Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting the Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
The head of Coinbase took to Washington, D.C. last week to talk to United States lawmakers. Meanwhile, the Sam Altman-led Worldcoin launched the project’s ecosystem token on July 24, claiming to provide a decentralized and private way to verify human identity online amid the rise of artificial intelligence technologies. Meanwhile, Twitter underwent a major rebranding to “X” as it sets its sights on becoming an “everything app” featuring crypto payments.
Coinbase CEO: Lawmakers acting with newfound ‘urgency’ around crypto regulation
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong believes United States lawmakers are pursuing crypto regulations with a new sense of urgency following Ripple’s partial victory in its lawsuit with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In a July 20 meeting with Representatives Maxine Waters and Patrick McHenry, Armstrong said members of Congress are re-engaging with crypto. “I think the Ripple case drove a lot of urgency,” he said. “Same with these bitcoin ETF filings that we’ve been seeing recently from Blackrock, Fidelity, and major financial services firms.”
Coinbase is embroiled in a lawsuit of its own against the SEC after the regulator charged the exchange with operating as an unregistered securities platform, broker and clearing agency.
Today we charged Coinbase, Inc. with operating its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency and for failing to register the offer and sale of its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program.https://t.co/XPG2gDkxtV pic.twitter.com/hCdVMw8B2v
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) June 6, 2023
The top brass at Coinbase believes the SEC has adopted a “regulation by enforcement” approach to digital assets. The exchange planned to organize a “Stand for Crypto Day” in Washington, D.C., which was slated for July 19. However, it’s unclear whether the rally actually occurred.
Worldcoin launches token to distinguish humans from bots
Worldcoin, a project partly created by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, launched the project’s ecosystem token on July 24.
The project has continuously split opinions from within the crypto space to Silicon Valley, with some praising the project’s ambition and others calling it creepy and dystopian. Despite these comments, the project continues to pursue its goal of solving income inequality and online identity authentication.
It's time. 24.7.23 pic.twitter.com/9oHW4DIMJX
— Worldcoin (@worldcoin) July 23, 2023
The project was first launched on March 14, along with a waitlist for its software development kit (SDK). According to its team, the World ID will be a global digital passport that users can store on their phones. The project also claims that the World ID will prove they are not robots without needing to provide personal identifying information to websites, such as their phone number.
The project was first launched on March 14, along with a waitlist for its software development kit (SDK). According to its team, the World ID will be a global digital passport that users can store on their phones. The project also claims that the World ID will prove they are not robots without needing to provide personal identifying information to websites, such as their phone number.
On May 8, the project released its gas-free crypto wallet for verified humans. This allowed users to take advantage of gas-free transfers by registering for a World ID, where they would be asked to provide a phone number or an iris scan.
According to the developers, the project does not store the data provided by the users. It generates a zero-knowledge proof to verify that the user is human without revealing the data used to create the proof.
Various crypto exchanges also announced that they will be listing the token on their trading platforms. Binance, Bybit, OKX, Gate and Huobi were some of the crypto exchange platforms that mentioned the listing of the token as it was launched.
Crypto Twitter may soon have to be called Crypto X
Social media platform Twitter, along with the avid crypto community, may soon see a very different Twitter — which is set to ditch its iconic blue bird logo for an “X” as part of a major rebrand.
In a series of tweets on July 23, Musk hinted that the platform will be rebranded to “X.”
The rebrand could involve changing Twitter’s color scheme to black, the removal of Twitter’s blue bird logo, and a different website to get to the platform, according to Musk’s various tweets and a poll.
X already taking over Twitter pic.twitter.com/4eOZQHIQ22
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) July 24, 2023
Twitter is one of the strongholds of the crypto community however, and many have voiced displeasure at the impending name change.
Trust Machines marketing chief Dan Held said Twitter was “iconic,” adding Musk was “insane” to rebrand to X.
Others have been pitching their own ideas on how Musk should move ahead with X. Axie Infinity co-founder Jeff “Jiho” Zirlin said to keep the Twitter name but add a crypto wallet called X to allow users to spend and tip platform creators.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
