The Trump transition team is considering pro-crypto lawyer Teresa Goody Guillén as a potential SEC chair candidate, according to reports. Guillén is currently a partner at BakerHostetler and co-lead of its blockchain team.
Last week, Gary Gensler released a statement that suggested he was leaving the agency, and the debate over his replacement has heated up.
“As Trump searches for a pro-crypto SEC Chair, crypto prices will likely continue to rise,” predicted the Kobeissi Letter.

BREAKING: Donald Trump is considering replacing SEC Chair Gary Gensler with pro-crypto lawyer Teresa Goody Guillen.
Trump is supposedly looking for a pro-crypto SEC Chair replacement.
Guillen is a veteran of the SEC known to be pro-crypto. pic.twitter.com/186muDSzQY
— The Kobeissi Letter

On Nov. 12, Web3 venture capital firm Hack VC released research and analysis on Ethereum’s modular strategy.
“In the short term, modularization likely hurts ETH price because of lower fees and reduced token burn, but this isn’t the whole story,” said Hack VC managing partner Alex Pack.
Ethereum’s Future is Bullish
Since 2020, Ethereum has shifted to a modular architecture, outsourcing parts of its infrastructure like execution and data availability to layer-2 networks. The notion was aimed to decentralize and enhance the scalability of the network, however, there were short-term drawbacks.
The strategy has negatively impacted the ETH price in the short term due to reduced fees on the main network, leading to less token burn via EIP-1559. Lower fees mean reduced scarcity of

On Nov. 5, crypto, venture capital, and fintech firms Anchorage Digital, Bullish, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, Nuvei, Paxos, and Robinhood announced the launch of the “Global Dollar Network.”
The partners are combining resources and expertise to increase stablecoin adoption and expand real-world use cases with the launch of the Global Dollar USDG stablecoin.
Paxos will be powering the stablecoin, which is compliant with the upcoming Monetary Authority of Singapore’s stablecoin framework.
USDG Aims to be Different
The new stablecoin aims to address the limitations of existing ones by promising to return “virtually all rewards” to participants, providing an open network model that allows additional partners to join, and focusing on meeting enterprise-grade standards and consumer

In an announcement on Oct. 29, international credit giant Visa unveiled the partnership enabling real-time money movement between traditional banking and crypto services using the Visa Direct network.
“This partnership adds convenience and new services for Coinbase customers across the US and EU, including real-time, reliable, and secure money movement,” it stated.
Visa’s head of crypto, Cuy Sheffield, commented on the collaboration on Oct. 30.

Excited for Visa to partner with @coinbase to help them utilize Visa Direct to fund Coinbase accounts and enable real time cash outs https://t.co/aA9l6ZvwHm
— Cuy Sheffield (@cuysheffield) October 30, 2024

Day and Night Trading
Customers of the exchange will be able to deposit funds into their Coinbase accounts in real-time using

On Oct. 22, Chainling announced the results of its industry-wide corporate actions initiative involving major financial players such as Euroclear, Swift, UBS, Franklin Templeton, and Sygnum Bank. Blockchain ecosystem partners included Avalanche, ZKsync, and Hyperledger Besu networks.
The oracle provider successfully demonstrated how artificial intelligence, oracles, and blockchains “can solve a decades-long unstructured data challenge in finance.”
Automating Corporate Actions
The research found that “corporate actions” processing is one of the most complex areas of post-trade operations, with current inefficient processes costing regional businesses $3 to $5 million annually.
Corporate actions are significant events or changes related to securities, such as stocks and

According to a Sept. 23 report by tech outlet The Information citing ‘people familiar with the matter,’ the blockchain prediction platform is in talks to raise $50 million in funding.
The New York-based company is also considering issuing its own token to run its betting market, with potential funding round investors receiving warrants to buy these coins, according to the report.
Polymarket would use the token “as a way for users to validate the outcome of real-world events.” If it goes ahead, it would be one of the most “high-profile token debuts” since the 2022 bear market, it added.
Polymarket Growth Surges
Polymarket previously raised $70 million in two funding rounds, including a $45 million Series B led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
The platform is particularly

