July 24th, 2023 — 🪩 OpenAI’s Altman goes live with Worldcoin crypto project
Get an overview of crypto market liquidity from July 17th to July 24th, 2023.
Top crypto market headlines:
- Sam Altman’s Worldcoin launches token with more than two million sign-ups — 7/24/23
- Google Cloud eyes more involvement in fast-evolving Web3 segment — 7/21/23
- Federal Reserve announces that its new system for instant payments, the FedNow® Service, is now live — 7/20/23
- Societe Generale subsidiary secures first French crypto license, readies for MiCA — 7/19/23
- Sequoia Shakes Up VC Team, Sheds Two Crypto Investors — 7/19/23
- Polychain raises $200 million for fourth crypto VC fund, shakes up staff — 7/18/23
- VC Firm CoinFund Raises $158 Million to Back Crypto Startups — 7/18/23
- VC Funding in Web3 Plummets 76%: Crunchbase Data — 7/18/23
- Streak of inflows into crypto products highest since 2021–7/17/23
- Ripple is hopeful US banks will want to use XRP after ruling, says CLO: CNBC — 7/17/23
- Chainlink Launches Cross-Chain Protocol to Bridge Blockchains With Traditional Capital Markets — 7/17/23
Weekly Insights Report:
Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, went live today. The project’s core offering is its World ID, which the company describes as a “digital passport” to prove that its holder is an actual human, not an AI bot. The startup, which has raised about $250 million altogether and counts a16z, Khosla Ventures and Reid Hoffman among its backers, said it’s rolling out its identity technology and the token internationally. Individuals can download World App, the startup’s protocol-compatible wallet software, and visit an Orb, the startup’s helmet-shaped eyeball-scanning verification device, to receive their World ID. The project has 2 million users from its beta period, and with Monday’s launch, Worldcoin is scaling up “orbing” operations to 35 cities in 20 countries. The project previously faced media backlash regarding its controversial practices of hiring outside companies to capture people’s iris data via their eyeballs, raising concerns about violations of privacy laws.
Societe Generale’s crypto subsidiary, SG-FORGE, secured approval as a licensed Digital Asset Service Provider in France, the first DASP license delivered by the AMF. “The DASP license approval represents the highest level of regulatory certification currently possible for digital asset activities. It demonstrates a comprehensive level of security and reliability of compliance, internal control, and cybersecurity processes and systems, as well as the maintenance of sufficient regulatory capital,” said the French bank in its press release. SG-FORGE obtained the DASP registration in September 2022, granting it the ability to custody digital assets. The registration also allowed its customers to purchase crypto with legal tender and trade digital assets against digital assets.
Uniswap Labs announced the launch of UniswapX, “a new permissionless, open source, auction-based protocol for trading across AMMs & other liquidity sources.” UniswapX expands Uniswap’s product offerings beyond solely AMMs by adding an off-chain order routing protocol. The new protocol introduces a unique ecosystem actor called “Fillers.” When users submit orders through UniswapX, they initiate a Dutch auction prompting Fillers to compete to provide best execution. Additionally, the protocol features a request for quote (RFQ) system, enabling users to query execution prices before placing their orders. Fillers will also cover the gas fees on behalf of swappers, eliminating the need for swappers to own a blockchain’s native network token, such as ETH or MATIC, to participate in trading, and removing any financial responsibility for unsuccessful transactions. Uniswap also promises that UniswapX will help reduce MEV practices.
In other news, the Federal Reserve’s new instant payment system, FedNow, is live. It allows banks & credit unions to transfer money 24/7, instantly. Meaning banks can process money transfers in seconds vs. days. Nasdaq announced last week that it is putting its cryptocurrency custody project on hold due to regulatory uncertainties in the US. Nasdaq has reiterated, however, its continued commitment to the digital asset sector. FTX has sued its founder Sam Bankman-Fried for using company funds to finance his criminal defense, alleging he transferred $10 million of FTX US funds to his personal account.
On a weekly basis, BTC and ETH are down by 1%.
As usual, we look at the liquidity and trading patterns of BTC and ETH of last week, including bid-ask spreads and fragmentation index and take it a step further with a detailed report on market anomalies. Check out full reports:
Other major crypto headlines:
- Bankman-Fried using company funds for criminal defense, FTX says — 7/20/23
- Investor Group Nears $125 Million Deal for CoinDesk — 7/20/23
- Coinbase to fully sunset bitcoin-backed loan program for retail customers — 7/20/23
- Chainlink co-founder wants to bring trillions of dollars into crypto from banks — 7/20/23
- Nasdaq Halts Plan for Crypto Custody Service Due to U.S. Regulatory Conditions — 7/19/23
- Solang opens Solana to Ethereum’s Solidity developers — 7/19/23
- RFK Jr. Vows to Back Dollar With Bitcoin, Exempt BTC From Taxes — 7/19/23
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong to Meet House Democrats About Crypto Legislation: Bloomberg — 7/18/23
- Gensler responds to Ripple decision, says he’s disappointed over treatment of retail investors — 7/17/23
- Dragonfly, Arthur Hayes Back $6M Round for New Stablecoin, Ethena — 7/17/23
- Introducing the UniswapX Protocol — 7/17/23
And in case you haven’t seen, here is a selection of our latest articles:
- Market Making Overview: TradFi vs Crypto NEW!
- Commentary notes on Credit Suisse’s rescue deal and recent banking turmoils (2/2)
- Commentary notes on SVB’s failure, Credit Suisse, implications for crypto, and where do we go from here (1/2)
- The Future of Trustless and Decentralized Cross-Chain DeFi — Focus on Interlay
- On Blockchain Interoperability — Focus On The Polkadot Ecosystem
- FTX Post-Mortem Analysis — Why Transparency Matters?
