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The South China Morning Post (SCMP) has launched a non-fungible token (NFT) standard for recording historical records on the blockchain.

• The newspaper introduced “ARTIFACT,” a standardized model for recording accounts of history and historical assets on the blockchain as NFTs.
• The paper, bought by Alibaba in 2016, will start with a collection of NFTs minted from historical moments drawn from the archive of its 118-year history.
• The venture will harness “a few selected blockchains” the SCMP has yet to identify. The plan is for ARTIFACT to eventually be chain-agnostic.
• While NFTs representing historical events have attained widespread popularity, these have been mainly for collectible purposes and often draw from the entertainment world, such as sport or music.
• Minting records of historical interest in the form of newspaper articles could represent a compelling use case for blockchain technology.
• “The Post believes that factual accounts of history and authentic historical assets should be immutable, and that ownership of these digitised and tokenised assets, which are part of our collective human experience, should be decentralised,” the announcement said.

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Bitcoin (BTC) is stuck in a month-long downtrend as traders experienced choppy conditions over the past few days. A break below $30,000 is likely given the loss of upside momentum and strong resistance on the charts.

The cryptocurrency was trading around $31,000 at press time and is down about 5% over the past week.

• The 50-period moving average on the four-hour chart is sloping downwards, which indicates a declining trend over the past month.
• Immediate resistance is seen around $32,000 and $34,000, which could limit upside if buyers return at support.
• The relative strength index (RSI) is not yet oversold on the four-hour and daily charts. This means sellers are in control as buyers await lower support levels.
• If $30,000 is broken, the next level of support is seen around $27,000, which is a 60% retracement from the March 2020 price low.
• Bitcoin’s current sideways trading is similar to the June-November 2018 range between $5,900 and $7,400, which preceded further selling as the bear market advanced.  

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• Bitcoin Network Sees Fourth Straight Downward Difficulty Adjustment
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Bitcoin’s mining difficulty, a metric indicating the effort required to solve the complex cryptographic puzzle to mine blocks and validate transactions, recorded its fourth straight drop over the weekend. 

On Sunday, difficulty fell by 4.8% at block 691,488, having declined by a record 28% on July 3, according to data tracked by BTC.com. The difficulty rate now stands at an 18-month low of 13.67 trillion. That’s down 45% from the mid-May peak of 25.05 trillion. 

According to The Block, the network last recorded four consecutive declines in difficulty in 2011.

Related: Bitcoin Trending Lower With Possible Break of $30K Support

The bitcoin mining difficulty undergoes automatic adjustment every 2,016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks, to maintain a target block time of 10 minutes. The reward for mining blocks and approving transactions is currently 6.25 BTC. 

The time taken to mine new blocks rises when there is a drop in the amount of computing power applied to the blockchain. At that point, the programmed code kicks pushes the difficulty lower to attract more miners and restore the average block time to 10 minutes. 

“Since May, the blockchain has been running slowly. Earlier this month, the average block time reached 1,000 seconds, when they ought to average around 600 seconds.” Charlie Morris, chief investment officer at ByteTree Asset Management, said. 

“To rectify that, the blockchain needed to speed up and make mining easier. The last four adjustments have been downward, and it now looks like the blockchain is back to normal,” Morris said. 

Related: Russian Industry Association Works to Attract Crypto Mining

The self-adjusting mechanism makes bitcoin mining somewhat analogous to perfect competition, a hypothetical market structure where forces of demand and supply interact freely and firms’ decisions are predictable. 

The difficulty rate peaked at over 25 trillion in the second half of May and has been falling ever since amid China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency mining. The mean hashrate peaked along with the price in mid-April and hit a two-year low of 61.22 exahashes per second (EH/s) in late June. Since then, it has recovered slightly to 96 EH/s, according to Glassnode data. 

The dramatic decline in both the hashrate and difficulty could be a short-term phenomenon, as there is evidence that China-based miners shifting to the U.S. and Kazakhstan could soon become operational.  

“This is a one-off event, meaning most of this mining power will return, and before you know it, MORE than 900 coins per day will be mined since the hash rate will hit the network after the difficulty of each block decreases,” Ben Lilly, a crypto economist at Jarvis Labs, noted in a Substack post published last month. 

The drop in the mining difficulty has not had any bearish effect on the cryptocurrency’s price, leaving it directionless in existing ranges. Social media chatter shows some traders are worried about a deeper drop as prices ended Sunday (UTC) below $34,000, marking the lowest weekly close of the year. At press time, bitcoin is changing hands near $31,300.

