The first week of October has been a pivotal for the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Perhaps the biggest news is PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) officially withdrew from Facebook's (NASDAQ: FB) Libra stablecoin project. The financial services firm said Friday that it has withdrawn from the Libra Association, with the Libra Association later confirming the departure. Facebook unveiled the Libra project in June along with 27 launch partners in the finance and technology sectors to oversee governance, but the endeavor has faced serious regulatory backlash since. PayPal said it remains supportive of Libra's aspirations and will continue dialogue on ways to work together in the future.
Head of Policy and Communications at Libra Association Dante Disparte said that the stablecoin project is "a journey, not a destination." He added that the journey is not an easy path, but Libra looks forward to the first Libra Council meeting in 10 days with 1,500 entities that express interest in the effort.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
Bitcoin Suisse is bringing another crypto-based financial product to the Swiss stock exchange SIX. The crypto service firm, partnering with French fintech firm Amun, announced Thursday the launch of its Swiss franc denominated Amun Bitcoin Suisse BTC/ETH exchange-traded product (ETP) under the ABBA ticker. The product is nine parts Bitcoin to one part Ethereum, letting investors hold around 75% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization. In an interview, Amun CEO Haly Rashwan said the ETP can be used as a financial hedge. Amun says the ETP is fully collateralized with Bitcoin and Ether custodied by Bitcoin Suisse in Switzerland. Founded in 2013, Bitcoin Suisse currently holds some $1 billion in crypto assets. Earlier this year, Amun launched ETPs based on other major coins. Rashwan told CoinDesk Amun expects to have $75 million in assets under management by year's end.
Coinbase announced two big changes to its exchange. The major US exchange unveiled a new program to pay interest to holders of its USDC stablecoin. Coinbase will start paying an annual yield of 1.25% to USDC holders monthly. On the other hand, Coinbase announced a massive hike in trading fees on its Coinbase Pro platform. On October 7, Coinbase Pro trading fees will surge for many tiers of volume. For the lowest tier of zero to $10,000 in monthly volume, trading fees will skyrocket from 0.15% to 0.5% for maker and taker orders. In contrast, high-volume traders will see no change or a slight reduction in fees. Coinbase customers largely slammed the fee increase, saying it will drive them away to Binance or Kraken, which levy much lower fees.
Crypto prices traded flat at around $215 billion this week. For the majors, EOS, Ripple (XRP), and Litecoin (LTC) ended in the green with mid-single digit gains, while Bitcoin, Bitcoin SV (BSV), and Tether (USDT) slipped slightly. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Lambda (LAMB), down 29%, Metaverse ETP (ETP), down 22%, and BitCapitalVendor (BCV), down 21%. The biggest gainers were Centrality (CENNZ), up a whopping 417%, Chainlink (LINK), up 26%, and Zcoin (XZC), up 23%. Next week traders will watch if crypto can post a positive week.
The author owns a small amount of BTC and LTC.