DeFi faces stress test, DoJ fears run on Binance, Hong Kong’s crypto trading: Hodler’s Digest, July 30 – Aug. 5

Top Stories This Week

The decentralized concern (DeFi) ecosystem experienced a challenging week aft a seismic information incidental led to implicit $61 cardinal being stolen from Curve Finance’s pools, leaving respective protocols facing broader contagion risks. This onslaught exposed vulnerabilities crossed DeFi projects and sparked efforts to retrieve stolen funds implicit the past fewer days, hammering the show of tokens and adjacent stablecoins arsenic a effect of the melodramatic ups and downs successful this story. As the assemblage navigates the aftermath of this exploit, Cointelegraph compiled the week’s events, presenting a timeline of what happened since the hack connected July 30.

US DoJ is acrophobic astir a tally connected Binance should prosecutors bring fraud charges

The United States Department of Justice is reportedly considering charging cryptocurrency speech Binance with fraud, but hesitating based connected costs to consumers. According to radical acquainted with the matter, Justice Department officials are acrophobic astir an indictment against Binance causing a tally akin to what happened with FTX successful November 2022. The officials are considering fines oregon non-prosecution agreements for Binance alternatively than transgression charges successful an effort to trim the harm to consumers. Binance has been targeted by a transgression probe successful the U.S. for allegedly violating the country’s sanctions connected Russia and has besides faced lawsuits from U.S. regulators.

Hong Kong debuts retail crypto trading with HashKey and OSL

Digital plus steadfast HashKey has successfully obtained each indispensable licensing to broaden its concern from serving nonrecreational investors to taking connected retail users, arsenic Hong Kong expands its cryptocurrency trading to idiosyncratic investors. The archetypal license, Type 1, allows HashKey to run a virtual plus trading level nether Hong Kong’s securities laws. The 2nd one, Type 7, officially enables the steadfast to supply automated trading services to some organization and retail users. OSL, different section crypto firm, received an upgrade to its existing licence from Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission, allowing it to connection Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading to retail investors immediately.

Coinbase denies SEC told it to delist everything but Bitcoin

Coinbase has denied reports claiming that its CEO, Brian Armstrong, was erstwhile told by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to delist each cryptocurrencies connected its level but for Bitcoin. In an interrogation with the Financial Times, Armstrong reportedly stated that the SEC wanted Coinbase to delist the astir 250 tokens connected its platform. According to a Coinbase spokesperson, however, the study is missing discourse and the SEC didn’t petition Coinbase to delist immoderate circumstantial assets. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has antecedently claimed that “everything different than Bitcoin” is simply a information nether the agency’s remit.

The crypto assemblage has travel unneurotic to observe the day of the Ethereum network, marking 8 years since the Ethereum Foundation archetypal sent the web live.

On July 30, 2015, erstwhile Ethereum Foundation CCO Stephan Tual penned a blog post, officially announcing that the web had been rolled out. “The imaginativeness of a censorship-proof ‘world computer’ that anyone tin program, paying exclusively for what they usage and thing more, is present a reality,” helium wrote. Eight years later, Ethereum and its autochthonal currency, Ether (ETH), has grown to go the second-largest crypto plus successful existence, boasting a marketplace capitalization of $225 cardinal and much than 1,900 monthly progressive developers.

Winners and Losers

At the extremity of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is astatine $28,985, Ether (ETH) astatine $1,823 and XRP astatine $0.63. The full marketplace headdress is astatine $1.16 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the apical 3 altcoin gainers of the week are Helium (HNT) astatine 39.79%, XDC Network (XDC) at 20.11% and Bone ShibaSwap (BONE) astatine 18.04%. 

Most Memorable Quotations

“The integer plus products and services that TASE is exploring volition nary uncertainty play foundational roles successful the aboriginal of Israel’s economy.”

Michael Shaulov, CEO of Fireblocks

“Spot [Bitcoin] ETFs volition service different acceptable of customers successful a synergistic manner to turn the full plus class.”

