First Mover Americas: BTC Struggles to Break $20K as More Lenders Face Trouble

The latest moves in crypto markets in context for July 4, 2022.

AccessTimeIconJul 4, 2022 at 2:51 p.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 3:57 p.m. UTC
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Good morning, and welcome to First Mover. I’m Lyllah Ledesma, here to take you through the latest in crypto markets, news and insights.

  • Price Point: BTC remains below $20,000 and Argentinians are buying stablecoins more than normal as their economy minister resigned over the weekend.
  • Market Moves: Solana DeFi protocol Crema lost $8.8 million in an exploit on Sunday.

Price point

Bitcoin (BTC) was up 2% on the day with U.S. equity index futures and European bonds falling as investors worried about the threats of deteriorating economic growth and inflation.

Germany also reported its first monthly trade deficit in three decades as surging import prices have caused a shortfall in the export-reliant nation, according to Bloomberg.

Bitcoin is down 6% over the last seven days to about $19,400., and ether (ETH) is also down over the last seven days with a decline of about 10%. ETH’s price weakness continues as "the Merge" fast approaches. The Merge will see the network go to a proof-of-stake platform from proof-of-work.

Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital filed for bankruptcy late Friday after weeks of speculation that it was functionally insolvent.

Celsius Network, an American-Israeli crypto lender, laid off 150 employees over the weekend as it battles a crisis that prompted it to halt customer withdrawals last month.

Crypto exchange Coinbase said in a report that recent selling of newly minted bitcoin by crypto miners doesn't add any significant market pressure. If all newly issued bitcoin were sold onto the market each day, it would equate to only 900 BTC of selling pressure, Coinbase said.

In South America, Martin Guzman, Argentina’s economy minister, resigned on Saturday. That caused citizens to purchase up to three times as many stablecoins over the weekend than they usually do, crypto companies in the country told CoinDesk.

Separately, a survey from Mastercard reported that over 51% of Latin Americans made at least one transaction with cryptocurrencies between March and April.

Market moves

By Shaurya Malwa

Solana-based liquidity protocol Crema Finance had more than $8.8 million worth of cryptocurrencies stolen from its platform in an attack over the weekend, developers said in a tweet.

Crema said it had suspended its smart contract after the exploit. The protocol allows liquidity providers to set specific price ranges, add single-sided liquidity and conduct range order trading. This makes for a sophisticated and decentralized trading platform.

“We've been closely working with several experienced security institutes and relevant organizations to track the hacker's fund movements,” the developers said in a tweet.

Value locked on Crema plunged to $3 million on Monday from over $12 million on Saturday following the exploit, data shows. Crema has seen trading volume of $1.34 billion since its inception in January.

The attacker started by creating a fake "tick" account. A tick account is "a dedicated account that stores price tick data in CLMM,” the developers said, referring to Crema's market making protocol. After that, the attacker exploited a command by writing the data on the fake account and circumventing security measures.

Latest headlines

Today’s newsletter was edited by Parikshit Mishra and produced by Sheldon Reback.

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CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.

Lyllah Ledesma

Lyllah Ledesma is a CoinDesk Markets reporter currently based in Europe. She holds bitcoin, ether and small amounts of other crypto assets.


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