AI Coins Surge 8% as Nvidia's Rally Drives Crypto Market

Ether and AI coins have stolen the spotlight from Bitcoin, with major tokens associated with artificial intelligence surging as much as 8% in the past 24 hours. This surge outpaced even the 10 largest coins by market cap, driven by the rally of chipmaker Nvidia to a market valuation of $4 trillion. Nvidia's success underscores the potential for the AI sub-sector of the crypto market to become very hot, as it can overwhelm the market's response to week-to-week fluctuations in economic data and policy headlines.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, also outshone Bitcoin amid record trading volumes in BlackRock's spot ether ETF. The rally followed Fidelity’s latest report, which highlighted Ethereum's lead over Solana and other programmable chains in terms of developer activity, total value locked (TVL), and stablecoin use. The report emphasized ether's dual role as both a medium of exchange and a store of value, narratives that have worked in Bitcoin's favor for years.

In other news, PUMP, the official token of Pump.fun, traded 40% above its upcoming ICO price, while FART, VIRTUAL, and PENGU have each logged double-digit gains. SHIB appeared poised to outperform BTC, but continued to trade on a weak footing against its rival, DOGE.

Macroeconomic factors necessitated that traders prepare for volatility. As QCP Capital astutely put it: “With a reignited trade war, a hawkish Federal Reserve, and tightening liquidity, volatility is likely to spike. Macro catalysts are lining up—so buckle up for a wild ride.”

On July 10, the Polygon Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain is set to activate the Heimdall hard fork on mainnet, reducing finality time to around 5 seconds, and bringing "faster checkpoints, smoother UX, safer bridging, and head-room for the next wave of upgrades."

On July 14, the Singapore High Court hearing on WazirX’s Scheme of Arrangement will mark a critical step in the exchange's restructuring after the $234 million hack on July 18, 2024. On July 15, Alchemist staking update launches, allowing token holders to stake ALCH for access to advanced features, premium benefits, and ecosystem rewards, potentially boosting token utility and demand. On the same day, Lynq is expected to debut its real-time, interest-bearing digital-asset settlement network for institutions. Built on Avalanche’s layer-1 blockchain and powered by Arca’s tokenized U.S. Treasury fund shares, Lynq enables instant settlement, continuous yield accrual, and improved capital efficiency.

On July 15, the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry will hold a market structure hearing titled “Stakeholder Perspectives on Federal Oversight of Digital Commodities.” On July 16, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee oversight hearing titled "Making America the Crypto Capital of the World: Ensuring Digital Asset Policy Built for the 21st Century" will take place.

On July 10, the 37th U.K.-France Summit will take place in London, where British Prime Minister and French President will discuss defense cooperation and migration management. On the same day, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics will release June consumer price inflation data. On July 10, the U.S. Department of Labor will release unemployment insurance data for the week ended July 5. On July 10, Fed Governor Christopher J. Waller will give a speech at an event hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank and the World Affairs Council. On July 10–11, the fourth Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome will bring together global leaders and stakeholders to advance Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction as the war with Russia drags on. On July 11, Statistics Canada will release June employment data.

On July 23, Tesla will release its earnings post-market. On July 29, PayPal Holdings will release its earnings pre-market. On July 30, Robinhood Markets will release its earnings post-market. On July 31, Coinbase Global and Reddit will release their earnings post-market.

Compound DAO is running multiple votes on whether to adopt an Oracle Extractable Value (OEV) solution for Ethereum Mainnet, Unichain, Base, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Scroll, Mantle, Ronin, and Linea. Delegates can choose between implementing Api3, Chainlink’s Secure Value Relay (SVR), or maintaining the current setup without OEV. Voting for all of these ends July 12. 1inch DAO is voting on a $25,000 grant proposal to research trustless cross-chain swaps between Bitcoin and Ethereum Virtual Machine networks using native Bitcoin tools like Taproot. Voting ends July 14. Aavegotchi DAO is voting on a $245,000 funding proposal to expand Gotchi Battler into a revenue-generating game with PvE modes, NFTs, and battle passes, aiming to reverse declining player numbers, boost GHST utility, and create sustainable rewards. Voting ends July 22.

On July 11, Immutable will unlock 1.31% of its circulating supply worth $11.19 million. On July 12, Aptos will unlock 1.76% of its circulating supply worth $52.14 million. On July 15, Starknet will unlock 3.79% of its circulating supply worth $15.69 million. On the same day, Sei will unlock 1% of its circulating supply worth $14.75 million. On July 16, Arbitrum will unlock 1.87% of its circulating supply worth $33.35 million. On July 18, Official TRUMP will unlock 45.35% of its circulating supply worth $833.52 million. On the same day, Fasttoken will unlock 4.64% of its circulating supply worth $88.8 million.

