Crypto.com Goes Dutch 🇳🇱. Crypto.com has been approved for registration with De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) as a provider of crypto services. This registration confirmation follows a comprehensive review of Crypto.com’s business and compliance in line with the Netherlands’ Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act.
In other good news, bullish BTC predictions keep coming. The founder and CEO of US-based registered investment advisor Morgan Creek Capital Manager believes Bitcoin could reach US$300,000 by 2028, when it is expected to go through its next halving event following the anticipated upcoming 2024 halving.
Market Spotlight
Note: Market prices captured in USD at the time of sending. Explore more on Crypto.com/Price.
Want more? Get weekly Market andDeFi Updates from Crypto.com’s Research Team.
Chart of the Week
Worldcoin (WLD) launched last week along with its mainnet, making the crypto news headlines. The project is founded by OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman and proposes a novel solution to differentiate humans from AI in the digital landscape.
However, Worldcoin has also faced criticism, particularly for its use of biometric data (eye scans) for identity verification.
News Snaps
More Green BTC Mining
Genesis Digital Assets (GDA) recently announced it has launched three new data centers in western South Carolina as part of its US expansion. The Bitcoin miner has emphasized that the new facilities will run on clean energy.
Litecoin Halved 🌗
Litecoin’s third halving in its 12-year history was a key milestone for one of the oldest and largest blockchains. The block subsidies decreased from 12.5 LTC to 6.25. The halving benefits the project by helping to achieve mass adoption without sacrificing the blockchain’s security.
🇮🇹 Italy Explores DeFi
A consortium of companies, including Polygon Labs, is receiving support from a research hub backed by Italy’s central bank in a bid to develop an ecosystem for traditional financial institutions to wade deeper into DeFi.
US Hikes Interest Rate
The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point to a target range of 5.25% to 5.50%, in line with market expectations. The midpoint of that target range would be the highest level for the benchmark rate since early 2001.
MakerDAO Interest Rate Proposal Approved ⬆️
The MakerDAO community voted in favor of proposal GOV12.1.2, which will introduce the Enhanced Dai Savings Rate (EDSR) to temporarily increase the interest rate granted to DAI holders.
Cardano Gains Speed
Cardano launched the Mithril protocol on its mainnet on July 30. The Mithril upgrade aims to increase blockchain speed and efficiency, particularly by reducing node syncing time without compromising security.
What’s Ahead
Research & Insights
Monthly Feature Article | Crypto Market Sizing Report H1 2023
Global crypto owners reached 516 million by the first half of 2023.
Key Takeaways:
- Global crypto owners increased by 21% in the first half of 2023, rising from 425 million in December 2022 to 516 million in June 2023.
- Bitcoin (BTC) owners grew by 22%, from 219 million in December 2022 to 267 million in June 2023, accounting for 52% of global owners.
- Ether (ETH) owners grew by 21%, from 87 million in December 2022 to 105 million in June 2023, accounting for 20% of global owners.
Read the full report: Crypto Market Sizing Report H1 2023
NFT Spotlight
“Can we all agree that jellyfishes [have] the best animation in all the wildlife?” French 3D artist Tony Lopez asks. For his latest drop, Lopez has produced an immersive audio-visual NFT collection with jellyfish, creating dreamy environments with a surreal style.
🪼 ‘The Jellyfishes Places: An Experience’ — dropping on Monday, August 7 — features eight different places in the world, surrounded by jellyfish floating all around, and bringing to life that which only exists in dreams.
Each visual loops 🔁, including the audio, of which all tracks are produced by Just Ben Music. This drop features ✍️ high-quality signed acrylic prints of the NFTs, 🪂 NFT airdrops, and 📞 exclusive Facetime calls with Tony Lopez. And who knows, maybe a jellyfish or two.
“From paradise to Hell, through the airport or at the laundry service, close your eyes and lose yourself into my world, a soothing world that will stimulate your creativity.” —Tony Lopez, inviting us all into his jellyfish experience
This is one time it’s cool to be jelly. Tony Lopez has quite the varied collection.
Product Picks
Steadily Build Your Portfolio Across 80+ Tokens With Recurring Buy
PENDLE, GRAIL, PSTAKE, ACS, and STPT have been added to the Recurring Buy feature in the Crypto.com App. Users can now apply the Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) strategy for over 75 tokens with Recurring Buy. Find out more here.
ETH Supercharger Is Live With Up to 20% P.A.
The Ethereum (ETH) Booster Bonus Supercharger is now live in the Crypto.com App and on the Exchange. Users can deposit CRO and earn ETH, with a US$250,000 reward allocation. What’s more, 888 lucky participants will get the chance to boost their returns by 10 times, earning up to 20% p.a.! Details here.
Crypto.com App New Token Listings
QUICK With Deposits and Withdrawals Enabled
QuickSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Polygon network. It is a fork of Uniswap that employs an Automated Market Maker (AMM) for allowing users to trade tokens through liquidity pools, offering features like swapping, liquidity, and yield farming. QUICK is the native utility token of QuickSwap that primarily serves as a governance token through which community members may vote on proposals issued by the team.
Crypto Level Up
What Are Reddit’s MOON and BRICK Tokens?
Social media platform Reddit has a Community Points system to reward users for their contributions. The MOON and BRICK tokens are part of this project, created for two specific subreddits. Read on to find out more about these tokens and what they can be used for.
More on MOON and What It’s Used For
MOON is an ERC-20 token introduced in 2020 as part of the Community Points for the ‘CryptoCurrency’ subreddit. Users earn MOON by receiving upvotes from other users for their posts or comments.
This token is used to purchase special membership badges for the ‘CryptoCurrency’ subreddit. The badges come with perks like access to exclusive content and features. MOON can be used to pay for advertising space in the subreddit, as well.
More on BRICK and What It’s Used For
BRICK is also part of the Community Points for Fortnite’s subreddit. Like MOON, BRICK is an ERC-20 token. Akin to how users earn MOON, BRICK is given to individuals according to the upvotes they get for their comments and posts in the ‘FortNiteBR’ subreddit.
BRICK can be used to purchase a Special Membership, which unlocks features like embedding GIFs in comments. BRICK can also be used to tip other users and cast votes in governance polls.
Learn All About MOON and BRICK.
CryptoIRL
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Hashtag #CryptoIRL with your Crypto.com Visa Card on your social profiles to get featured! Your 15 minutes of fame in the #CROFam awaits you!
Decoder
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) is a consensus mechanism whereby network participants can vote and elect delegates to validate the next block of transactions.
The mechanism was designed to maintain democracy within the network, as the delegates are elected based on reputation and trustworthiness. In theory, it incentivizes good behavior in the community.
With DPoS, users can also pool tokens into a staking pool and vote for the particular delegate they wish. When staking, users of the network do not need to send their tokens to a particular wallet; instead, there is a staking mechanism or service provider they can operate through.
Examples of DPoS consensus algorithms include EOS (EOS), Steem (STEEM), Lisk (LSK), and BitShares (BTS).
This Week in Crypto History
Bitcoin’s First Hard Fork Creates Bitcoin Cash
On August 1, 2017, the Bitcoin network underwent its first hard fork because community members disagreed on the SegWit upgrade. Thus, the Bitcoin Cash network and token were born. At the time, there was also a divide among BTC storage services and cryptocurrency exchanges on whether they would support this new token.
Today, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is traded across a variety of centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges. What’s more, it’s among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap. There are also plans for the network to support dapps being built directly on it.
That’s it for this week’s Snapshot. Want more? Head over to our Insta feed for bite-size crypto lessons.
