Bitcoin’s Role Has ChangedSpeaking on entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath’s podcast on July 16, Armstrong argued that the industry’s biggest opportunity is no longer speculative trading but rebuilding the global financial system on blockchain rails.
Armstrong acknowledged that Bitcoin’s original vision as peer-to-peer electronic cash has largely evolved.
“I think it’s fair to say at this point that Bitcoin has succeeded as a store of value,” Armstrong said. “It has become digital gold.”
Stablecoins, meanwhile, have increasingly filled the role of blockchain-based payment infrastructure.
Armstrong said stablecoins represent one of crypto’s fastest-growing use cases.
They combine near-instant settlement with low transaction costs and global accessibility.
That is why he expects stablecoins, not Bitcoin, to power everyday payments, remittances and AI-driven transactions, ideal for machine-to-machine commerce.
Ethereum, Solana And Base Could BenefitBase and Solana are leading candidates for crypto’s “utility layer,” where developers are building lending, payments and capital formation products on-chain rather than simply launching speculative tokens.
Why Regulation Still MattersArmstrong said clearer crypto regulation has accelerated institutional participation in major markets and expressed optimism that U.S. lawmakers could advance comprehensive market-structure legislation in the coming months.
He also argued that countries should develop regulated versions of their own fiat-backed stablecoins rather than relying exclusively on U.S. dollar-denominated digital assets.
Looking ahead, he believes the next phase of crypto adoption will be driven less by trading and more by real-world financial infrastructure, AI-powered commerce and the tokenization of global assets.
Image: Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Global crypto investment products are on track to record a second consecutive week of inflows after ending an eight-week streak of net outflows totaling roughly $8 billion, CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill wrote in a Friday report.
Inflation data shifts sentiment across digital asset productsThe firm noted that softer-than-expected US inflation data revived investor sentiment and strengthened expectations of the Federal Reserve (Fed) cutting rates.
Global crypto funds recorded $287 million in inflows last week, with this week set to finish positive after initially starting with outflows. Total inflows into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) between Tuesday and Thursday averaged $368 million, according to SoSoValue data.
The shift followed the release of US inflation data on Tuesday and Wednesday. The June Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) both came in below expectations, prompting markets to reduce projections of further monetary tightening.
Bitcoin floor may be forming, but upside remains limitedDespite the improving sentiment, CoinShares cautioned that Bitcoin's upside may remain constrained without a more meaningful shift in monetary policy.
“We expect range trading, with a break above $80,000 unlikely, absent a meaningful shift in monetary policy expectations,” the report stated.
Butterfill noted that Bitcoin may be close to finding its market floor after its recent recovery, but expectations of an imminent Fed rate cut remain premature. He noted that market participation typically increases when Bitcoin approaches new highs, but remains relatively subdued around current price levels.
“The dominant picture is that the current setup is prompting interest in adding positions, but caution prevails while sentiment remains broadly negative,” Butterfill added.
Options market points to improving sentimentIn the options market, Glassnode data also suggests sentiment is becoming more constructive. The firm noted that Bitcoin's implied volatility has eased as prices recovered.
The slowdown indicates that much of the fear premium built during June's selloff has begun to unwind, although uncertainty has not disappeared entirely.
At the same time, the Bitcoin options put-to-call ratio has fallen to its lowest level in six months, signaling traders are reducing downside protection while increasing exposure to potential price gains.
“As price stabilizes around $64K, traders appear to be reducing downside hedges and rebuilding upside exposure, a constructive shift in sentiment,” Glassnode wrote in an X post.
Bitcoin is changing hands at $63,900, down 0.1% over the past 24 hours at the time of writing.
Rune: Base has lost community trust, Cobie responds that he will push Coinbase to be closer to on-chain users.
Amid recent community controversy surrounding Base, crypto KOL Rune published a post on X questioning that Cobie’s goal in taking over Base App is to drive on-chain transactions, but Base’s current management has continuously eroded user trust, leading users to believe “it is a mistake to trust anything related to Base for more than 24 hours” — a culture that makes attracting new users nearly impossible. In response, Cobie clarified that he took over work for Base App and Coinbase’s trading products several days ago, but is not in charge of the Base chain. He admitted Coinbase has long been distant from users, especially native crypto users; Base and Coinbase also squandered massive user trust through avoidable missteps, and he aims to listen more to on-chain user feedback and build products users actually want to use moving forward. Rune later replied that Coinbase’s core issue is not just distance from users, but long-term neglect and even harm to its own user base. He stated that over 10,000 Base users have suffered roughly 99% asset losses due to trusting Base/Coinbase management, and Base’s leadership’s handling of these incidents has further stoked community frustration. Rune noted that Base possesses the infrastructure to become the crypto sector’s top Layer 2, but what it truly lacks is leadership willing to be accountable to users. He expressed hope that Cobie can turn things around, but stressed that Base’s current problem is not merely damaged trust — community trust has nearly fully evaporated.
6 minutes ago
Viewpoint: The biggest "hidden culprit" behind the stock market slump remains unresolved, and the US stock market may face a correction similar to the summer of 2024.
BTIG Chief Market Technician Jonathan Krinsky says the biggest risk in today’s market is not a single negative event, but investors starting to question the market logic they once firmly believed in. Krinsky points out that the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has fallen roughly 20% from its June high, entering bear market territory; South Korea’s KOSPI has dropped over 25% cumulatively, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 has also entered a technical correction, reflecting pressure on global tech stocks. He warns that U.S. stocks could repeat the sharp correction seen in summer 2024, with the S&P 500 at risk of falling below its 200-day moving average (6983 points). If that scenario unfolds, the semiconductor sector will likely continue to weaken, and large tech stocks like the "Magnificent Seven" may end their prior leading rally, dragging down overall market performance. What’s more worrying about this selloff is that it truly lacks a clear catalyst. While a host of issues can be cited—including concerns over the chip sector’s excessive first-half rally, large tech firms taking on heavy debt for massive capital expenditure plans, and persistent uncertainty in the economic backdrop under the Federal Reserve’s new policies—this helps explain the rotation underway in the broader market. However, the stock market can only tolerate so much weakness in its largest, most popular stocks (such as chip stocks), and will ultimately struggle to hold up.
6 minutes ago
Ansem launches SOL airdrop marketing campaign, giving away 1 SOL every 5 minutes.
Crypto KOL Ansem posted on X that he will airdrop 1 SOL to users every 5 minutes before going to bed, with participants only needing to leave their Solana wallet address in the comments to join the event. As of press time, Ansem’s eponymous meme coin ANSEM has a market cap of $176 million, down 5.5% over the past 24 hours.
6 minutes ago
Yesterday, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net inflow of $132.3 million, marking four consecutive trading days of inflows.
According to Farside’s monitoring, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a net inflow of $132.3 million yesterday, marking their fourth consecutive trading day of net inflows. Specifically, IBIT recorded a net inflow of $136.5 million, while FBTC posted a net outflow of $4.2 million.
6 minutes ago
Polymarket’s probability of the CLARITY Act passing this year has fallen to 32%, hitting an all-time low.
As the U.S. Senate remains deadlocked over the CLARITY Act, prediction market Polymarket has slashed the probability of the bill being passed by the end of 2026 to 32%, the lowest level since the platform launched in January this year. Data shows this probability has dropped by roughly 30 percentage points from the market’s launch, and plummeted sharply from the 82% peak hit in February this year. Market participants believe that with the Senate’s legislative schedule tightening and bipartisan support still unachieved, the likelihood of the bill passing this year continues to decline. Reports indicate that the biggest sticking point right now is that the two parties have yet to reach an agreement on ethics provisions related to conflicts of interest for government officials involving digital assets. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego previously stated clearly that he would not support the bill in Senate votes if it does not include the bipartisan-backed ethics provisions. The CLARITY Act aims to establish a regulatory framework for the U.S. digital asset market and clarify the jurisdictional boundaries between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Multiple industry stakeholders testified at a House of Representatives hearing that the bill would help end "regulation by enforcement" and provide long-term, stable regulatory rules for the digital asset sector. As the U.S. Congress heads into its August recess, market expectations for the bill to be enacted into law this year are continuing to cool.
6 minutes ago
An address linked to the Ondo team transferred 26.05 million ONDO tokens to Coinbase, worth approximately $9.79 million.
According to monitoring by crypto analytics account Ai Yi, an address linked to the Ondo team transferred 26.05 million ONDO tokens to Coinbase, worth approximately $9.79 million. The address received 150 million ONDO from the Ondo team’s multi-sig address on June 23, held the tokens for nearly a month, and transferred a portion to Coinbase 11 hours ago. The operation follows a similar pattern to prior moves: team address transfer → address holding → transfer to exchange platform, though the specific purpose of this action remains unclear.
Rune: Base has lost community trust, Cobie responds that he will push Coinbase to be closer to on-chain users.
Amid recent community controversy surrounding Base, crypto KOL Rune published a post on X questioning that Cobie’s goal in taking over Base App is to drive on-chain transactions, but Base’s current management has continuously eroded user trust, leading users to believe “it is a mistake to trust anything related to Base for more than 24 hours” — a culture that makes attracting new users nearly impossible. In response, Cobie clarified that he took over work for Base App and Coinbase’s trading products several days ago, but is not in charge of the Base chain. He admitted Coinbase has long been distant from users, especially native crypto users; Base and Coinbase also squandered massive user trust through avoidable missteps, and he aims to listen more to on-chain user feedback and build products users actually want to use moving forward. Rune later replied that Coinbase’s core issue is not just distance from users, but long-term neglect and even harm to its own user base. He stated that over 10,000 Base users have suffered roughly 99% asset losses due to trusting Base/Coinbase management, and Base’s leadership’s handling of these incidents has further stoked community frustration. Rune noted that Base possesses the infrastructure to become the crypto sector’s top Layer 2, but what it truly lacks is leadership willing to be accountable to users. He expressed hope that Cobie can turn things around, but stressed that Base’s current problem is not merely damaged trust — community trust has nearly fully evaporated.
6 minutes ago
Viewpoint: The biggest "hidden culprit" behind the stock market slump remains unresolved, and the US stock market may face a correction similar to the summer of 2024.
BTIG Chief Market Technician Jonathan Krinsky says the biggest risk in today’s market is not a single negative event, but investors starting to question the market logic they once firmly believed in. Krinsky points out that the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has fallen roughly 20% from its June high, entering bear market territory; South Korea’s KOSPI has dropped over 25% cumulatively, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 has also entered a technical correction, reflecting pressure on global tech stocks. He warns that U.S. stocks could repeat the sharp correction seen in summer 2024, with the S&P 500 at risk of falling below its 200-day moving average (6983 points). If that scenario unfolds, the semiconductor sector will likely continue to weaken, and large tech stocks like the "Magnificent Seven" may end their prior leading rally, dragging down overall market performance. What’s more worrying about this selloff is that it truly lacks a clear catalyst. While a host of issues can be cited—including concerns over the chip sector’s excessive first-half rally, large tech firms taking on heavy debt for massive capital expenditure plans, and persistent uncertainty in the economic backdrop under the Federal Reserve’s new policies—this helps explain the rotation underway in the broader market. However, the stock market can only tolerate so much weakness in its largest, most popular stocks (such as chip stocks), and will ultimately struggle to hold up.
6 minutes ago
Ansem launches SOL airdrop marketing campaign, giving away 1 SOL every 5 minutes.
Crypto KOL Ansem posted on X that he will airdrop 1 SOL to users every 5 minutes before going to bed, with participants only needing to leave their Solana wallet address in the comments to join the event. As of press time, Ansem’s eponymous meme coin ANSEM has a market cap of $176 million, down 5.5% over the past 24 hours.
6 minutes ago
Yesterday, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net inflow of $132.3 million, marking four consecutive trading days of inflows.
According to Farside’s monitoring, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a net inflow of $132.3 million yesterday, marking their fourth consecutive trading day of net inflows. Specifically, IBIT recorded a net inflow of $136.5 million, while FBTC posted a net outflow of $4.2 million.
6 minutes ago
Polymarket’s probability of the CLARITY Act passing this year has fallen to 32%, hitting an all-time low.
As the U.S. Senate remains deadlocked over the CLARITY Act, prediction market Polymarket has slashed the probability of the bill being passed by the end of 2026 to 32%, the lowest level since the platform launched in January this year. Data shows this probability has dropped by roughly 30 percentage points from the market’s launch, and plummeted sharply from the 82% peak hit in February this year. Market participants believe that with the Senate’s legislative schedule tightening and bipartisan support still unachieved, the likelihood of the bill passing this year continues to decline. Reports indicate that the biggest sticking point right now is that the two parties have yet to reach an agreement on ethics provisions related to conflicts of interest for government officials involving digital assets. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego previously stated clearly that he would not support the bill in Senate votes if it does not include the bipartisan-backed ethics provisions. The CLARITY Act aims to establish a regulatory framework for the U.S. digital asset market and clarify the jurisdictional boundaries between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Multiple industry stakeholders testified at a House of Representatives hearing that the bill would help end "regulation by enforcement" and provide long-term, stable regulatory rules for the digital asset sector. As the U.S. Congress heads into its August recess, market expectations for the bill to be enacted into law this year are continuing to cool.
6 minutes ago
An address linked to the Ondo team transferred 26.05 million ONDO tokens to Coinbase, worth approximately $9.79 million.
According to monitoring by crypto analytics account Ai Yi, an address linked to the Ondo team transferred 26.05 million ONDO tokens to Coinbase, worth approximately $9.79 million. The address received 150 million ONDO from the Ondo team’s multi-sig address on June 23, held the tokens for nearly a month, and transferred a portion to Coinbase 11 hours ago. The operation follows a similar pattern to prior moves: team address transfer → address holding → transfer to exchange platform, though the specific purpose of this action remains unclear.
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.
The longest outflow streak in digital asset fund history has finally snapped. For eight straight weeks, institutional crypto products bled a cumulative $8 billion, according to CoinShares. That run of redemptions ended last week, with $287 million flowing back into the sector — a modest reversal that quickly accelerated after a softer-than-expected US inflation print.
Tuesday and Wednesday alone brought a further $415 million in inflows, much of it into Bitcoin vehicles, as detailed in the original report. The data suggests that rate-sensitive positioning remains the dominant driver: when CPI and PPI figures hinted at easing price pressures, traders rushed to re-enter, likely on the view that the Federal Reserve could lean less hawkish.
Inflows Don’t Signal a Trend Change The return to inflows is notable, but CoinShares warns against reading it as a structural shift. Even with the latest $702 million combined tally, the firm sees Bitcoin staying stuck in a range below $80,000. That price level has become a psychological ceiling, one that requires more than a single data point to crack.
Bitcoin funds had been losing ground since mid-May, a period that coincided with disappointing US economic data and hawkish Fed rhetoric. The break in the streak does not alter the underlying macro picture. CoinShares explicitly states that a move above $80,000 looks unlikely without a clearer shift in monetary policy expectations — meaning markets need to price in rate cuts, not just softer inflation.
This hesitation mirrors broader institutional caution. While tokenization of real-world assets has surged past $20 billion on-chain and major players like Bullish are buying infrastructure firms, as covered in recent BlockchainReporter coverage, the flows into pure crypto funds remain choppy and macro-dependent.
