Crypto Penetration blog 🔩

📝 US crypto regulation updates 🖨 This week we heard news indicating progress in US crypto regulation. CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam declared to the Senate that, from his point of view, BTC and ETH are commodities regulated by the Commodity Exchange Act. He also referred to the Illinois court decision on this matter. Potentially, together with the possible approval of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), this will mean looser regulation for cryptocurrencies in the US. 📣 Donald Trump will give a speech during a crypto conference in Nashville on the 27th of July. The position of Republicans today is more loyal to crypto than the Democrats' - so we can expect Trump to make campaign promises to make regulations that favor the crypto industry. 💯 Given that the Fed Chairman recently said that keeping rates at 5.25% to 5.5% percent for a long time is dangerous for the US economy, the market trend may change with a correction to a new upward movement this autumn, in the case of lower rates and improved regulation in the USA.

Durov: Hamster Kombat will mint its token on TON soon 🚀 Telegram mini apps have become a real trend in crypto. Pavel Durov mentioned HK in his post and called it an “internet phenomenon”, reaching 239 million users within three months. ✈️ Durov also announced that Hamster Kombat will mint its token on the TON blockchain soon. This will probably attract even more attention not only to the game, but also to the TON blockchain. Since HMSTR enjoyed pre-listing on Bybit yesterday, we can expect a listing soon.

🐹 Hamster Combat pre-listing 📊 Bybit has listed today HMSTR token on the premarket. The price is between $0.06 and $0.09. 🚀 Hamster Combat already has become the most popular cryptocurrency mini app with 200 million subscribers, overtaking Binance. 💯 This is how the global mass adoption of crypto is happening through mini apps inside Telegam messenger, like Notcoin and Hamster Combat.

🔻 The correction is coming: Bitcoin at $57,300, Ethereum at $3,100 📊 Projected sales are pushing the BTC market down. Mt.Gox wallets have provided first test transactions and will start payouts soon. Also, the German government has moved about $50 million in crypto, and it remains uncertain when the US Fed will change its monetary policy and start rate cuts. Against this background, the price of leading cryptocurrencies is falling. ⤴️ At the same time, the amount of liquidity in US spot ETFs increased this week due to inflows of more than $129 million on July 1. Most likely, it’s just a long-awaited market correction. The situation may change as early as mid-July with the approval of the Ethereum ETF.

TON News and Crypto Regulation Updates from June 🇺🇸 The Fed met in late June, noted slowing inflation, and planned to cut rates once in 2024. A further rate cut to 4% (from the current 5.25%) is scheduled for next year. Nevertheless, according to the current information, whether the rate will be lowered or not will depend on the state of the US economy. 2️⃣1️⃣ 21Shares has sent its Solana Trust application to the SEC. 2025 will probably see more crypto ETFs, like Solana and Ripple. 🦅 Donald Trump is gaining support from crypto enthusiasts in the US. He received $1 million each in donations from the Winklevosses (Gemini) and Kraken's Chairman Jesse Powell. Along with rate cuts, Trump's election could draw more liquidity into the market. 📄 Gary Gensler has promised in Senate to approve an Ethereum ETF by the end of Summer. Currently the SEC has requested amendments on existing ETF applications. Bloomberg analysts predict that approval in S1 form awaits us after 15th of July. 🇦🇪 The UAE will ban crypto payments. This information is based on new CBUAE framework on payments, which allows only dirham-based stablecoins for crypto payments. 🇳🇬 Nigeria provided a new round of crypto regulation… and the local SEC requested new registrations from all VASPs operating in the country within 30 days. 🇪🇺 New MiCA framework stablecoin regulation goes into power this July. This caused the depeg of USDT from the US dollar. Tether currently doesn’t have a license in the EU and will be temporarily delisted from European exchanges. The EURT stablecoin doesn’t have a license, either. 🇺🇿 This June in Uzbekistan, local citizens have been convicted and prosecuted for illegal crypto exchanges. One of them provided p2p deals on Binance and another the illegal exchange of Notcoin. 🇰🇿 IFAC's Financial Services Regulatory Committee has reviewed and approved Toncoin (TON) for trading on licensed exchanges in Kazakhstan. Moreover, USDT holdings on TON reached $520 million and the TVL of TON DeFi $700 million. 💯 Telegram mini apps have demonstrated their increasing popularity with 150 million users of Hamster Combat, 30 million on Blum and 60 million on Notcoin. 🇵🇭 Filipino residents will be able to pay for state services in TON-USDT. This is the result of a partnership between TON, Tether and UQUID.

✈️ TON reached $8 level again 📈 This market move is probably due to news of upcoming investments from Pantera Capital, based on leaks that the company will organize a special fund to buy more TON. 🏆 Also today, TON DEX Ston.Fi exceeded 1,000,000 users. Great numbers!

🇺🇸 Vitalik Buterin has criticized current US regulation approach 👮 He called it "anarcho-tyranny" (of SEC) that stimulates “useless” tokens, and stops projects with “clear story” as “securities". In his opinion, regulation must be different and make “issuing a token without a clear long-term story riskier”.

🇦🇪 Emirates Central Bank bans crypto payments 📑 Published by the regulator on June 14, the rulebook on Payment Tokens contains a ban on crypto payments for goods and services, except using AED-denominated stablecoins licensed by the Central Bank. Currently there is no such licensed entity in the country. ⛔️ Most likely, this means that it will soon be impossible to pay for purchases (e.g. real estate) with USDT or Bitcoin in the Emirates, though the new rules will not take effect for a year. In addition, lawyers are waiting for an official clarification from regulators on whether crypto payments will still be possible inside the DIFC free zone. You can find more details on this topic in my article published on Hackernoon.

