Hodler’s Digest, June 30 – July 6 – Cointelegraph Magazine

Top Stories This Week

Roaring Kitty fraud lawsuit over GameStop dropped after 3 days

A lawsuit against GameStop trader Roaring Kitty, aka Keith Gill, was voluntarily dropped after three days. The lawsuit, brought by Martin Radev, accused the meme trader of securities fraud for his alleged role in manipulating the price of GameStop’s stock. However, Radev’s lawsuit was dropped without prejudice, meaning he can file the lawsuit against Gill again in the future.

‘Buy the dip’ mentions on social platforms surge as Bitcoin stumbles

Bitcoin’s recent drop below the $60K mark is prompting many investors to “buy the dip,” as talk of taking advantage of the price swing has risen sharply on social media over the last several days. According to research firm Santiment, the frequency with which the term has been mentioned on the internet has doubled during Bitcoin’s downward price movement.

On July 2, the Ethereum Foundation revealed that its email server was hacked in late June. The malicious actor sent out 35,794 emails to subscribers claiming that the Ethereum Foundation and the Lido decentralized autonomous organization were promoting a 6.8% yield on ETH, stETH and wETH. Following the malicious links all the way to the end would have drained funds from users. Thankfully, the Ethereum Foundation was able to plug the security vulnerability that led to the email breach and informed other organizations of the malicious activity. According to the foundation, no funds were lost as a result of the exploit. However, the emails of 81 individuals may have been exposed during the security breach.

Circle becomes first global stablecoin issuer to comply with MiCA

On July 1, 2024, Circle announced it became the first stablecoin issuer to comply with the European Union’s MiCA regulations. Circle’s USDC and EURC stablecoins are fully compliant with the EU’s new regulatory framework. Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire also announced the company chose France to be the headquarters of its European operations due to France’s progressive regulatory climate and the working relationship Circle has with the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority.

Bitwise files amended Ethereum ETF S-1 — experts predict July launch

Asset manager Bitwise filed an amended S-1 form for its Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) as experts predict the ETH ETFs will go live in early July. The asset manager indicated it would waive fees for its ETF for the first six months after launch, or until a $500 million threshold in forgiven fees is reached. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas continues to argue that the ETH ETFs will go live at the beginning of July, potentially before the July 8 deadline to file the S-1 documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $55,742, Ether (ETH) at $2,955 and XRP at $0.42. The total market cap is at $2.04 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are MultiversX (EGLD) at 10.02%, MANTRA (OM) at 5.90% and TRON (TRX) at 3.03%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Core (CORE) at -32.46%, Lido DAO (LDO) at 32.00% and Ethena (ENA) at -31.65%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“ETFs are a solid catalyst for relative ETH strength as the summer progresses and flows accumulate, and I firmly view current ETH/BTC prices as a bargain for the patient trader.”

K33 Research

“I continue to be concerned about the profound implications of AI censorship. They are losing utility over time due to ‘alignment’ training.”

Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Cardano

“As the financial sector continues to evolve, we need to innovate in different areas and apply skills that aren’t traditionally associated with central banking.”

Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada

“Fund tokenization is likely the largest digital asset trend happening today, and it is a large confirmation that global asset management firms are entering this growing market.”

Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink

“It is unreasonable to purchase securities simply because an individual named Roaring Kitty posted innocuous tweets on social media.”

Eric Rosen, partner at Dynamis and former federal prosecutor

“The more options we have, the better we can do for users both on L1 and on L2s, and the more we can simplify the job of L2 developers.”

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum

Prediction of the week

3 reasons why Bitcoin analysts think a BTC price ‘cycle top’ is in

Capriole founder Charles Edwards believes Bitcoin has already reached the “cycle top” for several reasons.

First, Edwards pointed to a steady rise in Bitcoin’s long-term holder (LTH) inflation rate, a metric tracking annualized accumulation or distribution rates. The higher the value, the more long-term holders are adding downward selling pressure on the market. Rates close to 2% are indicative of market tops, and we are currently at 1.9%, according to Edwards.

The analyst also argued that an increase in the Bitcoin dormancy z-score corroborates the readings from the Bitcoin LTH inflation rate, claiming that the age of the coins moved in 2024 is significantly older than in previous cycles.

Edwards explained that the final confluence came from a spike in Bitcoin’s spent volume. According to the analyst, surges in 7-10 year spent volume likewise indicate a market top.

FUD of the Week

$8M theft forces Bittensor network shutdown

The Bittensor network was forced to temporarily shut down following an exploit that drained 32,000 TAO tokens, valued at $8 million, from the protocol in a series of malicious attacks. Pseudonymous onchain sleuth ZackXBT discovered the issue and expressed his belief that the theft of funds was likely due to a private key leak. In an update, the Bittensor team reassured users that the exploit had been contained and that user funds were safe.

What pushed Bitcoin price below $60K? Charts point at potential Mt. Gox repayment

Investors and speculators believe the $9 billion Mt. Gox repayment is to blame for Bitcoin’s decline below the $60K price level. Capriole founder and analyst Charles Edwards pointed to spikes in Bitcoin’s seven- to 10-year spent volume as evidence that the now-defunct Mt. Gox exchange has started reimbursing creditors.

Bitcoin falls below $58K on Coinbase, first time in 2 months

Bitcoin’s price on Coinbase briefly fell to $57,874 on July 4, 2024, liquidating more than $54.9 million in BTC long positions within a 24-hour window. These price levels have not been seen in over two months, sparking investor fears that a wider sell-off could ensue, sending the price of the decentralized digital asset even lower.

Top Magazine Pieces of the Week

Could a financial crisis end crypto’s bull run?

Blockchain technology doesn’t exist in vacuum, and the outside world has become a less secure place. Could crypto survive a TradFi collapse?

Crypto-Sec: Phishing scammer goes after Hedera users, address poisoner gets $70K

The Hedera marketing email got hacked and used for phishing attacks, a critical vulnerability on MoveIt was patched, plus a $70K address poisoning attack.

Bitcoin $500K prediction, spot Ether ETF ‘staking issue’— Thomas Fahrer, X Hall of Flame

Thomas Fahrer says there are multiple “low probability” events that could push Bitcoin into a “strong bull market.”

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.