The last week of July has been exciting for the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Perhaps the biggest news is that Blockchain announced it is launching a new digital currency exchange based on super fast trading. Blockchain, one of the world's largest crypto wallet platforms, is working on a premier exchange to challenge Coinbase. Blockchain chief executive Peter Smith said the new exchange's matching engine Mercury can execute buy or sell orders in just 40 to 50 microseconds, much faster than competitors like Coinbase and Binance. Founded in 2011, Blockchain began as a block explorer and then offered users coin wallets. Now the firm hopes its exchange platform will help attract first timers unfamiliar with crypto. Blockchain said its exchange will be available in over 200 countries and offer 26 trading pairs. Users will be able to link bank accounts with the exchange and use US dollars (USD), British pounds (GBP), and euros (EUR) to trade coins.

Here is the rest of the week in review:

Bitcoin.com announced it will also launch a crypto exchange called Exchange.Bitcoin.com, a peculiar name. The exchange will be the latest addition to a suite of products Bitcoin.com provides in addition to its magazine and news service. The announcement came after controversial CEO Roger Ver recently stepped down. The firm has also developed a crypto casino, a wallet, and a peer-to-peer Bitcoin Cash (BCH) exchange, aimed at expanding the utility of the forked alternative to Bitcoin (BTC). Bitcoin.com said in a statement: "While we think the Bitcoin Cash network will be adopted by the masses worldwide, we also think it's important to promote free markets and choice." The exchange is slated to launch in early September and will list many of the largest coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), and more. Bitcoin.com's exchange plans to offer around 50 trading pairs upon its debut.

Steve Bannon, former top Trump advisor and head of conservative news site Breitbart, said cryptocurrencies "have a big future" due to the current geopolitical atmosphere, going against Donald Trump's recent condemnation of crypto. Bannon told CNBC's "Squawk Box" he thinks crypto could be a very important part of the global populist revolt he is trying to influence. He did agree with Trump that Federal Reserve monetary policy has been too tight, adding that cryptocurrencies present a meaningful alternative to fiat-based investments. Asked about Facebook's (FB  ) Libra stablecoin project, Bannon said it will find few friends in the banking community. He explained that the central banks and banking community want to get in and regulate crypto, but they will still stick to fiat currency. In 2018 Bannon's investment firm explored the idea of launching multiple initial coin offerings (ICOs) during the boom.

Crypto prices rose slightly this week to $292 billion. For the majors, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum jumped, while Stellar (XLM), EOS, and Binance Coin (BNB) slipped. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Nanocurrency (NANO), down 14%, V Systems (VSYS), down 14%, and Ravencoin (RVN), down 13%. The biggest gainers were Tezos (XTZ), up a whopping 46%, Energi (NRG), up 41%, and GXChain (GXC), up 40%. Next week traders will see if crypto can again challenge the $300 billion resistance level.

The author owns a small amount of BTC and LTC.