Crypto bills pass congressional committee in ‘huge win’ for US crypto
A key United States House panel has approved a pair of bills that could finally deliver some regulatory clarity to crypto firms in the country. On July 26, lawmakers voted in favor of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, which establishes rules for crypto firms on when to register with either the Commodity Futures Trading Commission or the Securities and Exchange Commission. The panel also approved the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, which sets out guidelines that remove hurdles and requirements for “blockchain developers and service providers” such as miners, multisignature service providers and decentralized finance platforms. Despite the passage of these acts, a number of Republicans and Democrats refused to support another proposed piece of legislation dubbed the Digital Assets Market Structure bill.
Worldcoin token launch sparks response from Vitalik Buterin
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the Ethereum network, released a long-form essay with his thoughts on the recently launched Worldcoin human identity verification system, addressing the larger concept in discussion with the release of the Worldcoin token — proof-of-humanity. Worldcoin initiated its public launch on July 25 after nearly two years of development and beta testing, but criticism of it erupted almost immediately. The United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office is deciding whether to investigate the project for violating the country’s data protection laws. The French National Commission on Informatics and Liberty also questioned Worldcoin’s legality. In response to criticism of its data collection practices, the project released an audit report on July 28.
Putin signs law on introduction of digital ruble in Russia
Russia is moving forward with its central bank digital currency as President Vladimir Putin signed the digital ruble bill into law on July 24. With this approval, the digital ruble law is officially scheduled to take effect from Aug. 1, 2023. Individuals in the country will have the choice to choose whether or not to use the digital ruble. According to Bank of Russia Deputy Governor Olga Skorobogatova, the government doesn’t expect mass adoption of the digital ruble in Russia before 2025.
Binance withdraws crypto license application in Germany
Binance has withdrawn its cryptocurrency custody license application in Germany, nearly a month after reports of concerns from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. A spokesperson from Binance told Cointelegraph that it intends to reapply for a license in Germany, with changes to its application reflecting adjustments in the regulatory environment. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said it would focus on becoming compliant with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulations to offer its services in European countries. However, its European expansion plans have seen a setback amid its regulatory troubles in the United States.
FTX’s Bankman-Fried seeks gag order for all witnesses in criminal case
Former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried has agreed to a gag order preventing him from making comments to third parties that may interfere with his trial — but argues other potential witnesses should be gagged as well, including current FTX CEO John Ray. The gag order against Sam Bankman-Fried was initially requested on July 20, when the U.S. government accused the FTX founder of attempting to interfere with a fair trial by publicly discrediting former business partner and witness Caroline Ellison in an interview with the New York Times. According to SBF’s lawyers, there has been a “toxic media environment” surrounding their client since the collapse of the exchange.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $29,331, Ether (ETH) at $1,876 and XRP at $0.71. The total market cap is at $1.18 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are XDC Network (XDC) at 45.69%, GMX (GMX) at 11.82% and Bone ShibaSwap (BONE) at 9.60%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Pepe (PEPE) at -12.36%, Gala (GALA) at -11.85% and Injective (INJ) at -11.58%.
“In the months to come, we will add [to X] comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world. The Twitter name does not make sense in that context.”
BTC price shrugs off strong PCE data as Bitcoin traders eye $28K range
Bitcoin stayed range-bound at the end of the week despite United States inflation data beating expectations. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC price action getting only a modest boost from the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index print.
Among traders, there was still an appetite for BTC price downside, with the $30,000 resistance now in place for over a week. Popular pseudonymous trader Crypto Tony confirmed that he remained short on BTC below $29,600.
“I expect continuation down to $28,000 in time, but for sure we could range here for a little while before the drop,” he told Twitter (now known as X) followers on the day.
FUD of the Week
SEC files charges against Quantstamp for $28M initial coin offering
Blockchain security firm Quantstamp is set to return $28 million raised in a 2017 initial coin offering (ICO) following charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly conducting an unregistered ICO of “crypto asset securities.” The SEC’s order outlines that Quantstamp’s ICO, which took place in October and November 2017, raised over $28 million by selling its native QSP tokens to some 5,000 investors. According to the SEC, the company failed to register its tokens offering, which the agency deemed to be securities.
