July 18, 2022

Crypto Pamps Towards $1 Trillion

Most of the Spring and Summer for cryptocurrency enthusiasts have not been fun. It’s been as fun as driving to Leech Lake in northern Minnesota during the Mayfly season – nasty, greasy, and everything covered in a thick layer of winged insect grossness.

The Total Market cap for cryptocurrencies is sitting just below the $1 trillion mark and higher by nearly 6%. Likewise, the Altcoin Total Market Cap is up almost 6%, reclaiming the $500 billion level. So across the board, cryptocurrencies are on a tear for Monday.

In today’s Litepaper, see why XRP has recently seen some bullish activity, along with the mixed cryptocurrency regulations around the globe. And because Polygon ($MATIC.X) has traded up nearly 30% today, you can get a little more depth into why MATIC is pamping and what exactly MATIC is.

This is how pampy the crypto market looked at the end of the trading day:

Cardano (ADA)	$0.479	6.36%
Binance Coin (BNB)	$257.60	3.88%
Bitcoin (BTC)	$21,634.12	4.15%
Dogecoin (DOGE)	$0.066	5.09%
Ethereum (ETH)	$1,478.55	10.55%
Polkadot (DOT)	$7.36	6.36%
Solana (SOL)	$40.17	4.04%
XRP (XRP)	$0.357	3.96%
Altcoin Market Cap	$564.34 billion	5.65%
Total Market Cap	$980.68 billion	5.07%

Crypto

XRP Reclaims Critical Market Cap Position

XRP ($XRP.X) has made some big moves during the Monday session, reclaiming the sixth most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap. Some small victories in its defense against the SEC have certainly buoyed some renewed interest, but a more immediate fundamental reason may be behind today’s pamp.

Jed McCaleb, former Ripple CTO, co-founder of Ripple, and a Stellar ($XLM.X) founder, has dumped XRP since his departure in 2014. At one point, he held 9 billion XRP or 18% of the total supply. XRP bulls and enthusiasts are thrilled today, taking to social media that McCaleb’s dumping has ended and the wallet empty.

The moment we have all waited for is finally upon us. @JedMcCaleb has finally emptied his taco stand. His dumping of $XRP is now over after many years. Party time!!! 🎉🎉🎉 https://t.co/lS9kfCf98A

— Rob XRP ☀️ (@robxrp1) July 18, 2022

An interesting side note here is that the current CTO of Ripple Tweeted he may have made a mistake in accepting a 2% stake in the company versus roughly 500 million in XRP.

The jury is still out, but it probably turned out to be a pretty big mistake. A number that was thrown around was 500 million XRP. And, of course, XRP is nearly perfectly liquid. 1/2

— 𝙳𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚍 𝚂𝚌𝚑𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚣 (@JoelKatz) July 18, 2022

All eyes are still on the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit, and the Litepaper will keep you updated as that debacle continues. 👓

Policy

Regulators Around The Globe Mixed With Crypto

From the viewpoint of governments and regulars, cryptocurrency is still generating a lot of mixed thoughts. For example, the Reserve Bank of India is reportedly seeking a broad ban on cryptocurrencies, citing that the asset class does not have any underlying value.

However, Australian central bank governor Phillip Lowe said, “I tend to think that the private solution is going to be better – if we can get the regulatory arrangements right – because the private sector is better than the central bank at innovating and designing features for these tokens, and there are also likely to be very significant costs for the central bank setting up a digital token system.”

In the U.S., SEC head Gensler told Yahoo Finance that the SEC is talking with the CFTC (Commodities Futures Trading Commission) and bank regulators about regulating digital assets. He reiterated his view and past comments that Bitcoin ($BTC.X) is a non-security and should be dealt with by the CFTC.

No matter where you are, government regulation remains in flux and indecision. We’ll keep you updated as things become more clear. ⌛

Crypto

Know Your Crypto: Polygon (MATIC)

The Know Your Crypto is a new part of the Litepaper newsletter that will highlight a particular cryptocurrency and answer the questions some may have, like what is it? What is its purpose? Why is it important? Shit coin or not a shit coin?

We want to keep the information on point without going overboard with the deets, but not so long that you get bored. So please give us feedback on what you’d like to see or what we could do better! We’d love to hear your input!

Bullets

Bullets From The Day:

🌍 Web3 took in the biggest amount of venture capital in the blockchain space for Q2 2022. Roughly $14.67 billion was spent, compared with nearly the same as Q1 ($14.66 billion). Full details from Cointelegraph.

🟡 Coinbase get’s the ok to push its services in Italy. Italy’s government has displayed some positive attention toward the crypto and blockchain space, most recently with a newly announced subsidy for blockchain companies worth roughly $46 million. Applications begin in September. Read it on begincrypto.

📕 U.S. lawmakers say that crypto mining is bad for the environment and want mining companies to disclose their emissions and energy use. Get the whole story from Blockworks.

❌ Celsius ($CEL.X) bankruptcy may designate some of its clients as unsecured creditors. Adding more pain is the length of time for clients to recover money may take years to accomplish. Full story from beingcrypto.