Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Bitcoin and XRP Price movements remained cautious as traders awaited signals from Washington about the CLARITY Act. The broader crypto market fell 1.35% over 24 hours, reducing its value to about $2.2 trillion. Bitcoin hovered near $64,000, while XRP traded above $1.10 and eyed further recovery.

Trump To Attend Key Meeting For Clarity Act President Donald Trump will meet Republican senators and senior advisers on Thursday to discuss the crypto market structure bill. The meeting will focus on unresolved ethics concerns and progress surrounding the CLARITY Act. 

Expected attendees include Senators Bernie Moreno and Cynthia Lummis, alongside White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt.

Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Solana Policy Institute President Kristin Smith are expected to attend. The negotiations coincide with the resistance amplified by Senate Democrats after  Trump has been found to have cryptocurrency earnings and financial interests. 

HUGE: 🇺🇸 President Trump is set to meet with U.S. senators today to discuss the crypto market structure bill, better known as the CLARITY Act. https://t.co/SxeSNkMYzZ pic.twitter.com/P7cewbrVdn

— Crypto Rover (@cryptorover) July 16, 2026

Critics are demanding greater protection against federal officials who are enriching themselves with digital assets and are controlling industry regulation.

The current prediction markets have an estimated 41% probability that the law will be presented into law by 2026. These odds have decreased by nearly 25% points due to political differences and congressional time issues.

Bitcoin and XRP Price Prediction: Key Levels To Watch Bitcoin and XRP Price trends remain cautious as traders await fresh developments surrounding upcoming CLARITY Act discussions in Washington.

The Bitcoin remains trading close to the important support of $64,100 as larger weakness strained major cryptocurrencies in the most recent market session.

Source: Tradingview Holding this level could allow BTC to stabilize before challenging resistance around $65,500. The recovery can continue to reach $66,000 in the near term due to sustained buying momentum as per the full Bitcoin forecast report.

Nonetheless, a daily close of less than $64,000 may result in losses to the support zone of $61,800 to $62,000. 

Over 24 hours, the XRP price fell 1.37% to $1.10 as the market declined. Defending 1.10 may help in a recovery to 1.15. Stronger demand may push XRP above $1.20. A failure at less than $1.10 would reveal the support at about 1.06 during the ensuing sessions.

Bitcoin ETFs Attract $108M While XRP Funds Record No Inflows U.S. spot XRP ETFs had no net inflows as of July 15, with cumulative inflows of $1.48 billion.  XRP funds headed by Bitwise had assets amounting to $312.85 million. Canary and Franklin were the next to follow Bitwise, but all the listed XRP funds were closed lower.  

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded total net inflows of USD 108 million on July 15, with BlackRock’s IBIT posting the largest single-day inflow at USD 80.82 million. 

According to SoSoValue data, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded total net inflows of USD 108 million on July 15, with BlackRock’s IBIT posting the largest single-day inflow at USD 80.82 million. Spot Ethereum ETFs drew USD 53.83 million, led by BlackRock’s ETHA with USD 45.29… pic.twitter.com/4YrMd19EDs

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 16, 2026

Spot Ethereum ETFs drew USD 53.83 million, led by BlackRock’s ETHA with USD 45.29 million in net inflows. BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager and operates the largest U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF by assets.

Wall Street heavyweight T. Rowe Price, which boasts a staggering$7 trillion in assets under management, has entered the cryptocurrency ETF market with the launch of its first actively managed multi-token fund. 

The much-anticipated product provides exposure to Bitcoin as well as to altcoins such as Ethereum and XRP. 

The new ETF began trading on Thursday under the TKNZ ticker, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. 

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The launch is particularly noteworthy given T. Rowe Price's long history as an active stock manager dating back to before World War II.

The fund debuted with approximately $15 million in assets with a 0.75% management fee.

Balchunas opined earlier this week that T. Rowe Price appeared to be waiting until the recent crypto market selloff had subsided before bringing the product to market. 

Yet another giant embracing crypto T. Rowe Price is one of the world's largest asset managers, which makes the recent launch particularly significant. The Baltimore-based financial institution oversees retirement savings, pension assets, mutual funds, and institutional portfolios for millions of investors around the globe.

The financial titan has spent decades building its stellar reputation, so its entry into the crypto space is yet another sign of crypto reaching broad mainstream acceptance. 

The firm's arrival also follows similar moves by other Wall Street firms, such as BlackRock and Fidelity. 

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Long before launching a crypto ETF, T. Rowe Price was investing indirectly in the sector through private markets.

The firm participated in funding rounds for major crypto companies, including Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, and Bullish, the digital asset exchange backed by Block.one. It also held stakes in Coinbase around the time of the exchange's public listing through various growth-oriented funds.

