Ether extended its two-week rally on Thursday, touching an intraday high just shy of $2,900 after climbing from around $2,660 the previous day. The move, which brought the token to its strongest level since March, coincided with a flurry of large on-chain transactions that suggest sizable investors are moving coins into long-term storage.

Blockchain-analysis firm Lookonchain flagged several concentrated withdrawals: Abraxas Capital moved 29,741 ETH valued at about $81 million off Binance and Kraken in the past 12 hours, while two newly created wallets pulled a combined 58,000-plus ETH—worth more than $160 million—from Kraken alone. A separate address spent $25 million in Tether to purchase 9,188 ETH at an average price of $2,721, reinforcing the bid from so-called whales.

Read more

Ether, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, climbed above $2,700 on 9 July, regaining a level last seen several months ago and signaling renewed momentum in the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value.

The token briefly touched $2,800 on the Hyperliquid trading platform before easing back, according to market participants. The move has fueled speculation that ETH could soon attempt the psychological $3,000 threshold, although no immediate catalyst was cited in the day’s trading.

A large Ethereum (ETH) whale or institutional investor has begun taking profits by selling part of its holdings, transferring 33,582 ETH to Wintermute and Coinbase and converting it into approximately $85.38 million USDC at a selling price of $2,600 per ETH. This whale had previously purchased 132,536 ETH for about $333.79 million at an average price of $2,540 between June 11 and June 22. Despite realizing over $30 million in gains, it still holds around 100,000 ETH valued at $260.44 million, with possible ties to Alliance DAO. Meanwhile, other whales and institutions continue to accumulate ETH, with wallets linked to Cumberland withdrawing 34,883 ETH ($89.45 million) from Binance and another withdrawing 7,200 ETH ($18.37 million) from Kraken in the past week.

Additionally, a wallet known as the "ETH ICO 1 million ETH whale" sold 1,000 ETH worth $2.61 million recently, having cumulatively sold 358,599.97 ETH valued at $897 million since July 2024, and currently holds 23,619 ETH valued at approximately $61.56 million. On the Bitcoin front, 472 BTC worth about $51.27 million was transferred from Kraken to an unknown wallet, and 38,030 ETH valued at nearly $98.91 million was moved from an unknown wallet to Kraken. Furthermore, $109.43 million USDC was transferred from Binance to an unknown wallet, indicating active large-scale movements across major crypto exchanges.

Ether climbed to roughly $2,600 on Tuesday after securing a weekly close above $2,500, extending the rebound that began late last month.

Blockchain analytics firm Glassnode said about 3.45 million ETH—worth more than $8.8 billion at current prices—was acquired between $2,513 and $2,536. The concentration of purchases in that band makes the $2,500 level the largest support zone seen in several months, according to the firm’s cost-basis distribution heatmap cited by Cointelegraph.

Read more

Ethereum advanced to about $2,600 during 8 July trading, extending a rally that has gathered pace in recent sessions. Some market commentators said momentum could carry the token toward $2,800 later in the week, underscoring renewed risk appetite in digital-asset markets.

Activity on rival blockchain Solana also accelerated, with the network seeing a 631% increase in holders of real-world-asset tokens over the past month. The pickup in both price and user metrics highlights broader interest in alternative blockchain applications beyond traditional cryptocurrency trading.

Cybersecurity researchers have identified multiple new threats targeting various sectors and platforms. The Batavia spyware, active since July 2024, has been targeting Russian organizations through fake contract emails, stealing internal documents, system logs, screenshots, and scanning USB devices. This spyware is linked to over 100 phishing incidents and is part of the NordDragonScan campaign, which employs stealthy living-off-the-land techniques to evade detection on Windows machines. Separately, a popular Visual Studio Code extension used by over 6,000 Ethereum smart contract developers was compromised with hidden code that executes PowerShell scripts, raising concerns about potential crypto theft or contract tampering.

