ETHUSD Ethereum

Ethereum spot ETFs debut with high demand and impressive volume

Launched on July 23, the new Ethereum Spot ETFs attracted significant interest, with an impressive volume of $120 million in just 15 minutes and $361 million in the first 90 minutes.

The Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF (AMEX:ETHE) led with $147.8 million, followed by BlackRock’s ETF (NASDAQ:ETHA) with $71.4 million and Bitwise’s ETF (AMEX:ETHW) with $50.4 million. Fidelity’s ETF (AMEX:FETH) also stood out with $49.3 million. These ETFs are among the top 1% most active in the market, surpassing typical launches that rarely exceed $1 million on the first day.

Analysts expect the price of Ether to reach new all-time highs in the coming months, driven by the new ETFs. Fernando Pereira, an analyst at Bitget, sees risks in buying Ethereum now due to market volatility: “The chart shows signs of a decline and a possible top formation. Buying ETH today for a short-term rise could be dangerous.”

Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, considers the approval of the Ethereum ETF a milestone for the crypto sector, indicating a more mature regulatory environment. However, she notes that the exclusion of staking could reduce the ETF’s appeal but benefit staking companies and crypto ecosystem tokens: “An Ethereum ETF without staking may have less market appeal but could benefit the staking sector and related tokens, such as LIDO (COIN:LDO), ETHFI, and ecosystem applications like ENS (COIN:ENSUSD), Maker (COIN:MKRUSD), Uniswap (COIN:UNIUSD), and ChainLink (COIN:LINKUSD),” commented Chen.

Currently, Ethereum (COIN:ETHUSD) is showing a slight increase of 0.16%, trading at $3,447.48. On the other hand, Bitcoin (COIN:BTCUSD) is struggling to sustain the $66,000 level, with a 2.30% drop in the last 24 hours, resulting in a current price of $66,050. This scenario highlights a stark contrast with the strong entry of Ethereum ETFs, which contrasts with Bitcoin’s previous stability before the launch of its own ETF. The initial trading volume of Ethereum ETFs reached 20% to 25% of the volume observed in Bitcoin ETFs.

SingularityNET invests $53 million in modular supercomputer

SingularityNET (COIN:AGIUSD) announced a $53 million investment in a modular supercomputer for decentralized artificial general intelligence (AGI) research. The first phase of the $26.5 million investment will include cutting-edge hardware such as Nvidia and AMD GPUs, and servers from Asus and Gigabyte. This supercomputer will be the first to focus on decentralized AGI, optimizing neural network training and large language models.

dYdX considers selling software but faces security issues

dYdX (COIN:DYDXUSD) is negotiating the sale of its derivatives trading software, including the v3 protocol, with potential buyers like Wintermute Trading and Selini Capital. After the news, the v3 version was compromised, and users were warned not to access the site. The v3 protocol, focused on perpetual contracts, traded $1.22 trillion since January. dYdX also faced leadership changes recently, with the v5 version introducing new functionalities.

Bitwise announces donation of ETF profits to developers

Bitwise (NYSE:ETHW), launching its Ether ETF on the NYSE, promised to donate 10% of profits to support Ethereum development. The donation will be split between the Protocol Guild, supporting Ethereum developers, and the PBS Foundation, promoting decentralization. The company also committed to disclosing the holdings of its ETHW shares for greater transparency.

Vitalik Buterin launches Circle STARKs

Vitalik Buterin introduced Circle STARKs, a new protocol improving blockchain security and efficiency. Using smaller fields like Mersenne31, it reduces computational costs and speeds up proofs without compromising security. Unlike traditional STARKs, which operate in large fields and are inefficient, Circle STARKs offer faster and more secure proofs, overcoming vulnerabilities and allowing more efficient verifications.

BlackRock bitcoin ETF attracts record investments amid price surge

On July 22, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ:IBIT) attracted an impressive $526.7 million investment, marking the highest daily volume since March. Since its launch in January, the fund has attracted nearly $19.5 billion. Meanwhile, other ETFs in the US had modest performance. The peak interest coincides with a bitcoin price surge, driven by speculation about future pro-crypto policies in the US.

Marathon Digital fined $138 million for violating confidentiality agreement with Michael Ho

Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA), a leader in bitcoin mining, was fined $138 million for breaking a non-circumvention agreement with Michael Ho, co-founder of US Bitcoin Corp. The jury found that Marathon used strategies proposed by Ho without compensating him, thus violating the legal agreement preventing one party from bypassing the other in business negotiations.

Toncoin price drops with increased sales and forecasts of further declines

The cryptocurrency Toncoin (COIN:TONCOINUSD), linked to Telegram, experienced a continuous decline, dropping nearly 10% in the last 7 days. Currently trading at $6.89, the cryptocurrency not only decreased in price but also saw an increase in transaction volume, indicating a higher interest in sales. This increase in volume during a price decline usually signals ongoing selling pressure. In a bearish scenario, this could push Toncoin’s price to even lower levels, potentially down to $6.35 in the coming days. In a bullish scenario, the price could rise to $7.09.

Taproot Assets and the revolution of interoperability in bitcoin

The Taproot Assets protocol, launched by Lightning Labs, takes Bitcoin to a new level by enabling payment channels denominated in any unit of account. While other protocols like BRC-20 emerged earlier, Taproot is praised for its scalability and security. It promises to solve the fragmentation between stablecoins and Bitcoin, offering efficient asset transfers integrated into the Lightning Network, facilitating economic unification and liquidity.

Mt. Gox moves billions in bitcoin preparing for creditor repayments

On July 23, Mt. Gox transferred over 47,500 Bitcoins, valued at nearly $3.2 billion, to unknown addresses, indicating progress in repayment plans to creditors. After announcing repayments on July 5, the defunct exchange began actively distributing the funds. Part of the Bitcoins was sent to the exchange Bitstamp, suggesting preparations to facilitate payments. So far, over $12 billion in Bitcoin has been transferred, showing the scale of the ongoing repayments.

BlockFi completes sale of FTX claims and prepares final distributions to creditors

BlockFi confirmed the completion of the sale of its claims against the bankrupt FTX, marking a crucial step in the bankruptcy process. BlockFi administrator Mohsin Y. Meghji reported the sale to the US Bankruptcy Court, highlighting that the final offer was substantially higher than the nominal value. This will allow for a swift and full final distribution to BlockFi’s creditors and customers. This sale is seen as a positive conclusion to BlockFi’s commitments following its own crisis and bankruptcy last year.

Binance Labs invests in Pluto Studio and boosts the game Catizen

Binance Labs invested in Pluto Studio, the creator of the popular Telegram game Catizen, on The Open Network. Although the investment amount was not disclosed, the studio had already raised $2.2 million and $4 million in previous rounds. With the new funding, Pluto Studio plans to launch more mini-games, a web3 series, and an e-commerce mini-app, along with preparing the launch of the CATI token.

Tim Sweeney on the future use of blockchain in Fortnite

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, considered the use of blockchain for Fortnite but ruled out cryptocurrencies and NFTs in the game. He sees blockchain as a tool for data management and decentralized systems, rather than a financial solution. Sweeney advocates for creating an open metaverse based on interoperable standards and protocols, and believes blockchain technology will be valuable in the future despite current issues with cryptocurrencies.