CMC Market Pulse delivers actionable market insights, giving you all the key narratives and developments you need in under 5 minutes.
Market Overview 📉
The crypto markets started off the week with a strong weekend move after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally. By the market open on Monday, both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) had risen more than 3% from the Friday close, with the move continuing into the week. Bitcoin and Ethereum ended the week up 10.69% and 9.10% respectively, a strong move up from the bottom.
Despite the upward trend, funding rates have fallen through the week, possibly indicating a strong spot buying behind the market movements rather than long positions expressed through perpetual contracts.
📌 The German Government completes it BTC liquidation, easing concerns in the market. However, the Mt Gox distribution still looms, with $3.1B worth of BTC recently transferred to Kraken — Link
📌 Fresh from surviving an attempt on his life, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump selects JD Vance as his Vice President, a pro-crypto senator and Bitcoin holder since at least 2022 — Link
📌 The SEC returns to ETH ETF issuers this week, with submissions of revised S-1s on Wednesday expectations of trading launch on coming Tuesday, July 23 — Link
Why does it matter?
Over the weekend, the German Government wallets completed the transfers of BTC out to exchanges and OTC desks, finally removing the supply overhang which has tormented the markets over the prior two weeks. Despite Mt. Gox initiating disbursement of user funds, markets have seemingly shrugged off the move and continued their ascent. This could be due to the distribution of funds to a large group of holders, many of which were OG BTC believers, which could result in much less selling pressure than expected.
Additionally, the failed assassination of Donald Trump has been seen as a white swan event for the markets, with many believing the event to have cemented the victory for the Republican candidate, with many referencing the increase in voter support for Ronald Reagan after his attempted assassination attempt in 1981.
With Trump’s seemingly pro-crypto views and a possible change in the SEC leadership under his administration, the markets surged higher, with BTC leading the charge. However, altcoins took a backseat to majors, with TOTAL3/BTC falling more than 3% in the week. Nevertheless, several sectors of altcoins outperformed this week, notably memecoins, AI, DePIN and a couple of new DeFi coins like Jupiter (JUP), Pendle (PENDLE) and Ethena (ENA).
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Narrative of the Week 📰
AI takes the narrative once again for the week, with Grayscale announcing the launch of their latest private placement investment product, the Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund, among several key updates from prominent AI projects in the crypto space.
📌 Grayscale launches the Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund, with allocations in Bittensor (TAO), Filecoin (FIL), Liverpeer (LPT), Near Protocol (NEAR) and Render (RNDR) — Link
📌 Arweave’s hyper parallel computing layer, AO, releases AOS Web, allowing developers and users alike to access the AO Operating System directly within their browser — Link
📌 AI data layer, Grass, kicks off their final epoch, Epoch 7, hinting at the upcoming launch of the GRASS token — Link
Why does it matter?
Crypto x AI is one of the major narratives that took off since 2023, from the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT to the staggering success of chipmaker Nvidia’s stock performance. However, the abundance of vaporware in the Crypto AI space has also resulted in the sector being dismissed by many, with the sector losing the spotlight in recent months.
With the launch of the Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund, eyes are shifting back to the Crypto AI sector again, focusing on the tokens selected for the fund, such as the popular decentralized AI project, Bittensor, which has been rebuilding after an exploit of several large TAO wallets the month prior.
Major Project Updates 🗓️
📌 Humanness-verification protocol, Worldcoin, extends the token unlock schedule for team and investors’ token allocation back from 3 years to 5 years, causing WLD to gain 62% — Link
📌 Zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) chain, Taiko, releases Gwyneth, a booster rollup designed to be synchronously composable with Ethereum, working with Ethereum’s validators to scale Ethereum — Link
📌 Polygon announces that the MATIC token will be migrating to the POL token on September 4. MATIC holders on Ethereum and Polygon zkEVM will need to manually migrate their tokens. MATIC dropped 5% — Link
📌 Ethereum L2, Blast, cuts bridging time between Blast and Ethereum to 7 days from the original 14 day bridging period, while dropping “L2” from its name on X — Link
📌 Uniswap unveils the Uniswap extension, the first wallet extension to exists in your browser’s sidebar, rather than as a popup, enabling users to always have full view of their wallet and assets as well as the ease of making transactions without dealing with popups — Link
Why does it matter?
