James' Crypto Weekly - August 20, 2021
News
Coinbase receives board approval to purchase $500M of crypto to add to its balance sheet. CEO Brian Armstrong also announces that Coinbase will be investing 10% of all profit going forward in crypto. Link
Kusama announces second batch of 5 parachain slot auctions. The auction commencing times are 09/01/2021, 09/08/2021, 09/15/2021, 09/22/2021, and 09/29/2021 12:00 GMT. Link
SEC chairman Gary Gensler states that peer-to-peer networks, such as DeFi platforms, are completely unregulated in the U.S., but may not be immune from oversight in the future. Link (WSJ $)
David Marcus from Facebook’s blockchain division announces that Facebook has secured licenses and approvals for Novi digital wallet in nearly every state in the U.S., and is ‘ready to come to market’. Link
Foreign crypto exchanges seek distance from Korea ahead of tighter regulations. South Korean authorities announce that cryptocurrency exchanges targeting Korean investors must register with the nation's anti-money laundering body and disclose their details on risk management by Sept. 24. Beginning Sept. 25, cryptocurrency exchanges will be banned from withdrawing money for cryptocurrency trading if they have no real-name bank accounts. Binance announced it halted trading pairs and payment options using the Korean currency last week. South Korea also plans to impose a 20 percent tax on capital gains from cryptocurrency transactions next year. Link
Polygon acquires Hermez in $250 million all token deal that includes first-ever token 'merger.' Link
Meter passport bridge deploys on Moonriver, connecting Moonriver parachain and Kusama to Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, and Meter. Link
Robinhood announces plans for crypto include listing more assets, providing "interest and rewards" to users, and adding a wallet that will let users move tokens on and off the platform during Q2 earnings call, but won’t say when the features will be available. Link
SuperRare, one of the largest NFT market on Ethereum, announces the $RARE Curation Token and the SuperRare Network. Link
Market Data
Tether releases Q2 reserve makeup, 85% of assets in cash or equivalents. Link
Uniswap's unanimous vote to upgrade Governance Contract to Governor Bravo. Link
Moving beyond coin voting governance by Vitalik. Link
Non-technical involvement in Polkadot. Link
2021 IC3 blockchain camp videos. Link
Dates of Note
Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):
August 25 - Deadline to apply to Polkadot Base Camp by Outlier Ventures
August 27 - 29 - EDCON2021 (Shenzhen & Online)
August 31 18:00 CST - Polkadot web3 talk
September 9 5:30pm GMT+1 - Polkadot Hack Launch Event
TBA - Devcon
Kusama’s second batch of parachain slot auctions:
Follow me on twitter: @_polkadotjames
Permalink for this week’s issue: https://jamescryptoweekly.substack.com/p/august-20-2021
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