This “Crypto City” guide looks at Melbourne’s crypto culture, the city’s most notable projects and people, its financial infrastructure, which retailers accept crypto and where you can find blockchain education courses — and there’s even a short history with all the juicy details of famous controversies and collapses. Fast factsCity: MelbourneCountry: AustraliaPopulation: 5.15MEstablished: 1835Language: English Australia’s second-largest city may lack Sydney’s amazing harbor views, but it makes up for it with a focus on art, sports and culture. There are more live music venues here per capita than any other city in the world, and the city has produced heaps of notable acts, including Nick Cave, Men at Work, The Avalanches and Kylie Minogue.Located on the southern coast of Australia, Melbourne wasn’t founded until almost 50 years after Sydney, but it quickly became the wealthiest place in the world during the Gold Rush, from the 1850s to 1880s. It’s a very multicultural city, with the 10th-largest immigrant population globally. The city also ranks at number 27 on the Global Financial Centers Index and is home to the Australian Rules football code, the Australian Grand Prix and the Australian Open. It was the filming location for the first Mad Max film alongside Chopper and Animal Kingdom. Politically, Melbourne is more left-wing than any other city in the country and is home to the union movement. The Yarra River in Melbourne. Source: Pexels Crypto cultureMelbourne embraced cryptocurrencies early on, and a thriving community was built up through regular meetups including Blockchain Melbourne, Women in Blockchain, Web3 Melbourne and futureAUS. Karen Cohen, deputy chairperson of Blockchain Australia, recalls there being a huge influx of newcomers during the ICO boom in 2017.“The meetup culture was really exciting. We couldn’t get enough space, so people were watching our meetups on Facebook Live because they couldn’t get into the room because it was so busy.”Talk & Trade meetups were held every Wednesday from 2015 to 2019 at the Blockchain Centre. Located at the Victorian Innovation Hub in the docklands, the Blockchain Centre was the heart of the community in real life, at least until the coronavirus pandemic struck.Melbourne has been home to numerous crypto exchanges since 2013, and a plethora of ICOs were also founded in the city in 2017 and 2018, including CanYa, which operates freelancer platform CanWork, and blockchain voting company Horizon State.While the pandemic has moved most things online for the past 18 months, Blockchain Australia hosted a series of events at YBF Ventures in the Melbourne central business district (CBD) for the national Blockchain Week earlier this year, and Talk & Trade is now held at RMIT, in between lockdowns.With live events beginning to reemerge as vaccine rates slowly grind up, YBF Ventures will relaunch its blockchain community meetups, supported by Cohen as the expert in residence for blockchain. “2020, sadly, has been hard with COVID, so it’s had to move online,” she says. “But I think if we were able to meet in real life, it would still have very much a meetup culture.” Melbourne has the largest tram network in the world. Source: PexelsProjects and companiesMelbournites appear very interested in solving the problem of interblockchain communication, with at least three major cross-chain projects having strong ties to the city. CanYa founder JP Thor helped found the cross-chain decentralized liquidity protocol THORChain, and some of the anonymous local devs from THORChain went on to work on a similar project called Sifchain. Melbourne’s Simon Harman founded another cross-chain automated market maker, Chainflip, along with the privacy project Loki, which is now known as Oxen.Web 3.0 developer studios Flex Dapps and TypeHuman are located here, as is the white-label blockchain services provider Pellar, whose infrastructure processes 10 million requests a day from around the world. Researchers from the government-run Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and Monash University invented the MatRiCT technology (licensed to Hcash), which protects crypto from being cracked by quantum computers. NFT digital racehorse game Zed Run just raised $20 million from investors including TCG and Andreessen Horowitz. Algorand also has a noticeable presence in Melbourne, including through the Meld gold platform and Algomint. Dear Elon,Best regards.Chris Hemsworth, @THORChain CEO, 2021 pic.twitter.com/4MDli8anpW— Fede ⚡️ (@ledgermex) May 14, 2021 Crypto exchanges headquartered in Melbourne include BTC Markets, Cointree, CoinSpot, CoinJar, noncustodial exchange Elbaite and OTC service Caleb and Brown. Major global fiat-to-crypto on-ramp Banxa is also based in the city.Up-and-coming projects include insurance platform Day By Day, onboarding and fraud protection platform FrankieOne and accounting software