Liquidity and the Rate-Cut Narrative What matters now is how the market interprets the Fed’s next moves. The SUI token’s 18% surge last week, driven by institutional staking demand, shows that pockets of deep liquidity can still ignite sharp rallies. But Bitcoin, as the macro bellwether, requires a broader liquidity impulse to break its multi-month range.
Softer inflation data can trigger relief rallies, yet traders have seen such snapbacks fade before. The crucial question is whether the Fed will signal a dovish pivot when it meets next. Without that, the inflows may simply represent short-covering or tactical positioning rather than a durable shift. CoinShares’ own caution reflects the reality that crypto remains tightly coupled to global liquidity cycles.
Regulatory developments add another layer of uncertainty. A landmark US crypto bill is facing last-minute opposition from banks just days before a Senate vote, as detailed in another BlockchainReporter story. If the bill stalls or gets watered down, it could dampen institutional enthusiasm for crypto products, reinforcing the rangebound thesis.
The $80,000 Hurdle For now, Bitcoin has a clear ceiling. Eight weeks of outflows have drained momentum, and the sudden influx of $702 million, while welcome, does not repair the damage to technical structure or investor sentiment overnight. CoinShares’ outlook fits a market that is waiting for a catalyst — either a confirmed rate cut path or a game-changing regulatory decision.
Until either materializes, Bitcoin is likely to churn between roughly $65,000 and $80,000, with institutional flows reacting sharply to each macro data release but failing to commit. The end of the record outflow streak is a necessary first step toward recovery, but it’s not the same thing as a sustained uptrend.
AUTHOR
Former SAP Finance consultant turned blockchain enthusiast, bringing expertise to the decentralized world. With a strong focus on decentralized systems, cryptocurrencies, and emerging innovations, Aisshwarya constantly stays updated on the latest trends and developments in the blockchain space. Through insightful analyses and thoughtful commentary, Aisshwarya aims to educate and inspire others to explore the potential of blockchain, offering valuable perspectives on its impact on the future of finance, security, and beyond.
Rune: Base has lost community trust, Cobie responds that he will push Coinbase to be closer to on-chain users.
Amid recent community controversy surrounding Base, crypto KOL Rune published a post on X questioning that Cobie’s goal in taking over Base App is to drive on-chain transactions, but Base’s current management has continuously eroded user trust, leading users to believe “it is a mistake to trust anything related to Base for more than 24 hours” — a culture that makes attracting new users nearly impossible. In response, Cobie clarified that he took over work for Base App and Coinbase’s trading products several days ago, but is not in charge of the Base chain. He admitted Coinbase has long been distant from users, especially native crypto users; Base and Coinbase also squandered massive user trust through avoidable missteps, and he aims to listen more to on-chain user feedback and build products users actually want to use moving forward. Rune later replied that Coinbase’s core issue is not just distance from users, but long-term neglect and even harm to its own user base. He stated that over 10,000 Base users have suffered roughly 99% asset losses due to trusting Base/Coinbase management, and Base’s leadership’s handling of these incidents has further stoked community frustration. Rune noted that Base possesses the infrastructure to become the crypto sector’s top Layer 2, but what it truly lacks is leadership willing to be accountable to users. He expressed hope that Cobie can turn things around, but stressed that Base’s current problem is not merely damaged trust — community trust has nearly fully evaporated.
5 minutes ago
Viewpoint: The biggest "hidden culprit" behind the stock market slump remains unresolved, and the US stock market may face a correction similar to the summer of 2024.
BTIG Chief Market Technician Jonathan Krinsky says the biggest risk in today’s market is not a single negative event, but investors starting to question the market logic they once firmly believed in. Krinsky points out that the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has fallen roughly 20% from its June high, entering bear market territory; South Korea’s KOSPI has dropped over 25% cumulatively, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 has also entered a technical correction, reflecting pressure on global tech stocks. He warns that U.S. stocks could repeat the sharp correction seen in summer 2024, with the S&P 500 at risk of falling below its 200-day moving average (6983 points). If that scenario unfolds, the semiconductor sector will likely continue to weaken, and large tech stocks like the "Magnificent Seven" may end their prior leading rally, dragging down overall market performance. What’s more worrying about this selloff is that it truly lacks a clear catalyst. While a host of issues can be cited—including concerns over the chip sector’s excessive first-half rally, large tech firms taking on heavy debt for massive capital expenditure plans, and persistent uncertainty in the economic backdrop under the Federal Reserve’s new policies—this helps explain the rotation underway in the broader market. However, the stock market can only tolerate so much weakness in its largest, most popular stocks (such as chip stocks), and will ultimately struggle to hold up.
5 minutes ago
Ansem launches SOL airdrop marketing campaign, giving away 1 SOL every 5 minutes.
Crypto KOL Ansem posted on X that he will airdrop 1 SOL to users every 5 minutes before going to bed, with participants only needing to leave their Solana wallet address in the comments to join the event. As of press time, Ansem’s eponymous meme coin ANSEM has a market cap of $176 million, down 5.5% over the past 24 hours.
5 minutes ago
Polymarket’s probability of the CLARITY Act passing this year has fallen to 32%, hitting an all-time low.
As the U.S. Senate remains deadlocked over the CLARITY Act, prediction market Polymarket has slashed the probability of the bill being passed by the end of 2026 to 32%, the lowest level since the platform launched in January this year. Data shows this probability has dropped by roughly 30 percentage points from the market’s launch, and plummeted sharply from the 82% peak hit in February this year. Market participants believe that with the Senate’s legislative schedule tightening and bipartisan support still unachieved, the likelihood of the bill passing this year continues to decline. Reports indicate that the biggest sticking point right now is that the two parties have yet to reach an agreement on ethics provisions related to conflicts of interest for government officials involving digital assets. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego previously stated clearly that he would not support the bill in Senate votes if it does not include the bipartisan-backed ethics provisions. The CLARITY Act aims to establish a regulatory framework for the U.S. digital asset market and clarify the jurisdictional boundaries between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Multiple industry stakeholders testified at a House of Representatives hearing that the bill would help end "regulation by enforcement" and provide long-term, stable regulatory rules for the digital asset sector. As the U.S. Congress heads into its August recess, market expectations for the bill to be enacted into law this year are continuing to cool.
5 minutes ago
An address linked to the Ondo team transferred 26.05 million ONDO tokens to Coinbase, worth approximately $9.79 million.
According to monitoring by crypto analytics account Ai Yi, an address linked to the Ondo team transferred 26.05 million ONDO tokens to Coinbase, worth approximately $9.79 million. The address received 150 million ONDO from the Ondo team’s multi-sig address on June 23, held the tokens for nearly a month, and transferred a portion to Coinbase 11 hours ago. The operation follows a similar pattern to prior moves: team address transfer → address holding → transfer to exchange platform, though the specific purpose of this action remains unclear.
5 minutes ago
Claude Fable 5 will not be discontinued, and has officially remained in the premium subscription tier.
Anthropic announced that Claude Fable 5 will be officially included in its Max and Team Premium plans starting July 20. Users can allocate up to 50% of their plan credits to Fable 5, with no temporary deadline imposed. Pro and Team Standard users will still need to access Fable 5 on a pay-as-you-go basis, and Anthropic will grant these users a one-time $100 credit. When Fable 5 launched, Anthropic only committed to offering free access to the model until June 22. The model was later suspended due to U.S. export controls; after resuming on July 1, the plan access window was extended from July 7 to July 12, then to July 19. Anthropic has consistently stated that demand is unpredictable, requiring gradual increases in computing power. This timing is hard not to link to Kimi K3, which has recently matched or surpassed Fable 5 in multiple programming and agent benchmarks, with some tasks even outperforming it. Competitive pressure may have accelerated Anthropic’s decision, though no direct evidence exists to confirm this.
Bitcoin traded around $64,000 on Friday as spot ETF inflows remained positive, while crypto market sentiment stayed in the Fear zone.
Notable Statistics:
Coinglass data shows 112,566 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours for $438.29 million. SoSoValue data shows net inflows of $79.2 million from spot Bitcoin ETFs on Thursday. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw net outflows of $28.04 million. In the past 24 hours, top gainers include DeXe, Pi and Quant. Notable Developments:
Trader Notes:
Crypto chart analyst Ali Martinez explained that dormant Bitcoin moved on-chain in large amounts over the past 24 hours, signaling a potential increase in volatility. Historically, spikes in old coins changing hands have often preceded major price moves in the Bitcoin market.
Trader Jelle notes that every previous Bitcoin bear market bottom formed below the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement of the prior bull cycle. While Bitcoin has now tested that key level for the first time, they argue history suggests the final bear market low may still lie ahead despite growing optimism that the bottom is already in.
Trader KillaXBT says Bitcoin must reclaim the $63,600–$63,800 resistance zone to maintain bullish momentum. Failure to break above this key area, aligned with the weekly open, could trigger a corrective move toward $61,000.
Image: Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
FTX is set to release roughly $900 million to creditors on July 31 in its fifth distribution since the collapsed exchange filed for Chapter 11 protection in November 2022. According to an official press release from FTX Trading Ltd. and the FTX Recovery Trust, eligible creditors can expect funds from their chosen distribution provider, either BitGo, Kraken, or Payoneer, within one to three business days of that date.
Who Gets What The fifth distribution allocates an incremental 9% to Dotcom customers, 5% to US customers, and 3% each to general unsecured and digital asset loan claimants. Convenience claimants, typically smaller retail creditors, reach 120% on a cumulative basis. Dotcom and US customers both now cross the 105% cumulative mark, meaning they have, in dollar terms, recovered more than they originally lost.
That milestone matters in context. The Block reports that FTX's bankruptcy estate has now distributed nearly $10 billion to creditors and other claimants since repayments began in 2025, following a $2.2 billion fourth round in March.
The Catch: Frozen in November 2022 The headline recovery figures come with a significant caveat. All claims are valued in November 2022 dollars, when $BTC traded at around $16,871 at the time of FTX's bankruptcy filing. The exchange has faced criticism for not repaying assets in kind, and that criticism carries weight given where Bitcoin trades today.
As legal analysts have noted, a creditor who held one Bitcoin on FTX recovers roughly $20,000 in cash at 119%, not one Bitcoin, which trades at a fraction of that in purchasing power terms compared to current market prices. The court approved petition-date valuation as required under US bankruptcy law, meaning creditors do not benefit from any of the price appreciation that followed the collapse. On paper, crossing 100% looks like a full recovery. In crypto terms, it is considerably less than whole.
Creditors who have not yet completed KYC verification, submitted required tax forms, and onboarded with an approved distribution provider will need to do so before a future record date to remain eligible for subsequent rounds.
Sources:
FTX Official Press Release, PR Newswire, July 17, 2026
The Block: FTX fifth distribution reporting
Astraea Counsel: Crypto Bankruptcy Asset Recovery Analysis
Prominent angel investor Jason Calacanis, known for his early backing of Uber and investments in leading tech startups, has expressed renewed concerns over Bitcoin’s current trajectory, citing the outsized influence of software company MicroStrategy and its co-founder Michael Saylor.
MicroStrategy’s growing impact on BitcoinCalacanis contended that the primary challenge facing Bitcoin is no longer the cryptocurrency itself, but rather the effect of MicroStrategy’s aggressive acquisition strategy and the public profile of Saylor. He stated that while Bitcoin’s fundamentals remain unchanged, the company’s moves have begun to shape market perceptions and behaviors in ways that concern him.
In a post on X, Calacanis remarked, “The challenge for $BTC is that one person is causing chaos ($MSTR), while retail is more interested in bets on world-changing products (SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic).” He implied that MicroStrategy’s actions could be diverting retail interest away from direct Bitcoin investment toward speculative trading around the company’s stock.
In his comments, Calacanis argued that MicroStrategy has reached a level of dominance in the cryptocurrency narrative that can distort how both retail and institutional investors engage with Bitcoin.
MicroStrategy has repositioned itself as a “Bitcoin treasury company,” raising capital through equity offerings, convertible debt, and preferred stock to finance substantial Bitcoin purchases. This strategy has made it the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin globally, a position that sees its stock frequently serve as a leveraged proxy for the cryptocurrency.
As MicroStrategy’s influence has grown, institutional conversations about Bitcoin regularly reference the company’s holdings and buying strategies. Traders often view MSTR shares as an alternative means of accessing Bitcoin price movements, raising concerns about the company’s sway over inflows that might otherwise support spot BTC or newly established Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
Mini dictionary: MicroStrategy (MSTR), a business intelligence firm led by Michael Saylor, is best known for amassing one of the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin treasuries, turning its stock into a popular, high-volatility crypto investment vehicle.
CompanyBTC HoldingsInvestment StrategyMicroStrategy (MSTR)Largest corporate holderIssuing equity and debt to fund BTC purchasesCohort (average S&P 500 firm)Minimal or noneDiversified, not crypto-focusedCalacanis remains skeptical despite tech backgroundDespite a track record of investing in technology firms at early stages, Calacanis has maintained a cautious stance on Bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency sector. His skepticism intensified after the collapse of FTX in 2022, when he pointed to widespread speculation and weak governance as persistent industry issues.
During that period, Calacanis called for stronger regulatory oversight and emphasized the need to distinguish between sound blockchain applications and the proliferation of risky tokens.
Recently, he has been vocal about MicroStrategy’s financial model, warning that the company’s heavy reliance on financial instruments to accumulate Bitcoin could pose risks to investors. He has encouraged market participants to buy Bitcoin directly rather than invest through MSTR shares.
At times, Calacanis described MicroStrategy’s approach as a “stunning pyramid scheme,” underscoring his concern about the sustainability and transparency of its financing structure.
He suggested that the actions of one high-profile executive and a single company should not define the future of Bitcoin, particularly as retail investors increasingly seek exposure to other innovative ventures like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic.
As discussions continue within the cryptocurrency industry, Calacanis’s remarks highlight an ongoing debate over corporate involvement and its influence on Bitcoin’s reputation and price stability.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
ETRADE from Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) has officially enabled direct cryptocurrency trading, allowing eligible U.S. clients to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) within their brokerage accounts.
This launch integrates digital assets seamlessly alongside traditional holdings such as stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds, marking a significant expansion of retail access through a trusted Wall Street platform.
Clients link a dedicated zerohash-powered crypto account to their existing ETRADE brokerage account (or open both together). Funds move automatically between the accounts to support trades, eliminating the need for separate transfers in most cases.
The service supports 24/7 trading on the ETRADE website and mobile app, with market and limit orders available. Power E*TRADE platforms will gain support soon.
Pricing emphasizes competitiveness: a flat 0.50% (50 basis points) commission on the notional trade value, with no additional spreads or markups.
This structure positions E*TRADE favorably against many standalone crypto platforms.
Minimum trade size starts at $10 and goes up to $500,000 per transaction.
Users can specify amounts in USD or coin quantity (including fractions up to eight decimal places).
The offering relies on zerohash for execution, liquidity, and secure custody, while E*TRADE handles the client-facing experience. zerohash maintains high security standards, including encryption and vulnerability programs, though crypto holdings fall outside traditional FDIC or SIPC protections and carry distinct regulatory considerations.
