Welcome to the tenth edition of Shrimpy’s weekly newsletter, a place for staying up to date on the latest trends, news, and events in the cryptocurrency industry.

Digital assets evolve and move faster compared to any other market. For those who do not have time to constantly scroll Crypto Twitter, we wrote a special weekly update covering everything major that happened this week.

Summary

VanEck launches Crypto company ETF in Europe
eBay CEO reveals interest in crypto and NFTs
ING Group report calls DeFi more disruptive than Bitcoin
The IRS has been authorized to search Kraken’s account records
Coinbase has closed its former HQ in San Francisco
South Korea’s Dunamu spent $9M to protect crypto investors
Iran banned coins mined by foreign miners
Galaxy Digital will acquire BitGo for $1.2B later this year

VanEck Launches Digital Assets ETF in Europe

Global investment manager firm VanEck has launched an ETF in Europe that offers investors exposure to blockchain and cryptocurrency companies. It was listed by the Deutsche Boerse and London Stock Exchange under the DAPP ticker. DAPP includes companies that generate at least half of their revenue from digital assets.

Meanwhile in the US, VanEck still waits on the SEC to make a decision on its Bitcoin ETF application that has a new deadline set for June.

eBay CEO discloses interest for Crypto payments and NFTs during CNBC interview

eBay CEO Jamie Iannone told CNBC in an interview last Monday that the ecommerce giant is interested in looking into crypto as a payments option. He also added that eBay wishes to join the NFT hype. However, the CEO gave no clear details or dates on when eBay would integrate digital assets.

ING Group claims DeFi is more disruptive than Bitcoin

Dutch multinational banking corporation ING Group released a paper titled ‘Lessons Learned from Decentralized Finance’ that analyzes DeFi’s impact and the risks and opportunities that it presents. The paper also includes a case study on the number one decentralized lending protocol Aave.

Commenting on the paper, an employee from the company’s blockchain department stated that DeFi could be more disruptive than Bitcoin to the financial sector. Within the document, ING states that “the best of both worlds is achieved if centralized and decentralized financial services cooperate.”

IRS receives authorization to seek account data from Kraken users

The Northern District of California authorized the IRS to look into Kraken accounts of users who have transacted more than $20,000 in cryptocurrencies on the exchange. The authorization order was passed on Wednesday, after which the IRS began combing Kraken’s users to discover tax evasion activities.

According to the IRS, it will search for records of users who engaged with Kraken between 2016 and 2020. A similar event occurred last month when the District of Massachusetts authorized the IRS to look into Circle and Poloniex customers.

Coinbase closes former San Francisco HQ

Crypto exchange Coinbase went ahead and closed its former office in San Francisco as part of the company’s dedication to decentralize its workforce. The ultimate plan is to ensure that no location is more important than any other and that employees can work remotely without experiencing any disadvantages due to their location.

CEO Brian Armstrong revealed that Coinbase would stick with its ‘remote-first’ policy even after the ongoing COVID pandemic ends.

SK Upbit operator spends $9M to protect crypto investors

Dunamu, the South Korean operator of Upbit, will spend $9M to set up a unit called the ‘Upbit Protection Center for Digital Asset Investors’ to protect crypto investors from fraud. The announcement arrived shortly after the nation’s crackdown on virtual asset service providers.

This week in DeFi

1. Uniswap developers finally launch V3 DEX. The former king of DeFi is back on track to reclaim its throne as developers have launched the next iteration of Uniswap.

The new decentralized exchange features concentrated liquidity, multiple fee systems, and improved trading flexibility.
After the launch of L2 solution Optimistic this summer, Uniswap V3 plans to launch another mainnet that can scale with demand.

2. ‘Banksy Burners’ plan to build an NFT platform. The people who have bought and burned an artwork from Banksy this year plan to build a non-fungible token market called Burnt Finance.

For their efforts, the team raised $3 million from multiple DeFi platforms
The investors include Injective Protocol, Multicoin Capital, and Alameda Research

3. Two investment firms raised $7.6M for NFT-based social network Showtime. Paradigm and 3LAU have successfully raised funds to launch a social media platform that enables the crypto community to discover and share NFT art.

The project’s co-founders plan to put users beyond platforms on Showtime.
Co-founder Alex Masmej gained popularity in April 2020 by tokenizing himself with the $ALEX token.

Iran bans trading of crypto assets mined in foreign countries

In an effort to stop capital flight, the Iranian government has decided to ban all coins and tokens mined outside the country. Iranian citizens are reportedly still able to use cryptocurrencies, but they will have to rely on coins produced within their own borders.

As a reminder, Iran recently banned the use of crypto assets for payments but allowed its financial institutions to store and trade digital assets. We have yet to see how the country’s central bank plans to regulate the inflow of coins from foreign nations.

Galaxy Digital will acquire BitGo for $1.2B

Financial services firm Galaxy Digital has agreed to purchase the US regulated crypto custody company BitGo for a total of $1.2 billion in stock and cash. CEO Mike Novogratz revealed that the acquisition would conclude later this year. As a reminder, it was rumored last year that PayPal offered the crypto custodian $750 million in cash.

Quote of the week

The Good News

Crypto exchange Bitstamp will triple its US team to deal with rising demand.
Revolut now allows its UK users to withdraw Bitcoin to personal wallets.
According to former CFTC chairman Christopher Giancarlo, the Digital Dollar Foundation will hold numerous CBDC pilot tests in 2021.

The Bad News

Crypto markets have temporarily slumped after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen mentioned that the US may have to increase interest rates.
A survey conducted by the Federal Reserve revealed that market participants believe that crypto is a threat to American financial stability.

Crypto Twitter Highlights

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