AEM. DeFi-focused crypto fund Apollo Capital — which is a big investor in Synthetix and Internet Computer, among others — is also based in Melbourne. Apollo’s chief investment officer, Henrik Andersson, co-founded the decentralized pool trading platform dHEDGE and yield platform mStable (and helped out with a few ideas for this guide). Melbourne only has a dozen or so Bitcoin ATMs. Source: PexelsFinancial infrastructureThe first Bitcoin ATM was installed at the Emporium in 2014, but there are only 13 Bitcoin ATMs dotted around Melbourne, mostly in big shopping centers. Australian banks have a slightly wary approach to crypto — while many banks are happy to allow users to send funds to exchanges, plenty of users have reported being suddenly debanked, especially those running crypto-related businesses. “They close accounts at will based on crypto use, and we’ve seen that happen, so they’re still not supportive as an industry,” says Cohen.The New Payments Platform in Australia is something of a competitor to crypto (at least in terms of payments), allowing instant, 24/7 bank transfers using a phone number or email address. Often referred to as PayID, it was cited by the Reserve Bank of Australia as a reason that a central bank digital currency is not needed in Australia just yet. There are hundreds of retailers here in the Blueshyft network (Synthetix founder Kain Warwick’s other project) that accept cash payments over the counter for crypto exchanges.Where can I spend crypto?According to Coinmap, you’ll struggle to spend cryptocurrency directly in Melbourne at present, with fewer than 40 retail outlets accepting Bitcoin. (By way of comparison, Ljubljana…

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This Week Amazon plans to accept Bitcoin payments this year, claims insiderThe crypto community was going wild at the beginning of this week after rumors circulated that Amazon was planning to accept Bitcoin payments. The rumors started after Amazon posted a job opening for a digital currency and blockchain product lead on July 22. Four days later, an anonymous source within Amazon reportedly told London business newspaper City A.M. that the e-commerce giant was planning to start accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments by the end of 2021. “This isn’t just going through the motions to set up cryptocurrency payment solutions at some point in the future — this is a full-on, well-discussed, integral part of the future mechanism of how Amazon will work,” the source told City A.M., according to a report published on Sunday.Chinese crypto journalist Colin Wu attributed Monday’s surging market action, during which Bitcoin gained roughly 15% in less than three hours, to Amazon’s rumored plans. How wrong that very self-assured sounding quote from an unnamed source turned out to be after the multinational giant refuted the speculation two days later. “Notwithstanding our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true,” a spokesperson said. Bitcoin struggles at $40K after ‘most confusing’ Jerome Powell press conferenceBitcoin rose above $40,000 on July 29, a day after the Federal Reserve hinted that it was getting closer to winding down its asset purchasing program that has boosted the economic recovery of the United States. The digital gold previously approached $41,000 ahead of the critical Fed update. Unsurprisingly, it started losing upward momentum after the Federal Open Market Committee released its policy statement, followed by a press conference helmed by the Fed’s chairman, Jerome Powell.Powell had previously said that the Fed’s asset purchases would continue until it sees “substantial further progress” in the U.S. economic recovery. However, for a while, it was unspecified as to what that actually meant, and Powell finally cleared that up after being questioned in a July 28 press conference.Turns out that “substantial further progress” means strong labor numbers and gains towards maximum employment. Maximum employment refers to the highest level of achievable employment that the economy can sustain while maintaining a stable inflation rate. Given the rise of inflation and the decline of jobs due to the pandemic, the Fed’s maximum employment targets may need further clarification.   BTC investors have been closely monitoring how soon the central bank might unwind its $120-billion-per-month bond-buying program due to its role in aiding the Bitcoin bull market. Binance cuts withdrawal limits, rolls out tax reporting toolFollowing increased scrutiny aimed at Binance from governments and financial institutions across the globe, the world’s biggest crypto exchange has been working on regulatory compliance. In the latest attempt to maintain dialogue with global regulators, Binance introduced withdrawal limits and a new tax reporting system.    