Warsh's steady approach may stabilize markets, but persistent inflation could challenge his strategy, impacting crypto's sensitivity to liquidity.

The post Cramer says new Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh won’t shock markets at debut appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says the STRC unwind is clearing excess leverage from Bitcoin and could signal that the crypto market is nearing a bottom.

The post Bitwise CIO sees new Bitcoin bull market beginning this fall appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The lack of crypto traction in sports tokenization highlights challenges in leveraging blockchain for meaningful fan engagement and market growth.

The post Sports tokenization still lags as Nakamura World Cup hype finds zero crypto traction appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The selloff highlights the volatility in tech sectors, impacting future AI and crypto hardware supply, and signaling broader economic shifts.

The post Semiconductor stocks face worst two-day selloff in a month as AI hype meets reality appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Tando's integration of Bitcoin with M-Pesa in Kenya could revolutionize global financial inclusion, but regulatory and sustainability challenges loom.

The post Bitcoin used for taxi, steak, and coffee payments in Kenya via Lightning Network appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitget Bolsters Stock+ Platform With U.S. Stock Options Trading

Crypto exchange Bitget has launched US stock options, allowing users to trade options on US-listed companies. 

The company described itself in a note to Bitcoin Magazine as the world’s largest Universal Exchange and states that it is the only major crypto exchange offering US stock options alongside crypto and contract-for-difference markets in gold, forex, commodities and indices.

The initial release includes long call and long put strategies for eligible users. A call option lets a trader take a bullish position on a stock, while a put option allows a trader to express a bearish view or manage downside exposure. 

Risk for buyers is limited to the premium paid, and an option can expire without value if the expected price movement does not occur.

The launch expands Bitget’s stock product line. 

The company’s earlier products include tokenized stocks and pre-IPO access to private market opportunities. Stock options join the Stock+ offering, which the company positions as a direct-access venue for US equities built for traders familiar with established stock market products and regulated market infrastructure. 

Bitget stated that the addition supports its goal of combining crypto, stocks, commodities and other assets in one trading environment.

Bitget: The U.S. options market is booming

Demand for listed options has reached record levels. The US options market processed more than 15.2 billion contracts in 2025, an average of about 60 million contracts per trading day. The figures reflect wider use of options among retail and institutional participants for directional trading, hedging and capital management.

“We have moved first to connect stock opportunities with our users,” said Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget. “From tokenized stocks to now options, we are executing on convergence. Our products provide advanced trading access to stocks, gold, crypto and worldwide assets.”

The first release focuses on single-leg options buying to provide an entry point for users. The company plans additional functionality, including multi-leg strategies, as the Stock+ options product develops.

For the launch, eligible users who complete a first US stock options trade may receive $15 in NVIDIA stock, subject to campaign terms and regional availability.

Bitget said they have more than 125 million users and access to over two million crypto tokens, along with 500-plus tokenized stocks, ETFs, commodities, foreign exchange and precious metals such as gold. 

The company holds partnerships with MotoGP and UNICEF, the latter to support blockchain education for 1.1 million people by 2027. Bitget states that it leads the tokenized traditional-finance market across 150 regions.

This post Bitget Bolsters Stock+ Platform With U.S. Stock Options Trading first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

FBI Director Kash Patel Did Not Disclose Six-Figure Strategy (MSTR) Stake: Report

FBI Director Kash Patel disclosed a six-figure investment in Strategy (MSTR), the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, more than six months past the deadline set by federal ethics law, according to a report from NOTUS. The lapse has reopened a fight over stock trading by senior government officials and raised questions about a potential conflict of interest.

Patel purchased between $100,001 and $250,000 in shares of Strategy on November 21, 2025. He did not report the trade to federal regulators until May 26, 2026, a gap of more than 180 days. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act requires senior executive-branch officials to disclose individual stock trades over $1,000 within 45 days of the transaction.

In his May 26 letter to the Office of Government Ethics, Patel said the trade had been “inadvertently omitted” from a prior filing. Two days later, Deputy Assistant Attorney General William Taylor attributed the omission to a miscommunication, and an FBI official told NOTUS the late reporting was “not realized and unintentional.” 

First-time STOCK Act violators face a $200 fine. The Department of Justice, which would issue or waive the penalty, has not fined Patel. The bureau said the corrected filing was reviewed and approved by a DOJ ethics official.

Why Patel’s stock omission is drawing attention

Strategy, the firm led by Michael Saylor, pioneered the corporate Bitcoin-treasury model and holds more than 760,000 BTC. The stock functions as a proxy for the price of Bitcoin, which makes it one of the most direct routes to a Bitcoin bet through a brokerage account. Strategy’s shares have lost about half their value since the date of Patel’s purchase.

The identity of the company is the crux of the concern. The FBI, under Patel, plays a central role in cryptocurrency enforcement, and Patel has promoted that record.

In a June 19 post on X, he warned crypto fraudsters that “this FBI will find you, and we will bring you to justice.” Weeks before his purchase, he had touted a case that seized roughly $15 billion 

Strategy has done millions of dollars in business with the Justice Department, of which the FBI is a part, along with the Departments of Health and Human Services, Defense, and State, over the past decade, according to the report.

Taylor maintained that Patel’s stake does not create a conflict of interest with his oversight of the bureau.

Patel is not an outlier. Vice President JD Vance disclosed up to $500,000 in Bitcoin, and President Trump and his sons reported more than $1 billion in crypto-related income last year. 

This post FBI Director Kash Patel Did Not Disclose Six-Figure Strategy (MSTR) Stake: Report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Metaplanet Adds 2,823 Bitcoin, Reaches 43,000 BTC and Becomes World’s Third-Largest Corporate Treasury

Metaplanet crossed the 43,000 BTC threshold on July 2, a milestone that places the Tokyo-listed firm as the world’s third-largest corporate Bitcoin holder. The company now trails Strategy and Twenty One Capital across the global corporate ranking, and its climb underscores Japan’s role in the corporate Bitcoin accumulation race.

Metaplanet acquired an additional 2,823 BTC during the second quarter of 2026, a purchase worth about $170.7 million. The buy brought total holdings to 43,000 BTC, valued near $2.6 billion. Shares of the company (ticker 3350) closed 3.5% higher at 207 yen ($1.28) on Thursday following the announcement.

The average acquisition price for the quarter landed at roughly 12.71 million yen (about $80,000) per Bitcoin, according to the company. The effective purchase price fell to around 12.09 million yen (about $77,000) once income from the firm’s Bitcoin Income Generation business is counted. 

That segment produced approximately 1.75 billion yen ($10.85 million) in operating revenue for the quarter, lifting first-half revenue to about 4.72 billion yen. On a trailing 12-month basis, the division’s revenue reached about 11.4 billion yen.

Metaplanet’s total Bitcoin investment now stands at approximately 659.25 billion yen (about $4.2 billion), with holdings valued near 409 billion yen (about $2.6 billion) as of June 30. The overall average cost basis sits at 15.33 million yen (about $102,500) per BTC.

The company reported a BTC Yield of 6.6% for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, a metric that tracks growth in Bitcoin per share. That figure remains a core indicator for corporate treasury strategies of this type.

The corporate Bitcoin leaderboard is now well defined. Strategy, the former MicroStrategy, leads with holdings above 847,000 BTC. Twenty One Capital holds second place. Metaplanet takes third, a position that puts it ahead of other large players such as MARA Holdings, according to data tracked by Bitcoin Treasuries.

Michael Saylor marked the occasion on X, tweeting, “Congrats to Metaplanet on reaching ₿43,000 and becoming the #3 corporate Bitcoin treasury in the world. You are proving that the Bitcoin treasury strategy is global.”

The strategy behind Metaplanet

Metaplanet has scaled at speed since it adopted the treasury model in 2024. CEO Simon Gerovich has drawn on equity offerings, debt instruments, and options strategies to build the position, an approach designed to limit the shareholder dilution that comes with large corporate purchases. The Bitcoin Income Generation business uses Bitcoin options to create recurring cash flow while the company expands its holdings.

The balance sheet leaves room to grow. Total debt and preferred stock represent about 23% of the net asset value of the firm’s Bitcoin, a cushion that gives Metaplanet capacity to keep buying.

The dual model, one part aggressive accumulation and one part recurring income, cements Japan as a rising force in the corporate push to hold Bitcoin as a reserve asset.

This post Metaplanet Adds 2,823 Bitcoin, Reaches 43,000 BTC and Becomes World’s Third-Largest Corporate Treasury first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

The 2036 Issue: The Future Is Now, Words of Wisdom from Jeff Booth

SPOILER ALERT: Jeff Booth does not know what the world will look like in 2036.

I know, I know… You probably wanted to hear from Jeff — author of The Price of Tomorrow and someone with incredible foresight and vision — that all eight billion of us would be living in the type of abundance he often talks about on podcasts.

You likely wanted to read that Jeff foresees Bitcoin replacing fiat by 2036 and that we’ll all be able to just kick back and relax as we enjoy living in a deflationary system by then.

I, too, was slightly disappointed when he didn’t paint a picture of a Bitcoin-fueled utopia that will exist a decade from now.

That said, in true Jeff Booth fashion, he offered some perspective that was perhaps even more profound than expected:

“It can exist for them right this second,” said Jeff in regard to when people can begin to reap the benefits of existing in a Bitcoin-buoyed system. “The question is ‘Do people move their time and energy to this new system?’”

Leave it to Jeff, someone who I often refer to as the Eckhart Tolle (author of The Power of Now) of Bitcoin to remind us that we don’t have wait for a day in the far off future when Bitcoin has transformed the world, we can begin to use right now it to transform our own personal world and the worlds of those with whom we engage.

“We are the change,” said Jeff. “We always have been.”

There’s just one caveat to Jeff’s message, though…

To fully experience the benefits that Bitcoin offers, we cannot simply view it as another asset within a broken system, we have to see it for what it actually is: a protocol.

Bitcoin As A Protocol 

According to Jeff, seeing Bitcoin as anything but a protocol will not only result in our not fully benefitting from it, but ultimately in the failure of the protocol itself.

That’s a lot, I know.

Let’s unpack it.

When Jeff looks out at the world, he sees a spectrum of Bitcoin enthusiasts — and, of course, those who will continue to simply dismiss Bitcoin.

The latter will resume focusing their efforts on trying to reform the broken and insolvent system that continues to steal their time and wealth while consistently blaming the powers that be for their lot in life, further handing over their power to those actors in the process.

If you’re reading this article, you’re likely not one of those types. You, instead, exist somewhere on a spectrum of Bitcoin understanding that Jeff has conceptualized.

On one side of that spectrum are those who take risky bets with bitcoin or even with other crypto assets in efforts to get rich quickly. This type lends much of their energy to searching for the next scheme to trade. Very few in this world win big and almost all lose over a longer time horizon.

One level up from that are those who see bitcoin as a store of value. The problem with this perspective is that the asset is trapped within the broken monetary and financial systems instead of replacing them. If bitcoin only remains a store of value, its ownership will continue to centralize over time, leading to a Bitcoin elite, a new breed of kings, as opposed to a world in which all human beings benefit from bitcoin. This scenario will also lead to continued issues with Bitcoin custodians.

“If we continue to have a debt-based system on top of bitcoin, bitcoin will continue to be held by custodians who will get liquidated time and time again as they take risks with their customers’ bitcoin,” said Jeff. “It’ll look like Celsius and BlockFi over and over and over again.”

Finally, there are those who see Bitcoin as a protocol.

They understand that Bitcoin emerges in layers, each of them enabling it to be used more easily and privately as money. It’s those for whom Bitcoin will serve as a true catalyst.

“It’s only if you view Bitcoin through the protocol lens that the world will change for you,” said Jeff.

“Every single other one of those perspectives relies on ‘It’s somebody else, not me.’ But the last one says ‘I create the future from my intention,’” he added.

“So, when we think about 2036, the real question is ‘How many people realize that they have the agency to change the world?’”

While this may seem like a relatively easy question to answer for oneself, it becomes more challenging when considering that we exist in a world that is constantly trying to distract us from what Bitcoin truly is.

Don’t Get Caught

From flavor of the month FUD to hero worship, it’s easy to give up your power.

“People often give their agency away to the likes of those who spread fear around quantum computing breaking Bitcoin or to those talking about how Jeffrey Epstein tried to infiltrate Bitcoin Core,” said Jeff.

Much of the Core vs. Knots debate was also driven by fear, which also siphoned people’s power, according to Jeff. With regard to this particular issue, Jeff noticed the name calling and ad hominem attacks, but opted not to contribute to the drama. Instead, he simply saw it as a signal that the issue was worth investigating. He believes that the debate offered people an important opportunity to fight for what they want Bitcoin to be.

“We’re used to seeing only a small part of consensus and not seeing views that are outside of it,” said Jeff. “The consensus mechanism and the agency of all participants fighting for what they see bitcoin as allows each person to see the entire debate and make their choice of what bitcoin is to them.”

Jeff went on to say that instead of being driven by fear and blindly digging in with one side or the other in such debates, it’s important to look inward at these times. Both doing so and advocating for what you want Bitcoin to be is ultimately how the protocol stays safe in his eyes.

“If there are enough hypervigilant people focused on the issues, Bitcoin stays secure,” said Jeff. “If there are enough people building on this and they are all hypervigilant as they build, it stays decentralized.”

Bitcoin enthusiasts also give away their agency to figures in the Bitcoin space who convince them that bitcoin is nothing more than a store of value — digital capital, if you will — according to Jeff.

“If you talk about digital capital and digital assets or building a debt-based system on top of Bitcoin, you aren’t viewing Bitcoin as a protocol,” explained Jeff. “Building a debt-based system on top of Bitcoin is centralizing, which isn’t good for Bitcoin. If you’re trying to concentrate bitcoin and become a new king, then both Bitcoin and the game you’re playing will ultimately fail.”

