| Bitcoin | $48,834 | 7 day: -5.9% | | Ethereum | $1,550 | 7 day: -8.9% | | All crypto | $1.49T | 7 day: -7.4% | | Bitcoin dominance | 60.9% | 7 day: -0.8% | Prices as of 10:40 a.m. EST
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Coinbase head of institutional coverage Brett Tejpaul revealed that the exchange holds bitcoin for investment purposes. - Tejpaul clarified that the San Francisco-based crypto exchange has directly held bitcoin as an investment (on its own balance sheet) since its founding in 2012.
- Although Tejpaul did not disclose the precise bitcoin investment, it is the first admission of using bitcoin as an investment versus simply a transactional denominator.
- The crypto company, valued at $100B, has been the primary execution partner for bitcoin purchases by MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): Ahead of Coinbase's $100B+ IPO, the company's Head of Institutional Coverage revealed that the exchange holds $BTC as an investment. The Block Crypto 
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 ECB The European Central Bank (ECB) wants veto power over stablecoins within the eurozone. - In a legal opinion on European Union rule-making, the ECB said it deserves the final word on whether a stablecoin such as Diem (formerly known as Libra) could launch within Europe.
- The ECB has a single mandate: to maintain the stability of prices. (In contrast, the U.S. Federal Reserve has this mandate plus another mandate to maximize employment.)
- The ECB fears that a widely-adopted stablecoin could reduce the ECB's control of payments, banking, or the money supply itself.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): The European Central Bank wants veto power over stablecoins like Diem within the eurozone. The ECB is mandated to maintain price stability within its bloc and fears that stablecoins could reduce its ability to meet its mandates. Reuters
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Hackers exploited a drag-and-drop tool for users to create decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions called Furucombo (COMBO). - Attackers were able to steal approximately $15M worth of Ethereum (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens.
- A fake contract tricked FuruŃombo into using the wrong implementation of Aave (AAVE), another DeFi liquidity protocol, which allowed the attackers to steal funds.
- Developers claim that "the vulnerability is patched" and that they are working on a "mitigation plan."
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): Hackers exploited a drag-and-drop tool for users to create decentralized finance #DeFi transactions called Furucombo $COMBO The Block Crypto
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 Tim Draper Bloomberg reporter Matt Leising discusses the "Coinbase Mafia" and the "remarkably small circle of mostly men" who have become bitcoin billionaires. Leising's use of the word "mafia" connotates the PayPal Mafia, a group of wealthy co-founders who operate some of today's largest technology companies. More: - Even after adjusting for exchange and custodial wallets, a single-digit percentage of bitcoin addresses control over 90% of bitcoin.
- A majority of the world's bitcoin billionaires are white men.
- Leising discusses demographic examples like Coinbase's Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson, Andreessen Horowitz's Chris Dixon, Pantera's Dan Morehead, Digital Currency Group's Barry Silbert, and Gemini's Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
- Forbes verified other white, male bitcoin billionaires: Ripple's Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb, MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson's Tim Draper.
- Bloomberg also reported that Coinbase's smaller U.S. competitor, Jesse Powell's Kraken, is raising money at a $10B valuation, or roughly 1/10th the valuation of Coinbase.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): Bloomberg's @mattleising discusses the white, male #bitcoin billionaires of the "Coinbase Mafia." Bloomberg
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- Robinhood has added 6M new customer accounts so far in 2021.
- Strategists at JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) recommended that investors consider an allocation of up to 1% in digital currencies "to achieve any efficiency gain in the overall risk-adjusted returns of the portfolio."
- Techemy Capital launched a DeFi Exchange-Traded Portfolio on Balancer.
- Venture capitalist Glenn Hutchins said that consumers are waiting for use cases and real-world applications before fully embracing digital currencies.
- Economist Mohamed El-Erian said that bitcoin's success captures three types of investor that central banks should be concerned about: those who believe bitcoin will become money as opposed to a commodity, those "adopting bitcoin for negative reasons" to protect themselves, and those using bitcoin to speculate.
- Rebecca Patterson, Director of Investment Research at Bridgewater, does not consider bitcoin to be an alternative currency but rather "digital gold."
- Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) analysts said that "risk-on" bitcoin and "defensive" gold serve different roles in investment portfolios, with "enough room for both" in the market.
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 |  | Curated by Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, and bitcoin follower since $1, Aaron Wise. Temporarily listening to news squawk boxes in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Charlotte Hayes-Clemens is an editor and writer based in Vancouver. She has dabbled in both the fiction and non-fiction world, having worked at HarperCollins Publishers and more recently as a writing coach for new and self-published authors. Proper semi-colon usage is her hill to die on. | |
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