Last week was eventful in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Here’s a recap of the major highlights:
BTC ETFs continued to attract significant investment, with total net inflows surpassing $17 billion. Throughout the week, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw sustained inflows, reaching a positive netflow of $422.5 million on July 17 alone. In total, these products received $1.197 billion in net inflows, highlighting the growing interest in Bitcoin as an investment vehicle.
However, not all news was positive. Indian exchange WazirX fell victim to a hack on July 18, resulting in a loss of $234 million across multiple crypto assets. The hackers immediately converted the stolen tokens to Ethereum, leading to speculation that North Korea’s Lazarus Group was behind the attack. WazirX attributed the hack to a mismatch issue with Liminal, the company responsible for verifying transactions related to the affected multi-sig wallet. Liminal, however, denied any involvement in the security breach.
In the world of Ethereum, anticipation was building for the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs on July 23. The U.S. SEC requested prospective issuers to submit their final S-1 applications by July 17, with a possible approval by July 22. This news fueled a 15% increase in Ethereum’s value over the course of two weeks, indicating growing interest in the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
A global outage caused by a CrowdStrike update affected digital systems in various sectors, including travel, banking, and media. This incident prompted discussions about the advantages of decentralized systems, with some industry leaders highlighting Bitcoin’s immunity to such outages. U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis pointed out on social media that Bitcoin remained unaffected by widespread cyber disruptions, emphasizing the resilience of decentralized currencies.
On the funding front, crypto startups raised a total of $33.75 million, despite a relatively slow week for venture capital investments. Allium, a blockchain data resource, led the way with $16.5 million in Series A funding. Other notable rounds included Haruko securing $6 million, FinTech startup PEXX and cloud platform Nirvana Labs each raising $4.5 million, and Bima Labs receiving $2.5 million in pre-seed funding.
Overall, last week’s developments underscored the dynamic nature of the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, with both positive and negative news shaping the landscape for investors, traders, and enthusiasts alike.