McConnell's health issues could destabilize Senate control, affecting legislative outcomes and prompting shifts in political strategies.

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The situation risks weakening Democratic unity and strategy, potentially affecting their Senate control ambitions and market stability.

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Trump's claim highlights potential for renewed conflict, affecting regional stability and market confidence in Iran's leadership continuity.

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Pump.fun's integration with Robinhood Chain could redefine cross-chain trading, but its sustainability hinges on converting speculative interest into lasting engagement.

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Rising US-Iran tensions may hinder diplomatic progress, affecting nuclear negotiations and reducing chances of sanctions relief by 2026.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Bull Bitcoin Files Landmark Legal Challenge to Annul France’s DAC8 Crypto Data Surveillance Rules

Bull Bitcoin exchange, recently licensed under MiCA, is challenging the European directive in French courts that sets up a mass surveillance database, putting millions of crypto users at risk. 

Bull Bitcoin, the world’s oldest Bitcoin-only and non-custodial exchange, recently licensed under MiCA by France’s financial markets regulator AMF, has filed a legal challenge before the Conseil d’État, France’s supreme administrative court. The challenge seeks to annul Decree No. 2025-1276, the main measure transposing the European DAC8 directive into French law, on the grounds that it creates a massive surveillance grid and database that institutions can not secure from leaks and data hacks, ultimately putting civilians at risk of kidnapping and physical harm. 

Alongside the legal action, the company is making dac8.com public: “a complete, fully sourced resource for citizens, journalists and policymakers,” according to a press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine. 

In recent years, there has been an alarming rise in kidnappings and physical attacks on crypto users, most concentrated in Europe, with France being an epicenter. Organized crime seems to be exploiting poor data reporting laws of law-abiding crypto users who, by paying their taxes, expose their ownership of crypto assets. Given that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not reversible and can be transferred internationally with ease, criminals are hunting down crypto users. France has had the second most physical attacks on crypto users after the USA, which has a much larger population, according to Gart, a company dedicated to protecting users from this rising threat.

High-profile figures in the Bitcoin and broader crypto industry have been targeted in recent years, such as Binance France CEO David Prinçay and Ledger co-founder David Balland, who lost a finger during the incident, among many others. Jameson Lopp, co-founder of Casa, a high-security Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet company, has organized ‘wrench attack’ data for years in a database on GitHub showing an accelerating trend of attacks. 

Bull Bitcoin argues in its legal challenge to the DAC8 that further consolidation and sharing of crypto user data will only perpetuate this trend of physical attacks. However, they also argue that these personal security risks created by the DAC8 are also working against the stated intentions of the regulations. They argue that users will simply find legal alternatives to centralized, regulated exchanges, opting to purchase the assets off the grid via peer-to-peer exchanges, home mining or offshore unregulated alternatives, making tax collection even more difficult.

User Data Honey Pots

DAC8 turns the natural incentive a company has to protect its users’ data into a valuable multinational database with many entry points, which cybersecurity experts have for a long time called a honey pot. Bull Bitcoin points out that regulated crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) under MiCA, DORA and the GDPR are supervised, sanctionable professionals with financial incentives to protect their customers. DAC8, in turn, does the opposite: it moves data into administrative reporting networks where access is broader, and accountability is harder for users to assess. The security of the whole — Bull Bitcoin concludes — is then only as strong as its weakest link. 

The history of data security over the past decades shows that amassing user data and keeping it safe over time is very difficult. Just this year, the French National Agency for Secure Credentials (ANTS, also known as France Titres) suffered a major breach detected on April 15, 2026, exposing data from up to 11.7–19 million accounts. Compromised information included login IDs, full names, email addresses, dates of birth, account identifiers, and, in some cases, postal addresses, places of birth, and phone numbers. 

Months earlier, the French National Bank account registry also suffered a major hack, exposing data tied to approximately 1.2 million accounts. The compromised information included IBANs, account holder names, addresses, and, in some cases, tax identification numbers, though officials stated the attacker could not view balances or conduct transactions.

In the United States, the situation is not much better. The Equifax Data Breach in 2017 affected 147 million Americans, and the National Public Data Breach of 2024 affected over 200 million Americans, leading to leaks of social security numbers among other critical information. And back in 2015, the Office of Personal Management of the U.S. government was also breached, compromising a large number of U.S. Government officials. The data stolen included everything from social security numbers to medical records. 

The list of such breaches is long, and the only logical conclusion to draw from it is that the less user information that ends up in these honeypots, the better, as ultimately all of these hacks put civilians at risk either from physical attacks or from identity-theft related fraud. 

Families On the Front Lines

Of the many issues identified by Bull Bitcoin and documented on the DAC8 website, the most alarming one might be how even individuals who have not purchased crypto might end up harmed by this concentration of data, just by familial association with a Bitcoiner or crypto user.

Citing data by Certik, Bull Bitcoin highlights that more than half of the violent incidents recorded in 2026 against crypto owners targeted a family member — spouse, child, elderly parent — as a direct victim or as a pressure lever over the key holder. On the topic, Bull Bitcoin assets that  “DAC8 therefore exposes not only crypto-asset holders, but their entire close family circle: between 40 and 135 million Europeans fall into a physical-risk zone, without any of them ever having consented.”

Francis Pouliot, CEO of Bull Bitcoin considers this overreach into the privacy of Euroeans to be potentially catastrophic for the prosperity of the continent, he minced no words in the press release saying that “DAC8 has transformed the concept of Know Your Customer into Kill Your Customer.” He added, “We cannot let the very foundations of civilization be shattered by this attack on privacy rights. We must draw a line in the sand and refuse to cede any more territory before we have nothing left. Someone must take a stand. It appears that no one else is willing and able to do so. Therefore, it falls to BULL to lead this fight.”

The DAC8.com is rich with facts, figures, official sources (EUR-Lex, OECD, Legifrance) and analysis, in French, English and other European languages for those interested in reviewing it and freely using it.

This post Bull Bitcoin Files Landmark Legal Challenge to Annul France’s DAC8 Crypto Data Surveillance Rules first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

Bitcoin Magazine

Schwab Strategist Backs Strategy’s STRC Playbook Amid Bitcoin Weakness

Strategy remains under pressure as Bitcoin hovers near $60,000, but recent capital moves have bought the company time, according to Jim Ferraioli, director of crypto research and strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research.

Speaking on Morning Trade Live at the New York Stock Exchange, Ferraioli said the firm led by Michael Saylor faces scrutiny while the price of Bitcoin sits 50% below its peak. Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, has funded much of its buying through preferred equity, including its variable-rate Stretch preferred stock, known as STRC.

That product fell near $70 from its $100 par value before a rebound. To defend the peg, Strategy raised the STRC dividend to 12% and authorized $2 billion in buybacks while unlocking further Bitcoin sales. The stock has since started climbing back toward par. 

“The market is supportive of these actions,” Ferraioli said, describing the response as a check on fears of cascading liquidations.

The shift marks a change in tone for a company known for a “never sell” stance. 

“We went from never sell Bitcoin to strategically sell Bitcoin,” Ferraioli said, acknowledging fair criticism. He cautioned that a lower multiple could limit Strategy’s capacity to issue shares and buy more Bitcoin in the second half of the year. 

Schwab’s perspective on Bitcoin’s slump

Ferraioli weighed in on a market bump that followed comments from President Trump, who signaled openness to holding Bitcoin in the new Trump Accounts savings program. 

Ferraioli read the move as a sign of one more potential class of buyer, alongside mainstream investors who entered through spot ETFs. 

“The crypto market loves narratives,” he said, calling the asset momentum-driven.

On correlations, Ferraioli described Bitcoin as a low-correlation asset, a trait he traced to the four-year halving that cuts new supply. Past ties to tech stocks have broken down, and a historic inverse relationship with the dollar has wavered; Bitcoin has rallied during periods of dollar strength this year. 

“Starting points matter,” he said, noting that Bitcoin rose during the Iran conflict as the dollar gained.

He addressed the dollar-yen rate, which trades near 40-year lows. A stronger yen could unwind the carry trade, in which investors sell the yen to buy growth assets. Ferraioli framed a yen rebound as a possible headwind for risk assets, though not a primary near-term risk for Bitcoin.

On the debasement trade, Ferraioli pushed back on the idea that last year’s gold rally, set against a halving of Bitcoin’s market cap, disproved the store-of-value case. 

He attributed the gold move to supply constraints and momentum rather than fiscal fear. The federal budget deficit has narrowed from 8-9% of GDP to 5%, near the median across Bitcoin’s life.

“It’s not an endorsement of the fiscal health,” he said, “but it helps put that narrative in check.”

This post Schwab Strategist Backs Strategy’s STRC Playbook Amid Bitcoin Weakness first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Cantor SPAC and Adam Back’s Bitcoin Treasury Renegotiate Merger Terms, Vow New Structure

Cantor Equity Partners I (Nasdaq: CEPO), a special purpose acquisition company backed by an affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald, and BSTR Holdings said today that they will not complete their proposed bitcoin business combination on the terms set in their July 2025 agreement. The parties plan to negotiate a revised structure and amended terms that reflect market conditions.

The companies said the private placements tied to the original deal will not need to close. A shareholder meeting for CEPO, set for July 10, moved to a postponed date with no fixed timeline. Public shares submitted for redemption will return to holders, the note said. 

The announcement marks a reversal for one of the largest bitcoin treasury deals to reach public markets. When the two firms unveiled the merger in July 2025, they framed a plan to take Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company, led by Blockstream co-founder and cryptographer Adam Back, public on Nasdaq under the ticker BSTR. 

The combined entity would launch with 30,021 bitcoin, a stake worth more than $3 billion at the time, and rank among the largest public corporate bitcoin holders.

Adam Back took to X this morning to confirm: “From today’s filing, @bstrco and $CEPO have agreed to work together on and are currently discussing a potential revised structure and amended terms for their previously announced proposed business combination, intended to opportunistically better capitalize on market conditions.” 

Merger targets 50,000-bitcoin treasury

The structure paired Back and Blockstream Capital, who agreed to contribute more than 30,000 bitcoin, with a private investment in public equity of about $1.5 billion. About 5,021 bitcoin came as in-kind contributions rather than cash. 

Backers described the raise as the largest PIPE for a bitcoin treasury, and the company outlined a target of more than 50,000 bitcoin.

The deal drew attention for its ties to Cantor Fitzgerald. Brandon Lutnick, son of U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, chairs the SPAC sponsor. The Securities and Exchange Commission declared the registration statement effective on June 5, 2026, and CEPO mailed its proxy to shareholders that day.

The path to a vote proved rough. CEPO pushed the shareholder meeting from June 26 to July 2, then to July 10, before the two sides paused the process. The delays tracked a broader slump in the bitcoin treasury model. 

By late 2025, a rising share of treasury firms traded below the value of their bitcoin holdings, a condition analysts measure through mNAV, the ratio of a company’s market value to its crypto.

That gap matters for the treasury playbook. The model depends on a premium: when a stock trades above the worth of its bitcoin, the firm can issue shares to buy more. When the stock slips to a discount, fresh equity raises erode value for existing holders and the growth engine stalls. 

Strategy, the pioneer of the approach, traded at a discount to its holdings, and smaller peers fell to steeper markdowns.

Neither firm detailed the shape of a revised deal. Any new terms would require fresh filings with the SEC to amend the registration statement and proxy. The parties said they expect to share more in due course.

