WuBlockchain Weekly: Ethereum Red - Hot, Controversy over Pump's Launch, Clouds of Doubt over Powell's Resignation, etc

1. Bitcoin Hits All — Time High, Crypto — currency Market Cap Breaks Through $4 Trillion link

Bitcoin reached a new all — time high this Tuesday, hitting a peak of $123,226. It set a new historical high, and the quoted price was $118,547.1 as of the time of writing, with a 24 — hour increase of 0.13%.

The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has broken through $4 trillion, among which BTC accounts for 59.9% and ETH accounts for 10.8%.

In addition, XRP broke through $3.6, with a market capitalization of over $210 billion, becoming the third — highest — market — cap cryptocurrency. It is worth noting that in Upbit, South Korea’s largest exchange, the 24 — hour trading volume of XRP/KRW reached $2.2 billion, accounting for about 33% of the total trading volume of the whole platform.

2. Ethereum Booms with High Popularity link

On July 17, the total position of Ethereum contracts across the network broke through $50 billion, reaching a new all — time high. It was reported at $50.329 billion, with a 24 — hour increase of 8.09%. In the past 24 hours, a total of 145,988 people worldwide were liquidated, with a total liquidation amount of $549 million, including $186 million in long — position liquidations and $362 million in short — position liquidations. The largest single — order liquidation occurred in HTX — ETH — USDT, worth $3.2058 million.

On July 16, the total net inflow of Ethereum spot ETFs was $727 million, reaching a new all — time high. The Ethereum spot ETF with the largest single — day net inflow was Blackrock’s ETHA, with a single — day net inflow of $499 million. Currently, the historical total net inflow of ETHA has reached $7.114 billion.

On July 15, SharpLink announced that it had become the corporate entity with the largest holding of Ethereum. During the period from July 7 to July 13, SharpLink purchased approximately 74,656 ETH at an average price of about $2,852, with a total amount of about $213 million. Currently, its total position is approximately 280,706 ETH. Among them, about 99.7% of the ETH has been staked or restaked, and it has obtained approximately 415 ETH in earnings since June 2.

On July 17, SharpLink Gaming added 30,893 ETH to its ETH strategic reserve, worth $104 million. Since the beginning of June, SharpLink Gaming has cumulatively purchased 321,000 ETH in the MicroStrategy mode, with an average purchase price of about $2,745, and currently has a floating profit of $204 million. It is worth noting that the quantity shown in Arkham data does not include the 77,000 ETH it directly staked.

In addition, both BitMine and BTCS have expanded their Ethereum treasuries. BitMine Immersion (NYSE: BMNR) announced that it currently holds approximately 163,000 ETH, with a total market value of over $500 million, far exceeding the previous private — placement financing amount of $250 million, aiming to accelerate its Ethereum treasury strategic layout. At the same time, BTCS Inc. (Nasdaq: BTCS) disclosed that as of July 11, 2025, the total market value of its crypto — assets and cash reached $96.3 million, including 29,122 ETH, an increase of 221% compared to the end of 2024. BTCS has raised $62.4 million this year.

As of the time of writing, the price of Ethereum is $3,601, with a 24 — hour increase of 4.81%.

3. Trump Plans to Open 401(k) Accounts for Crypto — currency and Private Equity Assets Investment link

According to a report by the Financial Times, U.S. President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order allowing 401(k) retirement accounts to invest in non-traditional asset classes including cryptocurrencies, gold, and private equity, aiming to open up the $9 trillion pension market to a wider range of alternative assets. The executive order will require regulators to assess related obstacles and consider establishing a “safe harbor” mechanism for retirement plan managers to reduce legal risks.

4. US House Passes Three Crypto — related Bills, GENIUS Act to Be the First Formal Legislation link

The U.S. House of Representatives passed three cryptocurrency — related bills on July 17, namely the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (Clarity Act), the Guidance and Establishment of National Innovation for United States Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act), and the Anti — Central Bank Digital Currency Act (Anti — CBDC Act). Among them, the GENIUS Act will become the first major cryptocurrency legislation to be signed by the president, and the signing ceremony is expected to be held at the White House on the afternoon of the next day.

5. Trump Has Drafted a Letter to Fire Fed Chairman Powell link

On July 15, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that the “formal selection process for the successor to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has begun,” and there are currently several outstanding candidates, with the relevant process proceeding at the pace of President Donald Trump. He noted that, according to convention, when a Federal Reserve Chair’s term ends, they also step down from their position as a governor. Regarding external discussions about a “shadow Federal Reserve Chair,” Yellen clearly stated that if Powell remains in office after his term ends, it could cause market confusion.

On July 16, during a recent meeting with more than a dozen House Republicans at the White House, Trump showed a draft letter dismissing Federal Reserve Chair Powell and sought their opinions on whether he should do so, saying he “very likely would.” Recently, Trump has repeatedly called on Powell to resign, accusing him of failing to cut interest rates effectively. By law, the president cannot remove Federal Reserve officials without cause, a point reaffirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in a ruling this May. “Cause” typically refers to illegal or grossly improper conduct, not policy differences.

According to a Bloomberg report, U.S. President Donald Trump said he has “no plans” to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, adding that it is “highly unlikely” he will be removed unless forced to step down due to “fraud” issues.

