CryptoCompare’s latest Asset Report details that while the price of Bitcoin fell 37.4% in June to close the month at $19,908, its Lightning Network – a layer-2 scaling solution designed to make BTC transactions as fast and cheap as possible – saw its capacity grow to stand at 4,96 BTC at the end of June.

The largest bank in Russia, Sberbank, whose majority stakeholder is the country’s government, has conducted its first digital asset transaction on its own blockchain-based platform.

Leading stablecoin issuer Tether has said it “has never and will never put the integrity of its reserves at risk” as it shared details of an investment in the embattled cryptocurrency lender Celsius, noting the investment was a “minimal part of its shareholder’s equity.”

Netherlands-based ING Bank has spun off its cryptocurrency custody and post-trade infrastructure platform Pyctor, which is now becoming a service offering within GMEX, a trading technology platform.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Bitcoin Lightning Network’s Average Daily Capacity Hits All-Time High
• Russia’s Largest Bank Conducts Fist Digital Asset Transaction on Its Blockchain
• Tether Liquidates Celsius Bitcoin Loan With ‘No Losses’
• ING Bank Spins Off Its Crypto Custody Platform

Bitcoin Lightning Network’s Average Daily Capacity Hits All-Time High

CryptoCompare’s latest Asset Report details that while the price of Bitcoin fell 37.4% in June to close the month at $19,908, its Lightning Network – a layer-2 scaling solution designed to make BTC transactions as fast and cheap as possible – saw its capacity grow to stand at 4,96 BTC at the end of June.

Total fees paid for BTC transactions decreased by 28.7% to $11.5 million, with the average transaction fee falling from $2.01 in May to $1.54 last month. The cryptocurrency’s price has notably since increased to now be close to the $21,000 mark.

CryptoCompare’s report, which tracks price performance and on-chain metrics for five cryptoassets – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, XRP, and Solana – details that over the last three months the cryptoassets covered in the report lost half of their value, with BTC being the top performer after losing 56.3% of its value, and Solana being hit the hardest, losing 72.5% of its value.

Average daily volumes for BTC/USD dropped 23% last month to $1.12 billion with Binance and Coinbase being the top two exchanges. Read more via CryptoCompare’s latest Asset Report.

Russia’s Largest Bank Conducts Fist Digital Asset Transaction on Its Blockchain

The largest bank in Russia, Sberbank, whose majority stakeholder is the country’s government, has conducted its first digital asset transaction on its own blockchain-based platform.

In an announcement, the bank said it launched a smart contract-based blockchain and that it carried out the first transactions with its subsidiary, SberFactoring, to issue 1 billion rubles ($15 million) with a three-month maturity. Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank, said:

"The launch of the platform and our obtaining the status of an operator is the result of the teamwork of many divisions of our bank in close cooperation with the Bank of Russia.”

The bank’s blockchain is operating in pilot mode for a limited number of users. Soon, all of the bank’s corporate clients will be able to connect to the blockchain.

Tether Liquidates Celsius Bitcoin Loan With ‘No Losses’

Leading stablecoin issuer Tether has said it “has never and will never put the integrity of its reserves at risk” as it shared details of an investment in the embattled cryptocurrency lender Celsius, noting the investment was a “minimal part of its shareholder’s equity.”

Celsius also took out a Bitcoin-denominated loan from Tether, which said it was more than 130% overcollateralized. Tether liquidated the loan in a decision made as “part of the original terms of the agreement,” The firm wrote:

“This process was carried out in a way to minimise as much as possible any impact on the markets and in fact, once the loan was covered, Tether returned the remaining part to Celsius as per its agreement. Celsius position has been liquidated with no losses to Tether.”

In a blog post, Tether added that it leverages risk management processes.

ING Bank Spins Off Its Crypto Custody Platform

Netherlands-based ING Bank has spun off its cryptocurrency custody and post-trade infrastructure platform Pyctor, which is now becoming a service offering within GMEX, a trading technology platform.

Pyctor will continue to work with the bank and collaborate with ING’s digital assets team The platform, which is incubated in ING Neo’s Amsterdam innovation lab, combines hardware-based security favoured by banks with software-based sharding of the keys used to move digital assets.

ING also tacked anti-money laundering compliance for crypto via Pyctor’s travel rule model, and through its participation in the Travel Rule Program.

The financial terms of the arrangement were kept private.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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