Today's news tips:
1. Macro outlook for next week: "Cryptocurrency Week" has come to a perfect end, and Powell will appear under heavy pressure
2. The UK plans to sell seized Bitcoin to fill the fiscal gap, and the sales scale may reach US$7 billion
3. Insider: U.S. Treasury Secretary Benson urged Trump not to remove Federal Reserve Chairman Powell
4. Shanghai announced a cross-border illegal exchange case involving stablecoins, involving a total amount of 6.5 billion yuan
5. Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX suspected of being stolen for $44.2 million, official claims customer funds not affected
6. Binance Alpha will list Yala (YALA) on July 22
7. Analysis: This week, some on-chain addresses hoarded 391,000 ETH, worth about $1.4 billion
8. In the past 7 days, NFT transaction volume increased by 29% month-on-month to US$159.6 million, and Pudgy Penguins transaction volume increased by 247.32%
Regulatory/Macro
According to Caixin.com, the mainland virtual currency investment scam has spread to Hong Kong, with at least 118 people falling for it and losing a total of about HK$3.2 million. On July 16, the Hong Kong police revealed that on July 15, they arrested four Hong Kong locals for "conspiracy to defraud". They were suspected of hosting a promotional dinner for the mainland virtual currency scam, recruiting victims and collecting HK$3.89 million in fraudulent funds. Except for a small amount of funds that were withdrawn, the remaining HK$3.2 million has not yet been recovered.
Chief Inspector Yuen Ho-ting of the Second Team of the New Territories North Regional Crime Squad of Hong Kong introduced that since the end of June 2025, the police have received reports from citizens who suspected that they had fallen into a cryptocurrency investment scam, and the victims were aged between 33 and 80. The police investigation found that since the beginning of 2025, many victims had participated in an investment promotion dinner called "DGCX Xinkangjia" at a restaurant in Tai Po. The Hong Kong police investigation confirmed that DGCX Xinkangjia was a fake trading platform, and the victims' funds had not been invested in any real way. Part of the funds were used to maintain the operation of the platform, and some of the funds were believed to be used to cope with the withdrawals of other victims. Industry lawyers said that because DGCX Xinkangjia used the stable currency USDT for settlement, it brought many difficulties to the case detection, fund recovery and victim rights protection.
As the Federal Reserve is about to enter a silent period, current governor Waller, a popular candidate for the next Fed chairman, reiterated his support for a 25 basis point rate cut in July, and data showed that consumers' expectations for inflation have improved. At the same time, trade tensions between the United States and the European Union continue, with Trump pushing for a minimum tariff of 15%-20% on all EU goods and planning to announce tariff plans for specific industries by August 1. In addition, the twists and turns of "Cryptocurrency Week" came to a perfect end after Trump signed the Stablecoin Act as scheduled. Bitcoin refreshed its all-time high to more than $123,000 this week, and Ethereum once stood at $3,600 on Friday, outperforming Bitcoin for the fourth consecutive week. Here are the key points that the market will focus on in the new week:
At 22:00 on Monday, the U.S. Conference Board Leading Index monthly rate for June
At 20:30 on Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell delivered a welcome speech at a regulatory meeting;
At 1:00 on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Board Governor Bowman will host a fireside chat at the Federal Reserve's large bank capital framework conference;
Wednesday TBD, US President Trump speaks at an event titled “Winning the AI Race”;
At 20:30 on Thursday, the number of initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending July 19;
For the U.S., prices and employment components may attract extra attention. Analysts at ABN Amro said that "as the final shape of the U.S. tariff regime remains unresolved, the recent mild inflation trend certainly does little to reduce uncertainty about the ultimate impact of Trump's trade policies on inflation."
According to Caixin.com, Qian Fenglei, who claims to be a “billionaire”, combined stablecoin investment and financing projects with secondary market operations, making money in both the stock market and the cryptocurrency circle, and is suspected of selling a number of collective investment plans that have not been approved by regulators to the public in Hong Kong.
