Bitcoin and Crypto React to Joe Biden's Reelection Drop Out

Bitcoin and Crypto React to Joe Biden's Reelection Drop Out

President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he will not seek reelection in the 2024 presidential race, while also showing his full support and endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. Post-announcement political cryptocurrency betting markets increased Harris's Democratic nomination chances to 82% on Polymarket and Trump's eventual win to 64%.

The news also impacted the broad crypto market, with Bitcoin briefly dipping below $66,000 before surging to above $68,000. Political meme coins reacted swiftly, with the Jeo Boden (BODEN) token dropping by nearly 50% and the Kamala Horris (KAMA) token surging by over 125%. Looking back at Polymarket, one particular trader lost $2 million in total from three bets in support of Joe Biden.

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WazirX Launches Bounty Program to Recover Stolen Funds

In response to the $235 million hack, WazirX, one of India’s top crypto exchanges, has launched a bounty program to freeze and recover the stolen assets. The exchange has taken immediate steps by filing a police complaint and notifying local financial law authorities. Co-founder Nischal Shetty announced that WazirX is reaching out to over 500 exchanges to block the addresses linked to the stolen funds.

The team is also enlisting expert help to monitor and trace the stolen assets. In addition to internal efforts, WazirX is working with forensic experts and law enforcement to identify and prosecute the perpetrators. The breach is the second-largest hack of a centralized exchange, following a $305 million loss in the DMM exploit. Crypto investigator ZachXBT reported that the main attacker’s wallet still holds over $104 million.

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Global IT Outage Highlights The Need for Decentralization

Crypto got an indirect PR on Friday when a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike's Falcon Sensor security product caused global outages, leading to crashes of thousands of Microsoft Windows-based systems and endpoints. This issue affected various sectors including airports, banks, health, and media organizations, resulting in the "Blue Screen of Death" and rendering systems inoperable.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz clarified that the incident was not a security breach or cyberattack and assured that the problem had been identified, isolated, and fixed. Mac and Linux systems were unaffected. The incident highlighted the vulnerabilities in the interconnected global digital infrastructure, prompting discussions about the need for rigorous testing of updates, as well as decentralization.

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XRP Price Roller-Coasted on SEC vs. Ripple Speculation

XRP rallied 40% last week due to speculation that Ripple Labs was nearing a settlement with the US SEC. However, the price fell back by 12% after the cancellation of a closed-door SEC meeting. Investors fueled the rally because of potential resolutions related to Ripple, with a meeting agenda mentioning injunctive actions and litigation claims, without explicitly naming XRP or Ripple Labs.

A Ripple Labs spokesperson confirmed no meeting with the SEC occurred, and another closed-door meeting is scheduled for July 25 with a similar agenda. The SEC's lawsuit against Ripple, initiated in 2020 for allegedly selling XRP without registering it as a security, remains unresolved, with ongoing speculation from crypto analysts. Ripple has proposed a $10 million fine, while the SEC seeks a $2 billion penalty.

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Data of the Day

According to data from Artemis, the performance of various crypto sectors over a 7-day period highlights an average performance of 11.2%. The leading sector is AI, which has seen a remarkable increase of 27.7%, followed by the Bridge sector with a 23.2% gain and DePIN at 19.1%.

Other high-performing sectors include Bitcoin Ecosystem at 17.9% and meme coins at 12.5%. In contrast, the lowest-performing sectors include Gen-1 SCPs with a 3.3% increase and Utilities and Services with a 4.2% rise. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum have shown moderate gains of 9.5% and 7.2%, respectively.

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More Breaking News

• CBOE officially announced on July 19 that five spot Ethereum ETFs will begin trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange on July 23.
• South Korea's first crypto regulatory framework, The Virtual Asset User Protection Act, went into full force on July 19, following a one-year grace period.
• Binance.US gained permission from a Judge to invest specific customer fiat assets custodied at BitGo in US Treasury bills as part of an order setting conditions.
• BlockTower Capital's Ari Paul predicts that the US government's potential for a Bitcoin strategic reserve has just a 10:1 odds to be implemented by 2028.
• Pavel Durov, the creator of Telegram, said they intend to launch a Mini App store and an in-app browser with integrated Web3 support by the end of July.

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