Bitcoin (BTC) starts August losing ground, declining 2% Tuesday morning to add to July’s 4% retreat. The price dropped to as low as $28,800, its weakest level since mid-June, while altcoins took a larger hit with Solana’s SOL falling 5%, Optimism’s OP 8% and Stellar XLM 6%. The broad CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) is off 1.9%. In traditional markets, U.S. stock futures retreated slightly from 16-month highs as caution prevailed after a five-month winning streak. The pull back came after a number of companies reported disappointing second quarter earnings.

Bitcoin 24 hour price chart

Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain, stepped in to support the Curve Finance (CRV) token price in a move that could protect a massive loan tied to the decentralized exchange’s founder Michael Egorov from being liquidated. Blockchain data from Tuesday shows Sun purchased about 5 million CRV from a wallet tagged “Curve.fi Founder” at an average price of $0.40 (just over $2.3 million) in an over-the-counter transaction. While Sun paid well below curve’s $0.59 trading price at writing time on Tuesday, it is more than the $0.37 price level at which Egarov’s loan could be liquidated. Curve Finance, a stablecoin swapping giant, suffered a Sunday exploit that drove down the price of the CRV token, putting $168 million of Egorov's holdings at risk of being liquidated.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued internet marketer Richard Schueler, known online as Richard Heart, and his projects Hex, PulseChain and PulseX, alleging he raised over $1 billion across three different unregistered securities offerings. Heart also defrauded his investors, the SEC alleged in its Monday lawsuit, by using investor funds for personal goods. "Heart continually touted these investments as a pathway to grandiose wealth for investors, claiming that Hex, for example, 'was built to be the highest appreciating asset that has ever existed in the history of man,'" the lawsuit read. "Although Heart claimed these investments were for the vague purpose of supporting free speech, he did not disclose that he used millions of dollars of PulseChain investor funds to buy luxury goods for himself."

Decentralized exchange Curve's CRV token continues to lose ground as the looming threat of potential large liquidation of the founder's borrowed position has traders piling into short positions.

Early Tuesday, the cryptocurrency fell to around 50 cents, reaching the lowest since Nov. 22, according to CoinDesk data. Prices are down roughly 30% since Curve fell victim to a reentrancy attack late Sunday.

The notional open interest in perpetual futures tied to CRV has doubled to $106 million alongside deeply negative funding rates, according to data source Velo. This is generally a sign of traders shorting or betting on a price decline.

- Omkar Godbole