Ionic Digital, the bitcoin miner that acquired assets from bankrupt crypto lender Celsius, has shelved plans to go public after losing its CEO and auditor.

- Former CEO Matt Prusak told the company in July that he would not be staying on beyond the end of his employment contract on August 14.
- Ionic has launched a search for a new CEO and named recently hired CFO John Penver as interim chief.
- Auditor RSM US has severed ties with the company, citing a strategic decision to stop servicing crypto firms.
- Ionic said the move was not due to disagreements over accounting principles or audit procedures.
- The absence of an auditor temporarily prevented the company from updating its SEC filings, delaying the IPO.
- Competition in mining has intensified following the recent Bitcoin halving, which has reduced miner rewards.
- The availability of spot Bitcoin ETFs has also scared many investors away from the mining industry, making it difficult to raise capital.

Swan Bitcoin recently cancelled its IPO plans, stopped hosted mining, and laid off staff due to declining revenue.

**Cryptocurrency Market News**

- The cryptocurrency job market is booming. In July 2024, about 600 new crypto and blockchain job openings were posted on the Crypto Jobs List platform.

- Cryptocurrency jobs are attracting a lot of candidates. For example, the position of Crypto Product Marketing Manager on LinkedIn received over 500 applications in five days.

- The influx of funds from venture capitalists is contributing to the increase in the number of openings. In the first quarter of 2024, cryptocurrency companies raised $2.01 billion, which already exceeds the figures for the whole of 2023.

- Large financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are actively developing their digital asset and blockchain divisions, which is also contributing to the growth in the number of openings in this area.

- Despite the high demand, it is difficult to find qualified product and marketing specialists in Web3. Many companies are facing a shortage of experienced candidates with the necessary technical skills.

- Job seekers should focus on a few positions for which they are most qualified and tailor their resumes to specific roles.Employers are encouraged to invest in employer branding and active engagement with recruiters.

**Cryptocurrency News:**

- Solana's newly launched cryptocurrency Restore the Republic (RTR) reached a market value of $155 million, but fell 95% after Eric Trump claimed his father did not have an official token.

- Eric Trump warned users about "fake tokens" and said "the only official Trump project has not been announced."

- Activists and crypto observers noted that Kanpai Labs advertised the token ahead of the launch, with early investors making $4 million in six hours.

- The incident highlights the risks of the memecoin market, where scams and sharp price drops are common.

Off The Chain Capital has invested over $1 million in OneMedNet to buy Bitcoin.

- OneMedNet raised $4.6 million in a private placement and used $1.8 million to buy Bitcoin.
- Off The Chain Capital was among the investors, which purchased ONMD shares and warrants.
- Off The Chain Capital CEO Brian Dixon believes that public companies should reinvest some of their funds into Bitcoin to increase the stock price.
- OneMedNet aims to beat Bitcoin through such investments.

Cryptocurrencies Continue to Recover

- Bitcoin (BTC) has risen 6.4% in the past 24 hours, reaching $59,500.
- Ethereum (ETH) has climbed 8.8%, reaching $2,600.
- The CoinDesk 20 Index also saw gains, with altcoins Solana (SOL), Near (NEAR), Avalanche (AVAX), and Filecoin (FIL) all up nearly 10%.
- XRP has surged 22% amid optimism over the Ripple-SEC ruling.
- US court approves $12.7 billion payout to FTX and Alameda Research creditors.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law legalizing cryptocurrency mining in the country.

CoinDesk Indices has released its daily market update.

- The CoinDesk 20 Index is trading at 1907.11, up 7.1% from yesterday's close.
- All 20 assets are trading in the green.
- Leaders: XRP (+17.5%) and SOL (+8.9%).
- Underperformers: DOT (+2.4%) and ICP (+2.9%).

The CoinDesk 20 Index is available on multiple platforms and in different regions of the world.

**Cryptocurrency News**

- US Consumers Accumulate Debt Slower Amid Rising Credit Card Delinquencies
- 10x Research Study Finds Slowing Borrowing Is Limiting Fiat Inflows into Cryptocurrencies
- Total Loans Increased by $8.9 Billion in June, Below Expectations of $10 Billion
- Credit Card Delinquencies Reach 10.93%, Highest Since 2012
- 10x Research Founder Markus Thielen Points to Risks for Crypto Markets Due to Slowing Borrowing and Uncertainty in the US Economy

A federal judge in the Southern District of New York has fined Ripple $125 million for violating federal securities laws in its institutional sales of XRP. Judge Analisa Torres also barred the company from further securities violations. The programmatic sales of XRP to retail customers through exchanges were not found to be a violation. The price of XRP rose 2% after the ruling was published.

Bitcoin {{BTC}} fell after Wednesday's gains as U.S. stocks retreated mid-day.

- Bitcoin was trading at $54,800 at press time, down 4% in the past 24 hours and 6% from $57,600 hit earlier.
- Ether {{ETH}} has fallen 7.1% in the past day, hitting its lowest level against Bitcoin in three years.
- The CoinDesk 20 Index is down 3%.

Trading started positively after the Bank of Japan's deputy governor said the central bank would not raise rates in an unstable environment. However, optimism faded by the end of the day.

- The Nasdaq fell 0.8%, the S&P 500 fell 0.6%.

