VanEck predicts Bitcoin could reach a market cap of $61 trillion by 2050, or about $2.9 million per coin. It may settle 10% of global international trade and 5% of domestic trade, with central banks holding 2.5% of their assets in Bitcoin. Layer 2 solutions could be worth around $7.6 trillion, but risks like mining, scalability, and regulation still pose challenges for adoption.

Trump's reelection campaign raised approx. $3 million in crypto during Q2 2024. Big contributors? Came from Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss ($2 million in BTC) and Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell ($1 million in Ether).

Web3 venture funding is stabilising after a decline in 2023, with $2 billion raised in Q2 2024 - A slight increase from $1.8 billion in Q1 2024, reversing a downtrend from $2.3 billion in Q1 2023 to $1.4 billion in Q4 2023. Total deal volume dropped significantly from 681 in Q1 2023 to 284 in Q4 2023, with only 291 rounds closing in Q2 2024.

No mention of crypto or blockchain on The Democratic National Committee’s new platform, a 100 page manifesto.

The rival Republican platform included several pro-crypto remarks.

Which says:

“Republicans will end Democrats’ unlawful and un-American crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency.”

The odds are slightly in favour of Kamala Harris still: 50% v 49%

China has classified crypto transactions as money laundering in an update to its anti-money laundering law.

The new legal interpretation classifies virtual asset transactions as acts that "cover up and conceal the source and nature of the proceeds of crime."

Chinese authorities will now consider laundering amounts over 5 million yuan ($685,000) or causing losses of more than 2.5 million yuan ($343,000) as serious offences.

Banks are struggling with $13 billion in loans tied to Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter (now X). Due to X's private status, banks cannot easily sell these loans to other investors.

The value of X has declined since the acquisition - impact on the value of the associated loans.

Banks holding these loans, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, have seen their valuations drop. Some banks, like Barclays, have even resorted to cutting employee salaries due to the strain of these "hung" loans.

Bit Trade, Kraken's Australian subsidiary, has been found in violation of Australian financial laws. The court ruled that Bit Trade failed to comply with these obligations when offering its margin trading product. Bit Trade was also found to have operated as a credit facility without a license.

Over 77% of hacked crypto experience sustained price drops after an exploit. 51.1% of hacked tokens saw over 50% price declines six months after the protocol was hacked - immunefi.

“The millions lost to the hack immediately anticipate even larger losses, caused by market impact and dependency impact, alongside many months of lost time spent rebuilding your emotionally shattered team and operations.”

Babylon, a Bitcoin staking protocol, has launched the first phase of its self-custodial mainnet. Users can now stake their BTC via smart contracts on the Babylon platform. The platform already has over 12,710 stakers and more than 20,600 staking delegations.

Michelle Bond, partner of former FTX executive Ryan Salame, has been charged with campaign finance violations.

Prosecutors allege Bond and her co-conspirator (likely Salame) illegally funded her 2022 congressional campaign. Bond is accused of making false statements to the FEC and a congressional committee to conceal their actions.

Justin Sun downplays removal of Bitcoin from USDD collateral

$729 million worth of Bitcoin was removed from USDD's collateral reserve.
The removal happened without a vote from the Tron DAO Reserve. Sun claims this is standard DeFi practice and similar to MakerDAO's Dai.

Argues the high collateralization rate allowed for efficient withdrawal. Removal has raised questions about USDD's decentralisation.

Magic Eden, a leading NFT marketplace, will adopt the ME token.

What do we know?

ME will serve as a utility token for consumers on Magic Eden and potentially other protocols. ME will enable cross-chain trading on Magic Eden, allowing users to trade assets on various blockchains.The ME Foundation, a non-profit, will develop and manage the ME token.The ME token will be available through the Magic Eden desktop and mobile wallet.

Digital asset investment products experienced inflows of US$533m.
The largest in five weeks, following Jerome Powell's dovish comments at the Jackson Hole Symposium.

👉Bitcoin attracted US$543m of inflows
👉Ethereum saw outflows of US$36m
👉The US led inflows with US$498m, while Hong Kong and Switzerland saw smaller inflows of US$16m and US$14m respectively.

Bitcoin Runes recorded 15.6 million NFT transactions in just four months since its launch in April.

The protocol generated $162.4 million in fees, indicating strong market potential. The first two months saw peak activity, with daily transactions often exceeding 300,000, including a record of over 1 million on April 23.

Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski announced he has "departed" from Europe following the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov by French police.

Australian Federal Police report Australians lost AUD 180 million ($122 million) to crypto scams in the past year, with 60% of victims under 50 years old. The scams, primarily using pig butchering and deepfake techniques, accounted for nearly half of the AUD 382 million ($269 million) lost to investment scams overall.

PayPal USD hits $1 billion market cap. Launched in 2023, PayPal's US dollar-pegged stablecoin is backed 1:1 by US dollars and issued by Paxos Trust Company, a US-regulated crypto custodian. It's the six-largest stablecoin.

Coinbase's layer-2 network Base has surpassed 1 million daily active addresses, peaking at 1.05 million on August 24, driven by the launch of "basenames," which saw over 200,000 registrations in its first week.

The number of crypto millionaires has surged by 95% to 172,300 globally, with Bitcoin millionaires more than doubling to 85,400, according to a new report by Henley & Partners.

BlackRock and Grayscale's US spot Bitcoin ETFs now hold nearly 3% of Bitcoin's circulating supply, with their combined holdings reaching 585,449 BTC. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) now holds 357,736.76150 BTC, while Grayscale's GBTC holds 227,712.3295 BTC. In addition, Grayscale also holds a further 5,962 BTC in its Digital Large Cap Fund and 32,692.0926 BTC in its Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust.