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AptosLabs has announced the launch of Open USD, a new stablecoin initiative in partnership with major financial and technology entities including Mastercard, Visa, Stripe, and BlackRock. This new stablecoin, developed by a consortium called Open Standard, is designed to facilitate global payments and settlements. The consortium aims to overcome cost and access barriers in cross-border transactions by employing a governance model that shares reserve earnings among partners rather than relying on a single issuer. Stripe has already committed to adopting Open USD as its default stablecoin for business transactions, indicating strong early support for the initiative.

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Key Takeaways The launch of Open USD by high-profile financial institutions suggests increased institutional engagement in the cryptocurrency sector. Market participants appear to view this development as supportive of increased commitments to the Laso Finance public sale, as indicated by rising YES pricing. The introduction of Open USD could indicate a positive impact on Bitcoin’s price, with market pricing suggesting a potential increase before June 21. What to Watch Observers will be keenly watching for further commitments from institutional backers to the Laso Finance public sale, with markets currently showing strong YES pricing for higher thresholds. Additionally, the impact of Open USD on Bitcoin markets will be closely monitored, especially regarding its influence on Bitcoin price dynamics leading up to June 21. Continued announcements from the consortium partners and any regulatory updates could further sway market perceptions and pricing.

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Term Structure

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h End of sale window 37.9% — — View market → End of sale window 11.6% — — View market → End of sale window 1.8% — — View market → End of sale window 78.4% — — View market → End of sale window 39.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 92.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 47% — — View market → August 1 2026 99.1% — — View market →

Bitcoin fell to a fresh 21-month low as the prospect of higher interest rates and concerns about the largest corporate buyer of the token weakened sentiment.

Bitcoin dropped as much as 1.5% to $57,742 in Asia trading on Wednesday, its lowest level since Sept. 17, 2024, before steadying by 10 a.m. in Singapore.

Hawkish comments by US Federal Reserve policymakers are fueling expectations for higher rates, encouraging capital away from assets like cryptocurrencies that don’t pay a yield. Investors pulled more than $4 billion from US-listed Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in June, the most since they launched two years ago.

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Bitcoin “has faced growing headwinds from shifting Fed rate expectations and a stronger US dollar,” said Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG Australia. A US nonfarm payrolls report due later this week “has the potential to add further pressure if it reinforces a hawkish tilt from the Fed,” he said.

In addition, investors have reversed an initial vote of confidence in Michael Saylor’s financing overhaul at Strategy Inc., raising fresh concerns that one of the biggest buyers of Bitcoin may no longer be a consistent source of demand.

While investors initially welcomed the prospect of stock buybacks and a larger cash reserve, the focus quickly shifted to Strategy’s newfound flexibility to sell Bitcoin and prioritize balance-sheet management over relentless accumulation.

Bitcoin has now fallen more than 50% from its record high above $126,000 in October last year and is below its 200-week moving average, a technical level that can signal a prolonged bear market.

BloombergAt his first press conference as Fed chairman last month, Kevin Warsh made clear the central bank won’t tolerate high inflation, spurring expectations for higher rates and boosting the US dollar.

Other Fed officials have also recently indicated the possibility of tighter policy. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack told CNBC Tuesday that the central bank may need to raise rates to bring inflation down to its 2% goal.

Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.

Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.

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A financial disclosure filing released by the US government has revealed Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency-related assets.

According to information in the file, Trump’s crypto assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, are worth over $100 million.

The notification stated that Trump’s virtual Bitcoin key, held in a cold wallet, is worth over $50 million. Additionally, the value of his Ethereum key, also held in a cold wallet, was listed as ranging from $5 million to $25 million.

USDC assets also drew attention in the file. It was noted that the value of the virtual USDC key that Trump kept in a cold wallet was between $5 million and $25 million, and that $45,932 in interest income was earned from this asset.

According to the notification, Trump also has Ethereum assets staked under a Coinbase staking agreement. It was stated that he received a validator reward of $510,808 from this item.

The financial statement also included a licensing agreement with Celebration Coins. It was reported that $635,068,835 in royalties were generated from this agreement, the value of which is not easily determined.

*This is not investment advice.

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Corporate treasuries are quietly reshaping the supply dynamics of Ethereum. While the market fixates on Bitcoin as digital gold, a Nasdaq-listed company has now pushed its ETH stack to nearly 887,000 tokens. According to the original report, SharpLink (Nasdaq: SBET) acquired an additional 10,000 ETH at an average price of approximately $1,611, lifting its total holdings to 886,725 ETH as of June 28, 2026. The company simultaneously repurchased 2.13 million of its own shares at $4.69 on average and raised $75 million through a registered direct offering. The capital allocation strategy is stark: increase ETH exposure per share, not dilute it.

SharpLink’s identity as the second-largest Ethereum treasury company didn’t come out of nowhere. The firm has been methodically stacking ETH, treating the asset less like a speculative bet and more like a permanent balance sheet entry. The latest round of accumulation arrives alongside a clear signal from management about prioritizing per-share metrics. By buying back stock, SharpLink reduces its float, which magnifies each ETH held per outstanding share. For investors who view the company as a liquid proxy for Ethereum, the math becomes straightforward.

This is not a fringe move in a vacuum. Earlier this year, institutional capital entered blockchain infrastructure at record scale, with firms like Bullish acquiring major financial intermediaries and tokenized real-world assets crossing $20 billion on-chain. SharpLink’s actions fit into a broader pattern where public companies are no longer merely dabbling in crypto but are structuring their treasuries around it. While MicroStrategy defined the Bitcoin treasury playbook, Ethereum-focused strategies have been slower to develop. SharpLink is now the most prominent counterweight.

Capital Allocation With a Clear Mandate The $75 million raise through a registered direct offering is the engine behind the latest buy. Unlike secondary market purchases made quietly on the sidelines, this was a duly disclosed capital injection directed at one outcome. SharpLink’s management has not framed ETH as a short-term trade. The share buyback component suggests the company is trying to engineer a tighter correlation between its stock price and its Ethereum holdings. In practical terms, a lower share count with a rising ETH balance creates a higher ETH-per-share ratio, which appeals to institutional investors who cannot or will not custody ETH directly.

Yet, the execution carries market risk. If Ethereum’s price declines, the per-share math cuts both ways. For now, the average entry point around $1,611 sits comfortably below current spot levels in late June 2026, but the treasury’s size—worth roughly $1.5 billion at the time—makes SharpLink one of the most Ethereum-exposed public entities. Its balance sheet now holds more ETH than many DeFi protocol treasuries. The difference is that SharpLink is a regulated Nasdaq entity with quarterly reporting obligations, giving on-chain observers a cleaner window into corporate Ethereum accumulation than most DAOs provide.

What It Signals for Ethereum Markets Large, persistent buyers absorb liquid supply. SharpLink’s total holdings of 886,725 ETH represent over 0.7% of the circulating supply. When a single corporate entity accumulates at this scale, it introduces a structural demand floor that wasn’t present during previous cycles. Ethereum continues to lead developer activity across the blockchain sector, which underpins long-term value beyond the treasury narrative. The real question market participants are asking is whether other publicly traded companies will follow SharpLink’s lead. So far, ETH has lagged behind Bitcoin in corporate treasury adoption, partly because traditional CFOs still grapple with Ethereum’s more complex risk profile—smart contract exposure, protocol-level changes, and a different regulatory classification conversation.

Institutional staking and infrastructure plays are already carving a path. For instance, institutional staking from Nasdaq-listed firms has emerged as a tangible driver of demand in proof-of-stake ecosystems. SharpLink’s case could serve as a blueprint for companies looking to integrate ETH not just as an asset but as a yield-generating instrument, though the company has not publicly disclosed any staking activity tied to its treasury. If it eventually does, the model would shift from a simple holding company to a more active treasury management operation—something that would likely draw additional analyst coverage and regulatory scrutiny.

What remains uncertain is the regulatory boundary around such concentrated corporate ETH positions. Public companies reporting under U.S. securities laws must classify digital assets carefully. Any change in SEC guidance around crypto asset classification could force a revaluation or even a divestment. SharpLink’s bet, then, is not only on Ethereum’s price appreciation but also on a stable regulatory framework that doesn’t penalize corporate treasurers for holding the asset. In the current political cycle, that remains an open question. Still, the message from the company’s latest filing is unmistakable: they are not hedging, they are concentrating, and they are inviting shareholders to do the same through a shrinking float.

AUTHOR

Max delves deep into the cryptocurrency realm, with a passion for altcoins and NFTs. Convinced of crypto's transformative potential, he envisions a decentralized financial future. Max's background in the financial sector grants him unique insights into global monetary systems. In his leisure, Max embraces the thrill of adventures and is an avid sports enthusiast, finding balance and rejuvenation away from work.

Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.

Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.

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PANews, July 1 – According to SoSoValue data, crypto sectors generally fell, with the Layer 2 sector down 3.57% in 24 hours. Among them, Mantle (MNT) fell 4.97%, Starknet (STRK) fell 4.93%, and Celestia (TIA) fell 9.54%. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) fell 1.89%, dropping below $59,000; Ethereum (ETH) fell 0.98%, dropping below $1,600.

In other sectors, the PayFi sector fell 0.29% in 24 hours, but Stellar (XLM) rose 11.00%; the CeFi sector fell 0.87%, Binance Coin (BNB) fell 1.19%; the Meme sector fell 1.05%, MemeCore (M) rose against the trend by 22.60%; the Layer 1 sector fell 1.41%, Cardano (ADA) was relatively resilient, rising 1.32%; the DeFi sector fell 2.79%, LAB (LAB) fell 14.83%.

Additionally, the SocialFi and NFT sectors were relatively resilient, rising 0.50% and 0.54% respectively. Within the SocialFi sector, Gram (GRAM) rose 1.01%; within the NFT sector, Audiera (BEAT) rose 7.87%.

Leading cryptocurrencies reversed course on Tuesday amid negative sentiment in the market, but analysts believe the sell-off may have carved out a bottom.

