👀 Sam Altman wants to scan your Iris

GM!

It’s been a quiet few days in Crypto, with Bitcoin volume dropping a little after a month of increased activity. Not all is quiet, Sam Altman, the co-founder of ChatGPT, has finally launched his new crypto project after much speculation, the coin is called WLD and the price is already up over 20% as of this morning. But, not everyone is a big fan of the project, which plans to give everybody a global identity through scanning their Iris.

Let’s dive in. 👇

Markets

SEC Appeal Not a ‘Setback’ for Ripple XRP Ruling, Crypto Lawyer Says (3 minute read)
An appeal from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its case against Ripple Labs does not represent a significant blow to Ripple's recent courtroom victory, according to crypto lawyer John Deaton. “An appeal is not even close to a setback,” Deaton said, pushing back against a claim made on Twitter. “Don’t let anyone underestimate how significant this win is.” Deaton’s comments came after federal district judge Analisa Torres ruled earlier this month that XRP, the token that powers Ripple’s payments network, is “not necessarily a security on its face”—except for instances when it was sold to institutions to raise funds.

‘8 Billion People On-Chain’—Coinbase Exec Issues Global, Game-Changing Prediction (3 minute read)
Coinbase, the major U.S.-listed bitcoin and crypto exchange, has seen its stock price rocket over the last month. Coinbase protocols lead Jesse Pollak has predicted almost everyone on Earth will be introduced to the crypto ecosystem by 2030. "Our feeling is that there’s so much growth ahead of us," Pollak, who leads Coinbase's development of ethereum-focused layer-two blockchain Base, told Decrypt on the sidelines of an ethereum conference in Paris. "We have less than 10 million people on-chain today. There’s going to be 8 billion people on-chain over the next decade."

Worldcoin's Newly-Launched WLD Token Spikes Over 20% on Major Crypto Exchanges (1 minute read)
Crypto exchanges Binance, Huobi, Bybit and OKX have listed Worldcoin's WLD token, which went live on Monday. At the time of writing, WLD token was up over 20% at $2, according to data from Coingecko. Worldcoin is the much hyped crypto project of ChatGPT co-founder Sam Altman.

Tech

Alphapo hot wallets drained for $23 million, HypeDrop disables withdrawals (2 minute read)
Crypto payments processor Alphapo — which processes payments for HypeDrop, Bovada, Ignition and other gambling services — has had its hot wallets drained for at least $23 million on Ethereum, Tron and Bitcoin, according to ZachXBT. The funds stolen on Ethereum were swapped for ether before being bridged to Avalanche and Bitcoin, the on-chain sleuth noted. The amount of bitcoin stolen from Alphapo is currently undetermined.

House Crypto Bill Won’t Restrain SEC and Could Threaten DeFi, Legal Experts Say (5 minute read)
U.S. lawmakers rolled out a much anticipated digital assets bill yesterday, raising hopes that it will end what the crypto industry sees as an unfairly hostile regulatory environment. But some experts say the bill’s vague language, and in particular a provision that could threaten the DeFi market, won’t do much to hold back the SEC and its enforcement approach to crypto. Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel for Delphi Labs, said via Twitter that the House bill still leaves many assets used in DeFi exposed to being labeled a security by the SEC. It now includes a number of exemptions for what qualifies as a digital asset, but Shapiro said the language around the exemptions for what counts as security leaves many DeFi assets like liquidity staked tokens unprotected.

Misc

Federal Reserve of San Francisco hiring crypto architect for CBDC project (3 minute read)
San Francisco's Federal Reserve Bank is seeking a crypto architect for a central bank digital currency project, an Indeed job posting has revealed. According to the role description, the employee will work on CBDC research and development. The position is full-time and hybrid, with an annual salary starting at $134,900, and requires candidates to have “knowledge of distributed systems implementation, cryptographic protocols such as hashing, public-private keypairs and signing, consensus algorithms, and security." “Given the dollar’s significant role, the FRS seeks to further understand the cost and benefits of the potential technologies for CBDC and this emerging field,” reads the posting.

Celsius Network reaches settlements to exit bankruptcy (2 minute read)
Bankrupted crypto lender Celsius Network has reached two settlements that allow it to return assets to customers and end its bankruptcy proceedings, according to court filings on July 20. The settlements will be analyzed by Judge Martin Glenn at a hearing on August 10 and address $78.2 billion in unsecured claims. Any responses and objections should be submitted to the court by August 3. One of the agreements resolves claims over accusations of fraud and misrepresentation by Celsius management by increasing customers’ recoveries by 5%. Account holders can still retain the right to pursue individual claims against Celsius if they opt out of the settlement. As per the court documents:

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