The crypto market at a crossroads: digest of key events from August 3
The morning of August 3 greets us with a mixed picture: Bitcoin and Ethereum are correcting, the industry is shaken by a hardware wallet security scandal, and the South Korean market shows a worrying trend of stablecoin outflows. We break down the key events that will set the tone for the upcoming trading week.
Market dynamics: cautious decline among leaders
As of 07:35 (Moscow time), Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $62,917 (about ₽4,999,774). Over the past 24 hours, the minimum price was $62,732, and the maximum was $63,714. Ethereum (ETH) is also showing a decline, sitting at $1,860 (about ₽147,803). In the top 10 by market cap, BNB shows the best performance over the day and week (-0.19% and +1.74%, respectively). The biggest losses over 24 hours are for Ethereum (-0.92%), and over the week—for Hyperliquid (-12.89%).
In the top 100, the growth leader over the day is MemeCore (+11.78%), and over the week—Cardano (+11.96%). Among the laggards, the token 币安人生 (-8.56%) stands out for the day, and Stable (-16.87%) for the week.
A cold shower for the industry: the Coldcard bug
Kraken exchange's Chief Security Officer Nick Percoco stated that the recently disclosed vulnerability in Coldcard hardware wallets is a "wake-up call" for all manufacturers. The issue, which existed since March 2021, arose from an error during the transition to a new cryptographic library: wallet generation accidentally went through a weaker MicroPython generator. This case raises a fundamental question about the quality of testing in the hardware security industry.
South Korea: 18th month of stablecoin outflows
According to data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), in June, 560.3 billion won ($367 million) in stablecoins leaked from South Korea to foreign exchanges. The country's five largest crypto exchanges—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax—withdrew 2.7 trillion won ($1.81 billion) abroad, receiving back 2.2 trillion won ($1.44 billion). This marks the 18th consecutive month. Market participants link this to demand for products unavailable locally: foreign derivatives, tokenized real-world assets, DeFi, and staking.
BNB Chain initiates legal proceedings against former employee
The BNB Chain blockchain ecosystem is beginning litigation with a former employee who allegedly used unauthorized access to a wallet to launch a memecoin. According to Lookonchain, this concerns the token Asteroid Shiba (ASTEROID). The wallet was initially created for a video about token launches, but the departed employee retained access to the seed phrase and used the address to create a new asset.
My take: The Coldcard case is not just a one-off incident but a systemic trust problem. If even the "gold standard" of hardware wallets fails, users should reconsider their security protocols. As for South Korea, the 18-month stablecoin outflow points to a structural shift: local investors are increasingly seeking returns on global markets, and this trend is unlikely to stop without regulatory changes.