In July, prices for CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club and other popular NFT collections fell by more than 60%. Our experts talk about the trends in the market. And the existing trading opportunities and its further prospects

In early July, the prices of the well-known and best capitalized collectible NFTs plummeted. And which are considered the blue chips of the NFT market. Collections such as CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) or Azuki fell in price by more than 60% in just one month. This is attributed to market trends. However, even a bearish period leaves traders with opportunities to make money.

BAYC, which is backed by Yuga Labs, saw its floor price fall below 30 ETH for the first time since October 2021. At the time of publication, the price has recovered to 32 ETH (about $60k). But it is still far below the historic high of $370 thousand in April 2022. The news that singer Justin Bieber bought BAYC image #3001 for $1.3 million (500 ETH at the exchange rate at the time of purchase) had fallen in price by more than 20 times by early July was widely circulated on the web.

The fall in the NFT market comes on the back of Bitcoin’s rise

So far, NFT prices have been falling systematically since the beginning of the year. And bitcoin kept going to new annual highs, and now its return for the year exceeds 80%. Most altcoins have also been rising in price, but less aggressively. This is evidenced by bitcoin’s growing dominance – for the first time since April 2021, the figure exceeded 50% of the total crypto market capitalization.

Along with the fall in prices on the NFT market, the volume of trading on the platforms significantly decreased. This indicator can be seen as a marker of interest in the market. And the low volume indicates a smaller number of participants. According to NFTGo data, over the month the total daily volume of NFT secondary trades fell by 55% from $22 million at the end of June to $10 million or lower.

Copyright royalties (royalties) from NFT creators have also hit a two-year low. According to a recent report from analytics platform Nansen, weekly royalty payments peaked at $76 million in April 2022. And by the end of June, they fell 95% to $3.8 million. Royalties are directly tied to trading volume – many NFT projects include a commission on secondary trades when creating collections. And that is paid to them in the form of royalties and serves as revenue.

In addition, the total volume of royalties fell as some trading platforms made them optional in order to attract traders. This was the case with the market leaders Blur, OpenSea, Magic Eden and LooksRare. Thus, the reduction in trading volumes and changes in the market structure led to a noticeable decrease in royalties as the main source of income for companies and teams behind NFT projects and art creators.

Whale Games

The fall in NFT prices and trading volumes is also attributed to the growing dominance of the Blur platform. It is initially oriented at more professional traders and speculators. But due to its scale, transactions on it inevitably affect the entire market. After the launch of its own token BLUR and its sensational airdrop in February this year. Blur has implemented a user reward program where traders receive tokens for placing orders and listing NFTs.

Traders on Blur with significant capital (“whales”) who can afford short-term losses sell large NFT positions en masse. And which they previously purchased and then buy them back again, gaining more tokens through more trades. This is called “farming” the tokens. Selling these tokens in the future is likely to compensate them for their losses.

Such activity increases selling pressure and collapses minimum prices in collections. It also provokes panic selling by smaller traders. And some of them in addition take loans for trading against NFT or other crypto-assets in specialized services. The combination of these factors leads to fewer and fewer new users entering the market. Alternatively, they act as the buyer of last resort.

However, there is a contrary view that token farming increases liquidity on the platform. Those traders who engage in it get an incentive to place more assets on it. And thus preventing an even greater collapse of prices on NFT.

The resulting farmed tokens are actively traded on exchanges – at the time of publication, the price of BLUR is near an all-time low of $0.30, according to CoinMarketCap. This is nearly 80% below the all-time high of $1.40 reached in late February.

NFT market prospects

Like the broader cryptocurrency market, the NFT market is likely to continue to exhibit cyclical price dynamics. As new projects emerge in the sector, bullish cycles occur. And leading to increased innovation and adoption of new technologies. This eventually leads to the emergence of lower quality projects. And then a market crash and the start of a new cycle.

