The price of the leading cryptocurrency rebounded to $67,000, CBOE announced the start date for trading spot ETH-ETF, the Indian crypto exchange WazirX was hacked for $235 million, among other events of the past week.
Bitcoin’s Strengthening
After ending the previous week on a high, digital gold continued its upward trend. On Tuesday, the coin reached $64,000, but after the movement of Mt.Gox assets worth $6 billion, it corrected to $63,000.
One of the major recipients of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash was the American exchange Kraken. Experts at Lookonchain suggested that the movement of funds is related to the platform’s creditor repayment plan.
Until Friday evening, the leading cryptocurrency traded in the range of $62,500 to $65,500. Over the weekend, the asset settled at $67,000.
Hope for further market growth was given by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. He stated that the Federal Reserve would not wait for inflation to fall to 2% before starting to cut interest rates.
At the end of the week, CryptoQuant’s head of research Julio Moreno reported on the “exhaustion” of large Bitcoin sellers. Other analysts also pointed to positive signals for digital gold.
At the time of writing, the leading cryptocurrency is trading at $67,500, having gained 12% over the week. According to CoinGecko, the total crypto market capitalization is $2.57 trillion, with Bitcoin’s dominance index at 51.6%.
Almost all top-10 assets ended the week in the “green zone.” Ethereum rose by 9.7% over seven days, while SOL added 20%. Only TON fell by 2%.
Mining Difficulty Increase
On July 18, following another recalculation, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty increased by 3.21% to 82.05 T. The indicator resumed growth after declining for the previous three periods.
The average hash rate since the previous change was 646.59 EH/s, with the interval between blocks being just over nine minutes.
Ahead of the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, Bernstein analysts positively assessed the “Trump factor” for miners. They suggest that under the current conditions, the segment’s company valuations will start to rise.
Experts noted that the market interprets the potential re-election of the former U.S. president as a “more positive” factor for the crypto industry, given the current strict regulation. In recent months, Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed support for digital assets and promised to promote mining.
ETH-ETF Launch Date
On July 18, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved applications for the launch of a mini-ETF based on Ethereum from Grayscale and an exchange-traded fund from ProShares.
On the same day, various media outlets cited July 23 as the start of trading. This view was supported by Bloomberg exchange analyst Eric Balchunas “in the absence of unforeseen circumstances.”
On July 19, CBOE published documents confirming the expected launch dates for funds from five issuers.
Amid renewed excitement around ETFs, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization surpassed the $3,500 mark.
However, according to analyst and Into The Cryptoverse founder Benjamin Cowen, Ethereum’s price risks declining if the asset’s supply continues to grow at the current pace.
He claims that the number of new coins has been increasing by approximately 60,000 ETH every 30 days over the past four months.
DEX Vertex Protocol CEO Darius Tabai holds an opposing view. He believes that the launch of Ethereum-ETF could positively impact altcoins. Bitwise predicted that Ether could rise above $5,000 following the launch of exchange-traded funds.
Topics to Discuss with Friends
- Bloomberg apologized to Changpeng Zhao.
- German authorities revealed the price of sold bitcoins.
- Mark Cuban considered Bitcoin as a global reserve currency.
- A trader got a tattoo with the address of the GIGA meme token contract.
WazirX Hacked for $234.9 Million
On July 18, Cyvers Alerts reported a hack of the Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX.
Researchers discovered a series of suspicious transactions from the platform’s multisig wallet on the Ethereum network, resulting in hackers stealing assets worth $234.9 million.
Following the incident, WazirX suspended all withdrawals and launched an investigation.
Experts from Blocksec suggested that the attack was caused by a private key leak. Using it, the hackers updated the secure wallet implementation to a malicious contract.
Elliptic analysts also tracked the movement of the stolen funds. They concluded that North Korean hackers were behind the asset theft.
Later, representatives of the trading platform reported contacting law enforcement. WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty announced the preparation of a reward program. The initiative aims to help “freeze or recover” the stolen assets.
In his view, this “unprecedented attack on one of India’s largest crypto exchanges has negatively impacted the entire Web3 ecosystem.”
TON Bridge for Bitcoin and Durov’s Announcement
The organization behind the development of The Open Network (TON) blockchain, TON Foundation, announced the launch of a cross-chain bridge for transferring the leading cryptocurrency.
According to the team’s statement, the TON Teleport BTC solution is designed to engage digital gold holders in DeFi activities. The development will provide access to decentralized exchanges, lending platforms, and other applications on the TON network.
Each bitcoin on the blockchain will be backed by a real asset through the teleportation process. The launch of TON Teleport BTC is expected “later” this year.
According to DeFi Llama, the total value of locked assets on the TON network reached $783 million. The blockchain is almost on par with the L2 solution Optimism, which ranks tenth in the top.
This week, Telegram founder Pavel Durov also announced that by the end of July, a mini-app store and an integrated browser with Web3 page support will appear in the messenger.
Also on ForkLog:
- BlackRock CEO called Bitcoin a legitimate financial instrument.
- Police disconnected 500 miners near Irkutsk.
- Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith had his prison sentence reduced.
- A disclaimer appeared on Craig Wright’s website denying his involvement in Bitcoin’s creation.
MATIC to POL Conversion
Polygon developers have set the date for converting the utility token MATIC to Polygon Ecosystem Token (POL) at a 1:1 ratio. The process is scheduled for September 4.
The proposal was approved by the community. POL will replace MATIC as the primary asset for staking and gas payments.
For current coin holders on the Polygon PoS network, the transition to the new token will occur automatically, without user intervention. However, those holding MATIC on Ethereum, Polygon zkEVM, or various CEX will need to perform special migration procedures.
The existing tokenomics, distribution, and total supply will remain unchanged. The latter parameter is 10 billion with an annual inflation rate of 2%.
What Else to Read?
This week, ForkLog explored who is tokenizing precious metals and why.
The most important events from the world of cybersecurity were compiled in the traditional digest. Read the main news from crypto industry participants in a separate article.