Another week, another seven days of volatility. However, unlike last week’s completely red market summary, this week was a mixed bag. 

The Losers: 

• Bitcoin 5.92%
• Litecoin 3.99%
• NEO 7% 
• Tron 13.57%

The Winners: 

• XRP 1.35%
• Bitcoin Cash 4.3%
• EOS 14.86%
• Cardano 16%
• Ontology 13.7%

Venezuela Possibly Using Crypto to Avoid U.S. Sanctions: The Maduro regime is being accused of escaping U.S. sanctions by collecting taxes from airline travelers and then converting the fiat to BTC, sending it to international regime accounts in countries like Bulgaria, Russia, and China in exchange for their fiat. The report in a regional publication noted that a Florida-based company called Jetman Pay would work in cahoots with Venezuelan government agency Sunacrip to do the conversions for airline taxes from travelers purchasing tickets from Maiquetía International Airport. This is one potential instance that a government is attempting to circumvent a U.S. financial blockade through cryptocurrency. 

Former Token Foundry CEO Takes ConsenSys Founder Joseph Lubin to Court: Harrison Hines, the former Token Foundry CEO, is seeking relief for alleged fraud, unjust enrichment, unpaid profits, and breach of contract. The summons details that the relief sought is“Monetary damages in the amount of $12,827,000 on the contract, quasi-contract and fraud claims plus $404,783 in unpaid profits.” Token Foundry was essentially a “spoke” to the ConsenSys hub that handled vetted token sales, with at least four live sales on the Token Foundry Marketplace. 

IRS Sending Cryptocurrency Holding Taxpayers: The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that it has started to send letters to cryptocurrency holders advising them to pay back taxes regarding their holdings. These letters are meant to be “educational letters” and are being sent to more than 10,000 taxpayers by the end of July.