Market Watch | Bitcoin | $12,040 | 7 day: +6.8% | | Ethereum | $428 | 7 day: +14.3% | | All crypto | $376b | 7 day: +7.7% | | Bitcoin dominance | 58.9% | 7 day: -2.4% | Prices as of 5 p.m. ET
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 Social media influencer Dave Portnoy encouraged a pump and dump of Orchid (OXT). Portnoy has 1.7m followers on Twitter and 2.7m followers on Instagram. - After other groups pre-promoted Orchid from $0.20 to $0.85 over the weekend, Portnoy promoted it on Monday.
- He explained unambiguously, "I got this new sponsor; I got a new crypto that I'm interested in."
- On his livestream, Portnoy frequently transposed the name of the project, alternating between "Orchard" and "Orchid."
- Portnoy brazenly justified his pump and dump action, "The thing I like about pump and dumps in crypto, is it's encouraged [sic]. I don't do that in the stock market, because there's those little SEC guys."
- In Portnoy's opinion, "In crypto, you can pump and dump all day long."
- Orchid is still trading 200% higher than last week.
- Portnoy has reiterated his Orchid promotion.
Regarding the SEC: - The SEC has charged various celebrities for touting cryptocurrencies, including Steven Seagal, Floyd Mayweather, DJ Khaled, and Evander Holyfield.
- According to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, "I caution market participants against promoting or touting the offer and sale of coins."
- Clayton also said, "Experience shows that excessive touting in thinly traded and volatile markets can be an indicator of 'scalping,' 'pump and dump,' and other manipulations and frauds."
- The SEC has not commented on Portnoy's action yet.
What is Orchid? - Orchid is a blockchain project that enables private internet browsing, somewhat comparable to consumer VPN and anti-tracking services like Avast, McAfee, Symantec, Sophos, Surfshark, and many others.
- Very few Orchid users care to complete the nearly 20-step process required to utilize Orchid's private internet browsing, not to mention its higher cost relative to traditional consumer services which cost just $3 per month.
Why Orchid? - Orchid is one of the smallest cryptocurrencies listed across all of the large U.S. exchanges: Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, and Bittrex. Last week, its market capitalization was roughly $12m.
- Orchid's market capitalization is now just $32m, smaller than 181 other cryptocurrencies. Microcap assets with small floats are easy to manipulate. Orchid rallied 22% within minutes of Portnoy's pump, and then quickly fell 16% moments later.
- Writer's note: Due to time limitations, I have not had time to research the groups that pre-pumped Orchid during the weekend, ahead of Portnoy's pump on Monday. I also regret not having the time to identify Portnoy's self-described "new sponsor" that preceded his Orchid pick. Although I am aware that Portnoy is a paid spokesperson for Gemini and BlockFi, I am also curious if he was paid directly by an Orchid stakeholder. If you have any insights, feel free to click "reply" and send me your thoughts! — Aaron
Dave Portnoy 
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 A message from SLACK A chat with Slack's CSO Please join Slack on August 19th for a live webinar with our Chief Security Officer, Larkin Ryder as she will discuss Slack’s security posture, cover some of our recent security feature releases and give a sneak peek into our product roadmap. Enterprise-grade security is built into every aspect of how users collaborate and get work done in Slack. And we’re continuing to invest in security to help keep your data protected.
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Bloomberg examines the Chainlink (LINK) community. Chainlink fans have adopted the name "Link Marines," a play on the older, larger fan base of Ripple, "XRP Army." More: - Bloomberg reporters attribute Chainlink's euphoria to "this summer's fevered activity surrounding decentralized finance."
- As discussed yesterday in Inside Cryptocurrency, Chainlink has roughly 42% market share of the DeFi industry.
- Bloomberg reporters question yield harvesting, a new variant of staking that often promises "short-term returns of more than 100%."
- Bloomberg reporters note that the entire amount of funds that users have contributed into all DeFi apps is $6.3b — less than Chainlink's market capitalization.
Bloomberg
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The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee released its fifth installment regarding its investigation into 2016 Russian election interference, revealing more details about tZero. Today's volume confirms that Patrick Byrne, former CEO of Overstock.com and its tZero crypto exchange, was romantically involved with a now-jailed Russian spy, Maria Butina. Background: - Byrne resigned from Overstock on account of his romance with Butina.
- Although Byrne was wealthy and possessed a substantial bitcoin portfolio, the Senate Intelligence Committee assumed that Butina viewed Byrne as "a vector to yet another Republican presidential candidate, Senator Rand Paul."
- Tzero Group is quoted under the ticker TZROP on OTC Markets' grey markets, its lowest tier, beneath pinksheets. Broker dealers are not willing or able to publicly quote TZROP because of lack of investor interest, company information availability, or regulatory compliance.
- The price of TZROP has octupled this summer.
U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
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Quick Hits: - The worst flood in 70 years has hit China's Sichuan province, which accounts for nearly 40% of bitcoin's hashrate.
- Over the past four days, bitcoin's hashrate has collapsed 25%.
- Binance reveals that it has been cooperating with the Cyber Police of Ukraine, assisting in a takedown of criminals who authorities allege laundered $42m.
- The premium of Chicago Mercantile Exchange-listed bitcoin futures continues to widen above bitcoin spot prices, which is becoming a lucrative arbitrage trade.
- Binance lists Polkadot (DOT) with support for its 1:100 redenomination.
- Large cryptocurrency exchange OKEx is considering delisting Ethereum Classic (ETC) after several 51% attacks have threatened its reputation and security. A chief executive said, "they need to implement significant upgrades to the network to reduce the chances of another 51% attack happening."
- Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted concern regarding Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), a form of bitcoin bridging popularized by decentralized finance (DeFi) projects like Uniswap, Curve, Aave, and their decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
- Coinbase Custody adds Solana (SOL).
- Crypto prime broker Bequant integrates Signature Bank's fiat onramp.
- Vidyard and Hubspot have partnered to create an in-depth guide with proven video scripts and email templates for selling remotely.*
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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. | |
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