Read in the Digest:
- Struggles at $23K, ETH Drops from $1,700 But Has Bottomed Out
- MicroStrategy (MSTR) Surges to 3-Month High as Saylor Leaves as CEO
- Closed-Source Slope Wallet Blamed for the Recent $8 million Hack
- Robinhood (NASDAQ:) CEO Debunks Rumors of an Acquisition by FTX
- Tinder Suspends Crypto and Metaverse Plan after Disappointing Q2 Earnings
Bitcoin Struggles at $23K, ETH Drops from $1,700 But Has Bottomed Out
Bitcoin kicked off August on the back of a 22% gain in July. The momentum helped Bitcoin hit a high of $23.578 on August 3. However, the leading crypto has struggled to stay above $23k, losing 2.3% in the last 24 hours to fall to $22,900.
The 24-hour price chart of Bitcoin. Source: CoinMarketCap
Bitcoin’s biggest competitor, , has recorded even sharper declines, closing the last three days lower than it opened for trading. Ethereum now trades at $1,619 despite trading as high as $1,700 on August 1.
The price chart of Ethereum (ETH) since August 1. Source: CoinMarketCap
According to some market experts, the crypto market has bottomed from its decline. They suggest that if Bitcoin and Ethereum hold above these levels in the coming days, they could spike to $28k and $2,500 shortly.
Flipsider:
- July marked the biggest inflows of digital-asset investment, with crypto products recording inflows of $474 million to reverse June’s outflows of $481 million.
Why You Should Care
SkyBridge Capital’s founder, Anthony Scaramucci, believes BTC should be valued at around $40k and won’t fall below its June low of $17,500.
MicroStrategy (MSTR) Surges to 3-Month High as Saylor Leaves as CEO
Following the Tuesday announcement that Bitcoin permabull and co-founder of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor, will be leaving his position as CEO, the software company’s shares began to rally.
MicroStrategy (MSTR) gained roughly 15% on Wednesday, August 3, and 12% on Thursday. The company’s share price now trades at $314.09 after setting a new three-month high.
MicroStrategy’s (MSTR) price chart over the last month.
Recording consecutive gains on Wednesday and Thursday, the price of MicroStrategy’s (MSTR) share is $320, the highest level the company’s share price has hit since the first week of May 2022.
Despite leaving as the CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor will now assume the role of executive chairman of the company. Saylor tweeted on Wednesday, “In my next job, I intend to focus more on bitcoin.”
Flipsider:
- MicroStrategy’s holding of Bitcoin led to a $917 million loss in Q2 and is a major contributor to its stock being down over 40% since the start of 2022.
Why You Should Care
Michael Saylor has noted that the company has “outperformed every asset class and big tech stock” since adopting a Bitcoin strategy and acquiring the asset.
Closed-Source Slope Wallet Blamed for the Recent $8 million Solana Hack
Ongoing investigations of the recent Solana hack suggest that the third-party wallet provider Slope is largely responsible for the security exploit that resulted in the theft of over $8 million in crypto from roughly 8,000 Slope and Phantom mobile app wallets.
Solana Status Twitter (NYSE:) account writes, “after developers, ecosystem teams, and security auditors conducted an investigation, it appears affected addresses were at one point created, imported, or used in Slope mobile wallet applications.”
Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana, also linked the hack to Slope wallets. The Phantom wallet team also confirmed that no Phantom-forever user has been affected, but “the reported exploits are due to complications related to importing accounts to and from Slope.”
Slope released an official statement that neither confirmed nor rejected the claim but assured its customers that its developers are working around the clock to rectify the issue and gain their trust.
Flipsider:
- During a Wednesday interview, Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX exchange backed the Solana ecosystem.
- According to SBF, the Solana platform was not the cause of the hack but a single third-party application that some notorious markets use to break into Solana wallets.
Why You Should Care
The attack on Solana hot wallets is a reminder as to why investors need to store their crypto holdings on cold wallets.
Robinhood CEO Debunks Rumors of an Acquisition by FTX
During an earnings conference call on Wednesday, Vlad Tenev, Chief Executive Officer of Robinhood, dismissed the idea that the company might be acquired by crypto giant FTX.
The speculation of FTX’s billionaire founder Sam Bankman-Fried possibly purchasing Robinhood started in May when SBF took a 7.6% stake in the company and Tenev’s announcement that Robinhood was looking for potential acquisitions of its own.
The rumors have been reignited after Robinhood reported a loss for Q2 and announced job cuts for the second time this year. However, Tenev does not see the acquisition working and says, “I love us as a standalone company.”
According to Tenev, Robinhood has about $6 billion in cash that could be used for acquisitions. Rather than getting acquired in the current market environment, the company sees opportunities to make acquisitions.
Flipsider:
- While acquisition rumors have been turned down, SBF in June said that his firm could potentially look to form a partnership with Robinhood.
Why You Should Care
Robinhood blames the deteriorating macro environment, rising inflation, and the broader crypto market crash for its poor market performance.
Tinder Suspends Crypto and Metaverse Plans after Disappointing Q2 Earnings
In February, Tinder acquired the web 3 social media platform Hyperconnect for $1.73 billion to launch Tinderverse, a Metaverse dating platform. The dating app also had plans to launch Tinder Coins for its app.
However, Match Group (NASDAQ:), the parent company behind the popular dating app, has announced that it has scrapped plans for Tinder Coins and will cut funding for its metaverse following a disappointing Q2.
The CEO of Match Group, Bernard Kim, said, “given uncertainty about the ultimate contours of the metaverse and what will or won’t work … I’ve instructed the Hyperconnect team to iterate but not invest heavily in metaverse at this time.”
The announcement follows its Q2 earnings report, which according to Kim, did not meet expectations. Tinder reported a $795 million revenue against a predicted $810 million and also saw the activity and number of new users on the platform drop.
Flipsider:
- Bernard Kim also announced that Tinder’s newest CEO, Renate Nyborg, will leave the company after spending less than a year on the job.
Why You Should Care
The metaverse is still in its early stages, and many experts believe there is a lot of work to be done before real metaverse projects launch.
