Crypto Weekly Roundup: Ethereum’s Goerli Merg…

U.S. regulatory bodies like the SEC and the Treasury Department are getting stricter towards crypto exchanges. While the crypto exchange Kraken is being investigated for alleged sanction violation, Coinbase is under the microscope for conducting digital asset trading, which the SEC might deem as securities. Let’s find out more. 

Bitcoin

Despite still being a fair way underwater on its Bitcoin bet, El Salvador is looking to the future for its citizens, understanding that new technology takes time to be adopted.

Ethereum

ETH developers have been hard at work preparing for the final testnet merge, scheduled for early August. They recently announced the final details for the final testing phase of the Merge before the long-awaited official merge. 

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin addressed the upcoming Merge and talked about all the other network upgrades that would follow at a conference on Wednesday. 

DeFi

A new governance protocol has nominated Jonathan Howard as the new CEO or ‘Head Chef’ at  SushiSwap. However, the proposed pay package has sparked an outcry in the community.

Uniswap’s community took a big step towards its “fee switch,” which could have significant implications for both the Uniswap protocol and all UNI token holders. 

Wonderland (TIME) founder Daniele Sestagalli has announced his return to DeFi with a disconcerting tweet.

Altcoins

Ava Labs president John Wu recently sat down for an interview with Anthony Pompliano and discussed what the future holds for Avalanche (AVAX).

Technology 

A recent study forecasts exponential growth in metaverse real estate and estimates that the value invested in the sector will grow to more than $5 billion by 2026.

Business

The CEO of the KuCoin crypto exchange, Johnny Lyu, has announced his plans to launch a fund that will be targeted to tackle FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) in the crypto market. 

Mexican food chain company Chipotle has launched a limited-time stock market manipulation game called “Buy The Dip,” which will give away $200,000 worth of cryptocurrencies.

Regulation

Senator Pat Toomey wrote a letter to SEC chairman Gary Gensler earlier this week, blaming the latter for his lack of regulatory clarity towards crypto companies, which resulted in billions of losses for American consumers.

Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees advised FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to not allow the sector to become entangled in the perverse and deeply corrupted legacy system.

Formula 1 teams have been forced to comply with the laws of advertising in France, which prohibits displaying ads of crypto firms not registered with the AMF. 

The U.S. Treasury Department is investigating Kraken for suspected sanctions violations, which included allowing Iranians and others to transact digital assets on its platform.

According to a Bloomberg report, the SEC is reportedly investigating Coinbase over whether it improperly allowed Americans to trade digital assets that should have been registered as securities. 

Lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties introduced a crypto tax bill to the Senate that would exempt transactions under $50.

NFT

The city of Miami is embarking on a massive Web3 project, where it will partner with TIME, Mastercard, and Salesforce to launch over 5000 NFTs.

Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends closed its seed funding round with a $50 million investment from investment firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.