First Mover Americas: BTC Struggles to Break $20K as More Lenders Face Trouble

The latest price moves in bitcoin ($BTC) and crypto markets in context, for July 4, 2022.Read MoreFeedzy

Good morning, and welcome to First Mover. I’m Lyllah Ledesma, here to take you through the latest in crypto markets, news and insights.

Price Point: BTC remains below $20K and Argentinians are buying stablecoins more than normal as their economy minister resigned over the weekend.

Market Moves: Solana DeFi protocol, Crema, lost $8.8 million in an exploit on Sunday.

Bitcoin (BTC) was up 2% on the day with U.S. equity index futures and European bonds falling as investors worried about the threats of deteriorating economic growth and inflation.

Germany also reported its first monthly trade deficit in three decades as surging import prices have caused a shortfall in the export-reliant nation, according to Bloomberg.

Bitcoin is trading down 6% over the last 7-days, at around $19,400.

Ether (ETH) also suffered a downfall over the last 7-days, trading down 10%. ETH’s price weakness continues as “The Merge” fast approaches. The Merge will see the network go from a proof-of-work platform, to proof-of-stake.

The once-mighty crypto hedge fund, Three Arrows Capital, filed for bankruptcy on late Friday after weeks of speculation that it was functionally insolvent.

American-Israeli crypto lender, Celsuis, laid off some 150 employees over the weekend as it battles a financial crisis which saw it halt customer withdrawals last month.

Coinbase, the U.S. crypto exchange, said in a report that recent selling of newly minted bitcoin by crypto miners does not add any significant market pressure. If all newly issued bitcoin were sold onto the market each day, it would equate to only 900 BTC of selling pressure.

Over in Latin America, Argentina’s economy minister, Martin Guzman, resigned on Saturday. This caused citizens to purchase up to three times as many stablecoins over the weekend than they usually do, crypto companies in the country told CoinDesk.

Separately, a survey from Mastercard reported that over 51% of Latin Americans made at least one transaction with cryptocurrencies between March and April of this year.

Market moves

Solana-based liquidity protocol Crema Finance had more than $8.78 million worth of cryptocurrencies stolen from its platform in an attack over the weekend, developers said in a tweet.

Crema said it had suspended its smart contract after the exploit. The protocol allows liquidity providers to set specific price ranges, add single-sided liquidity and conduct range order trading. This makes for a sophisticated and decentralized trading platform.

“We’ve been closely working with several experienced security institutes and relevant organizations to track the hacker’s fund movements,” the developers said in a tweet.

Value locked on Crema plunged to $3 million on Monday from over $12 million on Saturday following the exploit, data shows. Crema has seen trading volumes of $1.34 billion since its inception in January.

The attacker started by creating a fake tick account. A tick account is “a dedicated account that stores price tick data in CLMM,” the developers said, referring to Crema’s market making protocol. After that, the attacker exploited a command by writing the data on the fake account and circumventing security measures.

CoinShares Completes Napoleon Acquisition, Can Now Offer Products Across EU The acquisition of Napoleon Asset Management was subject to approval by the AMF, which was granted on June 28.

Coinbase Says Miners’ Sales of Newly Minted Bitcoins Don’t Add Market Pressure If all newly issued bitcoin were immediately sold onto the market each day, it would equate to only 900 BTC of selling pressure, the report said.

WonderFi Closes Acquisition of Crypto Trading Platform Coinberry The Canadian crypto firm says it’s open to more deals for firms hit by the crypto winter.

Crypto Lender Celsius Cuts 150 Jobs Amid Restructuring: Report Withdrawals are still paused and the company has hired restructuring experts as it faces a financial crisis.

Lending Platform Vauld Looks to Restructure Amid Crypto Downturn, Suspends Transactions Vauld has seen withdrawals of around $198 million since June 12.

Solana DeFi Protocol Crema Loses $8.8M in Exploit The app developer had bought 940.89 BTC and 31,000 ETH in spring of 2021.

Software Firm Meitu Lost Up to $52.3M in H1 Due to Slide in Crypto Prices. The last purchase by the Central American country had been in May.

Argentines Take Refuge in Stablecoins After Economy Minister Resignation Major crypto exchanges reported that consumers purchased up to three times as many stablecoins over the weekend as they usually do amid a brewing economic crisis.el.

Today’s newsletter was edited by Parikshit Mishra and produced by Sheldon Reback.

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