The third week of July has been exciting for the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Perhaps the biggest news is that US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the US government is on the same page with other financial ministries of the G7 regarding Facebook's (FB  ) Libra stablecoin project. He said there is a clear agreement from all G7 finance ministers and central bank governors that Libra raises significant concerns. Mnuchin said he wants the crypto industry to comply with the same rules that govern physical money service providers. Mnuchin reiterated that he wants to ensure people are using Bitcoin (BTC) and Libra for proper purposes, not illicit activities. For Mnuchin, the main concerns are money laundering and terrorism financing.

Here is the rest of the week in review:

A new CoinDesk report says that Gotbit and its 20-year-old founder Alexey Andryunin can fake trading volume on crypto exchanges for just $15,000. The Russia-based firm already has 30 clients. Founded in 2018, Gotbit writes bot programs to trade tokens with themselves in an unethical practice called wash trading. Wash trading is also illegal in the US. Listing a coin on a small exchange costs $8,000, and a month of making fake trade volume costs $6,000. Researchers analyzed the trading history of 48 global crypto exchanges and found that on 14 of them, genuine trading volume is basically zero. After a token is listed on two exchanges and shows some trading activity of as little as $100,000 a day, it can get listed on CoinMarketCap. No exchanges commented on the report.

A Chinese court gave Bitcoin legal recognition in a further boost for the top coin in one of its harshest legal environments. According to local media coverage, the Hangzhou Internet Court formally categorized Bitcoin as virtual property on July 18. The second ruling to attribute property status to Bitcoin arose from between a defunct exchange and a user who lost funds. The case marks a significant watershed for Bitcoin and crypto in China, where the government has put in place a blanket ban on trading since September 2017. Despite the ban, many Chinese traders are finding alternatives to traditional exchanges, like over-the-counter deals and stablecoin conversions. A People's Bank of China spokesperson agreed with the court's decision, saying that Bitcoin is virtual property but not fiat money.

Crypto prices dipped slightly to $285 billion this week, despite Bitcoin's attempt to push back through $11,000. For the majors, Ethereum (ETH) and EOS posted the worst losses, while Bitcoin SV (BSV) and Litecoin (LTC) posted gains of 22% and 6%. In the top 100, the biggest losers were ABBC Coin (ABBC), down 28%, Crypto.com Chain (CRO), down 27%, and Quant (QNT), down 23%. The biggest gainers were Japan Content Token (JCT), up a whopping 75%, WAX (WAX), up 32%, and NEXT (NET), up 32%. Next week traders will see if crypto can snap the losing streak and challenge recent resistance.

The author owns a small amount of BTC and LTC.