This post Cantor SPAC and Adam Back’s Bitcoin Treasury Renegotiate Merger Terms, Vow New Structure first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Polymarket Turns On Instant Bitcoin Deposits Via Lightning Network, Powered by Spark

Polymarket, the crypto-native prediction market, has begun supporting instant Bitcoin deposits over the Lightning Network. The feature uses infrastructure from Spark, a Bitcoin protocol built for payments and stablecoins. 

In a post on X, Spark told users they can deposit BTC to the platform with more speed and more privacy than the older method offered.

The move extends a funding push that started in October 2025, when Polymarket switched on standard on-chain Bitcoin deposits. Those deposits carried a wait: most on-chain Bitcoin transactions need three to six confirmations, a window of 10 to 60 minutes, before a platform credits an account. 

The on-chain route carried a higher minimum deposit, a reflection of bridging costs. For a trader who wants a position on a live market, both the delay and the fee are a cost.

Lightning and Spark close the gap. Spark validates a Bitcoin transaction at the moment it broadcasts, checking for double-spend risk, fee adequacy, and replace-by-fee flags. 

The protocol credits the deposit in under a second and absorbs the confirmation risk, a design Spark markets as zero-conf. 

Polymarket does not have to manage confirmation thresholds or run its own Lightning nodes; a single Spark SDK handles on-chain, Lightning, and stablecoin rails.

Spark keeps deposits self-custodial. Each wallet ties to the user’s own keys, so the protocol, not Polymarket, carries the operational load, and users retain control of funds until a trade. 

Spark counts wallet providers such as Breez, Xverse, and Cake among the teams building on the same rails, and Tether chief Paolo Ardoino has praised the protocol as a route to programmable Bitcoin over Lightning.

Polymarket’s boom over the years

Timing matters for a company in a growth phase. 

Founded in 2020, Polymarket rose to prominence during the 2024 U.S. presidential election and has added Chainlink oracles, earnings markets, and a fresh contest with regulated rival Kalshi. 

Faster, cheaper funding lowers the barrier for the Bitcoin holders who make up a large share of the crypto audience, and it hands Polymarket a fresh answer to a rival that has pressed it on volume.

This post Polymarket Turns On Instant Bitcoin Deposits Via Lightning Network, Powered by Spark first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Kraken Seeks Final Judgment After $22 Million Award Against Former Auditor

Payward, the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has asked the Delaware Court of Chancery to enter a final judgment against its former auditor, Mazars USA, after an arbitrator awarded the firm $22 million. 

The exchange disclosed the request on July 7 through an open letter from co-CEO Arjun Sethi and a series of posts from co-CEO Dave Ripley.

The dispute traces to December 2023, when Mazars withdrew from Kraken’s 2022 audit days before its completion. Mazars had audited Kraken for three prior years and issued two clean opinions, according to the company. 

In writing, Sethi said, the auditor confirmed it had no disagreement with management, no concerns about the firm’s integrity, and no findings of fraud.

Mazars attributed its resignation to legal developments, among them a complaint the Securities and Exchange Commission had filed against Kraken weeks before.

That SEC complaint was dismissed with prejudice, with no penalties and no admission of wrongdoing. Kraken said the abandoned audit cost it years and millions of dollars in legal fees to secure new auditors and reassure banks, regulators, and counterparties. The exchange said it has received a clean audit in each year that followed.

The letters come as Kraken pursues a full European banking license, reportedly through Lithuania, a move that would allow the company to offer traditional banking services across the European Economic Area and potentially become the first cryptocurrency exchange to secure a full European bank license, according to CoinDesk reporting. 

The effort is part of Kraken’s broader regulatory strategy as it expands beyond crypto into mainstream financial services, building on milestones including U.S. Federal Reserve payment access and authorization in the UAE.

Operation Chokepoint 2.0

Sethi placed the episode within what critics call Operation Chokepoint 2.0, a term for what they describe as a coordinated effort by regulators to cut lawful crypto firms off from banking and other services. In December 2022, a year before quitting the Kraken audit, Mazars Group halted proof-of-reserves work for the crypto sector and removed those reports from its website.

The letter cited a chain of actions from 2022 and 2023. On January 3, 2023, the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC issued a joint statement warning that crypto business models raised safety and soundness concerns for banks. 

Documents released after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit showed the FDIC sent at least 25 letters to two dozen banks urging them to pause or refrain from expanding crypto activity. The SEC’s SAB 121 accounting guidance required public companies holding crypto to record those assets on their balance sheets, a step that made custody uneconomical for banks. 

The Federal Reserve denied a master account to Custodia, a Wyoming bank built for digital assets. And in March 2023, the payment networks run by Silvergate and Signature shut down within days of each other.

As the debanking era ends, Kraken demands rules 

Much of that framework has come undone. The SEC rescinded SAB 121, the banking regulators withdrew the joint statement, and a House committee report concluded that regulators used vague rules and informal pressure to push banks away from lawful digital asset firms. 

Sethi also recounted the experience of Kraken founder Jesse Powell, who started the exchange in 2011. In March 2023, federal agents raided Powell’s home and seized his devices in connection with a dispute involving a nonprofit unrelated to Kraken. 

After two years, the government closed the investigation, returned the devices, and brought no charges. Powell handed the chief executive role to Ripley, and Sethi joined Ripley in leading the company.

The letter closed with a call for Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, which would establish market-structure rules for digital assets, dividing oversight between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the SEC and adding protections for software developers. 

The House passed the bill in July 2025 by a vote of 294 to 134, with 78 Democrats in support, and the Senate Banking Committee advanced its version in May. 

Sethi contrasted the U.S. timeline with the European Union, where the MiCA framework took effect across member states.

This post Kraken Seeks Final Judgment After $22 Million Award Against Former Auditor first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin’s rebound above $63,000 is being helped by renewed ETF inflows, but the harder test will now be whether the liquidity beneath the move can absorb shock from rising leverage, funding pressure, or a sudden reversal in fund demand.

Data from CryptoSlate shows BTC trading around $61,500 as of press time, down 3.2% over the last 24 hours but up 2.8% over the past week. The price is just about sustaining Bitcoin’s recovery from late-June lows near $58,500, when weak ETF flows, rising exchange supply, and softer liquidity combined to pressure the market.

This now-fragile rebound has more support than it did during the June sell-off because ETF inflows have returned, even as rising futures activity makes the recovery more sensitive to market positioning.

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ETF rebound gives price support

US spot Bitcoin ETFs drew more than $500 million across the last three trading sessions, giving Bitcoin its first back-to-back ETF inflow stretch since May.

The 12 funds took in $221.72 million on July 2, ending a 10-session outflow streak that had pulled about $2.73 billion from the products.

After the US Independence Day holiday, they added another $265.69 million on July 6, followed by a further $21 million in inflows on July 7, taking the three-session total to about $509 million.

The return of ETF demand helped Bitcoin recover above $63,000 and provided traders with a stronger support signal, likely helping sustain the price above $60,000 after the late-June slide.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs have become one of the clearest channels for regulated demand, so a shift from persistent withdrawals to back-to-back inflows changes the near-term tone.

However, these inflows have not fully settled the demand question. Three positive sessions can relieve pressure, but they do not erase the earlier drawdown in fund demand or prove that the fresh spot buying is strong enough to absorb supply if market stress returns.

Leverage build-up puts market depth to test

The return of ETF inflows has improved Bitcoin’s near-term support, but the next test is forming in derivatives, where traders are rebuilding exposure faster than spot activity appears to be deepening.

CoinGlass data show BTC futures volume climbed to about $78.9 billion over 24 hours, its strongest level in two weeks. Spot volume was roughly $4.36 billion over the same period.

Open interest has also risen by about $3 billion since June 28 to around $47 billion, indicating that traders are taking on more risk as Bitcoin recovers from the late-June sell-off.

Glassnode data point in the same direction. According to the firm, BTC futures open interest has expanded as long-side funding payments have climbed to $1.5 million, which is above the upper statistical band of $1.3 million.

That suggests bullish traders are paying a larger premium to maintain long exposure as positioning rebuilds. This build-up can help extend the rebound while momentum remains positive.

However, it can also leave the market more exposed when prices stall, because larger leveraged positions create greater pressure to unwind if funding costs rise, liquidity weakens, or ETF demand slows.

The pressure is not limited to derivatives. Bitcoin is still emerging from a June reset that pushed more coins toward exchanges and weakened the broader liquidity backdrop.

Recent CryptoSlate coverage showed about 49,000 BTC moved to exchanges during the selloff, raising the risk of additional supply hitting the market if price momentum fades.

At the same time, stablecoin supply fell to $312 billion in the second quarter, marking its first quarterly decline since the third quarter of 2023, reducing one of the main pools of capital supporting crypto risk-taking.

Together, those signals make the rebound look structurally fragile. Leverage can push Bitcoin higher in the short term, but weak spot demand, rising exchange supply, and softer stablecoin liquidity leave the market more vulnerable if volatility returns.

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What will decide BTC's next move?

The BTC funding rate is one gauge of whether Bitcoin’s rebound is becoming crowded in perpetual futures.

Funding is the balancing payment that keeps perpetual futures aligned with spot prices. A positive rate usually means demand for leveraged long exposure is stronger, while a negative rate means shorts are paying longs and can reflect heavier short positioning or hedging demand.

As of press time, CoinGlass shows BTC’s real-time funding rate at 0.004039%, meaning traders holding long perpetual positions are paying shorts during the current funding interval.

The current rate matters because it is rising alongside higher open interest and heavier futures activity. The risk would build if traders keep paying more to stay long while ETF inflows slow or spot demand fails to strengthen.

A healthier BTC price rebound would require ETF inflows to persist beyond the latest three-session stretch, funding to stay contained as open interest rebuilds, and spot volume to carry more of the advance. If that happens, Bitcoin’s recovery would have a stronger demand base.

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If that does not happen, the market will have less room for disappointment. Softer ETF flows, a funding reset, or another wave of forced selling could hit a market where leveraged traders have already priced in more strength than spot demand has yet to confirm.

The next leg will depend on whether fresh capital continues to absorb supply as leveraged exposure grows and volatility risk returns.

The post Bitcoin’s ETF comeback is relying on a $79B futures market betting the rebound holds appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Top public Bitcoin miner CleanSpark's latest BTC count carried a footnote that may matter more than the headline total: of the 13,924 BTC it reported as of June 30, 1,719 BTC was posted as collateral or recorded as a receivable, all tied to derivative transactions

That amounts to roughly 12% of the miner's reported Bitcoin balance held in financing or risk-management mechanisms rather than functioning as a readily available reserve.

For reference, CleanSpark currently owns the 11th-largest public Bitcoin treasury among operating companies.

The disclosure does not imply misuse. It does show why miner treasuries are getting harder to read as the same BTC stacks are marketed as strength, sold for cash, pledged, restricted, or moved through derivatives.

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The reserve count is no longer one number

CleanSpark still produced 614 BTC in June, but its treasury line moved through more than production. The company said it sold 179 BTC at spot, sold 250 BTC pursuant to call exercises, acquired 25 BTC pursuant to put exercises, and acquired 244 BTC related to a delta-neutral basis trade.

Riot Platforms provides the market with a broader comparison point. In its Q1 2026 operations update, Riot reported 15,680 BTC held at quarter-end, including 5,802 restricted BTC, after selling 3,778 BTC for $289.5 million in net proceeds. That restricted balance equaled roughly 37% of Riot's reported holdings.

