Bitcoin (BTC) started August on a sour note, declining 2% Tuesday morning to add to July’s 4% retreat. Altcoins took a larger hit with Solana’s SOL falling 5%, Optimism’s OP 8% and Stellar XLM 6%. The broad CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) is off 1.9%. In traditional markets, U.S. stock futures retreated slightly from 16-month highs as caution prevailed after a five-month winning streak.
Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain, stepped in to support the Curve Finance (CRV) token price in a move that could protect a massive loan tied to the decentralized exchange’s founder Michael Egorov from being liquidated. Blockchain data from Tuesday shows Sun purchased about 5 million CRV from a wallet tagged Curve.fi Founder at an average price of $0.40 (just over $2.3 million) in an over-the-counter transaction. Sun paid well below Curve’s $0.59 trading price at writing time on Tuesday, but more than the $0.37 price level at which Egorov’s loan could be liquidated. Curve Finance, a stablecoin swapping giant, suffered a Sunday exploit that drove down the price of the CRV token, putting $168 million of Egorov’s holdings at risk of being liquidated.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued internet marketer Richard Schueler, known online as Richard Heart, and his projects Hex, PulseChain and PulseX, alleging he raised over $1 billion across three different unregistered securities offerings. The SEC alleged in its Monday lawsuit that Heart defrauded his investors by using investor funds for personal goods. Although Heart claimed these investments were for the vague purpose of supporting free speech, he did not disclose that he used millions of dollars of PulseChain investor funds to buy luxury goods for himself, the lawsuit read.
Justin Sun’s intervention to support the Curve Finance token price and the SEC’s lawsuit against internet marketer Richard Schueler for $1 billion unregistered securities offering are two of the latest moves in the crypto markets. Despite the pullback in traditional markets, the crypto space continues to be a source of innovation and disruption.