Michael Novogratz Encourages Us to Create More Meme Coins, Calls Them a Cornerstone of Crypto

Pepe Coin's price rose 4% today, reaching $0.00001247. It's kind of suspicious as the wider crypto market remained stagnant. Especially, if you take into account that a mysterious whale just transferred 1 trillion PEPE to Binance. PEPE gained 7% over the week but fell 5% in two weeks and 25% in a month. Despite recent losses, the Ethereum-based meme coin retains a 700% annual gain. So now, a whale transferred 1 trillion PEPE to Binance recently. This move could impact short-term price action. Interestingly though, PEPE's value dipped 1.5% in the past hour. But technical indicators suggest a potential decline before another rally. The relative strength index fell from nearly 80 to 50. However, PEPE's 30-day average surpassed its 200-day average, indicating a growth phase. But what's even more impressing is the trading volume, it exceeded $1 billion, up from $350 million days ago. Another whale sent 700 billion PEPE ($7.8 million) to Binance yesterday. These transfers suggest whales may be in sell mode. Short-term price pressure is likely. The medium and long-term outlook remains positive. Market factors support an upward trajectory. PEPE is built on Ethereum blockchain, and there is a significant event coming there - traders anticipate Ethereum ETF launches in coming weeks. The Federal Reserve and Bank of England are expected to cut interest rates this fall. These factors could boost demand. It is also worth mentioning that PEPE remains popular among whale traders. Diversification with other high-potential meme tokens may be prudent. Pepe Unchained (PEPU), a new layer-two project, shows promise. Its presale raised $800,000 in less than a week. PEPU aims to offer more utility than typical meme coins. The Ethereum-based token promises instant transactions and low fees. It plans to offer higher staking rewards. If you're wondering whether Pepe has a growing community, here is the answer. Pepe now has nearly 2,000 Telegram subscribers. Its tokenomics include a capped supply of 8 billion PEPU. The allocation is: 20% presale, 30% staking, 20% marketing, 10% liquidity, 10% project finance, and 10% chain inventory.

An anonymous Bitcoin user has donated 8 BTC to Julian Assange's family. The donation is worth approximately $500,000. It aims to cover Assange's travel and settlement costs. Assange recently won his fight against extradition to the United States. The battle lasted 14 years. He now owes $520,000 to the Australian government for chartered flights to Saipan and Australia. Stella Assange, Julian's wife, started a crowdfunding campaign. She explained the situation on social media platform X. "Julian's travel to freedom comes at a massive cost," she wrote. The campaign gained traction quickly. Within 10 hours, the anonymous Bitcoin donation nearly met the entire goal. The fund also received over 300,000 British pounds in fiat currency donations. This Bitcoin donation was the largest single contribution. It exceeded the combined total of all other donations in various currencies. The crypto community has supported Assange before. In 2023, AssangeDAO raised millions through an NFT auction. Digital artist Pak also collaborated with Assange on an NFT collection called 'Censored'. Assange was released from Belmarsh prison on June 24. He reached a plea agreement with U.S. authorities. He then flew to Saipan, avoiding American soil. On June 26, Assange appeared in a Saipan district court. He pleaded guilty to breaching the U.S. Espionage Act. Judge Ramona Manglona sentenced him to five years and two months in prison. Assange left the courtroom a free man. Simply because he had already served sufficient time in the UK. That's how British justice works, mate. And you better believe it. He then flew to Canberra, Australia. A pretty much Hollywood finale. Throughout his legal battle, Assange argued against the Espionage Act. He claimed it conflicted with First Amendment rights. However, he admitted that encouraging sources to provide classified information could be illegal.

The Cardano blockchain successfully defended against a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on Tuesday. The network's robust mechanisms ensured continued stability and operation. All the operations, transactions and holdings are perfectly safe. The attack began on block 10,487,530. Then each malicious transaction executed 194 smart contracts of the REWARD type. And they spent 0.9 ADA per transaction. "They can send large transactions while spending the least possible amount," ElRaulito_cnft, CTO at Fluid Token, said. Philip Disarro, founder of Cardano development firm Anastasia, played a key role in neutralizing the threat. His public response on X appeared to halt the attacker's activities. Disarro stated, "DDOSer halted his attack after reading my tweet in an effort to protect his funds. Alas, they were too late and the pillaging of their funds is already in progress." He added, "Thanks for the free money moron. Truly iconic that the attacker who presumably wanted to damage the ecosystem actually ended up donating to the open-source smart contract development work we do at Anastasia Labs & funding Midgard." The Cardano community monitored the situation closely. Big Pey, a prominent content creator, reassured the community via X. "Someone tried to DDOS Cardano today. Barely anything happened, and the network didn't crash. ADA is resilient," he said. Jason Matias, founder of The Art of Selling Art, described the attack's visual impact. "This is what the DDoS attack on Cardano looks like right now. The grey gear icons are the spam transactions that someone is sending, creating larger, more difficult to process blocks," he noted. Cardano's extended Unspent Transaction Output (eUTxO) model was crucial in mitigating the attack's impact. Thanks to this model, that differs from account-based models used by other major blockchains, there is a possibility for independent processing of each transaction output. This architectural choice enhances scalability and security. It prevents transactions from interfering with each other, isolating potential issues. The network maintained high throughput and reliability under duress. Following the attack, the ADA price remained unaffected. It rose 5% in 24 hours, trading at $0.39.

