Crypto prices rise even after $600 million hack and US passing infrastructure bill
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Data from CryptoCompare shows that the price of Bitcoin kept on rising this week, moving from around $45,000 to a $48,000 high.
The cryptocurrency still hasn’t moved above the psychological $50,000 barrier and is, at the time of writing, hovering around $47,100.
Ethereum’s Ether – the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation – moved in a similar way, going from $3,050 to a $3,300 high during the week as the cryptocurrency’s network keeps on burning tokens after a major upgrade.
This week the US Senate passed the controversial infrastructure bill in a 69-30 vote. The bill proposes roughly $1 trillion in funding into transportation and electricity and infrastructure projects, and includes some provisions on how it will pay for these improvements.
A cryptocurrency provision rule in the bill aims to expand reporting requirements for entities in the cryptocurrency space by widening the definition of what a “broker” is. It defines a broker as any party “responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person”.
The regulation could, for example, define Ethereum miners as brokers. Earlier this month, in a joint statement, the Blockchain Association, Coinbase, Coin Center, Ribbit Capital, and Square expressed concern over the language included in the infrastructure bill, as it will place “unworkable requirements on crypto technology.”
Six senators – including Pat Toomey, Cynthia Lummis, Rob Portman, Mark Warner, Kyrsten Sinema, and Ron Wyden – proposed an amendment to the bill that would exempt software developers, transaction validators, and node operators as brokers. Their efforts were in vain, although the bill may still be revised.
The new bill seemingly hasn’t deterred adoption. AMC Entertainment, which runs the largest movie theatre chain in the United States, is set to start accepting Bitcoin payments for tickets and concessions by the end of this year.
Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase reported a net profit for the second quarter of the year at $1.6 billion – up nearly 4,900 per cent from a year earlier. PayPal-owned Venmo is expanding its support for cryptocurrency with the launch of a new feature that will let users automatically buy cryptocurrency using the cashback they earn from Venmo credit card purchases.
Similarly, $400 billion asset management firm Neuberger Berman has given its $164 million commodities-focused mutual fund permission to invest indirectly in Bitcoin and Ether.
The cryptocurrency space has always seemingly moved faster than traditional equities markets. CryptoCompare’s recent chart on crypto growth shows just how fast the prices of BTC and ETH went up 10x since their creation compared to the NASDAQ.
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Over the week, Delaware-based digital finance firm Kryptcoin filed for an ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF), according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Cryptoasset manager Valkyrie Investments filed to a proposal with the SEC for a Bitcoin ETF that would “not directly invest in Bitcoin”.
$600 million hack confuses crypto world
This week, more than $600 million worth of cryptocurrency has been stolen from decentralised cross-chain protocol Poly Network, which announced the attack on social media. Assets were taken from its wallets across the Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, and Polygon networks.
Poly Network creates a bridge between multiple blockchains, including NEO, Ontology, and Switcheo, allowing them to trade cryptoassets across these platforms. Stablecoin issuer Tether has since blacklisted the around $33 million worth of tokens stolen on the Ethereum network.
The hack confused the cryptocurrency world, as soon after stealing the funds and tipping those who gave them money laundering tips, the hacker started returning everything they took from the decentralised finance project.
Tom Robinson, the chief scientist at blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has detailed the hacker has been returning funds after stating they were willing to do so on several occasions, leading some to suggest it was a white hat hack.
To Robinson, the hacker returning the funds “demonstrates that even if you can steal crypto-assets, laundering them and cashing out is extremely difficult due to the transparency of the blockchain”. The hacker has conducted a questions and answers session to explain his reasoning for the hack and for returning the funds.
Notably, the last $235 million went into an address to which both Poly Network and the hacker have keys, and both need them to move the funds. The hacker said they will share their final key when “everyone is ready”.
Despite the massive security breach, cryptocurrency prices kept moving upward over the week and the space is now once again above a $2 trillion market capitalisation.
Francisco Memoria is a content creator at CryptoCompare who’s in love with technology and focuses on helping people see the value digital currencies have. His work has been published in numerous reputable industry publications. Francisco holds various cryptocurrencies but has no bias in his writing.
Featured image via Unsplash.