Also read: Bitcoin’s ‘Puell Multiple’ Flashes Misleading Bullish Signal as China Bans Mining

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A Russian crypto industry association launched a project to attract crypto mining firms to the country as they migrate away from China.

The Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain (RACIB) is working with federal and regional authorities as well as state-owned enterprises to determine how to bring mining to the country, the association said in a press release Monday.

RACIB has already formed several working groups with state-owned enterprises and companies in the energy sector, the statement said.

Related: Bitcoin Trending Lower With Possible Break of $30K Support

A group of Chinese mining companies representing 25% of the global bitcoin hashrate is also working with RACIB, the association said.

Miners from China, which until spring of this year accounted for about half the world’s bitcoin hashrate, are migrating overseas following a government crackdown on the industry.

Many have flocked to Russia’s neighboring Kazakhstan, which has surpassed Russia in terms of share of the global hashrate, according to Cambridge University’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.

Local governments in China appear to be concerned about the environmental impact of crypto mining.

Related: Bitcoin Network Sees Fourth Straight Downward Difficulty Adjustment

One of RACIB’s working groups is developing a project for mining farms powered with renewable energy, the association said.

RACIB said that Russia is uniquely positioned to serve crypto miners due an excess of cheap electricity, a cold climate that reduces demand for cooling systems and its centralized energy system.

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A new study of a ransomware attack reveals the dialogue that takes place between the attacker and the victim including live chat support, a negotiated discount and a surcharge for paying in bitcoin.

Research by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic published Monday examines the case of a small business being contacted by REvil ransomware attackers demanding $50,000 in monero for a decryption tool.

In the ensuing dialogue on a “victim portal” reminiscent of live chat support on an IT help website:

• The victim stated that $50,000 was too steep and asked for a reduction, to which the attacked replied “My boss can offer 20% discount.”
• Rather than paying in the anonymity-focused crypto monero, the victim asked to pay in bitcoin as it was easier to obtain. The attacker accepted the request, albeit with a 10% surcharge, reflecting the increased traceability of bitcoin.
• The victim asked for reassurance that the attacker could perform the decryption by requesting a demonstration with two of the affected files, which the attacker appeared to oblige.
• The attacker rejected a request to cut the payment to $10,000 or $20,000, finally agreeing to “25k and okay not lower.”

Related: Biden Accuses Chinese State Actors of Ransomware, Cryptojacking Attacks

Elliptic’s research then shows the steps REvil took to launder the bitcoin received, splitting it into different streams, transferring it to different wallets and combining it with bitcoins from other sources. The analytics firms said it was able to make the information available to law-enforcement bodies, crypto exchanges and financial institutions to identify coins and wallets associated with cybercrime to take appropriate steps in preventing the criminals from being able to cash-out.

“This laundering process in this case is still ongoing, but nevertheless we can already trace some of the funds to exchanges,” the report said. “Those exchanges will have information on the identities of people whose accounts received the funds – providing strong leads for law enforcement.”

While high-profile attacks on large companies and critical infrastructure, such as the one that hit Colonial Pipeline in May attain widespread attention, small businesses account for 50%-75% of ransomware victims, according to Elliptic’s report.

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ARK Investment Management has increased its holdings of payments services company Square following announcements from founder Jack Dorsey.

• Dorsey, also the CEO of Twitter, announced Friday Square would be creating an “open developer platform.”
• Following the announcement, Cathie Wood’s New York-based ARK Investment purchased a total of 225,937 shares, according to its daily holding files.
• Square’s intentions to build out crypto products, including a hardware wallet, align with ARK’s ambitions to realize its exchange-traded fund (ETF).
• The ARKK fund, which typically invests in tech improvements, bought a total of 179,664 shares while ARKW, typically focused on internet tech, made a further purchase of 46,273 shares.
• Those purchases also coincide with a further 64,001 of Nasdaq-listed Coinbase shares on Friday, where ARK has previously made significant investments.
• ARK, which actively trades its funds on a case-by-case basis, sold 409,241 shares of Square in April when prices were hovering around $256 before falling to a near 6-month low of $197, data show.
• At the closing price in the U.S. equities market on Friday, shares in Square were changing hands for around $237.