Jeff attributes the fact that some aren’t able to see how building a system that resembles the system Bitcoin was designed to replace is ultimately doomed to the notion that many are trapped in old mental models. In other words, we often bring our baggage from the old system into this new one. Those who see Bitcoin as a protocol, those using it as money in Bitcoin circular economies on a day-to-day basis, fundamentally understand Bitcoin through a different lens. They intuitively know that every choice, want, and need is a choice to distribute value or give value. And as bitcoin becomes more ubiquitous as money, then those playing financial games with bitcoin will ultimately be forced to give up their coins.

“You can try to create debt on top of bitcoin, but, eventually, as Bitcoin adoption increases, prices will begin falling so fast that those trying to centralize Bitcoin will have to figure out a way to deliver value to society in excess of what they’re spending to pay back and service their debt, which they won’t be able to do, forcing them to distribute their bitcoin,” said Jeff.

In short, Bitcoin inevitably liquidates those playing a zero-sum game; therefore, according to Jeff, it’s best to focus on what you’re doing to provide value to the world rather than focusing on how prominent figures in the Bitcoin space are rebuilding the same type of debt-based system that we’re trying to escape on top of bitcoin.

Why Bitcoin Remains Decentralized and Secure

For this issue, the editorial staff and writers involved have presupposed that Bitcoin is still sufficiently decentralized and secure come 2036. The truth is, though, as Jeff points out, if we all don’t claim our own power and embrace Bitcoin as a protocol, then it centralizes and fails.

Put another way, Bitcoin is not inevitable.

Yet, at the same time, Jeff is all but 100% convinced that Bitcoin does, in fact, succeed.

Why is that? you might ask.

Well, to use Jeff’s own words, he believes that Bitcoin will win because he “believes in us.”

Now, I know what you might be thinking: How could Jeff believe in us?… I mean, has he seen all the pleb slop out there? Has he seen how quickly many have been to abandon their Bitcoin vision and morals in pursuit of fiat gains? And does he think we’re all as good at thinking for ourselves as he is?

While I didn’t ask Jeff those questions, I’d imagine his answers to the second and third ones are “yes” and that he’s too humble to even respond to the final one. And as for the first question, he answered it without my posing it to him directly.

“As time goes on, more and more people discover what Bitcoin truly is, and each of them begins to move their agency into this space,” he explained. “In the process, people discover that their agency matters and that they can bend reality to their will. And when we share different thoughts about Bitcoin with others, it opens people’s minds, further causing them to shift their time and energy. I’m so positive that Bitcoin succeeds because I believe in the best in us, and I’ve already seen so many people move their time into this space and how that has had such a positive impact on them.”

Still, Jeff, c’mon! Most of us are still simply trying to convince our friends and family members that Bitcoin isn’t a scam, much less something that they should be moving their time and energy into. Even the idea of moving one’s time and energy into Bitcoin seems like an abstract and foreign concept to most people today.

Jeff gets that, too. And so he offered a caveat:

“Not everybody has to move their time — only a small fraction do.”

Now, given that my intention in writing this piece isn’t simply to help share Jeff’s perspective but to encourage you to embrace your own agency and power, I’m not going to share how much that small fraction is composed of in Jeff’s mind. Doing so might put you back into the mindset you may have had before you started reading this piece, the “Bitcoin is inevitable, and my efforts mean nothing in regard to its success or failure” mindset. Since that’s neither productive nor empowering, let’s not go there. The point is that Jeff believes that there are enough of us out there who will “hold the line and fight for freedom” as we work to maintain what he terms “the honest chain.”

“__% of people will cheat and go back to the dishonest chain,” said Jeff. “They’ll tell themselves ‘I needed to do it for my family.’ Deep down, they won’t have wanted to move to the dishonest chain, but they will feel that the consequences of not doing so were just too great. So, they’ll take the bribe. They’ll tell themselves ‘If not me, somebody else will do it, and I have to do it, too.”

Though that remaining percentage of people who support the honest chain may be small, it will be more than enough to have the balance of most people eventually move with them, according to Jeff.

“That small group forces a foundation from which others can benefit,” said Jeff.

A beautiful dimension of Bitcoin is that it’s a group, as opposed to a single figure, that keeps the network safe. And what shields this group is that Bitcoin enables them to remain anonymous. This can be contrasted with public leaders or religious figures who’ve challenged power and been martyred for it.

“Those leaders and religious figures had to be killed because they were open and very dangerous to the system of power,” said Jeff. “Now, those who want to stand up for what’s right no matter what to keep Bitcoin protected can do so because privacy is built into its layers. If this fight were occurring in the open, the intransigent minority, those who want to stand up for what is right, would be knocked off in time; it would be too dangerous for them to stand up.”

In this light, Bitcoin could be viewed as the greatest tool for human liberation we’ve ever seen. And the most exciting part is, we may have all of the components we need to scale it securely and in a manner that offers people transactional privacy.

Scaling Bitcoin: We May Already Have All We Need

Given how often Jeff refers to scaling Bitcoin in layers, I asked him how many layers he envisions Bitcoin having by 2036, anticipating that he had some ideas for layers that few of us could have yet conceptualized.

To my surprise, his answer to my question was direct: “I think we have almost everything already.”

(LFG.)

“We have Bitcoin, composed of energy, mining, and the consensus rules,” began Jeff. “Next, we have Lightning, Liquid, Ark, etc. This is the transport layer where you can now transport value instantly at very fast speeds. On top of or integrated with that, you have fedimints for ecash, the privacy layer. We also have Nostr, the identity layer, web of trust, and privacy layer. And that might be all we require. Everything there is enough to enable all applications to take part in the first global free market that’s ever existed.”

But what about a capital markets layer? Will we see tokenized assets on a Bitcoin layer by 2036, or at any point in the future for that matter?

According to Jeff, that’s a hard “no.”

“Tokenization is part of the fiat scam,” said Jeff. “The idea with tokenization is that people are going to take more assets and drive more money into those assets. In the world I’m talking about, you don’t need tokenization because the protocol preserves value for you — everything is priced in prices that are falling.”

According to Jeff, tokenized assets, whether on traditional ledgers (e.g., brokerage accounts) and on blockchains, are part of the current system, which is extractive. In a world underpinned by bitcoin, people won’t need to rely on tokenized assets to preserve their wealth.

“In this new world, capital markets get way smaller,” said Jeff. “In 1900, capital markets only made up about 1% of the economy, and now it’s closer to 40%. Tokenization helps the extractive economy carry on; it becomes unnecessary in a world in which Bitcoin succeeds as a protocol.”

Jeff contextualized his point by describing how he and the team at ego death capital, the Bitcoin venture capital firm that he co-founded, think about making investments in a world where bitcoin continues to appreciate in value.

“At ego death, we deploy risk capital where we think we can exceed a 45% IRR (internal rate of return),” Jeff explained. (Bitcoin’s IRR over the past 15 years is approximately 45%.) “Most startups don’t get funded with debt. Family and friends typically fund startups and what they’re doing is saying ‘I believe you can do this,’ while not necessarily considering the fact that most startups fail because it’s so hard to create value in the free market. Investors only come in when they see a startup starting to win and when they think a business will provide tons of value moving forward.”

And most investors in public markets today are only investing because fiat currencies are losing value at such an alarming rate. In a world that’s on a bitcoin standard, speculating in markets as a means to preserve value is no longer necessary.

Start Today

Each of our actions in this Bitcoin space have power.

They are helping to chart a course in which, by 2036, there will be exponentially more of us reaping the benefits of living on a bitcoin standard.

While that future surely isn’t promised, Jeff feels confident that we’re on the right path.

“Our future is created by these collisions of us talking to each other, learning from one another, and expanding our knowledge to other people,” he explained.

Plus, the longer Jeff works with and invests in high-integrity builders in the Bitcoin space, the more confident he feels that Bitcoin remains decentralized and secure, as it must for it to succeed.

With that said, Jeff understands that many will sell out as the fight continues to be brought to Bitcoin’s doorstep, which is why he says that we should feel free to “slay our heroes.” Instead, he believes, we should look within ourselves for answers.

The Bitcoin story isn’t one of looking out to or up to; it’s one of looking inward and embracing responsibility and critical thinking, both of which are necessary in pursuit of increased personal power and agency.

If we want a world transformed by Bitcoin in 2036, we have to start by making the essential personal transformations and moving more of our time and energy into Bitcoin today.

Don’t miss your chance to own The 2036 Issue — featuring articles written by many influential figures in the space pondering the challenges of the next decade!

This piece is featured in the latest Print edition of Bitcoin Magazine, The 2036 Issue. We’re sharing it here as an early look at the ideas explored throughout the full issue.

This post The 2036 Issue: The Future Is Now, Words of Wisdom from Jeff Booth first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Frank Corva.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Price Reclaims $60,000 As Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) Jump More Than 10%

Bitcoin price climbed above $60,000 on Wednesday, a level the asset had ceded during the last couple weeks of turbulence, after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh told a central bank forum that the threat of persistent inflation had moderated.

The cryptocurrency traded near $60,171 this afternoon, a gain of about 2.7% on the day, with a 24-hour high of $60,474 and a low of $57,718. Trading volume for the session reached $26.68 billion.

Warsh, in remarks at the European Central Bank forum in Sintra, Portugal, said inflation expectations in surveys and bond prices had eased. He paired the observation with a warning that price growth remains too elevated and that the Fed will not accept inflation above its 2 percent target. 

“We’re going to deliver price stability,” Warsh said.

Markets read the balance as a tilt toward relief. Bitcoin advanced as U.S. stocks rose and the dollar retreated from a weekly high. A softer dollar tends to lift demand for Bitcoin and other risk assets.

The move offered a reprieve in a hard year. Bitcoin sits about 30% below where it started 2026 and more than $66,000 under its record of $126,277, a slide that has kept the bear-market label in view. Its market value stands near $1.2 trillion.

Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) jump over 10% at times in intraday trading

Bitcoin treasury companies posted sharper gains. Strategy, the software firm turned Bitcoin holder under Michael Saylor, rose close to 7.5% on the day — with highs of 13% during the day. Strive jumped more than 10% at times to $12.02. 

Both trade as leveraged proxies for Bitcoin, and their swings tend to exceed those of the coin. Strive has spent 2026 building a treasury that now tops 16,000 BTC, and the stock has climbed more than 100% across three months.

Earlier this week, Strategy released a new Digital Credit Capital Framework that raised the dividend on its STRC preferred shares to 12%, authorized up to $2 billion in share buybacks, and created a bitcoin monetization program allowing limited BTC sales for specific corporate purposes. 

The company also established a $2.55 billion U.S. dollar reserve to cover preferred dividends and debt interest, with board rules requiring at least 12 months of coverage at all times. Strategy said any bitcoin sales would be limited to replenishing reserves, funding dividends and interest when preferable to issuing equity, or financing stock buybacks, while reaffirming bitcoin as its primary treasury asset.

This post Bitcoin Price Reclaims $60,000 As Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) Jump More Than 10% first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

ISIS-K, the Islamic State affiliate active across Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Central Asia, had USDT balances frozen on 131 TRON addresses after an OFAC sanctions update, creating an enforcement test for stablecoins. Once public-chain intelligence, a sanctions list, and issuer controls were in place, Tether could freeze the balances within its own token system.

The July 1 action updated the ISIL Khorasan designation with digital-currency identifiers. Chainalysis said OFAC added 134 crypto addresses, including 131 TRON addresses and three Monero addresses.

It also said Tether froze the balances on all 131 TRON addresses.

The outcome turns a sanctions entry into a map of who can stop the flow of money. Governments identify a target; blockchain intelligence maps the wallets; exchanges and compliance vendors screen for exposure; and a freezeable issuer can interrupt balances within its token system.

Chainalysis said the 131 TRON wallets controlled by ISIS-K had received more than $1.4 million since 2023 and sent more than $880,000. Those figures do not show how much remained in the wallets when Tether froze them, and they should not be treated as the frozen balance.

But the flow totals show the enforcement model in action. The wallets were more than symbolic identifiers on a list. They were part of an on-chain funding route that touched mainstream services and could be screened after designation.

Stablecoin sanctions now have an issuer switch

OFAC has treated digital-currency addresses as sanctions identifiers for years, but stablecoins add a control point that does not exist in the same way for every crypto asset.

OFAC’s virtual-currency guidance says it may add digital-currency addresses to the SDN List and that parties identifying blocked digital currency should block the property and report relevant information.

For an exchange, custodian, payment firm, or compliance vendor, that means screening the listed addresses and related exposure. For a stablecoin issuer, it can also mean disabling the token balance at the contract or issuer-control layer.

Tether had already moved toward that posture. In December 2023, the company said it had introduced a voluntary wallet-freezing policy for activity related to individuals on OFAC’s SDN List.

Related Reading

Tether commits to freezing addresses linked to sanctions as scrutiny over USDT misuse grows

Over the past year, Tether has froze a significant amount of its USDT stablecoin linked to illicit activities.

Apr 23, 2024 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

The ISIS-K case shows what that policy means in practice when the asset sits on a transparent chain with a large USDT footprint.

The result is a different kind of sanctions perimeter. Traditional sanctions often work through banks, correspondent accounts, payment processors, and custodians. In this model, the stablecoin issuer sits closer to the asset itself.

If a listed address holds a freezeable token, the enforcement pathway can run through the issuer rather than relying only on exchanges to reject deposits or withdrawals.

That does not make the system automatic or complete. It still depends on timely intelligence, accurate labeling, legal process, operational capacity, and the issuer’s willingness or obligation to act.

It also raises hard questions about private companies becoming choke points for dollar-linked tokens that circulate globally. But the ISIS-K update shows that the issuer role is no longer theoretical.

