After a single week of gains, we’re back to dipping, folks. Cryptocurrency’s total market cap took a 6% hit this week, dropping to $249 billion. This valuation has the entire market floating in numbers that we saw at the beginning of April after the market calmed down from its late-February/March drop-off. 

It’s hard to gauge where we’re going from here. Bitcoin has bounced off of support at $5.8-6k three times this year, and each time, the market has recovered only to continue trending down again. As always, if we break below this tri-tested support, expect prices to continue to fall.

Bitcoin: At 6,270, Bitcoin has lost 6% of its value over the week.

Ethereum: Ethereum is down 7%, sporting a price of $438.

Ripple: After losing 7% off its price this week, Ripple is trading at $0.44.

Domestic News

Winklevoss-Owned Gemini Exchange Hires Former NYSE CIO: The Winklevosses are plucking their next big hire right out of Wall Street. According to a July 6 press release, Gemini Exchange has hired Robert Cornish, the former Chief Information Officer at the New York Stock Exchange, as its first Chief Technology Officer. In his new position, Cornish will be responsible for ensuring “that Gemini continues to deliver the best platform experience to [its] customers as possible and set the standards of excellence for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole,” CEO Tyler Winklevoss said in a statement. This will include monitoring the launch of Nasdaq’s SMARTS Market Surveillance technology for the exchange’s order books and trading services.

Ripple Hires Facebook Talent to Serve in Senior VP Position: More on talent scalping, Ripple just on-boarded a new face from Facebook’s staff. Kahina Van Dyke joins Ripple as Senior Vice President in Business and Corporate Development after playing key roles at companies like Facebook, Citibank, and Mastercard. Stated in the company’s official press release, Ripple believes that her experience “has afforded her insight into how sophisticated risk mitigation and compliance frameworks enable more reliable, timely services,” and it also believes she’ll add value to the company because she “understands the importance of bringing leading brands together through partnerships.”

Lightspeed Venture Capital Firm Amasses $1.8 bln, Some of Which is for Crypto Funding: Lightspeed Venture Partners has made its fortune on risky calls. The first outside investor in Snapchat, the firm focuses on early-stage companies. Now, it’ll be investing in an early-stage industry thanks to the $1.8 billion in supplementary capital it has to play with thanks, in part, to its investment in Snapchat. Some of this money will reportedly be allocated towards cryptocurrency related businesses and startups, while Lightspeed team members indicated to Reuters that a good $1.05 billion would be allocated for investments in safer, more mature companies.

HBUS, a Huobi-Partnered Exchange, Opens Up Trading Services in the US: After opening its doors to user registration last week, HBUS is now fully operational and live for trading. The Huobi strategic partner offers popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin, as well as 19 others. While the exchange’s services are up and running, it’s reportedly not open to residents in Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Hawaii, Vermont, and Washington, likely for regulatory reasons.

Walmart Files Yet Another Blockchain Patent: Walmart is in pursuit of another distributed ledger patent. In its fifth filing with the US Patent & Trademark Office, Walmart is seeking patent rights for a “Delivery Reservation Apparatus and Method.” More specifically, it would use what it calls “a blockchain reservation system” wherein “transactions for the capacity units are tracked in a ledger, with available capacity units indicating an open location on the docking station or contracted out capacity units indicating that either the location has a locker secured thereto or that the location is reserved for a future delivery.” So far, Walmart has been awarded a patent for blockchain-managed medical records, and it has filed three others for an energy management system, a consumer-driven marketplace for used goods, and a platform for comprehensive data tracking.

New Executive Order Establishes Task Force For Tackling Financial Fraud, Emphasizes Crypto: Hot off the president’s desk, a new executive order has crypto in its purview. The order establishes the Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud within the Department of Justice. Lead by the Attorney General, the force will “provide guidance for the investigation and prosecution of cases involving fraud on the government, the financial markets, and consumers, including cyber-fraud and other fraud targeting the elderly, service members and veterans, and other members of the public; procurement and grant fraud; securities and commodities fraud, as well as other corporate fraud, with particular attention to fraud affecting the general public; digital currency fraud; money laundering, including the recovery of proceeds; health care fraud; tax fraud; and other financial crimes.”