New figures show that bank deposits have gone through the roof—but is this a good thing?
Banks have more cash than ever before—largely due to the coronavirus pandemic, figures from the Federal Reserve show. 

Deposits have never been so high—growing by $865 billion in April alone, CNBC reported. Deposits in total have increased by $2 trillion since January after record amounts of cash were pumped into US bank accounts to help with COVID-19 chaos. Money in bank accounts now stands at a whopping $15.4 trillion, June figures show.
Read on: https://decrypt.co/33061/us-citizens-putting-more-money-in-banks-than-ever

Bitcoin fell by almost $400 on Monday but quickly recovered. The price has stayed relatively stable during the rest of the week.
Bitcoin this week held firm after a disastrous start on Monday. As of Sunday, June 21, its price is $9,364.96, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

That’s a huge recovery from Monday’s dip, in which prices fell in the early morning from around $9,390 to around $9,000.

Crypto traders in the US and Europe quickly dealt with the damage as soon as they’d finished their breakfast; Bitcoin’s price rose to around $9,500 by the end of the day, then to highs of $9,564 by Tuesday morning.
Read on: https://decrypt.co/33048/bitcoin-holds-firm-after-disastrous-start-to-the-week

New research from Xangle suggests Japan’s Financial Services Agency is more likely to approve crypto projects not involved in casino Dapps.
Regulators in Japan may be more inclined to approve new virtual currencies for trading if they have greater financial transparency and aren’t involved in gambling Dapps.

According to a new report from Xangle Research on Japanese digital asset regulations, the country's financial watchdog, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), specifically says crypto firms may be approved if they do not support decentralized applications (Dapps) with gambling or anonymous features.
Read on: https://cointelegraph.com/news/japanese-financial-watchdog-frowns-on-gambling-dapps

Retailers including CVS Pharmacy, Rite Aid, and 7-Eleven now allow LibertyX mobile app users to purchase up to $500 in Bitcoin with cash.
LibertyX, the firm that launched one of the early Bitcoin ATMs, has just made purchasing Bitcoin in cash possible at more than 20,000 retail locations across the United States.

In a June 22 announcement on LibertyX’s Twitter account, the crypto ATM service company said customers of retailers including 7-Eleven, CVS Pharmacy, and Rite Aid would be able to buy Bitcoin (BTC) with cash.
Read on: https://cointelegraph.com/news/libertyx-allows-btc-purchases-in-cash-at-7-eleven-cvs-and-rite-aid

There are two public-facing job listings for crypto pros to go to work for PayPal.
PayPal is hiring crypto and blockchain experts amid rumors that the global payment platform will enable direct cryptocurrency purchases for its 305 million users. The job descriptions they’re hiring for are publicly available on the company’s own job board.

The first listing of note is for a job titled “Technical Lead - Crypto Engineer.” The listing describes that this person will be responsible for “new initiatives for PayPal global with a focus on agility, time-to-market and innovation. The role includes designing, developing and maintaining key crypto products/features targeted towards availability, performance and scalability of PayPal services.”
Read on: https://cointelegraph.com/news/paypal-is-hiring-crypto-engineers-amid-rumors-of-bitcoin-integration

DeFi-based tokens are posting double digits gains and outperforming Bitcoin but can the rally continue?
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has been a rapidly growing sector in the crypto space and although the volume of the DeFi ecosystem yet to surpass that of the general crypto market, the new way of lending and saving has garnered positive media coverage and “praise”.

DeFi shows great promise and the market is starting to reflect this, as many DeFi-based tokens have been pumping strongly in 2020, with some tokens showing gains above 60% in the past 5 days.
Read on: https://cointelegraph.com/news/3-reasons-why-defi-tokens-are-outperforming-bitcoin-price

CBDCs promise to speed up existing systems but are unlikely to change the direction central banks have already been taking.
As countries around the world dive into central bank digital currencies (CBDC), many in the crypto industry look forward to what that means for adoption and even lucrative partnerships to develop such tokens. However, at least some commentators have noted that national CBDCs will likely disappoint those looking to update monetary policy.
Read on: https://cointelegraph.com/news/cbdcs-dont-fix-broken-monetary-policy-say-execs-at-stablecoin-saga

The Bitcoin blockchain network recently saw its biggest mining difficulty adjustment in more than two years. Yet, the sentiment remains positive.
The Bitcoin blockchain network experienced its biggest mining difficulty adjustment in over two years on June 17. Surprisingly, the hash rate of Bitcoin has not dropped off by a large margin.

The response of miners toward the difficulty adjustment is considered to be optimistic so far, as the hash rate is already starting to recover. Data from Blockchain.com shows that since June 11, the hash rate of the Bitcoin network increased from 101 million terahashes per second to 105 million TH/s
Read on: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bullish-signs-for-bitcoin-price-after-record-btc-difficulty-adjustment