Brazil’s largest private bank, Itaú Unibanco, is set to launch an asset tokenization platform that transforms traditional finance products into tokens and to offer cryptocurrency custody services for its customers.

Cryptocurrency exchange CoinFLEX has partially restored user withdrawals, allowing them to withdraw up to 10% of their funds. Meanwhile, a filing from crypto lender Celsius has revealed the firm has a $1.2 billion hole in its balance sheet.

According to JPMorgan analysts, Bitcoin's production cost has dropped from around $24,000 at the start of June to around $13,000. The drop is associated with a decline in electricity use.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Brazil’s Largest Private Bank to Offer Crypto Custody Services
• CoinFLEX Limits Withdrawals, Celsius Filing Reveals $1.2 Billion Hole in Balance Sheet
• Bitcoin’s Cost of Production Dropped to $13,000: JPMorgan
• Crypto Market Movers – UNI, QNT, AAVE

Brazil’s Largest Private Bank to Offer Crypto Custody Services

Brazil’s largest private bank, Itaú Unibanco, is set to launch an asset tokenization platform that transforms traditional finance products into tokens and to offer cryptocurrency custody services for its customers.

The bank will launch these services through a new unit called Itaú Digital Assets, which will first be available for institutional clients before a retail version is rolled out by the end of the year. The bank has also said it did not rule out offering cryptocurrency trading services to retail customers in the future.

Itaú was among the nine partners chosen by the Central Bank of Brazil in March to help it develop a digital real. Its move into the crypto segment comes shortly after PicPay, a Brazil-based digital payments app with over 60 million users, announced it was launching a cryptocurrency exchange.

Itaú had $4.5 billion in revenue last year, while its closest competitor Bradesco had $4 billion.

CoinFLEX Limits Withdrawals, Celsius Filing Reveals $1.2 Billion Hole in Balance Sheet

Cryptocurrency exchange CoinFLEX has partially restored user withdrawals, allowing them to withdraw up to 10% of their funds. Meanwhile, a filing from crypto lender Celsius has revealed the firm has a $1.2 billion hole in its balance sheet.

On CoinFLEX, the remaining 90% of user balances will be considered “locked funds” and will appear on their balance. The platform’s interest-bearing stablecoin flexUSD will still not be withdrawable.

As for Celsius, a document filed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York shows that the firm holds $4.3 billion of assets and has $5.5 billion of liabilities. In its list of assets, it claimed it has about $600 million in its CEL token.

The company noted in the filing that the total market cap for CEL as of July 12 was roughly $170.3 million.

Bitcoin’s Cost of Production Dropped to $13,000: JPMorgan

According to JPMorgan analysts, Bitcoin's production cost has dropped from around $24,000 at the start of June to around $13,000. The drop is associated with a decline in electricity use.

JPMorgan strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote that the change is consistent with miners’ efforts to protect their profitability by deploying more efficient mining rigs.

They added:

“While clearly helping miners’ profitability and potentially reducing pressures on miners to sell Bitcoin holdings to raise liquidity or for deleveraging, the decline in the production cost might be perceived as negative for the Bitcoin price outlook going forward.”

Some market participants see the production cost as the lower bound of Bitcoin’s price range in a bear market, implying potential for further downside.

Crypto Market Movers – UNI, QNT, AAVE

Several tokens are leading the charge in the last 7-day period. Some of these are well-known cryptocurrencies with more liquid trading pairs, so we’ll be focusing on these over low-cap cryptos that may have higher percentage changes.

Uniswap (UNI) - Uniswap is a decentralized exchange using an automated liquidity protocol on the Ethereum network. Unlike traditional centralized exchanges it does not use an order book, and allows traders to trade directly from their ETH wallets without any intermediaries, making it censorship-resistant.

Quant (QNT) - Quant is a cryptocurrency project launched in June 2018 that aims to connect blockchains and networks globally without sacrificing efficiency. It aims to allow applications to operate on multiple blockchains through the creation of the first blockchain operating system.

Aave (AAVE) - Aave is a decentralized non-custodial money market protocol where users can participate as depositors or borrowers. Depositors provide liquidity to the market to earn a passive income, while borrowers are able to borrow in an overcollateralized (perpetually) or undercollateralized (one-block liquidity) fashion.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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