This is the policy tension stablecoin issuers now carry. The same control that lets an issuer respond to a sanctions designation can become a standing expectation from regulators, law enforcement, exchanges, and analytics firms.

Once that expectation exists, a dollar token is judged by more than reserve quality, liquidity, and redemption access. It is also judged by how fast its issuer can act when a listed wallet appears on-chain.

TRON-based USDT sits at the center of the case

The TRON address count is the detail that gives the action its shape. Chainalysis said the ISIS-K update included 131 TRON addresses, compared with three Monero addresses.

Tether’s freeze applied to the TRON side because those balances were in a token system the issuer can control.

That detail affects exchanges and payment firms because TRON-based USDT has become a common rail for fast, cheap dollar transfers. When a sanctions action names TRON addresses, the compliance burden does not stop at the listed wallets.

Firms have to ask whether they received funds from those addresses, sent funds to them, interacted with related clusters, or served customers via adjacent cash-out routes.

Related Reading

Justin Sun defends Tron following allegations of facilitating terror financing

Sun said the blockchain network is committed to fighting illegal use by terror groups but maintained that decentralization was its primary concern.

Nov 27, 2023 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Chainalysis said several of the designated wallets sent funds to Syria-based crypto exchangers and had heavy exposure to mainstream services. That is where stablecoin sanctions become infrastructure rather than paperwork.

The listed address is the starting point. The real work is mapping counterparties, deposits, withdrawals, service exposure, and any linked addresses that may not yet be public.

Tether’s recent history reinforces that trend. In April, the company said it supported freezing more than $344 million in USDT in coordination with OFAC and U.S. law enforcement.

In May, it said the T3 Financial Crime Unit involving Tether, TRON, and TRM Labs had frozen more than $450 million tied to illicit crypto flows.

Related Reading

How Tether, TRON, TRM Labs froze $100 million in stolen digital assets

The unit collaborates with global authorities to combat financial crime using blockchain forensics across billions in volume.

Jan 2, 2025 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

Those are separate actions from the ISIS-K update, but they show a repeatable pattern: analytics identify risk, public or private enforcement channels flag wallets, and the issuer freeze becomes part of the response.

The policy backdrop is moving in the same direction. In an April proposed rule, FinCEN and OFAC set out AML/CFT and sanctions compliance requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers, including technical capacities to block, freeze, and reject impermissible transactions.

Regulators increasingly treat stablecoin issuers as financial infrastructure with compliance duties, not just software-adjacent token companies.

The Monero addresses show where the model stops

The same OFAC update also included three Monero addresses. That contrast is important because it shows the limit of issuer-driven enforcement.

Monero accounts are controlled through private keys, not by a centralized issuer that can disable a token balance. OFAC can list an XMR address, and exchanges or other covered firms can screen for exposure where they have visibility.

Investigators can still pursue leads, counterparties, devices, service providers, and user errors. But there is no equivalent of asking Tether to freeze a USDT balance at the issuer layer.

That split is likely to shape behavior. If stablecoin freezes become faster and more routine, sanctioned actors and illicit networks have incentives to shift funds toward assets or routes with fewer issuer controls.

That does not make those routes safe or invisible. It does make them harder to interrupt at a single corporate control point.

For governments, the appeal of freezeable stablecoins is obvious. Public chains leave trails. Stablecoins often touch centralized services. Issuers can act like payment processors or banks when legal and operational conditions are met.

The result is a sanctions tool that can move faster than traditional cross-border finance in some cases.

For crypto users and infrastructure providers, the tradeoff is just as clear. The same feature that lets an issuer stop funds tied to a sanctioned terrorist group also confirms that tokenized dollars carry centralized control.

That may be acceptable, even expected, for regulated payment stablecoins. It also marks a dividing line between assets designed to behave like compliant money-market infrastructure and assets designed to minimize third-party control.

That dividing line gives the ISIS-K action its forward-looking edge. The enforcement gain is strongest when illicit finance uses tokenized dollars on public chains.

The incentive to adapt is strongest when those actors can move into assets or venues where the issuer switch is absent, visibility is weaker, or cash-out points sit outside cooperative channels.

The next fight is over the route, not the wallet

The ISIS-K update points to the next phase of crypto sanctions: enforcement will focus less on a single wallet and more on the route around it.

A listed address can be frozen if it holds issuer-controlled stablecoins. It can be screened by exchanges and custodians. Its counterparties can be mapped by analytics firms.

But the funding network can still adapt by moving through new addresses, unlisted intermediaries, offshore exchangers, privacy tools, or assets without issuer controls.

The OFAC and Chainalysis record goes beyond Tether freezing 131 wallets. Stablecoin rails are becoming part of a standing enforcement stack.

The stack includes sanctions lists, blockchain intelligence, issuer controls, exchange compliance, and vendor tooling. Each part covers a different piece of the route.

The ISIS-K case also shows the model’s built-in limitation. Freezeable stablecoins are powerful when illicit finance uses tokenized dollars on transparent chains.

They are less decisive when funds have already moved, when balances are gone, when counterparties sit outside cooperative venues, or when activity shifts to assets without a centralized issuer.

For stablecoin issuers, the message is that scale now comes with enforcement expectations. For exchanges, the pressure is to detect exposure before a listed wallet arrives at the deposit page.

For compliance vendors, the value is in turning public designations into real-time routing maps. For users, the case is a reminder that the most liquid on-chain dollars are not neutral pipes. They are programmable balances inside systems that can be stopped.

The next signal will be whether actions like this remain case-by-case responses or become a normal operating layer for dollar stablecoins.

If issuer freezes, exchange screening, and chain analytics continue to converge, stablecoins will do more than just move dollars on public chains. They will help decide which on-chain dollars can keep moving.

The post Tether freezes 134 ISIS terror wallets as stablecoins now sit inside the sanctions machine appeared first on CryptoSlate.

A pseudonymous respondent has appeared in New York court to challenge a lawsuit seeking control of over $200 billion worth of long-dormant coins tied to the network’s earliest days, including those linked to Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's pseudonymous founder.

The respondent, using the name John Doe 33, filed a notice of appearance on June 30 in New York Supreme Court, saying he is a “natural person and a real human being” with constitutionally protected property rights.

He said he is not “a Bitcoin blockchain address string, a digital wallet, a line of source code, or any other form of inanimate data.”

The filing marks a shift in the litigation brought by ABC Company, XYZ Company, and a pseudonymous plaintiff operating as Noah Doe, who are seeking to claim ownership of Bitcoin associated with 39,069 inactive addresses under New York lost-property law.

The targeted wallets include coins widely attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto and other early Bitcoin miners.

The case now has a person on the other side

John Doe 33’s appearance changes the posture of a lawsuit that had previously centered on silent blockchain addresses.

The plaintiffs’ case treats the inactive wallets as lost property and seeks legal title to about 3.799 million Bitcoin.

At current market prices, the targeted coins are worth more than $200 billion, while the plaintiffs list the claim at $10 for statutory and jurisdictional purposes.

That gap has drawn attention across the crypto industry as the lawsuit asks a court to grant ownership over one of the largest pools of dormant Bitcoin ever identified, while relying on the claim that inactivity can support a lost-property theory.

John Doe 33’s filing pushes the court toward a different question of whether a person who may have rights tied to those assets can be reduced to a numbered wallet entry.

Speaking on this development, Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, said:

“A person (‘a real human being' not ‘any form of inanimate data') has filed a notice of appearance in the abandoned property litigation where ‘Noah Doe’ is claiming title over Satoshi’s coins. Someone is stepping up to fight noah doe as a respondent, not just amicus brief.”

The respondent is also fighting to stay anonymous

Meanwhile, the mystery claimant is trying to contest the case without exposing himself to the risks associated with his large crypto holdings.

John Doe 33 said his pseudonym was adopted to protect his identity, safety and privacy in a high-profile proceeding involving risks of doxxing, extortion and physical targeting against identified cryptocurrency holders.

He also said he is separately asking the court for permission to proceed under a pseudonym. John Doe 33 went further by reserving all defenses and objections, including those raised in an accompanying motion to dismiss.

Meanwhile, the filing carefully separates the person from the wallet list. John Doe 33 said his name does not correspond to the 33rd Bitcoin address in the plaintiffs’ exhibit or to any specific numbered entry.

He argued that the numbered John Does in the caption are the plaintiffs’ labels for inanimate blockchain addresses, whereas he is appearing as a person.

That distinction could shape the next phase of the case. If the court allows pseudonymous participation, other holders may have a path to contest the lawsuit without publicly linking themselves to valuable Bitcoin addresses.

On-chain moves and legal warnings set up the challenge

John Doe 33’s appearance landed after the lawsuit had already been strained by on-chain movements and outside legal objections.

CryptoSlate previously reported that about 52 of the addresses named in the lawsuit transferred roughly 34,335 Bitcoin, worth more than $2 billion at current market valuations.

These transfers created a factual problem before John Doe 33 created a legal one. Bitcoin wallets can remain inactive for years for reasons unrelated to abandonment, such as long-term custody, cold storage, lost keys, or a deliberate decision not to transact.

This means that the movements weakened any simple link between dormancy and surrender.

Apart from that, the lawsuit had also faced organized legal resistance in late May, when pro-Bitcoin attorney Ian Cohen filed an amicus brief challenging its viability.

At the time, Cohen argued:

“Plaintiffs' theory is wrong on every level: textual, structural, constitutional, and practical. Article 7-B of the New York Personal Property Law was designed for physical objects physically found by human beings. It has no application to a computational scan of a public ledger. Dormancy on a public blockchain is not abandonment. It is, in many cases, the deliberate choice of a Bitcoin holder who stores private keys securely and transacts rarely.”

Meanwhile, Thorn, citing the novelty of the case, previously urged major industry participants to intervene in the matter before it could set a precedent for claiming dormant crypto wallets through abandoned-property claims.

In light of these developments, the next phase of the lawsuit will likely turn on two questions: whether the court allows John Doe 33 to defend the case under a pseudonym, and whether his motion to dismiss can halt Noah Doe’s bid before the lawsuit advances toward any claim of title over the wallets.

A ruling on either issue could determine whether other potential holders have a safe path to appear in court, or whether the case continues to test how far lost-property law can be pushed against inactive Bitcoin addresses.

The post Mystery owner challenges the $200B ‘lost’ Satoshi Bitcoin claim in New York court appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Glassnode's latest Week Onchain report shows that roughly 10.83 million BTC are now in the red, against 9.22 million still in profit.

Loss-making supply now accounts for roughly 54% of the measured total, compared with 46% still in profit, meaning underwater coins exceed profitable coins by about 1.61 million BTC.

Glassnode describes this as one of the sharpest deteriorations in investor profitability since the current bull market began, a threshold with real psychological weight.

Crossing it before has coincided with genuine capitulation among newer buyers, the kind of stress that shapes a structural drawdown.

Underwater holders are the ones most prone to selling into panic or exiting near breakeven once the price recovers, which keeps a layer of resistance above the market.

Yet those same coins can migrate to higher-conviction buyers if patient capital is willing to absorb them, and Glassnode's data shows exactly that kind of buyer has begun to show up.

The seller profile is already changing underneath that stress, as Glassnode says long-term holders have started rebuilding positions, a reversal from an extended stretch of distribution, with net position change back in positive territory.

The pace stays modest, well short of the buying waves seen in prior accumulation cycles, but the direction has turned. The first sign of a bottom often shows up here, in experienced holders deciding a drawdown is worth buying, well before price itself confirms anything.

Glassnode's Accumulation Trend Score climbed across multiple cohorts this week, with the strongest readings among wallets holding less than 1 BTC and entities holding 100 to 1,000 BTC.

Wallets in the 1,000-to-10,000 BTC range also turned net buyers. Bitcoin's quiet bid is spreading across the entire ownership ladder, from the smallest wallets to mid-sized entities.

US-traded spot Bitcoin ETFs remain in sustained net outflow territory, and that selling pressure has persisted even as on-chain conviction builds in the opposite direction. The ETF story explains why the price stays weak, while the on-chain story explains who is taking the other side.

Coinbase and Binance both show books shifting toward the bid, with buyers adding liquidity below spot. That bid looks patient, which is why the price can still look weak even as a base starts to form underneath it.

Hyperliquid traders hold a long bias at the highest level Glassnode has tracked, using leveraged exposure to bet on a bounce before spot conviction is fully confirmed.
The cash market is trying to build a floor, while the derivatives market is trying to get there first.

Options traders are already paying up for protection: the 14-day put-to-call volume ratio climbed above 1.0, its highest reading in a year. Implied volatility is climbing too, up from depressed levels, though Glassnode stops short of calling it a panic reading.

The market carries enough fear to begin bottoming, though the fear needed to confirm a finished capitulation may still be building.

Put together, the pattern looks unusual for a bottoming process, and Bitcoin may be finding a floor through an unusual mechanism: ETF investors are selling while stronger, more patient hands absorb the exit in real time.

Glassnode frames it as an early, still-developing bottoming process and flags that a final capitulation-driven volatility spike stays possible.

Long-term holders buying also trails the scale of prior accumulation waves by a wide margin, keeping the recovery in accumulation fragile.

Bitcoin can probably bottom without ETF inflows returning, as long as outflows slow enough to stop overpowering on-chain accumulation, and the crowded long positioning on Hyperliquid unwinds gradually through price strength.

How this plays out

In the bull case, ETF outflows continue but slow, while long-term holders and broader wallet cohorts continue to accumulate through the summer.

Bid-heavy order books keep absorbing supply from newer, underwater holders, and the aggressive Hyperliquid long positioning resolves through a genuine bounce.

Bitcoin's correction becomes a controlled migration, from ETF sellers and short-term holders into the hands of patient on-chain capital, and the transfer phase becomes the bottom.

