Bitcoin Blasts to New ATH Amid Meme Token Frenzy

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Now let's get back to the top stories of the day.

The crypto market is riding a wave of euphoria as Bitcoin (BTC) carved out a new all-time high, briefly surging past $112,000 before easing back to around $111,000. This milestone reflects a robust 20% gain year-to-date, fueled by a confluence of factors including the incoming Trump administration's tariff policies set to take effect on August 1, Elon Musk's enthusiastic endorsements through his "America Party" platform, and notable corporate treasury accumulations. Adding to the momentum, spot Bitcoin ETFs have amassed nearly $150B in holdings, signaling unwavering institutional confidence, helping propel prices higher. At the same time, the Token Metrics' Market Indicator has now turned bullish. 

Ethereum (ETH) stole the show among major alts, climbing 6.35% to hover above $2,780, its strongest level in almost a month. This uptick comes as ETH holds firm above key technical supports, bolstered by growing narratives around its pivotal role in tokenization and blockchain settlement layers. Not far behind, Solana (SOL) powered through a 3% jump to breach $158, shattering the $155 resistance barrier. The rally is amplified by hype surrounding potential SOL ETFs and broader bullish trends.

The excitement wasn't without pain for leveraged traders, as liquidations spiked dramatically. Short positions alone suffered $400M to $463M in losses, the biggest wipeout since May, pushing total liquidations to $527M when including longs. Bitcoin bore the brunt, with $229M to $234M erased, while Ethereum followed closely at $146M to $152M. Over 114,000 traders felt the sting, a stark reminder of the perils of high leverage in such volatile swings.

Pump.fun, the Solana-based meme coin launchpad that's raked in an impressive $716M in revenue since kicking off in January 2024, is on the cusp of its own token. The $PUMP ICO is slated for July 12-15, with the token generation event (TGE) on July 15. Priced at $0.004 per token against a massive 1 trillion total supply, it's entering the market at a whopping $4B fully diluted valuation (FDV). The sale will offload 33% of the supply, 18% privately and 15% publicly, potentially raising $1.32B overall, including $600M from the public tranche, with all tokens unlocking immediately at TGE.

Diving into the tokenomics, the breakdown includes a hefty 24% earmarked for community and ecosystem initiatives, which could fuel a much-teased airdrop valued at $960M at current FDV levels, rewarding early creators and users. Utility perks like fee rebates, buybacks, and incentives are on the table. Still, the real draw for many is the 25% revenue share directed to token holders, positioning $PUMP as a stake in the platform's ongoing success.

On the partnership front, Pump.fun has lined up listings for the ICO on major exchanges like Kraken, KuCoin, Bitget, Bybit, Gate, and MEXC. Building pre-launch hype, $PUMP perpetuals have already gone live on Hyperliquid, trading at a 40% premium over the ICO price, clocking $30M in 24-hour volume and $17M in open interest.

Community buzz on X is electric but deeply split, reflecting the high-stakes nature of this launch. Optimists rally around the airdrop potential and revenue-sharing model, envisioning $PUMP as a transformative force, think a "Web3 version of TikTok or Twitch" supercharged on Solana's speed.

However, skeptics are sounding alarms over what they dub "the great extraction," pointing to the platform's fading dominance, daily volumes have plummeted 70-75% from peaks, dipping below $100M, as competitors like Bonk.fun steal market share. The sky-high FDV, full unlock at TGE, and potential $1.6B+ in sell pressure from team and VC allocations have fueled accusations of overvaluation and liquidity traps.

Hyperliquid, the DeFi platform boasting over $1.8T in cumulative volume, is pushing forward with updates that enhance usability and expand its footprint. A significant highlight is the seamless integration of perpetual trading into Phantom, Solana's powerhouse wallet with 15M monthly active users. This allows direct perps trading on 100+ markets with up to 40x leverage via Hyperliquid's API, bridging Solana users without swaps and boosting accessibility. Winners include Phantom for expanded services and Hyperliquid for a fresh user influx.

Complementing this, Kinetiq is rolling out on HyperEVM on July 15th, unlocking advanced DeFi composability, while Etherscan's launch of HyperEVMScan brings much-needed transparency to on-chain activities. Fees from builder codes are starting to contribute to revenue, laying the groundwork for further innovation. Fees with EVM growth could be key to Hyperliquid's next adoption phase.

The decentralized perpetuals landscape took a serious hit when GMX fell prey to a re-entrancy exploit in its V1 GLP pool on Arbitrum, resulting in a staggering $40M drain. The vulnerability allowed hackers to mint excessive GLP tokens, siphoning off assets like $10M in BTC, $10M in USDC, and $8.5M in ETH, which were then bridged to Ethereum. 

In response, GMX swiftly paused V1 trading and minting, extending a 10% white-hat bounty to the attacker via an on-chain proposal in hopes of recovering funds. The incident sent $GMX token prices tumbling and added to the $2.5B in hacks reported for the first half of 2025. 

That's all for today, people. Let's talk tomorrow.

Your Friends at Token Metrics