Market Watch

Prices as of 2:15 p.m. ET

Ethereum 2.0's testnet is live with over 21,000 validators. This is the final test prior to the launch of Ethereum 2.0, expected within the next couple months.

Timeline...

Square reports a 186% quarterly growth in bitcoin revenue. The popular consumer Point-of-Sale terminal and finance app said that it benefited from CARES Act stimulus and unemployment benefits, including "a portion of customers" who direct deposited these payments into their Cash App accounts.

More:

• Square's $17m of gross profit from Cash App bitcoin transactions during Q2 represents a 711% increase versus Q2 2019.
• In Q2 2018, revenues totaled just $37m.
• By Q2 2019, that figure increased to $125m.
• Q3 2019 revenue totaled $875m.

The supply of MakerDAO's stablecoin DAI ballooned 181% in July. The quantity of DAI has grown to 379.1m, up from 134.7m on July 1.

More:

• The recent DeFi boom has driven demand for DAI due to its use in the reward systems of liquidity mining pools Compound and yEarn.
• Demand has priced DAI consistently trading above its targeted $1 peg. As recently as July 22, DAI was trading at $1.14.
• MakerDAO is changing the parameters of protocols to accommodate increased demand by offering new collateral types.
• DAI's governance token, Maker (MKR), has rallied 36% YTD.

DEA agents infiltrated the darknet and have secured a grand jury indictment for two alleged drug dealers. U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin said the co-conspirators used "virtual currency" and "sophisticated cyber-enabled barriers" to hide their sale of opioids into the U.S.

More:

• A federal grand jury indicted two Costa Rican residents, David Brian Pate and Jose Luis Fung Hou, for distributing controlled substances and conspiring to launder money, among other charges.
• The Dept. of Justice alleges that the pair sold narcotics on Silk Road and AlphaBay in exchange for bitcoin. Pate's monikers included "buyersclub" on darknet markets, forums, and cryptocurrency exchanges.

Australia's BTC Markets has revamped its exchange. Claiming to be Australia's largest fiat-to-crypto exchange with 270,000 verified users, the exchange processes $4.5m in daily transactions.

Timeline:

• It launched its new website around 7pm EDT.
• Errors and outages lasted for four hours.
• CoinMarketCap has begun analyzing its new fiat-to-crypto trading pairs, such as COMP/AUD.

Quick Hits:

• The Sandbox (SAND) becomes the 14th token sale on Binance Launchpad.
• Binance launches futures leaderboards offering social interactions, following/unfollowing, and ROI and P&L across contracts.
• Loans outstanding at Genesis Global Trading reached $1.4b in Q2.
• Decentralized domain name registrar, Unstoppable Domains, mints .crypto Top-Level Domains that are difficult to censor and supported by Coinbase's wallet.
• Men’s skincare is the latest industry to be disrupted. Read why times have changed.*

*This is sponsored content