The community celebrated the ninth anniversary of Ethereum’s launch, the Federal Reserve maintained its key interest rate, Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 10.5%, Elon Musk promised not to promote cryptocurrencies, and other events of the past week.
Bitcoin Price Falls Below $60,000
The leading cryptocurrency began the week at $69,000 but fell below $67,000 by Monday, July 29. By Thursday, August 1, it had dropped below $63,000, and on August 3, the price fell below $62,000.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $59,300.
All top-10 digital assets by market capitalization ended the week in the red. Solana (-26.7%) and Dogecoin (-20.1%) were the biggest losers.
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at $2.18 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index is 57%.
Ethereum’s Ninth Anniversary Celebrated
It has been nine years since the launch of the Ethereum mainnet and the creation of the genesis block. Developers and other network participants congratulated each other on this milestone.
On July 30, 2015, former Ethereum Foundation CCO Stephan Tual announced the blockchain’s launch in a blog post.
“The vision of a censorship-proof ‘world computer’ that anyone can program, paying only for what they use and nothing more, has now become a reality,” the post stated.
Over nine years, the Ethereum network has become one of the industry’s leading ecosystems, with its native coin being the second-largest crypto asset by market cap, valued at $340 billion.
“Happy ninth anniversary, Ethereum! Looking forward to what the next decade brings,” wrote blockchain co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Cryptocurrency exchanges KuCoin, HTX, and other community members joined in the celebrations.
Ethereum was created by a large team of developers, including notable figures such as Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, Gavin Wood, Joseph Lubin, and Anthony Di Iorio.
The platform played a crucial role in the ICO boom of late 2017 and the DeFi summer of 2020.
Since then, Ethereum has undergone numerous technical upgrades. Perhaps the most significant was The Merge, which transitioned the network’s consensus algorithm from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake.
The next major step was the Dencun hard fork, launched in March 2024, which reduced fees in second-layer networks.
Ethereum is now preparing for the Pectra upgrade, scheduled for early 2025. This initiative combines the Prague and Electra updates, aimed at enhancing wallet capabilities and improving network efficiency.
Fed Maintains Key Interest Rate
On July 31, the U.S. Federal Reserve maintained the key interest rate range at 5.25–5.5% per annum for the eighth consecutive time. The decision aligned with market expectations.
On July 11, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released a consumer price report. The index value was below the forecast—3% versus 3.1%.
Topics to Discuss with Friends
- Hamster Kombat developers will allocate 60% of tokens to “tappers.”
- The Notcoin team will launch the Telegram game Lost Dogs.
- Pavel Durov entered Bloomberg’s billionaire ranking.
- Donald Trump opened pre-orders for “Bitcoin sneakers.”
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Rises by 10.5%
Following the latest recalculation, the mining difficulty of the leading cryptocurrency increased by 10.5% to 90.67 T.
The average hashrate since the previous adjustment was 933.84 EH/s, with block intervals of less than seven minutes.
According to Glassnode, the smoothed 7-day moving average of computational power reached peak values of around 637 EH/s.
SEC to Withdraw Demand for Solana and Other Assets as Securities
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intends to seek changes in its initial lawsuit against Binance. The proposal could potentially affect the need for a court ruling on whether assets like Solana are considered securities.
“The changes will eliminate the need to rule on the sufficiency of allegations regarding these tokens at this time,” the motion stated.
The SEC filed the motion on July 29 in response to a court order from July 9, which required the agency and the company to agree on a proposed schedule for further proceedings. This document should include deadlines for filing a motion to amend the complaint, the order stated.
In June 2023, the regulator sued the Bitcoin exchange and its CEO Changpeng Zhao. In addition to SOL, the Commission also classified the following assets as securities: BNB, BUSD, ADA, MATIC, FIL, ATOM, SAND, MANA, ALGO, and AXS.
Also on ForkLog:
- U.S. authorities moved 28,000 BTC seized in the Silk Road case.
- The Lava Network project launched its mainnet and began an airdrop.
- An Ethereum ICO participant moved 2,000 ETH for the first time.
- Mt.Gox moved $2.25 billion worth of bitcoins.
Elon Musk Promises Not to Promote Cryptocurrencies
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has no intention of promoting cryptocurrencies, except perhaps “as a joke.”
Expressing his views on Bitcoin, he noted that the first cryptocurrency and possibly some others have “their merits.” The billionaire also admitted to having a fondness for Dogecoin (DOGE) because he likes “dogs and memes.”
However, he made it clear that if anyone finds a video of him “pumping” any digital asset, it is a deepfake.
Musk also urged people to “double-check whether” his purported statements about cryptocurrencies or platforms, quoted on X, are true.
What Else to Read?
This week, ForkLog explored why the number of listings did not translate into quality and what makes the potential OP_CAT update in the Bitcoin network interesting.
In the traditional digest, we compiled the week’s main events in cybersecurity.
The most important news from cryptocurrency industry participants was published in a separate digest.