In the bear case, the crowded long positioning in Hyperliquid gets flushed, ETF outflows persist, and underwater holders capitulate at lower prices.

Implied volatility spikes toward genuine panic levels, and long-term holder accumulation slows as the drawdown deepens. Bitcoin still ends up transferring to stronger hands, but through one final capitulation event.

Bitcoin's next bottom may begin with an unusual sequence: institutions leaving, weaker holders capitulating, and stronger hands quietly taking the other side. A bottom starts as a turnover in who owns the supply, well before it shows up in price.

The post Wall Street is selling Bitcoin but the old holders are now buying it back appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Venice, the AI platform behind the VVV token, raised $65 million in a Series A led by Dragonfly at a $1 billion equity valuation, its first outside capital raise. The company chose stock over its own token, and the market is already arguing about what that choice means for VVV holders.

Series A investors received 8.98% equity, a 1.5 million VVV vesting grant, and warrants to purchase 5 million additional VVV over 8 years. That package brings together Dragonfly, Coinbase Ventures, North Island Ventures, and other participants on both sides of Venice's capital structure, with equity and tokens held in the same deal.

Venice's own VVV page describes the token as a long-term deflationary capital asset of the platform. It lays out a feedback loop in which platform revenue buys and burns VVV, supply falls, and the token becomes scarcer.

Staking VVV also mints DIEM, a credit equal to one dollar of daily-renewing Venice compute access.
Erik Voorhees framed the round on X as “VVV and Capital,” explaining that Venice funded growth with equity while its treasury VVV holdings stayed untouched.

He said Venice still holds more VVV than anyone else, more than 30 million tokens out of upward of 80 million in supply. Neither Venice nor its team has sold VVV despite the token's rally this year.

Venice plans to build its own compute infrastructure, including its first data center, cutting reliance on leased GPUs. Voorhees said the resulting margin improvement could make larger VVV burns feasible: better margins fund more revenue capacity, and more revenue capacity funds bigger burns.

The equity and token disconnect

Dankrad Feist offered a skeptical take, saying that the token-and-equity split in the deal “sucks,” since equity holders have legal protections while token holders depend on Venice continuing its buybacks and burns.

The criticism lands because Venice itself markets VVV as the platform's capital asset, a framing that leads token holders to expect to be close to the company's economics.

Both sides agree that Venice is a real business with real revenue and that revenue continues to expand, and the disagreement is over which asset captures it.

Equity holders own a legal claim on Venice AI, backed by a contract, while VVV holders own a designed economic claim, built from staking, DIEM, and a burn mechanism that depends on Venice choosing to keep running it.

Equity holders have legal ownership of Venice AI and the governance rights specified in their deal documents. VVV holders receive staking access, a DIEM minting path, exposure to the buy-and-burn mechanism, and the ability to trade the token on open markets.

Series A investors, through their VVV grant and warrants, now hold a slice of both layers at once.

The $1 billion equity valuation implies a roughly 14.3x multiple of Venice's reported annual revenue. VVV trades around $13.55, putting its market cap near $637 million and its fully diluted value near $1.54 billion, or about 9.1 times and 22.1 times revenue on those two measures.

Whether burns can offset the new token supply depends on a burn percentage that Venice has kept undisclosed. At 5% of annual revenue, Venice would retire roughly 258,000 VVV per year at current prices, climbing to 517,000 and 1.03 million at 10% and 20%, respectively.

The investor package alone carries 6.5 million VVV in grants and warrants, with the grants and warrants phased in over a one-year lock and three years of vesting.

Voorhees has estimated that fully exercised warrants would add fewer than 6,000 VVV a day to circulation once they start unlocking, a pace of roughly 2.19 million VVV a year at the top end.

Goldman Sachs projects $765 billion in AI capital spending in 2026, climbing to $1.6 trillion by 2031, and compute buildout of that size tends to reward hardware owners over companies that lease.

Raising equity for GPUs and a data center is a standard move for a company at Venice's stage. Keeping VVV as the public economic layer on top of that equity round is the part of crypto that's still being argued about.

How this plays out

In the bull case, Venice turns the equity raise into computing ownership fast enough to widen margins within the next year or two.

Annual revenue keeps climbing past the current $70 million run rate, buy-and-burn volume grows with it, and VVV's token-linked dilution from the Series A grant and warrants ends up smaller than what burns retire.

Venice keeps its position as the largest VVV holder, and the token starts trading like a credible claim on the platform's growth.

In the bear case, Venice's equity value outruns VVV's. The company keeps expanding, compute investment pays off, and most of that upside flows to equity holders through a valuation multiple that the token cannot match.

Burns stay modest relative to VVV's $1.54 billion fully diluted value, and the Series A warrants unlock on schedule. The market starts pricing VVV as an access asset for staking and DIEM, a narrower role than a full claim on Venice's enterprise value would carry.

Venice already did the hard part that crypto claims to want: build a real product, generate real revenue, launch a public token, and raise outside capital only then.

Every dollar Venice adds to its revenue makes it more urgent to know whether that dollar shows up in VVV's price, in Venice AI's equity value, or is split unevenly between the two.

The post Venice’s $65M raise makes VVV holders ask how much of Venice’s growth reaches the token appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Robinhood is pushing deeper into crypto infrastructure with the launch of its own blockchain network, tokenized stocks and decentralized lending products, even as one of its fastest-growing revenue opportunities may be forming outside crypto.

On July 1, the brokerage launched the public mainnet for Robinhood Chain at a London event, marking its most direct move yet into onchain financial infrastructure.

The Ethereum layer-2 network, built on Arbitrum, is designed to support tokenized real-world assets, decentralized finance applications and trading activity tied to Robinhood’s expanding global product suite.

The launch gives Robinhood more control over the infrastructure behind its tokenized-stock ambitions. Stock Tokens are available through Robinhood Wallet in more than 120 countries, though access varies by jurisdiction and the products are unavailable to US persons.

Robinhood’s disclosures state that the tokens are debt securities that provide economic exposure to underlying shares, rather than legal or beneficial rights in those shares. The company said eligible users will be able to trade the tokens around the clock and use them across decentralized finance applications, including lending pools and collateral for trading.

Robinhood also introduced Robinhood Earn, a decentralized lending product that allows eligible US users to lend USDG, its dollar-backed stablecoin, through a self-custody wallet.

The product offers an estimated 7% annual percentage yield and uses lending infrastructure powered by Morpho, with insurance procured through Lloyd’s of London and RELM for covered losses tied to cyber or smart contract exploits.

The crypto rollout came alongside a broader slate of expansion. The company revealed plans to launch crypto trading in the UK, to make its services available in Canada following its acquisition of WonderFi, and to have received a capital markets services license in Singapore.

These announcements show how Robinhood is trying to turn a retail brokerage into a global trading venue spanning stocks, crypto, tokenized assets, derivatives, decentralized finance and artificial intelligence tools.

Yet the company’s next major revenue surprise may come from event contracts, the prediction-market products that allow users to trade on outcomes in politics, sports, economics and other events.

A crypto launch lands as event contracts accelerate

Robinhood’s blockchain push gives the company a clearer foundation for its tokenized asset strategy at a time when prediction markets are beginning to challenge crypto trading as a source of transaction revenue.

Artemis analyst Crossroads suggests Robinhood’s prediction-market revenue could exceed its crypto revenue as early as the second quarter.

The report cited about 12.3 billion event contracts traded through June 25. At an assumed take rate of 1 cent per contract, that would imply roughly $123 million in quarterly revenue before the final days of June are included.

That figure would put prediction markets within reach of Robinhood’s first-quarter crypto transaction revenue, when the company reported $134 million.

While crypto volumes showed some improvement in June, they remained under pressure compared with earlier periods, with institutional activity carrying lower take rates than retail trading.

The comparison is not final until Robinhood reports second-quarter earnings. But the estimates point to a shift in how investors may need to view the company.

Indeed, Robinhood has long been treated in part as a retail crypto proxy because trading booms in Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and other digital assets have flowed into its results. A larger contribution from event contracts would make that relationship less direct.

Prediction markets have also grown despite legal and regulatory challenges. Robinhood has offered event contracts through its partnership with Kalshi, one of the leading US platforms in the category.

Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev has described the company as near the beginning of a prediction-market cycle, and Robinhood executives have pointed to a $500 million annual revenue run rate.

Sports markets, including World Cup-related activity, have helped the recent surge. That creates a clear durability test. Volumes tied to a major global event can fade after the tournament ends.

Still, Artemis argued that Kalshi’s growth outside sports and Robinhood’s distribution give the business a path beyond one event cycle.

Robinhood is moving from distribution into infrastructure

The more important development for Robinhood may be its attempt to own more of the plumbing behind its products.

That shift is visible in crypto through Robinhood Chain. The network is built to provide developers with a platform for tokenized assets and decentralized finance tools, with integrations from firms including Alchemy, BitGo and Chainlink.

Uniswap is also deploying a dedicated automated market maker on the chain, while Pleiades is deploying a proprietary automated market maker to serve as a trading venue.

The same infrastructure logic is emerging in prediction markets through Rothera, the platform tied to Robinhood and Susquehanna. Rothera is still small compared with Kalshi and Polymarket, and its long-term monetization has not been established.

However, the platform has generated more than $900 million in volume over a recent one-week period, giving Robinhood a clearer route to operate more directly in the market rather than relying entirely on third-party venues.

That distinction could become important if Robinhood begins routing more of its own app-based event-contract activity through Rothera. A brokerage that controls the consumer interface and more of the underlying market infrastructure can capture more of the economics, set pricing more aggressively, and use liquidity from one side of the business to strengthen the other.

The strategy resembles the broader approach behind Robinhood Chain. In both cases, Robinhood is trying to move beyond simply offering access to outside markets. It is building or aligning with infrastructure that can sit underneath the trading activity itself.

That does not remove the risks. Rothera currently lacks the scale of the biggest prediction-market platforms. Its recent volume may be partly tied to temporary demand in sports.

Robinhood’s economics could also vary depending on whether trades continue to flow through Kalshi, move to Rothera, or use a mix of both venues.

Moreover, the regulatory path for prediction markets remains unsettled, especially if the category continues to expand beyond narrow financial and sports contracts.

Perpetual futures widen the trading menu

Robinhood’s derivatives expansion in Europe shows that the company is also building a more conventional trading business around advanced products.

The brokerage said commodity, ETF and foreign exchange perpetual futures are being rolled out to eligible European users, adding assets such as gold, silver, QQQ, EUR/USD, WTI, Brent crude and EWY. The products allow up to 10x leverage and trading around the clock.

Robinhood also said Bitstamp by Robinhood launched multi-asset perpetual futures, giving institutional market participants access to FX, equity indices, commodities and crypto from a single pool of capital.

The offering uses a US dollar-settled account with unified collateral management, reference prices from Kaiko Benchmark Indices and matching technology powered by Nasdaq. Bitstamp by Robinhood operates as a MiFID II-authorized multilateral trading facility in Europe.

The expansion gives Robinhood more ways to compete with crypto-native exchanges, traditional brokerages and derivatives venues. It also shows how the company is applying crypto-style trading mechanics, including perpetual futures and 24-hour market access, to traditional asset classes.

That strategy could make Robinhood less dependent on any single cycle. Crypto trading revenue has historically been volatile, rising sharply during retail-led rallies and falling when token prices and volumes weaken.

Perpetual futures, prediction markets, tokenized stocks, and lending products could provide the company with additional revenue streams with distinct demand drivers.

AI tools push the platform closer to automated trading

Robinhood is also preparing to bring more automation into crypto trading through Agentic Accounts for eligible US users.

The tool will allow users to connect AI models to Robinhood’s trading infrastructure through its Trading MCP. The company said users will retain control over the amount of capital allocated and the safety limits applied to the strategy, while AI agents can scan data and execute trades within those parameters.

Robinhood has already introduced agentic trading for equities and options in the US. Extending the tool to crypto adds another layer to its plan to combine retail access, automation and multi-asset trading within a single platform.

The company framed the product as a way to give retail traders access to capabilities more commonly used by professional firms.

However, the risks are also clear. Automated trading tools can magnify poor strategy design, weak risk controls and sudden market moves, particularly in crypto markets where liquidity and volatility can shift quickly.

The AI launch fits with Robinhood’s wider effort to make the platform more active, more global and more embedded in users’ financial lives. The same event included a Guinness World Records demonstration in which an AI agent used a Robinhood-branded credit card to purchase items for attendees.

For investors, the test is whether these products can create durable revenue rather than periodic bursts tied to market cycles, product launches, or major events.

The post Robinhood’s expanding crypto bet meets a faster-moving prediction market boom appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The MiCA enforcement deadline has finally landed, pushing the world's biggest exchange out of the EU. A 140-company alliance just detonated a bomb under the leading regulated stablecoin issuer. And Bitcoin is grinding near its lowest levels in over a year as institutional demand stays soft. Here's what's actually moving the market today.

Why is Bitcoin falling today?

Sentiment is firmly risk-off. The global crypto market cap sits around $2.11 trillion, down roughly 1.8% over 24 hours, with total trading volume near $76.9 billion. $BTC is trading around $58,500, off about 2.2% on the day, while $ETH is near $1,573, down roughly 1.4%.

The mood gauge tells the story. The Fear & Greed Index has dropped to 11 — deeper into "extreme fear" — down from 15 a day earlier, as total market cap slipped from $2.16T to $2.11T. The backdrop is a persistent bear phase: ETF outflows, worries over a delayed CLARITY Act, and money rotating out of crypto and into AI stocks have all extended the downturn that dragged $BTC to its lowest levels since 2024 last week. Not everything is red, though — Polkadot and the XRP Ledger ecosystem were among the day's biggest gainers, and Stellar's $XLM climbed close to 12%. 

