The past three months have been packed with important events, especially when it comes to the Wild West of cryptocurrency. From the approval of an Ethereum ETF to the Pump.fun/SunPump hype – these key moments have changed the industry. In this article, we’ll show you the top 10 most significant crypto events that happened in the summer of 2024. Enjoy the nostalgia!
Mt. Gox Repayments Started
The long-awaited event has already happened and, interestingly enough, the market reacted positively. Mt.Gox has started its repayments, with more than $3 billion already paid and almost $6 billion waiting to be paid in the next months.
As of September 2, Mt.Gox has completed about 40% of its repayment plan, distributing over 53.000 BTC to 13,000 creditors. According to Arkham’s report, the repayments were made to Kraken and Bitbank in two big transfers:
1,545 BTC to the Japanese exchange Bitbank on July 5, worth $84.9 million then and $98.9 million now.
48,641 BTC to one of Kraken’s addresses (July 16) — $3.07 billion then, $3.11 billion now.
2,362 BTC to one of Bitstamp’s addresses (July 23), worth $155 million
This way, the entity repaid 70% of its smaller claimers, leaving the big whales for the end. The remaining creditors are heavy hitters like Blockstream co-founders Gregory Maxwell and Adam Back and Fortress Investment Group.
Ethereum ETF Approval
The Ethereum ETFs are live and trading. For now, the ETFs are showing a negative net inflow. That’s because almost $3 billion worth of Ethereum left Grayscale’s ETF. The other ETFs have registered positive flows only, with Blackrock netting $1 billion in inflows.
The Ethereum ETFs are traded on three big US stock exchanges:
NYSE Arca: Grayscale Ethereum Trust and Bitwise Ethereum ETF
Nasdaq: Blackrock iShares Ethereum Trust
CBOE BZX: VanEck Ethereum Trust, ARK 21Shares Ethereum ETF, Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF, Fidelity Ethereum Fund and Franklin Ethereum ETF
The approval of Ethereum ETFs has many benefits for the industry, but perhaps the biggest one is the insinuation that ETH is a commodity rather than a security. The SEC has been going on and off with the status of certain cryptocurrencies (e.g., $ETH, $BNB, $XRP, $SOL), trying to determine if they are a security or a commodity.
Now, with the approval of these Ethereum ETFs, the SEC did not explicitly state that Ethereum is a commodity. However, it defines the ETF products as “commodity-based trust shares.” This wording largely puts to bed the debate over how to classify unstaked Ethereum.
Durov Arrested in Paris
Telegram’s CEO and founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested in Paris as part of a larger investigation into crimes related to his platform. Telegram is alleged to allow drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the platform.
The arrest sparked a hard debate in the crypto community, with most influencers against its prosecution. Most of them, including Elon Musk, claimed this was an attack on the freedom of speech.
$TON was greatly affected by Durov’s arrest. Since the arrest, $TON lost more than 24% of its value, currently trading at around $5. Even though Pavel was released from police custody under a $5.5 million bail, $TON hasn’t recovered and continues its downward trend.
Trump’s Take on Crypto Changes
Trump became a fierce crypto advocate in its latest presidential campaign. The ex-president started his crypto venture a while ago when he announced the launch of his own NFT collection.
Now, he went even further by letting people make donations using cryptocurrencies. The Winklevoss brothers and Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell have each donated $1 million in BTC.
Trump has also made his crypto portfolio public, with more than $8 million in various currencies sitting there. Of that, $3 million is in TrumpCoin, a Trump-branded cryptocurrency supporting the Trump administration and its conservative followers and Patriots. The former president went live on the biggest cryptocurrency conference, Bitcoin2024, to praise BTC and crypto, saying that: “If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA.”
German Government Sells Bitcoin
Germany became the biggest Bitcoin whale to sell their holdings this summer. The European country sold 50k $BTC for a whopping $2.89 billion in just three weeks.
The Bitcoin originated from the operators of Movie2k.to, a movie piracy site that was active in 2013. In January 2024, police in the eastern German state of Saxony announced the seizure of their assets, worth around $2.2 billion at the time. Due to this massive selling pressure, coupled with Mt. Gox’s repayments, Bitcoin’s price remained under the $56k mark for almost 3 weeks.
The FED Cuts Rates
In a massive turn for the world’s macro economy, FED Chairman Jerome Powell gave clear signals that the central bank would cut its interest rate in the September meeting during his speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.
