Crypto World Weekly Overview 08/12/2024

Happy Sunday, Observers!

This has been a major week for crypto, with Bitcoin finally surpassing the $100k mark following Donald Trump’s nomination of Paul Atkins as the next Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The market was further energized on the day following Atkins’ appointment when Trump announced that PayPal’s original David Sacks would be taking the role of AI and crypto czar.

Bitcoin Hits $100,000: Trump Appoints Crypto-Friendly SEC Chair

While Bitcoin reached a level that its proponents have been dreaming of for years, the major winner of last week’s announcement has been Ripple and its token XRP.

After years in the shadows of a legal battle with the SEC, XRP has risen spectacularly and suddenly to the position of the third-largest cryptocurrency by market.

The euphoria of the markets this week shows how they exist in a world apart from reality, rarely touching. Prices continued to go up during this week despite the fall of the French government, the reigniting of civil war in Syria, and the declaration of martial war in South Korea.

This last event did impact the market, even if just locally, and led investors to sell their crypto assets in a panic at huge losses.

What Happens In South Korea, Can Only Happen In South Korea

🔥 Highlights Of The Week

• Chainalysis appoints Jonathan Levin as CEO;
• Sonic Labs to launch L1 blockchain, allowing FTM-to-S token swaps;
• Pavel Durov faces Paris court questioning over criminal activity allegations tied to the app.

📈 Crypto Markets

🍭 Crypto Highs And Fun Times

• Aave, the second-largest DeFi protocol by TVL, is now a rival of top U.S. commercial banks in terms of scale thanks to net deposits on its platform increasing from around $20 billion to over $30 billion in less than two months. The recent surge is a reflection of the bullish market sentiment and positive market dynamics of late.

😈 Crypto Naught And Sloppy

• Countries trying to escape the hegemony of the United States by de-dollarizing their economies are facing challenges from all sides. As they push for the adoption of DLT-based digital currencies to be used for international payments instead of the dollar, the technology becomes more accepted in their regions, leading, amongst other things, to the usage growth of non-other than dollar-based stablecoins.

Project Of The Week: TON Teleport BTC

TON Teleport BTC: New Wrapped Bitcoin on TON Blockchain

The “Wrapped BTC market” has been heating up recently, and the TON Foundation has decided to turn up the heat even more by launching a wrapped BTC for the TON blockchain called TON Teleport BTC.

While it is a promising blockchain, TON still lags behind the major ecosystems in the space.

The new bridge token is a first step towards closing this gap between the protocol and crypto greatness as it is part of a plan to establish Bitcoin Finance (BTCFi) on TON and bring more liquidity into the DeFi ecosystem.

Crypto Crime: A Field Of Equal Opportunities

Girls are baddies, too!

Girls Just Wanna Have Funds: Female Crypto Criminals Make News

📚 Deep Dive: DoubleZero

Austin Federa, a key personality in the Solana ecosystem, has decided to leave it to join a network nobody has heard about before.

It would be practically impossible for a new blockchain to reach the upper echelons of the crypto market by now, but Double Zero isn’t as much as competing as offering a new product: a network that works alongside existing blockchains by addressing bottlenecks in current blockchain infrastructure.

Solana Foundation’s Strategy Lead Departs for a New High-Throughput Network

🔫 Quote Of The Week: Mashinsky’s Mea Culpa

The founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency platform Celsius Network, Alexander Mashinsky, is facing up to 30 years in jail after pleading guilty to fraud in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday.

Celsius, which used to label itself as the “safest place for your crypto”, collapsed in 2022 mostly due Mashinsky cashing out millions of his holdings while promising not to sell and also by artificially inflating prices.

In light of his actions, it becomes easier to understand why the SEC adopted such a conservative approach to crypto in the last few years.

These actions also raise questions about whether Atkins, with his free-market, low-regulation stance, will be able to put the stories of crypto CEO criminals in the past.

Crypto World Weekly Overview 08/12/2024 was originally published in The Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.