CryptoCompare has released a new version of its Exchange Benchmark, which shows Top-Tier cryptocurrency exchanges, those graded AA-B, have been slowly taking market share away from Lower-Tier exchanges, those graded C-E.

Cryptocurrency investment firm Paradigm has started sponsoring Bitcoin Core developer Anthony Towns, who has been working on BTC since 2017.

The Bank of England is, according to its governor, weighing whether to create a central bank digital currency or not.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Top-Tier Cryptocurrency Exchanges Are Gaining Market Share
• Crypto Investment Firm Paradigm Starts Sponsoring Bitcoin Developer Anthony Towns
• Bank of England Reportedly Weighing Creating a Digital Currency

At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $9,191.84 (-0.95%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $2.09 bn. As for ether (ETH), it is trading at $238.66 (-2.17%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $684.45 million. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 3,181.17 (-2.22%).

Top-Tier Cryptocurrency Exchanges Are Gaining Market Share

CryptoCompare’s updated Exchange Benchmark report found that Top-Tier cryptocurrency exchanges, those graded AA-B according to the benchmark, are gaining market share against Lower-Tier exchanges, those graded C-E.

In the second quarter of 2020, Top-Tier trading platforms already accounted for 40% of global trading volumes, moving up from 32% in Q4 2019, and from 36% in the first quarter of this year. In June, Top-Tier exchanges accounted for 46% of the global trading volumes.

In contrast, Lower-Tier exchanges represented 68% of the cryptocurrency’s spaces trading volumes in Q4 2019, but their market share has slowly been declining to 60% in the second quarter of the year. In June, their share was at 54%.

CryptoCompare’s updated Exchange Benchmark now includes a know-your-customer (KYC) risk category that uses CipherTrace’s KYC and Integration Risk Ratings, and an Asset Quality/Diversity Category offered in collaboration with Flipside Crypto’s FCAS ratings.

Other changes include the addition of a specific ranking made for decentralizes exchanges, and the expansion of the grading system to include a “BB” category. The report also looks at cryptoassets’ security practices, interactions with high-risk entities, and more.

Crypto Investment Firm Paradigm Starts Sponsoring Bitcoin Developer Anthony Towns

Cryptocurrency investment firm Paradigm has started sponsoring Australian Bitcoin Core developer Anthony Towns, joining the list of crypto-related firms funding the development of the flagship cryptocurrency.

Paradigm is known for backing firms like Tagomi, Argent, and Uniswap. It now joins firms like Square Crypto, OKCoin, and BitMEX in backing bitcoin developers. Speaking to TheBlock Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang revealed the move reflects the firm’s view that bitcoin “is the most important cryptocurrency.”

Huang, however, declined to share how much Paradigm will pay Towns, although he noted it was the equivalent to an engineer’s full salary. Huang added:

"Paradigm will be paying his salary, but he will have complete freedom to choose what he works on in terms of bitcoin open-source.”

Towns has been contributing to the development of Bitcoin since 2017. He has worked on upgrades to the network such as Schnorr and Taproot.

Bank of England Reportedly Weighing Creating a Digital Currency

The Bank of England is weighing whether it should create a central bank-backed digital currency, according to its governor Andrew Bailey.

Speaking to students at a webinar event, Bailey said:

“We are looking at the question of, should we create a Bank of England digital currency. We’ll go on looking at it, as it does have huge implications on the nature of payments and society.”

The central bank’s governor added that he believes in a few years “we will be heading toward some sort of digital currency.” The Bank of England is part of a group of major central banks that teamed up to access potentially developing central bank digital currencies, after seeing their role being challenged by private sector digital currencies such as Facebook’s Libra.

Bailey added that the digital currency will “be a very big issue.”

Ontology (ONT) is the Daily Mover

This week’s Daily Mover featured asset is Ontology (ONT), a high-performance blockchain and distributed collaboration platform. Its infrastructure supports cross-chain collaboration and layer-two stability, which offers businesses the flexibility to design a blockchain system fit for their needs. Its main features include mobile digital identity and data management application ONT ID, a DID protocol used throughout its ecosystem called ONTO, and more.

ONT’s FCAS climbed 1.38% in the last month, thanks to a 3.17% increase in Developer Behavior. Its Market Maturity rose 0.5%, while User Activity remained stable. Its FCAS increased after the team behind the project announced, on June 1, it was rolling out the Ontology 2.0 platform, which introduced a new staking model that lowers requirements to run a node and stake tokens, effectively making it easier to earn rewards and participate in governance.

As part of the release, ONT ID 2.0 was also introduced. It gives users full control of their personal data and identities using blockchain technology. A new version of its data wallet ONTO was also released last month.

Identity and Access Management (IAM) has become central in our online interactions and is often invisible to users, who are giving away data without knowledge or consent. Ontology’s identity management system puts the users first, giving it full control of its data.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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