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The head of an Australian professional body for the stockbroking and investment advice industry says a blockchain upgrade to the country’s major securities bourse is costing members millions.

• Judith Fox, CEO of the Stockbrokers and Financial Advisers Association said costs to the group’s members were rising as a result of an upgrade to the Australian Securities Exchange’s (ASX) aging CHESS system.
• “Many of our members are spending millions of dollars in order to be able to interact with the new distributed ledger technology that the ASX is implementing,” Fox said.
• Fox was speaking during the country’s Senate economics legislation committee, the Australian Financial Review reported Sunday.
• An overhaul of the outdated 25-year-old Clearing House Electronic Subregister System, or CHESS, is being replaced by a blockchain-like iteration designed to speed up clearing and settlement.
• Fox argues members, who aren’t only in the business of providing industry advice, are connected in some way to the ASX and “other global exchanges.”
• “The investment required to operate in global markets is getting more and more intense,” said Fox as cited in the report.
• A spokesperson for the ASX, who was present at the committee, said upgrading would entail some costs and that those costs would need to be determined by customers.
• “Customers have choice about how they wish to interact with the new CHESS system,” the spokesperson said.
• ASX’s blockchain upgrade, a world first, is currently in the testing phase of its development cycle and is expected in 2022-23.

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Tianjin released China’s first blockchain-based carbon offset certificate, Binhai Times reported, days after the world’s second-largest economy launched its national carbon market.

• The city’s emission rights exchange announced the news at a conference on fintech and green finance held on July 15.
• The offset is built using AntChain, fintech giant Ant Group’s enterprise blockchain platform.
• Blockchain can make the issuance, trading, and audit of carbon offsets transparent and traceable, according to the report.
• China aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, according to its latest Five-Year Plan. It is ramping up the use of green finance with green bonds and a national carbon market announced Friday.
• Tianjin is a coastal city in northern China, close to Beijing. It is a major port and industrial hub in China, particularly in petrochemicals.
• The local government has blockchain ambitions; in 2019 it announced a blockchain-based customs management platform and it is part of a wider plan to integrate logistics using blockchain across the region.
• IBM started building a blockchain platform for carbon emissions in China in 2016.

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If left unchecked, the world of stablecoins could evolve into one reminiscent of the 19th century’s free banking period in the U.S., according to two prominent financial experts.

Yale economist Gary Gorton and U.S. Federal Reserve attorney Jeffery Zhang said there existed systemic risk to the financial system by a “digital form of privately produced money” pegged one-to-one with “safe” assets.

In an academic paper titled “Taming Wildcat Stablecoins” released Saturday, the pair describe similarities they see in stablecoins with that of privately issued “wildcat” bank money in the past.

Related: Crypto Long & Short: Crypto Needs More Than VC Interest

Gorton and Zhang liken stablecoins to a time in U.S. history when private banks issued their own notes in order to meet growing consumer demand, making it harder to transact as a result of fluctuating prices.

Private banknotes were also uninsured. The threat to the financial system posed by bank runs was very real, and at times, devastating. Privately produced monies, they argue, are not an effective medium of exchange because they are not always accepted at face value and are subject to bank runs.

“If policymakers wait a decade, stablecoin issuers will become the money market funds of the 21st century—too big to fail—and the government will have to step in with a rescue package whenever there’s a financial panic,” the paper reads.

Additionally, preserving the monetary sovereignty of the government is critical for establishing monetary policy, they wrote. “Policymakers should learn from history and not make the same mistakes again.”

Related: El Salvador May Issue Its Own Stablecoin: Report

Therefore, regulating stablecoin issuers as banks and issuing a central bank digital currency, so as to have one uniform currency, is the way forward to combating those risks, the authors said.

Yet George Selgin, Senior Fellow and Director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, said Gorton and Zhang’s view is misleading.

Selgin argues the sovereignty demands of the state exceeded that of the consumer’s and was critical in establishing a financial monopoly by the banks and those that manage them.

“Even the decision to establish a uniform U.S. currency during the Civil War also had nothing to do with consumers’ preferences: if it had, there’d have been no need to a punitive 10% tax to force state banks to quit issuing their own notes.”

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If left unchecked, the world of stablecoins could evolve into one reminiscent of the 19th century’s free banking period in the U.S., according to two prominent financial experts.

Yale economist Gary Gorton and U.S. Federal Reserve attorney Jeffery Zhang said there existed systemic risk to the financial system by a “digital form of privately produced money” pegged one-to-one with “safe” assets.