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The comparison is not about whether collateralized or restricted BTC is bad. It is about liquidity. A miner with 15,000 BTC on the headline line may not have the same stress buffer as another miner with the same headline balance if one reserve is mostly unrestricted and the other is partly pledged, restricted, receivable, or linked to derivatives.

That difference can change how the market interprets the same balance sheet number. A company can still hold a large BTC stack while part of that stack is already serving a financing, collateral, or settlement role. In weak markets, those footnotes move from accounting detail to liquidity signal.

The timing makes those footnotes even more important.

CryptoSlate's Bitcoin page showed BTC near $62,000 on July 8, about 50% below its October 2025 all-time high.

CoinShares' Q1 2026 mining report said listed miners' weighted-average cash cost to produce one BTC had risen to about $79,995 in Q4 2025, while hashprice near $30 per PH/day left an estimated 15% to 20% of the global fleet underwater amid higher power costs.

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CoinShares also said listed miners could derive as much as 70% of revenue from AI by the end of 2026, up from roughly 30%, after more than $70 billion of announced GPU colocation and cloud service deals with hyperscalers.

That shifts the question from who has the most BTC to who has deployable BTC when capital needs rise. That is the new balance-sheet question for miners.

The stress test is liquidity

If BTC and hashprice stay weak, the first thing to break may not be the network or even the headline reserve. It may be the assumption that every reported coin can be used quickly to fund power bills, debt service, AI and high-performance computing buildouts, or working capital, without creating a new constraint elsewhere.

The next June and Q2 miner updates should show whether CleanSpark's disclosure is an outlier or a preview. Investors will be watching not just how many BTC miners hold, but how many are unrestricted, how many are collateral, how many are receivables, and how many have already been monetized before the market counts them as dry powder.

The post Bitcoin miners are using up to 12% of treasury BTC as collateral rather than selling coins appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Vanguard posted a Head of Digital Assets, Personal Wealth role on July 6, with openings in Dallas, Scottsdale, Charlotte, and Malvern.

The posting asks the incoming executive to lead digital assets strategy, build a multi-year roadmap, and run enterprise execution across Vanguard's wealth business.

Two years earlier, the same firm refused to list spot Bitcoin ETFs and pulled Bitcoin futures products from its brokerage platform once the SEC approved the category in January 2024.

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That shift lands inside the world’s second-largest asset manager, which said it oversaw about $12 trillion in assets and served over 50 million investors as of December 2025. A job posting that names custody, settlement, tokenization, and stablecoins carries different weight at a firm of that size than it would at a crypto-native brokerage.

Citi cut its 12-month Bitcoin price target to $82,000 from $112,000 this month, cut its Ethereum target to $2,240 from $3,175, and lowered its own 12-month spot Bitcoin ETF inflow assumption to zero from $10 billion.

So, interestingly, Vanguard is building a digital assets function as crypto market assumptions turn more cautious.

What the role does

The job posting asks the executive to evaluate client-facing digital asset capabilities for self-directed, advisory, and wealth clients, then to design operating models for onboarding, custody, settlement, reconciliation, reporting, and third-party integration.

The same posting lists tokenization, stablecoins, wallet and custody models, and blockchain-enabled infrastructure as areas the role must track, along with the regulators, custodians, and vendors that touch each.

That scope separates the hire from a decision on a Bitcoin ETF, and Vanguard still describes its posture on self-created products as unaltered.

The firm has no plans to launch its own cryptocurrency ETFs or mutual funds, and it continues to warn that trading in crypto ETFs and mutual funds carries risks that may not suit every investor.

A firm can hold both positions at once: no proprietary product and a senior mandate to decide how digital assets should move through custody, settlement, and compliance systems that currently handle only stocks and bonds.

Vanguard's brand runs on low-cost, long-horizon investing for retirement savers, and building custody and settlement standards for tokenized assets before regulators finish their own frameworks risks locking in choices a firm with $12 trillion in assets cannot easily unwind.

The firm excluded spot Bitcoin ETFs entirely in 2024, and by December 2025, it opened brokerage access to select third-party crypto ETFs and mutual funds, while repeating that it had no plans to build its own.

The July 2026 posting adds a third step: an internal function that decides how digital assets fit Vanguard's infrastructure, beyond where they sit on a shelf.

Building the plumbing

BlackRock's path ran through the ETF wrapper, where its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) held about $46.5 billion in net assets as of July 6. The fund charged a 0.25% sponsor fee and traded with a 30-day median bid/ask spread of 0.03%.

IBIT's cumulative inflows surpassed $60.2 billion, and Farside Investors' data show that outflows from other funds, such as Grayscale's GBTC, pulled the industry-wide net figure to about $51.4 billion across US-traded spot Bitcoin ETFs as of July 7.

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BlackRock's market theory is to make Bitcoin tradable through a wrapper that investors already understand.

Citi's June 2026 “Tokenization 2030” report projects that tokenized assets could expand from about $17 billion today to $5.5 trillion by 2030 in its base case, with a range from $2.7 trillion to $8.2 trillion.

Citi puts regulated stablecoins at $1.9 trillion by 2030 and frames tokenized cash as foundational to delivery-versus-payment settlement, the same settlement layer Vanguard's job posting names directly.

Vanguard's move is about deciding how a $12 trillion asset manager connects its wealth platform to the ETF wrappers BlackRock has already scaled and the tokenized-asset infrastructure Citi expects to reach trillions by 2030.

Sizing the roadmap's reach

Vanguard's $12 trillion in assets sets the scale for what its roadmap could move, as a sensitivity model that uses that figure alongside Farside's $51.4 billion cumulative net-flow benchmark for US-traded spot Bitcoin ETFs maps the range.

In the bear case, Vanguard's roadmap becomes a risk-and-compliance framework. Third-party access stays passive, and Vanguard's distribution muscle stays on the sidelines.

At 0.01% of Vanguard's $12 trillion in assets, the incremental flow is near $1.2 billion, a figure large enough to make disclosure, access controls, and guardrails central to any rollout.

In the bull case, Vanguard folds digital asset access into advisor workflows and model-portfolio conversations, still through third-party products. At 0.1% of its asset base, that reaches roughly $12 billion, equal to about 23% of the cumulative net inflows every US spot Bitcoin ETF has recorded combined.

What regulators haven't settled

The Bank for International Settlements said in June 2026 that stablecoins have the potential to enable faster programmable payments, noting that current designs fall short in terms of singleness, redeemability, interoperability, and resilience against financial crime.

IOSCO has separately warned that tokenization can leave investors uncertain whether they own an underlying asset or only a claim on a token, and that efficiency gains across tokenized markets stay uneven.

Vanguard's posting asks its future hire to monitor the disconnects in regulatory frameworks, vendor capabilities, and custody models.

A firm whose model runs on predictable, long-horizon investing is choosing to build inside that uncertainty before regulators resolve it.

Vanguard is deciding whether digital assets can move through the custody, settlement, and advisory infrastructure that 50 million investors already use for retirement accounts and index funds.

If Vanguard's roadmap sets custody and settlement standards that other conservative platforms adopt, the firm that spent 2024 refusing to list a Bitcoin ETF becomes the one setting the terms for how the rest of Wall Street's wealth-management arm handles tokenized assets.

The job posting names the plumbing, which outlasts any single asset cycle.

The post New Vanguard job posting could decide how crypto reaches 50 million investors appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin treasury preferred stocks are moving from a simple income story into a credit test on Bitcoin balance sheets.

Strategy remains the center of gravity, but Strive, the 7th largest public Bitcoin holder, has now put the spillover in public numbers: another Bitcoin treasury company held a Strategy preferred stock and watched that position become a market signal of stress.

In its June 29 update, Strive disclosed that it held the same 505,000 STRC shares on June 18 and June 26, while the fair value of that position fell from $44.738 million to $37.658 million.

That $7.08 million change happened without a disclosed change in the STRC share count. On a simple division of the filed fair-value figures, Strive's implied mark moved from roughly $88.59 per share to $74.57 per share in eight days.

The disclosure stops short of proving insolvency, forced selling, or a broken capital model. It shows something more specific. Stress on a Bitcoin treasury preferred stock can ripple through another company's balance sheet before any dramatic failure occurs.

Strive still reported 19,864 BTC held, cash and equivalents of $141.7 million as of June 26, and 7,829,502 shares outstanding of its own SATA preferred stock. The stronger signal is the way its disclosed Strategy-preferred exposure changes how investors read the category.

The strongest indicator is the way its disclosed Strategy-preferred exposure changes how investors read the category.

The public question around Strategy's STRC has been whether investors are still treating the instrument as an income product or as stressed credit linked to Bitcoin, market liquidity, and Strategy's ability to support the dividend. Strive's disclosure makes that question bigger.

A Bitcoin treasury company holding another Bitcoin treasury company's preferred stock creates a visible cross-company channel. If STRC trades at a discount, Strive can show the damage in its own reported fair value. If SATA then comes under similar scrutiny, the market has a way to compare whether stress is isolated or spreading across the preferred-stock funding model.

Preferred-stock treasury products are sold around yield, stated amount, and recurring payments. That makes them look familiar to income investors. Once the central questions become discount to par, reserve coverage, dividend resets, repurchases, and possible asset sales, the instrument starts trading like credit.

The investor is now asking whether the issuer has sufficient cash support, market access, and Bitcoin liquidity to maintain the credibility of that coupon.

Related Reading

STRC’s plunge puts Saylor’s Bitcoin dividend machine under pressure

STRC’s plunge is forcing investors to ask whether Saylor can defend Strategy’s high-yield dividend machine without selling Bitcoin, diluting shareholders, or breaking confidence in the trade.

Jun 19, 2026 · Gino Matos

Strategy's New Playbook Looks Like Credit Management

Strategy's own June 29 filing reinforces that shift. The company announced a Digital Credit Capital Framework comprising a USD reserve policy, a revised STRC dividend policy, preferred-security repurchases, common-stock repurchases, and a BTC monetization program. Those are management tools for a capital structure under market pressure.

Strategy said its USD Reserve stood at $2.55 billion as of June 28 and that management must maintain at least 12 months of expected annual preferred-stock dividend payments and interest obligations unless the board authorizes a lower level. The same filing said that reserve can be replenished through BTC sales under the monetization program or through other capital-market activity.

That reserve is important because Strategy also raised the STRC regular dividend rate to 12.00% per year, payable semi-monthly, with record dates on or after July 1. Strategy said it declared $ 0.50-per-share cash dividends for the periods ending July 31 and Aug. 15, subject to the conditions in STRC's certificate of designation.

A higher dividend can support an income instrument, but it also raises the question of how durable the payment is if the security remains discounted.

Strategy made that feedback loop explicit. Its STRC dividend policy will consider STRC trading levels, market yields, credit spreads, Bitcoin price and volatility, reserve coverage, capital-market conditions, and the company's overall capital structure. The filing also said STRC dividends are not guaranteed and will not necessarily rise solely because STRC trades below its stated amount.

Related Reading

Saylor’s STRC Bitcoin machine is turning shareholders into its cash backstop – causing a dilution trade-off

The company is rebuilding a reserve depleted by a $1.5 billion debt repayment as rising preferred dividends shift more of the burden onto MSTR shareholders.

Jun 24, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

That is the language of active credit management. Strategy also authorized up to $1.0 billion in repurchases of its Digital Credit Securities, with STRC expected to be the initial priority if management deems repurchases accretive and supportive of the capital structure. It authorized another $1.0 billion for Class A common-stock repurchases. Those authorizations do not require the company to buy securities, but they show the range of tools management may use if discounts become too damaging.