The NFT sphere could, in theory, benefit from the gaming business. Blockchain gaming has become one of the popular destinations for venture capitalists in the Web3 segment. And investment in this sector is estimated at $10 billion. Many of these games involve using NFT to represent ownership of in-game assets or players’ digital avatars. However, developing truly high-quality, high-budget games can take several years. And so it’s not yet obvious which developers can take on this niche and carve out a leadership role in it.

The NFT market is no longer limited to marketplaces like OpenSea or Rarible, where you can release new NFTs or trade them with other users. There are credit services or platforms for trading derivatives on NFTs from large collections. And allowing you to speculate on NFTs without actually owning them.

Earning opportunities

For those who believe the bearish trends in NFT will continue, there is an opportunity to make money on a short position (on a “short”). And roughly the same as in the traditional or cryptocurrency markets. To do this, you can use credit platforms such as NFTfi, Arcade or the Blend service on the Blur platform. In order to “short” NFT, the trader first defines a collection. And whose value he believes will decline. Then he uses the lending platform to borrow NFTs, sells the asset at the current market price. And then re-buys it at a lower value, after which he closes the loan.

Because such platforms require lenders to actually own the underlying asset. So borrowers can only “short” NFTs from the largest and most liquid collections. Those who, conversely, believe in market growth can use these same platforms to borrow against their NFTs. And accumulating more assets and taking profits if the market goes into a bullish phase.

Platforms for trading perpetual futures for specific NFT collections. NFTPerp, for example, allow speculating on the floor prices of popular collections without the need to own the underlying assets. However, this is still a new market segment and the services are highly dependent on external data providers (aka oracles). And who can distort the data, which creates corresponding risks. In addition, as in the traditional market, there is margin call risk when trading NFT futures.

Music NFTs

Our experts note that in addition to collectible NFTs or blockchain games, there are NFT-related initiatives from big brands or, for example, music NFT platforms. In July, the market decline did not prevent the Sound service from raising $20 million from investors. And that includes Andreessen Horowitz’s largest crypto fund (a16z crypto). The platform allows you to trade musical compositions in the form of NFT. And musicians who place compositions on it have already collectively earned more than $5 million.

Our experts have told us what events. And market factors could lead to the beginning of a more noticeable change in the price of Bitcoin

Bitcoin (BTC) exchange rate has been in the range of $29-31 thousand since the end of June. And in case of short-term price changes, it quickly returns to its previous values.

According to Glassnode, a huge number of Bitcoins changed hands in the range of $30,400 to $31,100. Due to this, the Bitcoin price has formed strong resistance levels that will not be broken without significant fundamental triggers in the next few days.

The current period of consolidation of the cryptocurrency price is primarily due to the market’s expectation regarding the denouement of the Bitcoin-ETF story. And uncertainty about the US Federal Reserve policy and interest rates.

On the one hand, based on the 30-day federal funds rate data, there is a 99.8 percent probability of a rate hike. And what is traditionally a bearish signal for the market. On the other hand, analysts are expecting very soft rhetoric from Jerome Powell regarding further rate hikes. And there is a probability that he will announce the current rate hike as the last one in this cycle. In that case, we can expect a bull rally for Bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies.

Also, anytime before August 12, we may get news on the SEC’s decision on Bitcoin-ETF applications by BlackRock and other investment funds. If the applications are approved, Bitcoin could “fly” to $35-40k. But if they are rejected or returned for revision, the price will most likely return to the $27-28k levels.

BTC exchange rate seems to have frozen up

The main reason Bitcoin is stagnating is the lack of bullish momentum. To overcome the $32.5k mark and consolidate above it. Now Bitcoin lacks the inflow of institutional money. And this inflow is hindered by the lack of clear and precise regulation.

Bitcoin’s noticeable growth stopped at the end of June. And since then, the main cryptocurrency has been hovering around $30 thousand for a whole month. This was the case until recently, when several notable events occurred in the crypto market. First, Ripple won a partial victory in court against the SEC. Second, there was the collapse of the dollar in the global currency market. All this, of course, affected the growth of interest in Bitcoin.

