News & Research

Prominent NFT whale Machi Big Brother is facing a floating loss of $3.86 million on his PUMP (5x) long position as the token fell below its sale price. According to OnchainLens on X, he also holds ETH (25x) and HYPE (5x) long positions, with a total floating loss of $2.3 million.

U.S. investment bank TD Cowen rejected criticism that Strategy’s valuation is a bubble, calling the argument of pricing it only by its Bitcoin holdings flawed, according to The Block. The firm’s market cap of $124.3 billion reflects a 72.6% premium to its $72 billion in Bitcoin, which TD Cowen says is justified by its ability to raise cheap capital and grow Bitcoin per share. Strategy recently raised $740 million, adding over 6,200 Bitcoins while increasing BTC per share by 20.8% this year. TD Cowen maintained its $680 price target and expects Strategy to hold nearly 900,000 BTC by 2027.

Design software company Figma plans to raise up to $1 billion in its New York Stock Exchange initial public offering (IPO), which would value the company at about $16.5 billion, according to the Financial Times.The company will offer nearly 40 million shares priced between $25 and $28. Backed by top venture firms, Figma reported $228 million in revenue and $45 million net income in Q1, despite a $732 million loss last year tied to a stock tender. The IPO comes after regulators blocked Adobe’s $20 billion takeover. Figma also holds $70 million in a Bitcoin ETF, plans more crypto investments and may issue blockchain-based stock.

AguilaTrades, a whale on Hyperliquid, closed its Ethereum (ETH) long position with around a $3 million loss and deposited 5.28 million USDC to Hyperliquid. The trader then opened a 20x leveraged Bitcoin (BTC) long position worth 1,695 BTC ($200.5 million), according to Lookonchain on X.

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb's new banking partner, KB Kookmin Bank, has seen a sharp rise in accounts linked to financial fraud since the two began working together in late March, according to the Maeil Business Newspaper. The number of fraud-related accounts jumped from 101 in January and 100 in February to 148 in March, then surged to 268 in April. In contrast, Nonghyup Bank, which previously handled Bithumb’s banking services before passing them to KB Kookmin, reported a decline in such cases. Just 68 accounts were linked to fraud in June, the lowest among the country's top five commercial banks.

Stablecoin trading volume in South Korea jumped by roughly 50% as cryptocurrency market activity picked up, Maeil Business Newspaper reported. Citing data from CryptoQuant, the outlet said trading volume on the country’s five largest crypto exchanges, Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, totaled 2.23 trillion won ($1.6 billion) between July 13 and 19. The figure includes both buy and sell transactions involving stablecoins such as USDT and USDC. That’s up 50.18% from the 1.48 trillion won ($1.07 billion) recorded from June 29 to July 4.

South Korean lender Shinhan Bank has begun a proof-of-concept (PoC) project to introduce Korean won-based stablecoin payments on its food delivery app, Ddangyo, according to the Seoul Economic Daily. A PoC is a preliminary step to test and evaluate the feasibility of a technology or business model before full-scale implementation.

Ethereum (ETH) on-chain transfers exceeding $100,000 totaled more than $100 billion last week, marking the highest weekly volume since 2021, according to Sentora (formerly IntoTheBlock) on X. The increase indicates renewed activity from institutional investors and large holders.

South Korean IT company NHN has teamed up with blockchain firm SOOHO.IO in a consortium to develop Project Namsan. According to Decenter, the goal is to establish a stablecoin settlement infrastructure that automates real-time balance checks and settlement processing among merchants, issuers and financial institutions. A pilot trial could begin as early as September.

Bitcoin (BTC) could climb to $139,000 without entering an overheated phase, according to CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. on X. With BTC trading around $117,000, it remains in the growth zone between the Investor Price Median ($92,000) and the Hype Alert level ($139,000), a range that suggests continued buying support and room for further upside without excessive market optimism.