Hodler’s Digest comes every Saturday and helps you keep track of every single important message that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, introductory and regulatory highlights, leading coins, predictions, and more – one week on Cointelegraph in one link.

This week’s top stories

US Senate passes infrastructure law – without clarifying crypto

On Tuesday, the controversial infrastructure bill was passed in the US Senate with 69 to 30 votes.

The bipartisan bill provides around $ 1 trillion in funding for transportation and power infrastructure projects. The bill also provides stricter rules for companies dealing with crypto assets while Expansion of reporting requirements for brokersreporting to the IRS digital asset transactions greater than $ 10,000.

Six Senators, including Pat Toomey, Cynthia Lummis, Rob Portman, Mark Warner, Kyrsten Sinema and Ron Wyden, proposed an amendment to the buzz kill law on Monday that would exempt software developers, transaction validators, and node operators as brokers while this is being proposed Tax declaration requirements “Only applies to intermediaries.”

However, their efforts did not bear fruit as no further explanation on crypto was provided. Senator Toomey subsequently lit the bill, stating that the legislation was “too expensive, too extensive, too unpaid and too threatening for the innovative cryptocurrency economy”.

Poloniex settles fees with the SEC for operating an unregistered exchange

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a $ 10 million settlement with the Poloniex cryptocurrency exchange on Aug. 9.

Poloniex has been accused of facilitating trading in unregistered securities between July 2017 and November 2019. According to the indictment, the SEC also alleged that Poloniex employees misbehaved in actively trying to circumvent securities regulation in order to increase the company’s market share.

On the same day, SEC commissioner Hester Peirce – known colloquially as “Crypto Mom” ​​because she regularly fought against the enforcement of crypto currencies by the SEC – criticized the measures taken by the regulatory authorities in a public statement.

Crypto Mom challenged the opaque regulatory framework that U.S. crypto companies must go through, claiming that even if Poloniex tried to register with the SEC,

they “would probably have waited … and waited … and waited a little longer” for a judgment.

Coinbase’s earnings in the second quarter top $ 1.6 billion as ETH volume surpasses BTC’s for the first time

Coinbase, the crypto exchange led by media-shy co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, posted a profit of $ 1.6 billion in the second quarter this week.

The company released its Q2 report on Tuesday, and its 1.6 billion net income forecasts of $ 1.78 billion in expected revenue.

Interestingly, for the first time since Coinbase was founded nine years ago, Ethereum (ETH) had a higher trading volume than Bitcoin (BTC), with the assets accounting for 26% and 24% of the total volume.

55% of the 100 largest banks in the world reportedly have crypto and blockchain exposure

Although banks often take their time popping crypto in order to crush crypto, a new research report found that 55 of the top 100 banks by assets under management have some form of blockchain or crypto exposure.

According to research by Blockdata, banks and their subsidiaries have direct and indirect investments in crypto and decentralized ledger technology companies.

Notable banking giants named and shamed were Barclays, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, who were reported as the most active supporters of crypto and blockchain firms, while JPMorgan Chase and BNP Paribas were also identified as serial investors in the sector.

Winner and Loser

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $ 46,262, Ether at $ 3,189 and XRP at $ 1.01. The total market capitalization is $ 1.92 trillion, according to to CoinMarketCap.

Among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies, the three best altcoin winners of the week are IoTeX (IOTX) at 314.69%, XinFin network (XDC) at 71.34% and Ravencoin (RVN) at 71.23%.

The three biggest altcoin losers of the week are THORChain (RUNE) at -12.02%, quant (QNT) at -5.71% and THETA (THETA) at -2.58%.

For more information on crypto pricing, be sure to read Market analysis by Cointelegraph.

The most memorable quotes

“If #Bitcoin caught up to #Ethereum’s performance this year, the price of the # 1 cryptocurrency would approach $ 100,000.”

Mike McGlone, Senior Commodities Strategist, Bloomberg Intelligence

“Shutting down that growth engine would be tantamount to stopping e-commerce in 1995 because people were scared of credit card fraud. Or regulate the creation of websites because some people initially thought they were complicated and didn’t understand what they would ever mean. “

Mark Cuban, billionaire investor

“If you really want to keep your coins out of reach of the state, you can just store these private keys right out of the box. It’s like burying a gold bar in your garden. “

Nic Carter, Co-Founder of Coin Metrics

“This legislation prescribes a severely flawed and in some cases unfeasible mandate for tax reporting for cryptocurrencies that threatens future technological innovations.”