Crypto Market RetreatsBitcoin pulled back to about $58,000 after Monday’s surge, while 24‑hour trading volume ticked up slightly. Ethereum pulled back from $1,600 and traded around the $1,500 level, while XRP and Dogecoin slipped modestly.

Nearly $250 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, with $183 million in bullish long positions alone erased, according to Coinglass data.

Bitcoin’s open interest rose 1.52% over the last 24 hours. An increase in open interest when the price falls indicates a short buildup, meaning sellers are entering the market to create new short positions.

"Extreme Fear" sentiment persisted in the market, according to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index.

Top Gainers (24 Hours) 

The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.07 trillion, broadly unchanged over the last 24 hours.

Dow Hits New Closing HighDow finished June 2.43% higher, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq slid 1.32% and 3.22%, respectively.

Bitcoin Inside ‘High-Coviction Accumulation Zone’Ali Martinez, a widely followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader, noted that Bitcoin’s supply in loss has exceeded its supply in profit for the first time in this cycle.

Martinez said that this on-chain crossover has historically aligned with “major” cycle bottoms in 2011, 2014, 2018, and 2020.

“While historical data shows that the duration of these crossover periods can vary from a few weeks to several months before a primary trend reversal begins, it confirms that BTC is currently trading inside a high-conviction accumulation zone,” the analyst added.

On-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant highlighted a negative Coinbase Premium Index for Ethereum, suggesting high selling pressure from U.S. institutional investors. At the same time, funding rates on Binance have turned negative, which suggests leveraged traders are leaning bearish.

“The combination of deeply negative funding rates and a discount on Coinbase often characterizes a ‘Wall of Worry,'” the analytics firm said. “Historically, when speculative sentiment is this depressed while organic supply is being absorbed by staking, it creates a fragile environment for short-sellers.”

Photo: KateStock / Shutterstock

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After failing to maintain the recovery rally that peaked close to the 200-day moving average, Bitcoin is still under a lot of pressure. The longer-term bearish structure was validated by the $82,000 rejection, which also set off another wave of selling that drove Bitcoin back toward $58,000. 

The situation is still weak technically. Bitcoin is currently trading below the 50, 100, and 200-day moving averages, all of which are still declining. This alignment usually indicates that sellers are in control over a number of time periods. While RSI is close to oversold territory and has not produced a strong bullish divergence, volume has not shown any indications of significant accumulation. 

The most important level to keep an eye on is the most recent low of $57,000 to $58,000. A more severe decline would be possible if it were lost. For the time being, any upward movement appears to be more of a relief bounce than the beginning of a long-term trend reversal.

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Stellar is avoiding a bear trendXLM is still one of the few large-cap tokens that is holding close to its moving averages in spite of the overall weakness of the market. The token recently saw a huge surge that drove it above the 200-day moving average and generated a significant amount of trading activity. 

The price is currently testing the cluster of the 50, 100, and 200-day moving averages around the $0.18–$0.19 zone after sharply retracing from local highs near $0.30. Bulls and bears now use this region as a crucial battlefield. The fact that XLM's longer-term structure has not entirely collapsed is a plus. In contrast to Bitcoin, Stellar still has an opportunity to reach a higher low if buyers hold onto the present support levels. 

XLM/USDT Chart by TradingViewThere is less speculative excess in the market as a result of the RSI cooling from overbought conditions. If XLM is able to hold above $0.18, it may be able to stabilize and try to push higher again. However, a breakdown below that range would probably invalidate a large portion of the recent breakout and return the asset to a wider downtrend.

The asset broke out of a descending triangle pattern after consolidating above important support levels for several months. It is currently trading close to $1.03, which is dangerously close to the psychological $1 mark. The breakdown in and of itself is significant. XRP consistently printed lower highs while defending the $1.30 support zone throughout March, April, and May. 

Sellers eventually outnumbered buyers, which caused a sharp decline below support. The move accelerated the downward momentum and validated the bearish structure. 

XRP remains alertedXRP is still in a precarious position technically. The price is moving below the downward-sloping 50-, 100-, and 200-day moving averages. 

This alignment typically indicates a long-term downward trend as opposed to a brief correction. Buyers have not regained control, as evidenced by the rejection of each recovery attempt over the past few weeks near moving-average resistance. Currently, $1.00 is the most crucial level. In addition to being a significant psychological barrier, it is also one of the final significant support areas before XRP moves into a region where past purchasing activity becomes significantly less frequent. 

XRP/USDT Chart by TradingViewAnother wave of liquidations and panic selling would probably result from a breakdown below $1, particularly among traders who have been anticipating a recovery from current levels. Although RSI is getting close to oversold territory, a convincing reversal signal has not yet been generated. 

This does not necessarily mean that a bottom has formed, even though it implies that downside momentum may be slowing. The road ahead is simple but challenging for bulls. To refute the current bearish trend, XRP must eventually return above the broken $1.30 support area and at least recover the 50-day moving average around $1.13. 

Until then, rallies are probably not going to be seen as the beginning of a recovery, but rather as opportunities for sellers. The medium-term course of XRP may be decided in the next few days. A relief bounce is possible if $1 holds. If it does not hold, the market might experience another painful decline.

Hyperliquid makes hasteDespite the recent correction, Hyperliquid is still one of the market's best-performing assets. In contrast to the majority of cryptocurrencies, HYPE is still firmly above its major moving averages and maintains a more expansive bullish structure. HYPE entered a phase of increased volatility after rising from below $30 earlier this year to highs above $75. The asset went through a number of significant corrections, but buyers kept intervening before the trend could fully collapse. 

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After yet another rejection from local highs, HYPE is currently trading close to $65. The pullback may seem alarming, but the chart remains positive. The 100-day and 200-day averages are still much lower, indicating the strength of the underlying trend, while the 50-day moving average at $64 continues to serve as immediate support. Several tests have already been conducted on the rising trendline that sustained the advance throughout the spring. 

During times of volatility, the price briefly fell below it, but buyers soon regained control, averting a more significant structural breakdown. There is a significant decrease in momentum. After being in overbought conditions for weeks, the RSI has declined toward neutral territory. Since it eliminates excessive speculation without ruining the uptrend, this reset is actually beneficial to the market. 

The 50-day moving average is the crucial level to monitor. Another attempt to reach the $70-$75 range is still possible if HYPE can stay above it. The likelihood of a deeper retracement toward the 100-day moving average around $53 would rise in the event of a break below that level. HYPE is one of the few significant assets that is currently exhibiting a bullish market structure. The current correction does not appear to be the start of a full trend reversal, but rather consolidation following an explosive rally.

Top 5 Altcoins for July 2026 as Bitcoin Drops 20%

Bitcoin enters the third quarter still in a bear market, with technical analysis suggesting one more leg lower remains likely before a bounce develops in July, followed by a sharp bearish August and a possible final low forming around October.

Where Bitcoin Stands Right Now

The current structure remains clearly bearish according to Elliott Wave analysis tracking the decline since June. Bitcoin is consolidating between micro support and resistance, with the first resistance zone sitting between $60,812 and $62,589. 

A break above that level would be the first signal that the anticipated Q3 bounce has begun. Until then, one more low remains the more likely scenario, potentially testing the $55,500 to $56,000 support cluster that aligns with a larger Fibonacci support zone on higher timeframes.

The broader market regime indicators reinforce the bearish read. A 365-day regime divider confirms Bitcoin remains in bear market conditions, and price is currently trading below an entire bearish-aligned moving average ribbon spanning $64,000 to $81,000, closely matching the $67,000 to $77,000 resistance zone that has rejected multiple rally attempts this cycle.

Why July Could Bring Relief

Despite the bearish backdrop, seasonality offers a genuine reason for optimism in the near term. Historical data shows July has consistently been one of the stronger months for Bitcoin even during bear market years, often producing a corrective three-wave rally before renewed selling resumes. August, by contrast, has historically been one of the most bearish months of the year.

A bullish divergence is also forming on the RSI, with price posting a lower high while the RSI itself prints a higher low, a pattern that frequently precedes short-term rallies back toward resistance. Combined with the seasonal pattern, this supports the case for a July bounce, whether as a smaller wave two within the current decline or a larger corrective structure.

The Q3 Targets

If the current Elliott Wave structure plays out, Bitcoin’s first major downside target sits near $39,000, based on a 100% Fibonacci extension from the recent wave structure. The path there could be direct or could involve an extended bounce first. On the upside, any July rally is expected to face resistance between $67,000 and $77,000, with the 200-day moving average near $75,000 reinforcing that zone.

Time cycle analysis points toward a potential final low forming around October, give or take 30 days, consistent with how previous Bitcoin bear markets have typically lasted between 360 and 380 days. This would place the end of the current bear market squarely within Q4 2026, setting up the next bull market phase.

Story Ends Here

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By the end of 2025, the power capacity tied to artificial intelligence data centers worldwide had reached about 29.6 gigawatts (GW), enough to run all of New York state at peak demand, according to Stanford University’s annual report on the AI industry. 

The report, released in April, suggests that compute itself is abundant and getting cheaper. Permitted, grid-connected, ready-to-draw electricity is in high demand, but the sources to power it are much harder to come by. One industry has spent the past decade quietly building exactly that infrastructure for a different reason: Bitcoin mining.

AI data center power capacity reached about 29.6 GW by the end of 2025, comparable to New York state at peak demand. Source: Stanford University

Chips get more efficient, but total demand risesThe economics of chips are moving in the opposite direction. Stanford said the cost of GPU computation has dropped more than 99% since 2006, while leading chips now perform far more work per watt than they did a decade ago. But efficiency gains have not reduced total demand. They are instead poured back into larger models rather than banked as savings, keeping the pressure on the power grid.

The cost of GPU computation has fallen more than 99% since 2006, even as total power draw climbed. Source: Stanford University

Stanford estimates that the most demanding training runs, including for systems such as Llama 4 Behemoth, have pulled upward of 100 megawatts (MW), comparable to a small power plant. Capacity dedicated to AI has risen some 200-fold in three years, from under a gigawatt in 2022, and data center electricity use is projected to keep rising through 2030.

