The crypto market started July 31 without a clear mood: Bitcoin and Ethereum declined, Coinkite warned Coldcard Mk3 owners about a potential threat to funds, the 2026 FIFA World Cup drove blockchain prediction markets to $20 billion, and Wintermute stated that the next altseason could be much more selective.
- Coinkite recommended that Coldcard Mk3 users treat seed phrases as potentially vulnerable.
- The 2026 FIFA World Cup brought $20 billion in trading volume to blockchain prediction markets.
- Wintermute believes institutional investment will concentrate in fewer tokens.
Bitcoin and Ethereum Start the Day With a Decline
According to TradingView, Bitcoin started the morning in the red. As of 07:35 Moscow time, the cryptocurrency was trading around $64,244. In rubles, one token was valued at about ₽5,130,351. Over the past 24 hours, the BTC low was $63,827, and the high reached $65,328.
Ethereum also started the day with a decline. At the time of writing, the coin was worth about $1,904, or roughly ₽152,048 per token.
In the top ten, the dynamics looked like this:
- BNB: +3.05% for the day, .71% for the week.
- Top-10 coins: growth within 24 hours.
- Hyperliquid: most notable weekly decline among leaders, -5.82%.
In the top 100, the spread was wider:
- Audiera: +12.96% for the day, .11% for the week.
- MemeCore: strongest daily decline, -10.17%.
- Worldcoin: most notable weekly drop, -19.40%.
Coinkite Warns Coldcard Mk3 Owners of Fund Risk
Hardware bitcoin wallet manufacturer Coinkite issued a warning for Coldcard Mk3 users. The company urged anyone who created a seed phrase on the Mk3 device with firmware 4.0.1 from March 2021 or later versions to consider their funds at risk.
According to Coinkite, the issue persisted until the final Mk3 firmware 5.0.3. Preliminary checks showed that Mk4, Q, and Mk5 models were not affected. Users who additionally protected their seed phrase with a BIP-39 password are in a less risky position.
The warning came after reports of bitcoins being withdrawn from Coldcard wallets. According to Atlas 21, about 594.5 BTC were withdrawn from 500 addresses through a series of coordinated transactions, which at that time was about $38.3 million.
Coinkite has not yet confirmed a direct link between the theft and the discovered issue. However, some experts suggest the cause could be related to weak entropy of seed phrases generated on Mk3 devices.
World Cup 2026 Brings $20 Billion to Prediction Markets
The 2026 FIFA World Cup became a major event not only for sports but also for the blockchain prediction segment. According to Chainalysis, markets related to the tournament generated $20 billion in volume, and users earned $24 million from digital collectible deals.
More than 400,000 wallets participated in blockchain betting. The total volume included deals made both before the tournament started and during matches. Markets related to the World Cup accounted for about 63% of all prediction market activity during this period.
According to Chainalysis, most of the volume came from users in the US and China. For many participants, this activity became a way to lock in expectations for match outcomes, not just an alternative to traditional sports betting.
Wintermute Expects a Narrower Altseason
The Wintermute market maker team believes the next altseason could bring profits to a smaller number of market participants. The main reason is the growing role of institutional investors, who concentrate activity in a more limited set of digital assets.
In its OTC flows report for the first half of 2026, Wintermute noted that institutional counterparties accounted for 72% of spot flow for all tokens on its OTC platform. This is a record high. In the second half of 2025, the share was 61%, and a year earlier it was 59%.
This behavior changes the rally mechanics. Institutional demand fades faster after price spikes and is less often distributed across a wide list of coins. Therefore, future altcoin growth may be more targeted than in previous cycles.
From the first half of 2024 to the first half of 2026, the number of unique tokens held by institutional clients grew by only 24%. For retail traders, the figure increased by 76%. At the same time, the interest of large players after a price spike usually faded within about a day, while retail interest lasted about three days.
Crypto Market: Basic Guidelines for Investors
The crypto market is built around digital assets that are traded on exchanges and in blockchain services. Prices change under the influence of demand, liquidity, news, actions of large players, and overall investor sentiment.
- Bitcoin: the market’s basic benchmark with high liquidity and large capitalization.
- Ethereum: one of the main infrastructure assets, tracked alongside Bitcoin.
- BNB: a top-10 representative that looked stronger than others in the morning dynamics.
- Altcoins from the top 100 can show sharp movements but require separate checks for liquidity, capitalization, and risks.
The market capitalization of a cryptocurrency shows how much the market values the circulating coins: the token price is multiplied by the number of coins in circulation. Therefore, an asset with a high price is not always larger than a competitor by capitalization.
- Altcoin — any cryptocurrency except Bitcoin.
- Stablecoin — a token whose price is pegged to a fiat currency or another asset.
- NFT — a unique digital token that can be used for collectibles.
- Crypto ETF — an exchange-traded fund through which an investor gets access to a crypto asset without directly holding the token.
How to Analyze the Crypto Market
Cryptocurrency prices are influenced by news, regulation, actions of large players, technological updates, and macroeconomics. These factors are reflected in several of the day’s news: the Coinkite warning is related to technical risk, Chainalysis data to demand for prediction markets, and Wintermute’s assessment to institutional investor behavior.
- Technical analysis helps to evaluate the chart, price levels, and movement momentum.
- Fundamental analysis looks at capitalization, liquidity, demand, product, and the project’s role in the market.
- On-chain analysis studies blockchain data: wallet activity, fund movements, and the behavior of large addresses.
Earnings, Risks, and Security
You can earn on cryptocurrency, but returns always come with risk. Popular approaches are holding, trading, staking, and farming; the choice depends on time horizon, experience, and willingness to monitor the market.
- Main risks: high volatility, weak or changing regulation, technical vulnerabilities, hacks, phishing, scam projects, and pyramids.
- Before buying, use reliable platforms, check addresses, enable two-factor protection, and start with small amounts.
- For storage, hardware or software wallets, backups, and careful handling of the seed phrase are important.
- Signs of fraud: promises of guaranteed returns, pressure for urgent payment, hidden team, requests to provide the seed phrase or connect the wallet to a suspicious service.
- Rules for handling cryptocurrency differ in Russia, the US, the EU, China, and other jurisdictions, so it is important to consider local requirements before making deals.
What This Means for Market Participants
For investors, the morning news highlights several practical guidelines:
- Carefully check hardware wallet firmware and manufacturer messages.
- Store seed phrases securely and do not share them with third-party services.
- Consider that cryptocurrency as an investment tool differs from stocks: storage security can be as important as the entry point.
- Plan in advance where and how to store digital assets.
There are several other factors in the market that may affect demand and liquidity:
- Major events can quickly increase volumes on prediction platforms.
- The behavior of large players increasingly affects altcoin dynamics.
- News about Facebook, artificial intelligence, or the Clarity Act can attract the attention of traditional investors.
- Within the crypto market, the key remains the distribution of liquidity among specific tokens.
For risk accounting, digital assets are increasingly considered separately from traditional instruments in an accounting sense. Therefore, market participants need to monitor not only the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum but also technical warnings, demand structure, and where large capital is moving.
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