Another emerging threat is the RondoDox botnet, which hijacks Linux-based DVRs and routers, disables security tools, rewrites system commands, and mimics traffic from gaming platforms like Discord, Minecraft, and Fortnite to remain undetected. Additionally, the Atomic macOS Stealer has evolved from stealing passwords and crypto wallets to incorporating a backdoor for prolonged remote control of infected devices. Furthermore, the BaitTrap operation has been uncovered, revealing over 17,000 fake news websites involved in global investment fraud. Lastly, a new red team tool named Shellter has been used to evade detection by integrating various stealers. These developments highlight ongoing sophisticated cyber threats across multiple operating systems and sectors.

A cryptocurrency wallet controlled by the U.S. government sent two transactions to Coinbase Prime on 7 July. Blockchain records show a test transfer of 0.00394 ether, valued at roughly $10, followed minutes later by a deposit of 86.564 ether worth about $219,000.

The wallet holds approximately 100,000 ether that federal authorities seized from cyber-fraud suspect Chase Senecal in October 2022. No additional transfers were recorded at the time of writing, and officials have not commented on the reason for the movement.

Ethereum's ecosystem is experiencing notable growth, with the stablecoin supply on the Ethereum blockchain reaching a record high of approximately $136.3 billion, nearly doubling since January 2024. Concurrently, Ethereum staking has hit an all-time high of 29.6%, while ETH reserves on exchanges have dropped to new lows of 18.9 million, indicating a shift from trading activity to long-term holding. Several treasury companies are accumulating substantial amounts of ETH, collectively holding around 240,000 ETH and showing reluctance to sell. Market participants are increasingly viewing ETH as a programmable store of value and a potential new global reserve asset. Despite some opinions suggesting ETH's price may remain around $2,500, others argue that this valuation will not persist, reflecting growing confidence in Ethereum’s role as a decentralized, secure, and reliable platform for the future global financial system.

The U.S. Treasury Department and Washington-based advocacy group Coin Center have jointly moved to end their court dispute over sanctions on the Ethereum privacy protocol Tornado Cash. On Thursday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit granted a joint motion to vacate the prior judgment and remanded the case with instructions to dismiss, effectively closing the appeal.

The appeal became moot after the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control rescinded its 2022 designation of Tornado Cash in March 2025. Rather than defend its authority to sanction open-source software, the government opted to withdraw the case. "This is the official end to our court battle," Coin Center Executive Director Peter Van Valkenburgh said, calling OFAC’s earlier position "dangerously overbroad."

The dismissal removes a high-profile test of how far U.S. sanctions laws can reach into decentralized finance. While the government’s decision leaves broader regulatory questions unresolved, crypto industry advocates view the outcome as a signal that agencies may tread more carefully when applying national-security tools to blockchain software.

A blockchain address identified by on-chain analysts as belonging to the entity that siphoned more than $300 million from Coinbase customers earlier this year has resumed trading activity, purchasing 4,863 ether for about $12.6 million late Monday. The coins were acquired at an average price of roughly $2,581, according to wallet-tracking service Lookonchain.

The same address off-loaded roughly 26,700 ether—valued at around $69 million—on 22 May at a similar price point, suggesting the hacker is rotating capital rather than exiting the market. Coinbase has not commented on the fresh movements, and the stolen funds remain unrecovered.

Read more

James Fickel, a known long ETH/BTC ratio trader, recently deposited a total of 80,000 ETH valued at approximately $204 million into Coinbase Prime. This follows his previous loss of around 25,000 ETH, worth $83.6 million, on the same trading strategy. Separately, a large transfer of 80,000 BTC, valued at about $8.7 billion, was identified as likely related to an address format upgrade from legacy "1-" addresses to the newer "bc1q-" format, with no indications of selling activity, according to blockchain analytics firm Arkham. Additional notable movements include multiple transfers of ETH and BTC between wallets and exchanges such as OKEX, Cumberland, Coinbase Institutional, and Kraken, involving amounts ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of coins. Furthermore, a dormant Ethereum wallet holding 900 ETH, originally worth $279 in 2015 and now valued at over $2.27 million, was reactivated after nearly 10 years, with the owner moving the coins. Data also shows a decline in wallets holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC from 4.5 million to 4.47 million BTC between January 2023 and July 2025, while wallets holding 100 to 1,000 BTC increased from 4 million to 4.77 million BTC, suggesting redistribution from large holders to medium-sized holders through private transfers.