Today it continues to trade at the same level, but in the near future it will begin a steady, albeit small growth. Some analysts make predictions based on the 200-day moving average indicator (MACD). And they forecast its reaching the value of $32 th. at the moment of halving. Our experts think that this is quite a balanced position. And it is unlikely that by the halving the indicator will exceed this value by more than 50%. At this point, our experts see a price opportunity between $40k and $50k (most likely $47k).

The Aave project has launched a GHO token with a peg to the dollar exchange rate. We tell you how it works and how it can help popularize the sphere of decentralized finance

The Aave lending platform eliminates traditional intermediaries such as banks. And the service runs on the Ethereum blockchain and uses software smart contracts to automate lending and borrowing operations. Aave was founded in 2017 by Stani Kulechov, a Finnish entrepreneur with a legal and financial background.

A user-friendly interface and a number of innovative functional solutions have made Aave one of the leading DeFi platforms. The protocol allows users to earn interest on their crypto assets. And by investing them in so-called liquidity pools. From these pools, borrowers get loans. They pay interest on the funds. And that is shared between the lending users and the platform itself. Interest rates depend on market conditions and are set on the basis of supply and demand.

To work with Aave it is enough to have a cryptocurrency wallet with the function of signing transactions, such as MetaMask, and cryptocurrency to deposit into the protocol. Once deposited, there is an immediate opportunity to either lend the funds. And at the same time receiving interest, or to borrow some assets against their collateral. Borrowers have access to many assets, including the cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). As well as the largest by capitalization stablecoins – Tether USD (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). Aave is now entering the territory of the latter, but is taking a slightly different approach.

Stablecoins linked to the dollar exchange rate are some of the most popular assets on Aave and other similar platforms

The most capitalized stablecoins are USDT and USDC, issued by Tether and Circle, respectively. Both coins are managed by centralized organizations. And which maintain reserves for their “stablecoins” in fiat currencies, gold, securities, and other assets. These reserves provide stability to the exchange rate. And the loss of that stability, even short-term, is considered an abnormal event for the market.

However, Aave’s own stablecoin, issued under the ticker GHO, is backed by assets backed on Aave. And is programmed so that its value on the Aave network is always exactly $1. This is another attempt by the crypto market to create less volatile cryptocurrencies that are not dependent on a centralized issuer.

Borrowers often pledge cryptocurrencies on Aave to borrow specifically stablecoins. Due to the lack of exchange rate volatility, they can be more convenient for payments than, for example, the same bitcoin.

There are already several decentralized (algorithmic) stablecoins on the market. The most capitalized of these is Dai (DAI), operated by MakerDAO, a credit DeFi platform that competes with Aave. Like Dai, GHO will not be issued by a single issuer. It will be managed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) known as AaveDAO. And its issuance will take place in transactions on the lending platform. To oversimplify somewhat, it will actually be collateralized by collateral.

GHO platform stablecoin

The platform’s native stablecoin helps diversify [traditional] stablecoins. And that includes in the Aave protocol itself. As well as the GHO revenue generated by the interest. And charged to borrowers in the Aave protocol, will allow AaveDAO to allocate more funds to community participants. And including risk managers, developers and security experts.

Our experts say that GHO in its own way will help popularize DeFi as a non-volatile crypto asset. The company is also developing a social protocol called Lens. And it needs a network effect and interested users. On the basis of this protocol it is possible to build full-fledged analogs of existing social networks.

The launch of the Bitcoin ETF could boost daily demand for bitcoins by $100 million, analysts predicted

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) can grow by 521% from current values to $180 thousand before the planned April 2024 halving. This is reported by Business Insider with reference to the data of the research company Fundstrat.

Now the daily demand for BTC in the amount of about $25 million is equivalent to the daily reward for mining in the amount of about $25 million. But the situation may change in the case of the launch of the Bitcoin-ETF, the analysts of the company believe.

In their opinion, Bitcoin funds can increase the daily demand for BTC by $100 million. Such growth taking into account the halving in April 2024. And which will reduce the daily reward for mining to $12 million. It means that the price of BTC must grow significantly for an equilibrium between buyers and sellers to be reached.

