Market Watch | Bitcoin | $11,730 | 7 day: -0.3% | | Ethereum | $435 | 7 day: +8.3% | | All crypto | $379b | 7 day: +1.7% | | Bitcoin dominance | 57.2% | 7 day: -2.9% | Prices as of 2:30 p.m. ET
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 Claims from Ethereum Classic's homepage Ethereum Classic (ETC) suffered its third 51% attack this month on Saturday. In a typical 51% attack, hackers temporarily rent a large amount of computing power, overtake and fork the blockchain, and then quickly sell tokens from both the original and hacked versions of the blockchain before exchanges realize that the attack happened, thus "double spending" two versions of the same token. Ransacked: - ETC's blockchain suffered two attacks earlier this month that affected 3,693 and 4,000 blocks.
- Saturday's attack affected 7,000 blocks.
- ETC Labs is desperately trying to implement defenses against further attacks.
- The market capitalization of ETC has fallen by 9% this month.
- Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (OTCQX:ETCG), which formerly traded at a higher premium to its Net Asset Value (NAV), has decreased by 36% this month.
- Here is a list of cryptocurrencies ranked by the theoretical cost of a 51% attack.
Coindesk 
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 New research on Chinese and Russian dominance of bitcoin activity. U.S. residents dominate trading on the four largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange websites: Coinbase, Kraken, Bittrex and Gemini. The same cannot be said for... In today's Inside Cryptocurrency Premium, we dive deep into the startling statistics uncovered by researchers about the dominant position of the Russian and Chinese governments over bitcoin's ostensibly decentralized network. We also post statistics about the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, showing that residents of allegedly prohibited countries are actually responsible for a significant amount of trading activity on those exchanges. CHINA'S BITCOIN?  | | | |
China Construction Bank, one of the country's four major state-owned commercial banks, accidentally released a central bank digital currency (CBDC) wallet. After users started asking questions, the bank disabled the feature in its app. Whoops: - On Saturday, by searching "digital currency" in Chinese, users of China Construction Bank's app could navigate to a digital yuan wallet service and activate it by registering with a mobile phone number.
- The same query will now return an error message, "This function is not yet officially available to the public. Please wait patiently."
- Some users had even managed to transact small amounts with the wallet.
- Under the direction of the People's Bank of China, China's big four state-owned commercial banks have been developing digital yuan wallets and running internal tests in anticipation of a 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics promotional showcase.
- See Inside Cryptocurrency's prior coverage of China's CBDC here, here, and here.
Coindesk
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 Screenshot of IRS Letter The IRS clarifies that microtask payments made with virtual currencies are taxable. - According to a memorandum that is being re-circulated, a taxpayer who receives convertible virtual currency in exchange for performing a microtask through a crowdsourcing platform has received consideration in exchange for performing a service, and the convertible virtual currency received is taxable as ordinary income.
- According to the IRS, virtual currency is a digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value other than a representation of the U.S. dollar or a foreign currency.
- Because bitcoin can be sold for USD, bitcoin is a "convertible" virtual currency and is considered property for federal income tax purposes.
- Accordingly, general tax principles applicable to property transactions apply to transactions involving convertible virtual currency.
IRS
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 $52b petroleum giant Equinor (NYSE:EQNR) will partner with Crusoe Energy Systems to reduce natural gas flaring. Equinor, formerly known as Statoil, is 67% owned by the Norwegian government. Can crypto mining reduce natural gas flares? - Crusoe claims to be able to significantly reduce natural gas flaring by mining cryptocurrency.
- Crusoe claims that its technology can convert natural gas that would otherwise be flared into electricity for cryptocurrency mining.
- According to screenshots from Equinor's intranet received by Arcane Research Friday, Equinor plans to reduce flaring via a partnership with Colorado-based Crusoe Energy Systems.
- Initial test sites will be located in North Dakota's Bakken oilfield.
- Crusoe's investors include Bain Capital, Founders Fund, Winklevoss Capital, and Polychain Capital.
Coindesk
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Barry Silbert's $4b asset manager Grayscale releases its July research report. Grayscale's survey found that: - 69% of investors interested in bitcoin would consider gold a good investment, which compares to 55% of the average investor population.
- Investors interested in bitcoin are 65% "definitely" or "probably" to invest in gold, which compares to 51% of the average investor population.
- 75% of all investors and 68% of those interested in Bitcoin say that digital crime is their top fear about bitcoin.
- Gold has been a currency for five millennia.
Grayscale
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Quick Hits: - Japanese $5b giant SBI Holdings has launched contract for difference (CFD) trading with JPY and USD pairs against BTC, ETH, and XRP. The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says it plans to ban retail cryptocurrency CFD trading.
- A new competitor to DeFi exchange Uniswap, Sushiswap (SUSHI), generated over $30m in trading volume yesterday. Yesterday, Uniswap reported its highest daily trading volume ever of $450m, exceeding even Coinbase Pro.
- DeFi darling yEarn.Finance (YFI) has rallied 28x since July 20.
- Chainlink (LINK) acquires DECO, a technology for utilizing HTTPS/TLS, from Cornell University. Dr. Ari Juels developed the technology at Cornell. Chainlink has hired Dr. Juels as its new Chief Scientist.
- Maria Bustillos, the founding editor of the digital magazine Popula and benefactor of the now-defunct blockchain media startup Civil, announces a new nine-publication conglomerate, Brick House. She said in an interview with Coindesk, "I was never a supporter of putting token governance as the first big project at Civil."
- Coinbase has added Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz and DoorDash executive Gokul Rajaram to its board of directors. Chris Dixon departs.
- Vault Health offers premium in-home treatments and online doctor's visits for men. No more awkward conversations.*
*This is a sponsored post.
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 |  | Written and curated by wide-eyed bitcoin watcher since $1, Aaron Wise. Streaming headline junkie, Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, 2017 founder of Cryptocurrency Newsfeed. Temporarily based in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Edited by Eduardo Garcia in New York. Eduardo is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School M.A. Science program and writes regularly for the New York Times Climate Fwd: newsletter. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