Tokenized assets under management (AUM) on the Ethereum blockchain have reached a new all-time high of approximately $5 billion, according to data from Token Terminal. Major financial institutions including BlackRock, which manages around $11.6 trillion in assets, Franklin Templeton, and Citi are actively experimenting with tokenizing real-world assets on multiple blockchains. This development underscores Ethereum's growing role as a foundational layer for global finance, with tokenized real-world assets becoming integral on-chain primitives.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Wahrstätter have filed Ethereum Improvement Proposal 7983, calling for a hard cap of 16.77 million gas on every transaction executed on the network.

The authors say the limit would curb denial-of-service vectors, make block verification times more predictable and improve compatibility with zero-knowledge virtual machines, which rely on smaller, modular transactions. They stress that the measure does not alter Ethereum’s overall block gas limit, leaving miners and validators in control of aggregate capacity.

Read more

BlackRock has significantly increased its exposure to Ethereum, acquiring 589,150 Ether valued at roughly $1.48 billion over the past two months, according to figures circulated on 6 July.

The latest purchases bring the asset-management giant’s total Ether holdings to about $4.38 billion, representing a 42.8% share of the tracked market. The rapid accumulation highlights rising institutional interest in Ethereum as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value.

Grayscale Investments said Ethereum stands to gain if the United States continues to pursue a more supportive stance toward digital assets, according to a market commentary released 5 July. The asset manager argued that a clearer federal framework for stablecoins would reduce regulatory uncertainty, encourage greater institutional investment and accelerate adoption of Ethereum-based smart-contract applications.

The firm added that policy clarity could bolster demand for Ether as the foundational token of many decentralized finance platforms and tokenized real-world assets. While Grayscale did not provide specific price targets, it said enhanced market access and compliance standards for dollar-pegged tokens would make Ethereum’s ecosystem more attractive to both retail and institutional users.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the nine-year-old blockchain network has “succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations,” underscoring what he described as growing institutional confidence in the platform’s stability and reliability.

Buterin added that many large investors view Ethereum’s ability to remain online without major outages as a key differentiator, reinforcing its appeal as the backbone for a global, programmable store of value and decentralised applications.

Crypto thefts have reached $2.47 billion in the first half of 2025, surpassing the total losses of $2.42 billion recorded in all of 2024, according to reports from CoinDesk and CertiK. The surge in losses is primarily driven by front-end protocol exploits and private key compromises, which account for approximately 80% of the thefts. Ethereum has been the most affected blockchain, with $1.5 billion lost across 164 incidents. Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms have experienced the most attacks, while centralized exchanges (CEXs) have suffered the largest individual losses.

Additionally, hackers have increasingly employed AI-powered phishing, deepfakes, and fake Telegram verifications as scam tools. Despite a 52% decline in the value lost during the second quarter compared to the first, high-impact incidents continue to pose substantial risks to the crypto ecosystem. Industry experts emphasize the need for stronger security standards and ongoing vigilance. In response, several initiatives and hackathons offering financial rewards have been launched to encourage improved security practices and vulnerability testing in blockchain protocols.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has expressed concerns over Sam Altman's Worldcoin digital identity project, warning that its model of issuing a single digital ID per person could undermine online pseudonymity despite employing zero-knowledge proofs. Buterin advocates for pluralistic zero-knowledge (ZK) digital identity systems as a more effective approach to preserving user privacy and freedom online. He emphasized the importance of maintaining user autonomy in blockchain innovations. Additionally, Buterin highlighted Ethereum's growing institutional adoption, attributing its appeal to its stability and reliability, noting that Ethereum's network rarely experiences downtime. He stated that Ethereum has succeeded beyond expectations, reinforcing its position as a trusted platform among various institutions.