It is reported that Qian Fenglei, a wealthy businessman from Zhejiang who was slashed and hospitalized in downtown Hong Kong more than four years ago, returned to the public eye in a high-profile manner in early 2025 with a video of a celebrity shooting a video of a "billionaire" in Central, Hong Kong. Half a year later, people close to Qian recently revealed that Qian Fenglei and several companies under his control, including Hengfeng International, were suspected of selling a number of collective investment plans to the public in Hong Kong that were not approved by the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission. When Alibaba went public in the United States, Qian Fenglei stood next to Jack Ma and was regarded as a "friend of Jack Ma." In the past, because of his many charitable activities, actor Li Yapeng once gave him the title of "Qian Duoduo".
UK plans to sell seized Bitcoin to fill fiscal gap, sales could reach $7 billion
According to the Daily Telegraph, the UK Home Office is working with the police to sell a batch of seized cryptocurrencies to fill the financial gap. The total amount of cryptocurrencies seized by the police is currently unknown. But a raid in 2018 seized 61,000 bitcoins from a Ponzi scheme case. Last week, the value of Bitcoin reached $123,000, making it worth more than 5.4 billion pounds (about 7 billion US dollars), a 20-fold increase from when it was seized.
The Home Office plans to establish a "cryptocurrency storage and liquidation framework" that will allow law enforcement agencies to securely store frozen digital currencies and sell them. According to a tender notice issued by BlueLight Commercial, a police procurement company, on behalf of the Home Office, the British government will also offer a contract to operate a centralized service responsible for holding and selling seized cryptocurrencies. The contract is worth up to $53.7 million and will be valid for at least four years. But the proposal has not yet received an acceptable bid. The time between the police seizing digital assets and clearing and selling them is often long. The tender notice acknowledged: "The average time between the seizure of assets and the end of the legal process (liquidation) is less than 1 year, and for more complex cases it may take 3 to 4 years."
A letter signed by two senior El Salvador finance officials states that the country has not purchased any Bitcoin since signing a financing agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in February 2025. This is in stark contrast to statements made by the country's President Nayib Bukele and his Bitcoin Office. The letter, which was part of the IMF's first program review on July 15, stated that "the amount of Bitcoin held by the public sector remains unchanged." The attached document states that El Salvador has provided the addresses of all cold and hot wallets to the IMF for review and monitoring.
However, since President Bukele announced the move in November 2022, his government has repeatedly claimed to purchase 1 Bitcoin per day. The country's Bitcoin Office claims that the country's Bitcoin reserves are about 6,242 Bitcoins (BTC), worth about $737 million. Blockchain intelligence company Arkham supports the transfer of 1 Bitcoin per day, which mainly comes from addresses marked as Binance or Bitfinex hot wallets.
President Bukele previously said that despite an International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement that provided El Salvador with a $1.4 billion loan, it would not stop buying Bitcoin.
On July 16, the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court announced a case of illegal exchange of virtual currency that was sentenced in March this year. The case shows that Yang, Xu and others operated domestic shell company accounts to provide stable currency (the transaction medium is Tether) for overseas accounts of unspecified customers, thereby realizing cross-border transfer of funds to obtain profits. The amount of illegal foreign exchange transactions involved in three years reached 6.5 billion yuan. Among them, Yang was responsible for soliciting customers and allocating foreign exchange funds abroad, and Xu managed the public accounts of 17 shell companies in China, processing an average daily cash flow of more than 10 million yuan, with clear division of labor and close cooperation.
The disclosed case content shows that at the end of 2023, Ms. Chen, a Shanghai citizen, needed to remit money to her daughter overseas. Due to the restriction of my country's foreign exchange quota of 50,000 US dollars per person per year, she contacted an overseas "currency exchange company" (the domestic shell company A controlled by the aforementioned Yang Mou and others). According to the instructions, Ms. Chen remitted RMB to the account of Company A, and then her daughter's overseas account received the equivalent amount of foreign exchange, and the "currency exchange company" charged a certain percentage of the handling fee as a reward. For a long time, the criminal gang has provided illegal exchange services for domestic and foreign customers who have foreign currency and RMB exchange needs in the name of "collection and payment" overseas through cross-border "counter-knocking".