The same framework makes BTC sales part of the discussion. Strategy's board authorized a BTC monetization program that can sell Bitcoin to generate up to $1.25 billion for the USD Reserve, help fund or replenish preferred dividends and interest payments when management deems it preferable to issuing common stock or using other capital-market transactions, and fund securities repurchases.

The company was clear that the program does not obligate it to sell Bitcoin. Still, the authorization changes the discussion. A balance sheet built around accumulation now has a formal path for using BTC to defend parts of the credit stack.

The Fair-Value Test Is About Durability

Farside's public STRC fair value calculator gives one way to see why the debate has moved beyond headline yield. As viewed by CryptoSlate on July 7, the calculator showed an estimated net present value of $49.887 per STRC share under its displayed assumptions, with a dividend schedule starting at an 11.50% coupon and declining to 3.60% from month 33 onward.

Its most important caveat is that the calculation assumes the company remains solvent and pays the dividend in perpetuity.

That is not an official Strategy valuation, and it should not be blended with Strategy's separate 12.00% STRC dividend disclosure. It is useful because it shows what preferred-stock investors are actually testing. The value is highly sensitive to assumptions about dividend durability, discount rates, and the issuer's ability to continue paying under varying Bitcoin and capital-market conditions.

The Bitcoin backdrop makes the test harder to dismiss. CryptoSlate Bitcoin market data shows BTC trading around $62,000 on July 8, down 1.8% over 24 hours but up 5.5% over seven days, with a $1.24 trillion market capitalization and 58% dominance.

Yet Strategy's June 28 BTC update reported 847,363 BTC held at an average purchase price of $75,651. That gap does not force a sale, and Strategy reported no Bitcoin purchases for the June 22-28 period. It does, however, explain why the market is paying attention to reserve policy, ATM issuance, and BTC monetization language.

Strategy's ATM table shows how much capital-market capacity still sits behind the model. During June 22-28, Strategy reported no preferred-stock ATM sales, 12,669,017 MSTR shares sold, and $1.1524 billion in MSTR net proceeds. It also listed the remaining issuance capacity of $17.5108 billion for STRC and $24.2575 billion for MSTR, as well as other preferred programs.

The model still has tools. The question is what those tools cost when investors demand higher yields, larger discounts, or more visible backstops.

Related Reading

Metaplanet bets Bitcoin treasury firms can survive by packaging Bitcoin income

Regulated securities rails could give BTC treasury firms a new engine, if product demand and mNAV math hold up.

Jun 26, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

What Would Prove The Stress Is Broader

The market now has two broad ways to read the next phase. The market now has two broad ways to read the next phase. In the contained scenario, STRC discounts tighten, Strategy's USD reserve and dividend policy calm the market, BTC sales remain optional rather than necessary, and Strive's mark-down looks like a temporary hit on one cross-holding. That would keep the pressure mostly inside Strategy's orbit.

In the broader-stress scenario, discounts persist, dividend-rate changes no longer reassure investors, reliance on common-stock ATMs rises, BTC monetization shifts from authorization to use, and Strive's own SATA preferred starts trading as a comparable stress point rather than a separate product. That would make Bitcoin treasury preferreds a category trade rather than a single-company problem.

The filings do not prove the second scenario has arrived. They do show why the question is being asked. Strive's STRC position turned Strategy's discount into another company's fair-value movement.

Strategy's framework turned dividends, reserves, repurchases, ATM issuance, and potential BTC sales into a single, cohesive support system. Farside's calculator showed why solvency and perpetual-payment assumptions matter to preferred value.

The market test is now practical: whether STRC and SATA close or widen their gaps to par, whether dividend coverage looks more credible, whether Strategy leans harder on common-stock issuance or preferred issuance, and whether BTC sales remain only an authorization.

Strive's next disclosures will help show whether its Strategy exposure was an isolated mark or the first public sign that Bitcoin treasury credit stress is spreading across the preferred-stock model.

The post One Bitcoin treasury’s paper loss just made Strategy’s stress everyone’s problem appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control revoked General License X on July 7, cutting off the authorization that had allowed Iranian crude oil, petrochemical, and petroleum-product transactions through Aug. 21.

Its replacement, General License X1, permits only wind-down transactions through 12:01 a.m. ET on July 17.

Brent crude settled at $74.16 and WTI at $70.44 that day, then extended gains in post-settlement trade to about $76.03 and $72.20, putting both benchmarks over 5% above the prior session.

Tanker attacks near the Strait of Hormuz drove that move, and maritime authorities raised transit risk through the strait to severe, with US officials warning of further consequences.

Bitcoin absorbed the same news near $63,317, trading within an intraday range of $62,711 to $64,435. A market that pushed crude more than 5% higher on renewed Middle East risk left Bitcoin inside a band it has occupied for weeks.

That gap leaves open the question of whether Bitcoin's calm reflects confidence that the oil shock fades, or a lag before the shock shows up in the data Bitcoin trades on.

The clock behind the headline

The July 17 wind-down turns the announcement into a market clock, giving traders roughly 10 days to see whether Iranian barrels, Hormuz shipping flows, and US-Iran diplomacy settle down before the deadline hits, or whether the deadline itself becomes the next flashpoint.

The EIA says the strait handled about 20 million barrels per day in 2024, roughly 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption, with few alternative routes available if flows through it are disrupted.

Crude can carry a disruption premium well before the strait is confirmed closed, and that premium is already moving Brent and WTI.

The Cleveland Fed's inflation-nowcasting model treats gasoline as a direct input to headline CPI and PCE forecasts, and its gasoline nowcasts are derived from oil prices. That link gives a crude path into the inflation data the Fed watches most closely, independent of anything else happening in the economy.

EIA data put US regular gasoline at $3.777 per gallon for the week of July 6, down from $4.146 per gallon on June 8 and still $0.652 per gallon above the same week a year earlier.

Crude oil accounted for 57% of the March 2026 regular gasoline price, according to EIA's cost breakdown, giving pump prices direct exposure to crude price moves, even though retail pass-through also depends on refining, distribution, taxes, and timing.

What Bitcoin's calm could be worth

The calendar compresses three separate events into three weeks: the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases June CPI on July 14 at 8:30 a.m. ET, the OFAC wind-down expires July 17, and the Federal Reserve's next policy meeting runs July 28-29, placing the Fed's decision date behind both the inflation print and the wind-down deadline.

The Fed already treats energy as a live input into its outlook, with its June 17 statement keeping rates at 3.50%-3.75% and citing supply shocks, including energy, among the reasons inflation stayed elevated relative to its 2% goal.

Nine of the Fed's 19 policymakers saw a 2026 rate hike in the June projections, up from zero three months earlier, as oil-driven inflation risk pulled the internal debate away from cuts.

In the contained case, Strait traffic stabilizes, and crude gives back its risk premium over the next 10 days.

Gasoline relief resumes; the June CPI release on July 14 shows inflation pressure before the latest oil shock was still contained, and Bitcoin's flat reaction to this week's headline reads, in hindsight, as the market correctly pricing a shock that faded before it reached consumers.

In the sticky case, Brent holds in the range UBS has flagged between $70 and $100, depending on how quickly Hormuz traffic normalizes, or climbs toward the $110 to $120 range HSBC has modeled if flows stay constrained for months.

Gasoline relief stalls in that scenario; inflation expectations and breakevens carry the energy shock into the Fed debate, and later-July inflation data become the first fuller test of whether crude costs have reached consumers. Fed policymakers, already split on a possible 2026 hike, have more reason to hold rates or lean hawkish.

Bitcoin's liquidity support narrows as yields and the dollar firm together, and the calm this week gives way to a market repricing the same headline as a Fed problem.

Bitcoin's flat price action this week shows traders treating the Iran shock as background risk so far. The three-week window between July 7 and the July 28-29 FOMC meeting decides whether that reaction holds.

Every link in the chain from Hormuz to gasoline to CPI to the Fed still needs confirmation in the data before the sticky case can take hold.

Whether the oil shock prices into Bitcoin depends on the June CPI release, the July 17 wind-down deadline, and the July 28-29 Fed meeting.

The post Bitcoin looks calm but a July 17 oil deadline looms as Iran shock sends crude up 5% appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Most leveraged stock products in Europe are CFDs — synthetic contracts where you never actually own the underlying asset, capped by regulators at 5x for retail traders. As of today, July 8, 2026, Bitpanda is doing something the European market hasn't seen before: leverage on real stocks and ETFs.

The Vienna-based fintech is expanding its offering with margin trading for stocks and ETFs, letting users trade more than 875 securities with leverage of up to 20x. The key difference from every CFD provider out there — you're buying into the actual underlying assets, not betting on a price feed.

What is Bitpanda Margin Trading on Real Securities?

At its core, margin trading means borrowing capital to open a position larger than your own funds allow. 20x means that someone putting in €500 controls a €10,000 position — and gains and losses multiply accordingly.

What sets this launch apart is what you're actually trading. You aren't trading CFDs or synthetic contracts. You get direct exposure to the real security — with everything that comes with genuine ownership. Bitpanda is building this on top of its Real Securities brokerage, which has been running since January 29, 2026. What's new now is the leverage layered on top.

With real securities, that ownership is meaningful: you hold actual shares in your securities account rather than derivatives, and as a shareholder you're entitled to dividends, stock splits, mergers, and other corporate actions handled according to issuer and exchange rules.

How does Bitpanda offer 20x when EU rules cap leverage at 5x?

This is the clever part, and it's worth understanding. In the EU, leveraged stock products face a strict limit: the regulator ESMA caps stock CFDs — bets on price movements without real share ownership — at 5:1 for retail clients.

But that ceiling only applies to CFDs. Because this is classic securities margin rather than a CFD, ESMA's CFD leverage limits don't apply here — and 20x becomes possible. The mechanics behind it: clients put up their own capital and borrow the rest in the form of Bitpanda's euro stablecoin EURCV to fund the position.

What are the fees?

This is where the launch gets aggressive on pricing. Buying is order-fee-free, a flat €1 fee applies on selling, and for clients in Austria and Germany the platform also handles the tax settlement on capital gains. On top of that sits a daily funding fee of 0.03% on the borrowed amount, per Bitpanda's launch materials.

The zero-fee headline comes with one caveat worth flagging for readers: the advertised "zero order fee" applies only to the order fee on buying. The borrowed capital still carries a daily funding cost, which compounds the longer a position stays open. 

Who is this actually for?

Here's the part the marketing tends to skip, and it matters. Leverage this high on individual stocks is a fundamentally different risk profile than leverage on crypto or broad ETFs. Unlike crypto, stocks don't trade around the clock — trading happens on a regulated exchange with fixed hours, not 24/7. Real Securities trade Monday to Friday, 07:30–23:00, not 24/7.

That creates gap risk. If a price gaps overnight or over the weekend — say, after a bad earnings report — your position can open at a loss before you can even react. And with 20x, it doesn't take much: if a stock moves just 5% against you, your entire stake is wiped out. A 5% gap after a profit warning is completely normal for single stocks.

For context on how leverage plays out for retail traders, Bitpanda's own CFD product "Leverage" discloses that 53.24% of retail client accounts lose money trading CFDs with the provider — and that's at a maximum of 2x. This new product goes to ten times that ratio. Margin trading here is squarely aimed at experienced traders who understand liquidation, funding costs, and risk management — not beginners looking for a shortcut. 