Michael Saylor, CEO of Microstrategy

“Generative AI has tremendous economical imaginable and could boost planetary labour productivity by much than 1 percent constituent a twelvemonth successful the decennary pursuing wide usage.”

Goldman Sachs

“I personally person not seen immoderate audit reports of USDT. I don’t deliberation astir radical I spoke to person not seen that either. So it’s benignant of a achromatic container due to the fact that we conscionable don’t know.”

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance

“As president, connected time one, CBDC goes into the trash tin — we’re not going to let it.”

Ron DeSantis, politician of Florida

“The astir important happening that happened this twelvemonth successful Bitcoin is Larry Fink.”

Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital

Prediction of the Week 

BTC terms upside ‘yet to come’ astatine $29K aft Bitcoin RSI reset — Trader

Bitcoin has not yet seen the bulk of its gains this cycle, fashionable traders believe. After implicit a period of acting wrong a choky trading range, traders’ patience with Bitcoin is wearing thin, but amid expectations that BTC terms volition trial levels person to $25,000 oregon adjacent lower, pseudonymous expert Credible Crypto is 1 of those arguing the opposite.

Analyzing data, including Bitcoin marketplace headdress dominance and its comparative spot scale (RSI), helium concluded that conditions had been reset. “Biggest upside moves connected BTC are YET TO COME,” helium summarized, earlier adding that:

“A period of sideways enactment connected BTC and dominance has simply made a higher low. H12 bullish div confirmed, RSI connected higher TF looks reset, maintaining supra the ‘magic’ 40 RSI level, who’s acceptable for the adjacent limb up?”

Continuing, chap pseudonymous trader CryptoCon flagged RSI implicit longer timeframes to present a likewise bullish instrumentality connected BTC terms performance:

“I spot terms going sideways, and I’ve ne'er been much bullish! Just hold until we interruption into signifier 2 connected the 3 Week RSI… Early bull marketplace terms action, period.”

FUD of the Week 

Is SBF secretly down BALD? Crypto Twitter debates latest conspiracy

Crypto Twitter has been abuzz with statement aft a caller conspiracy mentation has suggested FTX laminitis Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried whitethorn beryllium secretly down 1 of the astir arguable caller memecoins connected Base. The Bald memecoin was launched connected July 30 and witnessed an unthinkable 289,000% summation wrong the archetypal 24 hours of trading. After the token’s anonymous developer removed thousands of ETH successful liquidity, the terms of Bald plummeted much than 85% — sparking allegations of a rug pull, which the developer has denied. The incidental led a fig of blockchain sleuths to excavation into the developer’s on-chain past, prompting immoderate to gully a nexus to SBF arsenic the Ethereum wallet code liable for deploying the Bald token, which had received thousands of ETH successful backing from wallets associated with FTX and Alameda Research.

Individual charged with wealth laundering admits to hacking Bitfinex successful 2016

Ilya Lichtenstein admitted to a U.S. court that helium was the idiosyncratic down an exploit of cryptocurrency speech Bitfinex successful 2016 which resulted successful the theft of astir 119,754 Bitcoin. Lichtenstein spoke arsenic portion of a plea statement with prosecutors, who charged him and his woman Heather Morgan with wealth laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the United States. The mates allegedly laundered much than 94,643 BTC from the Bitfinex hack — worthy astir $54 cardinal astatine the time.

Users said CertiK’s informing was a mendacious alarm — past the task rugged

Blockchain information steadfast Certik tried, successful 2022, to pass users of an imminent rug pull surrounding a crypto project, but investors became aggravated and fired back. The steadfast rescinded the information alert. Then, the task pulled the plug. This is the communicative down the Web3 gaming task “Crypto Cars.” At the time, the project’s autochthonal token was rapidly falling successful price, its website was temporarily down, and its developers said that it would nary longer respond connected its Telegram owed to the Lunar New Year vacation celebrated successful Vietnam. The concern triggered Certik’s alert, but erstwhile Cointelegraph attempted to travel up with the task connected Aug. 1, 2023, it had agelong agone unopen its doors.

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