holding for four consecutive quarters.

 

On July 20, Sequoia Capital restructures its venture capital team, including the dismissal of two partners involved in cryptocurrency investments.

 

On July 20, The Chairman of the SEC asked U.S. lawmakers for $72 million in extra funding to, among other things, protect investors from crypto markets “rife with noncompliance.”

 

5. Statements from Individuals/Organizations

 

On July 15, CZ: As we continuously strive to increase talent density, there are involuntary terminations. The numbers reported by media are all way off. We are still hiring.

 

On July 15, U.S. presidential candidate Ron DeSantis: Fed wants to get rid of cash, they want no cryptocurrency, and they want this to be the sole form of legal tender.

 

On July 16, Coinbase CEO: if any Coinbase customers that are Bank of America clients have had their accounts closed because of their transactions with the exchange.

 

On July 16, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse: SEC prolonged the appeal process following favorable XRP ruling.

 

On July 17, OKX Star: All centralized swaps, exchanges, bridges without fully compliance controls including KYC, AML, and others will be high risk in every jurisdiction. 

 

On July 18, Circle European Union strategy and policy director Patrick Hansen: Euro stablecoin market set to take off, thanks to real-world uses, regulatory clarity.

 

On July 18, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov: holds some Bitcoin and Toncoin.

 

On July 19, U.S. Congressman Ritchie Torres: crypto assets are not securities in themselves but can be sold as part of investment contracts, which do qualify as securities.

 

On July 20, U.S. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler: Crypto is ‘Rife With Fraud’

 

On July 20, Vitalik Buterin: The account abstraction could onboard a billion users to Ethereum.

 

On July 21, Ripple executives: Ripple has applied for registration as a crypto asset firm with the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).