Today's news highlights:
1. Next week's macro outlook: 'Cryptocurrency week' has drawn to a perfect close, and Powell will appear under pressure.
2. The UK plans to sell seized Bitcoins to fill a fiscal gap, with sales potentially reaching $7 billion.
3. Sources: U.S. Treasury Secretary Basent urged Trump not to dismiss Federal Reserve Chairman Powell.
4. Shanghai announced a cross-border illegal foreign exchange case using stablecoins as a medium, involving an amount of 6.5 billion yuan.
5. Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX suspected of being hacked for $44.2 million; officials claim customer funds were not affected.
6. Binance Alpha will launch Yala (YALA) on July 22.
7. Analysis: This week, some on-chain addresses accumulated 391,000 ETH, worth approximately $1.4 billion.
8. NFT trading volume increased by 29% in the past 7 days, reaching $159.6 million, with Pudgy Penguins trading volume increasing by 247.32%.
Regulatory/Macro
Mainland virtual currency scams have reached Hong Kong, over a hundred Hong Kong residents have been deceived, police arrest 4 people.
According to Caixin, mainland virtual currency investment scams have developed to Hong Kong, with at least 118 people falling into the trap, totaling losses of approximately 3.2 million HKD. On July 16, the Hong Kong police revealed that four local residents were arrested on July 15 for 'conspiracy to commit fraud', suspected of hosting promotional dinners for mainland virtual currency scams, soliciting victims and collecting fraud funds of 3.89 million HKD, of which only a small amount was withdrawn, while approximately 3.2 million HKD remains unrecovered.
The second team of the Serious Crimes Unit in the New Territories of Hong Kong introduced that since the end of June 2025, the police have received reports from citizens suspecting they have fallen into a cryptocurrency investment scam, with victims aged between 33 and 80. The police investigation found that since the beginning of 2025, several victims had participated in an investment promotion dinner named 'DGCX Xinkangjia' at a restaurant in Tai Po. The Hong Kong police investigation confirmed that DGCX Xinkangjia is a fraudulent trading platform, and the victims' funds were not invested in any real investments; some funds were used to maintain platform operations, while others were believed to be used to pay other victims' withdrawals. Industry lawyers stated that since DGCX Xinkangjia settled in stablecoins USDT, this poses many difficulties for case investigation, fund recovery, and victim rights protection.
Next week's macro outlook: 'Cryptocurrency week' has drawn to a perfect close, and Powell will appear under pressure.
As the Federal Reserve is about to enter a quiet period, current governor Waller, a leading candidate for the next Federal Reserve Chair, reiterated support for a 25 basis point rate cut in July, and data shows that consumer inflation expectations have improved. Meanwhile, the trade tensions between the U.S. and the EU continue, with Trump pushing for a minimum tariff of 15%-20% on all EU goods and planning to announce tariffs on specific industries before August 1. Additionally, the tumultuous 'cryptocurrency week' ended perfectly after Trump signed the stablecoin bill on schedule. Bitcoin refreshed its historical high to over $123,000 this week, while Ethereum briefly surpassed $3,600 on Friday, outperforming Bitcoin for the fourth consecutive week. Here are the key points the market will focus on in the new week:
Monday at 10:00 PM, U.S. leading economic index for June.
Tuesday at 8:30 PM, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell will give a welcome address at a regulatory meeting;
Wednesday at 1:00 PM, Federal Reserve Governor Bowman will host a fireside chat during a large bank capital framework meeting organized by the Federal Reserve.
Wednesday TBD, President Trump will speak at an event titled 'Winning the AI Race';
Thursday at 8:30 PM, initial jobless claims for the week ending July 19 in the U.S.;
For the United States, price and employment sub-indicators may draw additional attention. Analysts at ABN Amro believe that 'as the final shape of the U.S. tariff system remains undecided, the recent mild inflation trend clearly does not help reduce the uncertainty of the ultimate impact of Trump's trade policies on inflation.'
Caixin: Qian Fenglei's stablecoin investment and financing project is suspected of publicly selling multiple collective investment schemes in Hong Kong that are not approved by regulators.
According to Caixin, Qian Fenglei's stablecoin investment and financing project, known as a 'billionaire', is suspected of publicly selling multiple collective investment schemes in Hong Kong that are not approved by regulators.
