09.08.[News of the day] • Cryptocurrencies in the US Senate have just “gotten a tailspin,” says Ted Cruz and other news

Welcome to today’s overview of crypto news:

MARKETS

BTC has been doing well in recent days. It fell to $ 37,200 on Thursday, but headed north before the weekend for $ 40,000. In addition, the bulls kept pushing him up, adding another $ 5,000 in value in the days that followed. As a result, he set his own multi-month record at just over $ 45,000. Since then, however, it has lost some strength and is currently just under $ 44,000.

The weekend went very well for most alts. ETH was one of the most successful after the launch of London Hardfork on Thursday. The second largest digital asset hit the road, beating $ 3,000 and recording a three-month high of $ 3,200 yesterday. However, it failed to continue growing and withdrew from the peak by more than $ 200. Since then, ETH has been trading well below $ 3,000 after a 7% daily decline.

Cryptocurrencies

Indian influencers promote cryptocurrencies such as soap or shampoo on social networks

In the last year, several Indian crypto exchanges have teamed up with celebrities from social media, sports and Bollywood to promote investment in cryptocurrencies on the Internet. In these campaigns, which have mostly led local cryptobourses such as CoinDCX and CoinSwitch Kuber, celebrities often talk about financial literacy and encourage young people to invest in alternative asset classes. Sometimes these promotions go even further and offer coupons that can be exchanged for cryptocurrencies.

Although India lags behind many Western countries in popularity of cryptocurrencies, this asset class has become relatively popular in the country in recent months. By May of this year, the Indians had added almost $ 6.6 billion to cryptocurrencies, while by April 2020 it was only about $ 923 million. Currently, according to Chainalysis, a blockchain company, the country ranks 11th out of 154 countries in terms of cryptocurrency.

Coinbase and whales moved 49,506 BTC, while BTC reached $ 45,000

The Whale Alert service, which tracks transfers of large numbers of cryptocurrencies, recorded six massive BTC transactions that took place at small intervals with each other, totaling nearly $ 1.8 billion.

This breathtaking amount of bitcoins was moved by whales and the largest American crypto exchange, Coinbase.

The four largest of these transactions averaged 10,100 BTCs, and the two that Coinbase made to unknown wallets each carried approximately 6,000 BTCs. That was a total of 49,506 BTC – the equivalent of $ 1,759,058,112 in fiat USD. [2b]

Banks, crypto exchanges, companies

Alchemy Pay launches virtual cryptocards with Visa and Mastercard support

The hybrid cryptographic platform Alchemy Pay announced on Monday that the company will launch virtual cryptographic cards that will accept more than 40 cryptocurrencies.

The new cards can be linked to Google Pay and PayPal digital wallets and made payments on Mastercard and Visa, as well as on popular e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay.

According to the announcement, Alchemy Pay has already completed product development and started beta testing in several key markets. The company expects to fully implement the new product at the end of 2021 or early 2022.

Audi announces the release of the NFT on the xNFT protocol

Audi has announced that it will issue a limited edition of non-interchangeable tokens (NFT) in cooperation with the xNFT protocol. The Chinese media reported on the report. German carmaker Audi has joined the NFT market and will release the NFT collection with the help of xNFT on August 10. On August 8, it announced that it would mint NFT Audi on the xNFT protocol.

As part of the release, Audi captivated with a 15-second video with text in Mandarin. The news also appeared on the Chinese Weibo platform and caused great joy among the crypto community. Audi will release a limited edition NFT together with FAW-Volkswagen, Robb Report and xNFT.

CBDC, Regulation

The first SEC DeFi raid on a $ 30 million fraud case

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted the first regulatory measures regarding decentralized financing in the case of “unregistered sales of securities worth more than USD 30 million,” the agency said in a press release.

Gregory Keough and Derek Acree, along with his Cayman Islands-based Blockchain Credit Partners, have been accused of allegedly fraudulently selling “DeFi-enabled securities” and “deceiving investors about the operation and profitability of their DeFi Money Market” since February 2020 until February 2021.

The parties used smart contracts to sell mTokens, which promised a yield of 6.25%, and DMG governance tokens, which allegedly gave holders voting rights and a share of excessive profits from future sales. The order states that due to the continuing volatility of digital asset prices, it was not possible to achieve the returns promised to investors. Respondents allegedly decided to hide this from investors and instead incorrectly reported the company’s activities and provided initial interest payments from personal funds and from other companies they owned.

Cryptocurrencies in the US Senate have just “gotten a tailspin,” says Ted Cruz

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has blocked efforts to vote on any further amendments to the Infrastructure Bill. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) claims that the cryptocurrencies have just “gotten into the tailcoat”, adding that continuing the original legislation could potentially “cause billions in damage” to the nascent crypto industry.

Although negotiations appear to be still in play, Jerry Brito, executive director of the Coin Center, says there is little “chance” that the restrictive wording of the law will change.

The $ 1 trillion federal infrastructure plan approval process has stalled due to a provision that would introduce strict reporting rules for all cryptocurrency intermediaries. Several competing amendments have been proposed to save the sector. However, senators in favor of cryptocurrencies may simply not have enough time to study, because the vote on the amendment must take place by Tuesday morning.