The squeeze is geographic as much as numerical. The United States hosts 5,427 data centers, more than 10 times any other country, according to Stanford.

Chips can be ordered and delivered in months, but energizing a site, with its substation, interconnection approval and cooling, takes years.

Counted across full systems rather than the accelerators alone, AI’s cumulative power demand through 2024 reached an estimated 9.4 GW, close to the national electricity use of Switzerland or Austria and about half the estimated draw of Bitcoin mining.

Estimated all-in AI power demand (through 2024) sits near half of Bitcoin mining's. Source: de Vries-Gao, Stanford University

The asset was never the hardwareBut Bitcoin miners cannot just hand their machines to an AI lab. Mining ASICs (the chips that solve Bitcoin calculations) do one narrow job and are useless for training or inference. What does transfer is everything around the chips, such as the energized sites, power contracts, grid hookups and the shells to cool dense racks. 

A Bitcon miner that already has a grid connection has infrastructure ready to fill the gaps for the AI developers, and renting that capacity beats starting over. Miners also tend to sit where AI wants to be anyway, in cheap-power US states like Texas and the Gulf Coast.

Mining economics is itself a numbers-crunching game. JPMorgan recently estimated Bitcoin’s all-in production cost at about $78,000 per coin, well above BTC’s market price of around $53,400 at the time of writing, down by more than 34% year-to-date, according to CoinGecko.

Bitcoin is down by around 34% in 2026. Source: CoinGecko

Cointelegraph previously reported that hashprice had fallen below breakeven for many miners, putting about 20% of the industry in unprofitable territory.

Some major contracts between miners and AI infrastructure operators followed. In November 2025, Iren signed a five-year GPU cloud deal with Microsoft worth about $9.7 billion, served from a 750-megawatt campus in Childress, Texas. In December, Bitcoin miner Hut 8 signed a 15-year, $7 billion lease with Fluidstack for 245 megawatts at its River Bend site in Louisiana, with the payments backstopped by Google.

TeraWulf reported $12.8 billion in contracted high-performance computing (HPC) revenue and now earns more from leasing than mining. Core Scientific has expanded its CoreWeave agreement to $10.2 billion over 12-year terms. Across the listed miner sector, CoinShares counts more than $70 billion in announced AI and HPC contracts, but much of the value is years out. Hut 8's River Bend site, for example, is not due to start commissioning until the second quarter of 2027.

Investors have nonetheless rewarded the shift. Hut 8 stock jumped about 20% in premarket trading the day its lease was announced, Reuters reported, and across the sector, valuations are increasingly tied to compute pipelines rather than the Bitcoin price alone. Indeed, CoinShares said the miners with HPC contracts were trading at 12.3 times the value of their 12-month revenue vs 5.9 times for pure play miners. CoinShares' projects listed miners could derive as much as 70% of revenue from AI by the end of 2026, up from roughly 30% in Q1.

Why it is not a free pivotHowever, the conversion is far from cheap, and is not just a matter of plug-and-play. CoinShares estimates that mining infrastructure costs about $700,000 to $1 million per MW, while AI-grade, liquid-cooled infrastructure can cost $8 million to $15 million per MW. Hyperscalers also demand power density, redundancy and uptime guarantees that many mining facilities were never designed to provide.

Miners are covering that gap with debt and new capital raises. Iren had already disclosed about $3.75 billion in convertible note debt at the end of March, then raised another $3 billion through a new convertible note sale in May.

The sector is also leaning on a small group of hyperscalers and AI infrastructure buyers. If demand cools, customers renegotiate or projects slip, miners that have torn out ASICs may have fewer options to fall back on.

Whether that shift away from BTC mining pays off remains an open question. Signing multibillion-dollar AI contracts is one thing, but delivering the earnings investors expect is another.

For now, the market is placing a premium on miners making the transformation rather than those that simply produce new BTC. If AI demand continues to outpace electricity supply, those assets could prove more valuable than the machines they were originally built to support. If not, some of today’s biggest AI plans could prove to be costly bets, rather than real second acts for former Bitcoin miners.

Magazine: Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI, so why is the hashrate near ATHs?

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper on October 31, 2008, and remained active in development until December 2010 before disappearing without revealing a true identity. A 2026 New York Times investigation by John Carreyrou identified Blockstream CEO Adam Back as the strongest candidate, using stylometric analysis of cryptography mailing list archives. Back denied being Nakamoto, calling the evidence coincidental, while Blockstream stated the story was built on circumstantial interpretation rather than definitive cryptographic proof. A UK court ruled in May 2024 that Craig Wright forged evidence supporting his claim to be Satoshi, and Wright received a suspended one-year prison sentence in December. Satoshi’s untouched Bitcoin wallet holds an estimated 1.1 million BTC, making the pseudonymous creator one of the wealthiest individuals in the world if still alive. John Carreyrou, the investigative journalist who exposed Theranos, published a 12,000-word investigation in The New York Times in April 2026, naming British cryptographer Adam Back as the most likely person behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym, according to CNBC’s reporting on the investigation. 

This article traces the verified timeline of Satoshi Nakamoto’s activity, examines the major candidates who have been proposed or investigated, and assesses what is actually known versus what remains speculation.

What Satoshi Nakamoto Created and When The name Satoshi Nakamoto first appeared on October 31, 2008, attached to a white paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” published on a cryptography mailing list. The Bitcoin network launched on January 3, 2009, when Nakamoto mined the genesis block. 

Nakamoto remained active in development, forum discussions, and email correspondence until December 2010, when public communications ceased, according to the Wikipedia timeline, and the last known communication was in April 2011.

Nakamoto used a Japanese name and listed Japan as a place of residence, but analysis of posting timestamps and language patterns suggested a British English speaker operating in a time zone consistent with the United Kingdom. 

The white paper cited Adam Back’s Hashcash system, Wei Dai’s b-money, and other precursors to digital currency, placing Nakamoto squarely within the cypherpunk movement of the 1990s and 2000s. The wallet associated with Nakamoto’s early mining activity holds an estimated 1.1 million BTC, untouched since 2010. 

At current prices, that holding would rank among the largest personal fortunes in the world. The wallet’s inactivity is itself evidence: either the private keys have been lost, the holder is deceased, or the holder has chosen not to move the funds for strategic or ideological reasons.

The 2026 New York Times Investigation: Adam Back Carreyrou and co-writer Dylan Freedman built their case around several threads. They collected email archives from three cryptography mailing lists active between 1992 and 2008 and fed them into an AI-powered stylometric analysis tool, as reported by TechCrunch. 

The analysis compared writing patterns, including compound noun hyphenation and common grammatical quirks like mixing up “its” and “it’s.” Back emerged as the closest match. The circumstantial evidence extended beyond writing style. Back invented Hashcash, a proof-of-work system cited in the Bitcoin white paper. 

He was active in cryptography circles that discussed digital cash throughout the 1990s but went relatively quiet during Nakamoto’s most active period.  He reappeared publicly after Nakamoto’s disappearance.

Carreyrou also noted inconsistencies in Back’s recollections of early Bitcoin discussions during an in-person interview at a Bitcoin conference in El Salvador. Back posted on X (formerly Twitter) on April 8, 2026: “I’m not Satoshi, but I was early in laser focus on the positive societal implications of cryptography.” 

Blockstream, where Back serves as CEO, issued a statement calling the investigation “built on circumstantial interpretation of select details and speculation, not definitive cryptographic proof.” Fortune’s analysis of the investigation noted that Nick Szabo, whose initials invert to S.N., ticks many of the same boxes without requiring elaborate explanations, according to Fortune’s coverage.

Other Major Candidates: From Szabo to Wright Nick Szabo designed “bit gold,” a direct precursor to Bitcoin, and published extensively on digital currency before Nakamoto’s white paper appeared. Stylometric analysis by blogger Skye Grey in December 2013 linked Szabo’s writing patterns to Nakamoto’s. Szabo has denied being Satoshi. 

A separate 2026 documentary titled “Finding Satoshi” proposed that Nakamoto was a partnership between cypherpunk Len Sassaman and Hal Finney, according to Wikipedia’s Satoshi Nakamoto entry.

Hal Finney, a cryptographer and early Bitcoin contributor who received the first Bitcoin transaction from Nakamoto, was proposed as a candidate before his death from ALS in 2014. Finney denied the claim during his lifetime. 

Dorian Nakamoto, a Japanese-American physicist in California whose birth name is Satoshi Nakamoto, was identified by Newsweek in 2014 in a widely criticized article. He denied any involvement with Bitcoin.

Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist, claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto beginning in 2015. A UK High Court ruled in May 2024 that Wright’s submitted evidence included forgeries and that he had “lied to the court extensively and repeatedly.”

Wright received a suspended one-year prison sentence in December 2024 for contempt of court related to a separate $911 billion lawsuit against Block, Inc., according to Wikipedia’s legal summary.

Regulatory Implications Satoshi’s identity carries legal weight beyond curiosity. If identified, the individual would face tax obligations on an estimated 1.1 million BTC. Jurisdictional authorities, including the IRS and HMRC, would have grounds to pursue historical filings. 

The SEC’s classification of Bitcoin as a commodity rather than a security could face challenges if the creator were shown to retain controlling influence. The Craig Wright litigation demonstrated that false identity claims can trigger criminal proceedings.

What’s Next? The mystery may be unsolvable by design. Cryptographic proof, meaning a signed message from Satoshi’s known private keys, remains the only definitive method of identification.

The Bitcoin protocol operates independently of its creator’s identity, and the community has largely accepted that the network’s decentralization makes the question academically interesting but functionally irrelevant.

Future investigations will likely continue to produce circumstantial cases without the signed proof that would settle the question.

FAQs Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym used by the person or group who created Bitcoin, published the white paper in October 2008, and vanished by 2011.

