Clamour swept through the crypto industry last week.

On Monday, a press release claiming that Walmart had partnered with Litecoin duped several leading media outlets, including Reuters, and CNBC, into running a false story that Walmart had partnered with Litecoin to accept cryptocurrency payments. Litecoin’s official Twitter account mistakenly retweeted the announcement, lending the bogus statement credibility. The value of LTC surged by as much as 33% before eventually crashing once Walmart denied the relationship.

Another major scandal that rocked the crypto universe last week involved allegations of misconduct at OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace. A user on Twitter published a thread claiming that Nate Chastain, OpenSea’s head of product, would buy digital artworks that he knew would soon be featured on OpenSea’s homepage, and then put them up for sale once the increased promotion had driven up their price. The tweets showcased screenshots containing evidence of Chastain front-running popular NFTs before they were listed for sale on the platform, citing several Ethereum digital wallet addresses linked to the insider. On Thursday, Chastain stepped away from the business.

And finally, it was a tough week for Solana. On Tuesday, the Layer 1 smart-contract blockchain and Ethereum rival suffered a major network-clogging issue, completely stalling the protocol for 17 hours. More on this story below in our weekly roundup of industry news. If you’d like to get in touch with us about any of our products or services, we look forward to hearing from you. Just send us a note.

Top stories of the week

Solana is back up and running after a surge in transactions caused the network to crash

On Tuesday, the Solana network went down in a 17-hour outage that sent the price of SOL tumbling. Developers explained that Solana's mainnet "encountered a large increase in transaction load which peaked at 400,000 TPS. These transactions flooded the transaction processing queue, and lack of prioritisation of network-critical messaging caused the network to start forking." Ultimately, the network's stakeholders moved to execute a restart – a laborious process that played out in the community's Discord channel. In the aftermath of outage, many market commentators are debating where Solana will fit into the ecosystem of 'ETH killers'. Read More

South Korea’s crypto exchanges to shut down en masse after midnight, Friday

The majority of South Korea’s cryptocurrency exchanges will likely shut down by Friday 24 September as operators race to meet stringent new rules from the country’s financial watchdog. As of today, only 28 exchanges out of the 63 operating in the country have received certification from the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA), the first step to obtaining final approval from the Financial Services Commission (FSC). Read More

Brevan Howard to ‘significantly expand’ crypto asset push

Hedge fund Brevan Howard will “significantly expand” its foray into digital assets with the launch of a new unit focused on the industry, in the latest sign of how traditional financial companies are racing into the sector. The European hedge fund, one of the largest in the world, said last Monday that it had set up a new unit dubbed BH Digital, which will manage digital assets. It has appointed Colleen Sullivan, chief executive and co-founder of the blockchain technology firm CMT Digital to lead its “private and venture investment activities in crypto.” Read more

In case you missed it

⚡️US states clamp down on crypto yield products from Celsius Network.

⚡️Morgan Stanley launches cryptocurrency research team.

⚡️Interactive Brokers adds crypto trading, joining rivals.

⚡️Bitwise files for bitcoin futures ETF.

⚡️Fidelity execs meet SEC for bitcoin ETF approval.

⚡️Coinbase applies to trade crypto futures in derivatives push.

⚡️SkyBridge raises $100m for Algorand fund and files for crypto company ETF.

⚡️Coinbase to raise $1.5bn for product development through a senior note offering.

⚡️MicroStrategy purchases $240m worth of Bitcoin.

⚡️Revolut pays in bitcoin for new WeWork office space.

⚡️El Salvador exempts foreign investors from tax on bitcoin gains.

⚡️US officials reportedly investigating Binance for potential insider trading, market manipulation.

⚡️China's Inner Mongolia hires contractor to search for illegal crypto mining.

⚡️Chainalysis: Crypto adoption in Africa surged 1,200% in 2021.

⚡️Crypto fund manager sentenced to 7 years for stealing $54m from investors.

⚡️Bitcoin fund launched by NYDIG has raised nearly $17m to date.

⚡️Sushi core contributor 0xMaki transitioning to advisory role.

⚡️Faceless statue of Bitcoin creator erected in Budapest.

⚡️Canadian politician says he supports bitcoin as federal election looms.

⚡️Cuba's crypto regulations take effect.

⚡️Dan Tapiero has invested more than $650m into crypto's largest companies.

From Copper

Copper's Glenn Barber at Mainnet 2021, NYC

Mainnet 2021, the annual summit by Messari, is taking place in NYC this week. Our US Head of Sales Glenn Barber will be participating in a panel discussion on Wednesday 22 September at 10:40am ET exploring 'how CeDeFi became a thing' along with Jeff John Roberts, Hong Fang and Maria Schmiedt. Those of you unable to attend the summit in-person can still grab passes here to join virtually.

Copper at Money 20/20 Europe

Copper is in Amsterdam this week for the payments industry’s flagship event, Money20/20 Europe. Taking place at RAI Amsterdam from Tuesday 21 - Thursday 23 September, Money20/20 gathers the world’s leading experts in the payments and financial services sectors to connect and share insights on the trends shaping the future of finance. Find us at booth A32 in Hall 1 where our team will be on hand to explain our next-gen integrated digital asset trading and custody infrastructure. After the conference on Wednesday 22nd of September, we will be hosting an evening reception and invite Money 20/20 delegates to wind down with us over cocktails. Those of you interested in attending, please contact Tyler Kenyon.

Copper provides secure custody for OXY and MAPS tokens, supporting growing investor demand for DeFi

OXY and MAPS, the tokens powering the Oxygen and MAPS ecosystems are the latest additions to our custody platform. Institutional clients can now participate in these exciting DeFi projects with an unparalleled level of security. Read more

CopperCasts Ep016: Jakob Palmstierna

The latest CopperCasts welcomes Jakob Palmstierna, partner at GSR – a leading global market maker for cryptocurrency spot and crypto derivative markets. In his conversation with host Tyler Kenyon (which you can find by searching CopperCasts on any of your favourite podcast platforms) Jakob dives into the recent expansion of the crypto options and derivatives markets. He also shares his thoughts on derivatives within the DeFi space, the important role GSR will play in DeFi options, and thoughts on the current regulatory landscape. Also check out Jakob’s Show & Tell on our Youtube channel. Here, he unpacks the growth of the crypto derivatives and options markets in a succinct two minute explainer.