Alphapo payment provider hack now estimated at over $60M — ZachXBT
The Alphapo payments provider hack is now estimated to have caused losses exceeding $60 million, according to a report from pseudonymous on-chain sleuth ZachXBT. The loss was previously reported at roughly $31 million. The new report identifies an additional $37 million allegedly drained from the old addresses on the Tron and Bitcoin networks. Citing data from Dune Analytics, the ZachXBT argued that the Lazarus Group may be behind the attack. Neither company confirmed that the issues were caused by a hack, but security researchers have argued that the large outflows from known hot wallets, combined with stalled withdrawals, imply that the funds may have been moved by an attacker.
Pond0X token launch snafu leads to millions of dollars in losses
The launch of memecoin Pond0x (PNDX) has led to millions of dollars in losses for investors, according to multiple reports on social media on July 28. Data from the Maestrobots trading app shows that the token reached a price of $0.36 before collapsing to near zero in a span of five minutes. According to initial reports, PNDX had a faulty transfer function that allows users to transfer coins from any other user. Investors lost at least $2.2 million in the launch. The memecoin was announced on July 28 by pseudonymous Not Larva Labs founder Pauly, a developer of an NFT trading app for CryptoPunks and a separate parody collection called CryptoPhunks.
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“My first crypto transaction, in 2013, was to wire Bitcoin from the U.S. to Venezuela. Due to the economic collapse, there was no functioning banking system between these two countries.”
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“A wave of new cafes, bars, music venues and outdoor dining” could come to the UK – as the government unveils plans to overhaul planning rules and “breathe new life into the high street”.
Under the proposals, ministers also want to reform licensing rules to make it easier for disused shops to be converted into hospitality venues.
In a statement, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she planned to scrap “clunky, outdated rules… to protect pavement pints, al fresco dining and street parties”.
The reforms also aim to prevent existing pubs, clubs, and music venues from suffering noise complaints when new properties hit the market.
Developers who decide to build near those sites will be required to soundproof their buildings.
Image: Reuters file pic
As part of dedicated “hospitality zones”, permission for al fresco dining, street parties and extended opening hours will be fast-tracked.
The government says the reforms aim to modernise outdated planning and licensing rules as part of its Plan for Change, to help small businesses and improve local communities.
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The rough plans will be subject to a “call for evidence” which could further shape policy.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the proposals will “put the buzz back into our town centres”.
“Red tape has stood in the way of people’s business ideas for too long. Today we’re slashing those barriers to giving small business owners the freedom to flourish,” he said.
The hospitality industry has broadly welcomed the changes but argued tax reform was also essential.
Kate Nicholls, chairwoman of UKHospitality, described the proposals as “positive and encouraging”.
However, she added: “They can’t on their own offset the immediate and mounting cost pressures facing hospitality businesses which threaten to tax out of existence the businesses and jobs that today’s announcement seeks to support.”
While supporting the reforms, Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), had a similar message.
“These changes must go hand in hand with meaningful business rates reform, mitigating staggering employment costs, and a cut in beer duty so that pubs can thrive at the heart of the community,” she said.
In July, BBPA estimated that 378 pubs will shut this year across England, Wales and Scotland, compared with 350 closures in 2024, which it said would amount to more than 5,600 direct job losses.
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Pubs closing at a rate of one a day
Bar chain Brewdog announced this week that it would close 10 sites, partly blaming “rising costs, increased regulation, and economic pressures”.
Andrew Griffith MP, shadow business secretary, said: “Though any cutting of red tape for hospitality businesses is welcome, this is pure hypocrisy and inconsistency from Labour.”
He said the government was “crippling the hospitality industry by doubling business rates, imposing a jobs tax and a full-on strangulation of employment red tape”.
