Answer Box: Iran's Revolutionary Guard Navy announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, while Robinhood Chain has recorded over 38.72 million transactions and 1.09 million addresses in its first 10 days. Separately, a price oracle attack on Hedera-based lending protocol Bonzo Finance resulted in approximately $9 million in losses.
Iran Closes Strait of Hormuz, Raising Geopolitical Tensions
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy declared the Strait of Hormuz closed to all vessels until further notice, citing US interference and a warning shot fired at a ship attempting an unauthorized route. The statement warned of a "fierce response" if the US retaliates, targeting more American bases in the Middle East. Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei reiterated in a written message that Iran will continue its political course, holding the US and Israel responsible for past incidents and vowing revenge.
Robinhood Chain Surpasses Solana in Daily DEX Volume
Robinhood Chain, launched just 10 days ago, has already processed over 38.72 million transactions and attracted more than 1.09 million addresses, according to on-chain analyst Ai姨. In the last 24 hours alone, the chain handled 12.11 million transactions and generated 193.71 ETH in fees. Its ecosystem meme coin CASHCAT has reached a market cap of nearly $200 million. Dune data shows that Robinhood Chain's daily DEX trading volume has surpassed that of Solana.
Bonzo Finance Loses $9M in Oracle Attack
Hedera-based lending protocol Bonzo Finance suffered an oracle attack, losing approximately $9 million. The attacker exploited a vulnerability in Supra's on-chain oracle validator to inflate the price of SAUCE tokens, then borrowed 6.63 million USDC and 34.5 million wHBAR against the inflated collateral. Supra confirmed the bug and has since fixed it. In Q2 2026, the crypto industry saw 83 security incidents with total losses of about $755 million, while DeFi total value locked fell from ~$115 billion in January to just over $70 billion by June.
LAB Team Accused of Market Manipulation; Token Drops 53%
On-chain sleuth ZachXBT revealed that the LAB team appears to be manipulating the market, with associated addresses receiving over 196 million LAB tokens from the team in April 2026. The entity still holds about 81.5 million LAB. In the past two days, the "LAB whale" transferred 18.5 million LAB ($18.69 million) to Aster, causing the token price to drop 53% from $1.20 to $0.56. ZachXBT criticized the team's opaque private sales and vesting arrangements, as well as exchanges' failure to act on suspected manipulation.
Macro Outlook: CPI and Fed Testimony to Drive Markets
Next week's macro focus includes Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's congressional testimony, US CPI data, and multiple Fed speakers. Key events: Fed Governor Christopher Waller and ADP employment data on Tuesday; New York Fed President John Williams on Wednesday; the Fed's Beige Book, jobless claims, and retail sales on Thursday; and Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson and industrial production on Friday. The interplay between interest rate expectations and geopolitical risks will likely determine gold's trajectory.
AI Giants Could Reshape IPO Market
A report by the National Venture Capital Association and PitchBook suggests that if SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI all go public, their combined enterprise value could exceed the total exit value of all US venture-backed companies since 2000. SpaceX is valued at about $1.77 trillion, while Anthropic and OpenAI are approaching trillion-dollar valuations, potentially totaling over $4 trillion. Last year, US IPO proceeds were roughly $70 billion, raising questions about market capacity for such large listings.
Bitcoin Nears Cyclical Bottom, Analysts Say
Bitfinex Alpha reports that despite Strategy's first major Bitcoin sale, the market has shown resilience with no significant sell pressure. Currently, about 10.83 million BTC are in unrealized loss, while 9.22 million BTC remain profitable. With ETF flows turning positive and long-term holders reaccumulating, Bitcoin appears to be shifting from low-confidence to high-confidence investors. The next two to three months could confirm a cyclical bottom. Bitcoin has risen nearly 10% in July, its best start in four years, but analysts warn of a potential repeat of the 2022 bear market in August.
Ethereum Shows Strong July Start; AI Finds Validator Bug
Ethereum is up about 11% in July, historically averaging a 43% gain in bullish Julys versus a 5% decline in bearish ones. Institutional infrastructure buildout, roadmap upgrades, and corporate accumulation could drive a new cycle, according to Sharplink's Steven Ehrlich. Separately, the Ethereum Foundation's security team used an AI agent to discover a vulnerability in the gossipsub protocol that could remotely crash validator nodes. The bug, now patched as CVE-2026-34219, highlights AI's potential in security but also the need for human review to filter false positives.
Other Notable Developments
- Phantom mobile app has resumed normal operation after performance issues with send and swap functions.
- Elon Musk unfollowed Meta's chief AI scientist and Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang on X.
- Citrini analyst Jukan suggests Nvidia's next-generation Rubin architecture may face further delays, though Nvidia has not officially commented.
- A whale has withdrawn 49,407 ETH and 250 WBTC (~$99.86 million) from Binance since June 30.
- Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) has updated its IPO coaching progress report, with CITIC Securities and CITIC Construction leading a 31-person team.
- Global sovereign wealth funds are increasingly prioritizing AI and semiconductor investments as strategic national assets, according to IE University.
- Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan noted that US Treasury Secretary Bessent's speech included digital assets, stablecoins, and tokenization as part of "next-generation economic rules," signaling crypto's integration into future financial systems.