Looking back at last week’s biggest news, including price analyses for BTC, ETH, and XRP.

M&A appetite in the crypto space is seemingly flourishing, despite ongoing COVID-19 uncertainties.

The latest story on the rumour mill is that Binance is finalising a deal to acquire a majority stake in crypto startup swipe.io, and push ahead with plans for a branded Binance payment card. Binance has not yet been vocal about the rumoured deal; neither has Swipe.

Meanwhile, Wirecard-issued crypto debit cards from companies like Crypto.com and TenX are now reactivated after the FCA lifted restrictions on Wirecard Card Solutions (WCS).

On the CBDC front, Japan has now joined the growing list of countries that are experimenting with a state-backed digital currency. Although Japan is one of the most crypto-friendly jurisdictions in the world, a lingering concern is that of Japan’s ageing population not understanding digital currencies and falling victim to scams. As per local publication Nikkei, it is estimated that only 65% of Japanese citizens own a smartphone.

Below is our weekly roundup of industry and coin specific 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.

NYDIG’s $190m Bitcoin fund makes it one of the biggest crypto players

The New York Digital Investments Group (NYDIG) has become one of the largest institutional investors in Bitcoin after raising $190 million for one of its Bitcoin funds.

This is according to a Form D document submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday.

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Swiss government makes moves to encourage crypto businesses

Switzerland’s National Council unanimously passed a legislative package to change roughly 12 financial laws in the country to ease regulations for the blockchain industry, while still enabling a favourable tax environment.

Proposed by the Swiss Federal Council last month, the amendments lower legal barriers and are anticipated to encourage more blockchain and distributed ledger technology businesses in the country.

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Total USDC supply crosses 1 billion after token supply surge in June

Market capitalisation of USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin issued by regulated financial institutions, surpassed $1 billion. The stablecoin, issued by the CENTRE consortium backed by Coinbase and Circle, experienced a supply surge in June when its total jumped 37%. 

The number also represents a 93% increase from the beginning of the year. 

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Latest Coin News

BTC

• Price Analysis: BTC sellers continue to lurk above $9100 on the road to recovery

• Africa posts triple-digit P2P volume gains in three months Read more

• $5.3 billion hedge fund expands Bitcoin mining investment Read more

ETH

• Price analysis: Ethereum up $2.23 in last 4 hours

• Ethereum first choice for EU blockchain startups, says report 

• ETH scalability isn’t going to be an issue soon, suggests Vitalik Buterin 

XRP

• Price Analysis:Ripple (XRP) Up $0.0006 in Last 4 Hours, in a Downtrend Over Past 14 Days

• SBI plans Japanese crypto asset fund, half in XRP. Says it’s largest R3 investor

• Ripple unlocks 1 Billion XRP, sends millions of dollars in crypto to mysterious wallet 

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