In July, NYDIG analysts said that spot Bitcoin-ETFs will provide demand for cryptocurrency for $30 billion. Experts came to this conclusion after the largest management companies submitted applications for the launch of such funds.

Our experts note that at the same time, Bloomberg senior analyst Eric Balchunas believes. That the approval of applications for the launch of spot exchange-traded BTC funds (ETFs) in the United States will open the bitcoin market access to capital of $ 30 trillion.

In July, two venture capital funds raised more than $350 million to invest in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups.

The volume of investments in crypto startups has fallen for five consecutive quarters. But some venture capitalists are still making multi-million dollar bets on blockchain projects.

Fortune’s source said Polychain Capital, one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the cryptocurrency space. And has raised about $200 million in its fourth fund. This fundraising can be considered a positive signal for the industry. The event indicates continued investor interest, despite a period when the volume of funding has decreased for both startups and venture capital firms.

The event indicates the continuing interest of investors. And despite the period when the volume of funding has decreased for both startups. As well as for venture capital firms.

Founded in 2016 by Olaf Carlson-Wee – one of the first employees of the Coinbase exchange – Polychain Capital has quickly joined the list of leaders in the cryptocurrency venture capital market. The firm has invested in Coinbase, Uniswap, CoilnList, dYdX, Matrixport, Scroll and dozens of others.

According to Pitchbook, Polychain has raised three funds with $2.6 billion in assets under management, and while this amount is volatile due to the fact that some of the Polychain funds are held directly in a few liquid crypto stocks. Several services, such as CoinMarketCap or Messari, separately highlight Polychain’s portfolio. According to them, the company invests in bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Polkadot (DOT), Avalanche (AVAX), Cosmos (ATOM), Filecoin (FIL), Maker (MKR), Tezos (XTZ), Compound (COMP) and other assets.

Polychain has deployed most of the previously raised capital in 2022 and 2023, according to a Fortune interviewee.

And before starting to raise a fourth $400 million fund, which reporters have now learned about. As for the $200 million already raised, Polychain has signed new agreements with investors or partners to begin placing those funds. At the same time, the company will continue to attract new investors in order to raise the full amount.

The attraction of new financing was accompanied by a reorganization of Polychain’s team of about 25 people, about 15 of whom are engaged in market research. According to the interlocutor of the publication, three employees from the research group were dismissed. And another with a background in data science was hired. One of the general partners also left the company to start his own project.

According to Fortune’s source, Polychain will primarily consider Ethereum-based “second-tier” infrastructure solutions for investment. And such as Arbitrum or Scroll, as well as in projects such as EigenLayer.

According to Pitchbook, global cryptocurrency VCs raised just $1.7 billion in 12 funds in the first half of 2023.

In comparison, they raised $22.5 billion in 91 funds over the course of 2022. On the same day as the new fund raising from Polychain was announced. And Bloomberg reported that another cryptocurrency venture capital firm, CoinFund, raised $158 million to support early-stage crypto startups.

According to the company’s CEO Jake Bruchman. That for the new fund managed to attract more funds than originally planned. Investor interest in the fund was higher than expected.

The last year and a half in the cryptoindustry was held in the crisis. But during this time CoinFund managed to raise $550 million, Brukhman told reporters. The year 2022 was “extremely challenging,” he said. Part of the problem was that major players in the market became interested in cryptocurrencies at the stage of their growth. But they changed their minds about investing when they saw prices fall sharply.

The new investment fund CoinFund is also the fourth for the company. Under the previous funds, the company supported startups such as, for example, Dapper Labs (creators of the FLOW blockchain). Or the blockchain infrastructure service Blockdaemon. Funds from the new fund have already been partially invested in the startup Giza. And which deals with the implementation of artificial intelligence in smart contracts. And in the company Superstate, which plans to combine decentralized finance (DeFi) with mutual funds.