Throughout June and early July 2025, sentiment around Ethereum (ETH) has been overwhelmingly positive among cryptocurrency traders and analysts. Numerous market participants have expressed bullish views on ETH, highlighting a recent price increase of approximately 6% on July 2, 2025. Analysts noted that Ethereum's price movement above key technical levels, including reclaiming the 50 and 55-day exponential moving averages (EMAs) and breaking above multi-timeframe daily cloud resistance, signals a strong breakout. Market observers anticipate further upward momentum, with some suggesting that ETH could gain more attention and increased buying interest if it surpasses the $3,500 price level. The bullish sentiment is reflected in multiple social media posts emphasizing optimism for Ethereum's near-term performance.

The tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) on blockchain platforms is experiencing rapid growth, with the total value locked (TVL) in RWAs reaching $24 billion according to a recent study by Redstone DeFi. This represents a 380% increase since 2022. Institutional participation is driving this surge, with private credit assets totaling $14 billion and treasuries at $7.5 billion. Arbitrum's RWA TVL has surpassed $300 million, while Aptos has emerged as the third-largest blockchain for RWA tokenization, reaching $542 million in May after a 57% increase.

Leading financial firms such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo Global are actively involved in this sector. The market for tokenized RWAs has grown nearly fivefold in three years, highlighting the increasing integration of traditional finance with on-chain digital assets. Platforms like Securitize have facilitated the tokenization of over $3 billion in RWAs for global issuers, indicating the sector's expanding scale and institutional acceptance. Search interest in tokenization has also reached an all-time high, underscoring growing awareness and adoption of this financial innovation.

Ether extended its two-week rally on Thursday, touching an intraday high just shy of $2,900 after climbing from around $2,660 the previous day. The move, which brought the token to its strongest level since March, coincided with a flurry of large on-chain transactions that suggest sizable investors are moving coins into long-term storage.

Blockchain-analysis firm Lookonchain flagged several concentrated withdrawals: Abraxas Capital moved 29,741 ETH valued at about $81 million off Binance and Kraken in the past 12 hours, while two newly created wallets pulled a combined 58,000-plus ETH—worth more than $160 million—from Kraken alone. A separate address spent $25 million in Tether to purchase 9,188 ETH at an average price of $2,721, reinforcing the bid from so-called whales.

Read more

Ether, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, climbed above $2,700 on 9 July, regaining a level last seen several months ago and signaling renewed momentum in the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value.

The token briefly touched $2,800 on the Hyperliquid trading platform before easing back, according to market participants. The move has fueled speculation that ETH could soon attempt the psychological $3,000 threshold, although no immediate catalyst was cited in the day’s trading.

A large Ethereum (ETH) whale or institutional investor has begun taking profits by selling part of its holdings, transferring 33,582 ETH to Wintermute and Coinbase and converting it into approximately $85.38 million USDC at a selling price of $2,600 per ETH. This whale had previously purchased 132,536 ETH for about $333.79 million at an average price of $2,540 between June 11 and June 22. Despite realizing over $30 million in gains, it still holds around 100,000 ETH valued at $260.44 million, with possible ties to Alliance DAO. Meanwhile, other whales and institutions continue to accumulate ETH, with wallets linked to Cumberland withdrawing 34,883 ETH ($89.45 million) from Binance and another withdrawing 7,200 ETH ($18.37 million) from Kraken in the past week.

