The Friday Focus: Issue 8

Weekly happenings

• SEC rejects VanEck’s spot-based bitcoin ETF: Investors are thirsty for a US bitcoin ETF that holds spot bitcoin. According to market analysts, with the recent rejection, it looks like they have to go thirsty for a while.

• Joe Biden signs infrastructure bill into law: The infrastructure bill is relevant for the cryptocurrency industry because it includes a paragraph that drastically increases the tax reporting requirements for cryptocurrency businesses. Several members of Congress are working to strike the crypto reporting requirements from the bill.

• The Taproot upgrade was activated: Taproot is the most important upgrade to the Bitcoin network in four years. It activated on Sunday. Learn about Taproot in our blog post.

• Twitter will not invest in bitcoin - at least for now: The Twitter CFO said that a bitcoin investment doesn’t make sense for the social media giant right now. The bitcoin price tumbled after the statement.

• Lots of capital raises: Digital Currency Group raises $600 million of debt. Binance US is raising $200 million as part of their planned IPO. The custody firm Anchorage plans a fundraise that values the company at $3 billion. The bitcoin mining giant Bitdeer is planning to go public in a SPAC deal, valuing the company at around $4 billion. Another bitcoin miner, Iris Energy, upsizes its IPO, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. Gemini raises $400 million at a $7.1 billion valuation. NFT platform OpenSea is preparing for a new funding round that would value the company at $10 billion.

Our selection of the most interesting crypto articles from the past week

Recommended listening

• The Bitcoin Development Podcast: Mempool Policy

• Bankless: The State of the Charts, with Ledger Status

• Bitcoin Magazine: Discussing the Future of Decentralized Identity

• Bitcoin Magazine: Discussing the Fake Peer Attack on Bitcoin

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