Bitcoin Price: US$ 65,389.17 (-0.86%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 3,335.81 (-4.21%)
Bitcoin rewards app Fold, with an implied valuation of $365 million, is planning to go public on Nasdaq via a SPAC deal with FTAC Emerald Acquisition. The transaction, which has received approval from the directors of both companies, is slated for closure in the fourth quarter of 2024. In parallel, digital asset manager Hashdex has filed an S-1 registration statement for its Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF, aiming to track certain cryptocurrency assets in the Nasdaq Crypto US Settlement Price Index. If approved, this combined cryptocurrency ETF would be the first of its kind to officially list and trade in the US. Meanwhile, a Bitcoin mining device named “Bitaxe,” with a hashrate of only 500 gigahashes per second (Gh/s), successfully mined a block on July 24, earning approximately $206,000 based on the current Bitcoin price. This feat was achieved while the device was connected to the node infrastructure service Solo CKPool.
As institutional interest in crypto grows, the debate on the future of decentralised finance and its relationship to traditional finance intensifies. James Toledano, COO of Savl, posits that institutional involvement in crypto would be positive for the long-term growth of cryptocurrencies, envisioning a future where financial institutions coexist alongside decentralised finance in a paradigm he calls “NewFi.” This vision is supported by the latest CoinShares weekly inflow report, which shows that digital asset investment vehicles saw $1.35 billion in inflows during a seven-day period, primarily driven by investors in the United States. The launch of spot Ether exchange-traded funds on US stock exchanges, recording over $1 billion in trading volume within a single day, further showcases the intense institutional demand for crypto ETF products. In parallel, Bitstamp is set to begin distributing crypto to Mt. Gox creditors on July 25, following a large transfer of assets from the trustees of the collapsed exchange. After a week-long security check, recipients of the repayments will gain full control of their coins. This comes as a relief to the over 20,000 users left without access to their crypto since the collapse of Mt. Gox in 2014, where the price of BTC has risen over 10,000%. Bitstamp, one of five cryptocurrency exchanges participating in the bankrupt exchange’s Rehabilitation Plan, notes that those affected by the 2014 hacking operation have spent a decade waiting to be reimbursed and will now realise considerable profits. Meanwhile, researchers working with Nvidia supercomputers are making strides in the quest to build a fully functional, commercially viable quantum computer based on supercomputer simulations conducted with GPUs. The team used these GPU-based quantum simulations to solve an outstanding problem encountered in annealing systems, bringing full-service quantum annealers a step closer to market.
Unbound Fund, co-founded by Alessandro Palombo, has innovatively offered Bitcoin holders a pathway to European Union citizenship through Portugal’s golden visa program, enabling investors indirectly holding Bitcoin worth 500,000 euros (about $542,000) through the fund to be eligible for the Portugal Golden Residence Permit Program. This development coincided with a significant surge in Bitcoin’s price on July 22, peaking at $68,518 on some platforms, a rise attributed to the culmination of the German government’s Bitcoin sell-off and investors’ confidence in the United States Federal Reserve’s anticipated interest rate cuts in 2024. In parallel, the crypto exchange Kraken successfully completed the distribution of all the Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash owed to Mt. Gox creditors, defying expectations of a selling pressure on Bitcoin, as suggested by Kraken’s trading volume indicating that creditors aren’t selling. Amid these developments, Franklin Templeton, a pioneer in issuing a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States, expressed optimism about the future of cryptocurrency ETFs, including a potential Solana product, and launched its second spot cryptocurrency ETF, the Franklin Ethereum ETF (EZET), on the same day it announced its interest in Solana ETFs.
In the wake of a DNS hijacking attempt on July 23, dYdX swiftly restored version 3.0 of its website within three hours, urging users to delete the cache and restart their browsers before accessing the site, as the attack had only temporarily compromised the exchange’s website while leaving the rest of the protocol unaffected. This incident occurred against the backdrop of an escalating trend in crypto hacking, with digital assets valued at $542.7 million stolen in the first quarter of 2024 alone, marking a 42% increase from the same period in 2023, and over 55% of these hacked digital assets were lost due to private key leaks. As the total volume of stolen crypto funds in 2024 approaches $1.4 billion, centralised exchanges are emerging as the new ground zero for exploits. Amidst these challenges, digital asset custodian Hex Trust has made strides in regulatory compliance, obtaining in-principle approval from the Singapore financial regulator for a major payment institution (MPI) license, which enables it to offer regulated “Digital Payment Token” services in the city-state. Serving a diverse clientele including banks, asset managers, hedge funds, venture capital firms, pension funds, cryptocurrency exchanges, and even central bank digital currency issuers, Hex Trust also secured an additional Virtual Asset Service Provider license in Dubai in June. In the ETF space, United States Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) posted net inflows of $106.6 million on their first day of trading, despite massive outflows from Grayscale’s freshly-converted Ethereum Trust, and spot ETH ETFs generated $1.08 billion in cumulative trading volume on their debut day, accounting for 23% of the volume that Bitcoin ETFs saw on their launch day.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com
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