Large investors in the Bitcoin network have been buying while the market panics about the latest crash. On-chain data reveals this trend. The "Large Holders Netflow" indicator has been positive recently. It tracks the net amount of cryptocurrency entering or exiting wallets of "Large Holders". IntoTheBlock defines Large Holders as investors owning at least 0.1% of the circulating supply. Now imagine this, their holdings equal about 19,700 BTC. As of now, it's worth over $1.2 billion. These Large Holders could influence the market and their behavior may provide insight into sentiment among major players. Like, in last weeks the whales has been mostly positive. We can tell that by net deposits to their wallets. Whales have been accumulating during Bitcoin's bearish momentum. The trend culminated in a crash yesterday, with prices dropping below $60,000. Whales seized this opportunity and displayed their strongest net inflows since late May. In fact, large investors bought 7,130 BTC during the dip. That's a whopping $439 million. As you can see, whales see recent lows as a profitable accumulation opportunity. They are definitely expecting the price to surge, which will allow them to profit. Another potentially bullish development has occurred. IntoTheBlock Head of Research Lucas noted large USD Coin (USDC) inflows to exchanges yesterday. Investors typically transfer coins to exchanges for trading. These USDC inflows could indicate intention to swap for other cryptocurrencies, possibly Bitcoin.

Metallica's official X account was compromised on June 26. Hackers used it to promote a Solana-based token called METAL. The legendary band's team has since regained control of their account. All posts about the token have been deleted. Nothing reminds of what happened now. The initial post claimed a partnership with Ticketmaster. This was false. The token was actually launched on pump.fun, a Solana-based platform. Ticketmaster made no announcement. They did not respond to requests for comment. The hackers also falsely claimed MoonPay's involvement. MoonPay president Keith Grossman denied this. "MoonPay does NOT support METAL," he stated on X. MoonPay later posted: "If someone is offering you a METAL token, they are not the master of puppets — they're the master of scams!" This referenced Metallica's 1986 album and single. The hackers made several claims to attract buyers. For example, they promised exclusive items for token holders, like concert tickets, gaming consoles, and merchandise. One post even mentioned staking rewards for an unknown token. The METAL token's value peaked at $3.37 million. This occurred 20 minutes after its launch, according to Dexscreener data. The token's value has since crashed, showing phenomenal volatility. Its market cap fell to $90,000 within three hours of its peak. The method of the account breach remains unknown. Metallica and their management could not be reached for comment.

