🚨 Top Web3 Headlines That Shook the Chain

📰 News

📢 Sharplink Gaming Becomes Largest ‘Publicly Traded’ Ethereum Holder With 176,271 ETH Purchase

Sharplink Gaming has officially created its Ethereum Treasury Reserve with its first ETH purchase. The company has also become the largest publicly traded ETH holder, leading the way in corporate adoption of the largest altcoin by market cap.

Sharplink Gaming Acquires 176,271 ETH For Ethereum Treasury

In a press release, the company announced that it has acquired 176,270.69 ETH for an aggregate purchase price of $462,947,816 and an average price of $2,626 per ETH. With this acquisition, the firm becomes the largest publicly traded holder of ETH globally.

Sharplink Gaming is also the second-largest holder behind the Ethereum Foundation. As Coingape reported, the company had raised $425 million through a private placement offering to establish this Ethereum Treasury.

In addition to this private placement offering, the company also disclosed that it raised an additional $79 million in approximate gross proceeds through its at-the-market (ATM) facility. The firm used the majority of the ATM proceeds to fund further ETH purchases, which sums up the $462 million it used for this acquisition.

Sharplink Gaming also revealed that these collective purchases have generated ETH per share growth of 11.9% since June 2 earlier this month. The company has also deployed over 95% of its ETH holdings for staking and liquid staking solutions, thereby contributing to Ethereum’s network security while generating native yield.

🌐 Invesco Registers ‘Invesco Galaxy’ Solana ETF In Delaware

Invesco is set to become the latest fund manager to jump on the Solana ETF wave. The company has incorporated a SOL ETF in Delaware in collaboration with Galaxy Digital, with an S-1 and Form 19b-4 filing with the SEC likely to follow.

Invesco Incorporates Solana ETF In Delaware

Data from the Delaware Division of Corporations shows the registration of the ‘Invesco Galaxy Solana ETF’ entity. This indicates that asset manager Invesco intends to offer a fund that will provide investors with exposure to SOL.

This move usually precedes an S-1 and 19b-4 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm is likely to file the S-1 soon, while an exchange files to list and trade shares of this Solana ETF.

Invesco will offer this fund in collaboration with Galaxy Digital. The two have also partnered to offer the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs. This development comes just as CoinGape reported that the SEC could soon approve the SOL ETFs.

The Commission has asked some issuers to amend their S-1 forms, with an approval likely to come in the next few weeks. There is the possibility that the SEC could approve all these funds at the same time, just like it did with the Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs.

Crypto ETF issuers 21Shares, Van Eck, and Canary Capital recently urged the SEC to return to the ‘first-to-file’ principle to maintain a vibrant and competitive financial marketplace. However, the SEC has yet to reply to this request. Interestingly, these asset managers were among the first to file for a Solana ETF.

The final deadline for a SEC decision on the SOL ETFs is October 10. If the SEC reinstates a first-to-file principle, then Grayscale, Van Eck, Canary Capital, and 21Shares’ ETFs could launch first in that order.

📊 Markets

⚠️ Crypto Market Liquidations Top $1.1 Billion, BTC, ETH Crash Amid Iran-Israel Conflict

Crypto market liquidations surged past $1.1 billion with BTC, ETH, XRP, and other altcoins dropping 4-10%, soon after Israel launched a major military attack on Iran in early Asian hours of Friday. The global markets quickly turned to a risk-off sentiment, with Gold and oil prices surging, as investors took a flight to safety. Crypto market veterans believe that this could be a momentary reaction, triggering panic selling.

Crypto Market Crash: Bitcoin Down 4%, Altcoins Drop 5-8%

Amid today’s cryptocurrency market crash, Bitcoin price tanked by 4%, slipping under $103,000 levels with altcoins facing an even steeper fall. As per the Coingape analysis, BTC could fill the CME gap and drop all the way to $92,000 if the selling pressure continues.

Ethereum (ETH) is down 9%, slipping to the key support of $2,500, while other altcoins have also corrected to the tune of 5-10% in the past few hours. Coinglass data shows that the overall crypto market liquidation has soared to more than $1.14 billion, with more than $1 billion in long liquidations.

Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes already warned about market volatility, citing upcoming Trump tariffs. Following today’s crash, Hayes wrote: “Hold on to your butts out there degens,” hinting that this a knee-jerk reaction in the market and investors should not resolve to panic selling. Popular Bitcoin investor Anthony Pompliano also shared a similar outlook, noting:

“Oil up. Gold up. Bitcoin down. Initial reaction follows exactly what happened when Iran shot 300 missiles at Israel. Bitcoin ended up outperforming the other two over the first 48 hours in that situation. Will be interesting to see what happens here”.

As the Iran-Israel conflict escalated, S&P 500 futures also lost 1.9%, showing major selling pressure in global markets. Iran has said that it would respond to the Israeli strikes “harshly” following today’s attacks

🐋 Can XRP Price Hold Above $2 Amid Bearish Pattern as Whales Sell 150M Tokens?

XRP price has been defending the $2 psychological support level since April despite bearish headwinds rocking the broader crypto market. On June 13, as the crypto market wiped out more than $1 billion through liquidations, XRP held firm as it trades at $2.14 at press time. However, a bearish pattern on the 4-hour timeframe chart and whale distribution could weaken XRP’s chances of remaining above this price.

XRP Price Could Drop Below $2 Amid Bearish Pattern

XRP price has formed a rounding top pattern on the four-hour chart, which often signals that a trend is about to flip bearish. In fact, Ripple’s native token had already breached the neckline support of this pattern after the widespread crypto market crash caused a steep decline.

The depth of the bearish rounding top pattern shows that after breaching the $2.12 support level, XRP could crash by another 9%. If this happens, XRP can fall below $2 to $1.93. Dropping to this level will mark the lowest price for this altcoin in more than two months.

The MACD indicator supports the bearish technical outlook as buyers remain on the sidelines despite Ripple’s CEO raising optimism of XRP Ledger capturing SWIFT’s market share. The MACD line has dropped into the negative region while the negative histogram bars indicate that the momentum remains bearish.

The downward sloping on-balance volume (OBV) indicator also confirms the strength of the downward trend in XRP price. The decline shows that selling volumes are outweighing buying volumes, and this usually signals distribution and bearish pressure on the market. It also shows weak conviction among buyers.

The bearish outlook painted by the rounding top could become invalid if XRP price resumes the upward trend and hits the top of this pattern at $2.33. As CoinGape reported, a recovery for Ripple’s price could occur ahead of the SEC’s decision on a spot ETF.