In a post on X on Sept. 4, the American billionaire businessman said that Bitcoin has been an outsider to the TradFi community over the past five years, and it’s only now “dipping its toe into global finance.”
He added that his firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, will help the traditional finance sector onboard Bitcoin as it wants new asset classes.
“Cantor will help tradfi bring Bitcoin all the way in. Tradfi wants new asset classes, and BTC is here to stay.”
TradFi Companies Want Bitcoin
Howard William Lutnick succeeded Bernard Gerald Cantor as the head of Cantor Fitzgerald in 1991. The firm is an American financial services company founded in 1945 with $480 billion in assets under management (AUM).
In late July, Cantor announced plans to launch a Bitcoin financing business to

Ethervista, which is being described as the “Pump.fun” of Ethereum, released its whitepaper on Aug. 31, claiming to be a “value-compounding deflationary currency” with the token VISTA.
Pump.fun is a Solana-based marketplace that allows users to easily create and distribute their own tokens, which are primarily meme coins.
Its gas usage has surged to become the top consumer guzzling 150 ETH in gas over the past day, according to Dune Analytics.
Deflationary DeFi Asset
The platform is constantly auto-buying and burning the token, increasing the floor price each time, it explained. Ethervisa also promoted a fair launch with a liquidity lock of five days following the conclusion that most rug pulls take place between two and four days of launch.
Additionally, the total supply

In a post on X on Aug. 16, crypto ESG advocate and researcher Daniel Batten posted a rebuttal to an Aug. 15 IMF report on Bitcoin mining emissions.
He argued that the IMF report uses flawed rhetorical techniques, such as “guilt by association,” by linking Bitcoin mining with AI data centers’ energy consumption.
The report titled “Carbon Emissions from AI and Crypto Are Surging and Tax Policy Can Help” bundled crypto and AI together, labeling them as “power hungry” threats to the environment.
Another Central Bank Attack Piece
Batten said that the attack pieces are usually from those that stand to lose from Bitcoin adoption, namely central banks.
“With the scientific consensus and mainstream journalism now concluding that Bitcoin mining has significant environmental

On Aug. 15, crypto compliance and research firm Chainalysis released the first part of its 2024 crypto crime report.
The firm revealed that aggregate illicit activity on-chain has dropped by 19.6% year-to-date, down from $20.9 billion to $16.7 billion.
It added that this demonstrates “that legitimate activity is growing more quickly than illicit activity.”

Part 1 of our mid-year #cryptocrime update is here! Illicit on-chain activity dropped by nearly 20% YTD, but stolen fund activity is surging and ransomware payments are breaking records. Read our blog for a detailed analysis. https://t.co/WRGG91mpFP
— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) August 15, 2024

Not All Good News
However, it also reported that despite this decline in illicit transactions, two categories of illicit

According to a Fox Business report on Aug. 7, a new advocacy group called “Crypto for Harris” has been launched to battle rival Donald Trump’s industry appeal.
The group is planning a virtual town hall meeting next week to support the Harris campaign and promote fundraising initiatives.
Fox’s Eleanor Terrett reported that those speaking will include crypto advocate Mark Cuban, SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, and a handful of Democratic members of the House of Representatives.

🚨NEW from me: Democrats launch ‘Crypto for Harris’ campaign to counter Trump’s industry appeal
The Democratic arm of the cryptocurrency industry is determined not to let Donald Trump run away with the crypto vote this fall.https://t.co/YOSGpv1AWt
— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett)

On August 1, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor announced that in July, the firm acquired an additional 169 BTC for $11.4 million and now holds a total of 226,500 BTC.
The company continues to focus on its bitcoin acquisition strategy. However, it faced significant impairment losses due to BTC price fluctuations, resulting in a second consecutive quarterly loss.
The world’s largest corporate holder of BTC now has $14.6 billion worth at current spot prices, and it wants more.
Total revenues for the second quarter were $111.4 million, a 7.4% decrease from Q2 2023 and lower than analysts’ forecasts of $119.3 million. Gross profit came in at $80.5 million.
Bitcoin Yield KPI Unveiled
The carrying value of its BTC holdings for the period was $5.68 billion, reflecting

Pro-crypto Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis unveiled her Bitcoin bill on July 31, labeling it “our Louisiana Purchase moment.”
The proposed ‘Bitcoin Act’ aims to add 1 million BTC, worth around $64 billion at current prices, to U.S. government holdings over five years.
The legislation aims to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and other programs:
“To ensure the transparent management of Bitcoin holdings of the Federal Government, to offset costs utilizing certain resources of the Federal Reserve System and for other purposes.”