Why this launch matters for the European market

Zooming out, this fits a clear strategic arc. The move suits Bitpanda's shift from crypto broker to multi-asset platform — in a year when the market is speculating about a possible Bitpanda IPO. And it slots into a broader European trend: more and more retail platforms are bringing leveraged products to a wide audience. The upside is real — so is the downside risk.

By sidestepping the CFD structure entirely, Bitpanda has found a route to high leverage that its CFD-bound competitors structurally can't match. Whether that's an advantage or simply a higher-stakes version of the same game depends entirely on how it's used.

Ready to explore Bitpanda Margin Trading on real stocks and ETFs?

➡️ Trade over 875 real stocks and ETFs with up to 20x leverage — direct ownership, 0% buy fees, and automatic tax handling in Germany and Austria. Unlike CFDs, you get real exposure to the underlying assets, not synthetic contracts.

Get started with Bitpanda Margin Trading →

There was no code exploit. No compromised private key. No phishing link. And yet BonkDAO says attackers stole about $20 million in BONK through a malicious governance proposal targeting its Solana treasury. 

The attacker didn't break the rules — they bought them.

What happened to BONK DAO?

$BONK is a Solana-based memecoin, and BONK DAO is the community body that governs it. Token holders vote on proposals, and if a vote passes, it executes automatically on-chain. That design is exactly what got weaponized.

The sequence began on June 30, when an anonymous wallet submitted a proposal to transfer the treasury's holdings to a wallet it controlled. That proposal was titled "BIP #76 – Sowellian BonkDAO," and it read more like a pitch than a heist: it sought to "implement Sowellian governance, install new members and council, rebuild from the ashes, monetize holdings, and stop the bleeding," and dangled a reward promising all "yes" voters would be eligible to receive BONK tokens. 

Buried underneath the marketing language sat the only line that mattered — an instruction to transfer roughly 4.4 trillion BONK straight to the attacker's wallet.

How did the attacker pass a fake proposal?

This is the part that should keep every DAO up at night. The proposal needed "yes" votes equal to 1% of BONK's supply to hit quorum. So the attacker simply went and bought it. Over July 4 and 5, a separate wallet acquired exactly that much, spending about $4.4 million to buy BONK on the exchanges Bybit and Binance. 

By the time voting closed, the numbers were almost surgically precise. The proposal passed with just seven wallets voting, against more than 18,000 members who did not — a turnout of 2.9%. It cleared quorum by the narrowest margin, 882.38 billion BONK in favor against an 879.95 billion threshold, almost exactly the stake the attacker had spent days assembling.

The result? The 99.9% "yes" result was effectively a single voter agreeing with itself. The DAO then did what it was built to do — it executed the transfer automatically, and about $20 million in BONK moved out of the treasury into the attacker's wallet. 

Bonk DAO Attack: Where did the money go?

The stolen tokens didn't stick around. More than 4.4 trillion BONK — valued at approximately $19.3 million at the time of transfer — moved out of the treasury to an address ending in "JHvQ," identified via Solscan as having been funded through a Bybit account. By 3:30 p.m. ET the same day, the tokens had been moved again, this time to a different Solana address ending in "eh42."

The promised voter rewards never materialized. The tokens were never distributed — instead they were shuffled to a second address hours later, a pattern consistent with an attacker trying to obscure the trail rather than honor any community commitment. Security firm PeckShield later flagged that roughly $148,000 worth of stolen BONK has already moved to OKX.

Was Bonk DAO Hacked?

Technically, no — and that's the uncomfortable part. The attacker didn't exploit a bug in any smart contract. The root issue was governance design, not code. Every single step was a valid, authorized on-chain transaction.

With no timelock, quorum minimum, or multisig check in place to catch an anomalous proposal before it executed, a well-funded attacker was able to turn a $4 million token purchase into control over a $20 million treasury. A timelock would have forced a delay between approval and execution, giving the community a window to spot the drain. A multisig override could have frozen it in an emergency. BONK DAO had neither.

This has reopened an old debate. Because every step was a valid transaction, some on-chain observers argued the attacker simply exploited a weak governance design rather than breaking in. The lesson stands either way: a treasury that can be drained by whoever assembles a temporary voting majority is only as secure as the cost of buying that majority — and here, that cost was a fraction of the prize.

What is BONK DAO doing about it?

BonkDAO has notified law enforcement and is working with the Solana Foundation, centralized exchanges, and network bridges to recover funds. It said it had identified the exchange wallets used to buy tokens ahead of the vote — and the involvement of law enforcement makes clear the DAO is treating this as an attack, not a clever loophole.

Recovery, though, is an uphill battle. Governance attacks are notoriously hard to reverse precisely because they run through the protocol's own legitimate machinery.

How did BONK's price react?

The market response was surprisingly contained given the scale. BONK prices are down about 7% in the past 24 hours in the aftermath of the attack. Exchanges moved fast — South Korean exchange Upbit and American exchange Kraken both paused deposits and withdrawals of the BONK token, with Upbit citing "user protection measures following the circumstances of a security incident."

Ethereum is back in the spotlight as the crypto market rebounds, but this time the main story is not only about price. While Bitcoin reclaimed the $63,000 level after President Trump’s latest pro crypto comments, a deeper institutional shift may be forming between Bitcoin and Ethereum.

BitMine, the Ethereum treasury company chaired by Tom Lee, has continued adding ETH to its balance sheet. Its latest weekly update shows that the company acquired 42,197 ETH, bringing total holdings to 5,742,237 ETH, equal to around 4.8% of Ethereum’s total supply. BitMine also said its total crypto, cash, marketable securities, and “moonshot” holdings reached $11.1 billion.

At the same time, Michael Saylor’s Strategy sold 3,588 Bitcoin for around $216 million to fund dividends on its preferred stock. Strategy still holds a massive 843,775 BTC, but the sale matters because it challenges the long running market belief that Saylor’s company only buys and never sells.

That contrast is now shaping the latest Ethereum price prediction: is institutional capital slowly rotating from Bitcoin into ETH?

BitMine Keeps Buying Ethereum

BitMine has become the biggest Ethereum treasury story in the market. The company’s strategy is clear: accumulate ETH, stake a large portion of it, and move closer to its long term goal of owning 5% of Ethereum’s total supply.

According to BitMine’s latest update, the company now owns 5.74 million ETH, with 4.87 million ETH staked. This means BitMine is not only holding Ethereum as a treasury asset, but also using it to generate staking rewards. The company said its staked ETH could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in annualized staking revenue depending on yields and full deployment.

This is important because it gives Ethereum a different institutional narrative from Bitcoin. Bitcoin is mainly seen as digital gold, a reserve asset, and a macro hedge. Ethereum, on the other hand, can be held, staked, and used as infrastructure for stablecoins, DeFi, tokenization, and smart contract activity.

That is why BitMine’s buying matters for ETH price predictions. The story is no longer just “Ethereum follows Bitcoin.” The market now has a direct Ethereum treasury buyer with a clear accumulation target.

Strategy Sells Bitcoin: Why It Matters

Strategy’s Bitcoin sale does not mean Michael Saylor has turned bearish on BTC. The company still owns more Bitcoin than any other public company and remains the largest corporate BTC holder in the world.

However, the sale changes the psychology of the market.

For years, Strategy was viewed as the ultimate Bitcoin accumulator. Every purchase supported the idea that institutional demand would keep absorbing supply. But the latest sale shows that even the largest BTC treasury company may need to sell coins when corporate obligations, dividends, or balance sheet pressure require liquidity.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Strategy sold 3,588 BTC to fund dividends on preferred stock, raising around $216 million. The company still holds 843,775 BTC, but the sale came after it unveiled a broader plan to strengthen investor confidence.

This does not destroy the Bitcoin thesis, but it does introduce a new question: if BTC stays under pressure, could Strategy sell more?

That uncertainty is exactly why Ethereum’s treasury story looks more attractive today. While Strategy is selling some Bitcoin to manage obligations, BitMine is still adding Ethereum.

Ethereum Price Prediction: Can ETH Break Higher?

Ethereum is trading near the $1,790 area in the latest market snapshot, up around 1% on the day. The key level to watch now is the $1,800 to $1,850 resistance zone.

If ETH breaks above this area with volume, the next upside targets are:

$1,900 as the first breakout confirmation level.
$2,000 as the psychological target.
$2,150 to $2,200 if the market starts pricing in stronger institutional ETH demand.

The bullish case depends on three factors. First, Bitcoin needs to hold above the $63,000 area and avoid another sharp rejection. Second, ETH needs to reclaim $1,850 and turn it into support. Third, BitMine’s accumulation story needs to remain strong enough to convince traders that Ethereum has its own catalyst.

If these conditions align, Ethereum could outperform Bitcoin in the short term.

However, the bearish scenario is still possible. If ETH fails to hold above $1,750, the price could retest the $1,700 area. A deeper correction could bring Ethereum back toward $1,620 to $1,600, especially if Bitcoin loses momentum or if investors treat Strategy’s BTC sale as a warning sign for crypto treasury stocks.

Is This the Start of a BTC to ETH Rotation?

The strongest part of this story is the contrast.

Bitcoin is rebounding after political support from President Trump and a broader market recovery. But Bitcoin is also dealing with a major treasury headline: Strategy sold BTC.

Ethereum is also recovering, but it has a cleaner institutional accumulation story. BitMine is buying ETH, staking ETH, and openly moving toward a 5% supply target. That gives Ethereum a fresh narrative at a time when traders are looking for the next crypto leader.

This does not mean Bitcoin is weak. BTC remains the largest crypto asset, the main institutional gateway, and the market’s liquidity anchor. But Ethereum may now have the more interesting short term setup because its story is shifting from underperformance to accumulation.

If Bitcoin stability combines with continued ETH buying, Ethereum could become the stronger rebound trade.

Final Thoughts

The latest Ethereum price prediction is becoming more bullish, not only because ETH is recovering, but because the market narrative is changing.

BitMine is buying and staking Ethereum while Strategy is selling part of its Bitcoin holdings to meet corporate obligations. That contrast creates a powerful headline: Bitcoin may still be the king, but Ethereum is becoming the new institutional treasury battleground.

As long as ETH holds above $1,700 and pushes toward $1,850, the next move could target $1,900 and then $2,000. But if the market loses confidence and Bitcoin falls back below key support, Ethereum could still retest lower levels before any bigger breakout.

For now, Ethereum has something it has lacked for months: a fresh institutional catalyst that could help ETH outperform if the crypto rebound continues.

Ripple, the company behind the XRP Ledger, has landed one of the most significant regulatory milestones in its European history — and $XRP has climbed roughly 8% over the past week to trade near $1.15. But before you read this as "XRP got approved," there's an important distinction worth understanding.

What exactly did Ripple get approved for?

On June 23, 2026, Luxembourg's financial regulator, the CSSF, issued Ripple a preliminary Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. The approval, in the form of a "Green Light Letter," is subject to final conditions, and will enable Ripple to scale regulated cryptoasset services to financial institutions and businesses across all 30 countries of the European Economic Area.

Here's the catch: this is a company-level license, not a token approval. $XRP the asset didn't "get approved" to do anything — MiCA licenses are granted to service providers, not to coins. Combined with Ripple's existing EU Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence, the CASP license means European banks, fintechs and corporates can access Ripple's full cryptoasset and stablecoins payments infrastructure — collect, exchange and pay out — through a single integration for the first time.