Source: U.S. Treasury Secretary Bensont urged Trump not to remove Fed Chairman Powell
According to CCTV News, the reporter learned on the 19th that an informed source said that U.S. Treasury Secretary Benson recently privately advised U.S. President Trump that he should not try to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Powell. Benson believes that apart from the current overall economic factors, Federal Reserve officials have signaled that they may cut interest rates twice before the end of the year. Benson warned that firing Powell could have economic, political and legal consequences. People familiar with the matter said that Benson's remarks differed from the views of other senior officials in the Trump administration.
Viewpoint
Adam, a macro researcher at Greeks.Live, published an English community briefing on the X platform, which pointed out that the community is seriously divided. Many traders believe that the Bitcoin market has peaked, while others remain strongly bullish and expect prices to continue to rise. The main disagreement is centered on the $112,000 resistance level. Bears hold put options with strike prices of $100,000-110,000, while bulls are selling more put options and preparing for higher prices. Traders are building December call option spreads and ladder structures, with strike prices set at $115,000/$150,000 and $140,000/$170,000/$190,000, and expect large fluctuations before the end of the year.
CZ responded to another article "Crypto Market is Volatile": No need to over-research
Binance co-founder CZ posted a message on the X platform this week that "the crypto market is volatile". This second post attracted market attention because he had posted the same content on January 19 this year, "Cryptocurrency is volatile (this volatility can be both a risk and an opportunity)". In response, CZ clarified: "I just post it casually, and you don't need to do too much research."
US Treasury Deputy Secretary: Demand for stablecoins will reach trillions of dollars
According to Cointelegraph, U.S. Treasury Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender said that the demand for stablecoins will reach trillions of dollars.
Project News
Trump family crypto project WLFI issued a statement on the X platform to clarify community doubts: No tokens of any co-founder, team or consultant will be unlocked when it goes online. WLFI has been committed to fairness and building trust from day one. WLFI will not start a new round of pre-sales. Instead, it will work with mainstream exchanges to create a WLFI rewards program to allow existing platforms to earn income. This is a new way for everyone to join the free movement.
About unlocking: In the public sale, only a portion of the tokens purchased at $0.015 and $0.05 will be unlocked first, in order to directly reward early retail believers rather than anyone else. In addition, the treasury tokens are purely used to cultivate liquidity, which makes the community the main focus and driving force for the next step. After the launch, a vote will be submitted, and the community will vote to decide the unlocking schedule for the remaining tokens purchased at 0.015 and 0.05, as well as the unlocking schedule for over-the-counter transactions. Only after the unlocking schedule is determined will the final vote be submitted, and the community will decide the unlocking schedule for the founders, team and advisor tokens. WLFI reiterated that it is not in a hurry to unlock the founders, team and advisor tokens. It is important to build for the future. In addition, WLFI also stated that it is working with major CEX partners to ensure that WLFI is listed on the exchange, which also provides DeFi options for users who prefer a decentralized environment. The full details of the launch plan will be released soon.
According to ZachXBT, the Indian centralized exchange "CoinDCX" appears to have been stolen, with the loss amounting to approximately $44.2 million. The attacker's address initially received 1 ETH of funds from Tornado Cash, and then bridged part of the stolen funds from Solana to Ethereum. The affected CoinDCX hot wallets are not publicly marked and are not included in the current reserve proof, requiring manual attribution through counterparty analysis.
In response, CoinDCX CEO Sumit Gupta tweeted that one of its internal operating accounts (used only to provide liquidity on partner exchanges) was hacked due to a complex server vulnerability. The CoinDCX wallet used to store customer assets was not affected and is completely safe. It also emphasized that no customer funds were affected, user assets remain absolutely safe in a secure cold wallet infrastructure, and all trading activities and Indian rupee withdrawals are proceeding normally. The official internal security and operations team is working with cybersecurity partners around the clock to investigate the matter, patch any vulnerabilities and track fund flows. CoinDCX is working with exchanges to freeze and recover assets, including an upcoming vulnerability bounty program.
