The global cryptocurrency market has been hit with turbulent circumstances, and the market is still striving hard to make its comeback. This instability was followed by a liquidity crisis, unemployment, and an in-depth investigation of illegal crypto firms.
Market participants had assumed that the worst days had gone once the Terra (Luna) crisis blew over. However, that was far from true- it was followed by multiple firms such as three arrows capitalthree arrows capitalLending & BorrowingFollowers : 0View profile , celsius networkcelsius network[email protected]Lending & BorrowingFollowers : 0View profile , Vauld, and voyager digitalvoyager digitalLending & BorrowingFollowers : 0View profile declaring bankruptcy. In addition, well-known companies like geminigeminiCrypto / Blockchain SolutionCentralised ExchangeFollowers : 0View profile and coinbasecoinbase[email protected]Centralised ExchangeFollowers : 0View profile too fell prey to the instability.
If there’s anything positive to come out of these circumstances, it is that the crypto community has now seen terrible days and is well-versed with reality.
During Bloomberg’s Crypto summit yesterday, July 19, Galaxy Digital’s CEO Mike Novogratz acknowledged that the crypto market had been through some miserable times recently, and these situations have damaged investors’ confidence.
Advertisement
Mike Novogratz said the recent turbulence in the crypto industry is a “full-fledged credit crisis” and acknowledged that he was “darn wrong” about the magnitude of the leverage in the system https://t.co/YoxZ8iSz7l
Mike Novogratz, a prominent supporter of the Terra (LUNA) platform, even has a LUNA tattoo and calls himself a LUNA-tic
After the Terra (LUNA) crash in May, Mike Novogratz claimed that his tattoo will always remind him that humility is a pre-requisite for investing in any venture. He believes that insolvent firms met such a fate due to their greed and ignorance.
Furthermore, Galaxy’s CEO said that Terra’s crash was an eye-opener and made us realize that the whole crypto market and investors do not have adequate risk management knowledge.
Qadir Ak is the founder of Coinpedia. He has over a decade of experience writing about technology and has been covering the blockchain and cryptocurrency space since 2010. He has also interviewed a few prominent experts within the cryptocurrency space.
After last June’s inflation report published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) reflected a 9.1% year-over-year increase, July’s CPI data has come in lower with a year-over-year increase of 8.5%. Economists polled by media publications estimated that July’s CPI data would print 8.7%, however, July’s core CPI, the government’s broadest measure of inflation, remained the same as June.
CPI Report Shows Inflation in the US May Have Peaked, Stocks, Cryptos, and Precious Metals Jump Higher
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq, S&P 500, and NYSE indexes all jumped significantly higher in value after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published July’s inflation report. Additionally, precious metals and cryptocurrencies saw a rise on Wednesday as well, as bitcoin (BTC) jumped over 4% higher, gold increased by 0.35%, and silver jumped 1.43% in value against the U.S. dollar.
Inflation as measured by headline CPI increased 0.0 percent month-over-month in July, well below its elevated June monthly rate of 1.3 percent. Monthly core inflation in July fell to 0.3 percent. 1/ pic.twitter.com/6bVTZq7m1W
— Council of Economic Advisers (@WhiteHouseCEA) August 10, 2022
Advertisement
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for July 2022 said: “The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was unchanged in July on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 1.3 percent in June. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 8.5 percent before seasonal adjustment.” The inflation report adds:
The gasoline index fell 7.7 percent in July and offset increases in the food and shelter indexes, resulting in the all items index being unchanged over the month.
Bankrate’s chief financial analyst Greg McBride told Yahoo Finance reporter Alexandra Semenova that the gas price drop was good for the economy, but it doesn’t fix inflationary pressures. “The drop in gasoline prices has been very welcome, but that doesn’t solve the inflation problem,” McBride said. “Consumers are getting a break at the gas pump, but not at the grocery store.” Moreover, many people have issues with the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates CPI.
Truflation CEO Says True Inflation Is Running at 9.6% Today, Schiffgold Author Claims Government Formula Understates Real Inflation Numbers
Data from shadowstats.com’s alternative inflation charts show inflation is much higher than the reported numbers published by the U.S. government. The CEO of Truflation, Stefan Rust, says the country’s inflation figures are not accurate and he believes true inflation is running at 9.6% today.
Shadowstats.com’s alternative inflation (CPI) chart on August 10, 2022.
The company’s Truflation Index indicates that at the time of writing, the rate is 9.61%, which is still down from the 10.5% the Truflation Index recorded in July. Further, it is still down from the 11.4% annual peak the Truflation Index recorded in March.
Truflation Index on August 10, 2022.
“First, it was transitory. Next, it was manageable. Now, it’s a problem the US is attempting to tackle with a whole new piece of legislation as inflation continues to run at scorching 40-year highs,” Rust said in emailed comments sent to Bitcoin.com News. “The latest data released today provides some welcome relief, with growth in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) slowing to 8.5% in the year to July thanks largely to falling fuel prices. Notably, though, month on month prices remained the same as increases in rent and food costs — which have the largest impact on poorer citizens — offset declining prices at the pump.” Rust continued:
Advertisement
This means Americans are still struggling to make ends meet as they watch the value of their money erode at over 8% per year. As bad as all this seems, however, the true inflation picture differs from the above. Today, the Truflation index is showing that US inflation is running at 9.6%. This is down from 10.5% in July, and an annual peak of 11.4% in March, reflecting the same downward trend that the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) figures suggest. However, it remains over 100 basis points higher than these official figures.
Schiffgold.com’s Michael Maharrey said on Wednesday that the latest CPI data was not the greatest and the government formula used to tally the numbers is understated. Maharrey and the economists at Peter Schiff’s blog believe the CPI is much higher. “It wasn’t all good news,” Maharrey stressed. “Food prices continued to skyrocket, rising 1.1% from June. Rents also rose.”
“And as I mention every time I talk about CPI, it’s even worse than these numbers suggest. This CPI uses a government formula that understates the actual rise in prices,” Maharrey added. “Based on the CPI formula used in the 1970s, CPI remains in the 17% range — a historically high number.”
U.S. president Joe Biden discussed the CPI data as well and remarked that new laws and semiconductors manufacturing based in America boosted the country’s economic activity. “Last year, one-third of core inflation was due to high prices for automobiles because of the shortage of semiconductors,” Biden said on Wednesday. “With the CHIPS and Science Law boosting our efforts to make semiconductors right here at home, America is back leading the way.”
Tags in this story
analyst, Bankrate, Bitcoin (BTC), Bureau of Labor Statistics, Core Inflation, CPI, CPI report, Crypto Prices, data, DOW, economics, Economist, equities, fake CPI, fake data, Gold Prices, Greg McBride, inflation, Inflation Red Hot, Joe Biden, Joe Biden statement, Michael Maharrey, Peter Schiff, schiffgold.com, Stefan Rust, stock indexes, stocks, the fed, Truflation, Truflation Index, United States Inflation, US Inflation rises
What do you think about the CPI data for July? What do you think about the critics and statistics that say true inflation in the U.S. is much higher than what’s being reported? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.
Advertisement
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,700 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
Advertisement
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Reports indicate that the decentralized finance (defi) protocol Curve was hacked for $570,000 in ethereum after people noticed that Curve’s front end was exploited. The attackers then tried to launder the funds via the crypto exchange Fixedfloat, and the trading platform’s team managed to freeze $200K worth of the stolen funds.
Curve Finance Exploited for $570K — Fixedfloat Exchange Freezes More Than $200K, Domain Service Blamed
Another defi hack was discovered on August 9, when the Paradigm researcher Samczsun tweeted that Curve Finance’s frontend was compromised. Curve Finance confirmed the problem on Twitter and later the team was able to revert the exploit found on the frontend. “The issue has been found and reverted,” Curve said. “If you have approved any contracts on Curve in the past few hours, please revoke immediately.”
