CMC Market Pulse delivers actionable market insights, giving you all the key narratives and developments you need in under 5 minutes.
Market Overview 📉
*Data as of 6:45 AM UTC on July 24, 2026.
Bitcoin (BTC) gained strength again this week, climbing 4.16%, while Ethereum (ETH) trailed close behind, finishing the week up 2.98%. Total crypto market cap rose again, rising to $2.22T, up 2.30% from $2.17T in the week before.
Weekly liquidations continue to stay contained, with this week’s pattern mirroring the prior week. Short liquidations rose early in the week, with sentiment turned against the longs closing to the end of the week. Funding rates largely remained unchanged across the week, mostly remaining in healthy positive or slight negative values.
📌 Michael Saylor’s Strategy increases their USD reserve by another $225M through share sales, bringing their USD reserve to $3.2B. - Link
📌 S&P and Pantera collaborate to release the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index, an index focused on productive assets and fundamentals in the crypto space. - Link
📌 Tokenized stocks provider, xStocks, expands from U.S. equities to include Hong Kong equities, supported by GTN Global. - Link
Why does it matter?
The crypto market pushes higher, in spite of the weakness in equities triggered by AI capex fears and the escalating conflict in Iran. The S&P 500 is down 0.53% over the past week, while the Nasdaq fared slightly better, down only 0.01% in the same period.
Notable altcoin outperformers this week included BuildOn (B), Zama (ZAMA), Re (RE), Audiera (BEAT), and Billions Network (BILL).
Narrative of the Week 📰
The CLARITY Act covering crypto market structure sees several core developments this week, with investors and traders watching the changes for a positive market catalyst.
📌 The Senate Republicans have released a new version of the bill, covering ethics, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), and more. - Link
📌 The latest version of the bill also covers an entirely new section, focusing on law enforcement’s ability to investigate crypto-related crime. - Link
📌 A key group of Senate Democrats publicly oppose the latest draft of the Clarity Act, stating that they are working to revise the bill especially in regard to ethics and conflict of interests. - Link
Why does it matter?
Despite the slow progression and the back and forth, investors remain optimistic on the developments surrounding the CLARITY Act, with prediction market odds on it passing this year slowly rising.
Major Project Updates 🗓️
📌 Hyperliquid announces plans to open up permissionless deployments of HIP-4 outcome markets, with a requirement of 500K HYPE tokens staked, which follows the requirements for HIP-3 market deployment. - Link
📌 BitMEX announces plans to shut down, with effect from 23 September 2026, in a surprising announcement from the exchange. - Link
📌 MVMT Labs, the original company behind the Movement L1 chain, has filed for bankruptcy. The Movement L1 will continue to be developed by Move Industries, which is unaffected. - Link
📌 Pump.fun introduces BOOST Mode, which reinjects dead liquidity, which is created during the migration, back in for 5 minutes after migration. BOOST Mode is active by default on all new launches. - Link
📌 MegaETH incubator, MegaMafia has been sunsetted, with the team deciding to redirect funds and effort from third-party teams to first-party applications. - Link
📌 Privacy AI network, Venice, announces new tokenomics upgrades for the VVV token, using $5 of every $100 spent on credits to buyback and burn VVV tokens, in addition to a supply target raise on the DIEM token. - Link
📌 Ethereum Name Service (ENS) DAO passes a proposal to activate its new security council for the next 2 years, which has the power to veto any malicious transaction that passes, but before its execution. - Link
Why does it matter?
With the rise in prediction markets, driven by increased interest in sports betting, Hyperliquid’s move to permissionless deployment could create the catalyst necessary for it to seize greater market share, especially with how permissionless deployment paid off for HIP-3.
DeFi Brief 🏦
*Data as of 6:45 AM UTC on July 24, 2026.
📌 A bridge operated by derivatives exchange, AFX, has been exploited for $24M in USDC. Bridge operations have been suspended until further notice. - Link
📌 Allbridge has been exploited on Solana for $1.65M, with the proceeds bridged to Ethereum and swapped to ETH. - Link
📌 Across protocol was attacked on Solana, resulting in losses to the relayer, which is operated by the Across team. User funds are unaffected and bridging has been resumed. - Link
📌 Lending protocol, Morpho, launches Morpho Midnight, their fixed-rate lending arm, on Base, with more networks to follow. - Link
Why does it matter?
A series of bridge hacks over the past week has raised fears once again in the DeFi space, especially with the increased attack vectors derived from AI advancements.
Fundraises 💰
📌 Centralized exchange, Crypto.com, raises $400M in a strategic investment from Citadel Securities. - Link
📌 Decentralized AI network, DGrid AI, raises $5M in a seed round with investors including Paramita Capital, Waterdrip Capital, IoTeX, and Zenith Capital. - Link
📌 AI-native clearing bank, Augustus, raises $180M in a Series B funding round led by Tiger Global, with support from Hummingbird Ventures, QED Investors, and more. - Link
📌 Privacy-first institutional blockchain, Digital Asset, raises $10M in a funding round from SC Ventures and Shinhan Financial Group. - Link
Tweet of the Week 📝
Source: @Icebergy
The end of an era.
