Daily Digest - 21st September 2022

Headlines

▌Cryptocurrency Trading and Cryptocurrency Wallet App Downloads Decreased by 55% Year-on-Year

As the cryptocurrency market has been in a protracted bear market for most of last year, cryptocurrency apps have also seen a drop in interest, as evidenced by a sharp drop in app downloads. While the 69% year-over-year increase in cash-advance applications outpaced other fintech sectors, the performance of cryptocurrencies and retail investment applications showed a downward trend. In fact, cryptocurrency trading and cryptocurrency wallet app downloads dropped 55% year-over-year in the third quarter, according to data released by Apptopia on Sept. 19.

Policies

▌U.S. Treasury official: Sanctions on Cryptocurrency Mixers Could Deter Financial Crime

Sanctions on cryptocurrency mixers such as Tornado Cash could strengthen U.S. sanctions against Russia and other illicit actors and act as a deterrent to criminals who use this technology to launder money, Treasury Department Assistant Secretary said at a hearing on Sept. 20. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also slammed cryptocurrency mixers at the hearing, saying the industry downplayed and lied about the technology's negative impact.

Cryptocurrency

▌OpenSea To Support Arbitrum NFTs

OpenSea announced that it will start supporting the Layer 2 scaling network Arbitrum. OpenSea said, “This is a first step in building our goal of a web3 future where people have access to the NFTs they want on the chains they prefer.” Previously, the development team of Arbitrum announced the release of Nitro node version v2.0.5. This release includes numerous improvements to the orderer and validator systems and support for Consensusv7.

▌Data: 94% of All the BUSD Supply Is Controlled by Four Wallet Addresses

Data from Into The Block shows that the concentration of BUSD holdings is very high. About $19.31 billion BUSD (valued at $18.98 billion) is controlled by four wallet addresses, accounting for 93.46% of the total supply of BUSD. In addition, CoinMarketCap data shows that among all cryptocurrencies, BUSD ranks sixth in terms of market capitalization; among all stablecoins, BUSD ranks third in market value, right after USDT and USDC. It is reported that on September 6, Binance made an announcement about releasing an auto-convert feature for USD Coin (USDC) and other stablecoins with Binance USD (BUSD). Following in Binance’s footsteps, Indian crypto exchange WazirX did the same thing on September 19.