More investments

CoinFund plans to invest the raised funds in startups. Which are at the intersection of cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence. Previously popular areas such as NFT are now not interesting to investors due to the market lull and capitalization decline of the largest projects.

Our experts note that CoinFund will also continue to invest directly in cryptocurrencies and tokens. And the company has an advantage here. When it comes to crypto market regulation in the US, there is uncertainty over whether cryptocurrency tokens are considered securities. And that was vividly demonstrated in the recent ruling by a judge in the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple Labs. However, CoinFund is a registered investment adviser. And can make investments in securities, so even equating their portfolio crypto assets with securities shouldn’t pose a problem.

According to Alex Felix, CoinFund’s chief investment officer. That now about 90% of the company’s transactions are directly related to the purchase of cryptocurrencies and tokens. According to him, the company still believes that this industry can coexist with traditional finance in a regulated manner.

Our experts tell you what you need to know about Sam Altman’s blockchain project Worldcoin. And who supports it financially, and when it will have its own token

In addition to leading the development of ChatGPT and GPT-4. Sam Altman, head of OpenAI, is also a co-founder of Tools for Humanity. It creates technologies for the blockchain project Worldcoin. And its tokens will be distributed among users in a rather unusual way.

According to the developers’ plans, the future WLD token will be issued to those who will be identified by iris scanning. The company’s own device called Orb scans the eye. And based on that, creates a digital World ID for the user. And which can be used “in a wide range of everyday applications without revealing identity.”

About 2 million people are already expecting to receive their share from this airdrop of Worldcoin tokens

Airdrop was planned back in the first quarter of this year, but was later postponed. However, this project has big ambitions.

“Once launched, we will begin to rapidly expand market by market, connecting more and more people,” reads a presentation distributed to potential investors in the project late last year.

In May, the project said it had raised $115 million in an investment round. Which was led by Blockchain Capital, a venture capital firm focused on the crypto market. For it, this is the second largest investment package, second only to investments in Matter Labs, the developer of the zkSync solution.

Worldcoin as a project consists of several components

First is Tools for Humanity, co-founded in 2020 by Alex Blania, Max Novendstern and Sam Altman. Acting as the lead developer of the Worldcoin project. Tho the company has raised over $240 million to date from venture capital funds including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Tiger Global, Khosla Ventures and the venture capital arm of the Coinbase exchange.

Worldcoin is now valued at $3 billion at the end of its latest fundraising. This is the same amount as in March 2022, when the company raised the first $100 million. Previously, the project was funded by Khosla Ventures, crypto fund Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto) and the founder of the bankrupt FTX exchange Sam Bankman-Fried. Spencer Bogart of Blockchain Capital joined the board of directors of Tools for Humanity after the new investment round closed. And a16z crypto managing partner Chris Dixon has joined as an observer.

Sam Altman is the co-founder of Worldcoin. His main contribution to the project is to create a strategy for how best to scale it.

“Internally, we call it the Sam Altman effect,” Blockchain Capital’s Bogart wrote in a comment to The Block. “Focus on scaling. Everything else is irrelevant,” he quoted Altman as saying.

Structure and products of Worldcoin

Worldcoin also has a non-profit foundation, the Worldcoin Foundation, registered in the Cayman Islands. According to its website. It is engaged in “protocol support and development of the Worldcoin community until the community becomes self-sufficient”. The foundation is a step toward creating a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) under Worldcoin. Worldcoin’s website states that the foundation is designed to “enable prioritization of the protocol based on DAO decisions.” Next steps, according to the description, include transferring intellectual property to the fund. And a grant program for developers.

As for the product, there’s World ID, an identification protocol. And with which people can prove their identity on the Web. It’s also a proprietary software creation package, the World app. Which allows you to manage the confirmed ID and a number of cryptocurrencies and, the actual token Worldcoin. All of these tools, with the exception of the token, appeared earlier this year.

A company called Tools for Humanity is responsible for the app. And it is likely that in the future it will earn on commissions on transactions or exchanges within the wallet. According to the company, by May this year, more than 500,000 people used the app at least once a month.