A 1099-DA form will report tax information. This rollout builds on Morgan Stanley’s broader digital asset strategy. The firm has offered crypto-related products to wealth management clients for years and recently introduced its own spot Bitcoin ETF.
Future enhancements may include crypto transfers into accounts and deeper wallet functionality.
Educational resources from Morgan Stanley experts, covering market insights, long-term Bitcoin scenarios, and risk management, accompany the launch.
For retail investors, the primary appeal lies in convenience and familiarity. No separate exchange login is required, and portfolios can be viewed holistically through tools like Total Wealth View.
This approach lowers entry barriers for traditional investors exploring cryptocurrencies while maintaining regulatory oversight. Availability is open to US-based clients meeting standard account requirements, though state-specific details align with applicable regulations.
The launch reflects growing institutional integration of digital assets into mainstream finance.
By combining E*TRADE’s robust platform with zerohash’s specialized infrastructure, Morgan Stanley aims to meet rising client demand while competing directly in the retail crypto space.
As adoption evolves, additional tokens and features could further expand the ecosystem. This development reinforces the maturing convergence of traditional brokerage services and cryptocurrency markets, offering a regulated, user-friendly gateway for diversified investing.
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.
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.
Venice AI updates its token economics: introduces a buyback mechanism and raises the supply cap for DIEM.
Venice AI has issued an announcement updating its token economics, with two primary changes: First, a new programmed burn mechanism: For every $100 worth of API credits purchased, $5 will be allocated to buy VVV on the open market and permanently burn the tokens. Second, DIEM’s supply target has been raised for the first time, from 38,000 to 40,000 (an increase of 2,000 units). The adjustment will be rolled out in phases, with the full target expected to be achieved by September 14.
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Trump Media Company prices exclusive early access to Trump’s posts at $100,000 per month.
According to the Financial Times, Trump Media & Technology Group is pitching a $100,000 monthly service to clients that delivers fast access to former President Donald Trump’s posts. Earlier reports noted that Trump Media would sell premium, faster access to posts on its Truth Social platform; the new service allows traders and investors to pay for real-time pushes of Truth Social content. This data feed service will launch next month for institutional clients, including high-frequency algorithmic trading firms.
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Cardano will hand over control of its core software to an external team starting in August.
Cardano developer Input Output will transfer control of key blockchain components—including Haskell nodes, the Plutus platform, and the Daedalus wallet—to external professional teams starting in August, as part of its multi-year decentralization initiative. Independent firms such as Se7en Labs and Teragone will oversee portions of the core infrastructure. At least three Cardano implementations will be maintained in Haskell, Rust, and Go, under community oversight and formal specification management. Cardano is currently grappling with weak network activity and a sharp drop in the ADA token’s price. Founder Charles Hoskinson framed the restructuring and ecosystem-related setbacks as necessary "growing pains" on the path to full decentralization.
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France blocks prediction market Polymarket.
French gambling regulator ANJ announced on July 17 that Polymarket’s website will be blocked in France, following its November 2024 ban on financial transactions with the platform. The ANJ stated that the site’s ongoing operation—with real-time updated odds for various events—qualifies as advertising. Even after banning French accounts from conducting trades on Polymarket, accesses to the platform from French internet addresses have continued to rise, reaching 578,751 visits in June.
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Meta is in talks with Anthropic over a computing power leasing agreement, with the potential deal valued at up to $10 billion.
According to The New York Times, Meta Platforms is in talks with Anthropic over a computing power leasing agreement, with the potential deal size reaching up to $10 billion for a two-year term. The negotiations remain in the early stages. Additionally, market data from BIT (bit.com) shows Meta's share decline has narrowed to 3%.
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Serenity: Its investment portfolio has posted a nearly 50% drawdown this month, and it firmly believes that the current round of adjustment is merely leverage-driven volatility, with its growth logic remaining intact.
Serenity posted a statement noting that their portfolio suffered a 49.4% drawdown this month, with main holdings concentrated in AI bottleneck sectors including memory, photonics, robotics, and upstream semiconductors. Serenity acknowledged pressure from the short-term market crash, but maintained that the volatility stems from liquidity and leverage rather than a breakdown in the structural growth logic of these fields.
Meta is in advanced negotiations to offer private cloud instances of Anthropic’s Claude AI models in a deal estimated at around $10 billion over two years. The arrangement, first reported by SemiAnalysis on July 2, would effectively turn Meta into something resembling a cloud provider, hosting and serving a competitor’s AI models through its own infrastructure.
The structure reportedly mirrors what hyperscalers like Amazon Bedrock already offer: managed access to AI models through a cloud platform.
Meta’s neocloud ambitions and the numbers behind them The context for this deal is Meta’s staggering investment in AI infrastructure. The company has planned capital expenditures in the range of $125 billion to $145 billion for 2026 alone.
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With that kind of spending, you end up with a lot of compute capacity. Meta’s play here is to monetize the excess, entering what industry observers are calling the “neocloud” space. Rather than letting expensive GPUs sit idle between training runs, Meta would rent them out as managed AI hosting environments.
Bitcoin miners are already pivoting to this exact playbook TeraWulf, a publicly traded Bitcoin mining company, signed a 20-year lease with Anthropic on July 6 worth approximately $19 billion. That deal covers an AI data center, meaning a company that built its business on proof-of-work mining is now betting its long-term future on hosting AI workloads.
CoreWeave, which started as a crypto mining operation before pivoting entirely to GPU cloud computing, has secured major partnerships with both Meta and Anthropic totaling $21 billion in 2026.
What this means for investors For crypto-adjacent companies, the implications are concrete. TeraWulf’s $19 billion Anthropic lease dwarfs its Bitcoin mining revenue and represents a fundamental revaluation thesis for the company. If Bitcoin miners can credibly position themselves as AI infrastructure providers, their valuations start reflecting cloud computing multiples rather than commodity mining multiples.
The risk is concentration. These multi-billion-dollar deals create deep dependencies on a handful of AI companies. If Anthropic’s growth stalls, or if the broader AI spending cycle cools, companies that retooled their infrastructure around AI hosting could find themselves with expensive, underutilized facilities.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Foundry Digital, a prominent Bitcoin mining pool operator based in Rochester, New York, announced it will allow its mining clients to determine the pool’s signaling stance on the controversial BIP-110 proposal. Clients will cast their votes using their respective hashrate, directly influencing the pool’s action regarding the upgrade.
BIP-110: Restricting non-monetary dataBIP-110, short for Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110, aims to address the rising volume of arbitrary and non-monetary data being stored on the Bitcoin network. If implemented, the proposal would initiate a soft fork, resulting in backward-compatible rule changes that cap the amount of such data included in transactions.
The proposal is also known as the “reduced data temporary soft fork.” Key rules include limiting most new outputs to 34 bytes, reestablishing an 83-byte limit on OP_RETURN outputs, and prohibiting data pushes above 256 bytes.
Mini dictionary: OP_RETURN, a script opcode in Bitcoin transactions, allows users to store small amounts of arbitrary data on the blockchain, often used for metadata or simple messages.
Supporters contend that these measures would reinforce Bitcoin’s design as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Conversely, critics argue the proposal transforms a policy debate into a technical consensus change and could lead to the exclusion of transactions that pay network fees.
“It’s one of the more actively debated proposals in Bitcoin right now, and miners play a direct role in whether it activates,” Foundry stated, stressing the importance of miner participation in network governance.
Among the high-profile opponents are MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor and Blockstream co-founder Adam Back, who have publicly raised concerns about the implications for transaction validation.
How voting will workFoundry outlined that each participating miner’s vote will be weighted according to their average hashrate on the pool over a 10-day period from July 6 to July 15. The company expects the voting window to remain open until the blockchain reaches block 961,632, projected for early August. At this point, the soft fork’s fate is likely to be decided.
Initially, Foundry’s default position is to signal “No” for BIP-110. However, should “Yes” votes exceed 51% of the hashrate during the voting window, Foundry will shift to signaling “Yes” on all of its future blocks. Any accounts that do not participate are automatically considered “No” votes. Meanwhile, miners retain the right to change their vote as long as the window remains open, with individual choices remaining confidential and only overall results shared.
Market observers note the significance of Foundry’s decision, as the company currently controls roughly one-third of the network’s total hashrate. Analysts at BGeometrics have suggested that the combined actions of leading pools like Foundry and Antpool could decisively move daily signaling metrics into a range capable of determining the soft fork’s fate.
Supporters believe BIP-110 can help Bitcoin function as true peer-to-peer money, while critics worry it may introduce contentious network changes and prevent certain fee-paying transactions from confirming.
ProposalMain Rule ChangeAdvocatesOpponentsBIP-110Limits arbitrary data in transactions; caps OP_RETURN at 83 bytesBitcoin developers, some minersMichael Saylor, Adam BackA final signaling window near block 961,632 will require Foundry to declare its majority-supported position before the activation timeline closes. The outcome will depend on where the majority of hashrate-weighted votes fall at the end of the period.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Attention is now shifting from finding a bottom to determining whether a genuine trend reversal is beginning.
Bitcoin’s slide to around $57,700 at the end of June may have completed the worst phase of its 2026 bear market, according to a new market update published by BIT on July 17.
After correctly anticipating much of BTC’s decline in the last few months, the crypto investment firm now says traders should assess whether that low marked the end of the correction or was merely a pause before another leg down.
Market Has Largely Followed Earlier Roadmap BIT’s latest report builds on research it published on June 12, when it argued that Bitcoin had entered the final stage of its bear market. At the time, the firm outlined an Elliott Wave A-B-C correction pattern running from October 2025 that showed an initial selloff into the $60,000 to $69,000 range and a rebound toward $80,000 to $90,000, followed by a final Wave C drop during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is due to end on July 19.
That forecast has mostly played out, with BTC first plunging from around $97,000 to $62,900 in February this year before it recovered to about $82,000 in May, an event that was described in the report as a “counter-trend rally within a bear market.” It then went lower and eventually hit $57,700 at the end of June after geopolitical tensions and changing expectations for US monetary policy weighed heavily on risk assets.
In the July 17 update, BIT acknowledged that it underestimated the impact of the conflict between the United States and Iran, which pushed inflation higher than expected, and the hawkish stance adopted by the new Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh. Even so, the firm said that the broader price structure closely matched its original outlook.
The earlier report had also pointed to several technical signals supporting the possibility of a market bottom, including historically depressed sentiment and oversold stochastic readings. Furthermore, at the time, BTC had been trading well below its weekly moving average. The new update has now shifted attention to the 21-week moving average, which it described as an important gauge for determining whether the market has transitioned back into a longer-term uptrend.
Not Everyone Thinks the Same However, not everyone reading the charts sees a bottom forming. Take, for instance, CryptoQuant contributor IT Tech, who wrote in a note aptly titled “You really think the bottom is already in?” that spot Bitcoin ETF flows, which were one of the biggest drivers behind the OG crypto’s rally in the last two years, have dropped notably in 2026.
You may also like: Will Crypto Markets Move When $1.2B Bitcoin Options Expire Today? The $65.5K Rejection: What Top Analysts Are Saying About Bitcoin’s Next Move Don’t Obsess Over Bitcoin’s Bottom as $38K Low Comes Into Focus: Analyst In 2024, cumulative net inflows were more than 500,000 BTC, with 2025 recording similarly strong inflows of about 250,000 BTC. However, 2026 has seen the funds bleed out roughly 120,000 BTC, leading the analyst to ask:
“If ETF demand drove the rally up, how can you be bullish while that demand reversed completely?”
According to them, what the market is seeing is a headwind and not a tailwind.
Earlier this week, Bitcoin found itself above the $65,000 level after US CPI numbers came back much lower than the market had anticipated, but those gains were quickly taken away by sellers, and at the time of writing, the asset was trading near $63,000, down almost 3% in 24 hours and about 2% across one week. Furthermore, it’s over 50% below its all-time high.
Tesla reports its second-quarter 2026 earnings on July 22 after market close, with Intel following less than 24 hours later on July 23.
Tesla remains one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin on its balance sheet, and any commentary from Elon Musk about digital assets, AI infrastructure, or capital allocation tends to move crypto markets faster than most on-chain catalysts. Intel sits at the center of the semiconductor supply chain that underpins everything from mining hardware to AI compute.
Tesla’s numbers look strong heading in Tesla already tipped its hand on July 2, pre-releasing production and delivery figures for Q2 2026. The company produced over 450,000 vehicles and delivered more than 480,000. Tesla deployed 13.5 GWh of energy storage systems during the quarter.
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Tesla’s Q1 2026 results posted earnings per share of $0.41, beating analyst estimates of $0.30. Revenue came in at $22.39 billion.
The earnings call is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET on July 22.
Intel’s recovery story matters for crypto infrastructure Intel reports its Q2 2026 results on July 23 at 2 p.m. PDT. Revenue in Q1 2026 hit $13.6 billion, representing a 7.4% increase year-over-year.
Intel has also been investing heavily in its foundry business, attempting to compete with TSMC for manufacturing contracts, with implications for everyone from Nvidia to the smaller firms designing ASICs for blockchain applications.
The broader earnings picture Tesla and Intel aren’t reporting in isolation. Other major corporations including 3M and General Motors are also disclosing results this week.
What crypto investors should watch Beyond the Musk factor, Tesla’s energy storage growth maps directly onto mining infrastructure trends. The 13.5 GWh deployed in Q2 represents capacity that could theoretically support significant mining operations.
On the Intel side, semiconductor lead times and pricing forecasts will affect hardware procurement costs for mining operations and crypto infrastructure builders throughout 2026 and into 2027.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
The Binance founder drew a sharp line between two of the most talked-about investment themes of the decade. The reasoning behind it is worth unpacking.
Changpeng Zhao does not waste words. The Binance founder and Bitcoin bull posted a single line on X that drew 1.3 million views, "AI is great, but it does not protect you against inflation. Bitcoin does."
No elaboration. No thread. Just a clean distinction between two assets that have competed for the same speculative dollars throughout this cycle, and a clear statement about which one he thinks actually solves the problem most investors are trying to solve.
Why the distinction mattersAI is a productivity story. It makes companies more efficient, generates revenue, and builds equity value. But it does not have a fixed supply. The companies building it can dilute shareholders, raise debt, and expand indefinitely.
There is no cap on how many AI tokens, AI company shares, or AI-related products can exist.
Bitcoin has 21 million coins. That number does not change regardless of what central banks do, what governments decide, or how much money gets printed.
The supply is the point. It is the only major asset class where the answer to increased demand is not increased supply.
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Fiat currency debasement runs at roughly 6 to 7 percent annually, a figure CZ has cited before as the baseline that most income assets fail to beat. Money markets do not keep pace. Treasuries have had a negative real return for much of the past decade.
AI stocks have performed, but performance and inflation protection are different things.
Trending on TheStreet RoundtableDonald Trump breaks silence on $1B crypto earningsMichael Saylor reveals why Strategy sold Bitcoin and why critics are wrongBillionaire investor reveals key reasons behind Bitcoin's declineThe $1 million caseCZ's latest post did not come out of nowhere. Earlier this month, in an interview, CZ mapped out a two-cycle path to $1 million Bitcoin by 2033, using historical multipliers of three to five times per cycle, noting the last cycle was unusually weak at roughly 2x due to macro disruption and capital being absorbed by AI companies.
