The Block
Quick Take Indian crypto exchange WazirX, following the $230 million exploit it experienced on July 18, has halted trading across its platform. The company has also announced a recovery program, offering up to 10% of the hacked total ($23 million) for recovering the funds and up to $10,000 for assistance freezing the funds. However, evidence suggests North Korea’s Lazarus Group is the attacker, and assets are very rarely recovered from the group’s hacks.
Quick Take President Joe Biden stated Sunday he will not seek reelection in 2024. A memecoin named after him fell drastically in price following the news.
A race between cat-themed memecoins to be the first to surpass $1 billion in fully-diluted value was won by Popcat after a $630,000 buy pushed it over the top.While the Polymarket bet resolved in Popcat’s favor, some traders cried foul following the purchase, though the buyer has denied the purchase was related to the betting market.
Quick Take Decentralized identity startup Fractal ID published a postmortem detailing its recent data breach affecting about 6,300 customers, acknowledging that a compromised employee’s account was used to access internal systems. The employee’s credentials had been stolen using the popular Raccoon Infostealer malware as early as 2022, according to cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock.
JPMorgan analysts say any crypto rebound from here is unlikely to be long-lived.The analysts also expect bitcoin and gold to benefit from a potential second Donald Trump presidency.
Quick Take Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse expects the company to settle its years-long litigation with the SEC ‘very soon’, according to a recent Bloomberg interview. XRP’s price has increased in recent weeks on speculation of an incoming settlement announcement, possibly following a closed-door SEC meeting next week. The XRP ledger has also seen its highest activity levels and new address creation since March, according to analytics firm Santiment.
Quick Take Etherfuse has raised a $3 million seed round co-led by White Star Capital and North Island Ventures. With this round, Etherfuse’s total funding stands at $5 million, and its valuation at $12.5 million, co-founder and CEO David Taylor told The Block.
Quick Take Cboe announced that five spot Ethereum ETFs will be listed on the exchange on July 23, including funds from Fidelity and VanEck. Cboe posted new issue notifications, which are procedural as part of ETF launches.
Microsoft IT outages hit worldwide after faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.Binance US entities get the judge’s sign-off to invest customer assets in US Treasury bills.South Korea’s inaugural crypto law goes into full effect.The following is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.
Quick Take Messari founder and CEO Ryan Selkis resigned as CEO after publishing heated political comments online. Selkis noted the Messari leadership team gave him a “tough love session,” adding, “I ran too hot last week.”
