Ethereum’s Having a Main Character Moment!

Author

Tracey Plowman
August 13, 2025

This Week in Crypto

🔥 Welcome back to the Crypto Curious !

👉🏼Joining us for the ride this week is our guest host, Jonno Newman, Senior Investigator at TRM Labs, leading efforts across the Asia-Pacific to help law enforcement, exchanges, and DeFi protocols use blockchain intelligence to disrupt financial crime. Before TRM, Jonno spent years at Kraken and over a decade with South Australia Police tackling cybercrime. He’s also a dad of two, author of a children’s book that turns the madness of crypto Twitter into a bedtime story, and 'fun fact' ... a proud Bamboo user since 2022.

Let’s get into it 🚀For the video lovers ❤️our YouTube is here.

Crypto Curious Archives - Equity Mates Media

Are you crypto curious? Do you hear NFT and think WTF? Have you heard about Bitcoin and Ethereum but unsure where to start?

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Markets at a glance.

X marks the spot.

Good articles.

AI protocol rethinks the financial landscape for Gen Z, making flex viral

A new financial scoring system blends crypto and fiat data, turning real-time financial health into a shareable, rankable stat for Gen Z.

What Happened In Crypto Today

Ethereum (ETH) has recently seen a remarkable resurgence, inching closer to its $4,878 all-time high (ATH) record after a prolonged period of consolidation. On Tuesday, ETH broke the $4,600 mark for the first time in years, outperforming other cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP. 

Mysterious Whale Buys $1B in Ethereum as It Overtakes Mastercard

An unidentified entity has been on a buying spree for Ethereum, snapping up nearly $1 billion worth of ETH in just one week, a move that coincides with Ethereum’s market cap overtaking Mastercard.

Mysterious Whale Buys $1B in Ethereum as It Overtakes Mastercard - Cointribune

As of this writing. Ethereum was up over 28.21% since the beginning of the year, surpassing Bitcoin's returns of 27.40%.

ETH has been on a tear over the last month, soaring as much as 44% and pushing to levels last seen in November 2021. BTC has barely moved in the same period.

Furthermore, ETH’s market share has risen to 13% for the first time in nearly eight months, while Bitcoin’s dominance has fallen.

US Firm Bets $360 Million on Story (IP)—Wall Street Says ‘Plot Twist’

Heritage Distilling Holding Company, a US-based craft distillery, saw its stock (CASK) drop by 28.25% after revealing plans to create a $360 million Story (IP) reserve.

US Firm's Stock Slides 28% After Launching Story (IP) Reserve

Bags Wif Hat? The founder of a rising token launchpad bought a meme coin-linked knitted hat for nearly $800,000—here’s why.

Things you didn’t know (or did you?).

The Ice Age and the Difficulty Bomb.

Ethereum has a built-in mechanism known as the “Ice Age” or “Difficulty Bomb.” This feature gradually increases the difficulty of mining Ethereum, incentivizing the transition from the current proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to the upcoming proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism in Ethereum 2.0.

In Other Crypto News!

ARK Invest buys $19M of Jack Dorsey’s Block as stock tumbles to $73

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has returned to purchasing shares of Jack Dorsey’s financial services company Block after a prolonged sell-off.

Cathie Wood’s ARK Bags $19M In Jack Dorsey's Block Shares

Crypto mogul Do Kwon, known as 'the cryptocurrency king,' pleads guilty to fraud charges

NEW YORK (AP) — South Korean cryptocurrency mogul Do Kwon pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two fraud charges arising from the $40 billion collapse of a cryptocurrency ecosystem that had promised investors their money was safe.

Crypto mogul Do Kwon, known as 'the cryptocurrency king,' pleads guilty to fraud charges

Bitcoin Helps a Fast Food Chain Overthrow McDonald’s and Domino’s

Steak ‘n Shake had a large increase in sales last quarter, and the company credits Bitcoin for its success. The firm began accepting BTC payments in stores across several countries, and it’s interested in more upgrades.

Bitcoin Helped This Fast Food Chain Overtake McDonald's

Lights out.

Crypto Miners Drained Enough Power to Light up a City — Kazakhstan Cracks Down.

Authorities in Kazakhstan recently busted electricity companies accused of illegally supplying power to cryptocurrency miners. According to a statement, the Department of Financial Monitoring (DFM) for the East Kazakhstan region, along with the National Security Committee (NSC), uncovered an illegal sale of electricity amounting to approximately $16.5 million (9 billion tenge).