Weekly Highlights: Bitcoin Soars to New Highs Amid TON Visa Confusion

Bitcoin has set a new record surpassing $119,000, the Pump.fun team held a token sale, the UAE denied issuing «golden visas» for TON holders, a hacker returned stolen assets to GMX, and other key events from the past week.

On Monday, the premier cryptocurrency began its ascent around $109,000. Throughout the week, the coin traded within a narrow range and failed to break through the resistance level.

A significant surge occurred on the evening of July 9, when Bitcoin rose to $112,000 in less than an hour, bringing it close to its previous all-time high (ATH).

The following day, Bitcoin set a new record above $113,000, marking just the first stage of its rally. During the night between July 10 and 11, the asset surpassed its ATH, briefly reaching $118,869 on Binance.

By Sunday evening, Bitcoin had once again reached a new peak at $119,376.

At the time of writing, the coin is trading near its high at approximately $118,700, having gained around 9% over the week.

Amidst Bitcoin’s rally, other major crypto assets also exhibited positive movement, with some outperforming the flagship. Ethereum climbed 18%, surpassing $3000 due to record inflows into ETFs.

XRP saw a 24% increase, while DOGE gained 21%.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index remains in the «greed» zone at a score of 74.

The overall capitalization of the cryptocurrency market reached $3.77 trillion, with Bitcoin’s dominance at 62.4%.

On July 12, the much-anticipated token sale of the Pump.fun platform, featuring the PUMP ticker, took place. This event was conducted in the form of an initial coin offering (ICO) on major centralized exchanges.

According to the tokenomics, the total supply amounted to 1 trillion PUMP. In the public sales, 15% (150 billion tokens) were sold at a price of $0.004.

The Saturday ICO wrapped up in just 12 minutes, with the platform raising $600 million.

Bybit announced that due to an unforeseen API delay, the offer ended up oversubscribed. The platform promised to double-check the final distribution and return funds to users who were unable to participate in the sale.

Exact launch dates for PUMP remain unclear.

On the premarket Hyperliquid, the coin is trading above the ICO price at around $0.006.

However, on-chain data indicates that many large traders are shorting PUMP.

Additionally, the sale took place amid the emergence of a competing platform on the Solana network — LetsBonk. On July 8, this launchpad outperformed Pump.fun in daily revenue and number of launched tokens.

Late last week, the TON Foundation announced a program for acquiring a 10-year UAE «golden visa.» Investors were offered the opportunity to stake Toncoin (TON) for $100,000 and pay a fee of $35,000 to participate.

This announcement was also reposted by Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. However, several local regulators, including the Federal Citizenship Identification Authority, the Securities and Commodities Authority, and the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), refuted the statement.

Authorities noted that «golden visas» are granted based on clearly defined criteria and are available to real estate investors, entrepreneurs, researchers, talented students, and other categories not related to digital assets.

VARA specifically pointed out that TON operates without a license and is not regulated by their agency.

Blockchain program representatives insisted on its legitimacy, but associated publications were ultimately removed. The initiative involved locking up tokens for three years with an annual yield of approximately 3-4%. Organizers promised visa approval within seven weeks.

Later, the TON Foundation clarified that the project is not affiliated with the government of the country and that the issuance of UAE «golden visas» for staking is a private initiative.

Foundation representatives added that submitting an application does not guarantee visa approval, as the decision rests with government entities. If official support for the project is obtained in the future, separate announcements will be made.

On July 9, on-chain researchers identified suspicious asset withdrawals linked to the decentralized exchange (DEX) GMX. These hacking suspicions were later confirmed by platform representatives.

The total damage was approximately $42 million, focused on the GLP pool on GMX V1 in the Arbitrum network.

Following the incident, the GMX team sent an on-chain message to the hacker offering to return the funds for a 10% bounty on the stolen assets, which the attacker accepted shortly thereafter.

The hacker sent two batches of 5.5 million FRAX and 5 million FRAX to the DEX address. Later, the hacker returned an additional approximately 9,000 ETH (~$27 million).

According to GMX’s report, the protocol was affected by a re-entry vulnerability in the OrderBook contract, allowing the hacker to manipulate the price of Bitcoin and withdraw liquidity for profit.

Following the attack, the native GMX token’s price dropped from $14 to $10 but later recovered to $13 after the assets were returned.

Block CEO Jack Dorsey unveiled a beta version of the decentralized messaging app Bitchat, which operates via Bluetooth without an internet connection.

The developer likened the new app to IRC chats from the late 1990s.

Bitchat is a fully decentralized network without central servers, requiring no accounts, emails, or phone numbers for registration. Messages are stored solely on the device and do not reach a central database. End-to-end encryption adds an extra layer of security.

Each device in Bitchat functions as both a client and a relay. Messages can «hop» between gadgets to reach distant users. Bluetooth’s range is 30 meters, and individual network clusters connect bridge nodes. Large messages are fragmented into 500-byte pieces.

«This kind of technology is directly linked to expanding access to financial services and digital technologies. It’s not about competing with traditional applications, but about creating alternatives for communities where traditional infrastructure is not always available or where bureaucratic systems create friction,» he added.

Youssef highlighted some risks associated with using a Bluetooth network, but noted that the essence lies not in eliminating vulnerabilities but in providing people with more tools and choices.

«In areas with strong infrastructure, people will stick to conventional applications. But for those experiencing disruptions, travel issues, or local restrictions, having a decentralized backup option is invaluable. The beauty of peer-to-peer tools is that they scale easily, as people use them wherever needed. This is a quiet innovation that starts locally with people and grows from there,» concluded the CEO of NoOnes.

Researchers have examined how a corrupt Bitcoin scandal in the Czech Republic may impact the political landscape of the country.