What does the Binance EU exit mean for the market?

Today is the day MiCA gets real. As of 1 July 2026, any crypto firm serving EU residents must hold a MiCA licence — and Binance doesn't. It withdrew its Greek licence application on 24 June, leaving it without authorisation in any EU country, and from today it halts new sign-ups, spot trading, deposits and Earn products for EU users, though withdrawals stay open.

The scale of the regulatory cull is the real headline. Of more than 3,000 firms that were operating across Europe, only around 210 have secured full CASP authorisation — a pass rate near 7%. Rivals like Coinbase, Kraken and OKX cleared the bar; the world's largest exchange did not. For traders, that means hundreds of thousands of users across Spain, France, Italy and Poland are now weighing where to move their funds — a live migration that favours already-licensed venues.

Why did Circle stock crash?

This is arguably the biggest structural story of the week. Circle ($CRCL) shares fell about 16.5% on 30 June after a consortium of more than 140 companies unveiled Open USD (OUSD), a stablecoin built to compete head-on with USDC. The stock traded as low as $63.10 after opening near $72.46, one of its sharpest single-day drops since listing, and is now down more than 40% over the past month. 

What makes OUSD dangerous to incumbents is its economics. Launch partners include Stripe, Coinbase, Mastercard, Visa and BlackRock, and the new stablecoin lets partners keep the reserve earnings — striking directly at one of the core economics of today's issuers. Where issuers like Circle earn revenue by investing reserves in short-term Treasuries and keeping most of the interest, OUSD instead distributes that yield to participating businesses, with free, uncapped minting and shared governance. The Coinbase angle stings most: Circle paid Coinbase roughly $908 million in a single recent year in USDC distribution fees — and that partner is now backing a rival. OUSD is expected to go live later this year, initially on chains including Base and Solana.

Other regulatory news to watch

Several fronts are heating up at once. Jefferies has warned of crypto market volatility as the CLARITY Act faces a key Senate test, noting passage would boost institutional adoption while delays would prolong regulatory uncertainty. Meanwhile, the stablecoin rulebook is diverging across borders: the UK's Financial Conduct Authority has proposed lowering stablecoin capital buffers, undercutting the EU's stricter MiCA requirements. And in Asia, Taiwan has passed a sweeping crypto law introducing licensing, reserve mandates and tough penalties, now awaiting final presidential approval.

Binance is shutting the door on EU customers. From 1 July 2026, the world's largest crypto exchange can no longer offer services to residents of the bloc, after failing to secure a licence under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) before the transition period closed. If your funds are sitting on Binance, you don't need to panic — but you do need a plan. This guide explains what happened and walks you through moving your crypto to a regulated platform, step by step.

What actually happened with Binance and MiCA?

MiCA is the EU's single rulebook for crypto. To legally serve customers anywhere in the bloc, an exchange must hold a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) licence from one member state — that licence then "passports" across all 27 EU countries and the wider European Economic Area. The transition period that let legacy operators keep working while awaiting authorisation closed on 1 July 2026, the hard enforcement date.

Binance bet on Greece as its entry point. On 24 June 2026, it formally withdrew the application it had filed with the Hellenic Capital Market Commission, citing prolonged review timelines and the absence of any formal decision — just days before the deadline. The exchange says it remains confident it will secure an EU licence in the coming months and intends to approach France next. But any approval will land after 1 July, leaving a gap where Binance is locked out.

The scale of the cull is striking. Of more than 3,000 crypto firms operating across Europe, only around 210 received full MiCA authorisation by the deadline — a clearance rate of roughly 7%. Rivals including Coinbase, Kraken, OKX and Crypto.com cleared the bar; the largest exchange in the world did not.

Are my funds on Binance safe?

Yes. This is a suspension and orderly wind-down, not a shutdown or a seizure. From 1 July, Binance halts new spot orders, deposits, sign-ups and Earn, staking and launchpool products for EU residents — but funds remain accessible and withdrawals stay active. The Convert feature stays usable for selling only, so you can wind down positions in an orderly way.

Think of it as closing the register while leaving the warehouse open so you can collect your goods. That said, staying on an unlicensed platform means giving up the consumer protections MiCA was built to guarantee. ESMA has called on unlicensed firms to halt new registrations, restrict activity to asset transfers and account closures, and give customers clear timelines. The sensible move is to migrate to a licensed platform or a self-custody wallet.

Why is Bitpanda a strong alternative?

Bitpanda is a European-headquartered exchange that is already fully regulated, holding licences with Germany's BaFin, Austria's FMA and Malta's MFSA. It secured MiCA authorisation through Austria, meaning it can legally serve users right across the EU, with a strong focus on capital security and consumer protection. For anyone leaving an unregulated venue, that is exactly the kind of safe harbour the new rules were designed to reward.

One key tip before you move: under MiCA, USDT (Tether) cannot be traded on regulated EU platforms. If you hold USDT on Binance, convert it to a MiCA-compliant asset such as USDC, or to EUR, before transferring — so your funds arrive ready to use.

How do I move my funds from Binance safely?

1. Open and verify your Bitpanda account

Sign up here, complete identity verification (KYC) and enable two-factor authentication (2FA). Have your ID ready — verification usually takes only a few minutes.

2. Tidy up your Binance holdings first

Convert any USDT to USDC or EUR and consolidate small balances. This avoids assets being unusable on a MiCA-regulated platform and keeps network fees lower.

3. Get your Bitpanda deposit address

Choose the asset you want to receive (e.g. $BTC, $ETH or a stablecoin), select Deposit, and copy the wallet address. Make sure you pick the same network you'll use on Binance (e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum/ERC-20).

4. Withdraw from Binance to Bitpanda

On Binance, go to Wallet → Spot → Withdraw. Select the asset and the matching network, paste your Bitpanda address, and double-check it character by character. For transfers above €1,000 you may be asked for Travel Rule details — your own name must match your KYC on both platforms.

5. Send a small test first

Withdraw a small test amount before moving everything. Wait for it to arrive (usually 2–15 minutes depending on the network), confirm it landed correctly, then send the rest.

6. Confirm and you're done

Once the full balance appears in Bitpanda, you're fully migrated to a regulated EU platform — consumer protections intact and your crypto ready to trade.

What's the catch with switching now?

The main thing to watch is the USDT conversion — don't transfer Tether and expect to use it on a regulated platform. Beyond that, the usual rules apply: always send a test transaction, match networks exactly, and verify addresses character by character. The market context also matters: with millions of users facing restricted access, capital is expected to shift fast toward compliant platforms, so acting sooner rather than later avoids any last-minute congestion.

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The crypto market is bleeding again, but the biggest story may not be the Bitcoin crash itself.

Bitcoin has slipped below the $59,000 level, Ethereum is trading near $1,560, and most major altcoins are flashing red. Dogecoin, TRON, XRP, BNB and Litecoin are all under pressure, while only a few names such as Zcash, Stellar and Hyperliquid are showing relative strength.

At first glance, this looks like another risk-off day for crypto. But behind the sell-off, a much bigger shift is taking place: some of the world’s largest financial and payment companies are moving deeper into stablecoins.

A new initiative called Open Standard has launched a global dollar-backed stablecoin named Open USD, with major names including Visa, Mastercard and Coinbase involved. Reports also point to backing or participation from companies such as BlackRock, Google and Stripe, making this one of the most important stablecoin stories of the year.

The result is a strange but important contradiction: crypto prices are falling, but crypto infrastructure is becoming more institutional than ever.

What Is Open USD?

Open USD is a new U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin designed to make digital dollar payments cheaper, easier and more scalable for businesses.

According to Reuters, the project is being launched by a consortium of more than 140 participating businesses under the Open Standard initiative. The stablecoin is designed to be freely minted and redeemed by businesses, with no volume restrictions. The model also includes shared reserve earnings for participating consortium members after a management fee.

That detail is important.

Stablecoins are already one of the most useful parts of crypto. They allow users and businesses to move dollars onchain without relying on traditional banking rails for every transfer. But the market is still dominated by a small number of players, mainly Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.

Open USD appears to be targeting that dominance by offering a more open, business-friendly model. Instead of just creating another dollar token, the project seems designed as a shared infrastructure layer for companies that want access to stablecoin payments without building everything from scratch.

Why Visa and Mastercard Entering Stablecoins Matters

For years, stablecoins were seen as a crypto-native product. Traders used USDT and USDC to move between exchanges, avoid volatility and park liquidity during market swings.

Now, the biggest payment networks in the world are no longer watching from the sidelines.

Visa and Mastercard entering deeper into stablecoin infrastructure suggests that the payment industry sees digital dollars as a long-term part of global settlement. This does not mean stablecoins will replace credit cards tomorrow. But it does mean the biggest players in payments are preparing for a world where money moves faster, cheaper and across borders with fewer intermediaries.

Mastercard has already been expanding settlement capabilities to include stablecoins, intraday transfers, weekend settlement and holiday settlement options. That shows the company is not treating stablecoins as a temporary trend, but as part of the next payment infrastructure cycle.

This is why the Open USD launch matters more than a normal token launch. It is not a meme coin. It is not another speculative altcoin. It is a sign that traditional finance and crypto payment rails are moving closer together.

Could Open USD Challenge USDT and USDC?

The real question is whether Open USD can compete with USDT and USDC.

USDT remains the largest stablecoin in crypto and is deeply integrated across global exchanges. USDC, meanwhile, has stronger regulatory and institutional positioning, especially in the United States. Together, they dominate the digital dollar market.

But Open USD has one major advantage: distribution.

If Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, Stripe, BlackRock and other major companies support the same stablecoin infrastructure, Open USD could gain faster access to businesses, wallets, exchanges, payment platforms and fintech apps.

That does not guarantee success. Stablecoins need trust, liquidity, regulatory clarity and deep integrations. Traders and businesses do not switch stablecoins just because a new one launches. They switch when the new option is cheaper, safer, faster or more useful.

Still, the launch could pressure both USDT and USDC. If Open USD succeeds, the stablecoin market could become less about crypto exchanges alone and more about payments, business settlement and mainstream financial infrastructure.

Why This Is Happening While Bitcoin Is Crashing

The timing is what makes this story powerful.

Bitcoin is showing weakness below $59,000, and technical sentiment across the market looks fragile. Many major coins are trading with “sell” or “strong sell” signals, while altcoins remain under pressure.

Normally, a Bitcoin crash dominates the crypto news cycle. But this time, the market is split between short-term price fear and long-term infrastructure adoption.

That is the key point: prices can crash while adoption continues.

In previous cycles, crypto infrastructure often slowed down during bear markets. This time, payment giants, banks and asset managers are still building. JPMorgan has also been talking about digital assets moving closer to the core of the financial system, especially through tokenization and programmable money.

This creates a very different market narrative.

Retail traders may be asking whether Bitcoin is heading to $55,000 or lower. Institutions, meanwhile, appear to be asking how stablecoins, tokenized assets and digital settlement systems can become part of the financial system.

Is This Bullish for Crypto?

Open USD is not automatically bullish for Bitcoin in the short term.

A new stablecoin does not mean BTC will reverse today. It also does not mean Ethereum, Solana, XRP or BNB will immediately recover. The market is still dealing with weak momentum, low confidence and heavy selling pressure.

But from a structural perspective, this is bullish for the crypto industry.

Stablecoins are one of the clearest real-world use cases in crypto. They are used for payments, trading, settlements, remittances, cross-border transfers and onchain liquidity. If major global companies are now competing to build stablecoin infrastructure, that supports the argument that crypto is not disappearing — it is becoming more embedded in traditional finance.

The market may be crashing, but the infrastructure layer is expanding.

That is why this story matters.

The Bigger Picture: Stablecoins Are Becoming the Mainstream Crypto Use Case

For years, Bitcoin was the face of crypto. Then came Ethereum, DeFi, NFTs, meme coins and ETFs. But stablecoins may now be the sector’s most important bridge to the real world.

They do not need users to believe in price appreciation. They do not need people to speculate. They simply need to be useful.

Businesses want faster settlement. Payment companies want cheaper rails. Fintech apps want global dollar access. Crypto exchanges need deep liquidity. Institutions want tokenized cash equivalents that can move across blockchain networks.

Stablecoins sit at the centre of all of that.

That is why Open USD could become one of the most important launches of the year. Not because it will pump like a meme coin, but because it shows that the stablecoin race is entering a new phase.

Final Thoughts

The crypto market looks weak today. Bitcoin is below $59,000, Ethereum is struggling, and most large-cap altcoins are trading in the red.

But the launch of Open USD tells a different story.

While traders focus on the crash, Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, BlackRock and other major players are moving deeper into stablecoins. That means the next crypto battle may not only be about Bitcoin price predictions or altcoin pumps. It may be about who controls the future of digital dollars.

If Open USD gains adoption, the stablecoin war could become one of the biggest crypto narratives of the year.

For now, Bitcoin may be falling. But the financial giants are still building.

It's been a brutal week across the crypto market, but some tokens got hit far harder than others. While $Bitcoin and $Ethereum bled on macro pressure, a handful of altcoins suffered eye-watering collapses — led by a meme-coin platform that lost three-quarters of its value in a matter of days.

Here are the 5 cryptos that crashed hardest over the past 7 days, ranked by their losses, along with the reason behind each drop.

5 Cryptos That Crashed Hardest This Week 

1. MemeCore ($M): down 75.75%

The week's undisputed worst performer is MemeCore, which cratered a staggering 75.75% over 7 days, now trading around $0.6894 with a market cap of roughly $909M. Notably, it's actually up 16% on the day — a small dead-cat bounce after the carnage.

This was a textbook thin-liquidity implosion. MemeCore's token price fell from $3 to $0.50 in less than 30 minutes on Wednesday evening, with low trading volume and concentrated insider ownership making it vulnerable to a sudden crash. The structural red flags were there all along. Most of the supply is held by a handful of insiders, and the token carried allegations of insider-driven market price manipulation, limited trading volume, and listings on just a handful of exchanges.

