Autor Cointelegraph By Editorial Staff

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This WeekElon Musk: US ’past peak inflation’ after Tesla sells 90% of BitcoinWith Tesla now having sold 90% of its Bitcoin holdings during the bear market, Elon Musk says the U.S. economy is “past peak inflation” and predicts that only a “mild to moderate” recession could be incoming. “We sort of have some insight into where prices are headed over time, and the interesting thing that we’re seeing now is that most of our commodities, most of the things that go into a Tesla — not all, more than half the prices — are trending down in six months from now,” Musk said at Tesla’s 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.Coming sooner: ETH devs move up the date for MergeThe long-awaited Merge looks to be ahead of schedule, with Ethereum core developers Tim Beiko and Terence Tsao agreeing on a developer call Thursday to tentatively set the date of the Merge for Sept. 15. The previously estimated date from Beiko was Sept. 19, and suggested that the final preparation work is going smoothly after the final Goerli testnet merge went off without a hitch this week.Coinbase posts $1.1B loss in Q2 on ‘fast and furious’ crypto downturnMajor crypto exchange Coinbase posted a whopping Q2 loss of $1.1 billion, citing a “fast and furious” crypto downturn during the quarter. The firm noted that Q2 was a “tough quarter” as trading volume and transaction revenue fell 30% and 35%, respectively. It marks the second consecutive quarter of loss for the company this year. “The current downturn came fast and furious, and we are seeing customer behavior mirror that of past down markets,” the firm wrote in a shareholder letter posted on Tuesday. Decentralized apps on Polygon hit 37,000, rocketing 400% this yearThe number of DApps on Ethereum scaling platform Polygon topped 37,000 this week, marking a 400% increase since the start of 2022. The project provided a breakdown of DApp projects built on Polygon, which notably showed that “74% of teams integrated exclusively on Polygon, while 26% deployed on both Polygon and Ethereum.” Polygon also stated that its ecosystem has now seen more than “142 million unique user addresses and $5 billion in assets secured,” with around 1.6 billion transactions processed on the network to date.Anonymous user sends ETH from Tornado Cash to prominent figures following sanctionsOne day after the U.S. Treasury sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash over its alleged role in money laundering operations, intervals of 0.1 Ether transactions began being sent from the smart contract to prominent figures such as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and American television host Jimmy Fallon. The move appears to be a critique or satirical commentary on the U.S. government’s current policy of also sanctioning addresses that interacted with Tornado Cash.Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $23,840.93, Ether (ETH) at $1,882.20 and XRP at $0.37. The total market cap is at $1.13 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Celsius (CEL) at 93.85%, Ankr (ANKR) at 46.99% and Decred (DCR) at 26.34%.  The top three altcoin losers of the week are ApeCoin (APE) at 9.03%, Curve DAO Token (CRV) at 5.01% and Kusama (KSM) at 4.53%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.Most Memorable Quotations“A senior living community has almost no exposure to the crypto ecosystem unless their grandchildren tell them about it.” Owen Robertson, marketing associate at Dominant Strategies“The fact that I don’t have an alternative to Facebook is the reason why Facebook is a monopoly. But if it was on a blockchain, I could transmit data freely, there could become [different] Facebooks.” Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands“In the past six months or so, we’ve seen valuations on companies come down to a bit more realistic valuations, and it’s become a great time to begin allocating capital.” Gerard Berile, venture and investment principal at Wave Financial“Going forward, that mentality towards risk management while still being bullish over the long term is very important. […] You can be bullish on crypto, but you can still sell out of the market.” Jeffrey Gao, CEO of Cypherpunk Holdings “Scalability isn’t just like some boring thing where you just need like ‘cost numbers go down’ scalability, I think actually enables and unlocks entirely new classes of applications.” Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum“So I think institutional adoption is where it’s going, and the institutions are what is going to enable […] that killer app for consumers to really bring crypto and DeFi to the next level.”Boris Alergant, head of DeFi markets at Ripple LabsPrediction of the Week $29K Bitcoin is closer than you might expect, according to derivatives dataWith Bitcoin’s price continuing to battle $24,000 resistance, facing rejection on Aug. 10 but managing not to be knocked off the 52-day-long ascending channel, Cointelegraph market analyst Marcel Pechman suggested the price could eventually hit $29,000 by October. He pointed to a bullish chart formation with a support level of $22,500 that indicates the price could climb to just under $30,000. Pechman also noted that while BTC derivatives data show a lack of interest from leveraged longs, there is no indication of a surprise crash being priced into the market. FUD of the Week ASIC chair troubled by sheer amount of ‘risk-taking’ crypto investorsJoe