How much Bitcoin does Satoshi own?
Analysis of early mining patterns estimates Satoshi’s wallet holds approximately 1.1 million BTC, untouched since 2010, making it one of the largest crypto holdings.

Did the New York Times identify Satoshi?
A 2026 investigation by John Carreyrou named Adam Back as the strongest candidate based on stylometric analysis, but Back denied it, and no proof exists.

Is Craig Wright Satoshi Nakamoto?
No. A UK High Court ruled in May 2024 that Wright forged evidence and lied extensively, and he received a suspended prison sentence in December 2024.

Why does Satoshi’s identity matter?
Identifying Satoshi could trigger tax obligations on over 1 million BTC, influence regulatory classification of Bitcoin, and affect market confidence in its decentralization.

What is Hashcash and how does it relate?
Adam Back invented Hashcash, a proof-of-work system directly cited in the Bitcoin white paper, which became the foundation for Bitcoin’s mining consensus mechanism.

Could Satoshi be a group of people?
Some researchers believe Satoshi was a small collective acting under one pseudonym, which would explain the breadth of expertise across cryptography, economics, and coding.

References CNBC Report on NYT Investigation: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/08/latest-investigation-of-bitcoin-founder-ties-identity-to-blockstream-ceo-adam-back.html TechCrunch Coverage of Adam Back Denial: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/08/british-cryptographer-adam-back-denies-nyt-report-that-he-is-bitcoin-creator-satoshi-nakamoto/ Fortune Analysis of Investigation: https://fortune.com/2026/04/08/who-is-the-real-inventor-of-bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto/ Wikipedia Satoshi Nakamoto Entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto

Strategy, the company formerly known as MicroStrategy and the largest publicly traded corporate holder of Bitcoin, just did something it swore it would never do. It approved selling Bitcoin.

The board authorized a new “Digital Credit Capital Framework” on June 29 that allows the company to sell up to $1.25 billion worth of BTC. The goal is to boost its USD reserves from $2.55 billion to roughly $3.8 billion, giving it enough runway to cover preferred dividends and interest obligations for about 25.9 months.

The numbers behind the pivot Strategy currently holds 847,363 BTC. The authorized sales represent approximately 1.5% of that stash, which sounds modest until you remember that 1.5% equals $1.25 billion.

The company’s annual dividend and interest obligations total approximately $1.76 billion. Under its existing $2.55 billion reserves, that translates to roughly 17.4 months of coverage.

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Strategy already started selling before the formal announcement. In late May 2026, the company offloaded 32 BTC for $2.5 million, averaging about $77,135 per coin.

Beyond shoring up reserves, the framework also enables up to $2 billion in buybacks of preferred securities and common stock, with roughly $1 billion targeted specifically at preferred securities.

Why the ‘never sell’ era is over Executive Chairman Michael Saylor built his entire post-2020 brand on one message: buy Bitcoin, hold Bitcoin, never sell Bitcoin. The company’s stock became a leveraged proxy for BTC exposure, attracting investors who wanted amplified upside without directly holding crypto.

With $1.76 billion in annual obligations and reserves providing less than 18 months of coverage, the board faced a straightforward choice: sell some Bitcoin now on their own terms, or potentially be forced to sell later under worse conditions.

What this means for investors The initial market response was positive, with MSTR shares moving up in pre-market trading.

Moving from 17.4 months to 25.9 months of runway is meaningful, but it still depends on Strategy not needing to increase its obligations further. If Bitcoin drops significantly and the company needs to post additional collateral or faces margin pressures on its leveraged positions, that 25.9-month cushion could shrink faster than expected.

The $2 billion buyback authorization includes roughly $1 billion targeted at preferred securities. Buying back preferred securities at a discount could be accretive for common shareholders, but funding buybacks with Bitcoin sales means the company is trading BTC for reduced share count.

For crypto markets specifically, the 1.5% being sold is unlikely to move the needle in terms of direct selling pressure.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell toward $58,000 around Tuesday’s Wall Street open as the clock ticked down to a brutal quarterly close.

Key points:

US stocks' Q2 gains leave Bitcoin far behind as bulls nurse losses of nearly 20%.Bitcoin faces renewed pressure from the risk of Japanese government moves to support the yen.BTC price weakness is forcing capitulation by top buyers, says analysis.Bitcoin "about to get spicy" amid 40-year dollar/yen highData from TradingView showed downside gaining the upper hand as volatility increased into the US session.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

With $60,000 increasingly looking lost as support, commentators saw the tussle between bulls and bears continuing on short time frames.

“Open Interest pumping, noticed some large longs entering on this dip, it's about to get spicy,” commentator Exitpump wrote in fresh analysis on X.

BTC/USD order-book data. Source: Exitpump/X

Trader Killa eyed a repeat of weekly price patterns, in which Mondays formed the swing low or high of the following week.

“$BTC Keeps consolidating in this price range. Marginally higher lows and equal highs,” trader Daan Crypto Trades continued. 

“Look out for whichever direction breaks first, I think a quick move should follow after that seeing how compressed this is becoming.”BTC/USDT perpetual contract one-hour chart. Source: Daan Crypto Trades/X

Bitcoin thus reinforced its divergence from US stocks with total Q2 losses nearing 20%.

By contrast, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter noted the S&P 500 was up 14% over the quarter, marking its best performance since 2020.

“This would mark the 2nd-largest quarterly gain since the 2008 Financial Crisis recovery,” it added in an X post alongside data from Bloomberg. 

“At the same time, the Nasdaq 100 is up +25%, on track for its strongest quarter in 5 years. This would also mark the Nasdaq 100's 2nd-best quarterly performance in 25 years.”US stocks performance comparison. Source: The Kobeissi Letter/X

Kobeissi described an “accelerating” global stocks rally, with the US providing the impetus. 

In a potential headwind for crypto, the US dollar hit new multidecade highs against the Japanese yen, increasing the odds of government intervention.

USD/JPY reached 162.50 on the day, its highest since the mid 1980s.

USD/JPY 12-month chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

“Whether it’s Japan, India, South Korea or MSTR, It’s the same problem,” analyst and YouTube personality George Gammon summarized to X followers on the day. 

“You’ve got dollar liabilities and not enough dollars. So you sell assets to get dollars putting downward pressure on the asset. Yen, Rupees, Won, or Bitcoin.”Bitcoin hodlers "appear to be cutting losses"In new research, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant warned of a fresh round of Bitcoin investor “capitulation.”

At sub-$70,000 levels, contributor Crypto Sunmoon warned that those who had bought BTC around all-time highs were now selling at a loss.

“Since the break below $70K, exchange inflows have risen sharply, with the majority of this volume consisting of coins held for roughly six to twelve months, coins most likely accumulated near the cycle highs,” they wrote in a Quicktake blog post. 

“This pattern is consistent with capitulation among cycle-top buyers, as holders appear to be cutting losses rather than continuing to hold through the drawdown.”Source: CryptoQuant

CryptoQuant data showed onchain movements increasingly involving coins that last moved around all-time highs, along with increasing inflows to exchanges.

“For some, this will be a painful stretch. That said, capitulation events of this kind among cycle-top investors have historically coincided with long-term bottom formation, a pattern observed in both the 2018 and 2022 cycles,” Crypto Sunmoon added.

This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph's Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research.

Most market predictions hedge. Hayes' did not. Asked by TheStreet Roundtable to name a call the market is getting completely wrong, the BitMEX co-founder did not flinch: 

"The AI bubble will pop in or around 2028," Arthur said.

"The Fed and other central banks will print money to save the banking system from the bad AI debt they underwrote. This will not solve the financial crisis."

It's a striking call from someone whose macro predictions have, for better or worse, shaped a significant portion of crypto discourse over the past several years. Hayes isn't simply betting against AI valuations. He is just making a specific claim about how the unwind plays out, who pays for it, and where the money goes next.

Why Bitcoin wins from the falloutHayes' thesis hinges on a distinction between liquidity and innovation and it's the line that does the most work in his entire argument.

"Central banks cannot print their way out of Moore's law, and this liquidity will flow to Bitcoin," Hayes told the outlet. 

In other words, printing money can paper over a banking crisis, but it cannot manufacture the computing breakthroughs the AI trade was priced on.

He closed the point with a forecast that left little room for ambiguity:

 "Bitcoin will perform better than ever as trillions of dollars of liquidity flow into the hardest money ever created."

A debt spiral already in motionAccording to Hayes, the mechanism behind his prediction is already underway, not some distant hypothetical.

"The banking system and central banks will create credit to deliver to defense spending programs and AI CAPEX expenditures," he said. "Once the AI bubble pops, the authorities will attempt to print their way out of a financial crisis."

That response, he argued, is where the real story begins.

This is not a standalone prediction. Earlier in the same conversation, Hayes said that the Federal Reserve is already trapped by its own balance sheet.

"The Fed is already fiscally dominated, which is why I do not believe the newly appointed chairperson Kevin Warsh will be able to shrink the Fed's balance sheet," he added.

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"Nor will he be able to meaningfully hike rates when the U.S. Treasury must roll over trillions of dollars a year of short-term treasury bills."

Hayes also pointed to a quieter structural shift already underway, one he believes is being underpriced relative to the AI story. 

"Stablecoins are popular and will disintermediate domestic banking systems in emerging markets," he said, arguing that dollar-backed stablecoins are already moving volumes that rival major payment networks, without the banking license that would normally be required to do so.

In his view, traditional banking survives where currencies still hold real purchasing power, largely in advanced Western economies, but loses ground everywhere else. 

That dynamic, he suggested, is a separate but related symptom of the same monetary trust problem driving his Bitcoin thesis.

Popular on TheStreet Roundtable:Analyst sends blunt message on Elon Musk's Bitcoin tiesEx-Trump advisor unveils new Bitcoin price targetAnalyst issues bold call on Cathie Wood's favorite crypto stockWhat could prove him wrongEven his own conviction has a limit. 

Asked what would invalidate his thesis entirely, Hayes was specific: 

"The thesis could be invalidated if politicians around the world could implement austerity and get re-elected in democracies or receive implicit support of the elites in autocracies."