Reportedly, Qian Fenglei, a wealthy businessman from Zhejiang who was attacked in central Hong Kong over four years ago, will make a high-profile return to the public eye in early 2025 with a viral video as a 'billionaire' in Central Hong Kong. Half a year later, recent sources close to Qian state that he and several companies under his control, including Hengfeng International, are suspected of publicly selling multiple collective investment schemes in Hong Kong that have not been approved by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. When Alibaba went public in the U.S., Qian stood next to Jack Ma and was seen as a 'friend of Jack Ma'. In the past, he was also known for his charity work and was given the nickname 'Qian Duoduo' by actor Li Yapeng.
The UK plans to sell seized Bitcoins to fill a fiscal gap, with sales potentially reaching $7 billion.
According to The Daily Telegraph, the UK Home Office is working with police to sell a batch of seized cryptocurrencies to fill a fiscal gap. The total amount of cryptocurrencies seized by the police is still unclear. However, a raid in 2018 seized 61,000 Bitcoins from a Ponzi scheme case. Last week, the value of Bitcoin reached $123,000, making its value exceed £5.4 billion (approximately $7 billion), which has increased 20-fold since it was seized.
The Home Office plans to establish a 'cryptocurrency storage and monetization framework' that allows law enforcement agencies to securely store frozen digital currencies and sell them. According to a tender notice issued by the procurement company BlueLight Commercial representing the Home Office, the UK government will also provide a contract to operate a centralized service responsible for holding and selling seized cryptocurrencies. This contract is worth up to $53.7 million and is valid for at least four years. However, the proposal has yet to receive acceptable bids. The time between police seizing digital assets and clearing and selling these assets is typically lengthy. The tender notice acknowledges: 'The average time between asset seizure and the conclusion of legal proceedings (monetization) is less than one year, and for more complex cases, it may take 3 to 4 years.'
The Minister of Finance of El Salvador stated in a letter to the IMF that no Bitcoin has been purchased since February, contradicting statements from his government.
Two senior financial officials from El Salvador signed a letter stating that since signing a financing agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in February 2025, the country has not purchased any Bitcoin. This sharply contrasts with statements from President Nayib Bukele and his Bitcoin office. The letter is part of the IMF's first project review on July 15, stating that 'the amount of Bitcoin held by the public sector remains unchanged.' Attached documents indicate that El Salvador has provided all cold and hot wallet addresses to the IMF for review and monitoring.
However, since President Booker announced this initiative in November 2022, his government has repeatedly claimed to purchase 1 Bitcoin daily. The country's Bitcoin office claims to hold approximately 6,242 Bitcoins (BTC), valued around $737 million. Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham supports the daily transfer of 1 Bitcoin, with these transfers primarily coming from addresses marked as Binance or Bitfinex hot wallets.
President Booker previously stated that despite the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement providing El Salvador with a $1.4 billion loan, which requires the country to reduce Bitcoin activities, it will not stop buying Bitcoin.
Shanghai announced a cross-border illegal foreign exchange case using stablecoins as a medium, involving an amount of 6.5 billion yuan.
The Shanghai Pudong New District People's Court announced on July 16 a virtual currency illegal foreign exchange case that was ruled in March this year. The case shows that Yang, Xu, and others operated domestic shell company accounts to provide stablecoins (with Tether as the trading medium) for unspecified clients' overseas accounts, thereby achieving cross-border fund transfers for profit, with the total amount involved in illegal foreign exchange transactions reaching 6.5 billion yuan over three years. Among them, Yang was responsible for soliciting clients and allocating foreign exchange funds overseas, while Xu managed the public accounts of 17 shell companies domestically, processing daily fund flows exceeding ten million yuan, with clear division of labor and close cooperation.
The disclosed case shows that at the end of 2023, Ms. Chen, a Shanghai citizen, needed to remit money to her daughter overseas but was limited by China's $50,000 foreign exchange quota per person per year. Therefore, she contacted an overseas 'foreign exchange company' (the aforementioned Yang and others controlled domestic shell company A) and, following instructions, transferred RMB into Company A's account. Subsequently, her daughter's overseas account received an equivalent amount of foreign exchange, while the 'foreign exchange company' charged a certain percentage as a fee. For a long time, this criminal group provided illegal foreign exchange services for clients with currency exchange needs both domestically and abroad through cross-border 'pairing' under the guise of 'acting collection and payment'.
