BTC ETFs cross $17b, CrowdStrike outage

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

BTC ETFs net inflows exceed $17 billion Over the past week, spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen continuous inflows, with an increasing trend since the previous week. On July 17, ETFs recorded positive net flows of $422.5 million, the highest since June 5. Last week, these products saw net inflows of $1.197 billion, eventually surpassing $17 billion in total net inflows. WazirX hacked Indian exchange WazirX suffered an exploit on July 18 that led to the loss of $234 million across multiple crypto assets. The perpetrators immediately swapped the tokens for Ethereum (ETH). On-chain detective ZachXBT attributed the attack to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. WazirX released a statement shortly after, emphasizing that the attack involved an incompatibility issue with Liminal, which is responsible for verifying transactions for the affected multi-signature wallet. Liminal has refuted these claims. Ethereum ETF launch date Last week, the US SEC reached out to potential Ethereum ETF issuers to submit their final S-1 filings on July 17, with possible approval on July 22, barring any last-minute issues. This has increased anticipation around the upcoming ETF products. As a result, Ethereum has seen increased interest, posting a two-week gain of 15% as of July 20. BTC and CrowdStrike A CrowdStrike update caused a global outage that affected digital systems across multiple industries, including travel, banking, and media. As global operations came to a halt, some crypto industry leaders took the opportunity to highlight the advantages of decentralized systems. Pro-crypto US Senator Cynthia Lummis took to social media to emphasize Bitcoin’s immunity to such outages, saying: “You know what currency is immune to 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 totaled $33.75 million. Blockchain data resource Allium led the way with $16.5 million in Series A funding. Meanwhile, Haruko raised $6 million, fintech startup PEXX and cloud-enabling platform Nirvana Labs raised $4.5 million each. Bima Labs witnessed a pre-seed funding of $2.5 million.