Why does "preliminary" matter?

A Green Light Letter is not the finished product. It's the CSSF's signal that a firm has met the substantive requirements, but full authorization — and with it, the ability to formally passport services across the EEA — follows only once all remaining conditions are met. There's precedent for this moving quickly, though: Ripple's EMI license went from Green Light in January to full authorization by early February 2026.

The timing is also strategic. The approval arrives just days before the July 1, 2026, hard deadline, after which unlicensed crypto firms operating in the EU are in breach of MiCA rules. By mid-2026, around 83% of EU crypto firms had not secured MiCA licenses, leaving Ripple among approximately 210 compliant firms — a pool that notably does not include Binance.

Is this actually bullish for XRP Coin?

This is where objectivity matters. The commercial engine of this approval is RLUSD, Ripple's regulated stablecoin, and Ripple Payments infrastructure — not the $XRP token directly. In Ripple's own announcement, XRP appeared essentially as boilerplate. Tellingly, $XRP actually fell around 2.9% on the day the news broke, dragged down by a broader risk-off sell-off rather than repriced by the license.

That said, there's a longer-term ecosystem argument. The XRP Ledger is the rail Ripple's payment products run on, so deeper institutional adoption of RLUSD and Ripple Payments in Europe means more activity potentially routed through the same infrastructure $XRP secures. The honest framing: this is a genuine win for Ripple's European standing that could translate into token relevance over time — but it is not a direct, mechanical demand catalyst for $XRP.

What's driving the ~8% weekly move then?

Look at the chart and the story becomes clearer. $XRP started July near $1.04 and has since recovered to around $1.15 — a roughly 8-11% weekly gain depending on the data source. This move is largely a market-wide bounce, not a delayed reaction to the two-week-old MiCA news.

A few real tailwinds are supporting the recovery: XRP ETF inflows have now run positive for eight straight weeks, with cumulative net inflows reaching roughly $1.47 billion, and on-chain data shows exchange outflows deepening — a sign holders may be pulling supply off exchanges with intent. July is also historically one of $XRP's stronger seasonal months.

But the resistance overhead is real. The first hurdle sits at the $1.18 area (the 0.382 Fibonacci level), with heavier resistance clustered around $1.20-$1.22 — the zone that has capped every recent bounce inside XRP's year-long falling channel. Below, the $1.05-$1.10 area is the critical support that bulls need to defend. A clean break and hold above $1.20 would be the first genuine signal that the downtrend is cracking.

The crypto price today is starting July on firmer footing. $BTC is trading around $63,148, up 0.70% on the day and 6.09% over the past week, as buyers step back in after a brutal first half. Bitcoin jumped above $63,000, reversing end-June losses and hitting its highest level in over a month during thin July 4 trading, with XRP up 5% in 24 hours to lead gains among majors.

Still, zoom out and the pain is visible: the bitcoin price remains down 27.84% year-to-date. Bitcoin started 2026 above $93,000 but closed June around $60,000 after falling to a fresh 21-month low in the final week of the month.

What is driving the crypto price today?

Two forces are pulling the market in opposite directions.

Why is institutional demand still weak?

On the bearish side, ETF demand cratered last month. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their highest monthly outflow since inception, roughly $4.51 billion in June, led by BlackRock's IBIT. The scale of these crypto ETF outflows prompted Citigroup to cut its one-year $BTC target from $112,000 to $82,000.

What is fueling the BTC rebound?

On the bullish side, large holders have been buying the dip aggressively. Bitcoin whales bought $16.7 billion of bitcoin over two weeks even as ETFs bled a record $4 billion — a divergence that has appeared near past cycle bottoms. Softer macro signals fed the BTC rebound too: Bitcoin climbed back above $61,000 after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh suggested inflation risks had eased, tempering fears of further hawkish policy.

Crypto Price Today: How the top 10 coins are performing today

The recovery is broad-based across the majors.

How is Ethereum price holding up?

$ETH (Ethereum) is trading near $1,774, up 0.57% on the day and a strong 13.25% on the week. Despite the bounce, the ethereum price remains the weakest of the top names on a YTD basis at -40.20%.

Which large caps are leading the bounce?

$BNB (BNB) sits at $583.85, up 2.30% over 24 hours and 6.38% on the week, roughly tracking Bitcoin. $XRP (XRP) is at $1.14, up 0.62% on the day and a solid 10.04% weekly — one of the clear leaders in the current bounce. $SOL (Solana) trades near $80.53, up 13.04% over seven days despite a small 0.36% hourly dip, making solana one of the strongest weekly performers among the large caps. $TRX (TRON) holds steady at $0.3287, up 1.30% on the day and notably one of the few majors in the green YTD at +15.64%.

Is Hyperliquid still the top performer of 2026?

$HYPE (Hyperliquid) is the standout of the entire top 10, trading at $71.53, up 4.52% on the day and an eye-watering 181.28% year-to-date. Hyperliquid remains by far the best YTD performer on the board while most majors sit deep in the red.

What about Dogecoin and the stablecoins?

$DOGE (Dogecoin) sits at $0.07689, up 1.26% on the day and 6.42% on the week, though dogecoin is still down 34.44% YTD as meme-coin appetite stays muted. Rounding out the leaderboard, $USDT and $USDC hold their dollar pegs near $1.00, while $LEO (UNUS SED LEO) trades at $9.36, up 2.18% on the day.

Crypto Price Analysis: Is the bottom in for Bitcoin?

That is the open question for the crypto price today. Peter Schiff warned that the $58,000 support level must hold to avoid a capitulation below $50,000, while a reversal in ETF selling could spark a rebound in the coming days. Traders are watching whether the whale accumulation and easing macro backdrop are enough to sustain July's "green month" pattern after a red June.

The network’s 2026 roadmap targets faster transactions, AI-powered apps, and infrastructure aimed at competing with traditional financial systems, while preparing for a quantum future.

Ripple and XRP become the latest crypto brands to enter the sports marketing space.

More than 3,000 raids since 2022 have led to 629 arrests, as authorities target miners siphoning electricity from the national grid.

The crypto exchange says an arbitrator sided with it after accounting firm Mazars walked away from a nearly finished audit.

Crypto majors fall as the U.S. strikes Iran, ending the ceasefire. Vanguard opens its doors. And a meme coin frenzy erupts on Robinhood chain.

XRP Ledger clears 1 million automated transactions, confirming a massive surge in AI utility for XRP and RLUSD.

A 95% transaction collapse shakes Shiba Inu (SHIB) network metrics while exchange liquidity freezes.

Kansas Athletics signs a historic 5-year deal with Ripple to put XRP patches on all game uniforms starting Fall 2026.

Bitcoin's 21 million supply cap challenged by Zcash co-founder, Eli Ben-Sasson.

Shiba Inu has just recorded the highest daily SHIB burn activity seen this year, with over 117 million SHIB burned from circulation within 24 hours.

Long-standing digital publisher launches comprehensive casino journalism initiative and player comparison tools, emphasizing transparency and responsible gaming practices

AlienWP, a digital publishing platform operating since 2013, has revealed its strategic entry into the iGaming sector through the introduction of comprehensive online casino journalism, operator reviews, regulatory updates, and responsible gaming resources. This expansion represents a significant milestone for the organization as it widens its editorial scope to address both gambling enthusiasts and industry stakeholders with objective, journalism-focused material.

Core Initiative

The platform will now deliver consistent editorial content encompassing online gambling operators, sector developments, operator evaluations, promotional offerings, regulatory frameworks, and player security. The organization’s mission centers on providing audiences with transparent, evidence-based insights into the digital gambling landscape, avoiding hyperbolic marketing language or misleading assertions.

This strategic pivot into iGaming journalism leverages AlienWP’s established reputation as a veteran digital publishing entity. According to company representatives, this transition addresses increasing consumer appetite for credible, unbiased intelligence regarding online gambling platforms, especially concerning regulatory compliance, financial transaction security, and responsible gaming frameworks.

Platform Development

Complementing its editorial operations, AlienWP is concurrently building a distinct consumer-facing platform branded as Alien Wise Play. This web application functions as an interactive dashboard enabling users to evaluate online gambling operators, bookmark preferred platforms, monitor promotional offers, and examine regulatory credentials prior to engagement.

Alien Wise Play maintains a strictly informational role—it neither operates gaming services, handles financial transactions, nor dispenses gambling recommendations. The platform serves as a comparison and educational resource, sustained through affiliate commercial arrangements while diverging from conventional affiliate website models. According to AlienWP, transparency and consumer safeguarding form the foundational principles guiding platform development.

Central to Alien Wise Play’s functionality is the Wise Play Score, a proprietary evaluation framework that judges gambling operators across multiple dimensions including regulatory authorization, trustworthiness, financial transaction dependability, operational transparency, customer service quality, and consumer protection infrastructure. AlienWP has disclosed plans to integrate crowdsourced user assessments and artificial intelligence-powered analytics into subsequent iterations of the evaluation methodology, while preserving editorial autonomy.

Additional details about the platform can be found at Alien Wise Play.

Official Statement

Oliver Dale, company representative for AlienWP, commented: “Consumers investigating online gambling platforms frequently encounter difficulty locating transparent, unbiased intelligence. Our objective through this strategic expansion involves delivering accessible casino journalism and operator assessments, while simultaneously constructing Alien Wise Play as an instrument empowering consumers to reach educated conclusions, with responsible gaming principles and operational transparency anchoring our entire approach.”

Roadmap and Development

AlienWP intends to progressively broaden its iGaming journalism and review operations throughout upcoming quarters, concurrent with ongoing enhancement of Alien Wise Play and refinement of the Wise Play Score methodology. Development priorities include integration of community feedback mechanisms and machine learning-enhanced analytical capabilities into evolved versions of the assessment framework, while preserving editorial separation from evaluated gambling operators.

Company Background

Established in 2013, AlienWP operates as a publishing entity specializing in online gambling operators, iGaming sector journalism, operator evaluations, regulatory frameworks, promotional offerings, responsible gaming advocacy, and industry analysis. The organization is simultaneously constructing Alien Wise Play, a consumer-oriented dashboard facilitating operator comparison, promotional tracking, and accessible regulatory and safety intelligence. Additional information can be accessed at alienwp.com.

Press Inquiries

Oliver Dale
AlienWP
Website: https://alienwp.com

The post AlienWP Launches Comprehensive iGaming News and Casino Review Platform appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• ClearBridge initiated a fresh stake in Micron, driven by accelerating AI memory chip demand
• Microsoft and Amazon positions were reduced during the quarter
• The fund completely divested from Intuit due to concerns about AI disruption in tax software
• Additional purchases included Alphabet, Arista Networks, Blackstone, and Tesla
• Analyst sentiment on Micron remains positive despite a recent 17% price decline

ClearBridge Investments has made significant adjustments to its Large Cap Growth Strategy holdings in Q2 2026. The investment firm established a new position in Micron Technology while reducing exposure to Microsoft and Amazon. Additionally, it completely divested its Intuit holdings.

These strategic shifts signal ClearBridge’s evolving perspective on AI-driven growth opportunities for the remainder of 2026.

The Case for Micron

ClearBridge characterized Micron as a “strategic, differentiated” play on artificial intelligence expansion. The investment manager highlighted surging memory chip requirements from AI-focused data centers, which demand substantially greater memory capacity compared to conventional computing infrastructure.

Micron Technology, Inc., MU

Semiconductor stocks currently represent more than 30% of the Russell 1000 Growth Index, ClearBridge noted. The firm views Micron as a focused opportunity to benefit from expanding AI infrastructure investment.

