As the month of July reached the end, it’s high time to catch up on some of the most buzzworthy news over the past month.
Ethereum ETFs approved by SEC
Starting July 24 01:30 PM UTC, the first-ever spot exchange-traded fund for the second leading cryptocurrency by market cap began trading.
Total trading volume of the Spot Ethereum ETF surged past the $110m mark in the first 15 minutes, according to Eric Balchunas, ETF analyst at Bloomberg.
That’s a staggering rate compared to how other ETFs launch on average, though this one is about 50% less than what the spot bitcoin ETF saw at its launch in January, he says.
Total trading volume of U.S. spot Ether ETFs on the debut day topped $1B. However, at the end of the trading session on July 24, $133m combined was withdrawn from these ETFs, outweighting negatively the said results and leading to a dramatic slide in the entire crypto market.
Assassination attempt on Donald Trump stuns crypto
Even though it may not apply to our digest, but there was an attempted murder of Donald Trump back on July 13. Luckily, the presidential nominee ended up being safe and sound, something that has greatly boosted his chances to win in the upcoming election.
Polymarket, a decentralized prediction market that allows users to place bets on world events, has put the odds of the former US President gaining back his presidency at 71%. At the same time, the likelihood of the now-running President Joe Biden collapsed to 18%, who, after all these events, has stepped down from the presidential rally.
According to the betting market in question, a total of more than $250m is at stake: $31.8m on Trump, $33.6m on Biden, $16m on Harris and $13m on the crypto-friendly candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), InteractivePolls reported that Trump’s chances of victory in several swing states have also surged.
Later, on July 27, Trump spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, where he praised crypto-verse and urged the creation of a state-run bitcoin reserve. Apart from that, Donald Trump’s 4th NFT collection is on the way.
GameFi to become major crypto segment over 2024
During Q2 2024, 2.8 million crypto wallets made transactions through blockchain-based gaming platforms. Due to such an upswing, the crypto ecosystem called GameFi now holds 30% of the whole Web3 app market.
It was revealed in the latest DappRadar report that blockchain gaming activity has been booming lately as opposed to the Q1 2024. Play-to-Earn (P2E) models, in which traders perform specific tasks to obtain cryptocurrency, keep growing either.
Investments in the Web3 gaming sector hit $1.1b, the highest figure since 2022. What this suggests is the enormous potential of the GameFi industry, whose growth could also benefit gaming tokens such as Mega Dice ($DICE).
In their report, DappRadar team notes that blockchain gaming investment volume has skyrocketed 314% in just three months.
WazirX crypto exchange hacked, over $230M stolen
As of July 18, India’s largest crypto exchange WazirX suffered an hack. According to data provided by Cyvers, an AI Web3 security firm, more than $230m in an array of cryptocurrencies was drained from the exchange wallets and transferred to Tornado Cash crypto mixer.
WazirX team confirmed that incident took place and halted withdrawals in both cryptocurrencies and Indian rupees. No exact loss amount has yet been disclosed, but the investigation is underway.
The hackers disposed of $62.3m worth of altcoins, swapping them for 18,111 ETH. A total of $106m worth of various cryptocurrencies still remain on the wallet, not to mention Ethereum. The major part of them consists of Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens amounting to $80m.
The India-based company has unveiled a repayment plan in an effort to minimize disruptions and recover customer funds.
The exchange team also announced that it has opted for the 55/45 recovery plan, an approach that grants users immediate access to 55% of their assets and locks up the remaining 45% in Tether (USDT). Such a strategy is unlike that of the familiar pattern of exchanges delaying refunds in similar situations.
What’s more, WazirX offered its users two different scenarios on how to take care of the remainder. Exchange users will be able to choose a suitable option for themselves until August 3, 2024.
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