Plus: Galaxy says altcoins are stealing BTC's mojo

GM. Forget your daily vitamins; this blend's got news, memes, and a sprinkle of sass.

On the menu today:

👀 Linea airdrop controversy.

🍍 Top coin vibe check.

🍋 The best crypto futures trading platforms, thoughts on why Bitcoin's stuck + more

👀 LINEA controversy

Back in 2022, Consensys - the company that made MetaMask - decided Ethereum needed a cheaper, faster version of itself. So they built their own Layer-2 network and called it Linea.

By 2024, the network was already competing with other major L2s like Polygon and Arbitrum. Linea's main advantage was its direct link to MetaMask, which gave it easier access to a huge pool of users.

Fast-forward to this Wednesday, and Linea hit another big milestone: the launch of its own token, LINEA, with a massive airdrop of 9B+ tokens.

Congrats to Linea!... is what I would be saying if the launch hadn't been lowkey a flop.

The price of LINEA popped ~63% in the first hour... then crashed just as quickly, and now it's sitting at ~30% below launch.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody. This often happens with crypto airdrops - tokens pump on hype and early claimants dump their holdings.

But in Linea's case, the problems didn't stop at the chart.

Loads of users said they couldn't even claim their tokens on time during the Token Generation Event (TGE).

Meanwhile, Binance users reportedly got theirs earlier, and some managed to sell before the average retail user even had access.

Some people called it Web2 behavior - meaning it felt centralized, unfair, and opaque, which is pretty much the opposite of what Web3 is supposed to stand for.

On top of that, many users aren't sure what the token is even for.

And to be fair, you can't say there are no use cases:

1️⃣ Speculation;

2️⃣ Brand alignment - basically betting on Consensys' L2 to succeed.

3️⃣ Ummm... beyond that... uhhhh... help pls? Anyone?

*cricket sounds intensify*

Yeah, at the moment, LINEA's utility is more symbolic than functional.

One might even say it's useless.

But in response to the backlash, Consensys founder Joseph Lubin promised that holding LINEA could lead to future rewards.

(With the idea that the longer and larger you hold, the bigger the potential rewards.)

Which… let's just say not everyone was thrilled about.

All that being said, Linea does plan to use surplus network fees to buy back and burn LINEA tokens.

That means permanently removing some tokens from circulation, which could (hopefully) help support the price.

But whether that's enough to fix the reputational damage from this launch? That's still an open question 👀

🥝 Memecoin harvest

Forget fundamentals - these coins ran on pure internet delusion 🤪

Data as of 07:40 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

🍍 Market flavor today

That price table you saw at the beginning is looking greener than it has in weeks.

So, let's run through what the top coins are cookin' 👇

Bitcoin

Bitcoin's back to prices we haven't seen in three weeks, thanks to the CPI report (aka a key measure of inflation) coming in exactly as expected.

Traders read the report as: "The Fed's gonna cut interest rates."

And a rate cut = cheaper borrowing = more appetite for risky stuff like crypto.

On top of that, Bitcoin ETFs had $1.6B in inflows this week, which also added to the upward pressure.

Next steps:

👉 If BTC stays above $115K - $116K → that's the floor, and bulls could push us toward $120K+;

👉 If it slips below $113K - $112K (or worse, $109K) → we might head toward $100K.

Ethereum

Ethereum bounced back above $4.5K.

According to CryptoQuant contributor Crazzyblockk, ~1.7M ETH were added to accumulation addresses at $4.3K - $4.4K. Translation of what that means:

👉 These wallets only receive ETH and don't send it out, so the coins are effectively taken off the market;

👉 That also means a large share of holders bought in around that price range.

So, if ETH stays above $4.3K - $4.4K, those holders are sitting on gains and are more likely to keep holding, which supports the price.

But if ETH drops below that zone, a lot of them would be holding losses. That might flip psychology, selling pressure could kick in, and prices could get pushed down.

XRP

XRP is trading between $2.70 and $3.00.

👉 Resistance is near $3.30, then $3.50 if bulls are really feelin' themselves.

👉 Support levels to watch are $2.90 and $2.77.

And which way is it gonna go? Well, that may depend on what happens with the batch of spot XRP ETF applications due in October - November.

Approval could bring a whole lotta institutional money. More delays? Probably more time spent below resistance.

Solana

Solana's trading at levels not seen since February, after it broke above a key technical level at $220.

The rally picked up after Galaxy Digital bought $486M worth of SOL in a single day. Retail traders are adding momentum too, but it's the consistent institutional buying that strengthens the bullish picture.

Now what? Trader Crypto Jelle says that the next hurdle's at $250. Clear that, and the runway looks wide open.

Last but not least:

BNB

BNB actually set a new all-time high today!

This came after Binance announced a partnership with Franklin Templeton, a global investment manager overseeing $1.6T in assets.

The two companies will work together on the tokenization of securities - basically turning assets like stocks into blockchain-based tokens.

Binance provides the trading infrastructure, while Franklin Templeton brings expertise in managing regulated investment products.

And since BNB is Binance's native token, any major expansion of the exchange's ecosystem tends to increase demand and confidence in BNB itself.

As for the price levels to watch:

👉 Resistance: $908 and $920;

👉 Support: $898 and $888.

So yeah, feels like the market finally had its morning coffee.

Let's just hope it's not decaf... 😬

🍋 News drops you can't miss

👀 Futures trading lookin' tempting, but not sure where to start? We lined up the platforms worth checking out so you don't have to scroll through Reddit threads.

🤔 Galaxy Digital's Mike Novogratz thinks Bitcoin's been kinda stuck because corporations are getting curious about altcoins instead. He mentioned Galaxy, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin as examples.

🇷🇺 A Russian official wants to set up a crypto-focused bank. He says it could reduce illegal transactions and give miners an easier way to convert their earnings into fiat.

✊ A public petition is calling on UK leaders to make rules for blockchain and stablecoins. It started gaining more attention after Coinbase asked users to sign.

🤖 The US FTC is looking into how AI chatbots might affect kids and teens. They wanna see if bots that act like humans could make young users form personal attachments.

🍌 Juicy memes