Additionally, a wallet known as the "ETH ICO 1 million ETH whale" sold 1,000 ETH worth $2.61 million recently, having cumulatively sold 358,599.97 ETH valued at $897 million since July 2024, and currently holds 23,619 ETH valued at approximately $61.56 million. On the Bitcoin front, 472 BTC worth about $51.27 million was transferred from Kraken to an unknown wallet, and 38,030 ETH valued at nearly $98.91 million was moved from an unknown wallet to Kraken. Furthermore, $109.43 million USDC was transferred from Binance to an unknown wallet, indicating active large-scale movements across major crypto exchanges.

Ether climbed to roughly $2,600 on Tuesday after securing a weekly close above $2,500, extending the rebound that began late last month.

Blockchain analytics firm Glassnode said about 3.45 million ETH—worth more than $8.8 billion at current prices—was acquired between $2,513 and $2,536. The concentration of purchases in that band makes the $2,500 level the largest support zone seen in several months, according to the firm’s cost-basis distribution heatmap cited by Cointelegraph.

Read more

Ethereum advanced to about $2,600 during 8 July trading, extending a rally that has gathered pace in recent sessions. Some market commentators said momentum could carry the token toward $2,800 later in the week, underscoring renewed risk appetite in digital-asset markets.

Activity on rival blockchain Solana also accelerated, with the network seeing a 631% increase in holders of real-world-asset tokens over the past month. The pickup in both price and user metrics highlights broader interest in alternative blockchain applications beyond traditional cryptocurrency trading.

Cybersecurity researchers have identified multiple new threats targeting various sectors and platforms. The Batavia spyware, active since July 2024, has been targeting Russian organizations through fake contract emails, stealing internal documents, system logs, screenshots, and scanning USB devices. This spyware is linked to over 100 phishing incidents and is part of the NordDragonScan campaign, which employs stealthy living-off-the-land techniques to evade detection on Windows machines. Separately, a popular Visual Studio Code extension used by over 6,000 Ethereum smart contract developers was compromised with hidden code that executes PowerShell scripts, raising concerns about potential crypto theft or contract tampering.

Another emerging threat is the RondoDox botnet, which hijacks Linux-based DVRs and routers, disables security tools, rewrites system commands, and mimics traffic from gaming platforms like Discord, Minecraft, and Fortnite to remain undetected. Additionally, the Atomic macOS Stealer has evolved from stealing passwords and crypto wallets to incorporating a backdoor for prolonged remote control of infected devices. Furthermore, the BaitTrap operation has been uncovered, revealing over 17,000 fake news websites involved in global investment fraud. Lastly, a new red team tool named Shellter has been used to evade detection by integrating various stealers. These developments highlight ongoing sophisticated cyber threats across multiple operating systems and sectors.

A cryptocurrency wallet controlled by the U.S. government sent two transactions to Coinbase Prime on 7 July. Blockchain records show a test transfer of 0.00394 ether, valued at roughly $10, followed minutes later by a deposit of 86.564 ether worth about $219,000.

The wallet holds approximately 100,000 ether that federal authorities seized from cyber-fraud suspect Chase Senecal in October 2022. No additional transfers were recorded at the time of writing, and officials have not commented on the reason for the movement.

Ethereum's ecosystem is experiencing notable growth, with the stablecoin supply on the Ethereum blockchain reaching a record high of approximately $136.3 billion, nearly doubling since January 2024. Concurrently, Ethereum staking has hit an all-time high of 29.6%, while ETH reserves on exchanges have dropped to new lows of 18.9 million, indicating a shift from trading activity to long-term holding. Several treasury companies are accumulating substantial amounts of ETH, collectively holding around 240,000 ETH and showing reluctance to sell. Market participants are increasingly viewing ETH as a programmable store of value and a potential new global reserve asset. Despite some opinions suggesting ETH's price may remain around $2,500, others argue that this valuation will not persist, reflecting growing confidence in Ethereum’s role as a decentralized, secure, and reliable platform for the future global financial system.

