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Happy Tuesday Folks! Yesterday, we got news that Curve Finance protocol got hacked. Today, the most covered news is Justin Sun jumping in to save Curve Finance? The price of Bitcoin is currently trading at $28,896.45 and spiked all the way down to $28.5K and has rebounded a bit; more upside? Let's dive into the news...

CRYPTO

Ex-Goldman Sachs executive Raoul Pal says that the number of crypto users is on course to explode above one billion across the globe. Institutional investors are more interested in the crypto world than ever before—and now they’re putting their money where their mouth is.

BITCOIN

Some are wondering, however, whether Bitcoin may lose its raison d’être as a result. But, Diminishing institutional inflows and dwindling hopes for Bitcoin ETF approval spell potential bearish trend for Bitcoin. Bitcoin (BTC) starts August losing ground, declining 2% Tuesday morning to add to July’s 4% retreat; bitcoin’s price hit a six-week low. Bitcoin’s current lower volatility compared to Nasdaq, S&P 500 and gold suggests that a potential eruption in volume is imminent, according to K33 Research. 

Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican candidate in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, said he is a fan of bitcoin, but wouldn’t use the asset as a commodity to help stabilize the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, the environmental argument against bitcoin "should not be used as a smokescreen to curtail freedom to transact," U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr said.

Genesis Digital Assets, also known as GDA, has launched three new data centers for bitcoin mining in western South Carolina. MicroStrategy (MSTR) posted an impairment charge of $24.1 million on its bitcoin (BTC) holdings in the second quarter, compared to $917.8 million in the year-ago quarter and an $18.9 million charge in Q1, according to its latest earnings report.

Ordinals, the protocol that allows non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be added to the Bitcoin blockchain, is establishing a non-profit organization to fund its open-source development.

ETHEREUM

Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) fell to a six-week low on Tuesday, with traders in the options market betting on price weakness over the next six months. Ethereum developer Consensys released Fuzzing, a tool to automate smart contract security testing process and this tool allows developers to identify vulnerabilities in Ethereum smart contracts without needing to set up a special infrastructure.

ALTCOINS

Santiment, a leading analytics firm, says a certain class of crypto traders is rapidly accumulating the peer-to-peer payments network Litecoin (LTC) in anticipation of its upcoming halving event. Litecoin is experiencing a boom in network fundamentals ahead of its halving event, which is less than 24 hours away. Blockchain's third halving in its 12-year history is expected Wednesday and reduces the current 12.5 litecoin (LTC) subsidy to 6.25 LTC.

CBDCs/STABLECOINS

Utopia Labs launched a product giving businesses the ability to send USDC to any US bank account.

EXCHANGES

Coinbase’s offshore futures exchange clocked in nearly $2 billion in volumes last month and momentum slowed over the course of the month. The Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned local investors against using one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, Binance. It refers to the previous circular issued against a fraudulent company illegally using the Binance brand. Meanwhile, Binance Japan gearing up for August launch and have started to onboard users with record listing of 34 cryptocurrencies.

LEGISLATION/REGULATION/TAXATION

Getting past the House committee stage marks a major win for crypto legislation, but if the overall House approves them, the bills face a potentially hostile Senate and White House.

Judge Jed S. Rakoff, a federal judge, has dismissed the relevance of the Ripple case in a separate case involving Terraform Labs, sending shockwaves through the crypto community and raising alarm bells for holders of XRP, ADA, SOL, and many other altcoins. Former SEC lawyer applauds Judge Rakoff’s decision, says there will be more rejections of Judge Torres’ decision. Rakoff’s rejection potentially complicates Coinbase’s use of that ruling in its own case against the SEC. Ripple CTO David Schwartz has chimed in with this thoughts. Judge John Dorsey, a judge in the bankruptcy case for defunct crypto exchange FTX, has issued an order allowing Terraform Labs to subpoena information that could be used in its case brought by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Terraform Labs could be holding more than $159 million worth of crypto despite previous claims to the contrary, according to new on-chain sleuthing performed for Arkham Intelligence.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said on Monday that if a taxpayer stakes cryptocurrency on a proof-of-stake blockchain and receives rewards, the fair market value of those rewards should be included in the taxpayer’s gross income in the taxable year when they gain control over them.

LEGAL CASES

Curve’s native token CRV experienced a sharp price decline due to a reentrancy attack, prompting founder Michael Egorov to take measures to stabilize his personal DeFi position. Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain, stepped in support the curve (CRV) token price in a move that could protect a massive loan tied to Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov from being liquidated. In addition, he has sold more Curve (CRV) tokens in over-the-counter transactions with multiple crypto entities, according to blockchain data and a source familiar with the situation. Ethereum is a leading victim of this hack as the Layer 1 network has seen a major plunge of about 8% in its total value locked (TVL) in the few days since the Curve attack went mainstream.

The case against Richard Heart was filed in New York because he used Uniswap, and Uniswap developers live in Brooklyn, SEC says

ATTACKS/HACKS/SCAMS

Zero transfer scams are becoming prominent in the crypto ecosystem, with over $40 million stolen in 2023. Phony websites offered customers a premium for claiming through them. In reality, they drained customers’ wallets. AI-generated cybercrime is rapidly expanding, accelerated by the launch of several new tools on the darkweb beyond the discovery of WormGPT last month, according to a new report released on Tuesday by cybersecurity firm SlashNext.

A transfer of 80,000 Bitcoins (BTC) that were sent from Mt. Gox exchange to a Bitcoin (BTC) wallet with a public address starting from 1Feex was not authorized by the platform's wallet. A phishing scammer recently nabbed $20 million in USDT from an unsuspecting victim using a zero transfer phishing attack, reported blockchain security firm PeckShield on Tuesday.

WATCH

LISTEN

Podcast of the Day: #438: Cycling Toward A Bitcoin Boom with Tuur Demeester | TFTC

Other Podcast

• Miami Mayor Francis Suarez Speaks About Being A Bitcoin President | Richard Heart Sued By SEC | Crypto Town Hall | TWOAS

Sources:

Crypto Users (TDH)
Institutional Investors (Decrypt)
Bitcoin (UToday | Coindesk | Cointelegraph | TB | Coindesk | TB | Cointelegraph | Coindesk | UToday | Coindesk)
Bitcoin Mining (TB)
MicroStrategy Earnings (Coindesk | Blockworks | TB)
Bitcoin Ordinals (Coindesk)
Ethereum (Coindesk)
Ethereum Tool (TB | Cointelegraph)
Litecoin (TDH | UToday | Coindesk)
CBDCs/Stablecoins (Blockworks)
Coinbase (TB)
Binance (Cointelegraph | UToday | Coindesk | Cointelegraph)
Crypto Bills (Coindesk)
Terraform Case (Cryptoglobe | Finbold | Cryptoglobe | Coindesk | Cryptoglobe | Blockworks | TDH | TDH | TDH)
FTX Case (Cointelegraph)
Taxation (Blockworks)
Curve Finance (TB | Coindesk | Cointelegraph | Coindesk | TB | UToday | Cointelegraph | Cointelegraph)
Richard Heart Lawsuit (Blockworks)
Scams (Cointelegraph | Cointelegraph | EWN | Decrypt)
Mt. Gox (UToday)
Tether Freezing Funds (CryptoPotato)