That, he implied, is a low-probability outcome, which is precisely why his 2028 call stands as confidently as it does.

Hayes pushed back when asked if younger Americans, priced out of homes and savings, are turning to Bitcoin by default.

"These young Americans turned to pseudo-gambling," he said, pointing to sports betting, zero-day options, and meme coins as proof. 

With wages stagnant and inflation eating into what little they can save, he argued, most are chasing quick wins, not allocating deliberately into Bitcoin.

Block Inc., the company formerly known as Square, has officially entered the Bitcoin mining hardware race. The company launched its Proto Rig modular mining system on August 14, 2025, at Core Scientific’s facility in Dalton, Georgia, with CEO Jack Dorsey in attendance.

The Proto Rig is compact. Its chassis measures 39 cm x 29 cm x 50 cm, roughly the size of a small desktop computer tower. Each unit can accommodate up to nine hash boards and three power units, pushing hash rates up to 810 TH. In select configurations, the Proto Rig can hit 14.1 J/TH. The system supports advanced liquid-cooling options and is built around a modular design philosophy: components are swappable, error signaling is built to be clear and actionable, and operators can identify a problem, pull the faulty component, and replace it without sending the whole rig overseas.

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Alongside the hardware, Block introduced Proto Fleet, an open-source software package designed to manage mining operations. The software includes secure boot capabilities and AI-assisted interfaces for diagnostics. Stratum V2 support comes included out of the box, giving individual miners more control over which transactions they include in blocks rather than leaving that decision entirely to mining pool operators.

Core Scientific is the initial shipping target for the Proto Rig. Core Scientific operates some of the largest Bitcoin mining facilities in North America and recently emerged from bankruptcy with renewed focus on both mining and AI hosting infrastructure.

The Bitcoin mining hardware market has a concentration problem. Bitmain has historically controlled over 80% of the market for ASIC miners. Block’s bet is that a modular, repairable, open-source alternative can chip away at that concentration, decentralizing both hashrate distribution and the hardware supply chain itself.

The 14.1 J/TH efficiency figure, if it holds up at scale in real-world deployments, positions the Proto Rig competitively against current-generation hardware. Investors should watch Core Scientific’s deployment timeline closely, as real-world performance under sustained load will determine whether this represents a genuine market disruption.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Appearing on the New Era Finance Podcast at a conference in Prague, Michael Saylor, founder of MicroStrategy and a well-known Bitcoin investor, clarified the claims circulating in the cryptocurrency markets recently that “MicroStrategy sold Bitcoin.” Saylor argued that the panic created by the rumors on social media (X) was unfounded, and detailed the rational and strategic reasons behind the sale.

Contrary to market rumors, Saylor claimed the company had not abandoned its Bitcoin strategy, drawing attention to the scale of the sale. “We bought 175,000 Bitcoin right in the middle of the bear market this year. In contrast, we only sold 32 Bitcoin,” Saylor stated, adding that this amount represented a negligible and insignificant two ten-thousandths (0.02%) of their total assets.

So, if the amount was so small, why was it sold? Saylor reminded everyone that his company operates as a massive “treasury company,” obligated to both pay dividends to its lending investors and protect its equity investors. Saylor summarized their strategy with these words: “We have to defend our lending and equity investors. This may sometimes require us to sell 1 Bitcoin to buy 20 Bitcoin. This is actually more tax-efficient and a completely rational step economically.”

He underlined that if they lose the trust of credit markets, they may find themselves in a situation where they cannot buy any Bitcoin at all.

Saylor stated that these small sales transactions on the institutional side should not set a bad example for individual investors, and added that he had not touched his own investments: “I personally bought a lot of Bitcoin and haven’t sold a single Satoshi yet.”

According to Saylor, the main reason Bitcoin is lagging behind current stock markets (especially the record-breaking S&P 500) is the “AI” craze. He stated that there is currently a huge “AI Black Hole” in the market, and this enormous gravitational force is pulling in all credit and equity capital (to companies like OpenAI, SpaceX, and Google).

Saylor stated that while billions of dollars are flowing into these companies, $10-20 billion is also leaving the crypto ecosystem and shifting to these popular stocks. However, he added that he believes capital will return to Bitcoin, which has become more valuable, once the AI craze subsides.

Finally, Saylor reiterated his confidence in Bitcoin’s long-term projection, seeing 2026 as a turning point: “2026 is a great year because it’s the year Bitcoin emerges as the agreed-upon global digital capital, and nobody disputes that anymore.”

*This is not investment advice.

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On-chain payments continue to accelerate

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With the clock continuing to tick down on the possibility of a successful legislative session for the CLARITY Act, bitcoin seems to be firmly entrenched in another summer doldrums, with the price bouncing along at approximately $60,000 while struggling to find a catalyst toward higher levels. Even with these lower levels dominating crypto conversations and policy debates the institutional pivot toward blockchain, on-chain payments, and tokenized transactions is accelerating in the background. Such adoption is important for a number of reasons, but two in particular should stand out to investors and policymakers alike.

Firstly, and at a more generalized level, the utilization of on-chain payments and tokenized assets by large household financial names is continuing to bring transparency and important debates around compliance and security to the crypto sector. Specifically, the majority of debate and discourse around the CLARITY Act centers around not only the ability of stablecoin issues to provide yield and yield adjacent products, but how these institutions should be regulated. As frustrating as this may be for some proponents, these are critically important decisions if mass market adoption remains the end goal.

Secondly, and arguably equally as important for non-crypto-natives, are the improvements being made to the traceability and transparency linked to on-chain transactions. Traceability and the ability to reverse and/or augments payments and transactions made in error are attributes of modern payments that consumers and institutions alike expect, and making this feature more accessible for crypto transactions is an integral step in achieving wider market share.

Let’s take a look at some of the headlines driving these themes and narratives forward.

Blockchain Traceability Is Becoming a Core Market IssueFor years, blockchain’s transparency was treated as a yes or no topic with transactions either being completely visible on-chain or behind the walled garden of a permissioned network. Chainalysis’ proposed formal framework for defining wallet clusters moves the conversation beyond that oversimplification. The key issue is moving from whether on-chain data can be analyzed in real time across multiple chains and environments to how financial analysts and institutions can leverage this available data.

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By separating address grouping, attribution, and operator, the proposal addresses a weakness that has long existed in blockchain analytics; confidence can be mistaken for proof especially given the lack of authoritative auditing standards. This potential confidence-as-assurance issue has increased as digital assets become more integrated with payments, trading, tax reporting, and anti-money-laundering programs. Crypto markets will not gain institutional trust simply because transactions are recorded on an immutable ledger. Trust depends on whether conclusions drawn from that ledger are reproducible, explainable, and defensible to both crypto-native investors and more recent members of the crypto space. For investors and policymakers, standardized blockchain analytics is rapidly becoming as important as standardized financial reporting.

TradFi Support For Crypto Legislation Comes With A WarningJPMorgan’s support for a federal digital asset framework should be viewed as a meaningful signal, but not as an endorsement of regulation at any cost, especially given the leadership position of JPM both in TradFi circles and the on-chain payment space. The bank’s position is straightforward; innovation should be encouraged, but the economic function (otherwise known as tokenomics) of an asset should determine its oversight. In other words, a tokenized security still functions economically as a security, and should be treated as such.

Building on that thread, another example would be that a platform performing exchange-like functions should face exchange-like responsibilities, and that a stablecoin offering yield-like incentives without bank-level safeguards risks becoming shadow banking under a different label. This approach may frustrate industry participants seeking broad exemptions or changes, but it reflects a reality that policymakers cannot ignore. The next stage of crypto adoption will depend less on ideas related to decentralization and more on whether the market can demonstrate consumer protection, liquidity, transparency, and accountability for how errors are addressed. Regulatory clarity is valuable, but clarity that codifies loopholes will not create durable market confidence, and will simply relocate risk.

On-Chain Deposit Growth Shows Where Institutional Adoption Is HeadingWhile public debate and conversation remains focused on cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, the more consequential blockchain story may be unfolding inside regulated financial institutions. J.P. Morgan’s expansion of Kinexys blockchain deposit accounts across eight currencies illustrates how major banks are approaching tokenized money; not as a replacement for banking infrastructure, but rather as an upgrade to existing products and services.

Institutional clients gain access to around-the-clock settlement, programmable treasury capabilities, and potentially more efficient cross-border liquidity while remaining inside a regulated banking environment. This is a different model from relying on privately issued stablecoins or navigating fragmented public blockchain networks. It also reinforces a broader market trend related to the fact that tokenization is increasingly about modernizing deposits, payments, collateral, and settlement rather than simply creating new speculative assets. The competitive question for banks is evolving from earlier conversations linked to whether or not blockchain will affect payments.

The emerging question for institutions is solidifying around just how institutions can implement an on-chain solutions quickly enough to attract mass market users while preserving compliance, control, and client trust.

Bitcoin [BTC] was down 3.4% in the past 24 hours, with $104.38 million in liquidations. Of these, $91.66 million worth of positions were long and were forced to close as BTC dipped deeper below $60k.

Source: CryptoRover on X In a post on X, influencer CryptoRover shared a piece of technical analysis. The price chart outlined the descending triangle pattern that Bitcoin made in 2021-2022, and the RSI also formed a similar structure.

The same pattern was repeating in 2025-2026. It is possible that, like the previous time, the market bottom would need some time to form before it breaks out past the triangle pattern.

If the previous cycle repeats itself, a bullish turnaround can commence in Q4 2026. It should be remembered that, as things stand, whale accumulation was underway but not rapid enough to warrant a market turnaround.

Will it be this simple for Bitcoin investors? Source: Axel Adler Jr. Crypto analyst Axel Adler Jr. observed that the Bitcoin long-term holder MVRV has compressed to 1.24. The metric is the ratio of the market value of long-term holders’ coins, compared to their average purchase price.

