August 9th

Current Bitcoin Price: $23,031

Bitcoin price has retreated back to the $23,000 mark today, as price fails to hold at the $24,000 level of yesterday.

Top-20 altcoins have taken a hit across the board, as Ethereum falls 5%, BNB drops 3% and Uniswap takes a 7% dive.

Publicly-traded crypto exchange Coinbase believes that Ethereum Layer-2 scaling platforms may take revenue away from the base layer, according to a research report released yesterday.

Head of institutional research David Duong wrote that Layer-2s could feasibly host "the bulk of economic activity," while Ethereum itself is exclusively used to store transaction data.

The report states that there is currently around $68.9 billion in total value locked on Ethereum's base layer, vs. $5.2 billion across Ethereum Layer-2s.

The Reserve Bank of Australia will explore use cases for a central bank digital currency (CBDC), via a pilot program in partnership with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC).

The pilot program will be around a year long, operating in a "ring-fenced" environment and consider use-cases presented by industry stakeholders – with a focus on "innovative use cases and business models."

While on the topic of Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solutions, Reddit's Community Points will be built on Arbitrum Nova – a new Arbitrum network currently in beta, (not to be confused with Arbitrum One).

Arbitrum Nova is designed specifically for gaming and social applications using Reddit's token, but will remain an open and public network where anyone can launch points, contracts and applications.