In an academic paper titled “Taming Wildcat Stablecoins” released Saturday, the pair describe similarities they see in stablecoins with that of privately issued “wildcat” bank money in the past.

Related: How Axie Infinity Creates Work in the Metaverse

Gorton and Zhang liken stablecoins to a time in U.S. history when private banks issued their own notes in order to meet growing consumer demand, making it harder to transact as a result of fluctuating prices.

Private banknotes were also uninsured. The threat to the financial system posed by bank runs was very real, and at times, devastating. Privately produced monies, they argue, are not an effective medium of exchange because they are not always accepted at face value and are subject to bank runs.

“If policymakers wait a decade, stablecoin issuers will become the money market funds of the 21st century—too big to fail—and the government will have to step in with a rescue package whenever there’s a financial panic,” the paper reads.

Additionally, preserving the monetary sovereignty of the government is critical for establishing monetary policy, they wrote. “Policymakers should learn from history and not make the same mistakes again.”

Related: Money Reimagined: Why the World Still Needs Uncensorable Marketplaces

Therefore, regulating stablecoin issuers as banks and issuing a central bank digital currency, so as to have one uniform currency, is the way forward to combating those risks, the authors said.

Yet George Selgin, Senior Fellow and Director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, said Gorton and Zhang’s view is misleading.

Selgin argues the sovereignty demands of the state exceeded that of the consumer’s and was critical in establishing a financial monopoly by the banks and those that manage them.

“Even the decision to establish a uniform U.S. currency during the Civil War also had nothing to do with consumers’ preferences: if it had, there’d have been no need to a punitive 10% tax to force state banks to quit issuing their own notes.”

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NEAR Protocol is working with blockchain gaming firm Web3Games and Chinese artist Heshan Huang to sell his non-fungible token (NFT)-based “real estate” during this year’s Taobao Maker Festival sponsored by Alibaba. 

The Alibaba-owned Taobao, one of the largest e-commerce websites in China, launched the festival in 2016 to encourage young Chinese artists and entrepreneurs to promote their art in its exhibition and sell their work through the website. This year’s festival will be held in the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai from July 17 through July 25. 

NFTs, most of which are based on decentralized public chains with native tokens, seem to have survived the recent crypto crackdown in China. While the country was shuttering crypto mining and trading activities, a major gallery in Beijing hosted a crypto-art exhibition in April. 

Related: Tether Hasn’t Printed New USDT in Weeks: 3 Possible Explanations

NEAR claims this year will be the first time that the Taobao Maker Festival includes NFTs. Buyers will be able to place their order on Taobao and make a payment with the local Chinese currency, the renminbi, according to Huang. 

However, the company said potential buyers will need to click through a link and register a NEAR wallet to claim their NFT digital art.

Huang’s digital artworks are in a virtual complex, where people can buy his unusually shaped and characteristic NFT buildings. 

This isn’t the first time an Alibaba-linked entity has been involved with NFTs.

Related: Digital Yuan Used in $5B of Transactions, Says China’s Central Bank

Chinese payment giant Alipay, an Alibaba affiliate, launched two NFT-based digital art pieces in May. Owners of the art will see them on their Alipay app’s payment page whenever they make a purchase. 16,000 copies were sold out within hours. 

Shortly after the sale, Alipay clarified that NFTs are not cryptocurrencies and can not be traded at a much higher price. 

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The El Salvador government has plans to launch a native cryptocurrency that consumers will be able to use for services, Latin American digital newspaper El Faro reported Friday night.

Ibrajim and Yusef Bukele, the brothers of the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, told prospective investors that the cryptocurrency, which is currently referenced as the Colon dollar, would be introduced by the end of 2021, according to the report, which cited video recordings of the brothers discussing the proposal with these investors.

The brothers said that they represented the president, according to the report, which was also based on documents that El Faro had obtained. The news comes weeks after the Central American country’s government overwhelmingly approved the president’s bitcoin law, which will treat the original cryptocurrency as legal tender and require all businesses to accept it as payment for goods and services by September.

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Holds Above $30K but Price Chart Looks ‘Ugly’

A spokesperson for the El Salvador government told El Faro that the plan was “discarded” but the newspaper, citing an unidentified source, said the plans are currently on track.

The president’s brothers reportedly met with representatives from Cardano, WhizGrid and Algorand at different times, according to the paper.