The company officially announced on July 27 a major update to its Know Your Customer policies, significantly reducing maximum withdrawal amounts for users who have not completed full identity verification.Effective from the date of the announcement, new Binance accounts whose users have completed only basic account verifications will be unable to withdraw more than 0.06 Bitcoin per day, worth roughly $2,329 at the time of writing. Previously, the maximum daily withdrawal amount was capped at 2 BTC, or about $77,661. On July 30, the platform also announced that it will be shutting down its crypto derivatives trading for customers across Europe, first starting with Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. This week, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO and founder of Binance, said he wanted the crypto exchange to work with local regulators as it establishes regional headquarters.Zhao, also known as CZ, hinted that Binance would depart from its decentralized approach to finance and that wanted the exchange to coordinate with regulators as the company expands.“We want to be licensed everywhere,” CZ said. “From now on, we’re going to be a financial institution.” MicroStrategy pledges to buy more BTC despite paper loss on its holdings of $424.8M in Q2MicroStrategy pledged to buy more Bitcoin despite reporting impairment losses of $424.8 million in Q2, after it stated that it was “pleased” by the results of its digital asset strategy in its July 29 Q2 report. At a first glance, it appeared that MicroStrategy had lost the plot, as the Q2 report showed that as of June 30, MicroStrategy held an approximate 105,085 BTC with a carrying value of $2.051 billion, at an impairment loss of $689.6 million since acquisition. The average carrying amount per Bitcoin was an estimated $19,518. Earlier this week Elon Musk’s Tesla also published a Q2 report which showed a $23 million impairment loss on its Bitcoin holdings.As both firms categorize Bitcoin as an “intangible asset,” accounting rules mandate that they must report an impairment loss when the asset’s price drops below its cost basis. However, they are not required to report price appreciation in the specified asset until the position is realized through a sale.The digital asset figures were calculated using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) — a collection of commonly accepted accounting rules used for financial reporting. The firm also provided non-GAAP calculations, which in this report exclude the “impact of share-based compensation expense and impairment losses and gains on sale from intangible assets.”The non-GAAP figures paint a different picture for MicroStrategy’s digital asset holdings, with the BTC cost basis at $2.741 billion but its market value is $3.653 billion, which reflects an average cost per BTC at $26,080 and a market price of $34,763 as of June 30.This may be the reason why MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor continues to double down on BTC and pursue the hodl modl. PayPal set to launch crypto trading in the UK and may embrace DeFiOn July 30, it was revealed that global payments platform PayPal is looking to…

Every four years (usually), the world comes together in a celebration of sport and competition at the Olympic Games. In the spirit of Tokyo 2020, let’s look at countries that are deserving of gold medals across different spheres of the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.The variety of sports featured at the Olympics have changed over the years, and the current summer Olympics in Japan features a total of 33 different sports. Exciting competitions like skateboarding and surfing were added for Japan as the global showpiece continues to evolve and adopt different sports.The cryptocurrency and blockchain space is similar in this regard. Many different working parts make for a colorful community both united and divided by their preferences of cryptocurrencies and blockchain platforms.Let’s take a look at which countries and institutions take home gold medals in their respective crypto and blockchain codes.Gold for Bitcoin adoption goes to… El SalvadorSports often have fans cheering for the underdog and El Salvador has emerged as one of those lesser-known players that have burst onto the global stage in 2021. The Central American country grabbed headlines this year as it officially became the first in the world to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender. Without delving too deep into the specifics, El Salvador’s congress voted to pass President Nayib Bukele’s Bitcoin Law which recognizes Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender alongside the United States dollar, with 62 of a total 84 votes in agreement with the new legislation.  