Black market accounts

Worldcoin’s chosen method of token distribution is that. People are asked to prove their identity by scanning their retinas with an Orb device. In March, Worldcoin struck a deal with manufacturer Jabil to ramp up production of its devices. According to The Block’s sources, Worldcoin could produce up to 400 Orb per month.

Worldcoin has an operator program where companies are paid in stablecoins. For performing eye scanning procedures on volunteers. So far, about 2 million people have joined the program. And mostly in Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe. For example, in Kenya, by December last year, about 250 thousand people were registered. And only 45 devices were in circulation among operators in the country.

However, Worldcoin faced a black market of verified accounts. In May, there were reports that in China, where it is still impossible to register in Worldcoin. People are now buying iris scans taken in Cambodia and Africa for as little as $30. The buyers were probably expecting to get airdrop tokens. Which, when released on crypto exchanges, could return on their investment many times over.

The company then took a number of steps to try and address this issue. And including “adjusting the initial in-person registration process” and introducing dynamic and static QR codes.

Token and Airdrop

The token launch is a watershed moment for the project. Airdrop has already been postponed multiple times. A Worldcoin spokesperson told The Block that the exact launch date will be chosen by the Worldcoin Foundation. According to his other source of the publication, the launch is expected soon. And possibly as early as the third quarter of this year.

In exchange for eyeball scans, registered users will receive Worldcoin tokens. In investor documents published last December, it is assumed. That users will be able to request tokens every week. And their total number will decrease over time.

The same document reveals more details about the future tokenization of the project. Our experts note that the total number of WLD tokens will be 10 billion pieces. And of which 80% will be intended for users, operators and ecosystem. And 20% – for the Worldcoin team and investors. The tokens of team members and investors will be unlocked gradually over three years. The developers also intend to make WLD a governance token. That is, to give holders the ability to vote on proposals in the DAO. WLD tokens will not be available in the US and other countries.

Our experts explained the intricacies of Ripple Labs’ (XRP) important lawsuit for the crypto industry

The court of the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of the blockchain company Ripple Labs in a lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). At the regular hearing, Judge Analisa Torres issued a verdict that no sales or other forms of distribution of XRP tokens issued by the company. As well as sales of these tokens to private investors do not equate to transactions with investment contracts. That is, in fact, tokens are not recognized as securities.

Ownership of tokens, their placement on exchanges, payment with them, algorithmic distribution of coins and other retail transactions are not equated to such transactions. However, the court recognizes as an investment contract transaction the sale of tokens to institutional investors under a preliminary contract.

The XRP exchange rate reacted to the news with an 80% increase in less than a day. The main US exchange regulator has been suing Ripple Labs for several years. On December 22, 2020, the agency accused the company of selling $1.3 billion worth of unregistered securities under the guise of XRP tokens.

Over the years, the SEC’s case against Ripple has become one of the most important proceedings in the crypto industry. In June lawsuits against major crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase, the commission equated a whole list of crypto assets to securities. The end result of the Ripple case could have serious implications for digital asset rules both in the U.S. and globally.

Why this decision is important

The US SEC’s multi-year lawsuit against Ripple Labs is a significant case because of the fact that its results can be used as a precedent for similar cases. Its results can be used as a precedent for similar cases. At the moment, the SEC alone decides on the status of a particular cryptocurrency. And in doing so, guided by the so-called Howey test.

Given the weight of these events, the immediate course of the process is also important in this situation. And its correct coverage in the media. Often information reaches retail investors in an incomplete or distorted form. This is partly what happened with the so-called victory over the SEC. Which was actually a motion to expedite the case. And the denial of some of the claims and the referral of the case to trial. Of course, the lightning-fast spread of the “news” caused an active rise in the price of XRP and the growth of the entire crypto market. Locally, this event manipulated the growth by bringing back the interest of retail traders.