The trigger remains murky, but the mechanics are clear. It's unclear what started the drop, but with minimal active bidding, it didn't take much to consume MemeCore's available market liquidity. The one silver lining: the crash cleared out most of the excess leverage, with nearly $8 million in long positions liquidated, and price has since shown early signs of stabilization around the $0.65 level.

2. Ethena ($ENA): down 63.58%

Ethena's ENA token was the second-worst performer, down a brutal 63.58% YTD and bleeding 8.20% on the day, now trading near $0.07270 with a $675.7M market cap.

ENA's problem is structural and well-flagged: token unlocks. ENA remains exposed to token unlock pressure, where a large portion of supply has already been unlocked while the remaining supply continues to vest — and these unlocks can limit price recovery by creating steady selling pressure even when the underlying project has strong adoption. The core challenge is one of demand. ENA still has to prove that protocol growth actually translates into token demand, and until that becomes clearer, it remains a token with weak near-term momentum.

It's not all bleak, though — there are genuine catalysts brewing. Ethena-backed StablecoinX completed its merger with TLGY Acquisition Corp and is set to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker USDE, expanding its stablecoin infrastructure business. 

3. Mantle ($MNT): down 56.08%

Mantle is next, down 56.08% over the period and trading around $0.4224 with a $1.39B market cap. It was also among the day's biggest losers. Mantle (MNT) fell 13.19% in 24 hours to around $0.43, with trading activity near $62.62 million, ranking it among the top losers of the day. -

Mantle's decline has been less about a single scandal and more about the broader risk-off rotation hammering mid-cap altcoins. As capital flees to safety and Bitcoin dominance climbs, ecosystem and Layer-2 tokens like MNT tend to suffer outsized drawdowns with little token-specific news to cushion the fall.

4. Worldcoin ($WLD): down 25.75% (7d)

Worldcoin, now trading around $0.4179 with a $1.46B market cap, fell 25.75% over 7 days. But unlike MemeCore's panic implosion, WLD's drop looks far healthier. Worldcoin's decline looks more like a cooldown after a strong multi-week run — it had rallied for five straight weeks, putting plenty of short-term holders into profit, so profit-taking was always on the cards.

That distinction matters: a pullback driven by profit-taking after a sustained rally is a very different animal from a liquidity-driven collapse. WLD is still up 1.03% on the hour, hinting at some stabilization.

5. Cosmos ($ATOM): down 21.30% (YTD)

Rounding out the list is Cosmos, trading around $1.51 with a $782.5M market cap, down 21.30% YTD and 13.70% over 7 days. Like Mantle, ATOM's weakness is largely a victim of the broader environment rather than any single headline.

As an established Layer-0 ecosystem token without a fresh catalyst, ATOM has been swept up in the same risk-off tide pulling capital out of altcoins and into Bitcoin. With sentiment firmly in "Bitcoin Season," even fundamentally solid projects like Cosmos struggle to attract buyers, leaving them to drift lower alongside the broader altcoin market.

Why are Altcoins Down?

None of these drops happened in a vacuum. The entire market has been under heavy pressure, and the macro backdrop explains why speculative altcoins fell hardest. Capital has been running toward safety rather than risk, with Bitcoin dominance climbing above 58% and the Altcoin Season Index deep in "Bitcoin Season" territory.

The drivers are familiar: a hawkish Fed, ETF outflows, and broad risk aversion. Markets are now pricing in a rate hike in 2026 after previously expecting cuts, sustained Bitcoin ETF outflows have added pressure, and capital is rotating toward AI narratives and institutional partnerships rather than memecoins and speculative tokens.

The biggest fear hanging over markets right now isn't a crypto problem at all — it's artificial intelligence. A growing chorus of analysts is warning that the AI boom has inflated into a bubble, and that an AI bubble crash could send shockwaves straight into Bitcoin ($BTC) and the broader crypto market.

Here's the uncomfortable part: the early warning signs analysts flagged have already played out. Crypto has been bleeding for months as capital rotated out of digital assets and into AI stocks — Bitcoin has already fallen from above $100K to around $60K. So the real question now isn't "what if there's a small AI wobble." It's: what happens if the AI bubble actually crashes from here, on top of an already-weakened market?

What is the AI bubble — and why are analysts warning about it?

The "AI bubble" refers to the fear that valuations across AI stocks and infrastructure have inflated far beyond what the underlying economics justify. The warning signs are flashing in institutional surveys. In a Bank of America survey, 45% of fund managers flagged an "AI bubble" as the market's biggest tail risk, up from just 11% two months earlier, and more than half said they believe AI stocks are already trading in bubble territory due to huge spending and poor return on investment.

The core problem is a massive mismatch between spending and revenue. Financial analyst HedgieMarkets warned the AI boom risks a far harsher crash than the 2000s dot-com bubble, arguing the sector spent roughly $400 billion to generate just $60 billion in revenue in 2025, with most firms seeing no returns. Worse, the way it's been financed makes it fragile. Unlike the equity-funded dot-com era, today's AI expansion is debt-driven, raising the risk of cascading failures across private equity, banks, insurers and already-stressed consumers if growth expectations collapse.

The scale of the liquidity involved is staggering. Arthur Hayes estimates roughly $1.5 trillion in debt was issued by hyperscalers and AI infrastructure companies between November 2022 and mid-2026 — almost exactly matching the $1.5 trillion rise in M2 money supply over the same period — leading him to argue "AI sucked up all created dollars."

The correction analysts warned about has already started

This is the key context most coverage misses. Back in late 2025, when analysts first sounded the alarm, $Bitcoin was trading above $100K, and the warning was that an AI-driven risk-off move could drag it down toward $60K–$75K.

At the time, that was the bear case. Analysts warned Bitcoin could fall to the $60,000–$75,000 range if the AI bubble pops, with institutional support helping limit losses compared to past crashes. There was even a fundamental floor argument. Analyst Nomad Bullstreet suggested Bitcoin's price may not decline below its average production cost, estimated around $71,000–$75,000.

But here's the thing: the market has already fallen into that zone. Bitcoin slid from above $100K all the way to around $60K — and the driver was exactly the dynamic analysts described. The warning was never about AI directly attacking crypto code — it's about capital, the vast rivers of speculative money that have flowed into both sectors. A loss of faith in AI valuations would trigger a broad risk-off panic, and digital assets, sitting on the speculative end of the spectrum, often get sold first.

In other words, the mild correction the analysts forecast isn't a future risk — it's already happened. Capital has been rotating out of crypto and into AI infrastructure all year, and Bitcoin pre-emptively priced in a lot of that pain. The old $60K–$75K "production cost floor" has already broken.

That reframes everything. The relevant question is no longer "what if AI corrects" — it's "what if the bubble actually crashes now, from a starting point that's already deep in the red?"

How would a full AI bubble crash hit crypto from here?

If the warned-about rotation was phase one, an outright crash would be phase two — and it would land on a market with far less cushion than it had at $100K.

Crypto's behavior makes it especially vulnerable. The crypto market in 2026 continues to act as a high-beta risk asset, meaning it tends to amplify broader market sentiment, particularly in response to tech and AI-linked equity volatility — and a crash could trigger an outsized initial drop even if crypto fundamentals haven't changed.

There's also a forced-selling dimension that accelerates everything. Institutional funds and quantitative traders that allocate across both tech stocks and crypto may cut both simultaneously in times of stress, while leveraged positions in crypto futures and perpetuals can trigger cascading liquidations that accelerate the downward move. And the liquidity logic is brutal: if AI stocks collapse, no excess capital remains to flow into Bitcoin, and banks that lent against AI valuations would pull back credit, tightening conditions broadly.

It's not unanimously bearish, though. Some see a crash as ultimately bullish for Bitcoin further out. Arthur Hayes believes an AI bubble crash could create short-term pressure on Bitcoin, but his long-term outlook remains bullish because a major market shock could push governments and central banks back toward liquidity support, stimulus, and money printing — a "dump then pump" thesis.

The extreme bear case: Bitcoin at $20K, ETH at $800?

Here's the scenario circulating among the most aggressive bears — and a clear caveat upfront: these are worst-case, low-probability targets that would require a full systemic financial crisis, not just a sector correction.

But with Bitcoin already at ~$60K — having broken the old "floor" — a true AI bubble crash from current levels is what makes these deeper targets even thinkable. In a systemic unwind, where the AI bubble crashes violently, debt-driven contagion spreads to banks and credit markets, and crypto's high-beta nature plays out fully, the speculative cascade from here looks like:

• Bitcoin ($BTC) toward $20,000 — roughly another 65% down from current levels, requiring the institutional bid to evaporate entirely amid forced selling.
• Ethereum ($ETH) toward $800 — consistent with ETH's tendency to fall harder than BTC, amplified by relentless ETF outflows.
• XRP ($XRP) toward $0.30 — reflecting how altcoins typically lose multiples of Bitcoin's percentage in a deep flush.
• Solana ($SOL) toward $20 — among the most exposed, given its high-beta profile and reliance on speculative capital.

Be clear-eyed about what this requires: not just an AI correction (which has arguably already begun), but a full-blown global financial crisis with cascading credit failures. As one expert warned, economic historian Carlota Perez cautioned that an AI and crypto bust could lead to a global economic collapse of "unimaginable proportions." That's the tail risk these numbers reflect — a doomsday cascade, not the probable path.

Will the AI Bubble Affect Crypto Prices?

The framing that matters most: the correction analysts warned about has largely already happened — that's a big part of why Bitcoin fell from $100K to $60K as capital rotated into AI. What hasn't happened yet is a full AI bubble crash, and if it comes, it would hit a market that's already weakened and has far less cushion than it did six months ago.

That's what makes the extreme targets — BTC $20K, ETH $800, XRP $0.30, SOL $20 — worth knowing as a worst-case stress test. They're not a base-case forecast; they'd require systemic financial contagion, not just an AI sector wobble. But starting from $60K rather than $100K, the downside math is no longer as far-fetched as it once sounded.

The smart takeaway: respect the AI-correlation risk, keep your leverage in check, and watch the Nasdaq and AI-stock sentiment as closely as the crypto charts — because right now, that's where Bitcoin's next big move is being decided.

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Quick Summary

• SanDisk stock plummeted 13.37% Thursday amid rotation from AI hardware to software sectors
• The decline reflects momentum-driven profit-taking rather than fundamental company concerns
• BofA analyst upgraded price target from $2,100 to $2,500 while maintaining Buy recommendation
• Chinese manufacturer YMTC identified as primary structural threat to NAND market pricing
• Despite Thursday’s selloff, SNDK remains up more than 756% in 2024

SanDisk (SNDK) experienced a steep decline Thursday, shedding 13.37% as investors unwound holdings throughout the AI hardware and memory semiconductor sectors. During premarket activity, shares traded at $1,980.68, representing a 2.54% decline, before accelerating lower once regular trading commenced.

Sandisk Corporation, SNDK

The selloff stems from widespread sector rebalancing. Capital is flowing away from high-flying AI infrastructure names toward AI software companies, a shift that typically punishes stocks with the most substantial year-to-date appreciation.

No fresh company-specific negative developments triggered the downturn. This represents a classic momentum reversal.

SNDK began the trading week carrying gains of 756.10% year-to-date and an extraordinary 4,297.79% over the trailing twelve months. Following such explosive appreciation, sharp profit-taking episodes are common.

Despite the session’s volatility, analyst sentiment toward the stock remains unchanged. Bank of America’s Wamsi Mohan maintained his Buy recommendation Wednesday while lifting his price objective from $2,100 to $2,500.

Mohan projects $9.1 billion in June quarter revenue alongside earnings per share of $37.01. Both forecasts exceed consensus analyst estimates and surpass the company’s official guidance range of $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion in quarterly revenue.

“We expect supply/demand imbalance in the NAND market to remain through 2027,” Mohan stated, projecting that pricing will hold steady through mid-2027. Bernstein has similarly increased its price objective on the shares.

Chinese Production Capacity Presents Headwind

A significant risk under trader scrutiny involves Chinese memory manufacturing capacity. Mohan highlighted Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) as a structural threat, cautioning that expanded production from the Chinese competitor could accelerate NAND price declines beyond current expectations.

His baseline scenario anticipates YMTC will concentrate on serving domestic Chinese customers instead of pursuing aggressive global market share. Should this assumption prove incorrect, the supply-demand equation could shift dramatically.

Industry observer Ming-Chi Kuo contributed additional perspective over the weekend, projecting the “memory supply-demand gap will keep widening through 2027.” Kuo further revealed that Apple is actively engaging the U.S. government regarding ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) to establish additional DRAM sourcing alternatives.

Technical Chart Analysis

Even following Thursday’s retreat, the long-term trend architecture remains constructive. SNDK trades 1.9% above its 20-day simple moving average ($1,956), 25.1% beyond its 50-day SMA ($1,593), and 186.7% above its 200-day SMA ($695).

The moving average configuration — with the 20-day positioned above the 50-day, and the 50-day above the 200-day — preserves bullish technical structure.

The Relative Strength Index registers 54.24, having retreated from overbought conditions without entering oversold territory. This represents a moderated reading following the extended rally.

Critical resistance lies at $2,354.50, approaching the recent 52-week peak of $2,354.39. Primary support appears around $1,861, representing the nearest technical floor beneath current pricing.

SNDK commands a market capitalization of $301 billion. Average daily share volume totals 13.5 million.

