Hodler’s Digest, July 14-20 – Cointelegraph Magazine

This week's main news

Pixelsilver to put the Pudgy Penguin character on the Telegram mini game

The face of the popular Invincible Token (NFT) collection will be integrated as a character in the Pixelverse mini-game on Telegram. On July 16, Pixelverse announced that it will introduce the Pudgy penguin character “Pudgy” to the game, joining other crypto favorites such as Doge from the Dogecoin memecoin and Mew, a character representing the Solana memecoin. The integration allows the players to play the character in the Pixelverse game. A standalone Pudgy Penguin mobile game is slated for release in 2025. While the NFT market has been churning, some experts have argued that the space is experiencing a correction cycle.

Craig Wright has admitted he is not Satoshi, posting a disclaimer on his website.

Craig Wright posted a legal disclaimer on his website's homepage on July 16, emphasizing that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin. The disclaimer cites a recent UK High Court ruling that directed web traffic to a summary of findings presented by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance. The disclaimer acknowledges that Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin white paper and that the computer scientist does not own the copyright to the technology described in the white paper.

Ethereum ETFs have a big impact on ETH price: Bitwise

US spot ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will have a rough start but could have a bigger impact on asset prices than Bitcoin ETFs did for BTC, according to Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan. According to Hugan, one of the reasons why Ether ETFs have such a large impact on asset prices is that Ether's inflation rate is effectively zero, compared to the “tiny amount of ETH” that is created every day because it's widely used.

State street eyes blockchain in stablecoin, deposit token: report

State Street has shown strong interest in blockchain settlement technology. According to Bloomberg, the global asset manager is considering creating its own stable coin and deposit token. Additionally, it may use its investment in UK-based payments startup Fnality to create new settlement options and join “digital-cash consortium efforts.” In the year In 2021, State Street created a standalone digital finance division. That unit later saw layoffs, but was revived this year and reintegrated into the core business.

Trump is reported to be in ‘good spirits' still attending the BTC conference in Nashville

Despite surviving an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on July 13, former US President Donald Trump still plans to speak at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, according to David Bailey, the event's organizers and CEO of Bitcoin Magazine. The event will run from July 25 to July 27, and Trump is expected to give a speech on July 27.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) at $66,239, Ether (ETH) at $3,486 and XRP at $0.56. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market cap is $2.42 trillion.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers for the week were Dogweave (WIF) at 61%, Worldcoin (WLD) at 55.94% and Arweave (AR) at 48.98%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week were Uniswap (UNI) down 1.45%, TRON (TRX) down -1.19% and Gnosis (GNO) down -0.45%.

Be sure to read Cointelegraph's market analysis for more information on crypto prices.

The most memorable quotes

“If you see a ‘pro-crypto' politician today, examine their underlying values ​​and see which side they prioritize if there is a conflict.”

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin

“Bitcoin L2s are not just innovative; they are essential to the evolving crypto ecosystem in Asia.

Robbie Liu, Head of Asia at Polyhedra Networks

“Innovation is no longer optional but necessary to navigate the ongoing challenges, which require the pursuit of greater excellence.”

International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications

“We believe that cryptocurrency should not only be stored in bank vaults, but should bring daily benefits to humanity.”

Andrey Lazutkin, Chief Technology Officer at Tangem

“Remember there's flow after you start and then ETH products I'm sure, then Solana, and then… maybe not at the end. The dam is broken.

Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg

“China's concern about crypto has always been capital flight. […] Cryptocurrencies make finance more democratized and enable capital flight for the middle and lower income classes.

Mikko Ohtamaa, CEO and founder of business strategy

Forecast of the week

As open interest jumps 13%, traders see a $71.5K bitcoin price.

Bitcoin may head towards $71,500 after breaching the $65,000 price point on Tuesday, as seen by crypto traders.

The price correction has increased interest among futures traders betting on Bitcoin's recent price movements. “Breaking $65,000 means the price will be ready to move in the $65,000-$71,500 range,” wrote anonymous crypto trader Rect Capital in a July 16 X-Post as Bitcoin hovered around $65,000.

However, a large number of short positions are at risk of exiting at $71,500, which means that many futures traders are confident that the price will not reach this level for now. According to CoinGlass data, $1.47 billion will be lost on short positions at $71,500.

FUD of the week

India's crypto exchange has been the victim of a $235 million hack.

Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX suffered a major security breach on July 18, costing it nearly $235 million. The hack involved several suspicious transactions of WazirX's Safe Multisig Wallet on the Ethereum blockchain, which was discovered by Web3 security firm Cybers. The hacker quickly converted the stolen assets into various cryptocurrencies including Ether, Tether, Pepe and more. In response to the incident, WazirX has suspended the outage and is said to be investigating the breach.

of Mt. Gox lenders have reported multiple ‘brute-force' attempts on their accounts

The Mt. Gox lending subreddit has been surprised by reports that users have seen more login attempts on their accounts over the week – raising fears of a possible cyber attack. In a subreddit for Mt.Gox creditors known as “r/mtgoxinsolvency,” several users reported logging into their accounts on the Mt.Gox website, while others shared screenshots of multiple unauthorized login attempts. The defunct crypto exchange has now recently distributed 36% of its Bitcoin to creditors after more than 140,000 bitcoins worth nearly $9 billion were moved to a known cold wallet and two unknown addresses.

Li-Fi Protocol Attacked, $10M Leaked

Li.Fi, the application programming interface for the Ethereum virtual machine and Solana swaps and bridges, was attacked on July 16, resulting in the loss of more than $10 million in cryptocurrency. Li.Fi warns the community on X that users will no longer interact with Li.Fi-powered apps. A LiFi spokesperson later told Cointelegraph that it contained a “smart contract exploit” and “disabled the affected smart contract aspect.” Almost $10 million worth of crypto holdings were lost, affecting the Arbitrum blockchain.

The best magazine sections of the week

Saudi Arabia's Riyadh may be crypto's sleeping giant: Crypto City Guide

While crypto may still operate in a gray area in Saudi Arabia, the country's talent pool and growing gaming sector hold promise for the web.

Coinbase won't mention ‘crypto' in five years – Avichal Garg, X Hall of Flame

Avikal Garg, co-founder of Electric Capital, believes that Bitcoin ETFs have helped cushion the fall of crypto exchange FTX.

Crypto-Sec: Evolve Bank Suffers Data Breach, Turbo Todd Fan Loses $3.6K

A Turbo Todd fan lost more than $3,000 to a phishing attack, Microsoft patched another “Zero-Click” Office vulnerability, and Evolve released 33TB of customer data to ransomware attackers.

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Editorial staff

Cointelegraph magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.