August 2022 Institutional Reading List

In this edition, we discuss Bitcoin Fedimints as an approach to Bitcoin custody, H1 crypto fundraising outpacing all of 2021, the Nomad bridge attack aftermath, and more.

August 8, 2022

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  • Coinbase Institutional

In this edition of the Coinbase Institutional Monthly Reading List we present a roundup of Coinbase institutional trading intelligence articles, take a look at recent venture capital investments, cover the latest in institutional and blockchain news, and more.

We also encourage readers to visit and subscribe to our team’s other publications to stay up to date via our Weekly Market Commentary, Institutional Research Portal, Twitter account, and Weekly Market Update Calls.

Institutional trading intelligence

Could L2s eat Ethereum’s lunch? We analyze the feasibility of layer 2 scaling solutions (L2s) eventually accruing more value than their layer 1 hosts and how this could affect staking and security.

Bitcoin Fedimints In this report, we examine a novel approach to bitcoin custody with several interesting implications in terms of adoption, scalability and privacy.

Institutional Insights: Our Approach to Crypto Financing In recent weeks, some firms have struggled to remain solvent due to insufficient risk controls. See how Coinbase implements secure and comprehensive risk management practices that enable institutions to successfully navigate the cryptoeconomy.

Polygon (MATIC): Scaling solutions Polygon has seen heightened network adoption through both corporate partnerships and increased developer activity. We dive into what Polygon is, its tokenomics and its potential challenges.

Crypto capital watch

Crypto fundraising hits $30.3B in H1, outpacing all of 2021: Report Despite the ongoing market slump, the cryptocurrency sector has already raised $30.3 billion in funds, outpacing an entire year of fundraising in 2021, a new report shows.

Brevan Howard Scores Largest Crypto Hedge Fund Launch Ever Brevan Howard’s flagship digital assets-focused vehicle raised more than $1 billion from institutional investors, according to four sources with knowledge of the matter — with the vast majority of the lofty haul timed with the fund’s launch earlier this year. 

Schwab Launches Its First Crypto-related ETF—the Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF Schwab Asset Management, the asset management arm of The Charles Schwab Corporation, announced the launch of the Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF (NYSE Arca: STCE). The fund is designed to track Schwab Asset Management’s new proprietary index, the Schwab Crypto Thematic Index, providing investors with global exposure to companies that may benefit from the development or utilization of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

Crypto economy tracker

Vulnerabilities in Cross-chain Bridge Protocols Emerge as Top Security Risk Following the Nomad bridge exploit, Chainalysis estimates that $2 billion in cryptocurrency has been stolen from cross-chain bridges across 13 separate hacks so far this year. Attacks on cross-chain bridges account for 69% of total funds stolen so far this year. 

Crypto-Mixing Service Tornado Cash Blacklisted by US Treasury The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a watchdog agency tasked with preventing sanctions violations, on Monday added Tornado Cash to its Specially Designated Nationals list, a running tally of blacklisted people, entities and cryptocurrency addresses.

Boozman, Stabenow, Booker and Thune Introduce Legislation to Regulate Digital Commodities U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, and John Boozman (R-AR), Ranking Member, introduced the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act of 2022 to give the CFTC new tools and authorities to regulate digital commodities. This mandatory framework will safeguard customers and markets.

Institutional & blockchain news

The different types of ZK-EVMsThis post from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin attempts to describe a taxonomy of different "types" of EVM equivalence, and what are the benefits and costs of trying to achieve each type.

EthereumPoW Fork Won't 'Significantly' Harm Ethereum - Vitalik Buterin Another hard fork won't "significantly" harm Ethereum (ETH) and "pretty much everyone" in the Ethereum ecosystem is supportive of The Merge, when the network transitions from a proof-of-work (PoW) system to proof-of-stake (PoS), according to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Coinbase

Coinbase selected by BlackRock Coinbase announced that it is partnering with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, to provide institutional clients of Aladdin®, BlackRock’s end-to-end investment management platform, with direct access to crypto, starting with bitcoin, through connectivity with Coinbase Prime.

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