Coinbase Launches All-in-One Web3 App
Bybit Lists Hamster Kombat in Pre-Market
Weekly Stats
Bitcoin: $62,776.15 (+13.74%)
Bitcoin Market Dominance: 53.6%
Global Crypto Market Cap: $2.24T
Ethereum: $3,334.58 (+14.66%)
Ethereum Market Dominance: 17.5%
Total Value Locked: $94.835B
NFT Sales Volume: $109,530,190 (16.05%)
Crypto Fear and Greed Index: 52
Coins of the Week
Top Gainer — Mog Coin
The top gainer of the week is Mog Coin, with a surge of more than 63% in the last seven days. The Mog Coin team recently released a web application that allowed users to edit any image to feature the iconic ‘glasses’ and ‘finger point’ of the MOG Coin mascot.
Top 3 News
Bybit Lists Hamster Kombat’s Token for Pre-Market Trading — Link
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit is advancing its support for emerging projects on TON by listing the token for the record-breaking game Hamster Kombat for pre-market trading. Bybit officially announced the listing of the Hamster Kombat token on its OTC platform.
Coinbase Launching a ‘One-Stop’ Crypto App — Link
Coinbase announced that it is launching a new web app designed to provide users with a single platform for viewing and managing their entire crypto exposure, including tokens, NFTs, and DeFi positions.
MetaMask Unveils New Toolkit to Streamline Web3 — Link
Consensys unveiled the MetaMask Delegation Toolkit at EthCC, marking a significant milestone in the company’s efforts to promote Web3 and blockchain adoption. The toolkit enables developers to create decentralized applications and protocols that offer new user experiences.
Top Bitcoin News
TeraWulf Pays Off Outstanding Debt Early — Link
Crypto mining firm TeraWulf announced it paid off its outstanding debt earlier than expected in a final payment of $77.5 million. TeraWulf executives said the debt reduction would allow the company to maximize its resources and focus on the deployment of mining infrastructure.
MicroStrategy Announces 10-for-1 Stock Split — Link
Effective as of the close of business on Aug. 1, by means of a stock dividend to its holders, the class A and class B common stock splits aim to make MicroStrategy’s shares more accessible to investors and employees.
Bitcoin’s Correlation with US Equities Falls — Link
Bitcoin’s correlation with the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 has fallen to a multi-month low. The 30-day Pearson correlation of bitcoin to the Nasdaq and bitcoin to the S&P 500 has fallen to -0.84 and -0.82, respectively, representing lows not seen since November 2023.
Hut 8 Enters Into Agreement for 205-Megawatt Texas Site — Link
Bitcoin miner Hut 8 has entered into a power purchase agreement for a site in West Texas with 205 megawatts of immediately available power capacity and land. The deal represents the first transaction in Hut 8’s previously announced development pipeline of 1,100 megawatts of exclusive energy capacity.
Top Layer 1 News
Story Protocol to Launch IP-focused Layer 1 — Link
Blockchain startup Story is emerging from stealth with its bespoke Layer 1 network built for IP management, which is expected to launch later this year. The project is backed by notable VCs, including Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media, Samsung Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.
Top Layer 2 News
Starknet Token Staking to Hit Mainnet by Q4 — Link
Native token staking is expected to be introduced to Starknet by the end of this year. Core developer StarkWare has submitted a Starknet Improvement Protocol (SNIP) to enable staking on the network.
Ethereum L2s See Yearly Low in Unique Depositors — Link
Unique depositors into Ethereum Layer 2 rollup solutions have reached a yearly low, with just 34,920 users over the past week. This represents a 33% decrease compared to the previous week’s total and starkly contrasts with mid-April when this figure reached upwards of 250,000 unique depositors in a single week.
Top DeFi News
Pyth Network Launches ‘Express Relay’ — Link
The oracle provider claims Express Relay, governed by the Pyth DAO, provides a decentralized solution to the “long-standing problem” of maximal extractable value, saving money for protocols and DeFi users.
BlackRock to Participate in MakerDAO’s ‘Grand Prix’ — Link
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is looking to participate in decentralized stablecoin issuer MakerDAO’s “Grand Prix,” a competition aimed at bringing in $1 billion of tokenized assets onto the platform.
DeFi Technologies to Acquire Stillman Digital — Link
Stillman Digital has facilitated over $15 billion in trade volume since 2021. DeFi plans to internalize part of the trading flows from its portfolio companies and leverage Stillman’s expertise to enhance its trading capabilities within DeFi Alpha.
Top Exchanges News
Retail Traders Boost Crypto.com — Link
Crypto.com has been steadily climbing the ranks in terms of USD support exchange volume market share. The exchange’s market share has reached 31%, marking a significant recovery towards its peak of 44% observed in April 2022.
Bitget Reports $700M Capital Inflow in Q2 — Link
Crypto exchange Bitget reported a $700 million capital inflow and increased website traffic for the second quarter of 2024. The company observed a 50% increase in traffic over the previous quarter and claims to have attracted 10 million monthly visitors in Q2.
