Weekly Recap: Ethereum Surges Ahead While Russia Proposes Penalties for Crypto Transactions

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has outperformed the largest by trading volume, with a rally beginning in the NFT market. In Russia, discussions about introducing fines for crypto payments have emerged, Tron has listed on Nasdaq, alongside other significant events from the past week.

The last seven days have been relatively quiet for the cryptocurrency market. In the first half of the week, Bitcoin traded within a range of $118,000 to $120,000, reaching a peak on Wednesday.

However, following that peak, a correction occurred. On Thursday, Bitcoin sharply dropped from $119,000 to $115,000, a decrease of about 3%. This downturn was triggered by the selling of 30,000 BTC worth approximately $3.5 billion by Galaxy Digital.

As of now, the price of Bitcoin has recovered to around $118,000, similar to the level at the beginning of the week.

In the meantime, Ethereum exhibited stronger performance. While Bitcoin’s price remained relatively stable over the week, its closest competitor gained 2%. Moreover, the impact of Galaxy’s sale on Ethereum prices was significantly weaker, with ETH now trading at approximately $3,800.

For the first time in a long while, Ethereum has surpassed Bitcoin in trading volume. Currently, the 24-hour trading figures for the two cryptocurrencies stand at $23 billion and $22.5 billion, respectively.

However, analysts from Santiment have raised concerns about potential correction risks in altcoins. Experts noted that Ethereum’s preceding rally has led to a surge in social media mentions, indicating “extreme euphoria” and signaling possible declines.

Over the past month, ETH’s price has surged by 50%, recovering 150% from its April lows. Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, attributed this trend to a «demand shock» and suggested the potential for further growth.

Among other major cryptocurrencies, BNB recorded a positive week, testing its historical high of $800. Solana also approached $200 but corrected to $180 by the week’s end.

The total market capitalization of digital assets is now $3.97 trillion, with Bitcoin’s dominance at 59%.

The cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index currently stands at 73.

Following the recent market uptick, the non-fungible token (NFT) segment has also begun to revive. According to CryptoSlam, trading volumes in this sector reached $225.7 billion last week, reflecting a growth of about 45%.

The number of NFT buyers was recorded at 478,522, while there were 299,370 sellers. The market capitalization exceeded $6.35 billion.

One of the triggers for the growth of the NFT sector was a substantial purchase on OpenSea, where an anonymous buyer acquired 45 tokens from the CryptoPunks collection for over 2080 ETH (approximately $7.8 million).

Analysts at LVRG Research believe the NFT market is gaining momentum amidst the broader bullish trend. Traders are returning to leading projects like CryptoPunks, seeing them as undervalued.

Vincent Liu, the investment director at Kronos Research, added that this large purchase indicates the strength of “blue chips” and an increasing appetite from major players.

This perspective was confirmed by public company GameSquare, which bought an NFT from the CryptoPunk collection for $5.15 million from the previous owner, Robert Leshner, founder of Superstate and Compound.

However, since the transaction took place in the over-the-counter market, it didn’t affect overall market metrics, with the company paying with its preferred shares.

On July 24, shares of Tron Inc. were listed on Nasdaq, linked to the Tron blockchain. The protocol’s founder Justin Sun initiated the trading session by ringing the opening bell.

The listing emerged from a merger with SRM Entertainment.

“With Justin Sun stepping in as our global advisor and our ongoing expansion of treasury assets based on blockchain, this moment emphasizes our long-term vision to increase shareholder value through innovation and strategic leadership,” stated Rich Miller, CEO of Tron Inc.

Currently, the firm’s stocks are trading around $9.60.

Rumors about Tron’s stock market release began circulating in mid-June, leading to a 9% rise in the TRX token. However, it showed little reaction to the official announcement, with token prices presently near $0.32.

This week, there was also a “stock market advancement” for Jack Dorsey’s Block company, which officially entered the S&P 500 index.

“This marks an important milestone, showcasing the resilience of our business and the efforts of thousands of people creating tools to enhance economic opportunities across all our products—Square, Cash App, Afterpay, TIDAL, Proto, and Bitkey,” the company announced.

Simultaneously, Block launched a pilot project for real-time Bitcoin payments within the Square app.

The Deputy Director of Rosfinmonitoring, Anton Lisitsyn, announced plans for full integration of Russian banks into their «Transparent Blockchain» service by the end of 2025, which will aim to connect clients with cryptocurrency transactions.

Lisitsyn indicated that the pilot project is in the final stages of approval.

The tool is intended to standardize information exchange between banks for conducting crypto compliance and anti-money laundering measures, while also minimizing risks of disclosing confidential information.

The «Transparent Blockchain» system will be integrated into personal account systems, with customization options to meet banking needs.

Lisitsyn noted a significant increase in the number of suspicious operations involving cryptocurrencies over the past three years. However, thanks to the new technology, the agency has made considerable progress in financial investigations related to these cases.

Meanwhile, Anatoly Aksakov, head of the financial market committee, announced plans to introduce fines for using cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services starting in 2026.

According to him, fines for individuals could range from 100,000 to 200,000 rubles, while for legal entities, the fines may reach between 700,000 and 1 million rubles. Cryptocurrencies used for payments are also set to be confiscated.

Aksakov stated that the main aim of this initiative is to combat shadow transactions.

“The essence of the prohibition is that it is not permissible to accept digital currency as payment for the delivery of goods, performance of work, or provision of services,” he noted.

Primarily, the restrictions will target legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, while ordinary users may find themselves in more ambiguous situations.

“If an individual cannot provide a clear and understandable explanation of where their cryptocurrency came from, which led to the rubles in their account, they could potentially face fines,” he added.

Receiving salaries in cryptocurrency also carries risks, as Tuqarin stated that salary payments in Russia are only permissible in rubles.

Lawyer and founder of Cartesius, Ignat Likhunov, emphasized that fines are ineffective in practice since the state cannot physically track every P2P transfer or cash payment.

On July 26, the mining difficulty of Bitcoin increased by 1.07%. Although the growth was minimal, the metric reached a record high of 127.62 TH.

The network’s hash rate surpassed 1 ZH/s, and the average time between blocks decreased to nearly 9 minutes.

According to Glassnode, the seven-day moving average of the blockchain’s computational power is nearing its maximum at 943 EH/s.

Following the recalibration of difficulty, the hash price fell to $58.8 per PH/s per day.

Despite the rise in difficulty, a solo miner successfully mined block #907,283 on the Bitcoin network, earning 3.154 BTC (about $372,773) in rewards and fees.

The participant utilized the CKpool platform and mined coins on a rig with a hash rate of 49 TH/s. The chances of such an occurrence are roughly 1 in 130,000 daily.

Can we trace where the digital trail ends? Grigory Osipov, Director of Investigations at Shard, explains.