The wait is over. This is our Louisiana Purchase moment.
Read the text for my BITCOIN Act below ⬇️⬇️https://t.co/mSYJVwn1wI
— Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) July 31, 2024

Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
The Act is also known as the ‘‘Boosting

Spot Bitcoin ETFs have racked up around $1.24 billion in inflows over the past week as spot markets recover.
Preliminary figures from Farside Investors suggest that Friday, July 19, saw inflows of $384 million, with Fidelity leading the pack at $140 million inflows.
This marks eleven consecutive trading days with a positive flow to these institutional investment products. Even Grayscale saw an inflow of $20 million to its GBTC spot ETF on Friday, the first positive flow day for the fund for a week.
Ethereum ETF Dates
On July 19, the CBOE announced that five spot Ethereum ETFs will begin trading on July 23, “pending regulatory effectiveness.”
The five products set to start trading next week are the 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF, Fidelity Ethereum Fund, Invesco Galaxy Ethereum

ETF issuers are making their final preparations to launch spot Ethereum-based products in the United States next week.
On July 18, ETF Store president Nate Geraci noted that the final S-1s were in from prospective spot ETH ETF issuers. The Form S-1 is the initial registration form for new securities required by the SEC for public companies.
Two months ago, “just about everyone thought these had no chance of approval,” he added before predicting that the launch date could be Tuesday, July 23.

Looks like *Final* S-1s now IN from prospective spot eth ETF issuers…
2mos ago, just about everyone thought these had no chance of approval.
Next step = launch (sounds like Tues)!
— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) July 17, 2024

ETH ETFs Gearing Up
On July 18, Bloomberg ETF analyst James

The total inflow to the ten U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs reached $310 million, or 5,361 BTC, on Friday, July 12. This is the largest inflow to the derivatives products since June 5, according to Farside Investors.
Moreover, it is the sixth consecutive day of positive flows, indicating that institutional investors have been buying the bottom of the recent market correction.
The total inflow for the past week has topped a billion dollars, and the products have not seen an outflow since July 3.

✅ Final 7/12 U.S. Bitcoin ETF inflows of $311 million (5,361 $BTC)
6th consecutive positive day 👌 pic.twitter.com/jap2jftUeN
— HODL15Capital 🇺🇸 (@HODL15Capital) July 13, 2024

Record BTC Supply Held By ETFs
The BlackRock IBIT fund led the pack with an inflow of $120 million closely followed

The Security and Exchange Commission’s accounting bulletin 121 (SAB 121) requires companies, including banks, to hold crypto assets for clients as a liability on their balance sheets. This makes it inefficient for large banks to offer crypto custody services.
Both the House and Senate passed a bipartisan Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to nullify this guidance, which the Biden Administration vetoed in May.
However, a House vote to overturn the veto failed to reach the required two-thirds majority, with a 228-184 result on July 11, according to reports by the American Banker.
SAB 121 Threatens Safe Custody
Pro-crypto Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Patrick McHenry, commented:
“That is a mandate from the Americans we represent. Despite all of

Bitcoin is currently down 23% from its peak price, with most of those losses coming over the past week.
The summer crash had been predicted on the premise that the four-year cycle was too early to peak.
On July 7, market analyst Benjamin Cowen eyed the Bitcoin bull market support band (BMSB) as a key technical indicator to determine if the asset will recover later this year.
BMSB a Key Indicator
The analyst compared current trends to historical patterns from 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2023, particularly examining BTC’s relationship with its BMSB.
He suggests that Bitcoin’s performance in Q4 2024 may depend on whether it can rise above the BMSB in the coming weeks.

In 2023, Bitcoin dropped below its BMSB in August, stayed below it for a few weeks, and then rallied hard in Q4.

Bitcoin’s price has stagnated since its March peak due to tight U.S. monetary policy, which has reduced stablecoin supply, according to CryptoQuant analysts.
“The reason for Bitcoin’s inability to rally further is fundamentally due to the tightening monetary policy in the U.S. since March 2022,” they reported on July 3.
As a result, the overall stablecoin supply started to decline in early 2022 when the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates.