Longo, the chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has raised alarm bells over the number of Aussies that invested in “unregulated, volatile” crypto assets during the pandemic. As part of a media release on Thursday, Longo pointed to ASIC research from November 2021 that found that crypto was the second most common investment product, with 44% of those surveyed reporting holding it. Out of those investors, 25% indicated that crypto assets were the only investment class they were involved in.Cross-chain bridge RenBridge laundered $540M in hacking proceeds: EllipticAccording to a Wednesday report from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, crypto bridge RenBridge has facilitated the laundering of at least $540 million in hacking proceeds since 2020. According to the report, the laundering was conducted via a process known as chain hopping — converting one form of cryptocurrency into another and moving it across multiple blockchains.Tornado Cash co-founder reports being kicked off GitHub as industry reacts to sanctionsTornado Cash co-founder Roman Semenov claimed his account on developer platform GitHub was suspended on Monday. Semenov noted that, despite not being individually named as a Specially Designated National by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, he seemed to be facing repercussions relating to the Treasury’s allegations that Tornado Cash laundered more than $7 billion worth of crypto.Best Cointelegraph FeaturesHow to bake your own DAO at home — With just 5 ingredients!Decentralized autonomous organizations come in all sizes and flavors. Some can seem sweet, others turn sour. It can be fun and interesting to create one that suits your needs and satisfies your hunger for something new. Reinventing yourself in the Metaverse through digital identityMetaverse users can reinvent themselves with a digital identity built upon avatars and digital assets, but there are challenges to consider.How Bitcoin whales make a splash in markets and move pricesAre the whales selling in this bear market? A deep dive into their on-chain data.

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This WeekCrypto fundraising hits $30.3B in H1, outpacing all of 2021: ReportA report from crypto analytics firm Messari on Tuesday showed that the crypto sector has raised $30.3 billion in funding this year, already outpacing the total for all of 2021, which was $30.2 billion. The figure was achieved via 1,199 funding rounds in the first half of the year, with $10.3 billion, more than a third of the capital, going towards the centralized finance sector. Notably, the NFT gaming sector raised more than all of decentralized finance at $4 billion. DeFi, comparatively, raised just $1.8 billion. Michael Saylor will step down as MicroStrategy CEO but remain as executive chairBitcoin maxi Michael Saylor is set to step down as CEO of MicroStrategy on Aug. 8. With president Phong Le taking over as CEO, Saylor will assume his new role as executive chairman — a position that will focus almost entirely on building MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin reserves. “I believe that splitting the roles of Chairman and CEO will enable us to better pursue our two corporate strategies of acquiring and holding Bitcoin and growing our enterprise analytics software business,” he said.Facebook’s metaverse will ‘misfire,’ says Vitalik ButerinEthereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin thinks that any metaverse platform coming from Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is going to “misfire.” Although Buterin singled out Meta, his comments were focused more broadly on the sector as a whole, with him stating that “we don’t really know the definition of ‘the metaverse’ yet, it’s far too early to know what people actually want.“ Voyager to return $270M in customer funds, says it received ‘better’ offers than FTXBankrupt crypto lending firm Voyager Digital has been cleared by a judge in New York to return $270 million worth of customer funds, as it works to make all its customers (in theory) whole again. The firm also stated that it received several “higher and better” buyout offers than the one submitted by Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research back in July.Meta enables Instagram NFT integration in over 100 countriesInstagram has rolled out NFT support across 100 countries in Africa, the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas. As part of the move, users can integrate wallets from Coinbase or Dapper Labs and post their NFTs based on Ethereum, Polygon or Flow. The move sent the price of the Flow blockchain’s native token, FLOW, surging on Thursday, as it pumped 54% to hit an intraday high of $2.83.Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $23,276.79, Ether (ETH) at $1,708.47 and XRP at $0.37. The total market cap is at $1.09 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Flow (FLOW) at 44.86%, Filecoin (FIL) at 37.69% and Optimism (OP) at 25.60%.  The top three altcoin losers of the week are Qtum (QTUM) at 16.41%, Bitcoin Gold (BTG) at 14.30% and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) at 9.63%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.Most Memorable Quotations“Most people think a metaverse is a virtual place, similar to the movie Ready Player One. They’re wrong. The metaverse is not a place; it’s a moment in time.” Evan Luthra, a Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur“You saw decentralized markets, decentralized lending models, DeFi in general, not fall over. There was no contagion there. What you saw was poor balance sheet management from closed shop trade fee lenders.” Jonathon Miller, managing director at Kraken Australia“We don’t really know the definition of ‘the metaverse’ yet, it’s far too early to know what people actually want. So anything Facebook creates now will misfire.” Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum“You want to encourage people to have some faith in the future and make decisions that make the delay of gratification morally laudable and intelligent. Inflation hurts those people.” Jordan Peterson, clinical psychologist“Regardless of how those funds are stored — locked up in a smart contract or with a centralized custodian — that storage point becomes a target.” Chainalysis, blockchain analytics firm“Of the billions of people and numerous institutional investors on the planet, a large number will lack the technical wherewithal, workflows or interest in holding their own private keys.”Will Peck, head of digital assets at WisdomTreePrediction of the Week Metaverse market share to surpass $50 billion by 2026, says new reportTechnology research and advisory firm Technavio published a report on Metaverse market finance that estimates the sector to have a market share value of $50.37 billion by 2026. The firm estimated that the market will grow by 21% annually over the next four years, and the prediction doesn’t appear to be too far off the mark so far, as 2022’s growth is projected to hit 20.11%.FUD of the Week $2B in crypto stolen from cross-chain bridges this year: ChainalysisAccording to a report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, cross-chain bridge hacking has resulted in $2 billion in losses across 13 different attacks in 2022 so far. Chainalysis suggested that bridges are often targets because they “feature a central storage point of funds that back the ‘bridged’ assets on the receiving blockchain,” which have become a point of target for hackers. Solana wallets ‘compromised and abandoned’ as users warned of scam solutionsSolana users have been urged to abandon their hot wallets and move their funds to cold storage this week after a significant exploit siphoned an estimated $8 million from roughly 8,000 compromised wallets. The hack was reportedly carried out via a security breach in Web3 wallet provider Slope’s network and also affected Phantom wallet users.Blockchain security firm warns of new MetaMask phishing campaignBlockchain security firm Halborn sent out a warning on Thursday regarding a new phishing campaign targeting MetaMask wallet users. The active phishing campaign uses authentic-looking emails with MetaMask branding that urge users to comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations and verify their wallets, essentially tricking them into giving out their passphrases.Best Cointelegraph FeaturesCleaning up crypto: How much enforcement is too much?Many blockchain companies now believe that regulation is inevitable, but there’s a growing debate over where to draw the line between protecting users and strangling the lifeblood out of the industry — or forcing it outside the United States.NFT communities greenlight Web3 films: A decentralized future for fans and HollywoodThe film industry is one of the most centralized and traditional of them all. Just a handful of movie studios and streaming conglomerates control the lion’s share of the global film market.What Kazakhstan’s new tax regime means for the crypto mining industryNew amendments recently signed by the country’s president could bolster the energy grid refit while keeping overall prices relatively moderate.

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This Week‘Bullish rate hike’ — Why crypto spiked in the face of bad newsDespite the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing a 75-basis-point interest rate hike on Wednesday, the crypto markets pumped significantly on the same day with the momentum continuing through the week. Quantum Economics founder and CEO Mati Greenspan jokingly called it a “bullish rate hike” and stated that investors were clearly expecting far worse. Analysts such as Swyftx’s Pav Hundal suggested the recent rally may be due to an easing of inflationary pressures around gas and goods such as corn and wheat.Ethereum dev confirms Goerli merger date, the final update before the MergeOn Thursday, lead Ethereum developer Tim Beiko revealed that the final Goerli testnet merger ahead of Ethereum’s long-awaited Merge and switch to proof-of-stake will occur between Aug. 6-12. In what has been a long and much-delayed roadmap since late 2020, the Ethereum network is now in the final stages of completing its largest upgrade to date. The official Merge is slated for Sept. 19 but could be subject to further delays if there are issues with the Goerli testnet. Zuckerberg unfazed about $2.8B metaverse division loss in Q2Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that he was unfazed by the company copping a $2.8 billion loss on its Metaverse division in Q2. He highlighted that the company’s Metaverse goals will take several years to roll out, but he sees a “massive opportunity” to make hundreds of billions of dollars, or even trillions, over time as the sector matures. “I’m confident that we’re going to be glad that we played an important role in building this,” he said.Cathie Wood sells Coinbase shares amid insider trading allegationsCathie Wood’s investment firm Ark Investment