Cryptonews

First up: Song Kum Hyok, a North Korean national with more secret connections than a New York City subway map. This guy’s linked to the Reconnaissance General Bureau (think: North Korea’s version of Bond villains), and their cybercrime side hustle, Andariel. Song’s idea of a good time? Swiping U.S. citizen info, creating fake IDs, and handing out remote IT jobs to his buddies, mostly in crypto firms. I mean, it’s an employment agency and an episode of “Catch Me If You Can,” all rolled into one! 🎭

Market makers: part magician, part accountant, fully committed to making your crypto dreams as stable as a table with three legs and no instruction manual. They’re the ones pinning BTC between $108K and $110K like a dollar-store Joan Rivers on the red carpet, according to some tea spilled by Deribit and Amberdata (yes, it’s a thing, don’t ask). Their trick? Buy low, sell high, repeat ad infinitum until everybody forgets why they cared in the first place.

In a move that can only be described as “surprising” (perhaps to the point of causing a few double-takes), the SEC dropped new disclosure guidance for crypto-related exchange-traded products. Translation: the agency’s thinking about saying “yes” to those long-overdue ETF applications. You know, the ones for Solana [SOL], XRP, and even those Trump-themed memecoins that make us all question our life choices.

Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, is trading in his lawyer’s hat for a Senate testimony gig. On July 9, he’ll be telling the U.S. Senate that XRP is not, in fact, a security (no, really, it’s not 🙅‍♂️). He’ll also casually mention that Ripple has over 60 global licenses, because who’s counting, right? 🤷‍♀️ And, of course, he’ll be lamenting the fact that U.S. crypto policy is forcing innovation to sail off into the sunset (or at least to more crypto-friendly shores 🏖️). The hearing, aptly titled “From Wall Street to Web3,” will be the perfect opportunity for Garlinghouse to urge Congress to get its crypto act together. After all, as he so eloquently puts it, “Money should move like information and XRP is the key” 🔑. This could be the turning point for Ripple, placing XRP firmly at the center of crypto legislation debates.

XRP price started a fresh increase after it settled above the $2.2620 level, beating Bitcoin and Ethereum. It’s like the underdog of the crypto world decided to have a moment in the sun. The price was able to climb above the $2.280 resistance level, much to the surprise of everyone, including the price itself.

Recently, top analyst (and part-time magician) Darkfost revealed the kind of numbers that would make an accountant faint: ERC-20 stablecoin supply hit a jaw-dropping $121 billion. That’s a lot of stability! At this point, stablecoins are so “reliable,” even my ex trusts them. Take that, market volatility!

Well, well, well, look what we have here. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has decided to notice something truly *historic*—an application from none other than Trump Media for a dual Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF). Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is not a dream. It’s happening. Probably.

This is the exchange’s third regional SQD listing in the last month, and the other tokens have been live for much longer. They represent a diversified portfolio approach as Coinbase’s stock keeps rising like a hot air balloon. 🎈🚀

Over $40 million worth of Hyperliquid is set to be unstaked on the 15th of July, just ahead of the much-anticipated Kinetiq launch. Three whale wallets alone account for $33.5 million of that figure, signaling serious capital repositioning. Rather than a typical unlock event leading to sell pressure, this looks more like whales preparing to reallocate toward Kinetiq’s staking protocol.

The bill outlines specific areas of investigation, demanding a detailed breakdown of El Salvador’s crypto activities. The proposed report shall examine the amount of public funds spent on Bitcoin, identify all known wallet addresses associated with the government, and assess whether digital assets are being used to circumvent international sanctions.