The post SanDisk (SNDK) Plunges 13% as AI Sector Rotation Hammers Memory Stocks appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• IREN shares declined approximately 23% over five trading sessions, including a 9% drop on Thursday
• The downturn initiated Wednesday following Meta’s announcement to enter AI cloud infrastructure services
• Company welcomed Kambiz Aghili (formerly Oracle) as Chief Product Officer and Michael Nudelman (formerly Google) as Chief Development Officer
• Nudelman tasked with expanding IREN’s substantial 5GW power capacity; Aghili to direct AI Cloud platform product strategy
• Wall Street maintains a Moderate Buy rating with an average target price of $79.33, suggesting approximately 108% potential upside

IREN Limited has experienced significant turbulence this week. Shares of the AI cloud infrastructure and data center operator have tumbled roughly 23% across the last five trading sessions, including an additional 9% slide on Thursday. The pressure persisted despite the company’s announcement of two strategic executive appointments from major tech firms.

IREN Limited, IREN

The market reaction began Wednesday when Meta disclosed its intentions to expand into AI cloud infrastructure services. This announcement sent shockwaves through the neocloud sector, with IREN becoming collateral damage in the broader selloff.

Amid the market turmoil, IREN revealed on Wednesday the addition of Kambiz Aghili as Chief Product Officer and Michael Nudelman as Chief Development Officer. Both executives will operate from the company’s San Francisco base.

Aghili transitions from Oracle, where he served as Vice President of Products for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. His portfolio included strategic oversight and development initiatives across multiple cloud platforms, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

Nudelman contributes more than two decades of experience spanning data center development, energy infrastructure, and corporate finance. His background includes leadership positions at Google, CyrusOne, and Beale Infrastructure.

In his new role at IREN, Aghili will spearhead product strategy for the company’s AI Cloud ecosystem, encompassing bare metal GPU solutions and comprehensive managed service offerings. Nudelman will oversee worldwide data center development initiatives and advance the company’s expansive 5GW power portfolio across both established and emerging markets.

Co-founder and Co-CEO Daniel Roberts characterized these appointments as essential to IREN’s expansion blueprint, which relies on acquiring substantial land and power resources before deploying infrastructure solutions.

Strategic Implications of the Leadership Additions

These executive appointments arrive as IREN accelerates efforts to expand its AI Cloud operations. The organization recently acquired a data center development company in Spain to establish its European footprint. Additionally, it’s constructing a new data center facility in Australia.

IREN functions as a fully integrated AI Cloud solutions provider, managing data centers, GPU computing clusters, and the necessary software infrastructure to deliver managed services. The company controls grid-connected land and power resources spanning North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region.

The company has posted revenue growth exceeding 100% over the trailing twelve months and currently maintains a market capitalization of approximately $16.34 billion.

Analyst Perspectives

Wall Street observers have characterized IREN’s transition from Bitcoin mining operations to AI cloud services as a “compelling strategic pivot.” However, questions remain about execution capabilities.

Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani recently noted that IREN “is behind on scale and building an enterprise business” when compared to neocloud competitors such as CoreWeave and Nebius.

This cautious outlook is evident in the consensus rating. Analysts currently assign a Moderate Buy rating to the stock, comprised of seven Buy recommendations, two Hold ratings, and one Sell rating issued over the previous three months.

The consensus price target stands at $79.33, implying potential upside of approximately 108% from present trading levels.

Despite the bullish price target, shares have been under sustained pressure. The stock declined 9.3% in the week leading up to Thursday’s additional 9% decrease, bringing total weekly losses to approximately 23%.

The post IREN Stock Plummets 23% Following Meta’s AI Cloud Infrastructure Announcement appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• Second-quarter U.S. deliveries at Ford decreased 10.3% year-over-year to 549,200 units, with year-to-date volumes declining 9.6% to approximately 1 million vehicles.
• Electric vehicle deliveries plummeted 40.7% during the quarter to 9,746 units; F-150 Lightning sales plunged 58.6% before production ceased.
• Bronco achieved quarterly sales record with 45,739 units delivered, surpassing Jeep Wrangler; Explorer volumes increased 13.8%.
• F-Series pickup deliveries declined 11% to 197,900 units in Q2, though Ford maintained its lead over Silverado by 80,000 vehicles.
• Louisville Assembly Plant undergoing transformation to manufacture sub-$30,000 electric pickup launching in 2026.

Ford disclosed Thursday that its second-quarter U.S. vehicle deliveries tumbled 10.3% to 549,200 units as softening electric vehicle appetite and strategic model eliminations impacted performance. Shares of Ford (F) declined approximately 2.79% during Thursday’s session, hovering around $13.27.

Ford Motor Company, F

While the topline figure appears concerning, Ford management contends the underlying story is more nuanced. When adjusting for the discontinued Escape and Lincoln Corsair models, combined with a 69% reduction in daily rental fleet deliveries, the automaker calculates Q2 sales would have increased by 0.5%.

Year-to-date volumes through June decreased 9.6% to slightly above 1 million units.

The electric vehicle segment experienced particularly challenging conditions. Ford’s EV deliveries collapsed 40.7% in the second quarter to merely 9,746 vehicles. Mustang Mach-E volumes decreased 30.9%, while the discontinued F-150 Lightning plummeted 58.6%. For the six-month period, electric vehicle sales have declined 57.4%.

This electric vehicle weakness stems from the elimination of federal EV tax incentives at the conclusion of Q3 last year—a challenge affecting the entire automotive sector, including GM.

Hybrid volumes also weakened, falling 20% during the quarter. This stands in stark contrast to competitors Honda and Toyota, both of which reported growth in electrified vehicles.

Pickup Truck Performance

The F-Series lineup, maintaining its position as America’s top-selling truck, experienced declines as well. Deliveries fell 11% in Q2 to 197,900 units and dropped 13.3% for the first six months to 357,801 vehicles.

Ford attributed this to a “retiming of commercial production” connected to previous year aluminum supply constraints, emphasizing demand remains robust. The manufacturer highlighted that it continues to outsell the second-place Chevrolet Silverado by over 80,000 trucks year-to-date.

Performance Highlights

Several product lines delivered strong results. The Bronco family achieved a second-quarter record with 45,739 units delivered, climbing 15.9%, and surpassed the Jeep Wrangler during the period. First-half Bronco deliveries reached a record 76,936 units.

Explorer volumes advanced 13.8% to 65,538 vehicles. Combined deliveries of Bronco, Explorer and Expedition increased 10.1% in the first half—what Ford characterized as the segment’s strongest six-month performance in a quarter-century.

The Maverick Hybrid established a Q2 record at 29,457 units, advancing 19.3%. Mustang deliveries rose 22% in the first half to 28,725 units despite overall passenger car market contraction.

Ford’s estimated June retail market share improved 0.2 percentage points to 12.3%. Across the industry, June sales exceeded a 17 million seasonally adjusted annual rate for the first time since July 2025.

CEO Jim Farley emphasized the forthcoming affordable electric vehicle portfolio as the company’s next expansion catalyst. The Louisville Assembly Plant is currently being retooled to manufacture a sub-$30,000 compact electric pickup utilizing Ford’s Universal EV architecture, scheduled for next year’s launch.

“We’re going to be launching five or six new affordable vehicles,” Farley told Yahoo Finance last week. “The first one is transformational. It’ll be our less-than-$30,000 new electric truck coming out next year.”

The post Ford (F) Stock Slides as Q2 Sales Plunge 10% Amid Electric Vehicle Slowdown appeared first on Blockonomi.

The crypto market is experiencing a dynamic shift as different projects chart distinct paths. Currently, the Monero price is navigating a period of careful consolidation, leaving market participants to deliberate on its long-term potential to hit the $1,000 landmark. Concurrently, the Solana price forecast indicates a gentle upward trend, with everyday retail buyers focusing closely on a crucial breakout point around the $75 threshold.

Meanwhile, BlockDAG (BDAG) has sparked an intense wave of buyer enthusiasm by upgrading its World Cup Bonus from 50% to a full 100%. This aggressive strategy comes on the heels of a substantial $500 million valuation surge, fueled by the introduction of its innovative BDAG AI. With a remarkably low entry price of $0.00000066 and an anticipated future buyback target of $0.03, early adopters have a massive return on investment within reach. This powerful combination of factors underscores why many view BlockDAG as the next crypto to explode.

Monero Navigates Regulatory Hurdles & Market Cool Down

The Monero price has recently displayed a mixed performance, marked by a slight daily dip of roughly 0.49% and a broader weekly decline exceeding 5%. At present, the token is maintaining its footing around the $308 mark, reflecting a general slowdown across the wider digital asset landscape. Despite this subdued price action, Monero has experienced a notable spike in engagement, with daily trading volumes climbing by more than 29%. This surge indicates that market participants remain highly active.

Looking ahead, several analysts maintain an optimistic outlook, projecting that the asset could realistically fluctuate between $320 and $465 in the medium term. Over a longer horizon, Monero could potentially breach the $1,000 threshold, driven by sustained demand for its robust security features and private transaction capabilities. However, investors must weigh this optimism against a substantial headwind: escalating global regulatory scrutiny on privacy-focused digital assets, which could significantly constrain its future expansion.

Solana Challenges Vital Resistance Level

The near-term Solana price forecast leans cautiously optimistic as the cryptocurrency edges upward to test a pivotal resistance barrier at $75.00. This upward momentum is primarily sustained by retail investors, whose growing confidence is keeping the price steady despite a noticeable drop in aggressive buying from institutional players.

Achieving a clean breakout above this $75.00 level could unlock further bullish momentum, potentially driving the token toward the prominent $100.00 target. Conversely, if retail buying power fades, the asset risks a reversal that could pull it down to a reliable support floor at $67.50.

While Solana continues to attract significant interest due to its high transaction speeds, the network is still held back by its history of sporadic technical glitches and stability issues, which have previously caused unexpected transaction freezes.

BlockDAG Drives Demand with Upgraded 100% World Cup Bonus

BlockDAG has captured the attention of the crypto community by doubling its World Cup Bonus from 50% to 100%. This promotional event essentially doubles the token allocation for participants at no extra cost, offering a direct mechanism to scale up holdings instantly through a full token match on every acquisition.

Available at an entry point of $0.00000066, this window offers an advantageous setup for individuals aiming to accumulate BDAG before subsequent pricing adjustments take effect. This appeal is heightened by a structured $0.03 buyback plan, establishing a clear future liquidity target for early backers.

Beyond promotional incentives, the project has expanded its infrastructure by introducing BDAG AI, an integration that has driven a $500 million increase in BlockDAG’s overall valuation. The project’s developmental roadmap also highlights plans for a fully compliant cryptocurrency exchange alongside a standalone mobile application, both designed to optimize the user trading experience.

Furthermore, the ecosystem ensures immediate token delivery upon purchase, eliminating waiting periods. Backed by steady operational milestones and accelerating market interest, BlockDAG continues to solidify its reputation as the next crypto to explode.

Final Thoughts

While regulatory pressures cause the Monero price to move at a slower pace and the Solana price forecast confronts near-term resistance, BlockDAG continues to build exceptional momentum. By launching an active 100% World Cup Bonus and achieving a $500 million valuation increase via its advanced AI ecosystem, the project has redefined market expectations.

The opportunity to acquire BDAG at $0.00000066 is rapidly narrowing as global interest intensifies, positioning the project as a highly compelling option for forward-thinking traders.

Ultimate Sale: https://purchase.blockdag.network

Website: https://blockdag.network

Telegram: https://t.me/blockDAGnetworkOfficial

Discord: https://discord.gg/Q7BxghMVyu

The post BlockDAG Doubles World Cup Bonus to 100%, While Monero Consolidates & Solana Targets Recovery appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• CWD shares jumped 83% following CaliberCos’ blockchain tokenization announcement.

• The company revealed plans to tokenize real estate investment funds using advanced technology.

• Chainlink’s infrastructure will enable regulatory compliance for tokenized offerings.

• The initiative aims to enhance accessibility in private real estate markets through blockchain.

• Investors responded enthusiastically to Caliber’s integration of blockchain into its operations.

Shares of CaliberCos Inc. (CWD) rocketed 83.47% to reach $1.1850 following the company’s disclosure of an advanced real estate tokenization initiative. The stock experienced significant early trading activity before settling around $1.18, retaining the majority of its intraday gains. This dramatic price movement came after Caliber revealed its intention to leverage Chainlink’s technology infrastructure for creating compliant digital real estate investment vehicles.

CaliberCos Inc., CWD

CaliberCos Advances Digital Real Estate Investment Platform

Caliber announced its upcoming phase will concentrate on integrating tokenization technology directly into its real estate investment operations. As a manager of alternative property assets, the firm intends to transform how private fund ownership functions. The initiative seeks to enhance financing mechanisms, administrative processes, market accessibility, and transparency through distributed ledger technology.

According to the company, modern tokenization challenges extend well beyond simply generating digital securities. Critical hurdles include regulatory adherence, distribution networks, investor qualification procedures, advisor integration systems, and meeting stringent market regulations. Consequently, Caliber intends to seamlessly integrate its tokenized offerings with established wealth management infrastructure and fund administration workflows.

This approach represents a fundamental transition from merely holding digital assets to actively deploying them operationally. While Caliber currently maintains holdings of LINK, the native token of Chainlink’s ecosystem, the company now seeks to implement Chainlink-powered solutions to facilitate real estate fund tokenization within its operational framework.

Chainlink Technology Enables Regulatory Compliance Framework

Caliber intends to deploy Chainlink’s Automated Compliance Engine to facilitate regulated operations for its tokenized investment products. This integrated system creates connections between identity verification providers, digital wallets, risk management platforms, issuers, and distribution networks. Consequently, it enables streamlined investor verification processes, automated compliance enforcement, comprehensive audit documentation, and digital distribution capabilities.

Regulatory compliance represents a significant obstacle for tokenizing private investment funds. Fund managers must authenticate qualified participants, track all activities, and preserve detailed documentation. Chainlink’s technological framework addresses these requirements through automated, reusable compliance mechanisms.

