Amazon — The e-commerce giant surged 10% after delivering a massive profit beat and positive guidance. Amazon’s cloud and ad businesses also reported better-than-expected revenue for the quarter.
Apple — The big tech stock slipped 3%. Apple reported earnings per share for the fiscal third quarter of $1.26, 7 cents more than expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Revenue was also above Wall Street consensus forecast higher than anticipated but was down on a year-over-year basis.
Tupperware Brands — The stock popped 44.1% during midday trading after the container maker announced a finalized debt restructuring deal, which it expects will help reduce or reallocate about $150 million of cash interest and fees. Tupperware said Thursday that the deal would give the company immediate access to a revolving borrowing capacity of about $21 million.
Bookings Holdings — Shares of the online travel company jumped 9% and hit a new 52-week after it announced its quarterly results Thursday after hours. The company posted adjusted earnings of $37.62 per share on revenue of $5.46 billion in the second quarter. Analysts polled by Refinitiv estimated earnings of $28.90 per share on revenue of $5.17 billion.
Icahn Enterprises — Shares of Carl Icahn’s conglomerate dropped a whopping 25% after the firm slashed its quarterly dividend in half amid Hindenburg Research’s campaign. The short seller had taken issue with IEP’s high dividend yield, saying it’s “unsupported” by the company’s cash flow and investment performance.
Block — The fintech company’s shares plunged 13% despite a strong quarterly report. Square reported earnings of 39 cents per share, versus the 36 cents estimate per Refinitiv. Revenue of $5.53 billion also came in higher than the expectation of $5.10 billion. Block Chairman Jack Dorsey said the company is focused on reducing costs, including pulling back on the pace of hiring.
Nikola — Shares of the electric truck maker slid 12% after the company said Friday that its CEO will step down effective immediately due to a “family health matter.” Nikola also reported second-quarter results that fell short of Refinitiv consensus estimates, with its net loss coming out to $217.8 million, or 31 cents per share, for the quarter. Late Thursday, the company had announced it won shareholder approval to issue new stock. The vote will allow Nikola to raise additional funds to support the launch of a fuel-cell-powered electric semi truck and buildout of a hydrogen refueling network in the U.S. and Canada.
Fortinet — Shares of the cybersecurity stock plummeted 23% following a mixed second-quarter report and outlook. Fortinet posted 38 cents in adjusted earnings per share, while analysts polled by Refinitiv expected 34 cents per share. The company also reported $1.29 billion in revenue, slightly under the consensus forecast on $1.3 billion. Guidance for the current quarter was similarly mixed.
Opendoor Technologies — The real-estate tech stock tumbled 19% after telling investors to expect revenue to come in lower than analysts expect in the current quarter. Opendoor said to expect between $950 million and $1 billion, while analysts surveyed by FactSet estimated $1.36 billion.
DraftKings — The sports-betting stock climbed 4% on a strong quarterly report. DraftKings reported a loss of 17 cents per share, less than the 25 cents forecasted by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Revenue came in at $875 million, better than the $764 million anticipated.
Airbnb — Shares dropped 1.3% following the company’s second-quarter earnings announcement. Although Airbnb’s earnings and revenue came above analyst estimates, its nights and experiences bookings missed expectations.
Dropbox — The online collaboration platform added 6.8% after beating Wall Street expectations in the second quarter. Dropbox posted 51 cents in adjusted earnings per share, while analysts surveyed by Refinitiv anticipated 46 cents. Revenue came in at $623 million, beating the $614 million estimate.
Redfin — The real estate tech stock dropped 20.2% on soft third-quarter revenue guidance. The company forecast third-quarter revenue between $265 million and $279 million, lower than the $288 million expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv.
Corsair Gaming — Shares fell 8.6% even though the gaming company had a strong quarter and reaffirmed full-year guidance. Earnings per share came in line with the FactSet consensus estimate at 9 cents. Corsair beat expectations for revenue, posting $325.4 million while analysts forecasted $322.8 million.
Coinbase — The crypto exchange slid 1.2% despite posting a strong second-quarter second report. The company said it lost 42 cents per share and saw $708 million in revenue in the quarter, while analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected 77 cents lost per share and revenue at $633 million.