"We're not at a saturation point yet," he said. "The demand for Bitcoin or for crypto in general can be significant."
Bitcoin is currently trading near $63,000, down 50 percent from its all-time high and sitting in what most analysts agree is bear market territory.
CZ is not buying the narrative that the cycle is broken. He is buying Bitcoin instead.
Exchange-traded funds backed by spot Bitcoin show a new sign of stability after several months marked by capital outflows. In the United States, investors recorded a third consecutive session of net inflows, confirming renewed interest in this category of products. This development comes as the market tries to regain better balance after a difficult start to the year. Meanwhile, data show a gradual improvement in flows, despite a context where price performance remains under pressure.
In brief US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded 368 million dollars of net inflows in three consecutive sessions. The cumulative inflows of these funds now reach 51.2 billion dollars, with 77.7 billion dollars in assets under management. Bitcoin briefly crossed 65,000 dollars while July flows returned to positive territory. Despite this improvement, spot ETFs still show a net flow deficit of 5.4 billion dollars since the beginning of 2026. Bitcoin: Spot ETFs Post Three Consecutive Sessions of Inflows US spot ETFs linked to Bitcoin recorded 79.2 million dollars of net inflows on Thursday. This performance extends a positive streak after 181 million dollars recorded on Tuesday, then 108 million dollars on Wednesday. In total, these three sessions represent about 368 million dollars of new capital, according to SoSoValue data.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs record several consecutive sessions of net capital inflows, bringing cumulative flows to over 51.2 billion dollars by mid-July 2026. Source: SoSovalue. Moreover, cumulative net inflows since the launch of these products now reach 51.2 billion dollars. Assets under management also increase to reach 77.7 billion dollars. At the same time, the price of bitcoin briefly exceeded the 65,000 dollars threshold on Wednesday, a first since the end of June. This price movement coincided with flows toward ETFs returning to a more favorable trajectory.
Flows Turn Positive After Several Challenging Months Recent investments have allowed monthly flows of spot Bitcoin ETFs to return to positive territory during July. This improvement follows net outflows of 4.51 billion dollars in June and 2.4 billion dollars in May. If this momentum continues until the end of the month, July will become the first positive month since April, during which ETFs recorded 1.97 billion dollars of net inflows.
However, the annual balance remains negative. On Friday, net flows of US ETFs still showed a deficit of about 5.4 billion dollars since the beginning of 2026. At the same time, Bitcoin was trading around $63,400 at the time of writing, a decrease of about 28% since the start of the year. These figures show that the recovery of flows is not yet accompanied by a sustainable return in market performance.
The next sessions will allow verification of whether this investment resurgence is confirmed. Continued inflows could reinforce the momentum observed in ETFs, while bitcoin’s evolution will remain a key indicator to measure the strength of this trend. Market participants will also monitor the funds’ ability to maintain positive flows in the coming weeks.
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Ghiles A.
Journaliste et rédacteur web passionné par l’univers des cryptomonnaies et des technologies Web3. J’y traite les dernières tendances et actualités afin de proposer un contenu de haute qualité à un large public du secteur.
DISCLAIMER
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.
Iran launched a wave of missiles and drones at US military targets across six Gulf States between July 12 and 17, marking the most significant direct confrontation between the two nations in decades. The attacks struck US assets in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Oman, and the UAE, and the crypto market responded exactly how you’d expect: with panic selling and a cascade of forced liquidations.
Bitcoin fell more than 2%, sliding to approximately $62,000. Roughly $350 million in liquidations hit the broader digital asset market as traders scrambled to de-risk portfolios in the face of what looks like a genuine regional war.
What happened and why crypto cares The Iranian strikes were retaliatory. The US had previously conducted operations targeting Iranian command centers, missile installations, and coastal defense systems. Iran’s response was broad, hitting American positions across half a dozen countries in quick succession.
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On July 11, one day before the first missile strikes, Iran announced it was re-closing the Strait of Hormuz. The $350 million liquidation wave tells a deeper story. Leveraged long positions got wiped out as the price cascaded through support levels, a familiar pattern whenever a geopolitical shock catches the derivatives market leaning the wrong direction.
The sanctions and crypto enforcement angle US authorities have previously seized or sanctioned Iranian-linked cryptocurrency wallets worth over $344 million. These wallets were tied to Iran’s central bank or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and their seizure reflects a broader reality: Iran has been using crypto as a tool to circumvent economic sanctions for years.
Iran has used Bitcoin mining operations to generate hard currency, routed transactions through mixing services, and leveraged decentralized exchanges to move value outside the traditional banking system that sanctions have largely cut them off from.
For DeFi protocols in particular, the question of whether they can or should block sanctioned addresses becomes urgent again. The Tornado Cash precedent looms large here. If the conflict escalates further, expect OFAC to expand its sanctions list aggressively, and expect compliance teams at major exchanges to get even more conservative about flagging transactions.
What this means for investors The immediate market impact, a 2% Bitcoin drop and $350 million in liquidations, is notable but not catastrophic on its own. A prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz would send oil prices significantly higher, fueling inflation fears and potentially forcing central banks to adopt a more hawkish stance.
Traders should watch two things carefully. First, whether the Strait of Hormuz actually stays closed or whether diplomatic channels reopen it. Second, watch for new OFAC designations targeting Iranian crypto infrastructure. Each new sanctions action creates compliance ripple effects across the entire exchange ecosystem, from Coinbase to Binance to smaller regional platforms.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) options put/call ratio fell to a six-month low near 0.59, with traders cutting downside hedges and rebuilding call exposure at the $64,000-$65,000 range as Glassnode flagged a constructive shift in sentiment.
What Is The Options Market Actually Saying?The put/call ratio dropping to 0.59 marks a decisive shift in how traders are positioned.
A ratio below 1.0 means more calls than puts are outstanding, and at a six-month low, the positioning reflects growing confidence that Bitcoin holds and pushes higher from current levels.
Implied volatility also declined, with Bitcoin’s DVOL falling from 48 to 40 as price recovered from June lows.
Glassnode noted this reflects the options market unwinding part of June’s fear premium, though volatility remaining above May lows means uncertainty has eased rather than disappeared.
The $68,000 To $70,000 Zone Is The One To WatchBitcoin is consolidating near $63,000, sitting below a dense negative-gamma cluster between $68,000 and $70,000.
Glassnode flagged that a move into that zone could trigger pro-cyclical dealer hedging and amplify volatility in either direction.
That level aligns with what analyst Michaël van de Poppe has been watching all week.
He said Bitcoin’s structure still favors upside and a clean break above $65,000 sets up a strong run, a call he maintained even after two failed attempts to hold that level following Tuesday’s CPI-driven spike to $65,235.
Can Bitcoin Reclaim $65,000 After This Week’s Rejection?The longer-term trend still leans bearish. The 20-day SMA at $62,595 sits below the 50-day at $63,686, and the 50-day sits well below the 200-day at $73,274, keeping the death cross from November 2025 as the dominant backdrop.
RSI sits at 47.24, neutral and not yet showing the kind of momentum that confirms a trend change. Buyers need to reclaim the 20-day EMA at $63,251 to shift the path of least resistance away from sideways-to-lower.
Key levels for Bitcoin:
$63,251 — 20-day EMA, immediate level bulls need to reclaim $65,000 — breakout trigger van de Poppe is watching $68,000 to $70,000 — negative-gamma cluster where volatility could amplify $73,274 — 200-day SMA, longer-term overhead supply Photo via Shutterstock
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Bitcoin slipped below $63,000 as the wider risk trade came under pressure, with weakness in technology stocks spilling into crypto and pulling traders back toward a more defensive posture.
The move is not happening in isolation. Bitcoin has been trading as both a crypto-native asset and a macro-sensitive risk asset, which means it can react to liquidity conditions, equity-market stress, ETF flows, and leverage in the derivatives market at the same time. When technology stocks sell off sharply, crypto often feels it quickly.
That does not mean Bitcoin’s structure has suddenly broken. It does mean traders are watching nearby support more closely, especially around the areas where buyers previously stepped in.
The next zone in focus is around the $61,500 region, where demand could decide whether this is a contained pullback or the start of a deeper reset.
TL;DR Bitcoin has fallen below $63,000 as risk appetite weakens across technology stocks and crypto. Traders are watching whether demand appears near the $61,500 area. The move looks more like a macro-led pressure test than a crypto-specific collapse, but follow-through now matters. Bitcoin Is Still Trading With The Risk Market One of the more important lessons of the ETF era is that Bitcoin has not stopped being volatile just because more institutional products exist around it.
If anything, the asset now sits in more portfolios, more macro models, and more cross-asset trading strategies. That can support demand during strong periods, but it also means Bitcoin is exposed when investors reduce risk broadly.
A tech-led selloff can hit Bitcoin through several channels. Some traders sell crypto to reduce overall portfolio volatility. Others unwind leveraged positions. Funds may rebalance. Short-term traders may simply step away until the market finds a clearer level.
That is why the break below $63,000 matters. The level itself is not magical, but it marks a shift in short-term tone. Buyers who were comfortable above that level now have to prove they are willing to defend the next area lower.
If they do, the move may be remembered as another dip inside a broader range. If they do not, momentum traders could start pressing for a move closer to the next major support cluster.
Why $61,500 Is Getting Attention Support zones become important because they show where traders expect demand to return. Around $61,500, the market is looking for signs of spot buying, reduced selling pressure, or a slowdown in forced liquidations.
The quality of the bounce matters more than the first reaction.
A quick wick into support followed by strong buying would suggest dip demand is still active. A slow grind into the level with weak volume would be less convincing. A clean break below it could force traders to look toward lower liquidity pockets.
This is where Bitcoin’s short-term setup becomes more fragile. When price is moving with broader macro pressure, crypto-specific headlines may not be enough to reverse it. Traders often need to see risk appetite improve across equities, funding stabilise, and open interest reset before confidence returns.
That makes the next few sessions important. Bitcoin does not need a huge rally to repair the tone. It needs to stop falling, hold a credible support area, and avoid a leverage-driven flush.
The ETF Backdrop Still Matters The longer-term Bitcoin story has not disappeared. Spot ETF access, institutional allocations, and the broader shift toward regulated crypto exposure remain important. But those forces do not move in a straight line.
ETF demand can absorb supply over time while the market still suffers sharp short-term corrections. That is especially true when macro conditions turn against risk assets. Even strong structural demand can be overwhelmed temporarily by liquidations or a broad move into cash.
For readers, the distinction matters. A drop below $63,000 does not automatically cancel the institutional Bitcoin thesis. It does, however, show that the market is still sensitive to the same forces that move growth stocks, high-beta assets, and speculative liquidity.
That is why the current move should be treated as a test of demand, not a final verdict.
If Bitcoin stabilises near support, traders will likely shift back toward ETF flows, exchange balances, and whether spot buyers are accumulating into weakness. If the level fails, the conversation changes quickly toward downside liquidity and where the next serious bid may appear.
For now, the market is asking a simple question: are buyers still confident enough to step in while broader risk sentiment is shaky?
The answer will come from price action, not from slogans. Bitcoin has survived many risk-off moves before, but each one still has to be absorbed in real time. The break below $63,000 puts that absorption test back at the centre of the market.
This article is based on information from Arkham Intelligence.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
Digital asset investment products have begun to attract renewed investor interest after a record-breaking outflow streak that lasted eight weeks and totaled $8 billion. According to an assessment published by CoinShares, a net inflow of $287 million was recorded across all issuers last week.
The company stated that it expects the current week to also end positively. Although the week started with fund outflows, the lower-than-expected consumer and producer inflation data released in the US changed investor sentiment in the middle of the week.
The US Consumer Price Index, released on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, fell 0.4% on a monthly basis, exceeding expectations of a 0.2% decrease. CoinShares reported a limited rise in Bitcoin following the data release, a repricing of interest rate expectations, and approximately $250 million in inflows into digital asset funds.
On Tuesday, net daily inflows across all digital assets and issuers were recorded at $218 million. This was followed by an additional $197 million in inflows on Wednesday, after the Producer Price Index, released on Wednesday, fell by 0.3%, contrary to expectations of flat performance. Thus, total inflows for Tuesday and Wednesday reached $415 million.
CoinShares noted that the majority of these inflows were directed towards Bitcoin-focused products. It stated that prior to the inflation data, markets were pricing in more than a full interest rate hike for September, but this expectation was roughly halved following the weak data.
According to the company, individual sales coming in line with expectations also points to a limited weakening in economic activity. CoinShares assessed that a weaker economic outlook could provide support for Bitcoin if it leads to a new shift in interest rate expectations.
However, the company remains cautious about Bitcoin’s short-term upside potential. CoinShares stated that Bitcoin has likely reached or is very close to its bottom, and that it does not see significant upside potential under current conditions.
According to CoinShares, a single weak employment data point and a single low inflation data point may not be enough to prompt the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. It was also noted that the renewed rise in oil prices following developments in Iran could negatively impact the inflation data to be released next month.
The company expects Bitcoin to trade in a horizontal range unless there is a significant change in monetary policy expectations. CoinShares stated that it is unlikely for the BTC price to rise above the $80,000 level under current conditions.
CoinShares noted that investor behavior also supported the cautious outlook in the market, pointing out that investor interest peaked when Bitcoin traded around $120,000 and decreased significantly when the price fell to the $60,000 level.
According to the company, while current price levels are prompting some investors to increase their positions, a cautious approach is maintained due to the overall negative market sentiment.
*This is not investment advice.
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SBI Holdings has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Coinhako, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency platform, after securing approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The Japanese financial group made the purchase through its subsidiary SBI Ventures Asset Pte. Ltd., which injected capital into Coinhako parent Holdbuild Pte. Ltd. and bought shares from existing shareholders. The transaction closed July 16, making Coinhako a consolidated subsidiary.
Coinhako operates through Hako Technology Pte. Ltd., holder of a Major Payment Institution license from MAS, and Alpha Hako Ltd., a crypto asset service provider registered with the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission.
The platform spent a decade building a customer base across Southeast Asia, a region SBI now positions as a base for its digital asset strategy.
SBI plans to combine Coinhako’s customer base, operational expertise, and regional network with its own financial services, technology, and global footprint. The company intends to expand a digital asset corridor that starts with Japan and Southeast Asia, and to develop services tied to its JPYSC yen-denominated stablecoin. SBI also flagged opportunities in tokenization, on-chain finance, and cross-border trading.
“Our group aims to create a global corridor for digital assets by connecting exchanges around the world, enabling investors worldwide to make optimal investments without being hindered by national borders or currency barriers,” Chairman Yoshitaka Kitao said. He described Singapore as a crucial region because its digital asset regulations are ahead of the curve.
Coinhako co-founder and CEO Yusho Liu called the deal a natural step. “For the past 10 years, we have built from the ground up Southeast Asia’s most trusted and legally compliant cryptocurrency platform in the world’s most advanced regulatory environment,” he said, adding that SBI’s backing gives the firm a stronger foundation.