Despite being run by OpenAI’s founder, Sam Altman, Worldcoin has acquired a less-than-stellar reputation in the crypto space, not just for its slightly dystopian premise, but also its highly predatory tokenomics, which has made it a prime target for short positions.
However, with the announcement of the extended Worldcoin unlock period for the Worldcoin team and investors, a short squeeze quickly commenced, with WLD making a 62% move upwards, resulting in liquidation of several large short positions.
DeFi Brief 🏦
📌 Popular DEX platform Hyperliquid releases requirements to run nodes for the Hyperliquid L1, which is expected to go live later in the year — Link
📌 Multi-chain DEX, PancakeSwap, announces plans for their Q3 roadmap, including cross-chain expansion for veCAKE, expansion for their gaming marketplace and a UX/UI revamp, among others — Link
📌 Cross-chain bridging infrastructure layer, Li.Fi, has been exploited, with more than $10M stolen from affected users. A compensation plan is in the works for impacted users — Link
📌 MakerDAO-backed lending protocol, Spark, deploys changes to their platform, reducing the Spark Effective DAI Borrow Rate to 8% and the DAI Savings Rate to 7% while increasing the weETH supply cap — Link
📌 Leading Telegram trading bot, Banana Gun, has announced that it is the first project on Binance HODLer Airdrops. Users can stake BNB for BANANA, which will eventually be listed on Binance. BANANA gained 25% following the news — Link
📌 Solana perpetuals DEX, Drift, launches Drift Earn, allowing depositors to earn yields of between 10-40% on their USDC without ever trading perpetuals themselves — Link
Why does it matter?
The perps-focused DEX Hyperliquid has taken center stage over the last few weeks as one of the most promising projects of this cycle, especially with the success of its spot token launches, of which many have done exceedingly well. Coupled with the lack of venture capital investment in Hyperliquid, many investors have high expectations for the DEX.
With no live token yet, so far the only ways to gain exposure to the project is through farming Hyperliquid points through trading on the platform. However, with the announcement of node requirements, it is no surprise that users are interested in running nodes for the chain when it launches as a way to gain exposure to the upcoming L1.
Meanwhile, perpetual DEX competitor Drift, which is based on Solana, has launched a DeFi savings product: Drift Earn. With rates as high as 40% APR, one might wonder where the yield comes from. According to co-founder Cindy, the high yields come from “cross-margin perpetual trading yields.” This means that traders that borrow USDC for leverage will be paying interest to users who deposit USDC, allowing users to benefit from perps yield without trading.
Meme Coins 🚀
📌India’s largest crypto exchange, WazirX, was exploited, with a large portion of stolen funds consisting of memecoins, mainly 5.43T SHIB tokens, which were sold off over 6 hours for $92M in ETH — Link
📌WIF regains the top 50 market cap ranking, surging to 44th place. It is the top performer among the top 100 coins in the past 7 days, gaining 53% as the market rebounds — Link
Chart of the Week 📊
Fundraises 💰
📌 Bitcoin-based stablecoin project, Bima, raises $2.5M in a pre-seed raise led by Portal Ventures, with support from DGB Ventures, Delta Blockchain Fund, Sats Ventures and more — Link
📌 SkyTrade Network closes a pre-seed round, led by Modular Capital and Portal Ventures, with participation from Solana Foundation, Mercatus Center and angels including Santiago Santos and Jason Yanowitz — Link
📌 Blockchain data network, Chainbase, raises $15M in a Series A funding round led by Tencent Investment Group and Matrix Partners China — Link
📌 Data platform, Allium, raises $16.5M in their Series A round led by Theory Ventures, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Amplify and more — Link
📌 Decentralized AI infrastructure network, Mira Network raises $9M in a seed round led by BITKRAFT Ventures and Framework Ventures, with support from Mechanism Capital, Folius Ventures and Crucible Capital, among others — Link
Airdrops Abound 🎁
📌 ETH liquid restaking protocol, EtherFi, opens up claims for Season 2 of their token airdrop — Link
📌 Solana liquid staking protocol, Sanctum, opens claims for their airdrop as well, with 10% of the token supply airdropped to eligible wallets including early users and supporters — Link
📌 Infinex airdrops PYTH tokens to early ‘Craterunners’, with 2023 eligible users receiving 1M PYTH tokens — Link
Tweet of the Week 📝
Source: twobitidiot
A heated (and discriminatory) response from crypto lobbyist and Messari CEO, Ryan Selkis leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of most crypto participants.
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