Sprout Social — The digital media stock slid 10.8% on Friday, a day after Sprout announced its acquisition of Tagger Media, a social intelligence and influencer marketing platform.
Intercontinental Exchange — The exchange company rose 3.8% after Citi upgraded the stock to buy from neutral. The firm said the company is showing signs of improvement.
Shake Shack — Shares added 5% in midday trading. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of 18 cents on Thursday, topping the 10 cents expected from analysts polled by StreetAccount. However, revenue missed estimates. Raymond James upgraded the stock to outperform from market perform on Friday, citing the second-quarter results.
Petrobras — The Brazilian oil stock retreated 2.2% following a downgrade to neutral from overweight by JPMorgan. The firm said many positives for the stock are already reflected in its price.
The market is currently in a news-driven environment where the prices of cryptocurrencies have been determined by news agenda rather than fundamentals.
Bitfinex analysts have warned crypto investors to be cautious as bitcoin’s (BTC) recovery over the weekend is not a sign that its correction is over; the asset could witness more bloodshed in the near term.
In the latest Bitfinex Alpha report, experts deemed the market’s reaction this week critical, especially as supply alleviated over the weekend could return when traditional markets open.
“No Man’s Land”
Since Saturday, bitcoin has risen almost 10% from $57,600 to $63,000, closing last week in the green. The asset has surged above the 125-day range low of $60,200, which it broke through earlier this month after news of the German government’s massive BTC selling hit the market.
Market sentiment began to improve after reports that wallets linked to the German government were almost empty. However, the positive sentiment may not be sustained for long as the BTC the German authorities moved to trading desks and exchanges are yet to be sold.
While the supply from Germany appears to have been factored into bitcoin’s market price, Bitfinex analysts believe the end of selling pressure depends on how the involved trading desks execute their trades in the coming days.
Although the shift in sentiment underscores the market’s capacity to integrate new information and adjust expectations quickly, analysts think the market’s reaction over the first two trading days of the week cannot be overlooked for two reasons.
First, the low support level in the $60,200 range has now become a potential resistance line. Second, trading patterns over the past three months suggest that weekends are usually favorable for markets, especially on Saturdays when supply pressure seems to subside.
“We are now in no man’s land until we get clear resolution above or below this level,” the analysts said.
A News-Driven Environment
Besides the potential resistance level and three-month weekend trading pattern, the market is currently in a news-driven environment, where the prices of cryptocurrencies have been determined by news agendas rather than fundamentals.
Since selling pressure concerns are not yet completely obsolete due to upcoming Mt Gox creditor distributions, Bitfinex analysts expect such headlines to continue to have some impact on price movements. As such, the analysts urged investors to exercise caution in their trading strategies.
BlackRock’s IBIT led with $117.25 million in inflows on July 15, also being the most traded Bitcoin ETF.
The US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a daily net inflow of $301 million on July 15th. This extended their winning streak to seven consecutive days amidst a broader market recovery.
None of the ETFs recorded outflows for the day.
Bitcoin ETFs Rake in $16.11B in Net Inflows Since Jan
According to the data compiled by SoSoValue, BlackRock’s IBIT, the top spot Bitcoin ETF by net asset value, recorded the largest net inflows of the day at $117.25 million. IBIT was also the most actively traded Bitcoin ETF on Monday, with a volume of $1.24 billion. Ark Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB came in close behind with net inflows of $117.19 million.
Fidelity’s FBTC experienced net inflows of $36.15 million on Monday, while Bitwise’s BITB saw $15.24 million in inflows. VanEck’s HODL, Invesco and Galaxy Digital’s BTCO, and Franklin Templeton’s EZBC funds also recorded net inflows. Meanwhile, Grayscale’s GBTC and other ETFs, such as Valkyrie’s BRRR, WisdomTree’s BTCW, and Hashdex’s DEFI, registered no flows for the day.
A total of $2.26 billion was traded on Monday. The trading volume for these ETFs was less than in March when it exceeded $8 billion on some days. Meanwhile, these funds have collectively attracted $16.11 billion in net inflow since their January launch.
What’s Next For Bitcoin?
Earlier this month, bitcoin’s price decline was mainly due to fears of massive selling pressure from Mt. Gox and the German government’s BTC sales.
