Headlines

▌Biden Signs the "Inflation Reduction Act", Democrats get a Long-awaited Victory

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, securing a major legislative victory ahead of the November midterm elections. Just a few weeks ago, the bill's chances of passing seemed extremely slim, but after the Senate voted on Aug. 7, the House passed it on Aug. 12 by a 220-207 vote. No Republicans in either chamber voted for it. Biden and Democrats desperately need the law, along with a slew of other legislative victories, to help boost polling numbers and raise hopes of securing majorities in both chambers in November's midterm elections. Biden's approval rating is just 40 percent, while 55 percent of Americans disapprove of his job, according to a FiveThirtyEight poll analysis.

Policies

▌The U.S. SEC Files a Lawsuit Against Dragonchain

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against blockchain start-up Dragonchain for failing to issue more than $16 million in initial coin offerings over five years, according to a filing in U.S. District Court for the Western District. (ICO) to register. The complaint alleges that CEO John Roets and three Dragonchain-related companies violated the Securities Act by raising millions of dollars by selling Dragon (DRGN) tokens in a 2017 ICO. The company then put the money into its marketing and development activities, according to the SEC. Seattle-based Dragonchain, an enterprise blockchain start-up founded by Disney in 2017, forced one of its affiliate projects, lagon, to return funds to ICO investors in 2018 after concerns over a regulatory crackdown by the SEC.

Cryptocurrency

▌Coinbase: During the Ethereum Merger, Deposits and Withdrawals of New ETH and ERC-20 Tokens will be Suspended to Ensure the System Completes the Transition

On August 16, Coinbase said that it expects Ethereum to switch to a proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism around September 15, 2022. During the merger, Coinbase will temporarily suspend new Ethereum (ETH) and ERC as a precautionary measure. -20 token deposits and withdrawals to ensure the system completes the transition and is not expected to affect ETH and ERC-20 token transactions in other networks and centralized exchange products

▌Crypto.com Launches Second Layoff Round Worse than June Cuts: Sources

In a quarterly all-hands conference call on Friday, a source inside Crypto.com says the company is going to launch a new round of layoffs that "is much bigger than the first one." uring the call, "leadership expressed they had no intention of going public,” the source says. “Top management is unlikely to do an announcement as, after the June layoffs, they claimed that everyone's job was safe, and that no more layoffs will happen.” According to the source, the June layoffs targeted "flexible" roles staff like customer service and growth roles - employees less in demand as customer numbers and trading volume on the platform fell. The new round affects affected people "from critical products like exchange, app and wallet.” Earlier news, in June, Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com had laid off 260 employees, accounting for 5% of its total workforce, citing the crypto bear market.

▌Zuckerberg: Meta Launches Horizon Worlds in France and Spain

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced In a Facebook post that Horizon Worlds, its virtual world social application in the metaverse, has been officially launched in France and Spain. In February, Meta said the Horizon Worlds app had more than 300,000 monthly users. Mark Zuckerberg posted a photo of himself in front of a virtual version of the Eiffel Tower and said, “We're launching Horizon Worlds in France and Spain today! Looking forward to seeing people explore and build immersive worlds, and to bringing this to more countries soon.”

▌Aave New Proposal: Aave DAO Should Adopt a Clear Stance on Ethereum Merger, Committing to Support Mainnet Under PoS Consensus over Any Fork

Aave’s new proposal calls for the Aave DAO to commit to selecting the Ethereum Mainnet running under the Proof of Stake consensus over any Ethereum fork running an alternative consensus (such as Proof of Work). If the proposal passed, the Aave protocol will be shut down on the proof-of-work (PoW) Ethereum chain. As the Aave protocol is one of the largest DeFi applications in the world as measured by TVL 1 and is an essential piece of infrastructure powering hundreds of other dApps and experiences in the DeFi ecosystem. The DAO should send a clear signal to the DeFi ecosystem about where it stands with respect to the Ethereum merge. Morevoer, to ensure continued existence of the protocol for the community, the Aave DAO should consider signaling strongly that the Aave Protocol should commit to the Ethereum Mainnet, running under Proof of Stake consensus.