Bitcoin News Roundup for Aug. 26, 2020

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ABOUT

With bitcoin’s silver lining and Ribbit’s $350 million “Blank Check,” CoinDesk's Markets Daily is back for your latest crypto news roundup!

This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.

Today's stories:

Bitcoin Drop Squeezes Out Weak Derivatives Positions – And That May Be a Good Thing

Bitcoin’s latest price drop may have a silver lining.

Crypto and Fintech VC Ribbit Capital Seeks $350M in 'Blank Check' IPO

While it's unclear how much Ribbit Leap will focus on crypto or blockchain acquisitions, it comes at a time of renewed exuberance in the sector.

FTX Exchange's $150M Deal for Mobile-First Blockfolio Is a Retail Trading Play

The deal is a strategic play for FTX, whose clientele consists largely of quants and professional traders, to attract more retail customers.

Brazilian Lawmaker Proposes Crypto Regulations for a Country Devoid of Any

Brazil's crypto scene has been unbanked, unregulated and awash in legal uncertain for its entire history.

HOST

Adam B. Levine

Adam B. Levine joined CoinDesk in 2019 as the editor of its new audio and podcasts division. Previously, Adam founded the long-running Let's Talk Bitcoin! talk show with co-hosts Stephanie Murphy and Andreas M. Antonopoulos.

Finding early success with the show, Adam transformed the podcast's homepage into a full newsdesk and publishing platform, founding the LTB Network in January of 2014 to help broaden the conversation with new and different perspectives. In the Spring of that year, he would go on to launch the first and largest tokenized rewards program for creators and their audience. In what many have called an early influential version of "Steemit"; LTBCOIN, which was awarded to both content creators and members of the audience for participation was distributed until the LTBN was acquired by BTC, Inc. in January of 2017.

With the network launched and growing, in late 2014 Adam turned his attention to the practical challenges of administering the tokenized program and founded Tokenly, Inc. There, he led the development of early tokenized vending machines with Swapbot, tokenized identity solution Tokenpass, e-commerce with TokenMarkets.com and media with Token.fm. Adam owns some BTC, ETH and small positions in a number of other tokens.