The law allows citizens to pay for goods and services in Bitcoin, and Bukele also stated that the Salvadoran government will guarantee the convertibility of BTC into USD at the time of any given transaction. The government plans to airdrop $30 worth of BTC to every citizen later this year.There have been critics of the law change both locally and abroad, but the overall sentiment seems positive for the adoption of Bitcoin and a change of perception toward the preeminent cryptocurrency. Nevertheless, there are a few final hurdles that lie ahead for the country. Firstly, the International Monetary Fund has issued its own warning about the potential downsides of countries adopting Bitcoin that currently have unstable inflation rates. Secondly, some citizens of El Salvador have also expressed their skepticism of the move. A survey undertaken at the beginning of July involving 1,233 citizens revealed that nearly half of the respondents knew nothing about Bitcoin. Of the poll takers, 20% agreed with the move, highlighting the need for an educational campaign to complement the progressive move to make BTC a legal tender in the country.Change is often met with uncertainty and resistance, but in terms of progression and adoption, El Salvador takes the gold medal in this first category.Switzerland takes silver in the category, thanks to its crypto-friendly laws that have boosted the use of cryptocurrencies and companies working in the space. The USA clinches the bronze medal thanks to the efforts of Miami’s Bitcoin-friendly mayor Francis Suarez, who’s been driving various initiatives to promote the use of BTC.China leads the CBDC race, but anti-crypto policies lead to disqualificationChina has been a powerhouse at the Olympics over the past two decades with its sporting program producing a fine pedigree of Olympic weightlifters, gymnasts, divers, shooters and martial artists. In the world of cryptocurrencies, the story is quite different.China has taken a stern stance toward cryptocurrencies and has continued this policy in 2021, with its outright ban of mining completely rebalancing the Bitcoin mining ecosystem as a result. Interestingly enough, the nation is far ahead of the world when it comes to the race to develop a fully-fledged central bank digital currency, or CBDC. Over the past 18 months, China has piloted and rolled out significant testing of its Digital Currency Electronic Payment, or DCEP.   Colloquially known as the digital yuan, citizens began testing the facility through lotteries that award a small number of participants in various cities with digital yuan, which they could use through a mobile app to pay for goods and services at thousands of participating vendors.There is no denying that China has blazed the trail for the development, testing and roll-out of its CBDC. In the same breath, the DCEP is a government-controlled program, and the specifics of the technology and systems powering the digital yuan are shrouded in mystery.However, China’s recent ban on mining in different regions and its zero tolerance of cryptocurrency exchanges means that despite its well-developed CBDC program, it falls out of the reckoning for a medal. Luckily, a number of other countries have also made significant strides in developing their own CBDCs. In the world of sports, fans often get behind the underdog, and this is certainly the case with the Bahamas and its Sand Dollar CBDC. The country has made significant strides with the development and testing of its very own CBDC and became the first country to go live in October 2020.The Sand Dollar ecosystem continues to onboard more local banks and financial institutions, paving the way for widespread adoption of the CBDC and a fully digital payment environment. The Bahamas is the deserving recipient of the gold medal in this category.Sweden has begun its first trial of pilot testing the e-krona CBDC with a couple of local banks and external participants. As it continues testing its system with local financial institutions, Sweden earns the silver medal in this category.Cambodia and Ukraine have been credited for their own CBDC development programs by a recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, sharing the bronze medal in this category.North America in the race for gold in Bitcoin miningChina was undoubtedly the gold medal incumbent of Bitcoin mining but this is quickly changing in 2021. Recent estimates saw China account for more than 70% of the global hash rate before various mining operations were forced to shutter in June.Those firms that were able to quickly look for greener pastures would welcome their mining equipment. While various countries in Asia would be the closest locale to relocate to, North America is quickly becoming the new hub of cryptocurrency mining.Research from the Cambridge Centre for…