Management, which is one of the largest shareholders of Coinbase (COIN), reportedly dumped 1.4 million COIN shares on Tuesday. The shedding was done via three of Ark’s exchange-traded funds (ETF), and the sale was estimated to be worth around $75 million. The firm reportedly held nearly 9 million COIN shares in late June and has continually snapped up the stock since it opened at roughly $350 last April. Since then, the price has tanked heavily to sit just below $63, and Ark probably should have shorted it when Jim Cramer called it “cheap” at $248 last August.Tesla reports $64M profit from Bitcoin saleThe Elon Musk-led electric vehicle maker Tesla posted a respectable $64 million profit after selling 75% of its BTC holdings in Q2. The gains seem notable considering the company sold during the middle of a bear market; however, what’s more important and exciting is that Musk appears to be finally losing interest in crypto and we won’t need to hear from him anymore. The firm is said to still have 10,800 BTC on its books, which is worth around $255 million at the time of writing.Winners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $23,559.86, Ether (ETH) at $1,674.34 and XRP at $0.36. The total market cap is at $1.08 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Optimism (OP) at 75.71%, Ethereum Classic (ETC) at 58.20% and Qtum (QTUM) at 41.89%.  The top three altcoin losers of the week are Huobi Token (HT) at 9.10%, Kusama (KSM) at 8.98% and NEAR Protocol (NEAR) at 7.76%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.Most Memorable Quotations“A lot of NFT projects are just speculation with no real tangible spine, no real true story. Having a football club to root for every week? That’s a spine that people attach themselves to.” Preston Johnson, co-owner of Crawley Town F.C. and co-founder of WAGMI United“Industry shouldn’t be allowed to write the rules that they want to play by.”Sherrod Brown, U.S. senator and chair of the Senate Banking Committee“We think it is more relevant for local projects to benefit the local economy, and not just take products to the United States to benefit traders there, for example.” Lou Yu, head of KuCoin Labs “Powell is particularly skilled at delivering bad news. Clearly investors were expecting worse.” Mati Greenspan, founder and CEO of Quantum Economics“The Metaverse is a massive opportunity for a number of reasons. I feel even more strongly now that developing these platforms will unlock hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, over time.” Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta“I worry about things that are not directly related to blockchain and the Metaverse. I worry about climate change and about social fragmentation.” Neal Stephenson, author of Snow CrashPrediction of the Week GameFi industry to see $2.8 billion valuation in six yearsAbsolute Reports published a GameFi-focused report this week estimating that the play-to-earn NFT gaming industry will be worth $2.8 billion by 2028. For it to reach the target, GameFi would need a compound annual growth rate of 20.4% over six years, given that the sector was estimated to be worth $776.9 million last year. The reasons for this lofty target, however, are locked behind a paywall.FUD of the Week Solana-based stablecoin NIRV drops 85% following $3.5M exploitThe algorithmic stablecoin from Solana-based adaptive yield protocol Nirvana Finance, NIRV, de-pegged by 85% this week after the protocol was hacked for $3.49 million worth of USDT. The incident was cited as a flash loan attack which resulted in the funds being siphoned from Nirvana’s treasury. Its native token, ANA, also dropped 85% as a result of the hack.Phishing risks escalate as Celsius confirms client emails leakedOn Tuesday, beleaguered and bankrupt crypto lending firm Celsius emailed its customers, informing them that a list of their emails had been leaked by an employee of one of its business data management and messaging vendors, Customer.io. The firm has played down the incident, stating that it did not “present any high risks to [its] clients,” adding that they just wanted users to “be aware” — although Celsius also said similar things regarding users’ assets after pausing withdrawals several weeks ago.TikTok data policy debacle: Is user’s crypto at risk?Popular social media app TikTok is facing backlash over its far-reaching data collection policies that could extract large amounts of sensitive info from a user’s smartphone or computer. As such, crypto users are now worried about whether TikTok is capable of scraping critical data such as private wallet keys. “TikTok is not just another video app. That’s the sheep’s clothing. It harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing,” claimed U.S. Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr.Best Cointelegraph FeaturesThe Merge is Ethereum’s chance to take over Bitcoin, researcher saysEthereum’s imminent transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism will transform its monetary policy, potentially making ETH more scarce than Bitcoin.Tokenomics not Ponzi-nomics: Influencing behavior, making moneyEconomics is the study of human behavior involving scarce resources — and the effects those behaviors have on those resources, explains Roderick McKinley.When worlds collide: Joining Web3 and crypto from Web2A friend of mine who is a seasoned Web2 tech executive joined a Web3 company in June. A switched-on operator, he asked to speak with all 16 staff before deciding to join the firm.