Top Crypto Adoption News
Goldman Sachs to Launch 3 Tokenized Funds This Year — Link
Goldman Sachs is reportedly making moves into crypto, with plans for the 150-year-old bank to launch three tokenization projects by the end of the year. Details of the funds were scant, but reportedly, one will target the U.S. fund sector while another will focus on European debt markets.
BlackRock’s Tokenized Fund Surpasses $500M — Link
The BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity (BUIDL) fund has surpassed $500M in market value, unseating Franklin Templeton’s blockchain-based mutual fund. The US Treasurys-backed tokenized fund launched on Ethereum in March held $502.8 million in BUIDL tokens.
Dubai Customs Launches Blockchain Platform — Link
Dubai Customs has announced the launch of a new blockchain platform aimed at smoothing out supply chain friction within Dubai and across its borders. The blockchain solution was launched as part of a broader strategy to cement Dubai’s position as a leading “smart” city.
Crypto Adoption in Argentina Soars — Link
Cryptocurrency adoption in Argentina has set records as the local inflation rate skyrockets. Argentina has been leading the Western hemisphere in cryptocurrency adoption with a 276% annual inflation rate.
Top NFT, Gaming, and Web3 News
Farcaster Hits Record High in User Engagement — Link
Decentralized social media protocol Farcaster is experiencing a remarkable uptick in user engagement. Data shows that the platform reached an all-time high of 73,700 unique casters last week, marking a significant milestone in its growth trajectory.
Lionel Messi Promotes Solana Memecoin — Link
International soccer legend Lionel Messi has jumped on the meme bandwagon and is promoting a Solana-based memecoin called WaterCoin through his Instagram Stories.
Top Macro News
China June Consumer Inflation Misses Forecasts — Link
China’s consumer prices grew for a fifth month in June but missed expectations, while producer price deflation persisted, with domestic demand mired on a slow recovery track despite support measures for the world’s second-largest economy.
German Inflation Confirmed at 2.5% — Link
German inflation eased in June to 2.5%, the federal statistics office said on Thursday, confirming preliminary data. German consumer prices, harmonized to compare with other European Union countries, had risen by 2.8% year-on-year in May.
US Equity Funds See Outflows — Link
U.S. equity funds faced their first weekly outflow in three weeks in the seven days to July 10 as caution and profit-taking took hold ahead of the new earnings season. Investors sold a net $3.57 billion worth of U.S. equity funds during the week, partly reversing a net $8.56 billion worth of purchases the previous week.
Powell Says Fed Will Cut Rates When Ready — Link
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday the U.S. central bank will make interest rate decisions “when and as” they are needed, pushing back on a suggestion that a September rate cut could be seen as a political act ahead of the fall presidential election.
Top Partnerships News
Block Partners with Core Scientific — Link
Block and Core Scientific announced an agreement to supply Core Scientific with Block’s new 3-nanometer mining ASICs, built by Block’s Proto team, representing approximately 15 EH/s (exahashes per second) of hashrate.
Notcoin, 1inch, and Sign Launch Accelerator — Link
Notcoin, the buzzy, new, Telegram-based game, is collaborating with DeFi OG 1inch and Sequioa-backed attestation protocol Sign on a new startup accelerator for Telegram and TON’s crypto ecosystems.
Kulipa Partners with Mastercard and Argent — Link
Cryptocurrency wallet provider Argent is partnering with Mastercard and blockchain startup Kulipa on a new crypto-powered payment card. The arrangement will incorporate zero-knowledge technology from Starknet.
Zodia Custody Partners with Maple Finance — Link
Zodia Custody, an institutional-grade cryptocurrency custodian, has announced a partnership with Maple Finance, a specialist in crypto lending. The agreement will see Maple Finance utilizing Zodia Custody as a preferred custodian for its global lending arrangements.
SingularityNET and Filecoin Partner — Link
SingularityNET, an artificial intelligence platform developer, and the Filecoin Foundation, the governance body behind the Filecoin network, have announced a collaborative partnership. The partnership aims to integrate the AI and DePIN industries while maintaining decentralization, AI ethics, and data provenance.
Top Hacks and Scams
Dough Finance Loses $1.8M — Link
DeFi protocol Dough Finance lost $1.8 million in digital assets after a flash loan attack on the protocol. On July 12, Web3 security firm Cyvers flagged that it had detected multiple suspicious transactions. The company communicated with lending protocol Aave to check if pools were affected. However, the security firm confirmed that pools within Aave were safe.
Multichain Foundation to Pay $2.1M to Fantom — Link
The High Court of Singapore has ordered the Multichain Foundation, a cross-chain router protocol, to compensate the Fantom Foundation, a layer-1 platform, for losses incurred during a $210 million hack.
Investors Lose $1.6M in Doja Cat’s X Scam Promotion — Link
The X account of rapper Doja Cat was hacked on July 8 and used to promote a scam token bearing the rapper’s name. Celebrity news site The Daily Mail also reported that Doja Cat was hacked and used to make negative posts about fellow rapper Iggy Azalea.
Inferno Drainer Fails Attempt to Launder ETH — Link
Crypto privacy protocol Railgun’s built-in tool to filter out bad actors has seemingly foiled Inferno Drainer’s latest attempt to launder its stolen cash. A July 9 attempt to launder a little over 174 Ether was blocked by Railgun, forcing them to send the ETH back to Inferno’s wallet address.