Telegram, the popular messaging app, is grappling with a significant increase in Toncoin (TON) ecosystem-related scams, according to a report by blockchain reporter Colin Wu. The layer-1 blockchain, which is closely associated with Telegram, has become a breeding ground for phishing attacks and pyramid schemes. Blockchain security firm SlowMist has identified numerous phishing links and bots spreading through Telegram groups. These scams often employ fake airdrops and other deceptive methods to compromise users' TON wallets. "Many phishing links (or bots) are spread through groups, using fake airdrops and other methods to hack assets in users' TON wallets, especially Anonymous Telegram Numbers," Wu quoted SlowMist's findings. Anonymous Telegram Numbers, which allow users to create accounts without revealing their identity, are particularly vulnerable to theft. In addition to phishing scams, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky reported a Toncoin-focused pyramid scheme operating on Telegram in April. Scammers promote a "super-secret awesome bot" and referral links as a way to earn Toncoin. "Scammers promote a 'super-secret awesome bot' and referral links as the key to earning Toncoin. In short: you invest your money, buy 'booster' tariffs, invite friends, and earn commission from every coin invested," Kaspersky explained. The pyramid scheme incentivizes larger investments with the promise of higher returns. Kaspersky's data suggests that this scam has been active since at least November 2023, targeting both Russian and international users. "The scammers promise earnings from two sources: a fixed payment of 25 TON for each invited friend and commission based on the booster tariff purchased by your referrals," Kaspersky detailed. The scheme ultimately proves to be a classic pyramid structure, where only the scammers profit while all other participants lose their investments. Kaspersky concluded, "It turns out to be a classic pyramid scheme, where each participant is 'a partner rather than a freeloader'. Sadly, nobody profits except the scammers, and all 'partners' lose their investments." As Telegram continues to face these challenges, the need for enhanced security measures and user awareness has become increasingly apparent. The platform's close association with the Toncoin ecosystem has made it a prime target for malicious actors seeking to exploit unsuspecting users. Telegram is an instant messaging and voice-over-IP service developed by Telegram FZ LLC, a privately held company registered in Dubai.Telegram is run by Pavel Durov, the many behind VKontakte, Russian social network overtaken by Putin's regime. Durov had to flee from Russia. Durov claims that Telegram is extremely secure, offering end-to-end encrypted video calling, VoIP, file sharing, and several other features. TON, or The Open Network, is a decentralized layer-1 blockchain platform originally developed by the Durov and his team. After facing regulatory challenges, Telegram officially withdrew from the project, and it is now maintained and developed by the open-source community.

Solana (SOL) has rebounded from recent losses. Whale investors maintain their positions, hinting at potential future gains. Now we are looking for a broader market upturn. SOL has risen 8.41% in 24 hours to $137.93. It posted a 0.51% weekly gain. This contrasts with losses from Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) - the leading cryptocurrencies, taking everyone's attention. At the moment, Solana boasts a 667.92% annual return. This year's return stands at an impressive 747.74%, outpacing other leading cryptocurrencies. A little too early to bury our favorite altcoin, right? Solana's price has broken a key resistance level at $136.78. This suggests strengthened buying pressure, which is a clear sign of further upward movement. At least, we are used to think so. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has surged from 5 to 65 in 36 hours. This dramatic rise underscores significant buying pressure. It indicates a possible shift towards positive short-term momentum. The 30-day moving average is trending upwards. It approaches convergence with the 200-day moving average. A decisive crossover above the 200-day would validate this resurgence. So, technical indicators suggest positive short-term price movements. But what about long-term growth? Analysts agree it will likely depend on fundamental factors, you know, the ones we like to discuss so much. Let's take a look. Solana's current market cap is $63.76 billion. It it possible to reach $1000 per token? Probably so, but it would require a market cap of $460 billion. Which is a miracle, because this is comparable to Ethereum's current valuation. While ambitious, such growth isn't impossible. It would likely require a significant catalyst. Experts speculate that recent Ethereum ETF approval may pave the way for other crypto ETFs. This could include Solana. Such a development could boost Solana's adoption and investor confidence. The famous altcoin could finally get on its long-term growth trajectory.

Bernstein predicts lower demand for Ether spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) compared to Bitcoin ETFs. Basically, same people and institutions are going to invest, yet Ethereum attracts less money from investors. Yes, the broker's analysis suggests similar demand sources but on a reduced scale. Gautam Chhugani and Mahika Sapra, analysts at Bernstein, highlight a key factor. "ETH should not see as much spot ETH conversion due to the lack of an ETH staking feature in the ETF," they state. The basis trade is expected to attract interest over time. This should contribute to healthy ETF market liquidity. The trade involves simultaneous spot ETF purchase and futures contract sale. U.S. spot ether ETFs are nearing availability. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently approved key regulatory filings from issuers. Bernstein's report emphasizes ether's growing use-case. "ETH as a primary tokenization platform is building up a strong use-case, both for stablecoin payments, as well as tokenization of traditional assets and funds," the authors note. Regulatory improvements are needed for Ether and other digital assets. Bernstein anticipates a favorable narrative shift around the U.S. elections later this year. Probably because Trump has already changed his rhetorics about crypto, and Biden is about to follow. The report cites improving odds of a Republican victory. It also notes Trump's pro-crypto stance as contributing factors. Despite recent market pullbacks, Bernstein maintains that the "structural adoption cycle remains intact." Simply put, nothing can stop us from going to mass crypto adoption, in case you still had any doubt. JPMorgan, a Wall Street giant, shares a similar view. Their recent report suggests spot ether ETFs will likely see much lower demand than bitcoin ETFs. JPMorgan attributes this to bitcoin's first-mover advantage. They believe it could potentially saturate overall demand for crypto exchange-traded funds.