Though it's now been three months since Bitcoin’s major correction phase began, it doesn't appear the market downturn is stopping mainstream appetite for digital assets.

On Friday, a report from CoinDesk announcing that Bank of America has started letting some clients trade bitcoin futures rocked the cryptocurrency sphere. And three days earlier, Capital International Investors, a division of Capital Group – one of the oldest and largest investment management firms in the world – announced the purchase of a 12% stake in 'bitcoin company' MicroStrategy without making much of a noise.

With the launch of Spike Lee's commercial for Coin Cloud and crypto dominating the British Grand Prix over the weekend (Silverstone was littered in crypto.com ads and the Tezos logo was emblazoned on Max Verstappen's car), mainstream adoption seems closer by the day.

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This week's top stories

Binance ditches stock tokens as global crackdown widens

Binance said on Friday it had stopped selling digital tokens linked to shares, as Hong Kong's financial watchdog became the latest in a string of regulators to crack down on the cryptocurrency exchange platform's "stock tokens" offerings. Earlier in the week, regulators in Lithuania and Italy also cracked down on Binance, further complicating one of the largest global cryptocurrency exchange’s efforts to do business in key jurisdictions around the world. Read more

Bank of America has begun clearing bitcoin futures

Bank of America has entered the bitcoin futures trading game. The bank is clearing cash-settled bitcoin futures, a type of contract that settles in US dollars rather than bitcoin itself, according to two sources. CoinDesk first reported the development Friday morning. Read More

Jack Dorsey says Square will launch bitcoin DeFi platform

On Thursday, CEO Jack Dorsey announced via a Twitter thread that his mobile payments company Square has created a new division dedicated to decentralised finance (DeFi) on Bitcoin. For now, Dorsey is referring to the new Square Bitcoin DeFi platform as TBD, having not yet decided on an official name. In the Twitter thread, Dorsey added that just like the development of Square’s coming Bitcoin wallet, Square’s new Bitcoin DeFi platform would be done completely “out in the open. Open road map, open development, and open source.” Read more

In case you missed it

⚡️UK FCA will spend £11m to warn people about investing in crypto.

⚡️Brazilian securities regulator approves Ether ETF.

⚡️Revolut raises $800m at $33bn valuation.

⚡️S&P Dow Jones Indices launches new cryptocurrency indexes.

⚡️Fed to release report in September addressing cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, says Jerome Powell.

⚡️UK police seize a further $250m worth of cryptocurrency.

⚡️Grayscale's digital large cap fund is now an SEC-reporting company.

⚡️UAE to experiment and launch an in-house digital currency.

⚡️HIVE blockchain buys 3,019 mining machines to increase its bitcoin hash rate by 46%.

⚡️Compute North plans to add 1.2 gigawatts of bitcoin mining colocation capacity.

⚡️Ukrainian police seize 3,800 PS4 consoles used for illegal crypto mining.

⚡️Grayscale taps BNY Mellon for Bitcoin ETF services.

⚡️21Shares partners with German brokerage to offer crypto ETPs for savings accounts.

⚡️Another DeFi exploit: Bondly Finance compromised, BONDLY price crashes 60% in hours.

⚡️Hong Kong arrests four in alleged $155m crypto scheme.

⚡️SoftBank unit to invest in crypto exchange Bullish amid SPAC moves.

⚡️White hat hacker saves $117k in crypto from MetaMask phishing attack.

⚡️El Salvador may issue its own stablecoin: report.

⚡️Binance USD (BUSD) becomes a top 10 crypto, market cap exceeds $11bn.

⚡️Ethereum co-founder says safety concern has him quitting crypto.

From Copper

FTX integrates ClearLoop instant settlement network

Last Tuesday, we announced FTX as the latest addition to ClearLoop’s rapidly growing off-exchange settlement network, which already includes some of the world’s largest spot and derivatives exchanges. The exchange's founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, said the integration will enable the exchange to "stay ahead of the pack" through a "reduced level of counterparty risk required by many institutions." Read the full press release here.

New award win!

We picked up another award! The latest accolade is 'Best Digital Assets Custodian’ at the HFM Global European Technology Awards 2021 for the third consecutive year. Well done to our fantastic team and thank you to our clients!

Are cryptocurrency markets lagging behind fundamental trends?

Markets don’t simply go up in a straight line. There will naturally be some profit-taking. Why should the case be any different with Bitcoin? For cryptocurrency, there is an incredibly bipolar character with investors either rushing in or rushing out. There might be an outlier, however. Retail investors have been slowly accumulating small amounts of Bitcoin at an extremely steady rate. The absolute numbers might seem small. But they do add up. And reserves on spot exchanges are dropping alarmingly fast. In July’s In-Depth report, Copper delves into retail’s accumulation of Bitcoin and assesses the potential market impact of spot markets. Make sure to have a read of the report here.