According to Caliber, the emphasis remains squarely on genuine investment vehicles and established fund architectures. The organization expects tokenization to deliver more transparent valuations, broader market access, and streamlined administrative operations. Additionally, the system should facilitate custody solutions, enhanced reporting capabilities, liquidity mechanisms, and compliant asset transfers.

Market Responds Positively to CaliberCos Blockchain Integration

CWD experienced substantial gains as investors recognized Caliber’s integration of blockchain technology into its fundamental real estate operations. Rather than pursuing tokenization as an isolated technology experiment, the company plans comprehensive implementation across carefully selected private property investments.

Caliber indicated its implementation strategy will commence with properties ideally suited for tokenization. One notable example includes the company’s investment in a major indoor Pickleball and Padel complex in the United States. According to Caliber, such ventures could demonstrate tangible investor advantages through enhanced ownership structures and superior administrative capabilities.

Regarding public market positioning, Caliber presents CWD as a real estate asset management company leveraging blockchain infrastructure for operational advantages. The firm’s LINK holdings provide supplementary exposure to the Chainlink ecosystem. However, Caliber emphasized that blockchain adoption does not eliminate fundamental investment risks, though it may enhance operational efficiency for fund management.

The post CaliberCos (CWD) Stock Jumps 83% Following Chainlink Real Estate Tokenization Announcement appeared first on Blockonomi.

Standard Chartered has become the first global systematically important bank (G-SIB) to let institutional clients mint and redeem USDC directly through its banking platform, the lender has said.

The service removes the need for eligible clients to open separate accounts with Circle, the issuer of USDC, giving them a single onboarding process for both traditional banking and stablecoin access.

Standard Chartered Brings USDC Services Into Its Banking Platform

The new service, announced on July 2, has been developed in collaboration with Circle and will let institutional clients that qualify to mint and redeem USDC through Standard Chartered’s operations in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC). According to the bank, clients will be able to access banking, custody and digital asset services through one integrated platform while using USDC for on-chain settlement and treasury management.

Initially, the offering will be available only through the bank’s DIFC business. However, Standard Chartered said it plans to expand it to more markets once it receives regulatory approvals.

“Digital assets are becoming an increasingly important component of global financial infrastructure, and institutional clients are seeking the same levels of trust and governance that underpin traditional markets,” said Roberto Hoornweg, Standard Chartered’s chief of corporate and investment banking.

Furthermore, he noted that the launch is meant to support wider institutional participation in crypto markets through established compliance and risk management standards.

Crypto market watchers viewed the announcement as another sign that the stablecoin infrastructure is moving further into regulated finance, with Spot On Chain’s Hupzy writing on X that placing a G-SIB directly into the USDC minting process will remove a major operational hurdle for institutions that in the past relied on exchanges or over-the-counter desks to get stablecoins. According to the analyst, the arrangement has the potential to increase the use of USDC among institutions, deepening on-chain liquidity in the process.

Stablecoin Competition Growing

Standard Chartered’s announcement came just a day after the introduction of OpenUSD, a new stablecoin backed by more than 140 companies, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, Ripple, and BlackRock. The project, designed around collaborative governance and revenue sharing, has added another competitor to the race to build institutional stablecoin infrastructure.

The bank has already been expanding its presence in regulated digital assets, including in April this year, when it was among the first groups to get a Hong Kong stablecoin issuer license, allowing it to mint Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoins for cross-border payments.

The post Standard Chartered Becomes First Major Bank to Offer Direct Stablecoin Services appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Pi Network rarely stays out of the spotlight, as the Core Team consistently rolls out ecosystem upgrades and major announcements.

Yet despite the steady stream of updates, the project’s native token has continued to slide, recently tumbling to a fresh all-time low.

The Latest Developments

Pi Network’s community has been desperately waiting for a potential catalyst that could finally trigger a price rebound for PI, with numerous members pinning their hopes on Pi2Day.

The date is symbolic, as it represents the mathematical constant 2π, and it is celebrated annually on June 28. There was widespread speculation that the team would unveil groundbreaking announcements that day, as some even anticipated a listing on Binance.

Instead, Pi Network introduced SoloHost, Pi Sign-in, and PiVerify – tools designed to expand the ecosystem beyond native apps and into AI, digital identity, and third-party services. Several hours ago, the Core Team offered additional clarification on these features, saying:

“Together, these releases point to a broader direction for the ecosystem: Pi products are built both for the Pi ecosystem and to extend Pi services and resources to the external world. This, in turn, enriches and strengthens the Pi ecosystem.”

The Reaction

Some industry participants and entities praised Pi Network for releasing the aforementioned tools. X user Onur described these as “banger updates,” while CiDi Games argued that everything the team shipped on Pi2Day “points in the same direction: real utility, built by the people who use it.”

The community, though, wasn’t unanimously impressed. Many urged the team to fix the ongoing KYC and migration issues first, claiming that these problems are more urgent than new feature releases.

PI Price Outlook

The overall market weakness, and perhaps the emergence of a classic “sell the news” scenario after Pi2Day, has resulted in a further price decline for PI, which fell to a new ATL of just over $0.11 towards the end of June.

As of press time, the token trades at roughly $0.115, representing a minor 0.8% increase on a daily scale and a whopping 96% crash since the historic peak of $3 witnessed at the start of 2025.

Still, some factors suggest that bears may loosen their grip in the short term. The number of PI coins stored on crypto exchanges has decreased by about 260,000 over the past day, bringing the total to 553.3 million. Such a trend usually leads to reduced selling pressure.

The upcoming token unlocks are also worth monitoring. Roughly 127.5 million PI are scheduled for release over the next 30 days, with an average daily unlock of 4.25 million. This is far less aggressive than in previous months and may help set the stage for a period of price stabilization.

The post Pi Network (PI) News Today: July 2 appeared first on CryptoPotato.

XRP continues to consolidate in a narrow range on both USDT and Bitcoin-paired charts, with the broader trend still favoring the sellers.

However, the latest technical signals suggest downside momentum may be fading as the market defends key support while early signs of bullish divergence begin to emerge.

Ripple Price Analysis: The USDT Pair

Against USDT, XRP remains confined within a well-defined descending channel, with the price trading below the 100-day and 200-day moving averages. This keeps the higher time frame structure bearish despite the recent stabilization.

The asset is currently holding around the $1.08 support area, which also coincides with a major horizontal demand zone. After the sharp sell-off in June, sellers have so far failed to extend the decline, allowing XRP to build a short-term base above support.

The RSI has formed a clear bullish divergence, printing higher lows while the price registered lower lows. This typically signals weakening bearish momentum and raises the probability of a relief rally if buyers manage to reclaim higher levels.

The first resistance lies around the $1.15 supply zone, while stronger resistance remains near the 100-day moving average around the $1.25 region. A recovery above these levels would improve the broader outlook, whereas losing the $1 support could expose the lower boundary of the channel near $0.80.

The BTC Pair

Against Bitcoin, XRP is also trading inside a long-term descending channel, reflecting persistent relative weakness. The pair remains below the major moving averages, indicating that the broader trend has yet to shift in favor of XRP.

Recently, XRP briefly broke below the key 1,700 sats low before quickly reclaiming it, creating what appears to be a fake breakdown. This rejection below support suggests sellers failed to maintain control and may have triggered a liquidity sweep before the price recovered back into the previous range.

Despite the recovery, the pair still faces immediate resistance around 1,850 sats, with a stronger supply zone located near 2,000 sats, where horizontal resistance converges with the declining 200-day moving average. A decisive move above these levels would strengthen the case for a broader recovery toward the upper boundary of the channel.

As long as XRP holds above 1,700 sats, the fake breakout scenario remains valid and could support additional upside. However, a confirmed daily close below this level would invalidate the bullish setup and likely open the door for another leg lower toward the critical 1,500 sats support area.

The post Ripple Price Analysis: Bullish Divergence Emerges as XRP Defends $1 Support Zone appeared first on CryptoPotato.

While Ethereum’s overall market structure is still dominated by the sellers, recent price action suggests sellers may be losing momentum after the market was held by the $1.5K support region twice. The emergence of a potential double bottom and improving short-term momentum could pave the way for a relief rally if buyers reclaim the next resistance cluster.

Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily timeframe, ETH is still trading within the same long-term descending channel that has remained intact for months, with both the long-term moving averages sloping lower just above the channel’s higher boundary. The price remains well below the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, which are currently positioned around the $2K to $2.2K region, confirming that the macro trend is still bearish.

After the sharp sell-off a few weeks ago, the cryptocurrency found strong demand inside the $1.5K support zone. The price has now tested this area twice, raising the possibility of a double-bottom formation. Although the pattern is not confirmed yet, the repeated defense of this support suggests that bearish momentum is fading.

The RSI has also recovered from near-oversold conditions and is gradually pushing higher toward the midline, indicating improving momentum without reaching overbought territory.

For the bullish scenario to gain credibility, ETH needs to reclaim the $1.8K resistance zone to validate the double bottom setup. A successful move above that level would also expose the next major supply area around $2K to $2.2K, where the 100-day and 200-day moving averages converge.

Conversely, losing the $1.5K support zone could likely prove catastrophic, as it would invalidate the potential reversal structure and likely trigger a deeper leg lower within the broader downtrend.

ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart presents a clearer short-term picture. The price has built liquidity beneath the $1.5K lows, as buyers stepped back into the market, preventing a lower low. This demand is gradually pushing ETH toward the first area of overhead supply.

The price is currently approaching a key fair value gap at approximately $1.7k. This imbalance coincides with the latest bearish impulse and is likely to attract selling interest. A decisive breakout above this zone would signal improving short-term strength and could open the path toward the $1.85K resistance.

Momentum has also noticeably improved on the lower timeframe, with the RSI climbing toward bullish territory while printing higher lows alongside price. This suggests buyers have regained some control after the recent rebound.

However, unless ETH successfully clears the fair value gap and establishes higher highs, the current advance could still develop into nothing more than a corrective rally within the larger bearish trend.

Sentiment Analysis

The distribution of open interest in options contracts shows that the largest concentration is positioned around the late December 2026 expiry, where call open interest significantly outweighs put open interest. Several other major expiries, including late September and late July, also display a clear dominance of call positioning.

This skew toward call options suggests that derivatives participants continue positioning for higher prices over the medium to long term despite Ethereum’s recent weakness. At the same time, the substantial notional value concentrated around the larger expiries indicates that these dates could become important volatility catalysts as expiration approaches.

While options positioning alone does not guarantee a bullish outcome, the current distribution reflects a market that still maintains longer-term upside expectations even as spot price remains trapped below major technical resistance. If ETH confirms the developing double-bottom structure and breaks above the nearby resistance cluster, the optimistic options positioning could provide additional tailwinds through improved market sentiment.

The post Ethereum Eyes Relief Rally as Double Bottom Forms Near $1.5K (ETH Price Analysis) appeared first on CryptoPotato.

[PRESS RELEASE – George Town, Cayman Islands, July 2nd, 2026]

BTCC, the world’s longest-serving cryptocurrency exchange, is recording a standout result from its 15 Years in the Game: The BTCC World Cup Showdown campaign, with futures trading volume surging up to 55% ahead of Argentina’s World Cup match days. The surge is a direct result of the platform’s 1.25x volume boost for traders during the 24-hour window prior to kickoff.

As an official regional partner of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), BTCC built the perk to reward users who time their trading around La Albiceleste’s matches. The data speaks for itself:

• June 15 (day before Argentina vs. Algeria): Daily futures trading volume hit approximately $2.84 billion, about 15% above the average of the surrounding days.
• June 21 (day before Argentina vs. Austria): Volume climbed to approximately $2.35 billion, a 55% jump over the previous day.

The numbers confirm what BTCC aimed the campaign would deliver: real, measurable engagement tied to the excitement of the World Cup. Traders aren’t just watching the matches, they’re trading around them, and the 1.25x boost gives them a tangible reason to do both at once.

More Boosts Ahead

With Argentina set to face Cabo Verde on July 3, 2026 at 3:00 PM ET in a Round of 32 match, the 1.25x volume boost will once again be active in the 24 hours leading up to kickoff.

A win will send Argentina straight into the Round of 16, keeping Lionel Messi and his team on their path to defend their World Cup title and clinch a fourth crown.

For BTCC traders, the boost gives them another opportunity to climb the weekly and overall leaderboards, which are ranked by futures trading volume and share a combined prize pool of 690,000 USDT.

Campaign Finale: A Messi-Signed Jersey Awaits

Beyond the volume boosts and leaderboard prizes, the campaign’s lucky draw pool includes a jersey signed by Lionel Messi, alongside a Miami yacht getaway and a Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Titanium watch.

These premium prizes will be awarded once the World Cup concludes, which provides traders an added incentive to stay engaged through the campaign’s final weeks.

A Partnership Built for the World Cup

BTCC’s role as an official partner of the AFA is central to the campaign’s design. It is a natural fit for the exchange’s 15th anniversary, timed to one of football’s biggest global stages. The partnership puts BTCC’s brand in front of millions of football fans worldwide and cements its position as a platform built for champions, on the pitch and in the markets alike.

The BTCC World Cup Showdown runs through July 21, 2026. Full rules and registration are available on the official campaign page.

#BTCC15 | #BTCCxArgentineFA | #BuiltForChampions

About BTCC

Founded in 2011, BTCC is a leading global cryptocurrency exchange serving over 11 million users across 100+ countries. As the official regional sponsor of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and with NBA All-Star Jaren Jackson Jr. as its global brand ambassador, BTCC offers secure and accessible cryptocurrency trading services, focused on delivering a user-friendly experience while adhering to applicable regulatory standards.

Official website: https://www.btcc.com/en-US

X: https://x.com/BTCCexchange

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