Top Stories of The Week
Ethereum co-founder shifts $6M of ETH, but whales bought $1.6B
Ethereum co-founder Jeffrey Wilcke could be looking to sell some of his Ether holdings after sending around 1,500 ETH to crypto exchange Kraken on Thursday.
Wilcke sent 1,500 Ether, worth around $6 million, to the crypto exchange, according to onchain analytics platform Lookonchain. It came as the price of Ether dropped from $4,000 to around $3,900.
Moving cryptocurrency to an exchange deposit address does not guarantee it is being sold.
In August, Wilcke had deposited $9.22 million worth of ETH to Kraken. He had previously sent $262 million worth of ETH to Kraken. At the time, Lookonchain speculated that he likely withdrew the same amount to eight newly created wallets, rather than for sale.
Chintai and Splyce target retail access to tokenized securities on Solana
Real-world asset (RWA) protocols Splyce and Chintai have launched a new product on Solana designed to give retail users access to institutional-grade tokenized securities, a move that could broaden the appeal of RWA tokenization on one of the world’s largest blockchains.
The product is powered by strategy tokens, or S-Tokens, which provide retail users with exposure to yields generated by Chintai. While users never directly hold Chintai’s tokenized securities, S-Tokens act as a “mirror” through a loan structure backed by the underlying assets.
S-Tokens are designed to broaden access to RWA yields beyond institutional investors. Today, most institutional RWA products operate as “walled gardens” with strict capital requirements and compliance hurdles, limiting retail participation, the companies told Cointelegraph.
The S-Token model aims to bridge this gap, offering retail users access to institutional-grade yields while allowing issuers to remain compliant.
Hashdex expands Crypto Index US ETF under SEC generic listing standards
Asset manager Hashdex expanded its Crypto Index US exchange-traded fund (ETF) to include XRP, SOL and Stellar following the generic listing rule change from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Nasdaq stock exchange-listed ETF now includes five cryptocurrencies held 1:1 by the fund, including Bitcoin and Ether, and is trading under the ticker symbol NCIQ, according to Thursday’s announcement.
The SEC approved generic listing standards for ETFs in September, paving the way for a faster ETF approval process for eligible cryptocurrencies.
Several Solana staking ETFs may win US approval within two weeks: Analyst
Several applications for Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with staking could receive US approval by mid-October, ETF analyst Nate Geraci said, following fresh regulatory filings.
“Guessing these are approved [within the] next two weeks,” Geraci, the president of NovaDius Wealth Management, said in an X post on Friday.
Geraci noted that asset managers Franklin Templeton, Fidelity Investments, CoinShares, Bitwise Asset Management, Grayscale Investments, VanEck, and Canary Capital all filed amended S-1 documents for spot Solana ETFs to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday. The S-1 document is a comprehensive disclosure outlining the company’s financials, risk profile, and the securities they intend to offer.
Hester Peirce discusses her future NFT plans after serving at the SEC
Hester Peirce, a commissioner at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) known by many in the industry as “Crypto Mom,” gave a speech laced with non-fungible token metaphors and a review of the agency’s approach to digital assets.
Speaking at a Coin Center event on Thursday, Peirce seemed to joke in response to speculation that her “days at the SEC [were] numbered,” given her term officially expired in June. However, statutes allow SEC commissioners to serve up to an additional 18 months until the US Senate confirms a replacement.
“A lot of people have asked me what is next,” said Peirce. “I could leave the government and do a 180 on crypto, but that career path is too well-trodden for me. My plan has long been to transition to beekeeping—honey is delicious and nutritious, and bees sting with less glee than most of my Twitter commenters.”
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $109,427, Ether (ETH) at $4,011 and XRP at $2.78. The total market cap is at $3.78 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Aster (ASTER) at 98.12%, Plasma (XPL) at 82.51% and Flare (FLR) at 10.71%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Pump.fun (PUMP) at 28.51%, Pi (PI) at 24.87% and Story (IP) at 22.53%.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.
Most Memorable Quotations
“This comes at a time when many are positioned for a Q4 rally — making the bigger surprise not a surge higher, but a correction instead.”
Markus Thielen, CEO of 10x Research
“The civilizations that gained the most from new waves of technology are not the ones who consumed the technology, but the ones who produced it.”
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum
“I think that as we work through the resistance of late and some macro headwinds, we’ll actually see Bitcoin start to move up smartly again toward the end of the year.”
Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy
“It’s a big deal. With those two bookends of legislation, it’s going to unleash a tremendous amount of new participation in crypto.”
Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital
“We are thinking through [. . .] whether or not there’s the possibility of reversibility of transactions, right, but at the same time, we want settlement finality.”
Heath Tarbert, president of Circle
“Treasuries are stacking ETH, exchange supply hits 9-year low, and Tom Lee’s calling $10K to $15K by year-end.”
Rachael Lucas, analyst at BTC Markets
Top Prediction of The Week
‘Stablecoins will save the US dollar’: Eric Trump
Eric Trump, son of US President Donald Trump and a businessman with several crypto ventures, said stablecoins could preserve the US dollar’s strength.
In an interview with The New York Post published Friday, Eric Trump said he is convinced stablecoins will “save the US dollar.” He highlighted USD1, the stablecoin tied to the Trump family’s crypto project, World Liberty Financial, which has drawn scrutiny in Washington.
When plans by World Liberty Financial (WLFI) — the Trump family-backed crypto project — were revealed in late March, critics raised conflict of interest concerns. Attorney Andrew Rossow told Cointelegraph at the time that the stablecoin is “a direct affront to constitutional safeguards meant to prevent conflicts of interest.”
In April, US Representative Maxine Waters, ranking member of the US House Financial Services Committee, went as far as to suggest that Donald Trump was looking to replace the US dollar with his stablecoin.
Top FUD of The Week
Aster reimburses users after XPL perpetual glitch sends price to $4
BNB Chain derivatives decentralized exchange (DEX) Aster completed reimbursements to traders hurt by a glitch in its Plasma (XPL) perpetual market that briefly drove prices above market levels.
According to Abhishek Pawa, the CEO of Web3 agency AP Collective, the issue stemmed from a misconfigured index hard-coded at $1. With the mark price cap lifted before the fix, XPL futures on Aster spiked to nearly $4 while other venues remained $1.30.
The sudden Friday price discrepancy triggered unexpected liquidations and abnormal fee charges, causing losses to users. However, the platform moved quickly, assuring its users that all funds were safe and promising to compensate them for any losses.
Just hours later, the DEX said the reimbursements for the incident had been fully distributed to their accounts. Shortly after, Aster deployed another round of compensation, including trading and liquidation fees.
Crypto needs dual wallet management, AI monitoring of North Korean hackers
Cryptocurrency companies need to strengthen defenses against North Korean hackers who are seeking jobs at major Web3 businesses to stage large-scale exploits, security experts told Cointelegraph.
Hiring North Korean developers may open a crypto project’s infrastructure to the threat of hacks and data breaches similar to the Coinbase data breach in May, which exposed the wallet balances and physical locations of about 1% of the exchange’s monthly users, potentially costing the exchange up to $400 million in reimbursement expenses.
To fight this growing threat, the industry needs to adopt enhanced wallet management standards, real-time AI monitoring for the early prevention of exploits and more secure employee vetting practices, crypto security experts told Cointelegraph.
Crypto treasuries risk 50% downside on PIPE selling pressure
Crypto treasury companies that have raised capital in private investment in public equity (PIPE) deals could see their shares fall by half with selling pressure, according to analytics platform CryptoQuant.
Crypto treasury companies that have raised capital through PIPE deals “have suffered major drawdowns, with share prices often gravitating toward their PIPE issuance levels,” CryptoQuant said in a market report on Thursday.
It added that shares in some companies “may face further declines of up to 50%” as shares trade above PIPE offering prices, and investors nearing the end of their lock-up periods are likely looking to sell.
PIPE deals allow private investors to buy new shares below market price, and have been popular among crypto treasury companies to quickly raise cash amid a crowded sector.
Top Magazine Stories of The Week
‘Help! My robot vac is stealing my Bitcoin’: When smart devices attack
Your robot vacuum and other smart home devices can easily be hacked to record you typing in passwords or your seed phrase.
Avalanche in deal with ETF giant, yuan stablecoin ‘fake news’: Asia Express
Avalanche partners with Mirae Asset to tokenize funds. Hong Kong’s OSL acquires Indonesia’s Koinsayang exchange.
How do the world’s major religions view Bitcoin and cryptocurrency?
A closer look at how Christianity, Islam and Judaism view Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.