The Daily: Solana hits $200 as broader altcoin market heats up, and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter,  The Daily , which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Wednesday! With the price of ether now less than 3% below its all-time high, is the oft-fortold alt season finally upon us, or is this just another bull trap? We'll find out soon enough.

In today's newsletter, a wallet that previously dealt with the Ethereum Foundation offloads millions of dollars worth of ETH amid its latest price rise, Solana jumps 15% to reclaim $200, Grayscale registers Cardano and Hedera Trust ETF entities, and more.

Meanwhile, the Norway sovereign wealth fund's indirect bitcoin exposure grows to 7,161 BTC as its Strategy holdings surpass $1 billion.

Let's get started.

Wallet with past dealings with Ethereum Foundation offloads $12 million in ETH: on-chain analyst

A wallet that previously dealt with the Ethereum Foundation has sold roughly 2,795 ETH worth $12.7 million amid the second-largest cryptocurrency's move toward all-time highs.

• The wallet executed two sales on Wednesday, offloading 1,695 ETH for $7.7 million in DAI, then another 1,100 ETH for around $5 million, Lookonchain noted.
• The wallet originally received 20,756 ETH from the "EF 1" address in 2017 and now holds just 99.9 ETH, worth about $465,000.
• Hsiao-Wei Wang, co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, clarified that this was not an EF operation.
• Ether gained over 5% during the past 24 hours to trade above $4,700 — a yearly high.
• Meanwhile, U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs added another $523.9 million in net inflows on Tuesday following their record-breaking $1.02 billion haul on Monday.

Solana jumps 15% to reclaim $200 as altcoin market heats up

Solana surged 15% in 24 hours to reclaim the $200 level on Wednesday morning as optimism spreads across the altcoin space.

• The psychological and technical milestone signals renewed investor confidence and stronger market liquidity, Kronos Research Chief Investment Officer Vincent Liu told The Block.
• SOL has significantly underperformed against ETH in recent weeks, though ether's latest move has seemingly reignited interest in the crypto market more generally, with XRP, BNB, DOGE, and ADA posting significant gains.
• Like Ethereum, Solana may also be benefiting from the plethora of new digital asset treasury companies that have raised and bought billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies in recent weeks.

Grayscale registers Cardano, Hedera Trust ETF entities, signaling potential S-1 filings

Crypto asset manager Grayscale registered Cardano Trust ETF and Hedera Trust ETF entities in Delaware on Tuesday.

• The SEC has already acknowledged NYSE Arca's 19b-4 filing for Grayscale's spot Cardano ETF and Nasdaq's similar filing for Grayscale's Hedera ETF, with past Delaware registrations often preceding official S-1 filings with the agency.
• Also on Tuesday, Grayscale launched two investment trusts offering exposure to the native tokens of DeepBook and Walrus, both of which provide trading and data infrastructure within the Sui blockchain ecosystem.
• U.S. investment managers are continuing to push ahead with altcoin ETF proposals, bolstered by SEC regulatory clarity and its new Project Crypto initiative.

Standard Chartered analysts raise Ethereum year-end price target to $7,500

Standard Chartered raised its Ethereum year-end price target from $4,000 to $7,500 and its 2028 target from $7,500 to $25,000.

• The bank's analysts said the backdrop for the world's second-largest cryptocurrency had "improved dramatically" thanks to aggressive buying by corporate treasuries, strong ETF inflows, new U.S. stablecoin rules, and renewed technical roadmap momentum.
• Ethereum treasury firms and spot ETFs have bought roughly 3.8% of the circulating ether supply since early June, nearly double the comparable pace from a Bitcoin perspective.
• Policy support from the GENIUS Act and stablecoin growth on Ethereum bolster fee revenue and DeFi activity, strengthening ETH's investment case alongside the network's Layer 1 and Layer 2 expansion plans, the analysts said.

Bitcoin-based memecoin launchpad Odin.fun exploited for over $7 million

Bitcoin-based memecoin launchpad and trading platform Odin.fun was drained of 58.2 BTC , worth about $7 million, in a liquidity manipulation exploit targeting its automated market-making tool.

• Co-founder Bob Bodily said the project's treasury cannot fully cover the losses, but the team is working on a "concrete plan" to compensate affected users alongside conducting a new audit.
• Odin.fun is coordinating with U.S. law enforcement, crypto exchanges, overseas authorities, and security teams to help recover funds and pursue the perpetrators.

In the next 24 hours

• UK GDP data are released at 2 a.m. ET on Thursday. Eurozone GDP figures follow at 5 a.m. U.S. PPI and jobless claims numbers are due at 8:30 a.m.
• U.S. FOMC member Thomas Barkin will speak at 2 p.m.

The article has been updated throughout to reflect the EF's clarification about the wallet's ownership.

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