However, globally, it can indeed be considered a positive decision. It may indirectly indicate that the judge is really getting into the process. And this case will not be considered superficially. This is generally positive for the industry itself, which is obviously experiencing difficulties in the absence of clear. And specific legislation directly for a new type of asset, which is cryptocurrency.

What will happen to other cryptocurrencies

Ripple Labs only partially won the court case. The judge ruled that the XRP token was not a security. But that only applies if it was sold on cryptocurrency exchanges to the general public or “through algorithms” .

The decision is significant because it rejects the SEC’s argument that XRP should be classified as a security. At the same time, the court recognized that Ripple Labs violated the Securities Act. And when it sold XRP to institutional investors. This means that selling the token to hedge funds or venture capital firms was considered a violation of US securities laws.

There is a certain irony in this: now the classification of an asset, its classification as a security, depends not so much on the characteristics of the asset itself. But rather on the characteristics of the investor who bought it. In general, the court’s decision for the crypto industry is quite important and positive.

The fact that the court partially sided with Ripple Labs, suggests that many altcoins, which are the most popular in the cryptocurrencies, are not the only ones. That many altcoins, which were also mentioned in the lawsuit against Coinbase as securities. And would eventually be recognized as cryptocurrencies if their underlying sales took place on public exchanges among the general public or through algorithms.

How the final outcome of the case will affect the crypto market

The final court ruling in favor of Ripple Labs in the case against the SEC could have a big impact on the entire crypto market. And if there is no appeal from the regulator.

The court’s decision could help establish the legal status of cryptocurrencies. And especially in the context of their classification as securities. This will create more clarity and predictability for other cryptocurrency companies and investors.

The court’s decision in the Ripple and SEC case will serve as a precedent for future litigation. Which are related to cryptocurrencies and their compliance with securities laws. If other companies can cite this decision in their cases. This could change the dynamics of cryptocurrency regulation and litigation.

A final favorable outcome for Ripple could impact regulatory policy regarding cryptocurrencies. Regulators may reconsider their approaches to categorizing and regulating cryptocurrency projects. And based on this court ruling. The right actions by the SEC will lead to a favorable environment in the cryptosphere.

Our experts note that this decision may still be subject to appeal. And the final status of the case may take a lot more time. Therefore, it is important to keep an eye on developments and take into account possible changes in the regulatory environment.

The launch of a new Arkham project to trade data on cryptocurrency wallet owners has raised questions about the ethics of disclosing such information

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance reported on July 18 that it has completed the public sale of tokens of the Arkham Intelligence (ARKM) analytics service. The token trades opened at $0.05, but shortly after the start of trading on the exchange, the ARKM rate soared to $0.75.

Arkham Intelligence has developed its own platform to visually analyze data in the most popular blockchains. With its help, you can view data about cryptocurrency wallets and movement of funds. And in doing so, matching wallet owners and analyzing their actions. This is applicable, for example, for investors when studying the chain of transactions of successful traders. Or for exchanges and law enforcement agencies when tracking the movement and conversion of stolen cryptocurrency.

Wide functionality and successful marketing strategy. Which includes a referral system and airdrop of future tokens, helped the project attract a user base.

Together with the announcement of the launch of the token, which received the ticker ARKM. And its distribution via airdrop and presale on the Binance Launchpad platform, the developers also announced the launch of the Arkham Intel Exchange marketplace. And on which the token will be used. On the site will be organized data marketplace, where buyers will be able to put up a reward for information. Which can be obtained from the analysis of cryptocurrency wallets, including for the identification of specific individuals who own these wallets. The service itself is promoted under the banner of ” deanonymizing the blockchain.”

This provoked a wave of discontent in social media discussions. And the company began to be accused of an unethical approach to personal data and privacy.

Despite the fact that data on all transactions in blockchains is public. But linking them to real people is often difficult. And privacy for many people is one of the fundamental factors in using cryptocurrencies as opposed to existing banking and payment systems.

There is no direct prohibition on “de-anonymization of blockchain”. However, it is related to the personal data of users on the web. And which clearly did not give consent for someone else to have access to them. Our experts believe that it will be important to distinguish between the personal data of users on this platform and those that they have provided to exchanges.