SBI Holding’s crypto moves The acquisition caps a run of crypto moves by the conglomerate, which holds more than 14 million users and $308 billion in assets under custody. In the past month, SBI led EDX Markets’ $76 million Series C, backed risk manager Gauntlet, launched JPYSC, and partnered with the Solana Foundation on an on-chain financial market in Japan.
In June, the group agreed to buy Tokyo exchange Bitbank for about $289 million, and this week it teamed with Ondo Finance to tokenize Japanese equities.
One limit remains: JPYSC does not yet support withdrawals to external wallets, which confines its use to SBI’s own platform.
Micah Zimmerman
Micah first discovered Bitcoin in 2018 but remained a skeptic on the sidelines for too long. Since 2021, he has covered crypto and business and now works as a news reporter for Bitcoin Magazine, based in North Carolina.
BIP-110 – My Notes to Miners Let me start off by saying I’m not pro BIP110, and I’m not anti-BIP110. If it actually succeeds as something that gains true consensus within the network and ends up being enforced by a majority of the network… cool. If so, then we’ll go with it because the network has spoken and accepted it, and all nodes, including non-BIP110 nodes, will be pulled along for the ride. Unfortunately for proponents of the proposal, that simply isn’t currently the case by any measurable metric, nor does it appear to have a trajectory suggesting that will change, either.
There’s been a lot of misleading information about this whole thing, especially in the context of mining. A few quick key bullet points to briefly counter some hyperbole from proponents: BIP110 is NOT inevitable. It CAN fail. BIP110 can and will cause a chain split/fork in a minority hashrate situation. BIP110 is NOT without risk to miners choosing to adopt it. Miners not supporting BIP110 are not suddenly mining “invalid” blocks just because a proposal that isn’t yet adopted simply exists. You’re not a bad person or evil simply because you don’t like or support BIP110. (The fact that I feel the need to point out that last part is actually kind of sad…)
I was going to write a long post to help keep miners informed about things they need to remain aware of as this all plays out… before realizing I already did so months ago, as a document I authored that I had hoped could be put out as a miner education piece at OCEAN. Sadly, it never got published. So I went ahead and updated it, and well, here it is.
Again, keep in mind this was written months ago, intended to be as agnostic as possible in an effort to make it acceptable as a corporate post. That effort failed, so I’m posting it as a personal document today instead. As a miner making important decisions about your operations, you need to be aware of all of this without the sugarcoating and, frankly, outright misleading information coming from some of the BIP110 proponents. You must be vigilant and decide what’s right for you.
While there is certainly some misleading information from the opposition as well, nothing I’ve seen is nearly as egregious as the extremely premature claims of victory and accompanying hyperbole pushed by the BIP110 side. Summarizing my doc a bit, my personal suggestion to miners is this: Signal if you support BIP110. Do not signal if you don’t support BIP110 or don’t care. Either way, monitor the network on/around/before block 961632.
If you continue to see non-signaling blocks from major pools, you can be reasonably certain they’re not going to suddenly decide later to throw away millions of dollars’ worth of revenue to backtrack and signal for BIP110. If they do, by some chance, start to signal for BIP110, you should monitor that and consider switching as required to stay on the heaviest chain. The key point is that, realistically, only one side can win. It’s either BIP110 succeeds, and miners not on the BIP110 side fail, or BIP110 fails, and miners on the non-BIP110 side succeed.
Moving on, let’s dive into a small fraction of my rationale.
QUICK FACT: Between 7 and 15% of Bitcoin Nodes are signaling support for BIP110. Depending on which centralized crawler you look at… no way to know for sure [how many BIP110 nodes are signaling support]. My personal private crawler puts this number much lower, but that’s a discussion for another day. Suffice it to say, I think it’s logical and correct to say that even 15% is not a majority.
“But Jason! UASF got Segwit activated with fewer nodes!” Yep, because many miners, merchants, users, etc., all actually wanted Segwit. There was tremendous economic and community weight behind it. Without rehashing that whole thing, as plenty of resources on the topic from before BIP110 are worth a read, suffice it to say that BIP110 and Segwit activations are not quite comparable, as many have already pointed out. Segwit, for example, went into its UASF territory with around 1/3rd of the network’s hashrate already signaling support. With that kind of backing, the UASF to help push the MASF over the tipping point made a lot of sense. It doesn’t make sense here for BIP110.
QUICK FACT: 0.6% of blocks over the past 60 days have signaled support for BIP110. [0.6% is a] pretty stark contrast to even Segwit’s low baseline support. Yes, I know it’s increased slightly in the past couple of weeks, but no new entrants. Just more clearly rented hashrate from one of the same small proponents.
Something to keep in mind is that mining BIP110 signaling blocks via DATUM on OCEAN carries virtually no risk to the miner up until the fork point at block 961632. The cost is negligible, as you’re effectively guaranteed to recoup rental costs, etc.
It’s awesome that the ability to do so exists, and I wouldn’t have it any other way… but just something to keep in mind when weighing signaling from such blocks in the grand scheme of things from a risk-reward, money-on-the-table perspective.
“But Jason! Miners have no incentive to signal until the last minute!” I also see no evidence to suggest that this could be the case. Subjectively, I disagree with the premise, as it’s not in a mining pool’s best interest to destabilize the network in such a way. Part of the reason for early signaling and lock-in periods is to help coordinate upgrades in a smooth fashion. Waiting until the last minute negates that benefit entirely. I see no compelling rationale or upside to doing so.
Continuing on this, as part of my personal node monitoring setup, I specifically monitor nodes known to belong to various entities, such as other mining pools, exchanges, large lightning nodes, merchants, etc. A supermajority of which are monitored with explicit permission and confirmation/coordination.
QUICK FACT: All major mining pools I monitor are currently running some variant of Bitcoin Core v30 or v31 (except OCEAN). Expanding on that, most [mining pools] have updated their nodes since the proliferation of BIP110’s release, even since the release of Knots 29.3. Additionally, it is known that many mining pools run modified versions of their node software to facilitate various requirements of their specific infrastructure. Such changes would need to be ported to a BIP110-compatible client, tested, evaluated, and deployed ahead of time. I currently see no evidence that this is the case currently.
As far as I can tell, the pools are aware but ignoring.
“But Jason! Miners don’t determine consensus! Nodes do! Otherwise, they’ll just cancel halvings!” This is one of the funniest and most ridiculous arguments I’ve heard from the pro-BIP110 crowd. Comparing a consensus change that can be unilaterally enforced upon the network by miners and accepted by 100% of existing nodes (a soft fork), with a hard fork which no existing node will accept… is disingenuous at best. T
ightening rules (like BIP110): Soft fork, can be enforced by miners if they choose to do so. Loosening rules (like canceling a halving): Hard fork, can not be enforced by miners without effectively 100% buy-in from the entire network… which isn’t likely to happen. Comparing the two is, bluntly, just stupid.
“But Jason! If you don’t upgrade to the latest consensus rules, you’re insecure! You’ll lose funds! You’ll mine invalid blocks! You’ll [insert additional hyperbole here]!” This would be true of a consensus change that has, well, consensus. While BIP110 has made a valiant effort to gain that consensus, it has yet to have any measurable majority at what is now arguably the 11th hour. Not in nodes, not in hashrate, not in the social layers (consensus.health has a cool visual there where you’ll find me in the middle).
If somehow BIP110 gains 51%+ of the network hashrate on/before block 961632… then, alright. It’s enforced, since as a soft fork a majority of miners can unilaterally enforce it in the absence of a fully adopted URSF (effectively a misnomer, as this would kind of be a hard fork).
“But Jason! It can’t gain consensus by already having consensus! You have to give it a chance!” Firstly… no I don’t, even though I have. Second, it’s a rushed proposal that never had the time to even try and gain real consensus. It’s been 7 months since the release of the first BIP110 client. There’s ~3 weeks to go before “mandatory” signaling starts as of now (less by the time you read this). 90% of the time available has passed with no change in overall sentiment from any relevant players. If it hasn’t gained sufficient adoption in the past 7 months, it’s not likely to do so in the next 3 weeks.
“But Jason! CSAM! CSAM! Pedophiles! CSAM!” I’ll be the first to say, even I personally overstated the risk here early on when Core proposed its OP_RETURN change. I personally expected something particularly egregious to hit the chain almost immediately, and to the best of my knowledge, that’s not yet happened. Could it still happen? Yeah, I suppose.
But considering from a technical perspective, byte-for-byte the same contiguous arbitrary data can provably end up stored in the current chain or the BIP-110 chain without much issue… this particular argument for BIP-110 falls pretty flat to me at this point.
Do I want CSAM in the chain? Of course not. Am I a pedophile if I don’t support BIP110? Also not.
Concluding Thoughts I could continue to go on and on and on, but I’ll stop here. I’ve wasted enough time on this. I’m sure I’ve done plenty to annoy both sides of the BIP110 debate at this point, as I don’t adopt either stance. I’m sure I’ll catch flak from all angles simply for daring to speak my mind on it.
Overall, I mostly think it was silly to approach addressing a real problem (the OP_RETURN default change in Bitcoin Core) with the maximum anti-spam manifesto based soft fork proposal… which provably cannot stop spam, arbitrary data, etc. 🤦♂️ (Yes, I know, proponents will claim it’s not about spam… and will also make semantic arguments that it does stop data as well… neither of which appears to be correct.)
I’ll close with the concession that I could be wrong. I’m not Nostradamus, and I can’t accurately predict the outcome with 100% certainty. I can only go by what the data tells me, and so I give BIP110’s success less than a 5% chance of actually succeeding… and I consider that generous. You can take my opinions on this however you wish, but I highly recommend you don’t discount the actual data points, remain vigilant, and do what’s best for you and your mining revenue. Don’t be gaslit by either side of the debate, and make your own decisions.
Here’s a link to the same document linked above for ease of access.
War is bad for risk assets. That’s not a new insight, but the US-Iran conflict that escalated sharply in July 2026 gave crypto markets a live demonstration of just how fast the lesson gets relearned.
US Central Command launched strikes against more than 80 Iranian military targets on July 7, 2026, in direct response to Iranian attacks on commercial vessels navigating the Strait of Hormuz.
What happened in the market Bitcoin had been trading near a monthly high of $65,500 before the strikes. Within hours of the escalation becoming public, it fell below $64,000. That’s a move of roughly 2%, which sounds modest until you account for the speed and the leverage sitting underneath it.
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Liquidations across the crypto market exceeded $350 million as the sell-off cascaded through leveraged positions. In English: traders who had borrowed money to bet on higher prices got automatically wiped out when prices fell, which then pushed prices lower, which wiped out more traders. The cycle is mechanical and brutal.
Oil prices surged simultaneously.
US forces conducted additional strikes on July 14 and 15, targeting sites including Bushehr and Bandar Abbas. Iran responded with drone and missile attacks aimed at US interests across the region.
Why the Strait of Hormuz matters so much The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the broader ocean. A significant portion of the world’s seaborne oil passes through it.
The February 2026 US-Israeli strikes on Iran had already put the region on edge before July’s escalation. By the time CENTCOM was striking 80-plus targets, the market was not dealing with a fresh surprise. It was dealing with a confirmed escalation of something traders had been watching for months.
That context explains some of the activity on Polymarket, the prediction market platform. Trading volume around US-Iran conflict outcomes had been building for months before July, with hundreds of millions moving through the platform as traders assigned probabilities to various escalation scenarios.
What this means for crypto investors The $350 million in liquidations points to something specific about market structure. Leverage in crypto markets amplifies both gains and losses, and when external shocks arrive without warning, the deleveraging process is faster and more violent than in traditional markets.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
While federal lawmakers continue to argue over the finer points of digital asset legislation, US states have quietly started putting real money into Bitcoin. Texas executed its first purchase of roughly $5 million in Bitcoin through the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF in late November 2025, making it the first state to actually fund and buy Bitcoin for a strategic reserve.
The purchase came from a $10 million allocation approved under SB 21, which Governor Greg Abbott signed into law in June 2025. Texas acquired its Bitcoin at prices ranging between roughly $87,000 and $91,000 per coin. New Hampshire and Arizona both enacted their own strategic reserve laws months earlier, and over 30 additional states have introduced similar bills as of mid-2026.
The state-level Bitcoin land grab New Hampshire got its law on the books first. HB 302, signed in May 2025, authorized investments in Bitcoin and qualifying digital assets up to certain portfolio limits. Arizona followed almost immediately with HB 2749, also signed in May 2025, which took a slightly different approach by leveraging unclaimed property and seized assets to build its digital holdings.
Texas’s approach of routing the purchase through BlackRock’s IBIT ETF is notable. Rather than setting up custodial infrastructure from scratch, Texas went with the most liquid and institutionally familiar wrapper available.
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More than 30 states have introduced Bitcoin reserve-style bills, reflecting bipartisan interest in treating Bitcoin as a reserve asset alongside traditional holdings like gold and bonds.
California’s Digital Financial Assets Law became operative on July 1, 2026, imposing licensing requirements on crypto businesses operating in the state. New York continues refining its BitLicense standards.
Washington’s half-finished homework In March 2025, the Trump administration established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve through executive order, funded with forfeited Bitcoin already held by government agencies.
In July 2025, the GENIUS Act was signed into law, creating a comprehensive regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. The legislation included reserve requirements, audit mandates, and supervisory guidelines.
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, commonly called the CLARITY Act, has advanced through various stages but still hasn’t become law as of mid-2026.
What this means for investors When state treasuries start buying Bitcoin, it changes the asset’s narrative in ways that matter for every market participant. These aren’t hedge funds chasing alpha or retail traders following social media hype. These are government entities making deliberate allocations through regulated vehicles, framed as fiduciary decisions about public funds.
Texas’s $10 million is a rounding error in a state budget that runs into the hundreds of billions. These are test cases, designed to establish legal precedent and operational frameworks that can scale.
Investors watching this space should pay attention to three things: which states move from legislation to actual purchases, whether the CLARITY Act reaches the president’s desk before year-end, and how state-level reserves perform relative to traditional holdings in their first full reporting cycles.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Explosions ripped through Bandar Abbas, Iran’s most strategically vital port city, with state-affiliated Nour News confirming the blasts along the Gulf Coast. The incidents, tied to ongoing US military strikes targeting Iranian naval and missile installations, mark another chapter in a rapidly escalating confrontation between Washington and Tehran that has rattled energy markets but left crypto surprisingly unfazed.
Bitcoin was trading near $63,800 during the latest round of strikes, registering an intraday move of roughly 0.3%.
What’s happening in Bandar Abbas The explosions, reported between July 12 and 14, targeted areas east of Bandar Abbas, a city that serves as Iran’s primary naval base and handles approximately 80 million tons of goods annually. US Central Command confirmed it was striking coastal defense and maritime facilities, a pointed response to what Washington described as Tehran’s aggression toward commercial shipping in the region.
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Bandar Abbas sits right on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly 20% of the world’s seaborne oil passes.
Iran responded by announcing the closure of the Strait of Hormuz “until further notice,” a move that sent oil futures into a frenzy and immediately raised the specter of a global energy supply shock.
This wasn’t the first time Bandar Abbas made headlines this year. Prior explosions near the city in January and May 2026 had already rattled both energy and crypto markets, though each successive event seems to produce a slightly smaller reaction in digital asset prices.