Solana and XRP are among the fund's top holdings Bitcoin remains the largest holding with a 40.75% weighting. Ethereum accounts for 18.42%, followed by BNB at 11.01%.

Solana represents 9.44% of assets, narrowly ahead of XRP, which makes up 9.37% of the portfolio.

The remaining allocations include Hyperliquid (HYPE) with 6.45%, Stellar (XLM) with 3.00%, Dogecoin (DOGE) with 1.28%, and USD Coin (USDC) with 0.16%.

Balchunas noted that the ETF is "underweight Bitcoin and overweight most of the rest, especially HYPE."

Apple closed up 1.76% to hit another all-time high, with positive momentum from Apple Intelligence's China localization continuing to build.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Apple closed 1.76% higher in U.S. stock trading, hitting a record high of $333.26 per share, and rose an additional 0.47% in after-hours trading. On the news front, on July 15, Apple Intelligence completed its first domestic generative AI filing in China. Alibaba’s Qianwen AI will be integrated into Apple Intelligence as its AI capability, providing Chinese users of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS with services including text and image understanding, content generation, and more—allowing users to experience these features directly without switching between apps. In addition to Alibaba’s Qianwen AI, Baidu’s AI capabilities will also be integrated into Apple Intelligence, marking the official implementation of Apple’s localized AI strategy in the Chinese market.

5 minutes ago

Japanese storage chip firm Kioxia dropped over 10% intraday, with its market capitalization now halved from its June peak.

According to Bitget market data, Japanese storage stock Kioxia plunged more than 10% intraday, its market capitalization has halved from the June peak, and the Nikkei 225 index is currently down 2.18% intraday.

5 minutes ago

The first Federal Reserve official to call for interest rate hikes since Powell took office has emerged, with Lorie Logan backing rate increases to combat high inflation.

The first Federal Reserve official to call for a rate hike since Walsh assumed office has emerged. Earlier today, Fed official Logan said the central bank should raise interest rates to tackle high inflation – a remark signaling she may be prepared to vote against keeping rates unchanged later this month. Logan added that June inflation data released Tuesday shows price growth is moderating, but not enough to convince her inflation has returned to the Fed’s 2% target trajectory.

5 minutes ago

Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase will provide $50 billion in acquisition financing and serve as advisors for the PayPal acquisition deal.

Sources say JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley will provide $50 billion in acquisition financing and act as advisors for the PayPal (PYPL.O) takeover. Fifteen days prior, Stripe — the world’s largest private payments company — and U.S. private equity firm Advent International jointly proposed to acquire the long-standing online payments giant PayPal at $60.5 per share, valuing the company at over $530 billion total, a roughly 28% premium over PayPal’s Tuesday closing price, backed by approximately $50 billion in financing commitments from multiple banks. Under the deal terms, Stripe and Advent will each hold a 50% stake in PayPal.

5 minutes ago

JPMorgan: Strategy’s increased cash reserves send a positive signal, and demand for Bitcoin futures has also improved.

JPMorgan analysts noted in a recent report that Strategy has recently increased its U.S. dollar reserves from $2.55 billion to $3 billion, enough to cover roughly 20 months of preferred stock dividend payments, an encouraging sign for Bitcoin’s outlook. If Strategy can rebuild its U.S. dollar reserves to a level covering two to three years of dividends, it will ease market concerns that the company may be forced to sell Bitcoin in the future to cover preferred stock dividend payments. Meanwhile, despite sharp recent volatility in spot Bitcoin ETF flows, both Bitcoin futures and perpetual contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) recorded net inflows this week—flows typically driven by institutional investors rather than retail, in contrast to the outflows seen in spot ETFs. Additionally, leveraged ETFs linked to Strategy have seen relatively stable, positive net flows over the past seven weeks, driven mainly by retail buying, which has supported Strategy’s common stock price and prevented it from falling below the net asset value of its Bitcoin holdings. Strategy President and CEO Phong Le stated earlier this week that the company’s balance sheet is very secure; it will only begin to worry about debt-related risks if Bitcoin falls to roughly the $8,000–$10,000 range, and plans to issue more shares after STRC preferred stock returns to its $100 par value to further accumulate Bitcoin and expand its U.S. dollar reserves. JPMorgan also reiterated that Strategy is not a major structural threat to Bitcoin; a larger risk lies in the promotion of blockchain technology through permissioned systems, which does not benefit public blockchains or their tokens.

5 minutes ago

The Nikkei 225 index opened sharply down 3.00%.

According to Bitget market data, the Nikkei 225 index plunged 3.00% at opening and is currently trading at 64,828.46 points. South Korean stock markets are closed today for Constitution Day.

5 minutes ago

According to the analyst, waiting for universal confirmation of a market bottom could mean missing the strongest early opportunities.

