Morning Crypto Brief: Volatility Rises as Institutions Accumulate ETH and SOL

I share a quick morning crypto update with highlights that matter for traders and investors. A trader named Eugene warns the market might be nearing a peak as volatility intensifies, which could create more short-term profit opportunities.

Over the past nine hours, more than $40 million worth of SOL moved onto centralized exchanges. Addresses that accumulated over 293k ETH in the last eight days are believed to be linked to BitMine. Peter Thiel reportedly bought a 7.5% stake in ETHZilla to support Ethereum-related initiatives.

Since the start of last year, over 1,300 ETFs have launched globally, with 10 of the top 20 tied to crypto. Retail investors in Korea have net invested $259 million into BitMine stock since July. CME Ethereum futures volume hit a record $118 billion in July, up 82% month-over-month. Listing firm Exodus holds 2,058 BTC and 2,729 ETH, totaling over $227 million.

FTX/Alameda withdrew and moved $34.09 million in SOL about six hours ago, while roughly 829 million SOL remains staked. The first ProPGF Filecoin round allocated over $3.6 million to 14 teams. Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon may plead guilty, with a U.S. hearing set for August 12.

USDC Treasury minted an additional $250 million USDC on Ethereum early today. An institution or whale added nearly 60k ETH and now holds about $1.24 billion in ETH. Stripe is partnering with Paradigm on the Tempo blockchain. The Uniswap Foundation plans to adopt Wyoming’s DUNA framework to support protocol fee mechanisms.

Mill City Ventures bought another $20 million in SUI tokens. Trump declared a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C. Paxos applied to convert its New York trust charter to a national trust charter. Interest in Ethereum-backed products on U.S. markets is growing, with related tickers showing strong gains.

FG Nexus announced a purchase of 47,331 ETH for $200 million. Blue Origin will accept bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for payments. The ENS multisig moved nearly 142k ENS tokens to exchanges. Zoth received $15 million from Bolts Capital to advance on-chain RWAs. Safety Shot announced a strategic partnership with BONK and received $25 million in BONK tokens.

Chainlink is working with ICE to bring FX and precious metals data on-chain. Truth Social filed an updated bitcoin spot ETF application. SharpLink completed a $400 million directed placement and holds nearly 600k ETH. BitMine reportedly holds over 1.15 million ETH with market value near $50 billion.

ALT5 Sigma announced a $1.5 billion directed and private placement and launched a WLFI treasury strategy. Sequans bought 13 BTC for about $1.5 million, bringing its total to 3,171 BTC. CoinShares noted that 401(k) approvals in the U.S. boosted $572 million in net inflows into digital asset funds last week.