The cryptocurrency market last week witnessed many strong fluctuations with notable information such as the decline of Bitcoin, concerns about security risks in DeFi, and unexpected moves from Goldman Sachs. Let's take a look at the most prominent news.
MakerDAO "recruited" BlackRock and Ondo into a $1 billion investment plan
Cryptocurrency lending platform MakerDAO, the creator of the $5 billion DAI stablecoin, has announced plans to pour $1 billion of its reserves into tokenized US Treasury products. This move immediately attracted the attention of big names in the field such as BlackRock's BUIDL, Superstate and Ondo Finance.
MakerDAO's MKR governance token also recorded a 5% increase in value after the above information. Experts say this is an important shift in the strategy of MakerDAO, one of the pioneering names in DeFi. Accordingly, MakerDAO will focus on real world assets (RWA), backing decentralized stablecoins with tokenized US government bonds and bills.
The “Spark Tokenization Grand Prix” competition to select a partner to manage a $1 billion investment is expected to launch in August. Spark Protocol, a platform built on Maker, will be “the hub for RWA on Maker and Ethereum,” according to the announcement at the ETHCC event. Investment will be taken from Clydesdale (Monetalis) and Andromeda (BlockTower) after reallocation.
Memecoin Donald Trump skyrocketed 52% after the failed assassination attempt
Donald Trump memecoins and his re-election odds on prediction markets have skyrocketed following a failed assassination attempt on the former US president while he was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania .
Specifically, MAGA (TRUMP), the largest memecoin inspired by Donald Trump, increased more than 52% in value in less than 45 minutes after the event, from 6.31 USD to 10.36 USD, according to data. from DexScreener. The market capitalization of this memecoin also increased sharply from 293 million USD to 469 million USD.
The price of MAGA memecoin soared following an attempt on the life of the former president. Source: DexScreener
Several other memecoins about Trump also recorded impressive growth. Tremp (TREMP) on Solana surged more than 63% over the next hour, while MAGA Hat (MAGA) skyrocketed 21% in the same time frame.
The incident occurred on July 13 while Trump was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Several shots were fired from an unknown direction, causing Trump to duck and dodge while US secret service agents quickly approached to protect him.
The German government sold all Bitcoin, the wallet balance was only 1 USD
The German government sold all its Bitcoin holdings, leaving only 1 USD in its wallet on July 12. About 2,700 BTC (worth $153 million) was transferred to exchanges such as Coinbase, Bitstamp, Kraken, along with several individual wallet addresses, including two addresses “guzr4j” and “bc1qu.”
These Bitcoins were obtained from the confiscation of assets related to a movie piracy website in January. Since mid-June, the German government has gradually liquidated 50,000 BTC, accelerating the pace of sales in early June. July.
The decision to sell off all Bitcoin was met with criticism from Joana Cotar, a German lawmaker and Bitcoin advocate. She believes that the government should retain cryptocurrency as a strategic reserve against risks from traditional finance.
Image Source: Arkham Intelligence More than 220 DeFi protocols are still 'dangerous' after Squarespace incident
Hundreds of DeFi protocols' front-ends remain vulnerable after hackers attacked Squarespace's DNS system, redirecting users to malicious websites and potentially stealing funds from their wallets .
Compound, Celer Network and Pendle Finance were among the victims of the attack, but specific damages have not yet been disclosed.
Post MortemFor context – Squarespace purchased all domain registrations and related customer accounts from Google Domains in June 2023, which forced the migration of domains.Recently, attackers exploited a vulnerability in Squarespace, hijacking domains hosted on their… https://t.co/0lgcvzss2r
— Pendle (@pendle_fi) July 12, 2024
Blockchain security firm Blockaid estimates another 228 user interfaces are at risk and says hacker group Inferno Drainer, a cybercriminal group that specifically targets DeFi protocols, is involved in the incident.
Currently, security experts have not yet made a detailed announcement about the incident, recommending users to be careful and apply additional security measures to protect their assets.
SEC stops investigation of Paxos and stablecoin BUSD
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has decided to drop the investigation into stablecoin issuer Paxos and stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD). The decision comes after the SEC sent a letter to Paxos on July 9, announcing that it would not recommend any enforcement action against the company regarding BUSD.
In February 2023, Paxos received a Wells notice from the SEC, which claimed that BUSD was an unregistered security and violated federal securities laws. Paxos has disputed this allegation, asserting that its stablecoin is not a security.
July 9 letter from SEC to Paxos. Source: Paxos
The SEC's decision comes after several court rulings against the agency, including treating some tokens as securities. Paxos welcomed the SEC's decision, affirming its commitment to the development of digital assets backed by assets with stable value.
Following Notcoin and Hamster Combat, memecoin DOGS attracted more than a million followers in 24 hours
DOGS is a new memecoin launched on Telegram, inspired by Spotty, the pet dog drawn by Telegram CEO Pavel Durov at a charity auction in 2011. Spotty's image later became the network's mascot. Vkontakte society is famous in Russia.
What makes DOGS attract the attention of the cryptocurrency community is its unique token distribution mechanism: users can receive tokens based on the time they created their Telegram account. Thanks to that, the project's Telegram channel reached more than 1 million followers in just 24 hours.
As of today (July 15), the project's Telegram channel has reached more than 5 million followers.
Goldman Sachs will launch 3 new tokenized products
Goldman Sachs is preparing to launch three new tokenized products in the US and Europe later this year, after seeing a “significant increase in client interest” in the cryptocurrency sector.
According to Mathew McDermott, Global Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs, the investment bank plans to create markets for tokenized real-world assets (RWA) and will focus on “the complex funds” in the US and European debt markets.
McDermott added that Goldman Sachs will target financial institutions rather than individual investors with these new products and will only use permissioned blockchains. He also emphasized that Goldman Sachs' RWA market will differentiate itself with its rapid execution speed and expansion of asset types that can be used as collateral.
The move comes as the market sees a rise in digital asset ETFs. McDermott believes this is the driving force behind the “resurgence of cryptocurrencies.”
Bitcoin index falls to “extreme fear” level as BTC fails to surpass $60,000
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a measure of market sentiment for Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market, has dropped to “extreme fear,” its lowest level since January of last year.
This comes as Bitcoin failed to break above the key $60,000 resistance level twice in the past 48 hours. Trader Justin Bennett commented on post X that the formation of a “rising wedge” pattern could signal a further price decline in the coming days.
The recent negative sentiment has been attributed to concerns about Mt. Gox begins repaying Bitcoin to creditors, potentially releasing $8.5 billion in BTC to the market.
In addition, the German government's sale of a large amount of Bitcoin, estimated at 16,254 BTC (worth $935 million), also contributed to downward pressure on the market.
Bitcoin is currently trading around the $57,499 mark, down 23% from the peak set in March this year.
