Crypto Roundup: August 16th, 2021

The total value of the cryptoasset market has once again risen above $2 trillion, as altcoins including Cardano and XRP race to reclaim all-time highs. This bullish price action comes in defiance of negative headlines. The Senate passed the infrastructure bill on Tuesday without changing the requirements for crypto tax reporting, and on the same day $611 million was stolen in the largest DeFi hack in history (though the culprit has since returned the funds). Nevertheless, traders were not concerned, and multiple altcoins are now flashing high double-digit weekly gains. Beating the 3% increases of Bitcoin and Ethereum, XRP jumped almost 60% after forming a new partnership, closely followed by Cardano and Ethereum Classic with almost 50% gains, and Dogecoin which leaped 33% as Mark Cuban tweeted support for the memecoin. This Week’s Highlights Cardano climbs 45% ahead of major upgrade S. infrastructure bill passes Senate Cardano climbs 45% ahead of major upgrade Ethereum competitor Cardano topped $2 last week as the developers scheduled a highly-anticipated upgrade. Cardano project lead Nigel Hemsley announced a September 12 release date for the planned “Alonzo” upgrade. This would disarm critics by bringing long-awaited smart contract functionality to the network, potentially allowing Cardano to claim its own slice of the DeFi pie and capitalize on the NFT mania currently sweeping over the crypto market. Elsewhere in the proof-...