A campaign group for a third runway at Heathrow that gets funding from the airport has been distributing “incredibly misleading” information to households in west London, according to opponents of the expansion.
The group, called Back Heathrow, sent leaflets to people living near the airport, claiming expansion could be the route to a “greener” airport and suggesting it would mean only the “cleanest and quietest aircraft” fly there.
It comes as the airport prepares to submit its planning application for a third runway ahead of the 31 July deadline, following the government’s statement of support for the expansion.
Image: A plane lands over houses near Heathrow Airport. Pic: PA
Back Heathrow calls itself a “local campaign group of over 100,000 residents” and does not mention the funding it receives from the airport in the newsletter.
Its website also does not mention the current financial support and says it “initially launched with funding from Heathrow Airport but we have since grown”.
Back Heathrow also told Sky News it had “always been open” about the support it receives from the airport.
At the bottom of every web page, the organisation says: “Back Heathrow is a group of residents, businesses and community groups who have come together to defend the jobs that rely on Heathrow and to campaign for its secure future.”
Heathrow Airport said it had always been clear about funding Back Heathrow, but would not disclose how much it provides.
Image: Parmjit Dhanda in 2009 at the hustings to be Speaker of the House of Commons. Pic: Reuters
Who’s behind Back Heathrow?
The group’s executive director is former Labour minister Parmjit Dhanda, who was MP for Gloucester from 2001 to 2010 and sits on the National Policy Forum – the body responsible for developing Labour policy.
Latest accounts for Back Heathrow show it had five employees, including its two directors, in the financial year ending 30 June 2024. The second director is John Braggins, a former campaign adviser to Tony Blair.
The business had £243,961 in cash, the accounts show.
What are the group saying?
In the newsletter, executive director Mr Dhanda said people ask if Heathrow is sustainable. In answering the question, he appeared to suggest the airport can dictate what types of planes use Heathrow.
“We can build a cleaner, greener and smarter airport – using more sustainable aviation fuel, ensuring only the cleanest and quietest aircraft fly here, reduce stacking in our skies and modernise our airspace to cut emissions in flight,” he wrote.
When asked by Sky News what Back Heathrow meant and what the source for the claim was, the organisation pointed to the airport’s traffic light system of noise and emission measurements for the 50 largest airlines serving Heathrow.
“The scheme helps to see what areas certain airlines are excelling in and where improvements can be made,” a spokesperson said.
But those “cleaner and greener” claims were dismissed as “myths” by one campaigner.
Image: Back Heathrow’s spring 2025 newsletter
Finlay Asher is an aerospace engineer and co-founder of Safe Landing, a group of aviation workers and enthusiasts seeking climate improvements in the industry.
He said the emissions savings from sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) were “highly debatable” – but added that even if they were taken at face value, use of these fuels is “relatively low” and so only provides small emissions reductions.
“Air traffic growth at Heathrow will wipe this out,” he said.
Mr Asher also disputed the claim that only the cleanest and quietest aircraft will fly at Heathrow. “There is no policy in place which prevents older generation aircraft from being operated out of any airport,” he said.
As for reducing “stacking” – where aircraft wait over an airport to land – Mr Asher said if that’s the goal, “adding more aircraft to the sky won’t make this easier”.
Opposition to Back Heathrow’s claims also came from Rob Barnstone, founder of the No Third Runway Coalition, which is funded by five local authorities surrounding Heathrow Airport.
He said that regardless of fuel efficiencies or new quieter engines, having the additional 260,000 flights Heathrow has said will be created with an extra runway – in addition to the airport’s current cap of 480,000 – would create “an awful lot of noise”.
“For all the best will in the world, Heathrow is a very, very, very noisy neighbour… When you’re adding a quarter of a million additional flights, that’s going to create an awful lot of emissions, even if they’re using planes that are ever so slightly less environmentally damaging than previous planes,” Mr Barnstone said.