But the assassination attempt on pro-crypto former US President and presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump at Saturday’s rally seemed to spark a recovery in the world’s largest digital asset, and experts are bullish on the asset’s price trajectory going forward. Bitcoin surged more than 9% over the past week and was currently trading slightly below $64,000.
Veteran trader Peter Brandt discussed bitcoin’s price outlook, suggesting a potential major rally. He referred to a pattern he terms “Hump->Slump->Bump->Dump->Pump” and highlighted that the July 5 double top attempt was a bear trap, confirmed by the July 13 close. He sees a likely continued upward trend but warned that a close below $56,000 would negate this bullish view.
“Bitcoin $BTC could be unfolding its often-repeated Hump…Slump…Bump…Dump…Pump chart construction. Jul 5 attempt at the double top was a bear trap, confirmed by Jul 13 close. Most likely scenario now is that bears are trapped. Close below $56k negates this interpretation”
PeckShield alert reveals LI.FI’s protocol vulnerability is similar to a March 2022 attack, with the same bug recurring.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) platform LI.FI protocol has suffered an exploit amounting to over $8 million.
Cyvers Alerts reported detecting suspicious transactions within the LI.FI cross-chain transaction aggregator.
LI.FI Issues Warning After $8 Million Exploit
LI.FI confirmed the breach in a statement on July 16 via X: “Please do not interact with any http://LI.FI powered applications for now! We’re investigating a potential exploit.” The team clarified that users who did not set infinite approval are not at risk, emphasizing that only those who manually set infinite approvals seem to be affected.
According to Cyvers Alerts, more than $8 million in user funds have been stolen, with the majority being stablecoins. According to on-chain data, the hacker’s wallet holds 1,715 Ether (ETH) valued at $5.8 million and USDC, USDT, and DAI stablecoins.
Cyvers Alerts advised users to revoke relevant authorizations immediately, noting that the attacker is actively converting USDC and USDT into ETH.
Crypto security firm Decurity provided insights into the exploit, stating that it involves the LI.FI bridge. “The root cause is a possibility of an arbitrary call with user-controlled data via depositToGasZipERC20() in GasZipFacet, which was deployed 5 days ago,” Decurity explained on X.
“In general, the risks behind routers, cross-chain swaps, etc. are about token approvals. Raw native assets like (unwrapped) ETH are safe from these kinds of hacks b/c they don’t have approvals as an option. Most users & wallets also no longer do “infinite approvals” which gives a smart contract total control on removing any amount of their tokens. It’s important to understand which tokens you’re approving to which contracts.
This dashboard looks for all transactions of a user that intersects Lifi. Not all of these transactions indicate risk- but you can see how, broadly, integrations & layers of tech (like how Metamask bridge uses Lifi on BSC) can complicate how users do or don’t put their assets at risk. Revoke Cash is the most well known approval manager app.
But it’s also good security practice to simply rotate your address. New addresses start with 0 approvals, so starting fresh by moving your tokens to a fresh address is another good security practice.” – commented Carlos Mercado, Data Scientist at Flipside Crypto.
Recent Exploit Mirrors March 2022 Attack
Further analysis by PeckShield alert revealed that the vulnerability is similar to a previous attack on LI.FI’s protocol that occurred on March 20, 2022. That incident saw a bad actor exploit LI.FI’s smart contract, specifically the swapping feature, before bridging.
The attacker manipulated the system to call token contracts directly within their contract’s context, making users who had given infinite approval vulnerable. This exploit resulted in the theft of approximately 205 ETH from 29 wallets, affecting tokens such as USDC, MATIC, RPL, GNO, USDT, MVI, AUDIO, AAVE, JRT, and DAI.
“The bug is basically the same. Are we learning anything from the past lesson(s)?” PeckShield Alert said in a July 16 X post.
Following the 2022 incident, LI.FI disabled all swap methods in its smart contract and worked on developing a fix to prevent future vulnerabilities. However, the recurrence of a similar exploit raises concerns about the platform’s security measures and whether adequate steps were taken to address the vulnerabilities identified in the previous breach.
LI.FI is a liquidity aggregation protocol that allows users to trade across various blockchains, venues, and bridges.