Binance Alpha to List Yala (YALA) on July 22
According to the official announcement, Binance Alpha will launch Yala (YALA) on July 22. Eligible users can go to the Alpha event page to use Binance Alpha points to claim the airdrop after Alpha trading is open. Specific details will be announced separately.
Binance Alpha now lists UPTOP (UPTOP). You need to hold 180 points to claim 1,500 UPTOP airdrops
According to the official announcement, Binance Alpha has now launched UPTOP (UPTOP). Users who hold at least 180 Binance Alpha points can apply for an airdrop of 1,500 UPTOP tokens. First come, first served, until the airdrop pool is full or the event ends. Applying for an airdrop will consume 15 Binance Alpha points. Users must confirm their claim within 24 hours on the Alpha event page, otherwise they will be deemed to have given up the airdrop.
Important data
ETH breaks through $3,700, up 4.16% on the day
The OKX market shows that ETH has just broken through $3,700 and is currently trading at $3,700.00 per coin, with a daily increase of 4.16%.
Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), retweeted a tweet on the X platform, in which data showed that if Bitcoin was purchased using the selling price of each new generation of iPhone, the current profit could reach US$242 million.
Analysts believe that the BTC price of iPhone has been used by the crypto community as a benchmark for measuring the purchasing power of Bitcoin, and investors understand the value proposition of cryptocurrency by comparing the Bitcoin price of iPhone in previous years.
DFG founder James Wo's associated address deposited 1,700 MKR to Binance
According to the monitoring of chain analyst Aunt Ai (@ai_9684xtpa), 3 hours ago, the address associated with DFG founder James Wo recharged 1,700 MKR to Binance, worth $3.47 million. He had withdrawn 5,419.66 MKR (6.56 million US dollars) at an average price of $1,210 during March-April 2025, and has recharged 3,700 MKR to the exchange since yesterday. If sold at the recharge price of $2,094, he will make a profit of $3.27 million, with a four-month return rate of 73%.
A whale/institution has hoarded 47,121 ETH in the past day, worth about $169 million
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin’s monitoring, a certain whale/institution has hoarded 47,121 ETH (US$169 million) through FalconX in the past day, with an average price of US$3,545.
CryptoSlam data shows that NFT market transaction volume increased by 29% to $159.6 million in the past week. Market participation has rebounded, with the number of NFT buyers increasing by 89.32% to 176,807, and the number of NFT sellers increasing by 86.08% to 112,430. The number of NFT transactions also increased by 20.61% to 1,627,841.
Ethereum network sales reached US$79.7 million, a surge of 61.83% from the previous week; Bitcoin network transaction volume reached US$24.8 million, an increase of 60.58%; Polygon network transaction volume reached US$16.8 million, a decrease of 9.44%; Mythos Chain network transaction volume reached US$11.1 million, a decrease of 20.71%.
Courtyard on Polygon remained at the top of the collectibles rankings with $14.1 million in sales, despite a 13.07% drop in sales. Pudgy Penguins sales reached $9.3 million, up 247.32%. The number of transactions for this collectible more than doubled (115.31%), with significant increases in both the number of buyers (45%) and the number of sellers (51.72%).
This week's high-value sales include:
- Uncategorized Ordinals sold for 68.9989 BTC ($8,193,864)
- V1 CryptoPunks Wrapped #5822 sold for 200 ETH ($725,130)
- Autoglyphs #157 sold for 380,000 USDC (380,000 USD)
- Autoglyphs #480 sold for 75 WETH ($252,448)
- Pudgy Penguins #4039 sold for 65 ETH (201,661 USD)
Analysis: This week, some on-chain addresses hoarded 391,000 ETH, worth about $1.4 billion
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin, the price of ETH rose from $3,000 to $3,600 this week due to the massive net inflow of ETFs and the ETH reserve plan of US stock companies. Only some on-chain addresses that I have paid attention to have hoarded up to 391,000 ETH (US$1.4 billion) through various channels this week.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, whale 0xd5ff closed his ETH long position an hour ago, locking in another $1.7 million in profits. In the past four days, the whale has executed six ETH long trades, all of which were profitable, with a win rate of 100% and a total profit of nearly $3 million.