The head of JPMorgan has expressed doubts about the US Federal Reserve's ability to return inflation to its 2% target, pointing to deficit spending and the transition to a green economy.

Sao Paulo police have busted a money laundering scheme run by the First Capital Command (PCC) drug gang that used a cryptocurrency exchange.

- The company's turnover was about R$500 million ($89 million).
- Checks worth R$55 million ($8.9 million) were seized.
- Searches and arrests were carried out on 80 warrants.
- The court blocked assets worth R$8 billion ($1,427 million).

PCC is known as the largest gang in Latin America.

**Cryptocurrency News**

- **Market Plunge**: The cryptocurrency market has seen one of its biggest drops in years. Bitcoin price dropped from $70,000 to $50,000. The Fear and Greed Index shows "extreme fear."

- **Ronin Exploit**: Ronin network hacked for $12 million. The hack occurred due to a bridge update. The stolen funds may reportedly be recovered.

- **Project Funding**: Curio, Andrena, Daylight and other projects have raised nearly $50 million in investment in a week.

- **New Developments**: New technologies and updates are being implemented on Mysticeti, Polyhedra, Injective, Transak and Succinct platforms.

- **Arthur Hayes Investment**: Arthur Hayes unveiled the "Airheads" NFT collection and invested in the Oyl wallet.

**Cryptocurrency News**

Synthetix's former treasurer says there's "nothing left" after liquidation amid crypto market collapse.

- The company's founder unlocked $6.5 million from the treasury, transferred $86,000 to a former employee.
- The treasury contains $39.4 million.
- SynthaMan also received $112,000 in donations over the past two days.
- Synthetix did not respond to a request for comment.

The Bank of Japan has no plans to raise rates amid market volatility, Governor Shinichi Uchida said. That weakened the yen and sent Bitcoin and stock futures higher.

- Bitcoin hit $57,300 after Uchida's comments.
- The yen fell to 148 per U.S. dollar.
- The Nikkei rose 4%, S&P 500 futures rose 0.8%.

The cryptocurrency market remains resilient despite technical signals of a possible fall.

Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX has announced an investor protection fund to compensate users in the event of a security breach.

- The fund will start with Rs 50 crore (around $6 million) allocated from the company's profits.

- The decision comes after the recent $230 million hack of WazirX.

- CoinDCX co-founder Sumit Gupta stressed the importance of such measures for the ecosystem.

The fund will be increased by 2% of the company's monthly revenue.

**Cryptocurrency News**

- Semler Scientific has decided to convert its cash reserves into Bitcoin.
- This happened after Eric Semler became an active investor in April 2023.
- The company has already spent over $60 million on cryptocurrency acquisitions and plans to increase its investments after SEC approval.
- The decision was made based on the successful example of MicroStrategy.

Core Scientific Stock Surges 17% After CoreWeave Deal

- Bitcoin miner Core Scientific (CORZ) shares surged 17% after signing an expanded contract with CoreWeave.
- The company expects $6.7 billion in revenue from the contract, starting in the first half of 2026.
- The new contract will add $2 billion in revenue and includes the deployment of 112 megawatts of additional GPUs for CoreWeave.
- CoreWeave will cover all capital expenditures for preparing Core Scientific's infrastructure.
- The total capacity of the HPC infrastructure will be 382 megawatts.
- Core Scientific is considering further expansion of the contract.

Crypto bank Anchorage is adding support for token storage on the Solana blockchain, CEO Nathan McCauley told CoinDesk.

- The company will start by supporting a limited number of tokens that comply with Solana's SPL standard.
- Anchorage began adding support for Solana token storage in 2022 and staking last year.
- USDC, HNT, W, PYTH, and MPLX will be supported initially.
- More tokens will be added based on customer demand and validation.

Crypto bridge service Ronin was suspended on Tuesday after $9 million in tokens were removed from the platform in an alleged white hat hack.

Co-founder @Psycheout86 reported on X that the bridge was suspended to investigate a possible MEV vulnerability. The bridge protects over $850 million in safekeeping.

RON tokens were flat, up 7.4% in the past 24 hours amid the overall market rally.

ARK Invest, led by Cathie Wood, made its first purchase of Coinbase (COIN) shares since June 6, 2023, buying $17.8 million worth of shares. The firm also bought $11.2 million worth of Robinhood (HOOD) shares for the first time since February 13.

The purchases came amid a sharp market decline, with COIN falling 7.3% to $189.47 and HOOD losing 8.17% to $16.42.

ARK often buys stocks when their price is down, only to sell them when they rise.

Cryptocurrency prices have recovered slightly, with Bitcoin (BTC) hitting $55,000 on Monday after falling as low as $49,000 earlier.

BTC is trading at $53,000 at press time, down 10% in the last 24 hours. The CoinDesk 20 Index has also seen a similar recovery, but is still down 13%.

Ether (ETH) has also recovered, but remains down 13% for the session.

U.S. equity markets have also pared their morning losses, with the Nasdaq down 3.6% before the close.

BTC is down 30% for the week, which is typical for bull markets, according to Alex Thorne of Galaxy.

Daniel Cheng of Syncracy Capital likened the decline to the 2020 crash, but less severe.

Matt Hougan of Bitwise sees the current decline as a buying opportunity.

10x Research's Marcus Thielen warns of a possible BTC decline to $42,000 if the economic situation worsens.