Ethereum’s London upgrade will end traditional ETH mining, a former Monero developer is arrested on non-crypto charges, and crypto debate hits the floor of the US Senate on Capitol Hill. These stories and more this week in crypto.
Ethereum’s price has surged over the past few days following a recent upgrade that analysts have codenamed “London.” The upgrade is slated to make the Ethereum network more efficient and will purportedly bring it closer to a proof-of-stake model, which will allow holders to garner profits on the assets they already own.
The US Senate faced pushback from the crypto community when it introduced a section into its proposed infrastructure bill that would clamp down on underreported digital asset tax liability. At issue is ambiguous language as to reporting requirements for developers and miners, and whether they would have to collect and report information on users as a ‘broker.’
Former maintainer of the anonymous Monero cryptocurrency Riccardo Spagni has been arrested on fraud charges pertaining to events that occurred between 2009 and 2011 – before he joined the Monero community. Spagni, who is known in online forums and platforms as ‘FluffyPony’, is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and will be held without bail until his extradition to South Africa.
Bitcoin SV—a cryptocurrency that emerged following a bitcoin cash hard fork—has been victimized by a 51% attack that caused the asset’s price to fall. The attack allegedly occurred at the hands of miners when three separate blockchains were created causing several units of BSV to be double spent.
The Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has enabled crypto buys with Apple Pay, and instant cashouts of up to $100,000 per transaction. While the Apple Pay option has been available to Coinbase users since June, it required users to have a Coinbase-branded debit card, but now that workaround is no longer needed with the update.
Fidelity Investments has bought a 7 percent stake in Marathon Digital Holdings, one of North America’s biggest and most prominent crypto mining firms. Over the past year, shares in Marathon have surged by more than 660 percent, suggesting that Fidelity joins the growing trend among investors of gaining exposure to the crypto industry through traditional securities as well.
Melanion Capital—an asset management firm in Paris—has become the first company of its kind to launch a bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to track the price of bitcoin. The product will be offered to investors in the European Union (EU) and will track 30 stocks with a high correlation with bitcoin’s price.
Popular sandwich shop Quiznos has partnered with Bakkt—an institutional crypto trading platform—to allow customers to pay for food with bitcoin. Several stores in high-traffic areas will be accepting crypto payments beginning in mid-August. The move is part of a pilot program that, if successful, could see all U.S. based Quiznos accepting crypto by the end of 2021.