Crypto trader Axel Bitblaze has laid out a fresh market thesis built on a video from analyst Taiki Maeda, arguing that assets like Hyperliquid (HYPE), Lighter (LIT), and Zcash (ZEC) are already trading like winners of the next cycle while most investors are waiting for a fourth-quarter bottom.

He says that markets tend to move before the crowd agrees a bottom has formed, so the better window to position could be mid-to-late Q3 and not whenever things look safe.

The Case for HYPE, LIT, and ZEC On July 15, Maeda shared a video on his X account in which he said that crypto was bottoming and that he would be longing HYPE, LIT, and ZEC.

His take was expanded on by Bitblaze in a July 16 post, who noted that Hyperliquid has bought back about 3.4% of the circulating HYPE supply this year, allowing the token to perform well even as sector mainstays such as Bitcoin (BTC) struggled.

“If BTC volatility causes another $HYPE dip without changing its fundamentals… that could be an accumulation opportunity,” wrote the analyst.

Lighter’s LIT token was presented as a higher-risk alternative, with Bitblaze crediting its reported partnership with Robinhood for giving the decentralized perpetual exchange access to a much wider audience. He also noted that buybacks have removed more than 6% of LIT’s circulating supply, helping to push it to an all-time high on the second-to-last day of 2025, when many altcoins were losing ground.

Meanwhile, ZEC carries the most caution. In his market update video, Maeda said he sold the privacy coin after the discovery of a vulnerability in its Orchard shielded pool that could have allowed bad actors to create unlimited amounts of fake ZEC, triggering a 60% collapse. He did, however, buy most of the ZEC back after reassessing the project’s outlook, with the Ironwood upgrade set for July 28 expected to introduce stronger quantum resistance and use formal verification to reduce the risk of hidden bugs.

That update, according to Bitblaze, could help push up the asset’s price. Recall that last week, Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox said that they were close to producing a mathematical proof that Ironwood’s new shielded pools have no undetectable counterfeiting bugs, taking ZEC’s price past $500.

You may also like: Bitwise Report: Crypto Fundamentals Are Getting Stronger Despite Third Straight Negative Quarter ZEC Briefly Tops $500 After Founder Says Formal Proof Is Nearly Ready Analyst Predicts 2-3 Years of Crypto Gains as Risk-On Environment Emerges The token is trading at about 0.8% of Bitcoin’s market cap, and per Maeda’s model, it could go anywhere between $650 and $700 if that ratio climbs back to 1%.

Traders Urged Not to Wait for Bitcoin Bitblaze said that crypto has been in a bear market since the euphoria experienced in mid-2025 when ETH was closing in on $5,000. Now, people are waiting for the bottom, which, according to him, has been penciled in for Q4 2026.

But he believes the market has a tendency to “front-run what everyone expects,” meaning it is better for traders to start positioning themselves between August and September “before the recovery becomes obvious.”

“Don’t wait for Bitcoin and the entire market to look perfect,” the analyst advised. “The next winner usually starts separating from the market before everyone accepts that the bottom is forming.”

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Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE platform has launched spot cryptocurrency trading, allowing eligible clients to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin, Ether and Solana through a partnership with crypto infrastructure provider Zero Hash.

Clients can view their crypto holdings alongside stocks and other traditional investments on the E*TRADE platform, while transfer functionality for moving digital assets on and off the platform is expected later this year.

The self-directed channel served 8.6 million households and held about $1.56 trillion in client assets as of March 31, according to Morgan Stanley’s latest financial supplement.

According to Thursday’s announcement, trades carry a 50-basis-point fee, while custody and transaction services are handled through separate Zero Hash accounts that are not covered by FDIC or SIPC protections. Morgan Stanley said it expects to transition the digital asset services to Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, its national trust bank currently in organization.

Morgan Stanley also introduced several non-crypto updates across the customer platform, including fractional share trading, a revamped retirement planning tool and new features for its Power E*TRADE Pro desktop platform.

The rollout follows a pilot launched in May, when the company began testing the service with a limited group of users before expanding access to eligible E*TRADE clients.

Morgan Stanley broadens crypto strategyBeyond retail spot trading, Morgan Stanley has expanded its digital asset business into stablecoin reserve services and crypto exchange-traded funds this year.

In April, the Wall Street giant launched a stablecoin reserve offering that allows issuers to hold the assets backing their tokens in one of the firm’s money market funds while earning interest.

The same month, the company launched its spot Bitcoin ETF with a 0.14% management fee, making it the lowest-cost Bitcoin ETF on the US market at the time. The fund debuted on NYSE Arca as the first spot Bitcoin ETF launched by a major US commercial bank.