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Anthony Di Iorio will be severing his major ties to the cryptocurrency industry and selling his current venture Decentral to start a philanthropic foundation in the next year, the Ethereum co-founder told CoinDesk in a phone interview.

“I’m a crypto guy and I don’t want to be known as a crypto person,” he said. “I want to be known as a problem solver.”

Concerns about his personal security figured “a good 20%” into his decision, he said.

Related: Vitalik Buterin Is Involved in a New Documentary About Ethereum

Di Iorio said that the new organization would use principles that he developed as a crypto entrepreneur and even possibly blockchain technology itself to address what he described as “large problems.”

He will be funding the entity from his own holdings, which he declined to disclose, and money he earns from the sale of Decentral, which he valued at “a few hundred million dollars.” He has already spoken with potential suitors and anticipates selling Decentral for fiat currency or a stake in another business rather than crypto. In 2018 when ether‘s price was less than half its current level, Forbes said Di Iorio was worth as much as $1 billion.

Two years ago, the 46-year-old Canadian who is widely known for his work on the Ethereum network, announced that he was retiring from Decentral, the wallet and crypto services provider that he founded, and would serve as board chairman. But within months, he had returned to a daily management role, delaying a long-desired, full-time commitment to philanthropy.

While he will end his relationships with other blockchain firms in which he’s involved, he said that he was open to using blockchain technology along with other approaches in his forthcoming work. “There’s a middle ground and crypto is a tool in my tool belt,” Di Iorio said.

Related: Valid Points: The Problem With MEV on Ethereum

He said that he has already hired a public relations firm to work with his foundation and that “we’re looking to move forward and scale,” including hiring employees.

The foundation will work across industries and on a variety of issues, although Di Iorio did not specify which ones. He has already been holding weekly “whiteboarding sessions” with a number of industry and political leaders, including Paraguayan congressman and bitcoin enthusiast Carlos Rejala.

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Bitcoin bounced to around $32,200 after touching a 2.5-week low early Friday near $31,000. 

The largest cryptocurrency by market value may have been buoyed by a CoinDesk report that Bank of America has approved trading in bitcoin futures for some clients, according to Edward Moya, senior market analyst for Oanda. 

“This is a big commitment for America’s second-largest bank and signals that interest in trading cryptocurrencies is here to stay,” Moya wrote in an email. “On Wall Street, if one bank sees opportunity in doing something risky, the rest will easily justify following suit.” 

Latest prices

Related: Square Sets Out to Bring DeFi to Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies:

• Bitcoin (BTC): $31,964.2, +1.04%
• Ether (ETH): $1,917.5, -0.29%

Traditional markets:

• S&P 500: 4327.1, -0.75%
• Gold: $1810.9, -1.01%
• 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.299%, compared with 1.303% on Thursday

Analysts said bitcoin might be prepping for a price breakout – higher or lower – after trading in a range between roughly $30,000 and $40,000 for the past eight weeks. 

The big concern is a drop below the psychological level of $30,000 might trigger additional selling as options traders look to square positions.  

Related: Can Coinbase Keep Wall Street Happy During the Crypto ‘Pause’?

“There is a big move coming,” blockchain analyst William Clemente III wrote Friday in Anthony Pompliano’s newsletter.” Theoretically, we could be looking at this big move in the next few days but could take up to those full three weeks.”

The breakout looks more likely to be to the downside, based on the look of bitcoin’s price chart, according to Mati Greenspan, founder of the cryptocurrency and foreign-exchange analysis firm Quantum Economics.  

“Bitcoin’s chart looks really ugly at the moment,” Greenspan wrote in his newsletter. “The downward slope that has materialized over the last few days gives the appearance that gravitational forces are calling for a retest of the red-line support at $20,000, the previous all-time high. In technical terms, this is known as capitulation.”

Circle and crypto investors

Earlier this month, Circle, the company behind the fast-growing dollar-linked stablecoin USDC, announced plans to become a public company at a $4.5 billion valuation, via a deal with a special-purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC).

Charlie Morris, founder of ByteTree Asset Management, speculated this week the deal could end up luring more investors to cryptocurrencies.  

It’s “unquestionably the starter stock for the cautious,” Morris wrote July 14 in his weekly newsletter. 

Big investors might find the stock hard to resist due to USDC’s fast growth: The stablecoin’s supply has soared to more than $25 billion, from about $3.9 billion at the start of the year. “It’s clear to the eye this company is growing like a weed,” Morris wrote. 

