Bitcoin tumbled more than 10% this morning after China broadened its clampdown on the cryptocurrency mining industry.

Last week, the hydropower-rich province of Sichuan reportedly instructed power companies to stop supplying electricity for 26 local mining farms by Sunday. BTC.com shows that pretty much all the largest 15 bitcoin mining pools by real-time computing power are seeing a notable hash rate drop over the past 24 hours as of writing, with some as much as 26%...

Given that China accounts for more than half of global Bitcoin production, the country's current crackdown could dramatically reshape the Bitcoin mining industry as we know it. The mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, last week invited Bitcoin miners to set up shop in Miami, stating that the region has an abundance of clean and cheap electricity thanks to nuclear energy. Some mining operations are flocking next door to Kazakhstan, and the Chinese ASIC manufacturer Canaan recently established an overseas after-sales centre in the region. One thing is for sure. The race to capture ousted Chinese Bitcoin miners is well and truly on.

Below is 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.

This week's top stories

Grayscale is exploring 13 more investment products, including ones for Solana and Polygon

Crypto asset manager Grayscale announced Thursday that it is exploring 13 more investment products, including ones tied to Solana (SOL) and Polygon (MATIC) tokens. The new list comes a few months after Grayscale said in February that it was considering launching 23 new products, including those tied to Uniswap (UNI), Chainlink (LINK), and Polkadot (DOT) tokens. From those 23 products, Grayscale launched five. Read More

Goldman Sachs ramps up bitcoin trading in new partnership with Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital

Galaxy Digital will serve as a liquidity provider on Bitcoin futures for Goldman Sachs, as the securities firm re-enters the cryptocurrency markets. The digital-asset firm started by billionaire investor Michael Novogratz, a former Goldman partner, will provide futures block liquidity on CME Group Inc. for the Bitcoin cash-settled products. "Our goal is to equip our clients with best execution pricing and secure access to the assets they want to trade,” Max Minton, head of digital assets for Goldman Sachs’ Asia-Pacific division, said in a statement. “In 2021, this now includes crypto.” Read more

Venture Capital makes a record $17bn bet on crypto world

So far in 2021, venture capital funds have poured $17bn into companies that operate in the crypto space, according to data provider PitchBook. That’s by far the most in any single year and nearly equal to the total amount raised in all previous years combined. Read more

In case you missed it..

⚡️Goldman Sachs plans to offer Ether futures, options to its clients.

⚡️UK regulator commits more resources to assessing crypto firms, says HM Treasury.

⚡️Bank TSB to ban crypto purchases over fraud fears.

⚡️98% of Hedge Fund CFOs expect to invest in cryptocurrencies by 2026: study.

⚡️Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones wants to have 5% of his assets in Bitcoin.

⚡️Portugal grants first crypto exchanges operating licenses.

⚡️Digital land in Decentraland sells for $913k to a virtual property developer.

⚡️World Bank rejects El Salvador's request to help implement bitcoin as legal tender.

⚡️US Republican Party's election arm to accept cryptocurrency donations.

⚡️Bitcoin mining firm Genesis orders 10,000 more machines from Canaan.

⚡️Ex-PayPal execs launch cross-border payments network on Algorand.

⚡️Thai regulators ban exchanges from trading meme tokens and NFTs.

⚡️Wrapped BTC now holds more than 1% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply.

⚡️Bitcoin Lightning network capacity accelerates to 1,500 BTC.

From Copper

June Analyst Retrospective report

Ethereum supply on exchanges continues to dwindle in comparison to Bitcoin. With ETH 2 and staking around the corner, can this trend continue? The likelihood is quite high. Only 4% of the supply of Ether has been staked in comparison to other blockchains that have average 60% and over. This can potentially break correlations as fundamentals take centre stage. Learn more in our June Analyst Retrospective report.

The rise of the automated market maker

The latest Copper insight explains the rise of Automated market makers (AMMs) and why decentralising market-making this way is intrinsic to the vision of crypto. Read it here.

A bright future for digital assets

To say that the past year has been one of the most important in crypto’s history would be a severe understatement. Speaking to Institutional Asset Manager, our Head of Strategy Asen Kostadinov says that even though digital assets have successfully catapulted into the mainstream investment arena, navigating this nascent asset class continues to throw up challenges for investors. Read more.