Markets are flat with BTC and ETH still trading at 2-month lows. Last week, MasterCard and Visa announced they are stepping back from Binance card partnership, the IRS proposed new crypto tax rules, and the U.S. central bank Jackson Hole symposium failed to move markets.

Volatility came back to life last week as BTC dropped 9% in under 24 hours, hitting its lowest level since June. Today’s Data Debrief is taking a broader view of the market, revisiting some of the key trends shaping the market this summer.

Last week, the U.S. SEC delayed its decision on the Ark 21Shares Bitcoin spot ETF application and said it will appeal the Ripple court ruling, Coinbase officially launched its Base Blockchain. The U.S. Fed added Hedera-based Dropp to its list of FedNow service providers.

The DeFi sector continues to reel from the Curve exploit, although more than 70% of funds have been returned. In non-exploit news, Coinbase exceeded analyst expectations with Q2 revenues, a wave of companies filed for ether ETFs, and Tether is now one of the largest Bitcoin holders.

It was a landmark week for crypto regulation after the House Financial Services Committee advanced a crucial bill that could provide clearer guidelines for the industry if passed. In other news, Curve Finance experienced an exploit, crypto ETPs saw record inflows, and the Bank of Italy tapped Polygon for an institutional DeFi pilot.

The SEC finally responded to the Ripple ruling, asserting the case was “wrongly decided,” contributing to a slight pullback for altcoins amid a wider rally. This week, we explore Bitcoin dominance, centralized exchange concentration, the Arkham token launch, and bearish bets against BNB.

This week we have a special edition of our research dedicated to EthCC. The Kaiko team gave three technical presentations exploring market concepts, looking at Uniswap V3 LP trading strategies, market manipulation on centralized exchanges, and the importance of liquidity data in DeFi.

Markets are soaring after a judge ruled in (partial) favor of Ripple’s case with the SEC. Meanwhile, Celsius’ CEO was arrested for fraud, Binance laid off 1,000 workers, and Multichain is shutting down.