What Happened in the Crypto Market Last Week?

Key Insights

• The SEC dropped its probe into Ethereum and may have now paved the way for Ethereum ETF approvals.
• The German government sold a huge part of its seized Bitcoin stash, contributing to the price decline—but still has about $3 billion more to sell
• Exploiters hacked and used the Twitter accounts of 50 Cent and Hulk Hogan to promote scam cryptocurrencies, raking in millions.
• CertiK found and exploited a flaw in Kraken, withdrawing around $3 million worth of funds. However, the events that followed led to a messy public dispute.

There haven’t been many changes to the prices of cryptocurrencies on the market over the last week.

However, the market remained as eventful as ever, with several interesting developments ranging from the usual hacks and scams to regulatory changes as well as whale movements.

Last week, we had a major development from the US Securities and Exchange Commission regarding Ethereum.

We had worrying reports of Germany directly contributing to the ongoing decline in Bitcoin’s price, as well as a messy battle between a major crypto exchange and a crypto security firm.

Here are some of last week’s biggest events in the crypto market.

SEC Dropped Its Investigation Into Ethereum 2.0

Last week, in an interesting turn of events, the US Securities and Exchange Commission officially shut down its ongoing investigation into Ethereum.

For the unwary, the SEC has been probing Ethereum for years now, attempting to determine whether its change from the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus model to a Proof of Stake (PoS) model classified it as a security or a commodity.

Last week, on 19 June, Ethereum developer Consensys took to Twitter to break the news, sending waves of relief throughout the crypto market—In essence, this means that we might be seeing the S-1 Ethereum ETF approvals happen sooner than later.

So far, experts have weighed in on the conversation, suggesting that the SEC might have backed down from Ethereum because proving that Ethereum’s transition to PoS makes it security in court would have been challenging.

Overall, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas has doubled down on a 2 July Ethereum ETF approval date.

Germany: Largest Contributors to the Ongoing BTC Price Decline

Last week, we had reports of the German government selling a massive amount of its seized Bitcoin holdings.

This selling spree came to light on 21 June, with the Bitcoin stash in question reportedly coming from the government’s seizure of $3 billion worth of Bitcoin from the operators of Movie2k.to, a movie piracy website.

The site was reportedly responsible for the illegal downloads of over 880,000 pirated movies, with the operators willingly surrendering nearly 50,000 Bitcoin to the German Federal Criminal Police Office upon arrest.

According to Arkham data, the German government sold over $195 million worth of Bitcoin last week via exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp.

However, despite selling nearly $200 million of the cryptocurrency, the German government reportedly still holds another $3.05 billion, which indicates that more sell-offs are a possibility.

50 Cent and Hulk Hogan’s X Accounts Hacked

What is a week in crypto without the usual story of a multi-million dollar hack and scam?

Last week, we saw the Twitter (X) accounts of American rapper 50 Cent and wrestling legend Hulk Hogan hacked and used to promote fake crypto airdrops.

It began last week when the hackers somehow took control of 50 Cent’s Twitter account, as well as his website.

The hackers then used these platforms to promote a fake cryptocurrency called $GUNIT.

In less than one hour after these crypto promotions hit the internet, $GUNIT’s market cap had begun approaching the $20 million mark.

50 Cent quickly took to Instagram to announce that he had nothing to do with the $GUNIT crypto and that the hackers had run off with around $3 million in just 30 minutes.

According to data from DEXScreener, the $GUNIT cryptocurrency now has a market cap of $100,000 after declining by more than 99% in less than a day.

Interestingly, the same happened to American wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose Twitter account was hacked and used to promote a certain $HULK cryptocurrency.

The hackers managed to make even more money with $HULK, with the cryptocurrency generating around $82 million worth of transactions in a single day.

Messy Battle Between CertiK And Kraken

Last week brought its usual dose of drama between blockchain security firm CertiK and crypto exchange Kraken.

The saga started when CertiK auditors found a flaw in Kraken that would have allowed users to inflate their account balances without depositing anything.

However, instead of reporting this flaw to Kraken, the CertiK auditors exploited the bug and withdrew a staggering $3 million from Kraken’s treasury.

Kraken’s Chief Security Officer, Nicholas Percoco, took to Twitter to call CertiK out, referring to the researcher’s actions as “a criminal case” from a research company that “deserves no recognition.”

According to Percoco, the CertiK researchers demanded to speak to Kraken’s business development team and even refused to return the “stolen funds” until Kraken paid a certain amount.

“This is not white-hat hacking, it is extortion!” Percoco said in a post.

CertiK also took to Twitter to defend itself, claiming that Kraken threatened its employees and that the amount of money Kraken demanded to be returned was “mismatched” compared to the crypto it had taken.

Moreover, CertiK also emphasized that it had been given “too little time” to return the allegedly stolen funds.

So far, according to Percoco, the funds have now been returned, and the case has been put to rest.

Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information but will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.