The anticipated launch of spot Ether (ETH) ETFs in the US is causing a stir in the crypto community, especially after analysts at K33 Research predicted they could boost ETH's performance against Bitcoin. An Ethereum whale's large transfer of 7,000 ETH to Kraken also caused a lot of market speculation. Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation recently suffered a security breach, where its email was hacked to send phishing emails. The token launchpad Pump.fun also surpassed Ethereum in daily revenue yesterday, driven by a surge in celebrity-themed meme coins.
Ether ETFs to Propel Ethereum Past Bitcoin?
The anticipated launch of spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States is expected to have such an impressive effect on the altcoin’s performance that K33 Research believes ETH could outperform Bitcoin in the weeks after they go live. Analysts Vetle Lunde and David Zimmerman are convinced that these ETFs will be a massive opportunity for ETH's price, while Bitcoin faces potential selling pressure due to the return of $8.5 billion to creditors of the defunct exchange Mt. Gox starting this week.
Over the past year, ETH has consistently underperformed against Bitcoin, thanks to over $14 billion flowing into Bitcoin exchange-traded products this year. While the analysts predict that ETH might initially falter after the ETF launch, they believe that subsequent inflows to these funds will very likely boost ETH's price. Lunde also stated that ETFs could serve as a strong catalyst for ETH’s relative strength throughout the summer, and he even labeled current ETH/BTC prices as a bargain for patient traders.
Lunde and Zimmerman have a very bullish outlook for ETH, and they anticipate net inflows equivalent to 0.75-1% of ETH’s circulating supply in the five months after the ETF launch. However, they acknowledge that the market still has to fully align with their position, as Ether futures are trading at a discount compared to Bitcoin futures, and the ETH/BTC rate recently reached 0.055 BTC.
Despite ETH’s value declining relative to Bitcoin over the past year, hitting a low of 0.045 BTC on May 24, the price rebounded after the SEC’s unexpected approval of Ether ETFs, which surprised analysts and lifted the ETH/BTC rate to 0.055 BTC.
The analysts also pointed out that Ether futures open interest is still strong, which could indicate that many traders are leveraging heavily in anticipation of ETH’s price movements leading up to the ETF launch.
Ethereum Whale Moves 7,000 ETH to Kraken
In a related development, an Ethereum whale, who participated in the Ethereum ICO back in 2015 by buying 254,900 ETH, recently transferred 7,000 ETH to the Kraken exchange after being inactive for 209 days. This whale, which holds about $139 million in ETH, is among the most successful ETH investors.
The whale bought their holdings at an ICO price of just $0.311 per ETH. Naturally, the whale's recent transfer of 7,000 ETH, worth about $24.28 million, has attracted a lot of attention, especially considering the long period of inactivity.
Whale movements like these very often lead to speculation and concern in the crypto community, because big transfers to exchanges can sometimes precede large sell-offs, which could then put downward pressure on the asset's price. On the other hand, there are several more harmless strategic reasons for large transfers to exchanges, including staking, lending, or leveraging assets for other investments. If the whale decides to sell their ETH now, it might be part of a de-risking strategy.
As was the case with this whale, long-term investors can remain inactive for extended periods before making big moves that influence market sentiment and price trends.
Ethereum Foundation Email Hacked
While predictions for ETH’s future look bullish, the project still faces some challenges. On June 23, the Ethereum Foundation’s update email account was hacked and used to promote a phishing scam, according to a July 2 blog post by the foundation. The foundation has since been able to recover the account, and the malicious emails are no longer being sent.
About 35,794 scam emails were sent to subscribers and other people during the attack using the official updates@blog.ethereum.org email address. Fortunately, the foundation's investigation found that no victims lost cryptocurrency due to the attack, though the email addresses of 81 subscribers may have been exposed.
The fraudulent emails falsely claimed that the Ethereum Foundation partnered with the Lido decentralized autonomous organization (LidoDAO) to offer a 6.8% yield on staked Ether (stETH), Wrapped Ether (WETH), or Ether deposits. These emails misled recipients into believing that the staking process was protected and verified by the Ethereum Foundation.
Users who clicked the “Begin Staking” button were directed to a malicious web app posing as a “Staking Launchpad.” If users approved the transaction prompted by this app, their wallets would have been drained.
After discovering the malicious emails, the foundation reacted very quickly to block the attacker from sending any more emails and secured the email account by closing off the access path used by the attacker. Notices were sent to blacklists, Web3 wallet providers, and Cloudflare to warn users about the malicious site.
The investigation also revealed that the attacker uploaded a database containing new email addresses that were not previously part of the Ethereum Foundation’s subscriber list, indicating that some non-subscribers might have received the scam emails. The attacker also exported a blog mailing list containing 3,759 email addresses.
On-chain transaction analysis showed no loss of crypto assets between the time the scam emails were sent and the blocking of the malicious domain.
Phishing campaigns are unfortunately a very common threat in the crypto space. For instance, on June 23, a MakerDAO member lost $11 million due to mistaken token approvals after interacting with a fake web app. Similarly, on June 26, a marketing email address for the Hadera Hashgraph blockchain network was hacked to send out scam emails.
Pump.fun Surpasses Ethereum in Daily Revenue
Meanwhile, celebrity-inspired meme coins have resulted in a huge increase in revenue for the token launchpad Pump.fun. So much so that Pump.fun ended up surpassing the Ethereum blockchain's revenue for the first time ever yesterday.
Pump.fun generated $2 million in daily revenue, edging out Ethereum's $1.91 million, making it the top revenue generator among all blockchains, according to DefiLlama. Data from Dune Analytics revealed that 11,528 tokens were deployed on Punp.fun on Monday, raising the cumulative total to 1,211,302, and bringing the cumulative revenue on the platform to $50.9 million.
In March, Pump.fun was on track to reach $66 million in annual revenue. This figure will likely be exceeded if Pump.fun’s current activity and momentum continues.
The surge in celebrity-themed meme coins started in late May, with figures like Caitlyn Jenner, Iggy Azalea, Trippie Redd, and Davido launching their own meme coins on Solana. Crypto enthusiasts have been capitalizing on this trend by creating tokens on Pump.fun, hoping that one will also get some viral attention and skyrocket in value.
Solana, the blockchain on which Pump.fun operates, is relatively cheaper compared to Ethereum. Unfortunately, this lower cost also allows bad actors to create tokens and execute rug pulls more affordably than on Ethereum.