From an ethical point of view, this approach infringes on the basic principles and fundamentals of blockchain. Such as privacy and simultaneous transparency. When law enforcement obtains information about user accounts on exchanges.This becomes a kind of restriction of rights for the greater good. In the situation of selling data, not everything is so clear-cut. Because sellers and buyers operate with other people’s data, obtained not always in a legal way.

Our experts believe that many ordinary users will not be happy to find themselves and their wallet in such a database. This increases the risk that a person will become an object of attack of fraudsters. And they will know who owns the wallet and how much money he has.

Law enforcement agencies, cryptocurrency tracking systems or private researchers could act as such a platform’s services.

At the early stage, the use of the service will be limited to a narrow circle of users, our experts believe. Cryptocurrencies were created as an alternative to centralized systems. And many users want to remain anonymous and do not want to disclose data about themselves and their transactions. On the other hand, regulators have policies aimed at disclosing user data for the sake of their own safety. And they are introducing mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures on marketplaces to identify malicious users and hold them accountable.

A promising technology that would help both parties. According to our experts, the Zero Knowledge Proof (ZK) protocol is a promising technology that would help both parties. With it, it is possible to develop a technological solution that balances human privacy for the general public. And by allowing limited fragments of data to be disclosed to government agencies.

Sound music NFT startup raises $20M in another round of funding helped by a16z fund and Snoop Dogg

The a16z crypto fund (Andreessen Horowitz) led the round. Other investors included Sound Ventures, Collab + Currency, Scalar Capital, rapper Snoop Dogg, and Ryan Tedder.

According to Sound co-founder David Greenstein. And the funds will be used to hire new employees and expand in the online music space. And including on mobile devices.

All music on the Sound platform can be listened to for free. But when downloading them, the authors also issue NFT. Which gives the right to own the song. The price of the NFT is set by the author, and the platform takes a fixed commission for the issuance of each token. Songs in this format can be traded on the secondary market on NFT-marketplaces. The total revenue of musicians who have uploaded works to Sound, according to the platform, already reaches $5.5 million.

In December 2021, the startup led a $5 million seed investment round, which was also led by a16z.

In April, a16z also led a $120 million investment round for LayerZero Labs, the company behind the development of the LayerZero project. The project has raised more than $250 million from venture capitalists and is valued at $3 billion.

Our experts note that venture capital funding for the Web 3 segment fell sharply in the first quarter of this year. And that there is an 80% decrease compared to the same period last year. In the first three months of 2023, cryptocurrency venture capital funds made 353 transactions worth $2.6 billion. The number of transactions was 12.2% lower than in October-December 2022.

Wallet Pay tool can be integrated into any bot or service in Telegram to pay in Bitcoin or USDT

Messenger Telegram has introduced a new Wallet Pay cryptocurrency payment service in Bitcoins. As well as the cryptocurrency Toncoin (TON) and the Tether USD (USDT) stablecoin.

Wallet Pay is a tool that can be integrated into any bot or service in Telegram. And giving users the ability to pay in the three cryptocurrencies through the messenger interface.

The list of jurisdictions supported by Wallet Pay includes most countries in the world.

But with the exception of the United States and those states that are blacklisted by the Money Laundering Task Force (FATF). In particular, the technology does not work in Iran, Myanmar and North Korea.

The restrictions do not apply to Russia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt. And other states where paying for goods and services with cryptocurrency is officially prohibited.

A Wallet Pay spokesperson said that the support team has received “several hundred” applications to join the service, but the developers have not yet implemented the Know your customer (KYC) service. And they are not yet ready to say who exactly will be the first users.

The Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain was launched by brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov in 2018. However, in 2020, the Durovs abandoned the project due to litigation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The TON network was supported by members of the TON Foundation community and they continued its development.

Our experts note that although Telegram is not directly involved in the development of the TON ecosystem, it remains interested in this network.