ETH as ultra-sound money?

Crypto markets traded in a tight range, as traders seek directional triggers

Crypto markets continued to trade sideways last week, with a downward bias. The lack of directional triggers dampened volatility, even in the current low liquidity environment. Trading volumes on CEXs have fallen to their lowest levels in over a year, as the overall market cap remained range-bound and was just below the $1.2 trillion mark.
 

The drama surrounding the "Debt Ceiling" in the US came to a conclusion with the ball being kicked down the road for another two years! BTC and ETH both traded in the red last week and are trading around their current anchored levels of $27k and $1.8k levels respectively.

Worth highlighting is the "ultra-sound money" narrative for ETH, as nearly $275 million in ETH burnt in May as it continues its deflationary trend. Even after the Shanghai upgrade allowed withdrawals for staked ETH, more ETH is now being staked onto the network than being withdrawn, with a huge queue backlog.

The broader crypto markets were trading in the red, but were mostly bound in a tight range. There were certain token-related exaggerated moves in either direction, which were based on specific triggers.

In terms of positive price movement, within the large market cap token universe, Ripple's XRP was a major beneficiary as its CEO mentioned that "securities" case against SEC would soon have a favorable outcome for the token! Another token having a massive surge was Graph protocol's GRT, which saw accumulation by whales as the AI-powered narrative continued to gain steam.

Another major theme that finally saw some resurgence was the "metaverse and gaming-related" tokens that saw decent uptick in prices. The primary reason was the upcoming Apple event this week, where they might be revealing their AR/VR Headset, bringing back renewed interest to the Metaverse theme!

On the flip side, Optimism’s OP token came under selling pressure ahead of its $580 million token unlock, which effectively doubled the total circulating token supply.

Before we conclude, here’s a quick look at other important news updates from last week's crypto world.

Atomic Wallet users hacked for $35M worth of BTC, ETH, Tether

Centralized storage and wallet service Atomic Wallet said the casualty occurred over the weekend as close to $35 million worth of various tokens were stolen from the wallet. The tokens included BTC, Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), BNB Coin (BNB), and Polygon (MATIC). Tron-based USDT seemed to be the largest stolen stash, on-chain analytics cited by blockchain sleuth @ZachXBT showed. (Source: CoinDesk)

Celsius’ $745M ETH deposit extends validator queue to 44 days

Beleaguered crypto lender Celsius Network is shaking up its ether (ETH) staking strategy, congesting the already month-long queue to activate new validators on the Ethereum network. Since June 1, 2023, Celsius has deposited about $745 million of ETH, data showed. The transfers have stretched the already long queue to establish new validators on the network to 44 days. (Source: CoinDesk)

Nike brings .SWOOSH NFTs to EA Sports games

Nike Virtual Studios, the sportswear giant’s digital arm, has tied up with video game developer EA Sports to bring digital creations from Nike’s .SWOOSH platform to the EA Sports gaming ecosystem. EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that publishes games like FIFA and Madden NFL. (Source: CoinDesk)

Treat crypto assets as securities: EU Parliament study

Crypto assets should be treated as securities by default and the autonomous organizations that govern decentralized finance (DeFi) should be granted legal status, according to a study commissioned by lawmakers at the European Parliament which was published last week. The report comes as the European Union finalizes its Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation. (Source: CoinDesk)

Voltage, Google Cloud to expand Lightning Network Solutions

Voltage, a Lightning as a Service (LaaS) provider, has tied up with Google Cloud to expand its hosting capabilities and locations, enabling customers to create Bitcoin and Lightning Nodes globally. Google Cloud said the collaboration would allow enterprises to leverage the Lightning Network’s real-time payment settlement with near-zero fees, revolutionizing money transfers and creating new business models. (Source: Nasdaq.com)

Deutsche Telekom supports Polygon blockchain infrastructure

Deutsche Telekom, the leading German telecom firm, is a validator on Polygon, the leading Ethereum Layer-2 scaling platform. With this, the telecom company is expanding its activities in the field of blockchain technology and signaling support for the network’s ecosystem. Deutsche Telekom MMS, a subsidiary of the firm, is one of only 100 validators on the Polygon network. (Source: Telekom.com)

That’s it for now. Thanks for sticking around.

See you later, folks! 👋

Loving the newsletter? Make sure to spread the love and hit share!