The third week of August has been exciting for the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Perhaps the biggest news is that Representative Maxine Waters of California, the chairwoman of the powerful US House Financial Services Committee, has said that the panel will continue to apply scrutiny on Libra, the stablecoin project envisioned by Facebook (NASDAQ: FB). She pledged to review Libra and the wallet software being developed by Facebook subsidiary Calibra throughout 2019. In June, the Democratic lawmaker called for a moratorium and Congressional examination of the project, just two days after the Libra Association announced. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also said the Libra project raises serious concerns over monetary policy and international finance. Libra head David Marcus told Congress that Libra will meet all the necessary regulatory qualifications in its countries of operation.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said on August 22 it has settled charges it filed last year against four promoters of crypto-denominated multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes. In a federal trial in Florida, the operators of the fraudulent investment schemes were ordered to pay more than $900,000 in restitution and have been barred from operating or participating in other such MLM schemes, according to a FT statement. Under the corporate names Bitcoin Funding Team and My7Network, the fraudsters promoted their crypto investment schemes on social media by misrepresenting potential earnings. Thomas Dulca, Eric Pinkston, Louis Gatto, and Scott Chandler sat at the top of the pyramid. In one instance, investors were promised an insane $80,000 monthly from a small investment of $100. As expected, most MLM participants failed to recoup their initial investment. As part of the settlement, the men are also barred from ever misrepresenting investment opportunities.
Circle Internet Financial is hiring a new general partner to raise a $100 million venture capital fund. The fund will take advantage of the deal flow coming through SeedInvest, the equity crowdfunding startup that Circle acquired in March 2019 as an opportunity to tokenize equity in new firms. SeedInvest emphasizes a registry of potential startup investments that have been thoroughly vetted by the firm already. The LinkedIn job posting says Circle is seeking someone with principal or partner-level experience at an established venture firm and strong connections throughout the venture capital community. Circle did not reveal details about where the fund will operate or what kind of investments it plans to emphasize.
Crypto prices slipped again to $264 billion this week. For the majors, all 10 fell, with Binance Coin (BNB) slumping 6% while Tether (USDT) and Bitcoin (BTC) posted the smallest losses. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Egretia (EGT), down 49%, GXChain (GXC), down 20%, and Algorand (ALGO), down 19%. The biggest gainers were Wanchain (WAN), up a whopping 85%, TomoChain (TOMO), up 32%, and Factom (FCT), up 30%. Next week traders will watch if Bitcoin can hold the key $10,000 level and if altcoins can bounce slightly.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.