The crypto market’s bearish slide in June began showing signs of recovery this week, as bullish news revived investor interest across a variety of altcoins.

Chief among those coins is Solana (SOL)—one of the biggest cryptocurrencies after Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

The latter assets were down another 5% and 3% respectively over the past week, with another old-school Bitcoin whale deciding to take profits while the market is up. By contrast, SOL leaped by an impressive 6% this week to over $142 thanks to VanEck pitching the first-ever application for a U.S.-based Solana ETF.

VanEck’s logic was simple: If regulators consider Ethereum a commodity worthy of an ETF, then surely Solana also ticks all necessary boxes as well. It’s a prevalent bullish thesis for altcoin investors, eager for a taste of the Wall Street inflows that Bitcoin ETFs enjoyed earlier this year. And 21Shares followed up with its own Solana ETF filing on Friday, continuing the buzz.

VanEck Files for Solana ETF in US, Following Bitcoin and Ethereum Approvals

VanEck filed an S-1 registration statement on Thursday for its “VanEck Solana Trust”—the first public attempt to launch a spot Solana (SOL) ETF in the United States. The prospectus states that the product will be an “exchange-traded fund” designed to “reflect the performance of the price of Solana” by backing the Trust’s shares directly with SOL tokens. VanEck intends to list the ETF on the Cboe BZX Exchange. “Neither the Trust nor the Sponsor… will engage in any action where any portion of the...

Riding the same excitement, alternative runner-up smart contract platforms including Cardano (ADA), Avalanche (AVAX) and Polkadot (DOT) also rose approximately 5.5%, 11%, and 7% respectively.

Meanwhile, the Telegram-linked Toncoin (TON) recovered some of its gains from earlier this month following a steep correction last week, rising over 5% in the last seven days. It has now successfully eclipsed Dogecoin as the 9th largest crypto by market cap.

Another coin to see market-defying gains this week was Kaspa (KAS)—a top 25 crypto by market cap that exploded 23% this week after Marathon Digital announced that it was mining the cryptocurrency. The miner has now produced $15 million worth of KAS since September 2023, with its dedicated ASICs generating 95% gross profits on its efforts in some cases.

Blast Airdrop Puts $354 Million in the Wallets of Users—So Why Are They Mad?

Ethereum layer-2 network Blast’s hotly anticipated airdrop finally went live on Wednesday morning, gifting users hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free tokens.  But within minutes, many airdrop claimants immediately began selling off their BLAST bags, pushing the token’s price down and leading many to express disappointment in the token giveaway that many apparently assumed would be multitudes larger in scale.  BLAST’s token debuted at a price of roughly $0.025 this morning, putting the 1...

Blast (BLAST) was a major focus for traders this week, as the token tied to the Ethereum layer-2 network finally launched alongside a sizable airdrop that put $354 million into the wallets of users—though there was some initial disappointment among the Crypto Twitter chatter amid expectations of larger bags for early supporters.

Still, the airdrop indeed enriched many users, and BLAST started to bounce back after significant selloffs. It's currently down 29% from this week's peak, at a price of nearly $0.021, giving it a market cap around $360 million.

Degens Have Wagered $7 Million on President Joe Biden Dropping Out of Race

There's now more than $7 million wagered on U.S. President Joe Biden dropping out of the election on crypto betting site Polymarket. And after his performance during the first 2024 Presidential Election debate against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, the odds that he will leave the race have spiked to 38%. Meanwhile, the biggest political betting pool on the site—$191 million that's being wagered on the winner of the election—now shows a 63% chance that Trump will win in November. Th...

Perhaps most volatile this week, however, were the political meme coins. Following what was widely viewed as a disappointing debate performance from President Joe Biden, the Solana-based “Jeo Boden” (BODEN) token tanked 52% in a single day—alongside Biden’s re-election odds, at least per crypto bettors.

Donald Trump, who many crypto advocates viewed as the victor of the debate despite his persistent falsehoods, also saw his “Doland Tremp” (TREMP) token plunge late Thursday into Friday—though it's still up 13% on the week.

Edited by Andrew Hayward