Crypto’s strange calm Earlier incidents in July had actually followed that script, with Bitcoin dipping below $73,000 during a broader risk-off wave across markets. But the latest round of strikes saw Bitcoin at $63,800 and Ether around $1,800 with similarly limited volatility.
The regulatory war running parallel While missiles fly in the Gulf, the US Treasury has been waging its own campaign against Iranian-linked crypto activity. Authorities seized approximately $450 million in digital assets connected to Iranian entities. The Treasury also slapped sanctions on Nobitex, an exchange tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, making it one of the most prominent exchanges to be directly sanctioned for links to a designated military organization.
What this means for investors The $450 million asset seizure sets a precedent that investors should watch carefully. If US authorities can identify and freeze that volume of Iranian-linked crypto, the surveillance and enforcement infrastructure is clearly more advanced than many market participants assumed.
The pattern from 2026 so far is instructive. The initial shock from the January Bandar Abbas incidents produced meaningful crypto drawdowns. By May, the reaction was smaller. By July, it was nearly imperceptible.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas has suggested that Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could follow market cycles similar to those seen in gold ETFs over the last two decades. Balchunas, who closely tracks ETF market dynamics, pointed to the history of the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) as a possible roadmap for how BTC ETFs might evolve as institutional investment vehicles.
Gold ETF performance offers roadmap for Bitcoin fundsBalchunas observed that both gold ETFs and BTC ETFs are structured as investment products around assets that do not produce cash flow. Unlike equities or fixed-income instruments, their value relies heavily on investor sentiment and demand rather than dividends, interest payments, or government backing.
He commented that Bitcoin ETFs may be replicating a familiar pattern: periods of major price appreciation are followed by sharp declines and gradual recoveries. Balchunas further noted that prolonged downturns in gold ETFs have historically paved the way for new all-time highs in assets under management, supporting the idea that patient investors may see higher peaks over time.
Bitcoin ETFs may be following the same script: spectacular gains, painful drawdowns and recoveries that may test investors’ patience. Despite extended bear markets for gold ETFs, each major cycle has ultimately resulted in a higher peak.
Mini dictionary: SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), launched in 2004, is the world’s largest physically backed gold ETF, providing investors direct exposure to gold prices through a regulated, liquid vehicle.
GLD sets precedent for market fluctuationsBalchunas referred to Bloomberg Intelligence data showing that GLD has weathered notable cycles in assets under management throughout its history. Assets once reached $76 billion, declined to about $22 billion, recovered to $84 billion, then fell again to $48 billion, and recently surged to around $190 billion.
He also pointed to milestones in ETF rankings, highlighting that GLD briefly became the world’s largest ETF in 2011 before experiencing several years of reduced momentum. In a similar vein, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) recently surpassed $100 billion in assets, then saw growth slow as market conditions consolidated.
ETFPrevious Asset PeakLowest PointRecent Asset LevelGLD$76B$22B$190BIBIT$100BN/AN/AInstitutional demand drives ETF cyclesBalchunas explained that, unlike traditional stocks or bonds, the value of Bitcoin ETFs depends on both the underlying asset and investor inflows. Because the supply growth for both gold and Bitcoin is relatively limited, significant inflows can rapidly boost prices when market appetite rises.
He cautioned, however, that institutional demand is characteristically unpredictable. Demand often comes in waves rather than maintaining a steady pace, which can trigger fluctuations in both price and fund asset levels.
Demand can be fickle and come in waves versus steady, so investors should expect volatility even as long-term adoption rises.
Early phase for Bitcoin ETF adoptionAlthough Bitcoin ETFs have drawn growing interest, they remain at an early stage of institutional adoption compared to gold ETFs. Major investors, including pension funds and wealth managers, continue assessing the role of Bitcoin ETFs within diversified portfolios and regulated investment strategies.
While Balchunas cautioned that historical parallels do not ensure future outcomes, he emphasized that tracking the cyclical nature of ETF flows can help investors form more realistic expectations. As global ETF adoption expands, inflows, regulatory decisions, and institutional involvement are set to play key roles in shaping Bitcoin ETF growth.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
BTC tends to move south after such reports come out, but there's more to the story now.
Bitcoin recovered most of the losses seen during the day after dipping to $62,400 and is now back above $64,000. What’s intriguing about this rebound is that it came after some unfavorable reports for risk-on assets.
The first one focused on more threatening developments on the US/Israel-Iran war front, while the second was on the continuously growing US margin debt.
Two Major Signals The tension in the Middle East skyrocketed a couple of weeks ago when the US and Iran broke the ceasefire with new attacks. There’s been little to no reporting on potential peace talks since then. In contrast, Trump’s new attack plan was recently leaked, while a new report from Axios outlined the next possible steps.
The Trump Administration has reportedly conveyed to Israel that it will send ‘dozens more’ refueling planes ahead of a potential ‘massive offense’ against Iran. Some of the more threatening details include possible bombing against key Iranian infrastructure like power plants and nuclear sites.
The report added that the POTUS is expected to order the escalation ‘in the coming days.’ As expected, oil prices reacted with an immediate increase, as USOIL is up by over 20% since the war restarted.
Separately, the Kobeissi Letter noted that the US margin debt has risen by over $86 billion in June to a new record of $1.5 trillion. This marked the third monthly increase in a row. Moreover, the margin debt has skyrocketed by nearly $500 billion in the past year.
The analysts concluded that “US investors have never been more leveraged,” as the broader measure of such positions is up to approximately 1.4% of the S&P’s total market cap. This is close to the 2018 peak and far exceeds the 2000 Dot-Com bubble of 1.1%.
You may also like: Will Crypto Markets Move When $1.2B Bitcoin Options Expire Today? The $65.5K Rejection: What Top Analysts Are Saying About Bitcoin’s Next Move Don’t Obsess Over Bitcoin’s Bottom as $38K Low Comes Into Focus: Analyst BTC Rebounds The primary cryptocurrency tends to slip following similar reports, especially escalations in the Middle East. However, the past few hours have shown a very different reaction. The asset had fallen to a multi-day low of $62,400 before the bulls took charge and helped it recover nearly $2,000.
Nevertheless, bitcoin remains below the recent local peak of $65,600 reached after the US CPI numbers for June came out on Tuesday. The market is still in a fragile place, and it’s unlikely that new attacks between the US and Iran will have a longer-term beneficial effect.
The Bitcoin bottom may be in — but don’t get your hopes up: It might struggle to go up anytime soon, according to one investment firm.
A Friday report from European asset management firm CoinShares said that investors last week threw fresh cash at Bitcoin — and other crypto — exchange-traded products, indicating a change in sentiment.
But other factors may hold digital asset markets from going higher, James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, wrote.
“We have said for some time that Bitcoin has probably reached, or is close to, its floor,” the report read. “But we see no significant upside potential from here.”
The report added that current macroeconomic headwinds, such as the US bombing Iran and rising oil prices, could see inflation go up again.
Bitcoin’s price was up earlier this week, hitting a seven-day high of $65,501 on news that inflation in the US was softer than expected. It has since erased those gains and was recently trading for $64,010.
The price of Bitcoin has typically done well on news that inflation is coming down because investors expect interest rates to come down. But Butterfill said that “a rate cut does not look probable at this stage.”
Bitcoin’s worst run on record CoinShares’ data showed that investors pulled a total of $8 billion out of funds giving crypto exposure — “the worst run on record.”
Last week, though, things reversed when $287 million hit crypto funds, CoinShares said, with the data so far showing that this week looks likely to be another positive streak.
The price of Bitcoin has typically done well when US investors — previously excluded from crypto investing — have bought shares in exchange-traded funds approved in 2024.
The products — handled by the likes of BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale — allow more traditional investors or Wall Street institutions to buy positions in Bitcoin via shares that trade on stock exchanges.
Since BTC’s October all-time high of $126,080, crypto markets have faced a battering as those investors have fast cashed out of the funds. Bitcoin has struggled to make gains, especially after the US and Israel started bombing Iran, leading to a surge in the price of oil.
The leading cryptocurrency is now nearly 50% below its record.
“The dominant picture is that the current setup is prompting interest in adding positions, but caution prevails while sentiment remains broadly negative,” CoinShares added.
Mathew Di Salvo
Mathew is a reporter who's covered the space since 2019, reporting on everything from Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele's Bitcoin bet to crypto exchange FTX's bankruptcy.
XRP remains under pressure across both its USDT and BTC trading pairs, with the broader market structure still favoring sellers. While the token has managed to stabilize above nearby support on the dollar chart, its Bitcoin pair continues to print lower highs and lower lows, highlighting persistent relative weakness.
Ripple Price Analysis: The USDT Pair The daily chart shows XRP trading around $1.08 after an extended decline within a well-defined descending channel. Although the asset has recently moved sideways instead of extending its losses, the broader trend remains bearish as it continues to trade below both the 100-day and 200-day moving averages. These levels are also sloping downward, reinforcing the prevailing negative momentum.
Following the sharp breakdown in June, XRP has established a consolidation range between the $1 support zone and the $1.25 resistance area. Buyers have repeatedly defended the lower boundary, but every recovery attempt has been rejected before reclaiming the declining 100-day moving average or breaking above the channel’s higher boundary, indicating that bullish momentum remains limited.
A breakout above the $1.25 resistance would be the first sign that buyers are regaining control and could expose the descending channel’s upper boundary as the next major hurdle. Until then, the broader structure continues to favor further downside, with a loss of the $1 support opening the door toward significantly lower demand zones.
The RSI is hovering near the neutral 50 level, reflecting the current balance between buyers and sellers after weeks of heavy selling pressure. However, without a decisive bullish breakout, the indicator does not yet suggest a meaningful shift in trend.
The BTC Pair The XRP/BTC daily chart paints an even weaker picture. The pair has remained inside a long-term descending channel for nearly a year while consistently trading beneath both the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, highlighting sustained underperformance against Bitcoin.
After several failed recovery attempts during May and June, XRP/BTC has finally dropped below the key horizontal support around 1,720 sats. This level has repeatedly attracted buyers over the past few months, but each rebound has produced another lower high, signaling that selling pressure continues to dominate.
On the upside, the next important resistance sits around the 1,850 sats region, where previous support has turned into resistance. A move above this area would improve the short-term outlook, but the descending channel and the 200-day moving average near 2,000 sats remain the primary barriers to a broader trend reversal.
Meanwhile, the RSI remains below the midpoint, suggesting that momentum still favors the sellers. Unless XRP/BTC can reclaim key resistance levels and break its long-term bearish structure, the pair appears vulnerable to another test of the channel’s lower boundary, which is now located around 1,500 sats.
Venice AI updates its token economics: introduces a buyback mechanism and raises the supply cap for DIEM.
Venice AI has issued an announcement updating its token economics, with two primary changes: First, a new programmed burn mechanism: For every $100 worth of API credits purchased, $5 will be allocated to buy VVV on the open market and permanently burn the tokens. Second, DIEM’s supply target has been raised for the first time, from 38,000 to 40,000 (an increase of 2,000 units). The adjustment will be rolled out in phases, with the full target expected to be achieved by September 14.
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Trump Media Company prices exclusive early access to Trump’s posts at $100,000 per month.
According to the Financial Times, Trump Media & Technology Group is pitching a $100,000 monthly service to clients that delivers fast access to former President Donald Trump’s posts. Earlier reports noted that Trump Media would sell premium, faster access to posts on its Truth Social platform; the new service allows traders and investors to pay for real-time pushes of Truth Social content. This data feed service will launch next month for institutional clients, including high-frequency algorithmic trading firms.
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Cardano will hand over control of its core software to an external team starting in August.
Cardano developer Input Output will transfer control of key blockchain components—including Haskell nodes, the Plutus platform, and the Daedalus wallet—to external professional teams starting in August, as part of its multi-year decentralization initiative. Independent firms such as Se7en Labs and Teragone will oversee portions of the core infrastructure. At least three Cardano implementations will be maintained in Haskell, Rust, and Go, under community oversight and formal specification management. Cardano is currently grappling with weak network activity and a sharp drop in the ADA token’s price. Founder Charles Hoskinson framed the restructuring and ecosystem-related setbacks as necessary "growing pains" on the path to full decentralization.
2 hours ago
France blocks prediction market Polymarket.
French gambling regulator ANJ announced on July 17 that Polymarket’s website will be blocked in France, following its November 2024 ban on financial transactions with the platform. The ANJ stated that the site’s ongoing operation—with real-time updated odds for various events—qualifies as advertising. Even after banning French accounts from conducting trades on Polymarket, accesses to the platform from French internet addresses have continued to rise, reaching 578,751 visits in June.
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Meta is in talks with Anthropic over a computing power leasing agreement, with the potential deal valued at up to $10 billion.
According to The New York Times, Meta Platforms is in talks with Anthropic over a computing power leasing agreement, with the potential deal size reaching up to $10 billion for a two-year term. The negotiations remain in the early stages. Additionally, market data from BIT (bit.com) shows Meta's share decline has narrowed to 3%.
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Serenity: Its investment portfolio has posted a nearly 50% drawdown this month, and it firmly believes that the current round of adjustment is merely leverage-driven volatility, with its growth logic remaining intact.
Serenity posted a statement noting that their portfolio suffered a 49.4% drawdown this month, with main holdings concentrated in AI bottleneck sectors including memory, photonics, robotics, and upstream semiconductors. Serenity acknowledged pressure from the short-term market crash, but maintained that the volatility stems from liquidity and leverage rather than a breakdown in the structural growth logic of these fields.
The focus has now turned to the upcoming FOMC meeting at the end of the month.
Bitcoin dipped on a couple of occasions below $62,000 during the previous business week, prompted by Strategy’s largest sale to date and the renewed attacks in the Middle East. However, it recovered a lot of ground by the weekend and spent it trading sideways at around $64,000.
Monday began with another nosedive to under the aforementioned level as the market priced in the new attacks between the US and Iran from Saturday and Sunday. Nevertheless, the bulls showed strong conviction and managed to defend that level.
All eyes turned to the US CPI data for June, which went live on Tuesday. Most market experts believed there would be a significant reduction from the May multi-year record, from 4.2% to somewhere around 3.8%-3.9%. However, the actual data was even more promising, showing a drop to 3.5%.
The primary cryptocurrency reacted immediately to the seemingly slowing inflation, rocketing to $64,000 within hours and up to $65,500 on Wednesday. The latter became its highest price tag in approximately three weeks.
However, BTC’s rally came to a halt at that point. The cryptocurrency started a gradual decrease, which pushed it south to $62,400 earlier today. Although it has recovered about a grand since then, it’s still down by more than 2% weekly. Many altcoins have shown even more profound losses, with HYPE leading this adverse trend.
Hyperliquid’s native token has plunged by more than 12% since this time last Friday, followed by SOL’s 6.5% drop and ADA’s near 6% decrease. In contrast, ONDO has jumped by almost 12%, while ZEC is up by 3.7%.
This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss Trump’s New Iran Strategy Revealed: Will Bitcoin Pay the Price Again? After the ceasefire breakdown, reports emerged during the past week outlining Trump’s new strategy against Iran. The new wave of attacks will reportedly involve strikes with a wider scope than the previous ones, which increases the pressure on risk-on assets like BTC.
