Altcoin summer
While BTC continues to float just under the $120K level, big moves are happening on altcoins across various sectors.
ETH continues to retain some of its momentum at the $3,700 mark, rising by 63.1% in the past month.
Based on data from Farside, spot ETH ETFs have recorded close to $534M in inflows today, continuing their daily streak since July 3.
Among the major crypto assets, SOL, XRP, and DOGE have also recorded double-digit percentage gains in the past week.
With more real-world businesses announcing treasury strategies for a much wider range of tokens, attention has clearly shifted towards tokens further along the risk curve.
However, most crypto users are still focused on specific categories such as memecoins and DeFi.
PENGU, SPK, and ZORA were some of today’s top gainers, rising by 18%, 70%, and 60%, respectively.
Not to be forgotten, NFT trading volumes are also back on the rise, led by Moonbirds, Deadfellaz, and Ringers.
The first RWA ETF?
ETF issuer 21Shares has filed for a spot ETF that holds the native token of RWA project Ondo Finance.
The firm delivered a prospectus to the SEC for its ’21Shares Ondo Trust,’ which aims to mimic the performance of the ONDO token, as per CME’s reference rate.
The prospectus also details the Coinbase exchange as the primary custodian for the tokens.
The ETF will be a purely passive investment vehicle, where shares can be issued or redeemed for cash or the underlying asset.
Shortly after the announcement, the price of ONDO spiked by 8.5% from $1.06 to $1.15, but is currently trading at $1.10.
Capital for the community
SocialFi platform Kaito has announced its plan to launch a new capital allocation platform known as Capital Launchpad.
Similar to the popular Echo platform, Capital Launchpad will allow the public to invest in private deals and new protocol launches.
Based on the team’s announcement, projects can dictate the terms of the fundraising and select which investors get accepted.
Notably, allocations will be determined based on users’ social rankings, on-chain holdings, and their alignment with the projects.
Additionally, launchpad fees will be redistributed to the Kaito community via the new gKAITO model.
The Capital Launchpad is now live with its first ICO for Espresso, a decentralized shared sequencer for L2 roll-ups.
Since the announcement of the gKAITO mechanism, the price of KAITO surged to a daily peak of $1.80, but has since retraced to $1.62 as of this writing.
Brick by brick
Solana-based liquid staking platform Jito has announced the Block Assembly Marketplace (BAM) to improve transaction sequencing on the network.
According to BAM’s introduction post, the architecture involves deploying a new dedicated hardware layer that helps to minimize MEV and increase execution speeds.
In a nutshell, BAM utilizes its own set of nodes that organize transactions in a private manner, which are then passed to BAM validators to be executed on-chain.
The team has stated that BAM will be launched in the coming weeks, with an initial validator set that includes Figment, Helius, and Triton One.
This development has proved to be positive not just for Jito but also for the Solana ecosystem, with the price of SOL breaking past $200 earlier today.
The price of Jito’s JTO token also rose by 5.0% from $2.17 to a daily high of $2.28, but has since retraced to $2.13.
In Other News…
LetsBonk Takes the Lead! LetsBonk, the Solana memecoin launchpad created by the BONK community has grown its market share of Solana memecoin launches to 64%, securing its lead against the former leader, Pump.fun.
God Told Me to Shill. A Colorado-based online pastor and his wife were indicted on Tuesday in relation to an alleged $3M crypto fraud scheme. Online pastor Eli Regalado convinced investors to buy the INDXcoin by saying that God had told him that INDXcoin investors would become wealthy.
FBI Ends Probe into Kraken Co-founder. The FBI has ended their investigations into Jesse Powell, the co-founder of US-based crypto exchange, Kraken. The FBI has been investigating Powell since 2022. Powell became politically active in the 2024 US elections, donating over $1M in ETH to Trump’s campaign.
A New Bitcoin Strategy. Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy, is announcing a new financial product called Stretch (STRC). STRC will give investors an initial dividend of 9%. Proceeds from STRC will be used to, unsurprisingly, buy more Bitcoin.
Avengers Assemble! The Ether Machine, an Ethereum treasury firm, plans to debut on US’s NASDAQ exchange with the ticker ETHM. ETHM holds a stash of $1.5B worth of ETH. Co-founder Andrew Keys said he has assembled a team of “Ethereum Avengers” to manage the funds and unlock market leading yields for investors.
Cathie Woods Shifts Focus to ETH. Cathie Wood’s investment firm Ark Invest has sold $90M worth of Coinbase shares and has begun purchasing $175M worth of Bitmine shares, an Ethereum treasury firm.
The Bitcoin Treasury Movement. Nasdaq-listed electric vehicle company Volcon has successfully raised $500M as it plans to pivot to become a Bitcoin treasury firm. Volcon plans to change its name to Empery Digital with a new ticker symbol, EMPD.
SpaceX Ends 3 Years of Bitcoin Dormancy. Elon Musk’s SpaceX moved $150M worth of Bitcoin to another crypto wallet address on Tuesday. According to blockchain analytics firm Arkham, this is their first transaction since 2022. SpaceX still holds $825M of Bitcoin.