Conditions for $BTC to Rise: Stablecoin Liquidity
“The bottom line is that in order for #Bitcoin to rally in earnest, we need to see an increase in stablecoin liquidity and circulating supply” – By @MAC_D46035
Read more 👇https://t.co/2XfjofHghh pic.twitter.com/uCNtzLvi2l
— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) July 3, 2024

US

Over the past few days, crypto markets have tanked 15% with more than $350 million exiting the space.
Monthly support levels have been broken sending crypto assets to their lowest levels since late February as bearish sentiment returns.
However, the 28% market correction is nothing new and has happened several times during every market cycle.
Crypto Corrections Are Normal
Cryptographer and Bitcoin pioneer Adam Back said that prior bull runs had around half a dozen 30% drawdowns.
“In fact if anything, recent draw-downs seem to be less deep, but people forget the normal bull market pattern,” he said before advising against panic selling.

reminder, zoom out. prior bull runs had half a dozen -30% draw downs too. we’re at about -26% (-27% earlier).
in fact if anything, recent

On June 25, the ECB published an update on its two-year preparation phase for the digital Euro CBDC that ends in October 2025.
The central bank said that privacy and data protection are its top priorities, but there are a number of disturbing features to the currency that would result in the total opposite.
On June 26, crypto entrepreneur and investor Daniel Batten highlighted a few of them.

JUST IN: ECB announce first progress report on the digital Euro
Features:– easier to surveil you– easier to deplatform you– easier to freeze your account– limits on how much you’re allowed to hold in your accounthttps://t.co/ZBG6Zoi9oG pic.twitter.com/D2EbxhuNzu
— Daniel Batten (@DSBatten) June 26, 2024

Central Bank Surveillance
A CBDC is essentially programmable money on a

There will be no sharp correction following any potential interest rate cuts by the U.S. central bank in September or November.
This is the prediction from analyst ‘RamenPanda’ who explained their thinking in a lengthy post on X on June 27.
The analyst noted that during times of financial crisis, such as in 2008, the Fed cuts rates to preserve the economy. However, in that scenario, markets fared worse, and stocks fell following the cuts.

We all know it’s pretty certain that the US Fed will cut either in September or November. Many have feared a sharp drop in US stocks and #Bitcoin $BTC #Crypto citing 2008 precedent
My take is, NO, THERE WILL BE NO SHARP CORRECTION. Here is why
To put it simply, there are two…
— RamenPanda (@IamRamenPanda) June 27, 2024

Bitcoin Boom

The layer-2 ecosystem remains robust with protocols and EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) scaling platforms growing rapidly and becoming ubiquitous, contrary to some bearish claims, said Ethereum community member Ryan Berckmans in a post on X on June 26.
His comments came in response to a post from Movement Labs founder Rushi Manche, who said, “EVM L2s will go to zero. they mostly all suck compared to SOL.”
Berckmans retorted, stating that the L2 ecosystem is still “growing like crazy,” citing ecosystem analytics platforms such as L2beat before adding, “Coinbase made an EVM L2. So did Worldcoin. So did Immutable X.”
Layer-2 Growth Impressive
Additionally, layer-2s are seen as an integral part of Ethereum, not just a scaling solution, he said before arguing that L2s on the

There has been increased speculation over a Bitcoin miner capitulation as hash rate increases slow down, operational costs increase, and the asset price continues to fall.
Analyst James Check assessed miner-side sell pressure to determine the severity of the miner selloff in a video on June 21.
Miners selling after a halving event and the slashing of their block subsidy is quite normal, he said.