This weekly roundup of news from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industry’s most important news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape, and enterprise blockchain integrations.  It was a tumultuous week in China outside the financial world with severe flooding hitting Zhengzhou and typhoon In-Fa lashing into cities around Shanghai. Even worse, a COVID-19 Delta-variant outbreak in Nanjing is now threatening to disrupt the relatively open lifestyle that residents have enjoyed since strict anti-infection measures got the initial outbreak under control in early 2020.  Shanghai city skyline (Pexels)Trouble in paradise?Inside the Chinese financial world, government regulations on tech and education companies sent the local stock markets tumbling, which may have had an indirect role in the sharp rebound for cryptocurrency prices. The reminder that regulators can suddenly crush an industry might hurt the confidence of A-shares investors, driving more money back to alternative investments like Bitcoin. In any event, there is a lot on the government’s plate, so cryptocurrency shouldn’t be a huge focus these days.Selling the rumors in advanceThe volumes certainly supported this trend as Huobi and OKEx saw increases for the second week in a row. Despite rumors that more crackdowns might be on the way for exchanges, things have been quiet on the regulatory front. The platform tokens for both OKEx and Huobi recovered impressively. HT, which had dropped around 80% since mid-May, suddenly rebounded around 45%, making investors question whether the worst of the regulatory action was behind them. If nothing else, the rumors are becoming more and more priced in by this point, meaning there is less to fear from new announcements. As one of the catalysts for the news, Huobi hinted at their upcoming PrimePool, which should allow users to mine the tokens of new projects using HT or other tokens. The Axie token AXS remained a popular asset to trade as it stayed in the top five on Huobi for most of the week. NFT gaming has yet to really take off in China, although projects like Polygon are still actively pushing the metaverse trend in the region. Wiping the slateOn July 27, Huobi announced its China-based entity had been dissolved. As nearly all operations have gone overseas, this decision could be a step towards becoming disentangled with Chinese regulators. Huobi stated that it was the entity registered in Beijing all the way back in 2013 and that it was not the current operating entity of Huobi Global. According to the same article, OKEx is also in the process of dissolving a previously-used registered company.With miners and exchanges now mostly abroad and out from under the control of Beijing, future policies can only really target the retail trading and usage of cryptocurrencies. Bobby Lee, who founded one of the earliest Bitcoin exchanges in China, discussed the possibility of an outright ban, saying it could happen in 4-5 years. Lee is now the CEO of wallet company Ballet and remains an active figure in the cryptocurrency space.Looking for greener pasturesBinance’s CZ  revealed in an interview with SCB 10X that he is looking for a new Binance CEO who he hopes will have a “very strong regulatory background.” CZ first disclosed his departure earlier this year when he said he hoped to step down as CEO in the next two to five years to fully focus on developing the BNB and Binance Smart Chain ecosystem and now his plans to “step down” seem even more accelerated. Vitalik Buterin makes a virtual appearance at World Blockchain Conference (Source: Ben Yorke)Happening in HangzhouThis developing tech region of Hangzhou was the stage as the World Blockchain Conference took place on July 24 and 25. This is one of the larger events on the blockchain calendar and with a focus on blockchain technology and technical development, received the support of local government organizations. The event had a lot of hype preceding it, due to digital keynotes from speakers like Vitalik Buterin and Sam Bankman-Fried. However, the close proximity of Typhoon In-Fa resulted in a lower turnout and more subdued activities. Buterin laid out his future vision for Ethereum, painting an ambitious picture of upcoming developments. A number of projects held side events in Hangzhou, including leading DeFi wallet ImToken and smart contract protocol Avalanche.Top it up with CBDCsShenzhen residents can now use the e-CNY on buses and subways, according to a story on People.cn. Citizens are encouraged to actively use the central bank digital currency on public transportation for what is being called “green” travel. Citizens scan the code in the local transportation app and scan it when entering or exiting the vehicle or station. At the same time, citizens can use the e_CNY to top up their local travel cards.This news will not be welcomed warmly by President of ASI Rich Checkan, who earlier this week suggested that CBDCs were “concocted in hell by Satan himself.” His strong words are likely aimed at countries like China, where government plays a strong role in both financial institutions and the tech sector. 