What might make the new shares more attractive for portfolios is that USDC “powers crypto, yet has none of the volatility, making it a natural haven in comparison to the asset managers or miners whose fortunes are linked to crypto prices,” according to Morris. 

But that might just be a camel’s nose under the tent: 

“The old world will end up owning all of these stocks regardless, and that is why index funds always amuse me. They just buy whatever is stuck in front of them, meaning that investors who are trying hard to avoid crypto will end up owning it. Before long, everyone will be invested in crypto and crypto stocks, whether they like it or not, and Circle’s listing will be a crowd pleaser.”

What’s up with tether?

The parabolic growth in the market cap of stablecoin giant tether (USDT) suddenly came to a grinding halt at the end of May, just as bitcoin’s price was coming off its all-time highs. 

According to analysts and market participants who spoke to CoinDesk’s Muyao Shen, the sudden pause reveals that the most traded cryptocurrency in the world is seeing its dominance threatened by three unprecedented challenges combining in a perfect storm to rattle the stablecoin.

• China’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies and money laundering has choked off the fiat on-ramp to crypto markets through over-the-counter brokers, while listless bitcoin prices have reduced the incentive to invest: “Tether’s market in Asia is mostly through OTC merchants, and with less cash going into the market there is less demand for tether,” Rachel Lin, former vice president and founding partner at Singapore-based crypto investment firm Matrixport, told Shen.
• The rising star of the stablecoin market is increasingly USDC. “I think USDC has a chance to compete in the stablecoin market in Asia against tether,” said Justin Sun, who helms the Tron blockchain.
• More questions have been raised recently by regulators and governments around the world about USDT and other stablecoins. “The market is infused with bearish sentiment and traders are looking for a reason,” said Noelle Acheson, head of market insights at crypto prime broker Genesis Global Trading, a CoinDesk sister company. “It’s FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) season, and tether’s vulnerabilities are almost always a part of that conversation.” 

An executive from Tether, while acknowledging the demand for USDT has fallen, argued the trend is not exclusive to the token.

“Demand for tether ebbs and flows, and has been impacted by lower demand in recent weeks,” Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer at Tether, said in a written response via a spokesperson.

Altcoin roundup

• Thorchain loses 4K in ether in attack: Thorchain suffered an attack on the crypto trading protocol that drained about 4,000 ETH, worth about $7.7 million based on ether’s price as of press time. The company tweeted that it would provide a “more detailed assessment and recovery steps” soon. Administrators wrote earlier that the network had been halted while developers investigated the extent of the breach. “While the treasury has the funds to cover the stolen amount, we request the attacker get in contact with the team to discuss return of funds and a bounty commensurate with the discovery,” the administrators wrote on Telegram.
• Binance halts support for stock tokens: Crypto exchange Binance said it will no longer support tokens linked to stocks, barely three months after it made them available on its trading platform. Binance announced Friday that stock tokens are unavailable for purchase on its website effective immediately, and support for such tokens will end on Oct. 14, with all positions closed the following day. The embattled exchange, which has been facing regulatory headwinds, said the move will allow it to focus on other products.
• FOX token’s rally: Following ShapeShift’s announcement that it would transform into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), its governance FOX token rose 300% to $1.16 in several hours. While the cryptocurrency has retraced to $0.55 in the past 24 hours, it’s still up almost 200% this week – a stellar performance considering the broader market lull. Analysts stand divided on whether the rally represents an ever-intensifying search for yield or investors cheering ShapeShift’s early-mover advantage as a DAO.

Relevant news

• US Presidential Advisory Group to Discuss Stablecoins
• COVID-19 Stimulus Checks Fueled ‘Modest’ Jump in Bitcoin Price Last Year: Cleveland Fed
• Japan Increasing Efforts to Regulate Digital Currency: Report
• Bitcoin Miners Worth Over $1.3M Seized, 8 Arrested in Malaysia: Report
• Terra Attracts $150M for DeFi Ecosystem Fund

Other markets

Most digital assets on CoinDesk 20 ended lower on Friday. 

Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

stellar (XLM) +3.37%

eos (EOS) +3.12%

Notable losers: 

polkadot (DOT) -5.4%

yearn finance (YFI) -5.26%

algorand (ALGO) -4.79%

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Bitcoin may be down, but it's not out. Plenty of investors remain captivated by digital currency and as this universe evolves and matures, more ways to access it are coming to market.