I’ve seen a few folks speculating as to whether #Bitcoin miners are capitulating and ssuppressing the price.
So I ran the numbers, and analysed both current, and ancient miner sell side pressure.
Now live for @_checkonchain subscribers.https://t.co/BqEd6tkokG
— _Checkmate 🟠🔑⚡☢️🛢️ (@_Checkmatey_) June 21, 2024

Bitcoin Miners Selling
Check analyzed the Puell multiple, which is

The AVAX native token for the layer-1 blockchain Avalanche is in severe pain this weekend, slumping more than 10% at one point in a fall to its lowest level since December 2023.
Over the past 24 hours, the token has crashed from $27.87 to an intraday and six-month low of $24.92, according to CoinGecko.
Moreover, the asset has dropped a whopping 37% over the past month as altcoins continue to get crushed in the crypto market pullback.
What Has Caused the AVAX Avalanche?
“What’s going on there?” asked ‘Crypto Mechanic’ in a post on X on June 22, before adding it is “the first high cap coin that broke the [yearly] low, I think.”
“AVAX hype is so far gone this cycle… It looks like nothing will save it from becoming Cardano 2.0,” commented ‘The Crypto Monk.’
Meanwhile, the head

Ethereum generated the most fees among the top twenty protocols over the past 30 days with around $180 million, according to new data from Token Terminal.
On June 17, the crypto analytics platform reported that Ethereum was way ahead of other blockchains, which were dominated by layer-1 chains and DeFi protocols, with only one layer-2 blockchain in the top 20. The Coinbase blockchain Base generated the least amount of fees for the period at $6 million.
“Given that the activity on Base has outpaced the Ethereum L1, this is a sign that L2 scaling is working,” it stated.

🤑Top 20 Fee Generating Protocols in Crypto in the Past 30 Days👇
🗳️Key takeaways:
▪️5/20 are L1 blockchains, while only 1/20 is an L2 blockchain▪️Outside of L1 & L2 blockchains, all other protocols belong to

On June 17, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced aUSDT, a new synthetic dollar over-collateralized by XAUt, Tether’s gold-backed digital asset.
In a post on X on June 18, industry analyst and stock-to-flow creator Willy Woo said it was “A genius business idea by Tether.”
Tether’s USDT is currently earning on U.S. Treasury Bills, but now the firm can issue a stablecoin that earns on gold gains, he explained.
This has greater potential for profits as, over the long term, gold gets 8% compared to T-Bills at 0% to 5%.

A stable coin over collateralised with gold.
A genius business idea by Tether.
Instead of issuing USDT and earning the T-Bills yield, the company can issue aUSDT earning the gain on gold.
Over the long term Gold gets 8%, compared to T-Bills at 0-5%.

Bitcoin fell to a monthly low of $65,000 on June 14 and is currently down around 5% since the same time last week. However, zooming out to view the bigger picture shows that the asset is still consolidating where it has been since early March.
“Bitcoin very rarely goes this quiet,” commented analyst James Check in a post on X on June 14. The 30-day price range is separated by just 8.3%, he added before stating:
“There are two outcomes: 1) Bitcoin remains a stablecoin for a new paradigm. 2) Volatility is just over the horizon.”

#Bitcoin very rarely goes this quiet.
The 30-day price range is separated by just 8.3%.
There are two outcomes:1) Bitcoin remains a stablecoin for a new paradigm2) Volatility is just over the horizon. pic.twitter.com/aNl3WlkZky
— _Checkmate 🟠🔑⚡☢️🛢️

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is reportedly considering accepting crypto donations via Coinbase.
On June 12, The Block reported that Biden’s team was attempting to engage crypto-focused voters in response to rival candidate Donald Trump’s endorsing of the industry and acceptance of crypto donations.
According to the report, the Biden team is in discussion with Coinbase Commerce, a payment service enabling merchants to accept crypto which has already facilitated such donations for the Trump campaign.
Sources told the outlet that “They’re paying attention to issues around crypto and are trying to find quick wins to show that they’re supportive of the industry” because they want to “show that they’re not the enemy.”
Crypto Community Reacts
The move has caused

“It is only a matter of time until Bitcoin makes a new all-time high,” said 10x Research CEO Markus Thielen in a note on June 7.
The analyst has observed a “head and shoulders” chart pattern, which is nearing completion. This could result in a “rally towards 83,000 soon,” he said, predicting that this may occur within the next week if resistance is broken.
However, bitcoin did hit resistance and retreated to just over $69,000 on June 7. Nevertheless, the analyst remains bullish, and the chart pattern is still in play.
Bitcoin Still Bullish
“We are bullish,” Thielen said, citing the start of the global central bank easing cycle, which has now been confirmed with interest rates being cut in Canada and Europe this week.
“With US growth, employment, and consumer spending