The U.S. Treasury Department and Washington-based advocacy group Coin Center have jointly moved to end their court dispute over sanctions on the Ethereum privacy protocol Tornado Cash. On Thursday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit granted a joint motion to vacate the prior judgment and remanded the case with instructions to dismiss, effectively closing the appeal.

The appeal became moot after the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control rescinded its 2022 designation of Tornado Cash in March 2025. Rather than defend its authority to sanction open-source software, the government opted to withdraw the case. "This is the official end to our court battle," Coin Center Executive Director Peter Van Valkenburgh said, calling OFAC’s earlier position "dangerously overbroad."

The dismissal removes a high-profile test of how far U.S. sanctions laws can reach into decentralized finance. While the government’s decision leaves broader regulatory questions unresolved, crypto industry advocates view the outcome as a signal that agencies may tread more carefully when applying national-security tools to blockchain software.

A blockchain address identified by on-chain analysts as belonging to the entity that siphoned more than $300 million from Coinbase customers earlier this year has resumed trading activity, purchasing 4,863 ether for about $12.6 million late Monday. The coins were acquired at an average price of roughly $2,581, according to wallet-tracking service Lookonchain.

The same address off-loaded roughly 26,700 ether—valued at around $69 million—on 22 May at a similar price point, suggesting the hacker is rotating capital rather than exiting the market. Coinbase has not commented on the fresh movements, and the stolen funds remain unrecovered.

Read more

James Fickel, a known long ETH/BTC ratio trader, recently deposited a total of 80,000 ETH valued at approximately $204 million into Coinbase Prime. This follows his previous loss of around 25,000 ETH, worth $83.6 million, on the same trading strategy. Separately, a large transfer of 80,000 BTC, valued at about $8.7 billion, was identified as likely related to an address format upgrade from legacy "1-" addresses to the newer "bc1q-" format, with no indications of selling activity, according to blockchain analytics firm Arkham. Additional notable movements include multiple transfers of ETH and BTC between wallets and exchanges such as OKEX, Cumberland, Coinbase Institutional, and Kraken, involving amounts ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of coins. Furthermore, a dormant Ethereum wallet holding 900 ETH, originally worth $279 in 2015 and now valued at over $2.27 million, was reactivated after nearly 10 years, with the owner moving the coins. Data also shows a decline in wallets holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC from 4.5 million to 4.47 million BTC between January 2023 and July 2025, while wallets holding 100 to 1,000 BTC increased from 4 million to 4.77 million BTC, suggesting redistribution from large holders to medium-sized holders through private transfers.

Tokenized assets under management (AUM) on the Ethereum blockchain have reached a new all-time high of approximately $5 billion, according to data from Token Terminal. Major financial institutions including BlackRock, which manages around $11.6 trillion in assets, Franklin Templeton, and Citi are actively experimenting with tokenizing real-world assets on multiple blockchains. This development underscores Ethereum's growing role as a foundational layer for global finance, with tokenized real-world assets becoming integral on-chain primitives.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Wahrstätter have filed Ethereum Improvement Proposal 7983, calling for a hard cap of 16.77 million gas on every transaction executed on the network.

The authors say the limit would curb denial-of-service vectors, make block verification times more predictable and improve compatibility with zero-knowledge virtual machines, which rely on smaller, modular transactions. They stress that the measure does not alter Ethereum’s overall block gas limit, leaving miners and validators in control of aggregate capacity.

Read more

BlackRock has significantly increased its exposure to Ethereum, acquiring 589,150 Ether valued at roughly $1.48 billion over the past two months, according to figures circulated on 6 July.

The latest purchases bring the asset-management giant’s total Ether holdings to about $4.38 billion, representing a 42.8% share of the tracked market. The rapid accumulation highlights rising institutional interest in Ethereum as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value.

Grayscale Investments said Ethereum stands to gain if the United States continues to pursue a more supportive stance toward digital assets, according to a market commentary released 5 July. The asset manager argued that a clearer federal framework for stablecoins would reduce regulatory uncertainty, encourage greater institutional investment and accelerate adoption of Ethereum-based smart-contract applications.

