Industry News Overview

Macroeconomics and Policies

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority recently issued the "Regulatory Guidelines for Licensed Stablecoin Issuers", requiring licensed institutions to strengthen risk management regarding the use of VPNs, including measures such as checking network protocols and device configurations to prevent customers from hiding their true location using VPNs.

The Bank of Japan maintains the benchmark interest rate at 0.5%, remaining unchanged for the fourth consecutive meeting, which is in line with market expectations.

Multiple exchanges have submitted new regulatory proposals to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC ), suggesting to simplify the listing approval process for cryptocurrency ETFs. If the new regulations are approved, compliant crypto ETFs will not need to apply separately, which is expected to significantly shorten the listing time.

Former U.S. President Trump announced a trade agreement with South Korea, which includes South Korea paying $350 billion in investments, purchasing $100 billion in energy products, and the U.S. imposing a 15% tariff on South Korea.

Project Updates

The first phase of the Alpha points on a certain trading platform allows for the claim of 500 NAORIS tokens for those who exceed 228 points. Alpha trading will start on July 31 at 20:00, and contract trading will begin at 20:30.

Kaia's native USDT has been launched at some tourist retail locations in South Korea, allowing foreign visitors to exchange cash through stablecoin ATMs. This reflects South Korea's gradual acceptance of digital asset payments.

A certain trading platform claims that users with at least 200 Alpha points can receive an airdrop of 1600 PLAY tokens. Claiming will consume 15 Alpha points and must be confirmed within 24 hours.

The fiber optic network provider DoubleZero has launched a 3 million SOL staking pool and introduced the staking token dzSOL, aiming to accelerate the growth and performance enhancement of validators in the Solana ecosystem.

A trading platform will launch Bio Protocol(BIO) and ResearchCoin(RSC). If liquidity conditions are met, the BIO-USD and RSC-USD trading pairs will be launched in stages after 9:00 AM on July 31.

Market Data

NFT sales in July reached $574 million, marking the second highest this year. The Ethereum chain continues to dominate the NFT market, with CryptoPunks leading at $69.2 million in trading volume. The NFT sales on the Cardano chain grew by 102%, showing the most impressive performance.

In the past 30 days, Ethena's total locked value ( TVL ) surged by 50%, reaching 8.5 billion USD, setting the record for the fastest growth in the project's history.

Five wallets from the Satoshi Nakamoto era, after being dormant for 15.3 years, recently transferred 250 bitcoins ( worth approximately 29.64 million dollars ) into two new wallets.

A new address has cumulatively withdrawn 113,028.97 ETH from FalconX within 6 days, with a total value of approximately 424 million USD.

A wallet of FTX/Alameda Research deposited 20,736 ETH(, approximately 78.96 million USD), into Ethereum PoS for staking.

Financing and Acquisitions

Fosun's Xinglu Technology has completed nearly ten million dollars in Series A financing, with investors including the Solana Foundation. Recently, Fosun International's Fosun Wealth International Holdings has registered related trademarks in Hong Kong, indicating an intention to strengthen its involvement in the cryptocurrency and virtual assets industry.

The Web3 role-playing game Aria has completed a $5 million funding round, led by Folius Ventures, The Spartan Group, and Beam FDN, with participation from Animoca Brands, Galaxy, and others.

Institutional Holdings

SharpLink Gaming has spent another $43.09 million today to purchase 11,259 ETH. Since starting to adopt a micro-strategy to accumulate ETH in early June, it has purchased a total of 449,000 ETH, with a total value of $1.74 billion and an unrealized profit of approximately $386 million.

The publicly listed company xTAO holds 41,538 TAO tokens, valued at approximately 16 million USD, making it the largest holder of TAO tokens among publicly listed companies.

The Ether Machine has purchased nearly 15,000 ETH, bringing the total amount of ETH purchased and committed to 334,757 ETH, with an additional $407 million in funds available for further purchases.