Forbes - 🌞 Summer of scrutiny

CryptoCodex


	Good Thursday morning. This is Billy Bambrough, getting you up to speed with the latest bitcoin and cryptocurrency news. (I'm on the road this month so you may receive your copy of *CryptoCodex* a little early/late—apologies in advance for any disruption and normal service will resume the week beginning August 23)

24-hour crypto market snapshot

$45,262

$3,137

$101.56

$65.28

Turning up the heat 🔥


	The cryptocurrency market, helped by a bitcoin and ethereum rally, has topped $2 trillion for the first time since mid-May, according to CoinGecko data. The rally, that's seen the bitcoin price climb to just under $50,000 and the ethereum price to over $3,000, has been led by ethereum—which now makes up 20% of the combined crypto market value, a measure known as dominance. Bitcoin's crypto market dominance has fallen from almost 70% late last year to under 50% today as smaller cryptocurrencies make outsized gains. Among those making strides is Ripple's payment coin XRP. The price of XRP has added more than 10% over the last 24 hours as traders bet Ripple will emerge victorious from its ongoing legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The XRP price has doubled since July and risen five-fold from this time last year. Elsewhere, internet computer's ICP token, which exploded into the crypto top ten this year before plummeting down the rankings, has given up some of its recent gains as investors take profits. The ICP price is still up over 50% on this time last week. Don't miss: SEC vs Ripple: Inside the case that could make or break the crypto industry

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	SEC chair Gary Gensler and senator Elizabeth Warren in 2013 Getty Images


	🔎 Crypto's summer of scrutiny isn't over yet. Yesterday, the influential senator and former presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren released a letter sent to her from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler. A little help from my friends: In the letter, itself a response to a July letter Warren wrote to Gensler demanding he step up his policing of the crypto market, Gensler turned to Warren for help as he seeks to crack down on cryptocurrency trading platforms. 💬 "I believe investors using these platforms are not adequately protected," Gensler said in his response to Warren, dated last Thursday, adding regulators need more resources to protect crypto investors. "We need additional authorities to prevent transactions, products and platforms from falling between regulatory cracks." 🤠 It's still a wild west out there... "Cryptocurrency is the wild west of our financial system and desperately needs rules of the road," Warren said in a statement, released alongside the letter. Last week, Gensler told the Aspen Security Forum the crypto space is "rife with fraud, scams, and abuse." 💢 Gensler's letter has been made public after crypto lobbyists in Washington failed to convince lawmakers to remove new tax-reporting requirements for cryptocurrency brokers from the Senate’s infrastructure bill—legislation some think could stifle the U.S. cryptocurrency industry if it's signed into law by president Joe Biden. Now read this: By taxing crypto, the U.S. government has accepted it’s here to stay

Ethereum closing in on bitcoin 🎯


	Ethereum, the second most valuable cryptocurrency after bitcoin with about half its market capitalization, is fast catching up—in more ways than one. This week, major U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase revealed that ethereum was the most traded cryptocurrency on the platform in the second quarter of the year, jumping ahead of bitcoin for the first time. Meanwhile, demand for ethereum among institutions is surging, according to a report in The Block, with financial giants including NYDIG and Fidelity expanding their crypto services as a result. Ethereum's fast-growing ecosystem, boosted by soaring demand for decentralized finance (DeFi) apps and non-fungible tokens (NFTS)—both almost entirely built on ethereum's blockchain—has led to an increase in predictions ethereum will eventually surpass bitcoin by value. Don't miss: The family that bet everything on bitcoin when it was $900 is now storing it in secret vaults on four different continents

	Billy Bambrough
	Forbes Contributor

I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. I write about how bitcoin, crypto and blockchain can change the world.

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Forbes - 🌞 Summer of scrutiny

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