This could probably be major, and two or three cuts in a row could possibly signal the start of a crypto bull run. Getting money will be cheaper, more liquidity will be injected into the market and the prices will skyrocket.
Powell also mentioned that the FOMC has grown more confident that inflation is slowing toward the central bank's 2% target, indicating that it may be time to shift monetary policy to less restrictive conditions.
TON – The Most Hyped Blockchain
TON, or The Open Network, is most probably the most hyped cryptocurrency project not only of this summer but of this year. The start of its meteoric rise was marked by Pavel Durov’s announcement that Telegram would only use this blockchain for all transactions.
With its integration into Telegram, TON suddenly got access to almost 1 billion existing customers, which made experts believe this partnership is the key to crypto’s mass adoption.
The blockchain started to gain more attention with the launch of mini apps. Hamster Kombat, Bitcoin, Blum and Dogs have amassed more than 300 million active users together. The launch of $DOGS memecoin was so massive that even TON, one of the most powerful blockchains out there, had experienced an 8-hour outage.
Tether Becomes the Most Profitable Crypto Company
This summer we found out that Tether might just be one of the most profitable companies in the world.
In the first half of the year, Tether reported a staggering $5.2 billion in net profit, equivalent to $867 million a month or $29 million a day. With fewer than 100 employees, Tether's profit per employee stands at an incredible $124 million.
In Q2 alone, $USDT supply grew by $8.3 billion, and Tether's assets include 75,354 Bitcoins worth around $5 billion, $3.8 billion in gold, and $97.5 billion in U.S. Treasuries.
This positions Tether as the 20th largest holder of U.S. debt globally. Despite these impressive figures, their closest competitor, Circle, is preparing for a $5 billion IPO, a figure Tether already matched in just six months.
Jump Trading Sells ETH
Jump Trading has been the biggest seller of $ETH this summer. The trading firm has dumped more than $300 million worth of staked Ethereum, making the price of Ethereum crash significantly. Following this liquidation, Ether's price plunged to a low of $2,112 on August 5th.
The trading firm didn’t make any official statements about these trades, but rumours suggested they might be exiting the crypto market or scaling back on risky bets due to volatile market conditions.
Interestingly, the firm still holds millions of Threshold, a lesser-known altcoin, with no significant movement observed yet.
Robinhood Buys Bitstamp
Robinhood's acquisition of Bitstamp marks a significant step in expanding its crypto presence globally.
Bitstamp, with over 50 active licenses and a strong international customer base, offers Robinhood immediate access to markets across the EU, UK, Asia, and the US. This deal, valued at approximately $200 million, also provides Robinhood with a foothold in the institutional crypto market, an area it has previously lacked.
The acquisition aligns with Robinhood's strategy to enhance its crypto offerings, especially after crypto played a crucial role in its recent profitability. By integrating Bitstamp, Robinhood could diversify its revenue streams and strengthen its market position.
This move could also drive broader adoption of cryptocurrencies, as Robinhood’s involvement may boost investor confidence and push other platforms to improve their crypto services.
With regulatory approvals expected by mid-2025, this acquisition could solidify Robinhood’s role as a major player in the crypto industry. However, the success of this deal will hinge on how effectively Robinhood integrates Bitstamp and meets the evolving needs of crypto investors.
Pumpfun/Sunpump Hype
Pump.fun became one of the biggest crypto protocols overnight. The memecoin launchpad is the fifth largest protocol by revenue in the last 30 days, surpassing behemoths like Solana (the chain they operate on) Uniswap and Lido.
The launchpad generates revenue by charging a 1% fee on all trades that occur on its platform. Pump.fun was launched in January 2024 as an antidote to nefarious insider token launches.
With this popularity, Justin Sun launched his own memecoin launchpad, Sunpump. The project has quickly gained popularity, surpassing even Pump.fun in daily revenue on some occasions. Together, these two platforms have helped launch more than 40k memecoins this summer alone.
Conclusion
This summer has been a turning point for crypto, with events that could probably change the fate of every Web3 project out there.
The approval of an Ethereum ETF, Trump’s sudden acceptance of crypto donations – all these events show that the masses have started to understand and accept cryptocurrency as a thing.
September will be huge for crypto, with the FED cut rates possibly happening this month. The prices are directly affected by the SEC’s policy and FED’s rates. With the SEC slowly turning pro-crypto, the FED can start a bull run by cutting the rates two or three times consecutively. #TRON✅ #ETHETFS #BitcoinETFs! #TrumpCryptoSupport #Bitcoin
