Bitcoin News Roundup for July 15, 2020

As the race for Central Bank Digital Currencies heats up, CoinDesk's Markets Daily is back for your bitcoin news roundup!

Listen or watch all the new CoinDesk podcast episodes wherever you want.

ABOUT

As the race for Central Bank Digital Currencies heats up, CoinDesk's Markets Daily is back for your bitcoin news roundup!

This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Crypto.com.

Today's stories:

With Bitcoin Stuck in the Doldrums, Altcoins Continue to Rally

Altcoins like Chainlink's link token continue to outshine bitcoin, which is still consolidating above $9,000.

Japan Is Seriously Considering a Digital Yen: Report

As rivals and allies move forward with their own CBDC plans, Japan will seriously consider a digital yen as part of this year's policy agenda.

China to Test Digital Yuan on Tencent-Backed Food Delivery Platform

Now three Tencent-backed companies are setting themselves up to become early-stage testers for China’s digital yuan initiative.

Crypto Luminaries Auction NFT 'Art' for Charity

Vitalik Buterin's quadratic funding notes raised 40 ETH for an open-source grant program. He and others are auctioning off NFTs on Cryptograph for charity.

UK Fintech Firm Revolut Brings Bitcoin, Ether Trading to US Customers

Revolut customers in the U.S. can now buy, hold and sell BTC and ETH on the digital bank’s crypto platform, thanks to a partnership with Paxos.

Disgraced Lobbyist Jack Abramoff Pleads Guilty to Alleged Crypto Fraud

Previously convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has pleaded guilty to knowingly promoting an alleged crypto fraud with false and misleading information.

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.