Your look at what's coming in the week starting Aug. 17

By Francisco Rodrigues|Edited by Sheldon Reback59 min ago3 min read

As we look ahead to the upcoming week, the cryptocurrency landscape is set to be influenced by several key events, including the collaboration between Coinbase and Circle regarding USDC, the release of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes, and fluctuations in oil prices.

The Federal Reserve continues to grapple with the challenge of achieving a soft landing—lowering inflation without instigating a recession or a significant rise in unemployment. This week, the FOMC minutes will provide insights into the central bank's stance on potential interest rate hikes.

Adam Posen, who leads the Peterson Institute for International Economics, suggested that there is only a 25% chance of an interest rate increase in September, predicting that any adjustments may not come until December, despite anticipating a rise in inflation in early 2027.

Additionally, geopolitical events are expected to play a role in market volatility and oil pricing. The current high-interest rates tend to make riskier assets such as cryptocurrencies less appealing.

In the crypto sector, operators within the European Union face a significant regulatory deadline this Sunday, requiring them to halt transactions with 14 specified crypto platforms.

What to Watch

(All times ET)

  • Crypto
    • Aug. 18: The agreement between Coinbase and Circle regarding their USDC collaboration, which outlines their revenue-sharing framework, will enter its initial three-year renewal phase.
    • Aug. 23: The EU's prohibition on transactions with 14 designated crypto-asset service providers will take effect.
  • Macro
    • Aug. 17, 8:30 a.m.: Canada Consumer Price Index YoY for July is expected to be 2.6% (previously 2.8%).
    • Aug. 18, 9:15 a.m.: U.S. Industrial Production MoM for July is estimated at 0.3% (previously 0.1%).
    • Aug. 19, 2 a.m.: U.K. Headline CPI YoY for July is expected at 3.0% (previously 2.6%); Core YoY (previously 2.6%).
    • Aug. 19, 5 a.m.: Euro area headline inflation YoY (final) for July is estimated at 2.9% (previously 2.8%); Core YoY estimated at 2.5% (previously 2.4%).
    • Aug. 19, 2 p.m.: Release of U.S. FOMC Minutes from the July 28–29 meeting.
    • Aug. 20, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending Aug. 15 are estimated at 201K (previously 209K).
    • Aug. 20, 7:30 p.m.: Japan Headline CPI YoY for July (previously 1.7%); Core CPI YoY estimated at 1.8% (previously 1.6%).
    • Aug. 21, 2 a.m.: U.K. Retail Sales MoM for July (previously 1.0%).
    • Aug. 21, 4 a.m.: Euro Area S&P Global Composite PMI Flash for August is estimated at 51.6 (previously 52.0).
    • Aug. 21, 9:45 a.m.: U.S. S&P Global Composite PMI Flash for August is estimated at 53.2 (previously 54.5).
  • Earnings
    • Aug. 17: BitFuFu (FUFU), pre-market, $0.01.
    • Aug. 18: Canaan (CAN), pre-market, -$0.14.
    • Aug. 18: BTCS Inc (BTCS), post-market.

Token Events

  • Governance Votes & Calls
    • Compound is voting on proposals to reduce rates on deprecated markets to zero (Prop 595) and to implement L2 security upgrades (Prop 596). Voting ends Aug. 16.
    • Frax Finance is currently voting on FIP-450 and FIP-451 to integrate Gearbox and Royco yield strategies to sfrxUSD through Aug. 17.
    • ShapeShift DAO is voting to transition its rFOX staking program from Arbitrum to Ethereum Mainnet on Oct. 1, offering a temporary boost in revenue-share rewards to 50% for three months to encourage migration. Voting closes on Aug. 18.
    • Rocket Pool is voting to replace Snapshot with RocketDash as its official offchain signaling platform to cut costs. Voting ends Aug. 19.
    • GnosisDAO is voting on a proposal to transition Gnosis Chain from a standalone layer 1 to an Ethereum-settled rollup with synchronous mainnet composability, with voting concluding on Aug. 19.
    • Decentraland DAO is voting on establishing a comprehensive governance framework and appeal process for platform-wide bans. Voting ends Aug. 19.
    • THORSwap is voting on TIP-19 to migrate THOR tokens 1:1 to METRO on Ethereum mainnet, with voting concluding on Aug. 22.
  • Unlocks
    • Aug. 17: Aster ASTER$0.5981 will unlock 1.8% of its circulating supply valued at $28.3 million.
    • Aug. 18: Official Trump (TRUMP) will unlock 4.1% of its circulating supply worth $40 million.
    • Aug. 20: LayerZero ZRO$0.7936 will unlock 4.5% of its circulating supply valued at $24.8 million.
    • Aug. 20: Kaito KAITO$0.3395 will unlock 6.2% of its circulating supply worth $11.7 million.
    • Aug. 21: Avalanche (AVAX) will unlock 0.7% of its circulating supply worth $23.1 million.
    • Aug. 21: Morpho MORPHO$2.0853 will unlock 3.9% of its circulating supply valued at $22.7 million.
    • Aug. 21: Akedo Games (AKE) will unlock 4.9% of its circulating supply worth $14.1 million.
  • Token Launches

No confirmed high-profile token launches are anticipated.

Conferences

week ahead