Pat Toomey, US Senator

“I think we have passed the early adoption stage of crypto.”

Stephen Stonberg, global CEO of Bittrex

“We live in a time when everything is going digital, including traditional assets.”

Austin Woodward, CEO of TaxBit

“Given how slow we are in determining how regulated companies can interact with crypto, market participants will understandably be surprised that we are now coming on stage with red-hot enforcement guns arguing that Poloniex was unregistered or under one Exemption should have been operated. “

Hester Peirce, commissioner for the US Securities and Exchange Commission

“Bitcoin’s path to Gold 2.0 was wonderful.”

Dan Held, Kraken Director of Growth Marketing

Forecast of the week

Bitcoin Technicals: Why BTC Price Breaking $ 48,000 Resistance Is Key To New All-Time Highs

Bitcoin has gained significant ground in the past few weeks. The asset hit its all-time high of nearly $ 65,000 in April, but fell in the days and weeks after that, finding its way down to around $ 30,000. On several occasions, the asset briefly fell below $ 30,000.

However, the past few weeks have seen bullish price movement for Bitcoin as the asset has seen chart action that appears to be pointing to a reversal, based on analysis by Michaël van de Poppe of Cointelegraph.

The $ 48,000 price range on the Bitcoin chart is a notable resistance. A rise above the price zone from $ 47,500 to $ 49,000 could signal a possible further rise to possible new all-time highs, although van de Poppe cited $ 55,000 as a short-term target after breaking through the aforementioned resistance zone. Alternatively, should Bitcoin’s price collapse, there are a number of price support levels, with USD 37,500 being an important level to keep.

FUD of the week

Coinbase is lifting the USDC stablecoin requirement, which is backed by US dollars

Earlier this week, Coinbase released its description of the number two stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) to paint a picture of a slightly less stable coin.

Coinbase made the change after an audit that showed USDC’s reserves were not all held in cash. The previous statement read: “Every USDC is backed by one dollar held in a bank account.”

The new statement states, “Each USDC is backed by a dollar or fair value asset held in accounts with US regulated financial institutions.”

While this could be a blow to USDC owner Circle, the company’s stablecoin cash reserves are likely larger than those of Tether and its USDT.

Alex Saunders sued for $ 350,000 by Nuggets News followers

Alex Saunders, the Australian behind popular crypto YouTube channel Nuggets News, is being sued by a disgruntled investor for nearly A $ 479,270 worth about $ 353,027.

Plaintiff Ziv Himmelfarb requested the YouTuber in a formal written order to pay the amount of losses and damages for unpaid loans and allegedly falsified investments.

Himmelfarb said it was “child’s play” to trust Saunders when the crypto influencer asked him for loans and offered investment opportunities, as he had followed him since 2017 and viewed him as a reputable figure in the industry.

“When he told me in May that he had temporary liquidity problems, I was happy to help with a short-term loan, but have not been able to get any of my money back since then. Hopefully I’ll be paid back, “said Himmelfarb about his alleged 30 ETH loan to Saunders.

Crowdfunding platform DAO Maker loses $ 7 million to the latest DeFi exploit

DAO Maker, a crowdfunding platform focused on raising money for crypto projects, has been exploited by hackers who stole USDC worth $ 7 million from 5,251 user accounts.

According to Christoph Zaknun, CEO of DAO Maker, the hackers were able to siphon off USDC worth around $ 7 million.

“One of the reasons this happened is likely because the amount of deposits within the [Strong Holder Offering] Contract really exceeded our expectations, ”Zaknun said in an AMA on Twitch. “At first we never expected more than $ 2.5 million to be deposited there, but over time the SHOs became very popular.”

Cointelegraph hasn’t reached out to the hackers for comments as no one knows who they are.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Big hodlers accumulate Bitcoin under $ 50,000 while BTC transactions soar above $ 1 million

The dominance of bitcoin transaction values ​​above $ 1 million has doubled year over year, suggesting increasing institutional engagement in the cryptocurrency space.

Is the cryptocurrency epicenter moving away from East Asia?

East Asia has seen a sharp drop in crypto adoption over the past year compared to other regions.

Measuring Success: Offsetting Crypto Carbon Emissions Required For Adoption?

Crypto companies are doing their best to get green by offsetting Bitcoin’s carbon footprint, but how accurate are their estimates?

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