The London upgrade from Ethereum will end traditional ETH mining, a former Monero developer is arrested on non-crypto charges and the crypto debate comes to the table in the US Senate on Capitol Hill. Those stories and more this week in crypto.
Ethereum’s price has risen in the past few days following a recent upgrade that analysts are codenamed “London”. The upgrade is meant to make the Ethereum network more efficient and supposedly bring it closer to a proof-of-stake model that will allow owners to make profits on the assets they already own.
The U.S. Senate was pushed back by the crypto community when it introduced a section in its proposed infrastructure bill that would limit tax liability on under-accounted digital assets. It is about ambiguous wording regarding the reporting requirements for developers and miners and whether they, as “brokers”, need to collect and report information about users.
Former cryptocurrency custodian Riccardo Spagni was arrested on charges of fraud related to events between 2009 and 2011 – before joining the Monero community. Spagni, known as “FluffyPony” in online forums and platforms, is currently in the custody of the US Marshals Service and is being held without bail until it is extradited to South Africa.
Bitcoin SV – a cryptocurrency that emerged after a bitcoin cash hard fork – fell victim to a 51 percent attack that dropped the price of the asset. The attack allegedly happened by miners when three separate blockchains were created, duplicating multiple units of BSV.
Coinbase, a Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange, has enabled crypto purchases with Apple Pay and instant withdrawals of up to $ 100,000 per transaction. While the Apple Pay option has been available to Coinbase users since June, users were required to have a Coinbase branded debit card, but now this workaround is no longer needed with the update.
Fidelity Investments has acquired a 7 percent stake in Marathon Digital Holdings, one of the largest and best-known crypto mining companies in North America. Over the past year, Marathon’s shares are up more than 660 percent, suggesting that Fidelity is joining the growing trend among investors to also get exposure to the crypto industry through traditional stocks.
Melanion Capital – an asset management company in Paris – was the first of its kind to launch a Bitcoin-based Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) to track the price of Bitcoin. The product is offered to investors in the European Union (EU) and tracks 30 stocks with a high correlation to Bitcoin price.
The popular sandwich shop Quiznos has partnered with Bakkt – an institutional crypto trading platform – to allow customers to pay for groceries with Bitcoin. Several stores in high-traffic areas will start accepting crypto payments from mid-August. The move is part of a pilot program in which, if successful, all US Quiznos could accept crypto by the end of 2021.