The firm added that policy clarity could bolster demand for Ether as the foundational token of many decentralized finance platforms and tokenized real-world assets. While Grayscale did not provide specific price targets, it said enhanced market access and compliance standards for dollar-pegged tokens would make Ethereum’s ecosystem more attractive to both retail and institutional users.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the nine-year-old blockchain network has “succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations,” underscoring what he described as growing institutional confidence in the platform’s stability and reliability.

Buterin added that many large investors view Ethereum’s ability to remain online without major outages as a key differentiator, reinforcing its appeal as the backbone for a global, programmable store of value and decentralised applications.

Crypto thefts have reached $2.47 billion in the first half of 2025, surpassing the total losses of $2.42 billion recorded in all of 2024, according to reports from CoinDesk and CertiK. The surge in losses is primarily driven by front-end protocol exploits and private key compromises, which account for approximately 80% of the thefts. Ethereum has been the most affected blockchain, with $1.5 billion lost across 164 incidents. Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms have experienced the most attacks, while centralized exchanges (CEXs) have suffered the largest individual losses.

Additionally, hackers have increasingly employed AI-powered phishing, deepfakes, and fake Telegram verifications as scam tools. Despite a 52% decline in the value lost during the second quarter compared to the first, high-impact incidents continue to pose substantial risks to the crypto ecosystem. Industry experts emphasize the need for stronger security standards and ongoing vigilance. In response, several initiatives and hackathons offering financial rewards have been launched to encourage improved security practices and vulnerability testing in blockchain protocols.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has expressed concerns over Sam Altman's Worldcoin digital identity project, warning that its model of issuing a single digital ID per person could undermine online pseudonymity despite employing zero-knowledge proofs. Buterin advocates for pluralistic zero-knowledge (ZK) digital identity systems as a more effective approach to preserving user privacy and freedom online. He emphasized the importance of maintaining user autonomy in blockchain innovations. Additionally, Buterin highlighted Ethereum's growing institutional adoption, attributing its appeal to its stability and reliability, noting that Ethereum's network rarely experiences downtime. He stated that Ethereum has succeeded beyond expectations, reinforcing its position as a trusted platform among various institutions.

Throughout June and early July 2025, sentiment around Ethereum (ETH) has been overwhelmingly positive among cryptocurrency traders and analysts. Numerous market participants have expressed bullish views on ETH, highlighting a recent price increase of approximately 6% on July 2, 2025. Analysts noted that Ethereum's price movement above key technical levels, including reclaiming the 50 and 55-day exponential moving averages (EMAs) and breaking above multi-timeframe daily cloud resistance, signals a strong breakout. Market observers anticipate further upward momentum, with some suggesting that ETH could gain more attention and increased buying interest if it surpasses the $3,500 price level. The bullish sentiment is reflected in multiple social media posts emphasizing optimism for Ethereum's near-term performance.

The tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) on blockchain platforms is experiencing rapid growth, with the total value locked (TVL) in RWAs reaching $24 billion according to a recent study by Redstone DeFi. This represents a 380% increase since 2022. Institutional participation is driving this surge, with private credit assets totaling $14 billion and treasuries at $7.5 billion. Arbitrum's RWA TVL has surpassed $300 million, while Aptos has emerged as the third-largest blockchain for RWA tokenization, reaching $542 million in May after a 57% increase.

Leading financial firms such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo Global are actively involved in this sector. The market for tokenized RWAs has grown nearly fivefold in three years, highlighting the increasing integration of traditional finance with on-chain digital assets. Platforms like Securitize have facilitated the tokenization of over $3 billion in RWAs for global issuers, indicating the sector's expanding scale and institutional acceptance. Search interest in tokenization has also reached an all-time high, underscoring growing awareness and adoption of this financial innovation.