This week’s crypto news sees Vitalik Buterin talking about Ethereum’s roadmap and a report that says crypto users could hit 1 billion by 2030. All in all, it’s been a positive week for the crypto market.
Highlights:
- Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin spoke about sharding and other aspects of Ethereum’s future at the Ethereum Community Conference in Paris.
- The SEC has listed nine tokens as securities following the Coinbase insider trading incident.
- FTX has offered to provide early liquidity to Voyager’s customers and is hoping to seal the deal by early August.
- The board of the Bank of Central African States has called for a uniform digital currency to serve the entire region.
- The Boston Consulting Group, Bitget, and Foresight Ventures published a report that predicts that the number of crypto users could reach 1 billion by 2030.
This Week in Crypto
Buterin Talks About Ethereum’s Future
Ethereum’s “The Merge” has been one of the biggest headlines of the year, and the string of integrations has many crypto insiders and investors salivating at the prospect of completion. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin offered some more insight into the Proof-of-Stake transition, talking about the future of the network at the Ethereum Community Conference in Paris on July 21.
Among other things, Buterin said that the focus would be on scalability through sharding, another highly anticipated upgrade. He dubbed this the “Surge” and said after implementation, it would establish a transaction throughput of 100,000 per second. Ethereum’s price has been surging in the wake of this and more, and the asset has risen by over 12% in the past week.
SEC Lists Nine Tokens As Securities
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken new steps in its bid to regulate the market, listing nine tokens as securities in the past week. Among these tokens are the Powerledger (POWR), Kromatika (KROM), DFX Finance (DFX), Amp (AMP), Rally (RLY), Rari Governance Token (RGT), DerivaDAO (DDX), LCX, and XYO.
These tokens were among the 25 that were involved in the Coinbase insider trading incident. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement, and civil penalties in its case.
FTX Offers to Provider Early Liquidity to Voyager Customers
Crypto exchange FTX, in a joint offer with West Realm Shires, is looking to provide early liquidity to the customers of insolvent Voyager Digital. The exchange published a press release on July 22, saying that it would give Voyager customers the opportunity to start a new account with FTX with “an opening cash balance funded by an early distribution on a portion of their bankruptcy claims.”
FTX is hoping for the deal to happen in early August and said that it would not be acquiring Voyager’s loans to Three Arrows Capital or related litigation claims. The aim is to create a better way to resolve an insolvent crypto business, according to CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Central African Nations Bank Board Calls for Uniform Digital Currency
Africa is upping its focus on digital currencies, with the board of the Bank of Central African States asking for a uniform digital currency that serves the entire region. The board is urging the central bank to create this digital currency for the same reasons that other countries are doing so, namely creating a more efficient payment system and enabling financial inclusion.
The central bank of the region does not view bitcoin in a good light and has criticised the Central African Republic’s decision to make the crypto asset legal tender. A CBDC is inevitable, and will likely be used across several African nations.
BCG Report Says That 1 Billion Crypto Users by 2030 Possible
The Boston Consulting Group, Bitget, and Foresight Ventures have made a strong prediction for the crypto market, saying in a report released on July 22 that there would be 1 billion crypto users by 2030. It notes that only 0.3% of retail investors have allocated wealth into crypto and that there was much more room for growth.
BCG compared crypto to the early internet era of the 90s, and the growth and accessibility of crypto exchanges would lead to more adoption. Web 3.0 and NFTs are contributing to this growth in adoption, and they will certainly help reach that large target of 1 billion users.