Looking at the different types of institutional investors involved in the current crypto scene, one could broadly identify two different types.

The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets plans to discuss stablecoins at a meeting on July 19, the U.S. Treasury Department announced Friday.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is convening the working group, which consists of major financial regulatory agency heads, to examine stablecoin regulation and risks, and to find suggestions for future work around this issue. The President’s Working Group is an interagency entity tasked with monitoring the U.S.’s financial markets.

In the press release announcing the meeting, Yellen said the meeting could help protect users, markets and the broader financial system from any risks that stablecoins pose, while still enabling the government to “assess the potential benefits.”

Related: Japan Increasing Efforts to Regulate Digital Currency: Report

“In light of the rapid growth in digital assets, it is important for the agencies to collaborate on the regulation of this sector and the development of any recommendations for new authorities,” she said.

The group expects to publish written recommendations in the near future.

The President’s Working Group already published one document about stablecoin regulation in December, which examined retail payments and sought public feedback on how these types of payments are being used.

The December statement warned there may be risks around stablecoins, particularly with regard to end user rights, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering issues, market integrity and monetary stability.

Related: Jerome Powell: I’m ‘Undecided’ on the Benefits of CBDCs

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chair Rostin Behnam will also be part of Monday’s meeting. While the December iteration of the group asked former Acting Comptroller Brian Brooks to weigh in on its report, it’s unclear whether current Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu will be a part of any future recommendations.

The news comes just after Powell told Congress that greater regulations are needed around stablecoins before they can become a significant part of U.S. payments networks.

“Stablecoins certainly have some advantages in terms of faster payment systems and have some attributes of CBDCs [central bank digital currencies] but there are some risks with stablecoins right now,” Powell told the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services. “I think the issue is that stablecoins are a lot like money market funds or bank deposits or a narrow bank.”

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SB Northstar, an investment arm of Tokyo-based SoftBank, has agreed to invest $75 million in Block.one’s new subsidiary crypto exchange, Bullish.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SoftBank will purchase 7.5 million shares for $10 each at the time of Bullish’s upcoming special purpose acquisition (SPAC) deal. Bullish has been valued at $9 billion. 

Bullish, which is backed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel and crypto investment firms like Galaxy Digital, is on track to go public by the end of 2021 via a SPAC merger with Thomas Farley’s Far Peak Acquisition Corp . Farley, a former president of the New York Stock Exchange, will become Bullish’s CEO. Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer will serve as chairman.

Related: Revolut Valued at $33B in $800M Fundraising Led by Softbank

Some in the crypto sphere have raised eyebrows at the newly launched Bullish’s plans to go public, suggesting that it is part of an effort to raise the value of the Block.one-associated EOS blockchain. Others, including billionaire crypto investor Sam Bankman-Fried, suggest Bullish’s real aim is to be a MicroStrategy-esque stock proxy for crypto. MicroStrategy is a business software company that has invested heavily into bitcoin.

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The first round of stimulus checks in the U.S. in April 2020 fueled a “significant but modest” bump in bitcoin trading volume and price, according to a study from the Federal Reserve’s Cleveland branch that was posted Friday.

Central bank researchers estimated the government’s $1,200 stimulus checks sent to Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic fueled a 3.8% jump in trading volume and a 0.7% rise in price. Overall, they estimated just 0.02% of the stimulus money ended up in bitcoin.

Framed against bitcoin’s wild volatility, these figures don’t add up to much. Further noting a 0.07% “permanent price increase,” the researchers said their findings are “modest compared to the 4.6% standard deviation” in bitcoin’s daily price swings. Nevertheless, the researchers said the jumps were “statistically significant.”

Related: Square Sets Out to Bring DeFi to Bitcoin

The findings add some hard data to lockdown-era whispers of a government-fueled surge in $1,200 bitcoin buys. Those purchases were happening, the researchers found, but almost exclusively among young, single investors with moderate incomes.

“This is consistent with the picture of a typical Bitcoin investor painted by surveys,” the researchers noted. Groups with a more acute need for stimulus payments, like families and the unemployed, did not ape in, they found.

Japan and South Korea also saw measurable bumps in their bitcoin markets after their governments’ respective stimulus rounds, according to the researchers.

Policymakers “should not be concerned” that crypto markets will gobble up future stimulus payments, the researchers said.

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