Blockchain Bites: E-Gold Claims, Arca’s New Fund and Generation Z

Arca, a Los Angeles-based money manager, launched an innovative new fund on Ethereum, while our columnists look at Generation Z’s impact on investing and a DeFi future where bitcoin and Ethereum work together. Here’s the story.

You’re reading Blockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here. 

Top Shelf

Russian Dolls

A Russian court convicted two men for extortion, but did not force them to return over $900,000 in crypto since crypto has no legal definition as property. Other courts have taken a different view.

Suppressed Evidence?

E-Gold, a defunct digital currency project that was a precursor to bitcoin, has claimed the U.S. government suppressed crucial evidence in a 2008 landmark case that has since shaped the cryptocurrency industry.

Arca’s Fund

A bitcoin exchange-traded fund may never receive approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but an even stranger crypto investment vehicle finally has: a blockchain transferred fund. On Monday, Los Angeles-based money manager Arca began selling shares in the “Arca U.S. Treasury Fund,” an SEC-registered closed-end fund whose digital shares – ArCoins – trade atop the Ethereum blockchain. 

Bitcoin To Go

Travala.com, a Binance-backed online travel agency (OTA), is adding support for Expedia bookings in a partnership that brings bitcoin payments back to the travel giant’s properties for the first time since 2018.

Cardano Wave

Cardano developer house IOHK has made a six-figure investment into Wave Financial, its partner for a new $20 million Cardano fund. Charles Hoskinson, IOHK’s CEO, will become an adviser to Wave Financial as part of the deal.

Bankrupt in Pretoria

Willie Breedt, CEO of South African cryptocurrency investment firm VaultAge Solutions, has been officially declared bankrupt while on the run from angry investors.

Finding Fakes

Blockchain startup Fantom is launching a pilot to help combat Afghanistan’s counterfeit drugs problem using its blockchain to trace products along the supply chain.

Market Intel

Positive Correlation

Bitcoin’s positive correlation with stocks continues Monday, with the cryptocurrency drawing bids alongside gains in global equities. Bitcoin’s positive correlation with stocks makes it vulnerable to bouts of risk aversion in traditional markets. The equity markets could soon come under pressure, dragging bitcoin lower, if the U.S. Federal Reserve fails to appease equity markets with additional stimulus, markets writer Omkar Godbole said.

How to Value Bitcoin: Bitcoin Days Destroyed

How to place a value on bitcoin? Its data are unfamiliar territory for many investors. Nearly half of investors in a recent survey said a lack of fundamentals keeps them from participating.

In a 30-minute webinar July 7, CoinDesk Research will explore one of the first and oldest unique data points to be developed by crypto asset analysts: Bitcoin Days Destroyed.

We’ll be joined by Lucas Nuzzi, a veteran analyst and a network data expert at Coin Metrics. Lucas and CoinDesk Research will walk you through the structure of this unique financial metric and demonstrate some of its many applications. Sign up for the July 7 webinar “How to Value Bitcoin: Bitcoin Days Destroyed.”

Opinion

Generation Z

Noelle Acheson looks at the potential influence of Generation Z on how institutional crypto asset markets will evolve. “This generation will emerge into a market in which traditional investment standards no longer apply, and for which the word “unprecedented” has lost most of its meaning. They will do so without the clear asset differentiation that their parents and older siblings have relied on to make portfolio decisions.”

DeFi Double Act

In the latest edition of his Money Reimagined newsletter, Michael Casey explores the growing complementarity between bitcoin and Ethereum. “The data simultaneously highlight that bitcoin is the crypto universe’s reserve asset and that Ethereum’s burgeoning DeFi ecosystem is crypto’s go-to platform for generating credit and facilitating fluid exchange.

CoinDesk Podcast Network

BREAKDOWN: It’s Time for a Revolution in Financial Education, Feat. Tyrone Ross

To decrease wealth inequality, one passionate financial adviser argues why financial education needs different content, from different voices, delivered through different channels. 

Who Won #Crypto Twitter?