Crypto Weekly Outlook | Aug 9, 2021

• The U.S. bipartisan infrastructure bill with the potentially industry crippling crypto tax provisions appears to be headed to a vote in the Senate this Tuesday. Senate negotiations regarding the crypto provisions finished without any new amendments being added to the bill, meaning the bill will be voted on in its original form. The provisions will impose broad third-party reporting requirements on any crypto firm deemed to be a “broker.” The vague wording of the text could potentially be assigned to multiple actors across the crypto sector including miners, stakers, software developers and network validators. It’s still technically possible that the Senate could pass a crypto-friendly amendment to the bill, however, it would have to be by unanimous consent before the final vote and this appears unlikely due to procedural time constraints as well as the need for any changes to be made up in other ways in terms of tax revenue collected. It is also super important to note that the bill would still need to go to the House of Representatives where further changes could be made.

• It should be noted that there were multiple amendments proposed with one being more crypto-friendly, however, the White House and Treasury Secretary Yellen both put their support behind the amendment that is not crypto-friendly. As of this writing, the infrastructure bill has not had a very strong effect on the crypto market with Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz claiming that crypto is not crashing due to its strong lobbying force. Investors should follow this legislative drama closely as certain proposed amendments even had the impact of deciding “winners and losers.”

• Last week was Chainlink’s (LINK) Smart Contract Summit. The multi-day summit kicked off on the same day as Ethereum’s London Hard Fork so it didn’t get as much fanfare as it otherwise deserved. However, some significant announcements were made that the market likely hasn’t fully digested. These include Chainlink partnerships with Google Cloud as well as Amazon Web Services. Chainlink should certainly be watched for further developments.

• During a recent Livestream, IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson announced that the date of Cardano’s Alonzo hard fork combinator event will be revealed in mid-August so it could happen this week. Based on the information Hoskinson currently has, Cardano is set to activate smart contracts in late Augu