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This Week SpaceX owns Bitcoin, Elon Musk and Nic Carter believe BTC is becoming greenerElon Musk, Dogecoin (DOGE) proponent and fair-weather friend to Bitcoin (BTC), revealed for the first time on July 21 that his aerospace firm SpaceX owns an undisclosed amount of Bitcoin. “I do own Bitcoin; Tesla owns Bitcoin; SpaceX owns Bitcoin,” he said.  Musk was speaking at “The ₿ Word” — a virtual event dedicated to Bitcoin — alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, and the erratic tech billionaire suggested Tesla was on the verge of accepting the cryptocurrency again following promising signs that the percentage of renewable energy used for mining was increasing.Tesla’s $1.5 billion foray into Bitcoin earlier this year sparked a major BTC price rally. However, Tesla’s suspension of Bitcoin as a payment method over environmental concerns in May appeared to tank the price of Bitcoin, with BTC crashing around 40% over the past two months.  Now that there is a diminishing Chinese coal-powered hash rate after the mining ban, it appears that Musk is warming up to digital gold again. Musk has stated that, after he does a bit more “due diligence” on mining sustainability and can confirm it’s backed by 50% renewables or more, Tesla may re-enter the market. One wonders what said due diligence this entails, and why he didn’t do it before the $1.5 billion Tesla BTC buy. Musk also revealed, for the first time, that he holds Ethereum (ETH), and unsurprisingly reaffirmed his support for the meme-inspired Dogecoin. “I do personally own a bit of Ethereum, and Dogecoin of course,” he said. Daily Dogecoin volume soared to nearly $1B during Q2Speaking of Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, trading volume for Dogecoin increased by more than 13 times during the second quarter of 2021, nearly tagging $1 billion daily.According to data compiled by Coinbase and reported by Business Insider, Dogecoin trading volumes soared 1,250% between April and June, with $995 million worth of DOGE changing hands daily on average during the quarter.By comparison, Dogecoin’s average daily volume for the first quarter of 2021 was $74 million.While those figures are sure to spark hype among the fiery-eyed Dogecoin community, the subject of the top canine coin may be a touchy one for Coinbase. A Coinbase user has filed a class-action lawsuit seeking $5 million in damages because of an allegedly misleading Dogecoin campaign.According to court documents, plaintiff David Suski said he was deceived into trading $100 of Dogecoin for entry into a $1.2 million sweepstakes offer on Coinbase. The lawsuit asserts that Coinbase failed to communicate that a person could enter the sweepstakes without purchasing $100 of Dogecoin. Ethereum must innovate beyond just DApps for DeFi degens: Vitalik ButerinEthereum co-founder and lead developer Vitalik Buterin has urged the Ethereum community to innovate beyond the confines of decentralized finance, or DeFi.Buterin was speaking during his keynote at the Ethereum Community Conference in Paris on July 21, and described non-financial utilities as “the most interesting part of the vision of general-purpose blockchains.”The 27-year-old outlined several non-financial applications for Ethereum, including decentralized social media, identity verification and attestation, and retroactive public goods funding.The Ethereum co-founder has had a busy week, and after speaking at the Ethereum conference, he also surfaced in Ashton Kutcher’s and Mila Kunis’ living room. He wasn’t trespassing of course, and was there as part of the promotion for Kunis’ NFT project dubbed “Stoner Cats.” Buterin launched into a lengthy explanation of Ethereum’s fundamental components and articulated how the smart contract protocol differs from “single-purpose” chains such as Bitcoin. Grayscale sets sights on institutional DeFi fundWhile Buterin is looking beyond the decentralized bounds of finance, digital asset management giant Grayscale is looking to gain exposure in the sector.  On July 19, Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale, announced a new investment vehicle aimed at DeFi assets.In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, the CEO chimed in to announce Grayscale’s plans for a DeFi Fund and index. Detailing the purpose of the new product, the Grayscale CEO said the fund would offer exposure to DeFi assets, such as Uniswap and Aave, for its institutional clients.During the same week, Sonnenshein stated he thinks that only a “couple of maturation points” separate the United States from its first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF.After many rejections of BTC ETFs in the past, along with 13 ETF applications under consideration, Sonnenshein is undeterred and said the firm is “100% committed” to transforming its Bitcoin product, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, into an ETF once conditions are right. US lawmakers don’t want Olympic athletes to use digital yuan at 2022 gamesDespite the majority of Japanese citizens reportedly wanting the Olympics canceled over pandemic-related concerns, the event is going ahead.The U.S. government has already got its eyes on the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, however, and three U.S senators signed a letter urging Olympic officials to forbid American athletes from using the digital yuan during the upcoming event earlier this week.In a July 19 letter to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee board chair Susanne Lyons, Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn, Roger Wicker and Cynthia Lummis, also a BTC proponent, requested that officials prevent U.S. athletes from using or accepting the digital yuan.The senators asserted that the athletes’ use of the central bank digital currency can be “tracked and traced” by the People’s Bank of China.The senators stated that the Chinese government recently rolled out new features for the digital yuan, giving officials the ability “to know the exact details of what someone purchased and where.”If Olympic officials approve of the request, China will, unfortunately, have to deploy other methods to track and trace the U.S. athletes that do enter the country.Winners and Losers  At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $32,580, Ether at $2,070 and XRP at $0.60. The total market cap is at $1.35 trillion, based…