On July 10, JPY Coin (JPYC) will be listed on Binance. On the same day, pre-market derivatives on Pump.fun’s PUMP will launch on Binance, Aevo. On July 12, Pump.fun will launch its Initial coin offering (ICO) where 33% of the supply of PUMP will be sold. The ICO will be conducted on Bybit, Kraken, Bitget, MEXC, KuCoin, and Gate.io.

Pump.fun’s token PUMP is currently trading at $0.0056 on derivatives exchange Hyperliquid, a 40% premium to its impending ICO price of $0.004, as traders speculate on post-launch demand. The PUMP-USD perpetual contract went live on July 9 following community requests and offers up to 3x leverage. In its first 24 hours, the contract saw $30 million in trading volume, indicating strong interest despite the token not yet being live on-chain. Open interest on Hyperliquid stood at over $17 million during Asian morning hours on July 10. Activity is expected to rise further as Binance Futures introduces its own PUMP perpetual contract at 07:30 UTC today. The token sale will distribute 33% of the total 1 trillion supply, with 18% already allocated in a private round and 15% set for the public sale. Both tranches are priced at $0.004 and will be fully unlocked at launch. The project is marketing PUMP as more than a meme token — positioning it as the foundation for a decentralized Web3-native social platform that rivals TikTok, Twitch, and Facebook by rewarding users with financial benefits instead of just engagement. Since its rise in early 2024, Pump.fun has played a central role in Solana’s memecoin boom, offering frictionless token launches and capturing over $600 million in protocol revenue, largely from trading and launch fees.

BTC and ETH funding rates on offshore perpetual exchanges are holding below annualized 10% despite price rallies, indicating little signs of overheating. Ether perpetual futures open interest climbed for a fourth straight day, hitting a tally of 5.46 million ETH. Funding rates for XRP, DOGE, ADA, HYPE, and SUI topped the 10% mark, indicating a growing interest in long positions. On the CME, three-month basis in BTC futures bounced slightly to 8% from 5% early this month, but overall activity remains subdued. On Deribit, BTC and ETH call skews strengthened across tenors. However, front-end options show relatively stronger call skew. That's a sign of under-positioned traders panic buying with the price rise. OTC network Paradigm reported mixed block flows in BTC options, featuring risk reversals and put spreads. Traders bought ETH topside across tenors from July to December.

BTC is up 0.31% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $111,066.23 (24hrs: +1.99%). ETH is up 1.4% at $2,776.71 (24hrs: +6.09%). CoinDesk 20 is up 1.28% at 3,278.09 (24hrs: +3.75%). Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 22 bps at 3.19%. BTC funding rate is at 0.0083% (9.1224% annualized) on Binance.

BTC's daily chart shows that the breakout from the counter-trend channel, although encouraging, still warrants caution as prices remain below the May high of around $112K. A firm move above that level is needed to cement bullish expectations, opening doors for $115K, the long-term trendline hurdle. The positive MACD histogram supports the bull case. Still, traders need to be vigilant for a renewed weakness here as that would likely strengthen the double top narrative, leading to a self-fulfilling decline.

Strategy closed on Wednesday at $415.41 (+4.65%), -0.38% at $413.85. Coinbase Global closed at $373.85 (+5.36%), +1.34% at $378.87. Circle closed at $200.68 (-2.02%), +3.72% at $208.15. Galaxy Digital closed at $20.17 (+3.65%), +0.3% at $20.23. MARA Holdings closed at $18.46 (+5.37%), +0.81% at $18.61. Riot Platforms closed at $12.24 (+5.79%), -0.33% at $12.20. Core Scientific closed at $13.43 (-4.21%), -0.3% at $13.39. CleanSpark closed at $12.47 (+7.5%), -0.16% at $12.45. CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF closed at $25.24 (+1.37%). Semler Scientific closed at $42.32 (+1.46%), +0.14% at $42.38. Exodus Movement closed at $32.4 (+0.87%), unchanged in pre-market.

Daily net flows for Spot BTC ETFs are $215.7 million. Cumulative net flows are $50.13 billion. Total BTC holdings are approximately 1.26 million. Daily net flows for Spot ETH ETFs are $211.3 million. Cumulative net flows are $4.74 billion. Total ETH holdings are approximately 4.22 million.

Ether has replaced Bitcoin as the most active cryptocurrency in the futures market. The switch follows reports that market makers are "short gamma" in ether options and could trade in the direction of the market, adding to volatility.