The purchase comes during an interesting market moment. Micron’s stock price has declined over 17% in the last five trading sessions. Positive preliminary earnings from Samsung didn’t provide support for memory chip manufacturers. Investor anxiety around AI capital expenditure levels and SK Hynix’s anticipated U.S. public offering contributed to the selloff.

However, Wall Street analysts haven’t abandoned their optimistic stance. Morgan Stanley’s Shawn Kim characterized the recent decline as a “necessary reset” rather than evidence of a deteriorating memory market cycle. Bank of America’s Vivek Arya maintained his Buy recommendation, arguing that concerns regarding supply gluts and pricing pressure are exaggerated.

The Rationale Behind Dumping Intuit

ClearBridge completely liquidated its Intuit holdings. The explanation was straightforward: the firm anticipates that AI technology could commoditize significant portions of Intuit’s tax preparation services, eroding its competitive advantages.

This represents a defensive stance on a company that has maintained market dominance in consumer tax software for years. ClearBridge offered no additional commentary suggesting concerns about Intuit’s other business segments.

Additional Portfolio Adjustments

Aside from the Micron purchase, ClearBridge expanded positions in Alphabet, Arista Networks, Blackstone, and Tesla throughout the quarter.

The strategy lagged its benchmark during Q2. Nevertheless, ClearBridge maintains confidence that AI infrastructure dominance and wider market participation will generate stronger performance in the coming months.

Microsoft and Amazon weren’t eliminated entirely. Both companies remain portfolio holdings, albeit at decreased weightings.

Wall Street’s Perspective

According to the TipRanks Stock Comparison Tool, analysts express the strongest conviction on Micron, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Arista Networks. Each of these five stocks holds a Strong Buy consensus rating.

Micron offers the greatest projected upside among the group at approximately 67%. Microsoft shows 45% potential upside. Amazon presents 30% upside opportunity.

Intuit, which ClearBridge has abandoned, carries roughly 59% upside potential based on analyst projections, with a Moderate Buy consensus. Blackstone similarly holds a Moderate Buy rating. Tesla receives a Hold rating.

ClearBridge hasn’t announced any additional portfolio modifications beyond these Q2 changes.

The post ClearBridge Exits Microsoft and Amazon Stakes for This Memory Chip Play appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• SNDK shares jumped 34% throughout June, propelled by Micron’s exceptional quarterly results and projections indicating memory supply constraints extending to 2027
• Following the rally, shares tumbled more than 31%, including a steep 20.7% decline over five consecutive trading sessions amid widespread tech sector weakness
• The downturn stemmed from escalating U.S.-Iran tensions and softness across Asian technology equities
• Bank of America increased its price objective on SNDK to $2,500, while Bernstein set a street-high target of $3,000
• According to TipRanks, SNDK maintains Strong Buy consensus with 14 Buy recommendations and a mean price objective of $2,041.88

SanDisk (SNDK) experienced dramatic volatility through June and into early July. After surging 34% during the previous month, shares reversed course sharply alongside a comprehensive technology sector retreat.

Sandisk Corporation, SNDK

By July 7, SNDK changed hands near $1,643, representing approximately 31% below its June peak. The memory chip maker witnessed a precipitous 20.7% slide across just five trading sessions, followed by an additional 4.9% decline in pre-market activity on July 8.

June’s remarkable ascent was predominantly catalyzed by Micron’s exceptional quarterly performance. The memory giant delivered an extraordinary 85% gross profit margin alongside an 80% operating margin during its fiscal Q3 — metrics rarely achieved within the memory semiconductor industry.

Micron’s management further indicated that memory supply constraints would persist through 2027. This outlook provided significant tailwinds for SanDisk, a manufacturer of NAND flash memory solutions spanning SSDs and USB storage devices.

Company-specific catalysts were notably absent during SanDisk’s June advance. The equity essentially benefited from Micron’s momentum, combined with increasingly optimistic analyst perspectives regarding memory chip pricing dynamics.

Bank of America’s Wamsi Mohan elevated his SNDK price objective from $1,550 to $2,100 following Micron’s disclosure. His projections anticipate SanDisk generating $44 billion in revenues with $188 earnings per share by 2027 — suggesting the stock trades below 10x forward earnings at prevailing valuations.

Factors Behind the Sharp Decline

July’s selloff bore little connection to SanDisk’s underlying business performance. The primary catalyst involved renewed escalation in U.S.-Iran military confrontations, with President Trump announcing the cessation of the ceasefire agreement. Energy prices surged, triggering widespread declines across technology equities.

Weakness throughout Asian trading sessions compounded selling pressure. Samsung disclosed preliminary Q2 figures on July 7 that exceeded expectations, supported by robust demand for AI-focused memory chips. Nevertheless, the stock declined as market participants questioned whether the artificial intelligence-driven rally had already incorporated anticipated gains.

Memory semiconductor equities have traditionally exhibited cyclical characteristics, and markets appear increasingly skeptical regarding the sustainability of the current expansion phase.

Analyst Community Remains Optimistic

Notwithstanding the recent correction, Wall Street analysts haven’t retreated from their bullish SNDK stance.

Bank of America’s Mohan subsequently raised his target once more — advancing from $2,100 to $2,500, suggesting 54.5% appreciation potential from present levels. He maintained his Buy recommendation while forecasting elevated NAND pricing persisting at least through mid-2027.

Bernstein’s Mark Newman upgraded his target from $1,700 to $3,000, establishing the Street’s most optimistic projection and implying 85.5% upside. Newman highlighted SanDisk’s recently established long-term supply agreements, which incorporate minimum pricing guarantees and mandate advance customer commitments.

His analysis estimates these contracts secure pricing floors of at least 29 cents per gigabyte — exceeding comparable thresholds in Micron’s agreements.

According to TipRanks data, SNDK holds a Strong Buy consensus from 16 Wall Street analysts: 14 Buy ratings and 2 Hold ratings. The consensus price target stands at $2,041.88, indicating 26.2% upside potential from current trading levels.

Despite recent volatility, the stock maintains year-to-date gains exceeding 581%.

The post SanDisk (SNDK) Stock Plunges 20% Amid Tech Rout While Analysts Maintain Bullish Outlook appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• Salesforce’s Missionforce National Security platform chosen by the U.S. Air Force’s 441st VSCOS for fleet management overhaul
• Contract encompasses more than 84,000 vehicles deployed at approximately 389 sites worldwide
• Total fleet valuation reaches $13.5 billion
• Platform operates on Salesforce Government Cloud Plus Defense featuring IL5-certified applications
• Implementation establishes consolidated data infrastructure, paving the way for potential AI deployment

Salesforce (CRM) announced Wednesday that its Missionforce national security division has been selected by the U.S. Air Force to transform operations for its $13.5 billion vehicle fleet.

The 441st Vehicle Support Chain Operations Squadron (VSCOS) will deploy the platform to oversee operations for more than 84,000 vehicles stationed at approximately 389 facilities around the globe.

Shares of CRM were trading slightly lower during premarket hours Wednesday.

Salesforce, Inc., CRM

VSCOS handles the critical responsibility of maintaining operational readiness for the Air Force’s worldwide vehicle inventory. The squadron has implemented a collection of IL5-certified applications running on Salesforce Government Cloud Plus Defense as part of this initiative.

The primary objective is clear: minimize vehicle downtime, optimize supply chain operations, and ensure fleet availability for mission requirements.

Kendall Collins, who serves as CEO of Missionforce and Government Cloud at Salesforce, described the implementation as a powerful demonstration of the platform’s capabilities when deployed by a dedicated team.

“By consolidating onto a single, interoperable platform with Missionforce National Security, the Air Force has turned fragmented logistics operations into a strategic advantage,” Collins said.

Collins emphasized that the deployment has generated “improved visibility for commanders, reduced service downtime, and helping ensure vehicles are ready to roll when the call comes.”

Prior to this transition, logistics functions were scattered across multiple disconnected systems. The shift to Salesforce has created a centralized data infrastructure throughout the squadron.

Understanding the Missionforce Platform

Missionforce National Security represents Salesforce’s specialized solution engineered for defense and national security organizations. The platform operates on Salesforce Government Cloud Plus Defense, which satisfies IL5 security standards required for handling classified government information.

The application suite was built from the ground up for mission-essential operations, rather than being retrofitted from commercial products.

The Air Force’s 441st VSCOS oversees tasks ranging from standard vehicle maintenance planning to guaranteeing worldwide fleet preparedness across every location. Managing this scope — 84,000 vehicles across 389 facilities — demands a system capable of coordinating complex operations without failures.

Future AI Capabilities in Development

An important yet understated element of this agreement: the centralized data infrastructure created through the migration serves as the foundation for upcoming AI integrations.

Salesforce has not disclosed precise details regarding these AI capabilities or their deployment timeline. However, consolidating operations onto a unified platform represents an essential prerequisite for implementing such advanced functionality.

The 441st VSCOS now maintains its complete vehicle data in a single system, enabling future AI-powered predictive maintenance or supply chain optimization capabilities.

Salesforce stock showed modest declines in premarket trading Wednesday following the contract announcement.

The post Salesforce (CRM) Stock: Air Force Awards $13.5B Vehicle Fleet Management Contract appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• Sunrun shares advanced 3% Wednesday following the unveiling of a distributed AI computing pilot initiative
• The program deploys processing hardware in residential properties to handle artificial intelligence tasks
• The company’s infrastructure includes 1.1 million residential solar and energy storage installations across the United States
• Participants receive financial compensation for providing space and resources for computing equipment
• AI inference processing requirements are expanding at approximately 35% per year, with projections showing dominance by decade’s end

Shares of Sunrun (RUN) gained 3% during Wednesday’s trading session after the renewable energy company revealed plans for an innovative pilot initiative that converts its extensive residential solar customer base into a distributed artificial intelligence computing infrastructure.

Sunrun Inc., RUN

The California-headquartered firm manages approximately 1.1 million residential solar installations paired with battery storage technology. This new initiative involves installing computing hardware within participating customer residences to execute AI inference operations — effectively transforming residential properties into nodes of a geographically dispersed data processing network.

The initiative emerges from a successful proof-of-concept phase that validated both revenue generation possibilities and market appetite for decentralized computing resources. Sunrun has already initiated conversations with commercial clients interested in purchasing AI inference processing capacity during the pilot phase.

Homeowners who agree to participate receive monetary compensation for accommodating the equipment. The arrangement offers a clear mutual benefit — participants provide physical space and electrical infrastructure in exchange for a portion of computing revenue.

“AI companies are scrambling to secure greater access to energy and computing power,” said Paul Dickson, Sunrun’s President and Chief Revenue Officer. “Over nearly two decades, we have perfected our ability to operationalize, finance, and scale distributed assets.”

The Case for Decentralized Infrastructure

Conventional data center development involves numerous obstacles — securing property, constructing electrical transmission infrastructure, navigating utility connection backlogs. Sunrun’s approach eliminates these barriers by deploying hardware at existing customer locations with established electrical connections.

The processing units integrate seamlessly with Sunrun’s battery storage installations, enabling continued operation during specific power disruptions. This built-in redundancy represents a competitive advantage when marketing to enterprise customers.

AI inference processing demand is expanding at an annual rate of roughly 35%. Research from McKinsey, referenced by Sunrun, forecasts that inference operations will surpass AI training workloads by 2030, ultimately representing more than half of worldwide AI computational requirements.