The current reading of 1.24 is the lowest in three years and shows the market is approaching historical cycle lows. The MVRV needs to fall into the “Very Low” green capitulation zone to give a bottom confirmation.

Additionally, the long-term holder’s average cost basis is at $48.4k. A price drop below this level will put this cohort underwater, on average, and signal capitulation from even the most hardcore holders.

Bitcoin is on track with the 4-year cycle Source: Benjamin Cohen on X Founder and CEO of Into The CryptoVerse, Benjamin Cohen, used the 200-week moving average to highlight that the 4-year cycle was right on track.

June of 2022 and 2026 saw this moving average breached to the downside, setting up a remarkable similarity across cycles.

Source: Joao Wedson on X The rising long/short ratio implied more traders were going long in the derivatives market than were positioned short. “This excessive Long exposure is one of the main reasons behind the recent selloffs”, wrote CEO of Alphractal Joao Wedson.

It implied that, like the wave of long liquidations in the first week of June, another long squeeze could commence in the coming days and weeks.

Final Summary The Bitcoin price action has breached the 200-week moving average and could go down further in the coming months. The market was approaching historical bottom conditions, compared to previous cycles, but was not quite there yet.

The ETH/BTC ratio prices Ethereum in Bitcoin instead of dollars, stripping out the market-wide move so you can see which of the two is actually winning. Here is what the ratio measures, how to read it, what drives it, and why it has fallen to multi-year lows.

Summary

The ETH/BTC ratio is the price of one ether expressed in bitcoin, a single number that shows whether Ethereum is outperforming or underperforming Bitcoin regardless of what the dollar price of either is doing. A rising ratio means ether is gaining on bitcoin, often a sign of risk appetite and a healthier environment for altcoins; a falling ratio means bitcoin is winning, usually a sign of caution and bitcoin dominance. As of mid-2026, the ratio sits near multi-year lows around 0.026, reflecting Ethereum’s deep underperformance against Bitcoin, down sharply from levels near 0.08 in 2021 and 0.15 in 2017. The ratio is driven by the tug-of-war between Ethereum-specific forces (ETF flows, staking, layer-2 activity, supply dynamics, competition from other chains) and Bitcoin-specific forces (halving cycles, ETF and treasury demand). It is a relative-strength gauge and a regime signal, not a price target, and it can stay depressed or elevated for years, so it should inform context rather than dictate trades. Table of Contents

What the ratio actually measuresWhy traders watch itHow to read a rising or falling ratioA worked exampleWhere the ratio has been, and where it is nowWhat drives the ratio up and downHow to use the ratio without overreading itFrequently Asked Questions The ETH/BTC ratio is the price of one ether (ETH) measured in bitcoin (BTC) rather than in dollars, and it is one of the most useful single numbers in crypto for understanding which of the two largest assets is actually winning. When you look at Ethereum’s price in dollars, you are seeing two things mixed together: how Ethereum is doing, and how the entire crypto market is doing, because almost everything in crypto moves loosely with Bitcoin and with the broad risk environment.

The ETH/BTC ratio removes the second factor. By pricing Ethereum directly in Bitcoin, it cancels out the market-wide move that both assets share and isolates Ethereum’s performance relative to Bitcoin alone. If both assets rise 20% in dollars, the ratio does not move, because neither outperformed the other. If Ethereum rises while Bitcoin is flat, the ratio rises, and you learn something the dollar chart obscured: capital is favoring Ethereum over Bitcoin right now.

That makes the ratio a lens, not just a number, and learning to read it changes how you see the market. This guide explains what the ETH/BTC ratio is and how it is calculated, why traders watch it, how to interpret a rising or falling ratio, what the ratio has done historically and where it sits now, the forces on each side that push it up or down, a worked example you can follow step by step, and how to use it sensibly without overreading it.

The aim is to give you a durable mental model rather than a snapshot, because the specific level will change, but the way the ratio works will not. None of this is trading advice; the ratio is an analytical tool, and like any tool, it can mislead if used in isolation. Used well, though, it is one of the clearest windows into the single most important relationship in the asset class, the one between its two dominant coins.

What the ratio actually measures Start with the mechanics, because they are simple and the simplicity is the point. The ETH/BTC ratio is calculated by dividing the price of ether by the price of bitcoin, using the same currency for both, so the units cancel and you are left with a pure ratio. If ether trades at $1,550 and bitcoin trades at $60,000, the ratio is 1,550 divided by 60,000, which is about 0.0258, usually written as 0.026. That number tells you that one ether is currently worth about 2.6% of one bitcoin. You can read it directly: at a ratio of 0.026, it takes roughly 38 ether to equal one bitcoin in value.

Most charting platforms quote the pair as ETHBTC or ETH/BTC, and many crypto exchanges let you trade the pair directly, buying ether with bitcoin or the reverse, which is part of why the ratio is so closely watched, it is a live, tradable market, not just a derived statistic.

What the ratio measures, conceptually, is relative strength. It answers a question the dollar price cannot: between the two largest assets in crypto, which is the market choosing right now? Because Bitcoin and Ethereum share most of the same macro drivers, interest rates, risk appetite, regulatory news, dollar liquidity, comparing them to each other holds those shared factors roughly constant and exposes the difference that is specific to each asset. A dollar chart of Ethereum during a broad sell-off shows Ethereum falling, but it cannot tell you whether Ethereum fell more or less than Bitcoin.

The ratio can. If Ethereum fell harder than Bitcoin, the ratio dropped even as both went down, revealing that within the decline, capital preferred the relative safety of Bitcoin. That is the core value of the metric: it separates Ethereum’s own story from the market’s story, and in doing so it often reveals the direction of capital rotation that the dollar price hides.

Why traders watch it The ratio matters because it functions as a regime indicator for the broader market, not just for Ethereum. In crypto, there is a long-observed pattern in which capital rotates in a rough sequence: money flows into Bitcoin first during the early, cautious phase of a rally, then rotates into Ethereum as confidence grows, and then spreads out into smaller altcoins as risk appetite peaks.

Because Ethereum sits in the middle of that sequence, the largest and most established asset after Bitcoin, the ETH/BTC ratio often acts as a barometer for where the market is in that cycle. A rising ratio, with Ethereum gaining on Bitcoin, frequently signals that risk appetite is building and that the environment is turning favorable for altcoins broadly, since Ethereum tends to lead the alt market. A falling ratio, with Bitcoin winning, usually signals the opposite: caution, a flight toward the relative safety of Bitcoin, and a harder environment for smaller tokens.

This is why traders treat the ratio as a piece of market-structure information instead of just a fact about two coins. When the ratio is trending up, many interpret it as confirmation of an “altcoin season” or “ETH season,” a period when capital is willing to move out the risk curve and non-Bitcoin assets outperform. When it is trending down, the read is “Bitcoin season” or rising “Bitcoin dominance,” a period when Bitcoin absorbs the market’s attention and capital while alts bleed against it. Portfolio decisions follow from this framing: a trader who believes the ratio is turning up might tilt toward Ethereum and altcoins, while one who sees it falling might rotate toward Bitcoin or cash.

The ratio also serves as a sanity check on narratives. If commentators are loudly predicting an Ethereum breakout but the ETH/BTC ratio keeps falling, the market is voting against the narrative in the most direct way available, by pricing Ethereum lower against Bitcoin quarter after quarter. Watching the ratio keeps a trader honest about what is actually happening versus what is being talked about.

How to read a rising or falling ratio Reading the ratio is mostly about direction and context instead of any single absolute level. A rising ETH/BTC ratio means ether is appreciating relative to bitcoin, whether because ether is rising faster than bitcoin, falling more slowly, or rising while bitcoin falls. In all of those cases the message is the same: on a relative basis, the market is favoring Ethereum.

Sustained increases in the ratio tend to coincide with periods of broad risk appetite, strong Ethereum-specific catalysts, and outperformance across the altcoin complex, since Ethereum often pulls the alts along with it. A falling ratio carries the opposite message: bitcoin is winning the relative contest, the market is leaning toward caution and Bitcoin dominance, and altcoins are generally struggling against bitcoin even if they are flat or rising in dollar terms.

The crucial discipline is to read the ratio in context instead of as a standalone buy or sell signal. The same ratio level can mean very different things depending on the trend and the backdrop. A ratio of 0.026 reached on the way down, after months of Ethereum underperformance, signals weakness and momentum against Ethereum. The same 0.026 reached on the way up, after a period of Ethereum gaining, would signal the opposite, recovering relative strength.

Direction and trend matter more than the absolute figure. It also helps to watch the ratio across multiple timeframes: a short-term bounce in the ratio within a long-term downtrend is a different and weaker signal than a multi-month trend change. And because the ratio is relative, it is silent about absolute price. The ratio can rise while both assets fall in dollars, if Ethereum falls less, which is relative outperformance during an absolute loss, useful to know but not the same as a gain. Reading the ratio well means always holding two questions at once: which asset is winning the relative contest, and what is the absolute market doing underneath that contest.

A worked example Make it concrete with numbers you can follow. Suppose ether is trading at $1,550 and bitcoin at $60,000. Divide 1,550 by 60,000 and you get 0.0258, so the ETH/BTC ratio is about 0.026, and one ether is worth roughly 2.6% of one bitcoin, or equivalently it takes about 38 ether to equal one bitcoin. Now run three scenarios from that starting point to see how the ratio responds to relative moves.

In the first scenario, both assets rise 25% in dollars: ether to about $1,938 and bitcoin to $75,000. The ratio is 1,938 divided by 75,000, which is still about 0.0258. Despite a large dollar gain in both, the ratio did not move, because neither outperformed the other, exactly the information the dollar chart would have hidden.

In the second scenario, ether outperforms: ether doubles to $3,100 while bitcoin stays at $60,000. The ratio becomes 3,100 divided by 60,000, or about 0.052, a doubling of the ratio. This is the signature of Ethereum outperformance, and a trader watching only the ratio would see it climb from 0.026 to 0.052 and read a strong shift of capital toward Ethereum, the kind of move associated with an ETH-led alt rally. In the third scenario, the market falls but Ethereum falls harder: bitcoin drops to $48,000 (down 20%) while ether drops to $1,085 (down 30%).