Sources: U.S. Treasury Secretary Basent urged Trump not to dismiss Federal Reserve Chairman Powell.
According to CCTV news, reporters learned on the 19th that sources indicated U.S. Treasury Secretary Basent recently privately advised President Trump not to attempt to dismiss Federal Reserve Chairman Powell. Basent believes that aside from the overall economic factors, Federal Reserve officials have signaled that they may cut interest rates twice before the end of the year. Basent warned that firing Powell could have economic, political, and legal consequences. Sources indicated that Basent's comments differ from those of other senior officials in the Trump administration.
Opinion
Greeks.Live: Some traders believe BTC has peaked, with the community's main disagreement centered around the $112,000 resistance level.
Greeks.Live macro researcher Adam posted an English community briefing on X, pointing out that there is severe division within the community; multiple traders believe the Bitcoin market has peaked, while others remain strongly bullish, expecting prices to continue rising. The main disagreement centers around the $112,000 resistance level, with bears holding put options with strike prices of $100,000-$110,000, while bulls are selling more put options and preparing for higher prices. Traders are constructing December call option spreads and ladder structures, setting strike prices at $115,000/$150,000 and $140,000/$170,000/$190,000, anticipating significant volatility before the end of the year.
CZ responds to his post stating 'the cryptocurrency market is volatile': No need to overanalyze.
Binance co-founder CZ posted on X this week that 'the cryptocurrency market is volatile', as he had previously tweeted the same content on January 19 of this year, stating 'cryptocurrency is highly volatile (this volatility can be both a risk and an opportunity)'. The second posting drew market attention, to which CZ clarified: 'I just posted casually; there's no need to overanalyze'.
U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary: Demand for stablecoins will reach trillions of dollars.
According to Cointelegraph, U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender stated that the demand for stablecoins will reach trillions of dollars.
Project updates
WLFI: No tokens for any co-founders, teams, or advisors will be unlocked at launch; no new pre-sale.
The Trump family's crypto project WLFI clarified community concerns on X, stating that no tokens for any co-founders, teams, or advisors will be unlocked at launch. WLFI has been committed to fairness and building trust since day one. WLFI will not initiate a new round of pre-sales; instead, it will collaborate with mainstream exchanges to create a WLFI rewards program, allowing existing platforms to earn returns. This is a new way for everyone to join the freedom movement.
Regarding unlocking: In the public sale, only some tokens purchased at $0.015 and $0.05 will be prioritized for unlocking to directly reward early retail believers, rather than anyone else. Additionally, treasury tokens are purely used to foster liquidity, making the community the main focus and driving force for the next steps. After the launch, a vote will be submitted for the community to decide on the unlocking schedule for the remaining tokens purchased at $0.015 and $0.05, as well as the unlocking schedule for off-exchange trading. Only after the unlocking schedule is confirmed will the final vote be submitted for the community to decide on the unlocking schedule for founder, team, and advisor tokens. WLFI reiterates that it is not in a hurry to unlock founder, team, and advisor tokens, and it is important to build for the future. Furthermore, WLFI states that it is working with major CEX partners to ensure WLFI's listing on exchanges, which also provides DeFi options for users who prefer a decentralized environment, with complete launch plan details to be released soon.
Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX suspected of being hacked for $44.2 million; officials claim customer funds were not affected.
According to ZachXBT, the Indian centralized exchange 'CoinDCX' appears to have been hacked, with losses amounting to approximately $44.2 million. The attacker's address initially obtained 1 ETH of funds from Tornado Cash and then bridged some of the stolen funds from Solana to Ethereum. The affected CoinDCX hot wallet was not publicly marked and was not included in the current proof of reserves, requiring manual attribution through counterparty analysis.
In response, CoinDCX CEO Sumit Gupta tweeted that an internal operational account (only used to provide liquidity on cooperative exchanges) was breached due to complex server vulnerabilities. The CoinDCX wallet used to store customer assets was unaffected and is completely secure, emphasizing that no customer funds were impacted, and user assets remain absolutely secure in a safe cold wallet infrastructure, with all trading activities and INR withdrawals proceeding normally. The official internal security and operations team is working around the clock with cybersecurity partners to investigate the matter, patch any vulnerabilities, and trace the flow of funds. CoinDCX is working with exchanges to freeze and recover assets, including an upcoming vulnerability bounty program.