Pancake Bunny Hacker Siphons $2.9M of Ether — Link
Part of the stolen funds connected to Pancake Bunny — a decentralized finance protocol on the BNB Smart Chain — was funneled through the privacy protocol Tornado Cash after three years of dormancy. Pancake Bunny suffered a flash loan attack in May 2021 and lost roughly 697,000 BUNNY tokens and 114,000 BNB, which tanked the value of its BUNNY token by 95%.
Top Legal and Regulation News
FTX Counters Jump Trading’s $264M Damages Claims — Link
The FTX-Alameda bankruptcy estate challenged Jump Trading subsidiary Tai Mo Shan’s $264 million claim surrounding a loan deal from Alameda Research, where FTX lawyers argued the claim to be invalid as they claim the loan never commenced.
SEC Drops Its Investigation Into BUSD — Link
The SEC does not plan to recommend enforcement action against Paxos following a probe into stablecoin Binance USD. Paxos said it received a “formal termination notice” on July 9, which said the SEC would not recommend enforcement against the firm in the investigation of BUSD.
BitMEX Pleads Guilty to Violating the Bank Secrecy Act — Link
BitMEX pled guilty Wednesday to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, saying that BitMEX willfully failed to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program.
Binance Tax Evasion Verdict Set for October — Link
A Nigerian court has scheduled the verdict for the tax evasion trial against crypto exchange Binance for Oct. 11. Binance faces four counts of tax evasion, including failing to register with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Top Stablecoin News
PYUSD Surpasses $500M Market Cap — Link
PayPal’s U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, PYUSD — launched in August 2023 through a partnership with custodian firm Paxos — has seen its market supply exceed half a billion tokens. This places PayPal among the top ten stablecoin issuers.
Circle Launches Euro-Backed EURC on Base — Link
Stablecoin issuer Circle launched its euro-backed stablecoin, EURC, on the Base network, adding to the list of networks where the coin can be natively issued and traded. EURC was previously only available in native form on Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar.
Top Fundings
Tread.fi Raises $3.5M — Link
Tread.fi, an algorithmic crypto trading platform founded by a former Morgan Stanley employee, has raised $3.5 million in a pre-seed funding round. With fresh capital in hand, Tread.fi plans to continue enhancing its trading platform and expanding its team.
ZAP Raises $15.1M — Link
The funding was raised in three recent rounds — $900,000 seed last December, a $2.1 million private round last month, and $12.1 million in an ongoing “vault sale.”
Partior Raises $60M — Link
The new funding will be used to help the firm continue to develop its ledger-based interbank rails for real-time clearing and settlement, including new features such as intraday FX swaps, the integration of additional currencies and just-in-time multi-bank payments.
BOB Raises $1.6M — Link
BOB (Build on Bitcoin), a hybrid Layer 2 project powered by Bitcoin and Ethereum, has raised $1.6 million in a strategic funding round led by Ledger Cathay Fund, including contributions from various angel investors.
Idle Raises $2.4M — Link
The on-chain credit and yield platform Idle raised $1.1 million in strategic funding led by the investment firm RockawayX. Fasanara Digital also participated in the round to bring Idle’s total funding to $2.4 million.
Next Week’s Events
Chromia MVP Mainnet Launch — Link
The MVP Mainnet is the foundation of Chromia, upon which everything else will be built. Though the ecosystem will take time to develop, the designation ‘MVP’ signifies that this release includes the base functionality needed for the network to start growing.
Puff Astronaut NFT Mint — Link
The Puff Astronaut NFT mint is going LIVE on July 18th at 10:00 am UTC! Mint a Puff for 20 or 25 RON during one of two rounds: Allowlist and Public.
ApeCoin Token Unlock — Link
On the 17th of July, ApeCoin will unlock 15.6M $APE tokens worth $11.54 million.
Canada Inflation Rate — Link
The annual inflation rate in Canada rose to 2.9% in May of 2024 from the three-year low of 2.7% in the earlier month, contrasting with market expectations that expected a slowdown to 2.6%.
Arbitrum Token Unlock — Link
On the 16th of July, Arbitrum will unlock 92.65M $ARB tokens worth $64.86 million.
United Kingdom Inflation Rate — Link
The annual inflation rate in the UK slowed to 2% in May 2024, the lowest since July 2021, from 2.3% in April and in line with forecasts.
Axie Infinity Token Unlock — Link
On the 16th of July, Axie Infinity will unlock 2.54M $AXS tokens worth $13.63 million.
Euro Area Interest Rate — Link
ECB policymakers raised some doubts about whether the Euro Area recovery would take place as expected since it depended on a pick-up in private consumption for which there was no convincing evidence in the data yet, minutes from the ECB monetary policy meeting.
Japan Inflation Rate — Link
The annual inflation rate in Japan accelerated to 2.8% in May 2024 from 2.5% in April, the highest reading since February. Electricity prices steeply increased as energy subsidies fully ended (14.7% vs -1.1% in April), reversing declines in the prior 15 months.