The ratio is 1,085 divided by 48,000, or about 0.0226, a decline from 0.026. Here both assets lost money in dollars, but the ratio fell, telling you that within the sell-off, capital preferred bitcoin and Ethereum bore more of the damage. These three cases show the ratio’s whole purpose in miniature: it ignores the shared move and reports only the relative winner, which is the piece of information that dollar prices alone cannot give you.

Where the ratio has been, and where it is now History gives the current level its meaning, and the history of ETH/BTC is a story of a long round trip. In Ethereum’s earlier years the ratio climbed dramatically as Ethereum established itself as the clear number-two asset and the home of smart contracts, decentralized finance, and much of crypto’s developer activity. It reached its highest levels around mid-2017, near 0.15, when one ether was worth about 15% of a bitcoin, a peak of Ethereum’s relative strength driven by the initial-coin-offering boom that ran on Ethereum.

The ratio then fell sharply, recovered into the 2021 cycle to peak around 0.08 as decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens drove enormous activity on Ethereum, and has since entered a prolonged decline. As of mid-2026, the ratio sits near multi-year lows around 0.026, with ether near $1,550 against bitcoin near $60,000, a level that reflects a sustained stretch of Ethereum underperforming Bitcoin.

The reasons for the long decline are worth understanding because they explain why the ratio is where it is instead of simply that it is low. Several forces have weighed on Ethereum’s relative strength. Bitcoin has captured an enormous wave of institutional demand through spot ETFs and corporate-treasury adoption, a clean, simple “digital gold” narrative that has pulled capital toward Bitcoin specifically. Ethereum, meanwhile, has faced intensifying competition from faster, cheaper chains, with much of the speculative and developer energy that once flowed to Ethereum moving to rivals, which has diluted the “Ethereum is the only smart-contract platform that matters” thesis that powered its earlier outperformance.

Ethereum’s own narrative has also been harder to summarize than Bitcoin’s, shifting across staking, scaling through layer-2 networks, and supply dynamics in ways that are powerful but complex, and complexity is a disadvantage in a market that rewards simple stories. The result is a ratio that has spent a long time grinding lower, which is the context any reader should hold when they see the current figure: it is not a momentary dip but the late stage of a multi-year trend, which is exactly why it is so closely watched for signs of a turn.

What drives the ratio up and down To anticipate the ratio instead of just observe it, you have to understand the forces on each side, because the ratio is a tug-of-war between Ethereum-specific and Bitcoin-specific drivers. On the Ethereum side, the factors that tend to push the ratio up include strong inflows into Ethereum ETFs, which signal institutional demand specifically for ether; growth in staking, which locks up supply and can tighten the available float; rising activity on Ethereum and its layer-2 networks, which supports the case that the network is being used; and periods when Ethereum’s supply dynamics turn deflationary, reducing net issuance. Broadly, anything that strengthens Ethereum’s relative narrative or tightens its supply relative to Bitcoin tends to lift the ratio. When these forces are strong and Bitcoin lacks an equally strong catalyst, capital rotates toward Ethereum and the ratio climbs.

On the Bitcoin side, the factors that push the ratio down include the four-year halving cycle and its associated demand narratives, large institutional inflows into Bitcoin ETFs, corporate-treasury accumulation of Bitcoin, and any environment in which the market wants the relative safety and simplicity of Bitcoin over the complexity of Ethereum and altcoins. Risk-off conditions generally favor Bitcoin and pull the ratio down, because in a cautious market capital concentrates in the most established, most liquid, most narratively simple asset, which is Bitcoin.

The overall risk environment is the backdrop to both sides: in risk-on periods, capital is willing to move out the curve toward Ethereum and the ratio tends to rise, while in risk-off periods it retreats toward Bitcoin and the ratio tends to fall. This framework explains why the ratio has been weak: Bitcoin has enjoyed powerful, simple, institution-friendly catalysts in ETFs and treasuries, while Ethereum’s catalysts have been real but more diffuse, and much of the market has been in a cautious, Bitcoin-favoring posture. A durable turn in the ratio would require Ethereum-specific demand to outweigh Bitcoin’s, which is exactly what traders watch the ratio to detect.

How to use the ratio without overreading it For all its usefulness, the ratio is easy to misuse, and using it well means respecting its limits. The most important discipline is to remember that the ratio is a relative-strength gauge, not a price target or a guaranteed mean-reverting signal. A common error is to look at a depressed ratio and assume it must bounce back toward old levels, treating the multi-year average as a magnet.

There is no rule that forces the ratio to revert. It can stay depressed for years if Ethereum continues to underperform, just as it can stay elevated during a strong Ethereum cycle, and betting on reversion simply because the ratio looks low has cost many traders dearly through long stretches of continued underperformance. The ratio describes the current balance of relative strength; it does not promise that the balance will swing back on any particular schedule.

The second discipline is to never trade the ratio in isolation. It is one input among many, most powerful when combined with an understanding of the absolute market environment, the specific catalysts on each side, and your own time horizon. The ratio tells you which asset is winning the relative contest, but it says nothing about whether the whole market is heading up or down in dollars, which is what actually determines whether you make or lose money in absolute terms.

A rising ratio in a collapsing market still means losses; a falling ratio in a soaring market can still mean gains. The ratio is best used to inform allocation tilts and to read market structure, for example to judge whether the environment favors Ethereum and alts or Bitcoin, instead of as a standalone entry or exit trigger. Treat it as a compass that shows direction of relative capital flow, not a clock that tells you when to act, and it becomes one of the more reliable instruments in a crypto analyst’s toolkit. Misread as a precise timing signal or a guaranteed reversion bet, it becomes a trap. The metric is honest; the overreading is the danger.

Frequently Asked Questions What is a good ETH/BTC ratio? There is no single “good” level, because the ratio is a relative measure whose meaning depends on trend and context instead of any fixed number. Historically the ratio has ranged from highs near 0.15 in 2017 and 0.08 in 2021 down to multi-year lows around 0.026 in 2026. A higher ratio reflects stronger Ethereum performance against Bitcoin, and a lower one reflects Bitcoin dominance, but neither is inherently “good” or “bad,” it depends on which asset you favor and where you are in the cycle. What matters more than the absolute level is the direction: a rising ratio signals Ethereum gaining, a falling ratio signals Bitcoin winning. Read the trend and the backdrop, not a target number.

How do you calculate the ETH/BTC ratio? Divide the price of ether by the price of bitcoin, using the same currency for both so the units cancel. For example, if ether is $1,550 and bitcoin is $60,000, the ratio is 1,550 divided by 60,000, which equals about 0.0258, usually written as 0.026. That means one ether is worth roughly 2.6% of one bitcoin, or that it takes about 38 ether to equal one bitcoin. Most charting platforms display the pair directly as ETHBTC or ETH/BTC, so you rarely need to calculate it by hand, and many exchanges let you trade the pair directly, which is why it behaves as a live market instead of just a derived statistic.

What does a rising ETH/BTC ratio mean? A rising ratio means ether is appreciating relative to bitcoin, whether because ether is rising faster, falling more slowly, or rising while bitcoin is flat or falling. The shared message is that the market is favoring Ethereum over Bitcoin on a relative basis. Sustained increases often coincide with broad risk appetite and outperformance across altcoins, since Ethereum tends to lead the alt market, which is why a rising ratio is frequently read as a signal of “ETH season” or a building altcoin rally. The key caveat is that a rising ratio describes relative strength only; it says nothing about whether the overall market is going up or down in dollar terms.

Why has the ETH/BTC ratio been falling? The long decline reflects a tug-of-war that Bitcoin has been winning. Bitcoin has captured a powerful wave of institutional demand through spot ETFs and corporate treasuries, supported by a simple “digital gold” narrative. Ethereum has faced intensifying competition from faster, cheaper chains that drew away speculative and developer activity, while its own narrative, spanning staking, layer-2 scaling, and supply dynamics, has been harder to summarize than Bitcoin’s. A generally cautious, risk-off market has also favored Bitcoin’s relative safety. The combination pushed the ratio to multi-year lows near 0.026 by mid-2026. A durable turn would require Ethereum-specific demand to outweigh Bitcoin’s catalysts.

Can the ETH/BTC ratio predict altcoin season? It is one of the more useful indicators for it, but not a precise predictor. Because Ethereum sits between Bitcoin and smaller altcoins in the typical rotation of capital, the ETH/BTC ratio often acts as a barometer: a rising ratio suggests capital is moving out the risk curve toward Ethereum and, by extension, toward altcoins, while a falling ratio suggests retreat toward Bitcoin. Many traders treat a sustained uptrend in the ratio as confirmation that an altcoin season is building. However, it is a relative-strength gauge, not a guarantee, and it should be combined with other signals and an understanding of the absolute market, instead of treated as a standalone forecast of when alts will run.

Should I trade based on the ETH/BTC ratio? The ratio is best used as an analytical and allocation tool instead of a standalone trading trigger, and this is not trading advice. It is most valuable for understanding market structure, judging whether the environment favors Ethereum and altcoins or Bitcoin, and informing how you tilt a portfolio, instead of as a precise entry or exit signal. Two cautions matter most: do not assume a low ratio must revert to old highs, because it can stay depressed for years, and never read it in isolation, because it says nothing about whether the overall market is rising or falling in dollars. A rising ratio in a falling market still means losses. Use it as a compass for relative strength, combined with other analyses.

This article is educational information, not financial or investment advice. Price levels and ratio figures reflect approximate values as of June 2026 and change continuously. Cryptocurrency is volatile, and you can lose money. Do your own research and consult a qualified financial professional before making any investment decision.

Table of contents

Two days before the end of June, the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF complex hemorrhaged $231 million, while spot Ether funds shed another $30 million, per data tracked by SoSoValue. The combined $261 million departure on June 29 did not hit all products equally. According to the original report, Ark Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB drew $49.97 million in net inflows on the same day—the largest single inflow among Bitcoin funds. BlackRock’s ETHA pulled in $5.87 million, bucking the Ether outflow trend.