Binance Alpha will launch Yala (YALA) on July 22.
According to the official announcement, Binance Alpha will launch Yala (YALA) on July 22. Eligible users can visit Alpha's event page to receive airdrops using Binance Alpha points after trading opens. Specific details will be announced separately.
Binance Alpha has now launched UPTOP (UPTOP). Holders of 180 points can claim 1,500 UPTOP airdrops.
According to the official announcement, Binance Alpha has now launched UPTOP (UPTOP). Users holding at least 180 Binance Alpha points can claim 1,500 UPTOP tokens as an airdrop. First come, first served, until the airdrop pool is exhausted or the event ends. Claiming the airdrop will consume 15 Binance Alpha points. Users must confirm their claim on the Alpha event page within 24 hours, or it will be considered a waiver of the airdrop.
Important data
ETH breaks $3,700, daily increase of 4.16%.
OKX market data shows that ETH has just broken $3,700, currently reported at $3,700.00 per coin, with a daily increase of 4.16%.
Data: If Bitcoin were purchased at each generation's iPhone price, the return could reach $242 million.
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor retweeted on X platform, showing data that if every new model iPhone's price were used to buy Bitcoin, the current return could reach $242 million.
Analysis suggests that the BTC price of iPhones has been used by the crypto community as a benchmark for measuring Bitcoin purchasing power, with investors comparing the Bitcoin prices of previous years' iPhones to understand the value proposition of cryptocurrencies.
DFG founder James Wo's associated address deposited 1,700 MKR into Binance.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa), three hours ago, DFG founder James Wo's associated address deposited 1,700 MKR into Binance, worth $3.47 million. He had previously withdrawn 5,419.66 MKR (worth $6.56 million) at an average price of $1,210 during the period of March - April 2025 and has cumulatively deposited 3,700 MKR to the exchange since yesterday. If sold at the deposit price of $2,094, he would profit $3.27 million, with a four-month return rate of 73%.
A certain whale/institution accumulated 47,121 ETH in the last day, worth approximately $169 million.
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, a certain whale/institution accumulated 47,121 ETH (worth $169 million) through FalconX in the last day, at an average price of $3,545.
NFT trading volume increased by 29% in the past 7 days, reaching $159.6 million, with Pudgy Penguins trading volume increasing by 247.32%.
CryptoSlam data shows that NFT market trading volume grew by 29% in the past week, reaching $159.6 million. Market participation has rebounded, with the number of NFT buyers increasing by 89.32% to 176,807; the number of NFT sellers increased by 86.08% to 112,430. The number of NFT transactions also grew by 20.61%, reaching 1,627,841.
Ethereum network sales reached $79.7 million, surging 61.83% from the previous week; Bitcoin network transaction volume reached $24.8 million, increasing by 60.58%; Polygon network transaction volume reached $16.8 million, decreasing by 9.44%; Mythos Chain network transaction volume reached $11.1 million, decreasing by 20.71%.
Courtyard on Polygon remains at the top of the collectibles leaderboard with $14.1 million in sales, although sales have decreased by 13.07%. Pudgy Penguins generated $9.3 million in sales, increasing by 247.32%. The trading volume of this collection more than doubled (115.31%), with the number of buyers (45%) and sellers (51.72%) both significantly increasing.
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).
Autoglyphs #480 sold for 75 WETH ($252,448).
Pudgy Penguins #4039 sold for 65 ETH ($201,661).
Analysis: This week, some on-chain addresses accumulated 391,000 ETH, worth approximately $1.4 billion.
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, this week, thanks to massive net inflows from ETFs and ETH reserve plans from U.S. companies, the price of ETH rose from $3,000 to $3,600. Some on-chain addresses that I have noticed accumulated up to 391,000 ETH (worth $1.4 billion) this week through various channels.
A whale closed an ETH position for a profit of $1.7 million one hour ago, with all six ETH long trades in the past four days being profitable.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, whale 0xd5ff closed ETH long positions an hour ago, locking in a profit of $1.7 million. In the past four days, this whale executed six ETH long trades, all profitable, with a win rate of 100% and total profits approaching $3 million.
