Crypto Currents: Bitcoin hits new all time high, passing $124,000

Bitcoin has smashed its previous records, driven by strong institutional interest and favorable macroeconomic conditions. The crypto IPO market is heating up with Bullish’s successful debut, while a new token linked to the Trump family is testing the waters of the public market. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with “Crypto Currents,” from The Fly. Join us 2 PM daily for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio. Also, subscribe to our YouTube channel for the Crypto Fly By weekly recap.

BITCOIN HITS NEW ALL-TIME HIGH: Bitcoin (BTC) soared to a new all-time high of $124,515 overnight before pulling back slightly. The rally is fueled by strong, consistent inflows into bitcoin ETFs, expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut in September, and a general risk-on sentiment in global markets. Ethereum (ETH) also saw a price surge, trading above $4,780, with its spot ETFs recording their second-biggest day of inflows ever at $729M. The combined inflows for ether ETFs over the last three days have reached approximately $2.3B. Despite bitcoin’s new high, its market dominance has fallen to 59%, which some analysts believe could signal a coming season for altcoins.

BULLISH IPO SOARS 84% ON DEBUT, ARK INVEST BUYS $172M: Crypto exchange Bullish (BLSH) had a stellar debut on the New York Stock Exchange, with its stock climbing 84% to close at $68 per share after raising $1.1B in its initial public offering. Bloomberg notes that the IPO turned co-founders Brendan Blumer and Kokuei Yuan into billionaires, with their stakes valued at $2.8B and $2.5B, respectively. Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest showed significant confidence in the newly public company, purchasing $172M worth of Bullish shares across three of its ETFs. The successful listing for Bullish, which owns the media outlet CoinDesk, is the latest in a series of high-profile crypto IPOs this year. 

TRUMP-LINKED WLFI TOKEN TESTS MARKET LIMITS: An article out of Bloomberg details a new crypto venture co-founded by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., World Liberty Financial, is making waves with a $1.5B deal that will see a publicly-traded company, ALT5 Sigma Corp (ALTS), become a major holder of its token WLFI. The move is considered highly unusual because the WLFI token is not yet tradable on any centralized crypto exchange, a fact that has caused some potential investors to pass on the deal. The arrangement allows ALT5 Sigma to acquire 7.5% of the total WLFI supply. The Bloomberg article notes that even holders of WLFI tokens acknowledge that this week’s move is testing the limits of crypto’s relationship with the public stock market. Eric Trump, speaking on Fox Business, positioned the transaction as a way to meet investor demand for crypto integration within the traditional marketplace, in response to a question asking why an investor should buy the public company’s stock rather than waiting for its WLFI tokens to become available on crypto exchanges.

OTHER CRYPTO NEWS: 

• Turkish crypto exchange BtcTurk has halted withdrawals following a suspected hack that may have resulted in the loss of $48M in digital assets across several blockchains. The exchange stated that the majority of its assets are secure in cold wallets and that customer funds are not affected.
• In Vietnam, police have arrested 20 individuals and dismantled a massive, billion-dollar Ponzi scheme centered around a token called Paynet Coin, or PAYN. The scheme lured investors with promises of high monthly returns and used funds from new victims to pay earlier ones. 
• Coinbase lost approximately $300,000 from one of its corporate wallets due to an MEV, or “maximal extractable value,” exploit. The company’s chief security officer confirmed that no customer funds were impacted by the incident.
• A report from crypto market maker Keyrock and exchange Bitso projects that annual stablecoin payment volumes will surpass $1T by 2030, driven by institutional adoption and efficiencies in cross-border payments.

 PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $118,760.10, while ether (ETH) was trading at $4,675.44.