The divergence between overall outflows and individual fund inflows is the kind of microstructure that institutional desks watch closely. It suggests that while the broader cohort of ETF holders may have been reducing exposure—perhaps due to end-of-quarter rebalancing, profit-taking after a strong Q2, or caution ahead of U.S. regulatory developments—certain large allocators were still accumulating. The timing is notable. A landmark crypto regulatory bill faces a cliffhanger Senate vote, with banking interests pushing for last-minute changes, as covered in BlockchainReporter’s recent coverage.

Meanwhile, institutional appetite for digital asset infrastructure remains robust. Just this week, tokenization hit a milestone with on-chain RWAs crossing $20 billion, as detailed in a separate roundup. That persistent demand stands in contrast to the day’s ETF outflows, hinting that capital is being deployed selectively rather than leaving the space altogether.

Quarter-End Flows and the ARKB Outlier Late June often produces choppy flow data as fund managers square positions. The $49.97 million inflow into ARKB on a down day stood out. It could reflect a single large mandate or a reallocation within a multi-fund strategy. Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood has long been a vocal Bitcoin bull, and the product she co-sponsors with 21Shares continues to attract attention when others lag.

Ether ETFs have struggled to match Bitcoin’s institutional pull since their launch, but BlackRock’s ETHA continues to attract steady, if modest, capital. The $5.87 million inflow was modest but stood against the $30 million total bleed. Some market participants may be rotating into ETHA for its perceived safety as a BlackRock product, or accumulating ahead of potential staking yield developments if regulatory clarity improves. For now, that remains a matter of speculation.

What the Flows Don’t Tell Us Single-day flow data is noisy. Outflows on one day do not signal a trend reversal. Bitcoin ETFs have seen record net inflows in previous months, and Ether products have slowly built assets. The $261 million combined outflow is a fraction of total assets under management in spot crypto ETFs, which remain above $50 billion.

What is more telling is where the inflows landed. ARKB and ETHA represent products from two of the largest asset managers in the world. Their ability to attract capital even on a down day suggests brand and distribution still matter enormously in the ETF race. Without disaggregated data, it is impossible to know whether the flows reflect genuine long-only demand or tactical trading by authorized participants. But that ambiguity itself characterizes the market’s current state: participants are positioning, not fleeing.

The Regulatory Shadow The crypto ETF market operates in constant dialogue with Washington. The bipartisan bill moving through the Senate—and the last-minute banking push to reshape it—has added a layer of uncertainty that cannot be ignored. While no direct link can be drawn between a single day’s outflows and legislative wrangling, the overhang is real. Asset managers and institutional investors often adopt a risk-off posture when the regulatory path is unclear.

For now, the ETF market is delivering mixed signals. Large outflows at the top line, selective inflows underneath, and an industry watching Capitol Hill. That is not a narrative of retreat, but of recalibration.

AUTHOR

Max delves deep into the cryptocurrency realm, with a passion for altcoins and NFTs. Convinced of crypto's transformative potential, he envisions a decentralized financial future. Max's background in the financial sector grants him unique insights into global monetary systems. In his leisure, Max embraces the thrill of adventures and is an avid sports enthusiast, finding balance and rejuvenation away from work.

Ethereum price remained near $1,560 as bearish pressure returned across the crypto market. ETH stayed below $1,600 after Bitcoin-led selling weakened broader investor sentiment. Robert Kiyosaki’s optimistic sentiment was emphasized by his forecast that Ethereum could climb to $95,000 by mid-2027, suggesting a potential long-term bull market scenario.

The overall crypto market decreased 1.75% to $2.03 trillion within a span of 24 hours. Bitcoin price declined 2.74% mainly due to the continuing outflows from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs. Other major altcoins were mostly weak, with XRP, Dogecoin and Cardano falling.

Robert Kiyosaki Predicts Ethereum Price Could Reach $95,000 by Mid-2027 Ethereum price returned to the spotlight after Robert Kiyosaki’s bold $95,000 forecast resurfaced online. The “Rich Dad Poor Dad” author first shared the prediction in March, but it has gained fresh attention across crypto social media.

Kiyosaki believes that after the next major global financial crisis, Ethereum will hit the price of $95,000 within one year. His comment was accompanied by the warning that the world is on the verge of the “biggest bubble burst in history”.

🚨 BREAKING:

RICH DAD POOR DAD ROBERT KIYOSAKI JUST SAID LIVE:

“ONE YEAR AFTER “THE BIGGEST BUBBLE IN HISTORY” BURSTS, WE COULD SEE:

GOLD: $35,000/OZ
SILVER: $200/OZ$BTC: $750,000$ETH: $95,000

BUT HERE’S THE PROBLEM.

THAT WILL REQUIRE ~$285T IN COMBINED MARKET CAP.

MORE… pic.twitter.com/E8KG7cgkpB

— Rekt Fencer (@rektfencer) June 30, 2026

The projection has split investors as ETH plummets under pressure in the market. Some traders view the forecast as a very long-term objective. Some see it as an extension of Kiyosaki’s stance on hard assets and crypto.

Kiyosaki also forecasted that Bitcoin will reach $750,000 following the crash in the same forecast. He also predicted that gold could hit the price of $35,000 per ounce, and silver could touch $200.

With the reemerged Ethereum prediction, the debate has been energized again concerning the future of ETH’s position in a possible financial rebalancing.

Ethereum Price Near Key Zone as Bitmine, SharpLink Add ETH Ethereum gained renewed attention as Bitmine expanded its ETH position with another 27,084 tokens last week. The acquisition now puts Bitmine’s ETH stockpile at nearly $9 billion, or 5.7 million tokens. 

The company currently holds approximately 4.7% of the total supply of Ethereum, and continues to stake. SharpLink also picked up 10,000 ETH, adding an average of $1,611, to bring its total to 886,725 ETH. 

Bitmine has bought 27,084 $ETH ($42.95M), now holds 5,700,040 $ETH worth $9.03B, currently facing a loss of $10.25M.https://t.co/MslqH6khBT pic.twitter.com/bXfcJKtSX8

— Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) June 29, 2026

The company repurchased 2.13 million shares and raised $75 million last week. Crypto analyst Ted said ETH has returned to a key demand zone. He said the $1,500 would help fuel a relief rally next month.

Will ETH Price Bounce or Fall Below Key Support? As of the writing, the ETH price trades at $1,562 on 4-hour chart. Ethereum is still trading below $1,600 and bulls are holding the $1,500 support area. 

A break above $1,600 will clear the way for the next break at $1,700. Detailed ETH price analysis can then head for $1,760 and $1,850 if the buying pressure is seen to improve.

Source: ETH/USDT 4-hour chart: Tradingview The downside risk, however, remains in place while the price of ETH remains under $1,600. A break under $1,500 could expose $1,450 and then $1,400.

Bitcoin on Tuesday dropped below $59,000 amid sustained ETF selling and lingering extreme fear sentiment in the cryptocurrency market.

Notable Statistics:

Coinglass data shows 82,520 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours for $269.92 million.        SoSoValue data shows net outflows of $231.1 million from spot Bitcoin ETFs on Monday. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw net outflows of $30.04 million. In the past 24 hours, top gainers include MemeCore, Lighter and Pyth Network. Notable Developments:

Trader Notes:

Trader Rekt Capital highlighted that Bitcoin appears to be setting up for a mid-summer relief rally after plunging 21% this month. He added that sharp monthly selloffs have historically been followed by short-term rebounds.

However, the trader cautioned that any gains in July could be erased in August, mirroring Bitcoin’s price action during the 2022 bear market.

Political economist Seth said Bitcoin’s drop to around $58,000 has already triggered a wave of long liquidations, but leveraged traders are quickly re-entering, adding roughly $1.16 billion in long liquidation exposure near $57,800.

He argued that if those new bullish positions are flushed out, market makers could then target the much larger $4.14 billion cluster of short liquidations around the $62,000 level.

Industry expert Follis noted Bitcoin bulls have successfully defended the $59,000 support level 10 times during June despite repeated selling attempts, underscoring strong buying interest at that price.

However, he warned that if the support finally breaks and buyers step aside, Bitcoin could quickly fall another 3% to 4% as downside momentum accelerates.

Image: Shutterstock

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Bitcoin, which started June above $70,000, fell to $58,000 during the month. While factors such as ongoing spot ETF outflows, a more hawkish Fed, and continuing US-Iran tensions were cited as reasons for the decline, Gabor Gurbacs, an advisor at VanEck and Tether, offered a different perspective.

Gabor Gurbacs, strategic advisor to asset management company VanEck and stablecoin issuer Tether, claimed that Bitcoin failed to reach a new all-time high because of extremely irresponsible people.

Gabor Gurbacs, in a post from his X account, argued that the market is being diluted by those who prioritize copying existing products and reusing old narratives instead of building lasting infrastructure and belief systems.

Gurbacs argued that highly unserious individuals have hijacked a large part of the Bitcoin discourse.

He criticized these individuals for copying and selling substandard products and stale narratives instead of focusing on building long-term beliefs, infrastructure, and distribution networks.

Gurbacs stated that this is one of the main reasons why Bitcoin is currently unable to surpass its all-time high (ATH).

According to the expert, although Bitcoin experienced gains in the last two years and reached an all-time high of $126,000, it traded below its peak of approximately $69,000 in November 2021 for much of the past two years.

Gurbacs argues that this is not just a macroeconomic problem, but also a reflection of structural problems in the sector.

At this point, he emphasizes that the fundamental structure of the market lost its seriousness with the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) boom of 2017. Gurbacs notes that the crypto community before 2017 was sharper and acted with clear principles and a mission, adding that almost a decade has passed since the market changed.

The celebrity concluded by saying that if he had one wish, he would wish the Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization boom had happened before the 2017 ICO boom disrupted the market.

*This is not investment advice.

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