Looking Forward

Sunrun anticipates completing the pilot program within the next several months. Following completion, the company will evaluate performance against predetermined benchmarks before determining the scope and pace of broader implementation.

Discussions are already underway with enterprise computing purchasers, residential construction companies, and utility providers regarding commercial structures and deployment strategies.

The company has not yet disclosed specific timelines or revenue projections for full-scale deployment.

The post Sunrun (RUN) Stock Jumps 3% on Distributed AI Computing Initiative appeared first on Blockonomi.

XRP remains under pressure across both the USDT and BTC pairs, with sellers continuing to control the broader trend despite several short-lived recovery attempts. While the USDT chart shows buyers defending an important support area, the XRP/BTC pair continues to trade near multi-month lows, highlighting the token’s persistent relative weakness against the market leader.

Ripple Price Analysis: The USDT Pair

On the daily timeframe, XRP continues to trade inside a well-defined descending channel, keeping the broader market structure firmly bearish. It remains below the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, both of which are sloping lower and acting as dynamic resistance above $1.25. This alignment suggests that momentum still favors sellers unless a meaningful trend reversal develops.

After losing the $1.25 level in early June, XRP found demand around the critical $1 region, where buyers have repeatedly stepped in to prevent further downside. This zone has now become the most important support to monitor. As long as it holds, the market could continue forming a short-term base.

On the upside, the first major resistance sits around $1.25. As mentioned earlier, this area also coincides with the descending 100-day moving average and the higher boundary of the channel, making it a significant hurdle for any sustained recovery. A successful breakout above this region would expose the 200-day moving average around $1.45, while losing the $1 support could accelerate another leg lower toward the channel’s lower trendline around $0.80.

Meanwhile, the RSI has been making higher lows despite the price making lower lows near $1, creating a developing bullish divergence. Although this does not confirm a reversal on its own, it suggests that bearish momentum might be exhausted and that buyers could attempt another recovery if resistance levels begin to weaken.

The BTC Pair

Against Bitcoin, XRP continues to paint a weaker technical picture. Again, the pair remains below both major moving averages, which continue to trend lower and reinforce the long-term bearish structure.

After several weeks of sideways trading, XRPBTC is once again testing the key horizontal support around 1,700 sats. This level has acted as the floor for the recent consolidation, and another breakdown attempt is now underway. A confirmed daily close below 1,700 sats would likely invalidate the current range and increase the probability of an extension toward the next major demand zone around 1,450 to 1,500 sats.

To regain bullish momentum, buyers first need to reclaim the 1,850 sats resistance area, which also aligns closely with the declining 100-day moving average. Until then, every rally continues to appear corrective within the broader downtrend, which could lead to more depreciation for XRP against Bitcoin.

The post Ripple Price Analysis: The Critical Level XRP Must Defend to Avoid Another Breakdown appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Ethereum has been trying to recover from its early June sell-off, but the rebound is getting rejected from a technically significant resistance area. While short-term momentum still remains constructive, both the daily structure and the Coinbase Premium Index suggest buyers still have work to do before confirming a broader trend reversal.

Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

The daily chart shows ETH trading around $1.74K after bouncing from the major demand zone at $1.5K. That area once again attracted buyers and produced a sharp recovery, allowing the asset to attack the $1.85K region once more.

Despite the rebound, Ethereum remains below the long-term descending trendline that has capped it since last year. The recovery has also stalled beneath the resistance at $1.85K, which almost aligns with the trendline and represents the first major barrier buyers must overcome.

Adding to the bearish higher-timeframe picture, the price continues to trade below both the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, with the 200-day MA positioned considerably higher near the $2.2K area. This indicates that the broader trend remains bearish despite the recent recovery.

A decisive daily close above the $1.85K resistance could trigger a move toward the next supply zone around $2K to $2.2K, where the moving averages are also located. Until then, the current advance appears to be a recovery within a larger downtrend rather than a confirmed trend reversal. On the downside, losing the $1.5K support would expose the market to a much deeper decline and an overextension of the bearish trend.

ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart highlights improving short-term market structure following the strong impulsive rally from the $1.5K region. ETH successfully reclaimed the previous short-term highs around $1.6K, which now acts as bullish order block support following the breakout.

The latest price action shows Ethereum consolidating below the $1.85K resistance zone after failing to extend higher. Recent candles indicate mild profit-taking, while the RSI has cooled from overbought conditions and has fallen back toward the midline, suggesting bullish momentum has weakened in the short term without completely disappearing.

As long as the price holds above the $1.65K order block, the current pullback appears to be a healthy correction within the ongoing recovery. A successful breakout above $1.85K would likely open the path toward the psychological $2K region.

However, failure to defend $1.65K could shift momentum back in favor of sellers and increase the likelihood of another test of the $1.5K support area.

Sentiment Analysis

The Coinbase Premium Index continues to provide a cautious backdrop. The indicator remains below the neutral zero line, with the latest reading around -0.07, indicating that ETH is still trading at a discount on Coinbase relative to other major exchanges.

Historically, sustained positive readings have reflected stronger buying activity from U.S.-based institutional participants. In contrast, the current negative premium suggests institutional demand remains relatively subdued despite Ethereum’s recent rebound.

The chart also shows repeated failed attempts to establish a lasting positive premium throughout recent months, implying that rallies have generally lacked consistent institutional accumulation. While the latest recovery in the index hints at improving sentiment, it has yet to reclaim positive territory, making it difficult to argue that large U.S. buyers have returned in force.

For the broader recovery to gain greater conviction, a breakout above the $1.85K resistance accompanied by the Coinbase Premium Index moving back into positive territory would provide stronger confirmation that institutional demand is beginning to support the advance. Until then, Ethereum’s recovery appears constructive but remains technically vulnerable to renewed selling pressure.

The post Ethereum Price Analysis: Fresh Pullback Pushes ETH Further From $2K appeared first on CryptoPotato.

‘History on a jersey patch.’ That’s how Ripple’s team on X described the new partnership between the company and the Kansas Jayhawks.

Mostly referred to as simply KU or Kansas, the Jayhawks are the athletic teams representing the University of Kansas. KU athletic teams have won 15 national championships, including 12 NCAA Division I titles. Now, they will carry XRP’s logo.

The Jayhawks’ X account noted that this partnership is a “shared commitment to innovation and excellence,” as the token’s logo will appear on all of their uniforms. Ripple said this is the first-ever crypto sponsorship of a major college athletics program.

The FAQs shared by both parties shed more light on the collaboration. It will start in the fall of this year, and the patch color will ‘match’ the “overall color scheme of Kansas athletics and corresponding uniforms.” The XRP patch will be either Crimson, Blue, or White.

The logo of the cryptocurrency will appear only on game jerseys and not on practice, travel, or sideline gear.

The team also warned that officially licensed Adidas game jerseys for sale at retail stores will not be emblazoned with the XRP patch. On the other hand, if fans purchase an official game jersey at the Kansas Athletics’ official team store called Jayhawk Outfitters, the patch can be added at the time of the transaction.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also commented on the move, calling it a “rare moment where my professional and personal worlds collide.” Born and raised in Kansas, he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Kansas before getting an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Rare moment where my professional and personal worlds collide: XRP is now the first crypto on the jersey of a major college athletics program, at my alma mater.

XRP Family, meet the Jayhawks. Rock Chalk! https://t.co/F6uAL0kMNS

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) July 8, 2026

The post Ripple Lands Major XRP Partnership as Garlinghouse Shares Rare Personal Moment appeared first on CryptoPotato.

There’s a lot that’s not going bitcoin’s way at the moment, but we will delve into that in a moment. For this intro, we will just suggest that BTC might actually be performing better than expected, at least for now.

However, the latest rejection at $64,000 could spell more trouble ahead, and here are the new bearish targets set by Ali Martinez and Ted Pillows.

No Bottom Yet

Just think about it – the war was essentially just restarted today as Iran and the US launched new strikes against each other, Strategy sold more than 3,500 BTC, recent reports suggested a major miner capitulation, AI continues to extract capital out of crypto markets, the BTC ETFs bled over $8 billion in two months, the Fed doesn’t seem inclined to lower the rates soon, and yet, the cryptocurrency still trades above $60,000.

While bitcoin has managed to withstand all this macro pressure, to an extent, of course, now comes a technical blow. At first, it was popular analyst Ted Pillows who argued that BTC’s bottom has not arrived yet. Basing his theory on historical performance, he drew a chart indicating that the asset might slump below $50,000, or even $45,000, before reaching that level.

Ali Martinez weighed in on bitcoin’s rejection at $64,000. He believes getting stopped at the top of this channel could trigger a more profound pullback in the short term to under $60,000 or even to a new multi-year low of $56,550.

Bitcoin $BTC is getting rejected at the top of its channel.

This could trigger a pullback toward $59,700, with $56,550 as the next downside target. pic.twitter.com/GvI9fMFQbD

— Ali Charts (@alicharts) July 8, 2026

The Positive Side

Another analyst on X, CW, spoke about the Kimchi Premium – the price of BTC on Korean exchanges compared to the rest of the world. The metric demonstrates the current demand in the Asian country. It had fallen to -2% for a long time, setting the record for the longest negative period in the last 5 years.

However, it has eased to -0.835%, according to CW’s data, which means that demand for BTC in Korea is returning. This is considered one of the key metrics that could suggest a trend reversal, especially if it flips to positive soon.

The $BTC Kimchi Premium Strategy indicator is showing a positive trend.

The Kimchi Premium has also decreased from -2% to -0.835%.

The longest period of negative Kimchi Premium in the last 5 years is being maintained. However, the end of the bearish trend is approaching. pic.twitter.com/Bivsx4wRqS

— CW (@CW8900) July 8, 2026

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Corporate demand for Bitcoin and XRP is increasing in Japan as a weaker yen prompts companies to diversify their treasury holdings, according to crypto exchange SBI VC Trade.

The crypto arm of Tokyo-based SBI Holdings said that this trend has driven demand for its corporate-focused services.

Corporate Crypto Demand

SBI VC Trade announced that its total registered accounts surpassed 2 million as of July 6, 2026, having doubled from more than 1 million in 2025. The figure includes users across both its VCTRADE and BITPOINT services following the merger with fellow SBI Group company Bitpoint Japan in April 2026, which the exchange said further strengthened its service infrastructure.

It attributed its continued growth to several factors, including its focus on secure and regulated trading services, an expanded range of crypto investment products, and efforts to improve accessibility for both retail and institutional users. Beyond retail products, the company also observed growing interest from corporate clients through its “SBIVC for Prime” service, which was designed for businesses and large-scale investors.

SBI VC Trade said the service has gained particular traction as Japanese firms adjust their treasury strategies in response to the weaker yen by incorporating crypto assets into their reserves. It also reported increased adoption among companies using Bitcoin and XRP as part of shareholder benefit programs.

Meanwhile, stablecoins have also become a major part of the exchange’s expansion strategy. After becoming the first exchange in Japan to support USDC in March 2025, it added the yen-denominated trust-type stablecoin JPYSC and Ripple’s US dollar-pegged RLUSD in June 2026.

Funding Round

SBI Holdings has remained one of Japan’s most active financial players in the crypto sector. It recently led a $76 million Series C funding round in US-based institutional crypto exchange EDX Markets.

The latter said it will use the capital to expand internationally and develop new products for its institution-only trading platform, which separates trading, custody, and settlement to reduce counterparty risk.

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