6. EU Anti — money Laundering Authority Warns Crypto — currency Firms of Tougher Regulation link

The European Union’s newly established Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) has officially started operating this month and warned virtual asset service providers (VASPs) such as crypto exchanges and custodial wallets to strictly comply with new anti-money laundering regulations. The chair of AMLA stated that member states will examine the beneficial owners and shareholder backgrounds of platforms to prevent the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing. The new regulations explicitly prohibit services related to anonymous wallets and privacy coins, and require crypto companies to provide “direct, immediate and unfiltered” access to account data for regulatory authorities by July 2027 at the latest.

7. Russia’s Largest State — owned Bank Sberbank Announces Plan to Provide Custody Services for Domestic Crypto — assets link

Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank, announced its plan to provide custody services for domestic crypto assets and has submitted relevant regulatory proposals to the central bank. Sberbank stated that the service will ensure the security of users’ tokens and hopes to incorporate crypto assets into a bank-like account regulatory system. Earlier, the Russian central bank had relaxed its stance on crypto assets, allowing enterprises to use cryptocurrencies in international trade to cope with Western sanctions.

8. Standard Chartered Launches Spot Trading Services for Bitcoin and Ethereum for Institutional Clients link

Standard Chartered Bank has launched spot trading services for Bitcoin and Ethereum for institutional clients through its UK branch to meet the growing demand for crypto assets. Standard Chartered Bank stated that it has become the first globally systemically important bank to provide deliverable Bitcoin and Ethereum spot trading services, with secure, compliant and scalable access capabilities.

9. Bitcoin Proposal Suggests Freezing Bitcoins Vulnerable to Quantum Attacks like Those of Satoshi Nakamoto link

Jameson Lopp, co-founder and CTO of Casa, together with five developers, put forward a Bitcoin improvement proposal to address the threat of quantum computing, suggesting the phasing out of address types currently considered “quantum-vulnerable”. The proposal advocates establishing incentive mechanisms to promote users to migrate to post-quantum secure addresses, and in the future will prohibit transfers to old addresses and restrict their spending within five years. The proposal points out that about 25% of Bitcoin is currently at risk, including 1 million BTC believed to be owned by Satoshi Nakamoto.

10. PUMP Officially Launches, Rising by Over 42% Compared with the Public Offering Price on the First Day link

According to the data dashboard by @Adam_Tehc, in the presale on the official website of PUMP token, a total of 23,959 wallets completed KYC, but only 10,145 wallets successfully made purchases, with an average purchase size of $44,209; 5,758 wallets participated in the PUMP presale with an amount less than $1,000, while 583 wallets participated with over $100,000, among which 202 wallets deposited the single-wallet hard cap amount of $1 million.

Bybit issued an announcement stating that the public token offering of PUMP was officially launched at 14:00 UTC on July 12, 2025. Due to extremely strong market demand, the tokens were oversubscribed within seconds, resulting in some users successfully obtaining allocation quotas while others failing to subscribe. Bitget announced that due to API abnormalities, the public offering was oversubscribed. After community research, Bitget decided to distribute tokens in proportion to the subscription funds of participants. The final subscription ratio was 28.0134%, and the remaining 71.9866% of users’ subscription funds would be unlocked by 24:00 today. Bitget will distribute the corresponding amount of PUMP tokens within 48 hours according to the proportion of each participant’s actual subscription amount.

According to data from @defioasis, after the listing, among the 10,145 PUMP buyers who contributed $448.5 million in the presale through the official website, 6,042/10,145 (59.6%) have sold/transferred to CEX or other wallets, 3,791/10,145 (37.4%) continue to hold, and 312/10,145 (3%) have increased their holdings of PUMP.

According to monitoring by @ai_9684xtpa, the PUMP token team only added initial liquidity of $4 million in batches; the current total liquidity is $50 million, most of which is added by retail investors; there is no new news yet about the 24% of airdrops belonging to the community and ecology; the spot price of $0.0055 is still higher than the public offering price of $0.004; Binance’s contract fee rate is positive, and long positions are making efforts to go long; the PUMP contract positions have risen instead of falling after listing.

After launching the token, Pumpfun began to use the fee income to repurchase PUMP tokens instead of directly transferring them to Kraken for sale as before. In the past 7 hours, they transferred 187,770 SOL (valued at $30.53 million) of fee income to the address 3vkp…3WTi, and then used it to buy PUMP. The purchased PUMP was then transferred to the address G8Cc…kqjm for storage. Up to now, 111,953 SOL (valued at $18.34 million) have been used to purchase 3.04 billion PUMP, with an average price of $0.006.

Fundraising

• Zerohash plans to raise $100 million at a valuation of nearly $1 billion, led by Interactive Brokers link

• Stablecoin bank Dakota announced the completion of a $12.5 million Series A financing, led by CoinFund link

• Spiko announced the completion of a $22 million Series A financing, led by Index Ventures link

• Ephemera, the core development team of decentralized messaging protocol XMTP, completed a $20 million Series B financing link

• Stablecoin payment service platform Kun KUN completed Series A financing, with participation from BAI Capital and others link

• Function completed a $10 million seed round financing, led by Galaxy Digital link

• Istanbul game studio Circle Games completed a $7.25 million seed round financing link

• Game social platform Remix completed a $5 million seed round financing link

• Blockskye announced the completion of a $15.8 million Series C financing link

• W3 io announced the completion of a $7 million seed round financing link

• DV8 announced the completion of its first round of financing of 241 million Thai baht link

Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.

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