Headlines

▌91% of the 21 Million Bitcoin Supply Has Now Been Mined

Bitcoin Magazine tweeted that 91% of the 21 million bitcoin supply has now been mined, and only 9% left to be mined in the next 118 years.

Policies

▌Singapore Financial Regulator Plans to Consult Public in Stablecoin Regulations

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city-state’s main financial regulator, assesses the merits of a regulatory regime toward stablecoin. Current guidelines focus on Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money laundering (AML) issues and do not reflect the specific risks that stablecoins are entitled to take. MAS plans to solicit public comments on stablecoin regulation in the next few months. It believes that the current guidelines should shift the focus of work from KYC/AML issues to stablecoin risks, focusing on reserves and exchange rate stability.

▌Robinhood’s Crypto Unit Fined US$30 Million by New York Regulators for AML and Cybersecurity Violations

Robinhood’s crypto unit was fined $30 million by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for violating anti-money laundering (AML) and cybersecurity regulations. Robinhood first publicly disclosed the investigation and settlement with the NYDFS a year ago in paperwork reported to the SEC.

Cryptocurrency

▌Nansen: About US$2.7 Billion in ETH Was Spent in Minting NFTs in the First Half of 2022

According to new market research published by Nansen, market participants spent 963,227 ETH (about US$2.7 billion) on the Ethereum blockchain for minting NFTs in the first half of 2022. 50.7% of the ETH raised remained in the NFT project, while 45.7% of the ETH raised was transferred to non-entity wallets. The top 5 NFT projects raised 81,364 ETH through public sale, accounting for 8.4% of overall minting in the first half of 2022.

▌The Second-quarter Impairment Charge of Bitcoin Held by MicroStrategy Was US$918 Million

According to the latest earnings report of MicroStrategy as of June 30, the 129,699 Bitcoins held by the company were acquired at a price of about $4 billion, reflecting the average cost of each Bitcoin at about $30,664. At Bitcoin’s current price sitting around $23,000, these assets are now worth about $3 billion.

▌MicroStrategy CEO to Assume the Role of Executive Chairman, Will Focus on Acquiring and Holding Bitcoin and Related Advocacy Programs

Michael Saylor announced on Tuesday that he resigned as CEO of MicroStrategy and moved to the new position of Executive Chairman. Company president Phong Le will serve as the new CEO and board member. Saylor, who continues to serve as the company's Chairman of the Board of Directors, said, “I believe that splitting the roles of Chairman and CEO will enable us to better pursue our two corporate strategies of acquiring and holding bitcoin and growing our enterprise analytics software business. As Executive Chairman I will be able to focus more on our bitcoin acquisition strategy and related bitcoin advocacy initiatives, while Phong will be empowered as CEO to manage overall corporate operations.”

Key Economic Events

▌Fed's Evans backs 50 or 75 bps hike in September if inflation doesn't abate

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans thinks that interest rates will have to rise to between 3.75% and 4% by the second quarter of 2023. A 50 basis points rates hike is a reasonable assessment for the September meeting if inflation does not improve. There’s still a reasonable expectation that monetary tightening into next year will lead to a restrictive setting but allow for a reasonably strong labor market. Evans added, “it is possible the U.S. economy gets a soft landing, but there are a lot of risks.”