🚨🚨🚨@CurveFinance frontend is compromised, do not use it until further notice!
— samczsun (@samczsun) August 9, 2022
Advertisement
When Curve was asked if the team could “go into detail about how the name servers were compromised?” Curve replied: “That we don’t know. Most likely, [iwantmyname.com] themselves got hacked.” The on-chain researcher Zachxbt reported that the hacker managed to get away with $570K. The funds were sent to the Bitcoin Lightning Network-powered exchange Fixedfloat, and the exchange noted that the team managed to freeze some of the funds.
“Our security department has frozen part of the funds in the amount of 112 [ether]. In order for our security department to be able to sort out what happened as soon as possible, please email us” Fixedfloat wrote. Steven Ferguson, the founder of Tcpshield, further verified that it was possible that the domain service iwantmyname.com was breached.
“On August 9th at 20:26 UTC, I was pinged regarding [Curve fi’s] frontend being compromised in what appears to be a nameserver hijack at [iwantmyname.com],” Ferguson said. The Tcpshield founder added:
This did not appear to be a hijack at the registrar level, but rather systems at [iwantmyname.com] compromised themselves.
The Curve attack follows a great number of defi hacks during the last few weeks, as the Solana-based Slope wallet was breached, Crema Finance lost $8.7 million, and Rari Capital’s Fuse platform was hacked for $80 million. Furthermore, $1.3 billion was stolen in Q1 2022 and most of the attacks stemmed from defi projects this year.
Following the Curve attack, the Curve team has been tweeting out walkthroughs on how users can revoke a smart contract. After the issues were found and reverted, Curve Finance said: “Updates should have propagated for [Curve] everywhere by now, which means it should be safe to use.” Curve Finance has $6.13 billion total value locked (TVL) today, making it the fifth-largest defi protcol in terms of TVL size.
What do you think about the Curve Finance hack that occurred on August 9? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,700 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
Advertisement
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
Advertisement
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Avalanche rallied on Wednesday, as the token broke out of a key resistance level on its way towards a multi-month high. Crypto markets mostly rallied as the session progressed, following the release of the latest U.S. inflation numbers. Ethereum classic was one such token, as it moved closer to $40.
Avalanche (AVAX)
Avalanche (AVAX) was a big mover on Wednesday, as the token moved closer to its highest level since May.
Following a low of $26.71 on Tuesday, AVAX/USD surged to an intraday peak of $30.00 earlier in today’s session.
Advertisement
The move sees AVAX near Monday’s peak of $30.87, which is the highest point the token has hit since May 23.
AVAX/USD – Daily Chart
Today’s price rally comes as crypto markets reacted to the latest U.S. inflation report, which showed a decline from 9.1% in June to 8.5% in July.
As a result of this, the 14-day relative strength index (RSI) raced past a resistance of its own at 69, and is currently tracking at 71.40.
Although AVAX is already overbought, bulls may look to recapture Monday’s high before potentially retreating, giving way to bears.
Ethereum Classic (ETC)
Ethereum classic (ETC) was another notable mover in today’s session, as it rebounded following Tuesday’s decline.
Advertisement
Tuesday saw ETC/USD slip to a bottom of $35.75, however a day later, prices of the token surged to a peak of $38.94.
This increase in price has seen ethereum classic near a key resistance level at the $40.00 mark.
ETC/USD – Daily Chart
ETC has not broken past this ceiling since July 31, with bearish pressure preventing bulls from an escape beyond this threshold.
As of writing, the 14-day RSI is tracking at 65.84, which is marginally above support at 63.
Should ETC bulls want to push price to and above $40.00, the index will need to hit a reading of 69 and greater.
Advertisement
Register your email here to get weekly price analysis updates sent to your inbox:
Will ethereum classic climb above $40.00 this week? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Eliman Dambell
Eliman brings a eclectic point of view to market analysis, having worked as a brokerage director, retail trading educator, and market commentator in Crypto, Stocks and FX.
Advertisement
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
Advertisement
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.