TLDR: Fidelity joins on filing for an ETF, Slovakia decreases taxes for Bitcoin holders, HSBC Hong Kong allows customers to buy/sell Ether ETF, Cosmos and Polkadot are connected, FTX wants another shot & More.

Bitcoin Highlights of the Week

1. Michael Saylor is back accumulating that $BTC. MicroStrategy has acquired an additional 12,333 BTC for ~$347.0 million at an average price of $28,136 per bitcoin.

Today, the company holds 152,333 bitcoin acquired for ~$4.52 billion at an average price of $29,668 per bitcoin.

“Remember when Saylor was making fun of for having $2B unrealized loss?, well now the profit is now close to ~$100M”..

2. $4.2 trillion asset manager Fidelity files for spot Bitcoin ETF, joining peer institutions. (Now a total of seven pending applications).

3. Hong Kong’s largest bank, HSBC, to offer Bitcoin & Ethereum ETFs to customers.

4. Slovakia decreased the bitcoin capital gains tax from 39% to 7%, when held for at least one year.

5. Nebraska’s former head of Economic Development testifies bitcoin mining “lowers property taxes and helps build more renewable energy”. On top, the North Carolina House is to vote on bill directing treasury to study the process of buying and holding Bitcoin "to hedge against inflation.” Swan team quickly noticed the state’s $50K budget and offered the analysis for free so they can use that budget as their first bitcoin purchase.

6. Riot Platforms, partners with Bitcoin ASIC manufacturer MicroBT, to bring production to America.

7. Tether & Bitfinex: Signed MOU with Georgia, Launched Bitfinex P2P, Issued $100k Grant to Qubes OS

8. Amboss just launched Ambucks, a new prepaid credit system. Users can can now bootstrap your first lightning node just by making a simple credit/debit card payment!

9. Spiral Renews Developer Grant for Thunderbiscuit

10. Bitcoin ETF BITO -1.97%↓ just had its biggest weekly inflow in a year as it hits $1 billion in assets.

11. Forbes just published another Bitcoin piece titled: “Human Rights And Electricity, 2 Reasons Why Africans Are Turning To Bitcoin”

Little by little, mainstream media changes to a more positive outlook about Bitcoin.

12. Based on energy, using vented methane to power Bitcoin mining reduces 96.5x more emissions than utility scale solar.

13. Geyser projects were on pace for another big month of Lightning payments, with over 200M sats raised in June, with Bitcoin Beach being the first project raising over 100M sats in a single month.

14. CoinCorner showcase how revolutionary is the Lightning network as payment rails when transferring from 🇬🇧 Bank Account to 🇺🇸 Bank Account within 2 minutes.

Ethereum Highlights of the Week

Dencun (Cancun + Deneb) upgrade

• Latest all core devs – consensus (ACDC) call video. Notes from Christine Kim:

  • Deneb upgrade Engine API changes: deprecate Merge config exchange and proposed flag for EL to suggest local block building

  • EIP7251 (increase max effective balance) discussion

  • E-star name upgrade candidate for inclusion: EIP7002 (EL triggerable exits)

• EIP4844:

  • EIP4844 devnet 7 launched (same spec as devnet 6)

  • Latest EIP4844 implementer call video. Notes from Terence. Devnet 8 should include Dencun EIPs

• Execution-spec-tests v1.0.0: upgraded to PyTest, EIP4844 tests

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