Welcome to our Friday newsletter. Here you find the most exciting crypto content from the previous week - curated for you by us.
Weekly happenings in the crypto industry
(July 8th - July 15th)
The crypto credit-driven carnage still ravages the market, and more clarity regarding the contagion effects continues to emerge in the market.Celsius Network hired new restructuring lawyers and sought bankruptcy protection. Celsius’s Chapter 11 filing provided more clarity on the impact of the crypto contagion. The Pharos USD Fund is Celsius’s largest unsecured creditor, with an unsecured claim of approximately $81m. Other named creditors include ICB Solutions, Alameda Research, B2C2, and Covario AG. Further, Blockchain.com announced it had taken a $270m hit on a loan to 3AC. Meanwhile, BlockFi announced that they would no longer accept GBTC as collateral for loans. Among “good Samaritans” seeking to utilize the situation to step in, settle the situation, and buy distressed assets, Justin Sun, with his seemingly eternally deep pockets, claims he’s ready to step in with up to $5bn to acquire struggling crypto firms. The macro backdrop is complicating further as U.S. CPI numbers once again came in hot at 9.1%, 0.3% above expectations. In response, traders positioned themselves for a 100bps rate hike at the July 27th FOMC, but statements from FED’s Bullard firmed expectations, leading expectations to be divided into a 75bps and 100bps rate hike in the upcoming FOMC. Meanwhile, other fiat currencies are weakening against the dollar, with the most notable event in Forex over the last week being the Euro trading below the USD. The potential implications of this weakening are discussed at length by Arthur Hayes in this week's recommended long read.Regulation remains relevant. With Boris Johnson leaving office in the U.K., we might see the U.K. postponing its crypto regulations. Similarly, Brazil is postponing its crypto bill vote until after the October presidential elections. South Africa is also looking into introducing a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, while the South African central bank is experimenting with a CBDC. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) released a report on Monday asking for countries to cooperate at the early stages of CBDCs design to make it easier for systems to work across borders. The ECB also explores introducing a digital Euro, with the investigation phase expected to be completed by the autumn of 2023.Kazakhstan will introduce new tax rates for Kazakh crypto miners on January 1st. According to CBECI’s mining map, Kazakhstan represents 13% of the bitcoin Hashrate, and these tax rates could lead to further mining emigration from the east.Crypto exchanges: OKX has secured a license in Dubai and plans to open a regional hub in the area while also upping its visibility through a sponsorship with Manchester City. The Middle East is a hot topic in crypto at the moment, as the “Saudis are max-bidding” meme has taken off on Twitter. However, a recent KuCoin survey undermines the meme, noting that the Saudi sentiment has shifted negatively in recent months. Binance’s removal of fees led to wash trading, leading Binance to exempt BTC trading from VIP calculations temporarily. GameStop launched its NFT platform in beta this week, and while still being in live beta, the platform has already dwarfed Coinbase’s total NFT volume.Until next time!If you haven’t already signed up, click here and subscribe to receive the newsletter in your inbox every Friday.
