BTC is currently trading around $28,900 and ETH around $1,850. Notable gainers in the last 24 hours are TWT, XDC, and IMX. The global crypto market cap is $1.21T, down 1.5% over the last day. DeFi Total Value Locked is ~$40b and BTC dominance is around 50%.
Global equity markets are little changed, bond yields are higher, and crypto prices are down small. Much of the focus remains on Curve, where its founder Michael Egorov sold CRV tokens via several OTC transactions to help with his large CRV-backed loan that would be at risk of liquidation if CRV dropped significantly. Given this risk, traders have materially increased short positions in CRV perps. In addition, many are watching Coinbase’s L2 Base, which has attracted significant memecoin-related activity. However, the leading DEX on Base, LeetSwap, halted trading amid reports of an exploit, while the memecoin BALD plunged 92% yesterday as the developer rug pulled liquidity. Further, onchain sleuths have suggested that BALD may have ties with defunct trading firm Alameda Research.
Other notable news includes: the SEC filed a lawsuit against Richard Heart and three entities (HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX) for selling unregistered securities and charged Heart and PulseChain with misappropriating proceeds; a US judge overseeing the SEC lawsuit against Terra Luna creator Terraform Labs denied TFL’s motion to dismiss the case and stated that it rejected the approach used in the SEC vs. Ripple case; the US national defense bill that passed in the Senate contains new KYC measures that would reportedly be problematic for stablecoin issuers; the US House Financial Services Committee approved two bills – The Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act and The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act – intended to establish rules for crypto firms last week; The US IRS ruled that staking rewards should be treated as taxable income; bankrupt crypto exchange FTX released its restructuring plan and hinted at rebooting its offshore exchange; crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group stated that it is close to resolving claims in the bankruptcy case of its lending unit Genesis Capital and announced the appointment of a new CFO; Bitcoin Ordinal inscriptions hit a new daily record of more than 422,000 but trading volumes slid in July; stablecoin issuer Tether reported an $850m 2Q profit; the German data watchdog launched a probe into Worldcoin in November 2022 over biometric data concerns; a proposal to transition Celo from an independent layer 1 blockchain to an Ethereum layer 2 passed; decentralized exchange PancakeSwap is set to share trading fees with CAKE token stakers; and, Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs announced plans to acquire gaming and music firm Roar Studios.
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Authors:
Matt Kunke, Research Analyst | Twitter, Telegram, LinkedIn
Brian Rudick, Senior Strategist | Twitter, Telegram, LinkedIn
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