CRO Surges as Crypto.com Secures $400M in Citadel Securities-Led Funding. In its first-ever institutional funding round, the popular crypto exchange secured a $400 million investment from Citadel Securities. Its native token jumped immediately by 25%, but it was quickly halted and returned to its starting point.
Ripple (XRP) Peaked at $3.65 Exactly a Year Ago: What Went Wrong? It was a year ago today that the cross-border token flew to $3.65 to set a new all-time high. The following 12 months, though, have been quite painful, with the asset dumping by 70%. Nevertheless, the company behind it continues to make major moves. Here are many of them.
Jesse Pollak Leaves Base Leadership After Failed Social Strategy. Base creator Jesse Pollak admitted to adopting the wrong strategy when developing the network, focusing mainly on the social side of the market. Consequently, he decided to step down from his leadership position.
Peter Schiff: Bitcoin Holders Will Soon Regret Not Selling at Current Levels. The full-time BTC critic did in the past week what he has been doing for many years. He used the opportunity to urge bitcoin investors to offload their positions at current levels, as they might regret not doing so soon.
Saylor’s Strategy Boosts USD Reserves by $450M Without Selling BTC: Here’s How. Mondays have become quite intriguing lately due to Strategy’s pivot. After the previous week’s sale, investors expected new controversial announcements from the largest corporate holder of bitcoin. Instead, the firm simply boosted its USD reserve and refrained from making any BTC-related moves.
Eight weeks. That’s how long investors spent yanking money out of Bitcoin funds in what became the longest outflow streak on record. According to CoinShares, that brutal $8 billion exodus has officially ended, with Bitcoin products pulling in roughly $287 million in fresh capital last week.
The numbers behind the reversal CoinShares, which publishes weekly tracking data on digital asset fund flows across the ETP and ETF landscape, reported that broader weekly inflows hit approximately $1.03 billion. Of that total, around $790 million flowed specifically into Bitcoin products.
That’s a sharp contrast to the prior eight weeks, where outflows accumulated to roughly $8 billion. The streak began in early May and persisted through early July, making it the most prolonged period of net selling pressure in the history of digital asset investment products.
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Bitcoin wasn’t the only beneficiary of the mood shift. Ethereum products attracted approximately $84 million in inflows during the same period, suggesting the recovery extends beyond just the largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Year-to-date flows for digital asset products sit at approximately $188 billion according to CoinShares’ data.
What drove the selling, and why it stopped The extended outflow period coincided with broader market pressure throughout much of 2026. Forced selling, portfolio rebalancing, and what CoinShares describes as capitulation dynamics all contributed to the sustained exodus from digital asset funds.
The week ending around July 10 marked the inflection point. Bitcoin fund inflows during this period ranged from $197 million to $312 million depending on the specific product category, with the headline figure landing at $287 million.
CoinShares has emphasized that the data suggests a possible turning point in investor sentiment. The firm tracks fund flows with updates published each Monday and Friday, giving market participants near-real-time visibility into how capital is moving through the ecosystem.
What this means for investors When capital flows back into multiple asset categories simultaneously rather than concentrating in a single token, it typically indicates a broader improvement in risk appetite rather than a one-off event driven by a single catalyst.
Traders should pay close attention to the next two to three weeks of CoinShares data. If inflows persist and potentially accelerate, the case for a genuine sentiment shift becomes much stronger.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Institutional investment in $XRP continues to accelerate as Brookstone Capital Management, a financial advisory firm based in Illinois, revealed a significant stake in the Volatility Shares Trust XRP ETF (XRPI) through its latest 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Brookstone’s XRP ETF positionCrypto market commentator Xaif drew attention to the disclosure, noting that Brookstone now holds 12,380 shares of XRPI valued at approximately $71 million. He characterized this activity as evidence of growing institutional participation in XRP.
Brookstone Capital Management has confirmed a $71 million position in the Volatility Shares Trust XRP ETF, holding 12,380 shares according to its recent SEC filing. This move adds to a pattern of institutional entry into regulated XRP products.
The 13F filing, a quarterly report required by the SEC, documents asset positions of professional investment managers. Unlike an ETF launch application, a 13F filing shows positions that firms already hold in their portfolios.
Several months earlier, similar filings indicated that Goldman Sachs had become the largest holder of spot XRP ETF shares among institutional investors.
Brookstone’s participation highlights their growing interest in products that offer regulated access to cryptocurrencies without necessitating direct asset custody.
Mini dictionary: 13F filing, a quarterly disclosure form that must be submitted by institutional investment managers with over $100 million in assets under management, detailing their holdings in equities and certain ETFs.
The Volatility Shares Trust XRP ETF, listed on Nasdaq, launched in 2025 as an actively managed fund focused primarily on XRP futures contracts. The ETF aims for capital appreciation by allowing investors to gain regulated exposure to XRP market movements, removing the need for direct self-custody of digital assets.
The fund provides a bridge for institutions and retail investors seeking exposure to XRP in a manner compliant with U.S. financial regulations.
Multiple U.S.-listed spot XRP ETFs debuted in November 2025, each structured to allow shareholders to invest in XRP markets with reduced exposure to custody risks and regulatory uncertainty.
ETFLaunch DatePrimary AssetStatusVolatility Shares Trust XRP ETF2025XRP FuturesActiveSpot XRP ETFs (multiple)Nov 2025XRPActive, traded in U.S.Institutional adoption and inflow trendsBrookstone’s filing adds to an ongoing trend of financial institutions seeking crypto exposure through regulated investment vehicles. Spot XRP ETFs in the U.S. reported no net outflow days in their first month after launch. By early December 2025, combined assets under management for these funds had surpassed $1 billion.
Industry data shows that cumulative net inflows into spot XRP ETFs reached $1.44 billion since their launch, underlining persistent appetite from institutional investors.
XRP ETF inflows outpace other crypto fundsThe resilience of XRP ETFs stands out against the backdrop of declining flows in other major digital asset funds. In June, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs recorded outflows exceeding $4 billion, while Ethereum ETFs saw investors withdraw $528.99 million. XRP ETFs, however, attracted $59.4 million in fresh inflows during the same period. This inflow streak for XRP spot ETFs extended for eight consecutive weeks through June 26, underscoring their strong institutional demand.
While capital pulled away from Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in June, XRP ETFs added $59.4 million, continuing an eight-week streak of positive inflows. This momentum indicates a strategic pivot among institutional investors toward diversified crypto exposure.
ETFJune 2026 Net FlowBitcoin ETFs-$4 billionEthereum ETFs-$528.99 millionXRP ETFs+$59.4 millionImplications for XRP holdersBrookstone’s 13F filing is the latest signal that a wider array of investment firms, from multinational banks to smaller advisors, are adopting regulated crypto products such as XRP ETFs to diversify client portfolios. The steady inflows and absence of major outflows reflect a pattern of longer-term allocation, rather than speculative trading.
By using products like the Volatility Shares XRPI fund, investors gain efficient, regulated access to the XRP market, further legitimizing the asset within institutional finance circles.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Crypto markets slipped on Thursday as two forces weighed on sentiment simultaneously: a Senate hearing on the CLARITY Act revealed the legislation may slip further than expected, while a Chinese AI model triggered a global equity selloff wiping $1.8 trillion from stock markets worldwide.
Bitcoin fell to $63,367, down 1.78% over 24 hours, Ethereum dropped to $1,830 and XRP slid to $1.08. The total crypto market cap declined to $2.18 trillion as the Fear and Greed Index held at 31.
CLARITY Act: One Yard Line, No Touchdown Yet
The House Financial Services Committee opened a field hearing in New York examining how the CLARITY Act could unlock innovation across digital assets. The session was informational only with no vote impact, but it marked one of the final formal steps before the bill can reach a Senate floor vote.
Representative Timmons struck a positive tone. “We’re on the one yard line, we just gotta score the touchdown,” he said, describing the legislation as “incredibly important in maintaining the U.S. economy as the centre of the global economy.”
The excitement was tempered by developments on Capitol Hill. Updated legislative text has still not been released following a Trump-Senate Republicans meeting focused on ethics provisions. Industry leaders are privately bracing for the rollout to slip into next week, according to reporter Eleanor Terrett.
Polymarket odds of the CLARITY Act passing crashed to a record low of 31%, even as Trump met with senators in what was described as a last-ditch push to advance the bill before the August recess.
The AI Model That Moved Global Markets
The broader selloff arrived from an unexpected direction. Chinese laboratory Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, a 2.8 trillion parameter open-source model, the largest ever built, surpassing DeepSeek’s previous record of 1.6 trillion parameters. On independent benchmarks it performed close to Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6, while pricing its services at a fraction of the cost.
The implication was immediate. The AI trade has been priced on the assumption that staying competitive requires massive, growing spending on chips and data centres. When a Chinese laboratory builds something nearly as capable for far less, that assumption gets challenged and capital committed to AI infrastructure gets repriced simultaneously.
Asian markets absorbed the initial blow. Japan’s Nikkei fell 4%. Taiwan’s Taiex crashed 6.5% with TSMC down 7.3%. The global semiconductor index fell 3%, entering bear market territory after losing more than 24% from its June peak. Global chip stocks have shed over $2 trillion since June 22.
What to Watch
Two catalysts will determine crypto’s next move. The first is whether CLARITY Act text emerges before the August recess. A confirmed delay removes one of the few remaining positive catalysts in the near-term outlook. The second is whether the AI-driven equity selloff stabilises, given crypto’s current 80%-plus correlation with major equity indices.
Story Ends Here
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A US airstrike on July 15 severely damaged a large warehouse at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base near Rask, Iran, with video footage confirming significant structural damage to the facility’s roof. The strike is part of a broader US military campaign that has now hit over 140 Iranian military sites since July 14, and the ripple effects are landing squarely on crypto portfolios.
Bitcoin has slid toward the $62K to $63K range as the escalation pushes investors into classic risk-off mode.
What’s happening on the ground Rask sits roughly 130 kilometers from Iran’s southern coastline, deep in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.
US officials have described the broader campaign as “shaping operations,” which is military-speak for softening up an adversary’s infrastructure ahead of potentially larger action.
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The IRGC hasn’t been sitting idle either. Iranian forces launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes against US-affiliated facilities in Jordan and Bahrain.
The crypto sanctions front The US Treasury has been systematically targeting Iranian crypto infrastructure suspected of financing IRGC operations.
Back in June 2026, sanctions landed on Iranian platforms including Nobitex and Bitpin for their alleged connections to the IRGC. Nobitex has historically been one of the largest crypto exchanges operating within Iran, handling significant volume for a country where traditional banking channels have been largely cut off from the global system.
Then there’s Tether’s move. The stablecoin issuer froze $344 million in USDT tied to IRGC-linked wallets.
What this means for crypto investors Bitcoin’s decline toward $62K to $63K represents meaningful downside pressure. The move reflects broader uncertainty about how far this military campaign extends and whether retaliatory strikes could disrupt energy markets, which would cascade through every asset class including digital ones.
There are reports of increased interest in gold-backed tokens, which tracks with the general flight-to-safety pattern.
Iran is a major oil producer, and any disruption to production or shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz would spike crude prices.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Eligible E*TRADE clients can now buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana through Zero Hash at a 0.5% fee.
Original image credit: Tada Images / Shutterstock.com
Posted July 17, 2026 at 6:32 am EST.
Original image credit: Tada Images / Shutterstock.com
Morgan Stanley has completed the rollout of spot crypto trading on E*TRADE, giving eligible clients the ability to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana directly on the retail brokerage. The bank announced the launch Thursday, partnering with digital-asset infrastructure provider Zero Hash.
Trades execute through a linked Zero Hash account, which also custodies the assets, at a fee of 0.5%. Clients can view their crypto holdings alongside stocks and other investments, and Morgan Stanley said transfer functionality would arrive later this year. Digital-asset services are set to move to the bank’s own trust entity, Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, once it is operational.
This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.
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Morgan Stanley is betting that trust and integration matter more to its users than novelty, citing a survey by its wealth management arm that found the top factor investors cited when choosing a crypto platform was an established company they can trust. The crypto rollout arrived alongside new retirement-planning tools, fractional-share trading, and an updated IPO center.
The launch caps a year of steady crypto expansion at Morgan Stanley. The firm filed for spot Ethereum and Solana ETFs at market-low fees, introduced a money market fund for stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act, and has received conditional approval for a national trust bank charter to custody digital assets. Morgan Stanley first disclosed plans to bring crypto to E*TRADE in September 2025, naming Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana as the initial assets.
Related Listen: Why You No Longer Have to Choose Between TradFi and Crypto
AI-assisted content: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and was reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a member of the Unchained editorial team before publication.
ETRADE, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, has enabled the purchase of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana for its users, routing these activities through ZeroHash infrastructure at a 0.5% fee. This new service allows ETRADE clients to engage with cryptocurrencies directly within their brokerage accounts without the need for separate wallets or third-party exchanges. While the service does not yet support external transfers and lacks FDIC/SIPC protections, Morgan Stanley plans to expand these capabilities by the end of 2026. This initiative represents a significant move by a traditional finance institution into the crypto market, potentially increasing accessibility and demand for these digital assets.
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Key Takeaways Market data suggests that the integration of Solana on E*TRADE appears to support an increased demand scenario, potentially impacting its price positively. The new service is consistent with expanding traditional financial channels into the crypto space, leveraging Morgan Stanley’s investment in ZeroHash. Current constraints like lack of external transfer capability and custody limitations indicate potential areas for future service enhancements. What to Watch The market will be observing Morgan Stanley’s further developments regarding external transfer capabilities and full service rollout to its 8.6 million E*TRADE users. The impact on Solana’s price will be closely monitored, especially considering its inclusion alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum. Additionally, market participants may look for regulatory updates or strategic moves by Solana Labs and other key actors that could influence Solana’s adoption and valuation. The evolution of crypto offerings by traditional financial institutions remains a key indicator of broader market trends.
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Term Structure
Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h August 1 2026 7.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.4% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 1.4% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.8% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.8% — — View market → August 1 2026 2.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 8.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 1.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 55.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.2% — — View market →
Morgan Stanley has completed the rollout of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana trading on E*TRADE, charging eligible clients a 0.50% fee on each transaction.
Summary
E*TRADE now allows eligible clients to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana for a 0.50% fee. Morgan Stanley plans crypto transfers and a move to its Digital Trust bank later this year. The rollout complements Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin holdings, crypto ETFs and Galaxy Digital lending arrangement. E*TRADE announced in a press release that supported customers can now buy, sell and hold the three digital assets directly through its brokerage platform. Zerohash provides the underlying crypto infrastructure and holds the assets in linked customer accounts.
Each transaction carries a 50-basis-point fee, according to E*TRADE. While the current service covers trading and custody, the brokerage expects to introduce crypto transfers later this year, allowing clients to move supported assets into and out of their accounts.
Following a pilot launched in May, the completed rollout makes the service available to all eligible E*TRADE customers. Morgan Stanley had first disclosed plans to add direct spot crypto trading in 2025.