Green claims
Under the heading of “UK sustainable fuel industry for Heathrow”, Back Heathrow said “advances in electric and hydrogen powered aircraft can ensure we meet our environmental targets”.
Elaborating on this, Back Heathrow told Sky News: “Zero-emission electric and hydrogen aircraft are very much the end goal for civil aviation and countries like Norway have set 2040 as the year that all of their short-haul flights will be by electric planes.”
The statement was called “incredibly misleading” by Dr Alex Chapman, senior economist at the left-leaning think tank New Economics Foundation (NEF).
“There’s just absolutely no confidence that those aircraft are going to have any meaningful impact on emissions and commercial aviation in any reasonable time frame. And, yeah, we can all speculate as to what may not happen in 50 years’ time. But I think the people living around the airport should be given the information about what’s actually realistic.”
Even if the technology were available, the runway may not be ready for it, Dr Chapman said.
“Perhaps more importantly, there’s been no indication so far that the proposed new runway is being built to cater for those types of aircraft, because a runway that caters to electrical, hydrogen powered aircraft would be very different to one that was for conventional fuel, particularly in terms of the fuelling infrastructure around it that would be required: pipes to pipe hydrogen, massive charging power facilities.”
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Heathrow CEO on expansion plans
While work is under way to develop electric aircraft, there are currently no commercial electric flights taking place. The best-case scenario is battery-powered flights that may be suitable for short journeys.
But as a major international airport, more than 40% of Heathrow’s flights are long-haul and medium-haul.
And while airlines such as easyJet have called for government funding to develop hydrogen flying suitable for short-haul flights, there are obstacles to making regular commercial flights a reality.
Providing enough hydrogen for the plane journeys from renewable sources will be challenging, as will transporting the fuel, and reworking airport infrastructure for hydrogen refuelling.
Plans for hydrogen aircraft are at least a decade away, with Airbus saying it wants to get a 100-seat hydrogen plane in the air by 2035 – although Back Heathrow’s estimates for a third runway have flights taking off in 2034.
For now, rising emissions from flying are risking the UK’s climate targets, according to the independent government advisers of the Climate Change Committee, who found flights contribute more greenhouse gas than the entire electricity supply sector.
Image: Back Heathrow’s spring 2025 newsletter
Expanding at ‘full capacity’
On the first page of the newsletter, Back Heathrow says “Heathrow is at full capacity”, but the company told Sky News the airport has been “operating at 98% capacity since 2005”.
Despite its 98% capacity, Heathrow Airport has broken passenger number records every year for the past 14 years – excluding the pandemic years of 2020 to 2023.
Dr Chapman said Heathrow is at capacity regarding the government-imposed flight cap, not at the capacity of the current runway infrastructure.
“So if the government were, for example, to lift that cap on the number of aircraft movements, it’s pretty likely that they could actually fly 10% to 20% more flights out of the existing infrastructure,” he said.
As aeroplanes have expanded to carry more passengers, the airport has welcomed more people, he added.
The airport earlier this month announced plans to increase its capacity by 10 million passengers a year, before a third runway is built, and to raise the charge paid by passengers to fund the investment.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Back Heathrow represents tens of thousands of local people who want to make their views known on the importance of Heathrow to their communities and livelihoods today and into the future.
“We have always been clear that, alongside individual residents, local business groups and trade unions, we provide funding for Back Heathrow to provide a voice for local people who historically have not been heard in the debate about expanding Heathrow.”
Speaking for the campaign group, Mr Dhanda said: “At Back Heathrow we are proud of our link to Heathrow Airport (the clue is in the name).
“We have always been open about the fact that we receive support from the airport and that they helped set the organisation up to balance the debate about expansion at a time when the voices of ordinary working people from the diverse communities around Heathrow were not being heard.”
“Back Heathrow also receives support from trade unions, local businesses and residents from amongst the 100,000 registered supporters it now has,” he added.
“We want an end to the dither and delay. Back Heathrow supporters want to see economic growth and the thousands of new jobs and apprenticeships a new runway will create.”