🇹🇭New DTV Visa for crypto nomads in Thailand 🚀 This month Thailand has launсhed a long-term 5-year DTV visa that is affordable for almost any digital nomad. Under new prime minister (and crypto investor) Srettha Thavisin, the country has declared attracting expats as a national priority. Moreover, Thailand has become one of the most loyal crypto jurisdictions in Asia. It has approved Bitcoin ETFs. 💸 However, from this year tax residents of Thailand need to pay progressive personal income tax (at a 5% to 35% rate) from their worldwide income. Being one of the most expat-loyal countries in Asia, even Thailand provides only a few legalization options for long-term relocation (with permanent resident status) compared to most EU countries. 🛂 My recommendation when moving to Thailand is to choose in advance the right type of visa for you. The DTV visa allows you to live in the country, but you still need to obtain a visa early, twice a year, and you will not get citizenship on it. About other types of Thai visas and citizenship see this article.

😱 Have Mt.Gox repayments spooked the market? 🔻 The crypto market continues to go down. Bitcoin is at $61,380, Ethereum at $3,320. Solana and Doge are down 10% for the week, Shiba Inu has dropped 14% and Unii 17%. Mt. Gox's trustee has declared that the exchange will start repayments to investors in July. At least 140,000 BTC is ready for this purpose. 💴 This exchange was hacked 10 years ago, so Mt. Gox victims may choose to sell their Bitcoins after such a long wait. For comparison, the amount of BTC in the largest bitcoin ETF (IBIT) is currently 305,614 BTC. 📊 On the other hand, all of these sales will be spread out over time, so they probably won't affect the market that much. The market's current descent is happening due to other reasons - correction and the general negative background associated with the preservation of the Fed rate at the same level.

🤑 Binance has integrated TON-USDT ✈️ As stated in an announcement on the exchange's website, USDT deposit on the TON blockchain is now available for Binance users. Based on Tether data, about $580 million of USDT is currently on the TON blockchain.

🇺🇸 The SEC has closed its Ethereum investigation 🧑‍⚖️ This is the result of Consensys's (MetaMask) lawsuit against the regulator. The lawsuit probably made the SEC uncomfortable about its activity in this area. Given the subsequent approval of the Ethereum ETF and the broad political support of the crypto industry in US Congress, the SEC is now forced to abandon its attempts to qualify ETH as a security. 📈 Ethereum's price has increased to $3,550 from the $3,400 level since yesterday.

📉 Bitcoin below $65,000 📊 The crypto market continues to fall. This is probably the sell-off after the Fed didn’t meet rate cut expectations. Bitcoin ETFs also had a large outflow last week - about $726 million. Ethereum is at $3,400, TON at $7. Many altcoins in the top 100 (by cap) lost 10%-20% of their value. 🔀 However, this is likely a standard volatility spike and in the long term there is a perspective of rate cuts in the US.

🇹🇷 Insider: Türkiye will impose tax on crypto transactions 📝 According to a local source, this tax will be included in a new legislation package dedicated to increasing state income. The tax rate will be 0,03% and will produce an estimated 3,7 billion liras per year. Currently, there is no official confirmation of this initiative, but it could be approved as early as this summer. 💸 India and Indonesia have a similar tax, at 1% and 0.1%-0.2% rates respectively. This type of tax is imposed not on user’s profit, but any crypto-fiat operations including crypto purchases. In India, this tax has caused users to turn to offshore exchanges.

📰 Brian Armstrong: the industry needs clear crypto regulations 🧑‍💼 The Coinbase CEO has shared his vision of perspectives for crypto industry and his company's business development during Crypto Summit in NY. According to Armstrong, regulatory clarity is the biggest obstacle in the US. He thinks that US crypto regulations lag behind the UK, Singapore and the European Union. Armstrong hopes that the Senate will approve federal crypto law and remove existing regulatory uncertainty between the SEC and CFTC. 💯 Armstrong claims that more than half Fortune 500 companies have already invested in cryptocurrencies and after the adoption of new regulations, the number of institutional investors will increase even more. At the moment, the main investors in Bitcoin ETFs are not institutional investors, but individuals (80%).

🇺🇸 Gary Gensler: Ethereum ETF S1 will be approved this summer 🏛 During the Senate hearing this Thursday the SEC chairman Gensler claimed that Ethereum Spot ETF will get the full commision approval "by the end of this summer". After approval from US regulator these ETFs will become available for listing and trading on US stock exchanges.

🇺🇸 Crypto falls: what’s happening? 🔻 Bitcoin price fell below $67,000, TON to $7, and Ethereum to $3,600. Other altcoins lost 3%-5% over the day. The market is experiencing a splash of volatility amid expectations of new data on inflation in the US. Despite the fact that the European Union and Canada have already announced rate cuts this year, the Fed probably will not announce follow suit. 🚰 That’s why investors are closing positions in risky assets, including cryptocurrencies. Yesterday, US Bitcoin ETFs had their first $65 million outflow for 19 days. The Fed is likely to cut rates this year, but not as quickly as crypto enthusiasts would like.

🇺🇿 Student arrested for Notcoin exchange 🧑‍⚖️ Local court in Uzbekistan has arrested a man for 10 days as a person, which has provided illegal activity in the field of crypto exchange. Also court ordered to destroy student’s smartphone and bank card.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong’s regulator promotes BTC and DLT 🧑‍💼 SFC Chairman Julia Leung has characterized Bitcoin as an "alternative financial asset" for the last 15 years. During her speech at the Greenwich Economic Forum she also mentioned blockchain technology as having the potential to enhance efficiency and lower costs in the distribution, clearing, settlement, and custody of real-world assets.