Morgan Stanley is expanding several crypto services at once E*TRADE’s launch comes as Morgan Stanley prepares to add two exchange-traded funds tied to Ethereum and Solana. As previously reported by crypto.news, amended S-1 filings for both products indicated that their launches were approaching, although the filings did not provide a confirmed trading date.
Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley also launched a spot Bitcoin ETF, becoming the first bank to offer such a product, according to the original report. SoSoValue data showed that the fund had accumulated $384 million in net assets at the time of reporting.
Direct trading gives E*TRADE customers another route to crypto exposure alongside Morgan Stanley’s investment funds. Unlike ETF shares, the new service allows eligible users to hold the underlying Bitcoin, Ether and Solana through Zerohash, while the planned transfer feature would give customers more control over moving those assets.
Morgan Stanley had also increased its tracked Bitcoin balance by nearly 1,000 BTC over the two weeks preceding July 11, according to a crypto.news report published that day. The purchases lifted its reported holdings above 5,700 BTC at the time.
Digital Trust is set to take over the crypto service Later this year, E*TRADE expects to move the crypto offering from Zerohash to Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, the group’s planned national trust bank. The brokerage linked that transition to the introduction of transfer services but did not provide a specific launch date.
Morgan Stanley applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency earlier this year for a crypto-focused national trust bank charter. Its application placed the firm alongside Coinbase, Crypto.com and Ripple, while the OCC has already granted Ripple conditional approval.
Circle has also received OCC approval to establish a national trust bank focused on digital assets. The USDC issuer had secured conditional approval in 2025 alongside BitGo, Fidelity and Paxos.
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management added another crypto route in June through a referral agreement with Galaxy Digital. Under the arrangement, eligible high-net-worth clients can lend Bitcoin, Ether and Solana to Galaxy and receive shares in spot crypto investment products, including the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust.
Taken together, the ETRADE rollout, pending ETF launches and Digital Trust application place trading, investment products, lending referrals and custody infrastructure within Morgan Stanley’s disclosed crypto plans. Each service remains subject to separate eligibility rules, fees and regulatory arrangements set by the companies involved.
Cardone Capital has added another 10.5 Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) to its treasury using rental income from its real estate portfolio.
Dollar-Cost Average ApproachIn an X post on July 16, Grant Cardone said the company remains committed to converting a portion of its free cash flow into Bitcoin through a dollar-cost averaging strategy.
The latest purchase comes just a week after the firm announced it had acquired 107 BTC.
“Despite the fact BTC has not performed well this year, it is just a matter of time," Cardone wrote.
Over the past year, BTC prices dropped 47% as it plunged from its peak levels touched in October 2025.
Cardone Capital has accumulated more than 2,700 BTC across its real estate-Bitcoin hybrid investment strategy. At current prices, the holdings are worth around $170 million.
Analysts Praise The StrategyTechnical analyst Crypto Patel said the firm’s disciplined approach could outperform discretionary investment decisions over the long run.
"A rules-based capital allocation framework often outperforms discretionary decisions over the long term. Converting excess cash flow into Bitcoin on a recurring basis reflects that philosophy well," Patel said.
Bitcoin author Adam Livingston also praised the latest purchase, calling it a capital allocation decision that "is going to pay off extremely well."
Plan AheadCardone has outlined an ambitious roadmap for expanding the firm’s Bitcoin treasury.
The company is targeting 3,000 BTC by the end of this year and 10,000 BTC over the longer term, Bitcoin News reported. It has also said it plans to acquire an additional 1,000 BTC after receiving a planned $600 million institutional investment.
If completed, that purchase would significantly boost Cardone Capital’s standing among corporate Bitcoin holders while reinforcing its strategy of pairing income-producing real estate with recurring Bitcoin accumulation.
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AI inference startup General Compute has secured a $400 million loan, in what is the first financing transaction backed by inference-specific chips as collateral.
AI inference-focused startup General Compute recently secured a $400 million loan from Upper90, marking the first financing transaction backed by inference-specific chips as collateral. The company builds its dedicated cloud platform using SambaNova ASIC chips. General Compute closed a $15 million seed round in May, positioning itself to proxy AI workloads, delivering faster token processing speeds and lower latency than traditional GPU-based clouds, with deployments in existing data centers including crypto mining facilities.
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One hour ago, a founding investor of Lido deposited 4.3 million LDO tokens they have held for five years into Kraken.
According to monitoring by Chinese crypto analytics platform Yu Jing, an initial institutional investor in Lido transferred 4.3 million LDO tokens (valued at $1.61 million) to Kraken one hour ago, after holding the assets for five and a half years. The institution received an allocation of 5 million LDO tokens in December 2020; at the 2021 bull market peak, these tokens were worth $30 million, while their current market capitalization stands at just $1.88 million. However, the investor’s cost basis for acquiring the LDOs is only $0.0085, meaning it still holds over 40x profits even at today’s prices.
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U.S. House Financial Services Committee holds a hearing on the CLARITY Act today, with the updated text possibly delayed until next week.
Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett posted on X that Republican members of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee will hold an in-person hearing in New York at 10 a.m. ET, focusing on how the CLARITY Act can drive innovation in the digital asset space. The hearing is an informational session designed to gather industry input and discuss policy implications, and will not impact the Senate’s ongoing consideration of the bill. Meanwhile, the updated legislative text of the CLARITY Act has not yet been released. Citing industry sources, Terrett noted that crypto industry leaders currently expect the updated text to be delayed until next week.
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The decline in US stocks narrowed, with SK Hynix ADR gaining more than 4%.
According to BIT (bit.com) market data, SK Hynix ADR rebounded after briefly trading below its issue price today, now up over 4% at $158.91. Driven by this, Micron has also turned positive, with a current gain of 0.49%. Earlier news: the preliminary reading of the University of Michigan’s U.S. Consumer Sentiment Index for July hit 54.4, versus an expectation of 51 and a prior reading of 49.5. The preliminary one-year U.S. inflation expectation for July stands at 4.2%, against an expectation of 4.50% and a prior value of 4.60%.
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US Central Command: No US troops have been captured or killed recently.
US Central Command: Claims by Iranian forces that they attacked the US garrison in Syria’s Tanf and captured or killed US troops during the operation are false. No US military personnel have been killed or captured in the region recently. Earlier, Iranian authorities had claimed to have killed multiple US service members.
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Following the opening of US stock markets, Bitcoin and Ethereum accelerated their downward trend; 'Maji' rapidly cut positions to avoid liquidation.
Per HTX market data, Bitcoin and Ethereum accelerated their declines after today’s US stock market opened. As of press time, Bitcoin trades at $62,554.81, down 0.84% over the past hour. Ethereum is holding just above the $1,800 level, currently at $1,810.62. In response, "Maji" has sharply cut its Ethereum long positions in the past hour. HyperInsight monitoring shows its 25x leveraged Ethereum long positions have been reduced to 3,500 coins, valued at $6.338 million, with the long positions’ liquidation price also dropping to $1,795.49—less than 1% away from the current price.
Bitcoin may be approaching a cyclical market low as selling pressure shows signs of exhaustion, according to ARK Invest’s latest The Bitcoin Quarterly report.
The leading digital asset fell around 4% to $58,544 by quarter-end, closing below major technical and on-chain averages after an early rally failed to hold above them.
While ARK views that configuration as historically bearish and said Bitcoin has yet to revisit its realized and investor cost bases, implying potential downside toward $49,000-$53,000, the firm also sees evidence that selling pressure is becoming exhausted.
According to the report, supply in loss surpassed supply in profit, long-term holders accumulated to an all-time high of 14.85 million BTC, and realized-loss velocity briefly exceeded profit-taking, a combination ARK said has historically clustered around capitulation phases.
Meanwhile, realized volatility remained subdued despite the price decline, reflecting a more mature and orderly market.
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Bitcoin traded at $62,806 at press time, off about 2% in the last 24 hours after pulling back from a weekly high of $65,000. The decline came as markets turned cautious over escalating geopolitical risks and uncertainty over the CLARITY Act’s path through Congress.
ETF outflows and STRC weakness pressured Bitcoin’s institutional market According to ARK, institutional Bitcoin markets weakened during the second quarter as treasury financing came under pressure and ETF investors pulled capital, though derivatives markets showed few signs of panic.
Strategy’s STRC preferred stock fell sharply from its $100 face value to a late-June low of about $74.6 before closing the quarter near $85.
ARK said the persistent discount to par suggests financing conditions are worsening for Bitcoin treasury companies, increasing their cost of capital and potentially limiting future Bitcoin purchases.
At the same time, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their first seven-week streak of net outflows, with investors withdrawing approximately 71,000 BTC over the quarter and removing a key source of market support.
Despite those headwinds, the three-month futures basis stayed slightly positive at around 2.3%, indicating muted bullish positioning without slipping into backwardation, ARK added.
Productivity and AI investment support long-term US growth On macro, ARK noted that the US macro environment continues to favor long-term growth, supported by rising productivity and accelerating business investment despite lingering inflation pressures.
The firm also said the recent flattening of the Treasury yield curve should be viewed as evidence of technology-driven deflationary pressures rather than a recession warning.
In addition, record orders for core capital goods point to a strengthening investment cycle fueled by AI, energy infrastructure, deregulation and tax policy, which the firm expects to extend beyond previous technology booms.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Bitcoin is taking hits from two directions at once. BTC USD price is around $62,832, that headline number represent a brutal 48 hours that pushed the price below $63,000, a level traders treat as the structural floor for any credible bull case.
Whether that floor holds depends heavily on events unfolding far outside the crypto market.
U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s Hormozgan province, striking five bridges and a maritime control tower at Chabahar, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, hit risk assets hard across the board.
Japan’s Nikkei dropped nearly 3% to a one-month low. Nasdaq futures slid 2%, extending Thursday’s 1.6% cash-session loss. Bitcoin extended its own Thursday decline of roughly 1.4% from $65,000, briefly breaching $60,000 amid approximately $1 billion in crypto liquidations, with around $780 million hitting long positions.
BREAKING: Nasdaq 100 futures extend losses to over -2% as memory stocks fall sharply and the Iran War continues. pic.twitter.com/ofQioGsRol
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) July 17, 2026
Separately, President Trump declassified intelligence alleging China obtained 220 million U.S. voter records, a claim Beijing’s embassy flatly denied, rattling the Australian dollar, a reliable G10 proxy for China risk sentiment.
The macro setup is now genuinely uncomfortable for BTC bulls, and the next few sessions will test whether spot demand can absorb what leveraged traders have been forced to sell.
Two catalysts are driving volatility simultaneously, and neither has a clear resolution timeline. That’s the challenge.
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Can BTC USD Price Recover Above $65,000 This Week? BTC is trading in a composite spot range of $63,000 to $64,000. The post-liquidation bounce has stalled rather than accelerated.
Volume context matters here. The $1 billion liquidation flush was a forced-seller event, not an organic distribution. That historically creates messy range-bound price action rather than clean trend moves in either direction.
BTC is trading just below its 50-day SMA, a technically soft position. Current structure reads as leveraged longs getting flushed while spot buyers defend major support. Consolidation, not collapse, but fragile consolidation.
Source: BTCUSD / Tradingview $60,000 holding as support on any retest, geopolitical headlines stabilizing, and BTC USD reclaiming $65,000 on volume opens a run toward prior resistance at $67,000. Choppy range-trading between $60,000 and $65,000 while macro uncertainty persists is the base case.
A decisive close below $60,000 on meaningful volume damages near-term bullish structure materially and likely triggers another wave of systematic selling.
That level is doing a lot of work right now. Watch it closely.
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Bitcoin Hyper Presale Attracts Attention as BTC Navigates Turbulence When spot BTC churns sideways under geopolitical pressure and the easy leveraged gains have already been liquidated away, some traders rotate attention toward early-stage infrastructure plays where price discovery hasn’t happened yet.
That calculus, not hype, is what’s directing attention toward Bitcoin’s Layer 2 ecosystem right now. Volatility at the base layer tends to sharpen the argument for scalability solutions sitting above it.
Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) is positioning itself as the first Bitcoin Layer 2 integrating the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), the smart contract execution environment that powers Solana’s speed, with the goal of delivering sub-second, low-cost transaction finality while inheriting Bitcoin’s security model.
The project’s Decentralized Canonical Bridge handles native BTC transfers between layers without custodial risk. The presale has raised exactly $32,968,641.95 at a current token price of $0.0136832, with staking available for participants.
That’s a meaningful amount of committed capital for a presale stage, though early-stage tokens carry significant risk, protocol delivery, token unlock schedules, and market conditions at launch all remain open variables.
Visit Bitcoin Hyper HERE.
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Alex Ioannou
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Alex is a seasoned cryptocurrency trader and market analyst with over seven years of active experience in the digital asset space. Since entering the markets in 2017, Alex has specialized in identifying emerging "meta" trends and high-volatility narratives. Notably, Alex... Read More
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Bitcoin (BTC) edges below $64,000 on Friday, extending losses for the third consecutive day after the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) capped recovery around $65,000. Hyperliquid (HYPE) and Celestia (TIA) stand out as the worst performers over the last 24 hours, with nearly 10% losses.
Bitcoin extends decline below its 50-day EMABitcoin edges below $64,000 on Friday, maintaining a bearish near-term tone as it remains below the 50-day EMA at $65,041 and the 200-day EMA at $75,025. Momentum is mixed, with the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator still in positive territory and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) dipping to the neutral 50 level, suggesting consolidation rather than a decisive recovery.
Bitcoin must clear the 50-day EMA at $65,041 for a steady recovery, which could target the $70,000 psychological threshold.
BTC/USDT daily price chart.On the downside, the key structural floor is the horizontal support at $60,000, where a sustained break would likely reopen a broader corrective phase in the daily picture.
Hyperliquid and Celestia take a bearish reversalHyperliquid hovers around $60 at press time on Friday, maintaining a bearish near-term bias after breaking below its 50-day EMA at $63.09, with a 9% drop the previous day. Still, the longer-term 200-day EMA at $49.85 underpins the broader structure.
The MACD descends into negative territory with a bearish profile, and the RSI near 41 suggests subdued momentum, reinforcing the downside pressure.
The path of least resistance for HYPE targets the previous swing low from June 10 at $52.67, followed by the 200-day EMA at $49.85.
HYPE/USD daily price chart.On the topside, initial resistance is at the 50-day EMA at $63.09, with a stronger barrier at the former upward-sloping trendline break near $70.29.
Celestia maintains a bearish near-term bias, testing its 50-day EMA at $0.3838 on Friday, which is well below the 200-day EMA at $0.5053. This positioning suggests the broader trend remains pressured, after price failed to surpass the 50% retracement level at $0.4104, measured over the downswing from $0.6257 to $0.2693.
The RSI around 47 hints at neutral-to-slightly soft momentum, while the MACD has slipped marginally below zero, reinforcing a loss of upside conviction following recent rebounds.
Looking down, the 23.6% retracement at $0.3285 is the first notable support, ahead of the structural cycle low at $0.2693, where buyers are expected to defend the broader range.
TIA/USDT daily price chart.On the topside, initial resistance is seen at the 50% retracement at $0.4104, before the 200-day EMA at $0.5053, which caps the long-term recovery potential.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)
