BTC ETFs cross $17b, CrowdStrike outage, WazirX suffers $234m hack, ETH ETFs launch date | Weekly Recap

Last week, total net inflows for spot Bitcoin ETFs surpassed $17 billion; the CrowdStrike global outage sparked discussions about decentralized systems; crypto exchange WazirX suffered a $234 million exploit; spot Ethereum ETFs readied for launch on July 23; and Allium raised $16.5 million in funding. Our Weekly Recap covers it all:

BTC ETFs net inflows cross $17 billion

• Throughout last week, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw sustained inflows, a trend that spilled from the previous week. On July 17, the ETFs recorded a positive netflow of $422.5 million, the highest since June 5.
• Over the last week, these products saw $1.197 billion in net inflows, eventually surpassing $17 billion in total net inflows.

WazirX hacked

• Indian exchange WazirX suffered an exploit on July 18, leading to losses amounting to $234 million across multiple crypto assets. The perpetrators immediately swapped the tokens for Ethereum (ETH). On-chain sleuth ZachXBT attributed the hack to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
• WazirX released a statement shortly after, stressing that the hack involved a mismatch issue with Liminal, who was responsible for verifying transactions related to the affected multi-sig wallet. Liminal debunked these claims.

Ethereum ETF launch date

• Last week, the U.S. SEC reached out to prospective Ethereum ETF issuers to submit their final S-1 applications on July 17, with a possible approval on July 22 if there are no last-minute issues.
• This bolstered the anticipation around the upcoming ETF products. Consequently, Ethereum witnessed increased interest, recording a two-week increase of 15% as of July 20.

BTC and CrowdStrike

• A CrowdStrike update triggered a global outage affecting digital systems across multiple sectors, including travel, banking and media. 
• As global operations reached a standstill, some crypto industry leaders leveraged the opportunity to spotlight the advantages of decentralized systems. Pro-crypto U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis highlighted Bitcoin’s immunity to such outages, stating on social media: “Do you know what form of currency hasn’t been affected by widespread cyber outages? Bitcoin. Vires in Numeris.”

Crypto startups raise $33.75 million 

• Despite a slow week for crypto VC funding, some of the largest rounds amounted to a combined $33.75 million. Blockchain data resource Allium led with $16.5 million in Series A funding.
• Meanwhile, Haruko secured $6 million, FinTech startup PEXX and cloud-providing platform Nirvana Labs each raised $4.5 million. Bima Labs witnessed a pre-seed funding of $2.5 million.