During its first six trading days, the ETF attracted more than $100 million in net inflows, surpassing the cumulative inflows of WisdomTree’s spot Bitcoin ETF, which launched in January 2024. At the time of writing, the fund has attracted about $385 million in cumulative net inflows, according to SoSoValue data.

In June, Morgan Stanley amended its proposed spot Ether and Solana ETF filings to set management fees at 0.14% after first applying to list the funds in January.

Top 10 Bitcoin ETFs. Source: SoSoValue

Magazine: Gambling on random Pokémon cards: Onchain gagcha hits record high as crypto sinks

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

@TRowePrice, the $1.8 trillion asset manager, has listed the T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF under the ticker $TKNZ on NYSE Arca, marking what the firm describes as the first actively managed multi-token spot crypto ETF to reach the market.

How the Fund Works Unlike passive index-tracking products, $TKNZ can hold between 5 and 15 digital assets from an eligible universe of 15 tokens, with portfolio managers rotating among them based on fundamentals, valuations, and momentum. The eligible universe includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance, XRP, Solana, Hyperliquid, and others.

Blue Macellari leads the ETF alongside four co-portfolio managers, leveraging T. Rowe Price's research-driven active investment strategy. She is joined by Stefan Hubrich (21 years of experience), David Kroger (9 years), Sean McWilliams (17 years), and Dante Pearson (13 years).

The ETF carries a 0.75% management fee, with a fee waiver in place through May 31, 2027. That puts it at a clear premium over passive single-coin Bitcoin funds, though the active mandate is the explicit justification for the higher cost.

Why It Matters It marks the first time a traditional asset manager of T. Rowe Price's scale, a firm that oversees approximately $1.9 trillion in assets predominantly for pension funds, retirement savers, and institutional clients, has received regulatory clearance to offer a regulated crypto product to its distribution network.

The active management structure differentiates $TKNZ from existing passive products, allowing the portfolio team to reduce exposure during downturns and increase it during periods of structural support, a feature that could appeal to institutional risk managers who have flagged volatility as the primary barrier to allocation.

For U.S. retail investors accustomed to accessing markets through mutual funds and ETFs, the product offers a way to gain diversified crypto exposure without opening a dedicated crypto exchange account. Single-coin ETFs opened the door for institutional participation in digital assets. With $TKNZ, the stock pickers are now inside.

Sources:
T. Rowe Price official press release: Active Crypto ETF launch
SEC filing: T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF (TKNZ) Form FWP
Crypto Times: T. Rowe Price Debuts Active Crypto ETF TKNZ

Bitcoin

16 July 2026 | 20:23 E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley completed the rollout of spot cryptocurrency trading on July 16, allowing eligible US clients to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana through its website and mobile application.

Key Takeaways E*TRADE has completed the rollout of spot trading for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Trades carry a flat 0.50% commission with no additional spread fee or markup from E*TRADE. Crypto is currently held in a separate Zero Hash account and cannot yet be transferred to an external wallet. Solana gains access to a large brokerage audience, but that does not immediately translate into activity on the Solana network. According to the official information from the company, clients do not need to fund a separate crypto balance manually. Cash in the linked brokerage account provides the buying power, with funds moving between the accounts when a trade settles.

Morgan Stanley reported 8.7 million self-directed households as of June 30, 2026. That figure describes the service’s potential distribution network rather than the number of immediate crypto users. Clients must still qualify for and open a separate non-brokerage account provided by Zero Hash.

The Distribution Is More Important Than the Asset List Bitcoin and Ethereum are increasingly standard additions to institutional crypto products. Solana’s inclusion is more notable because E*TRADE launched with only three supported assets, placing SOL beside the two largest cryptocurrencies rather than introducing it through a broader catalogue.

The immediate advantage is reduced friction. An investor who already holds cash or securities at E*TRADE can add direct crypto exposure without opening and funding an account at a dedicated exchange. Crypto positions can also be viewed alongside the rest of the investor’s portfolio.

That convenience could expand demand for all three assets, but the size of E*TRADE’s customer base should not be treated as expected trading volume. Morgan Stanley has not disclosed how many households have opened crypto accounts, how much volume the service has processed, or how activity is divided between BTC, ETH, and SOL.

What the 0.50% Fee Costs Against Rivals According to E*TRADE’s official crypto pricing, every transaction carries a commission equal to 0.50% of its notional value. E*TRADE says there is no additional spread fee or markup.

$100 trade: $0.50 commission $1,000 trade: $5 commission $10,000 trade: $50 commission The comparison with other platforms is less straightforward. Coinbase Advanced varies its maker and taker fees according to order type and 30-day trading volume, so some users may pay less than 0.50% and others more.

Robinhood does not charge a separately stated commission under its default market-maker routing, but the execution spread still creates a cost. In Robinhood’s own example, a $100 purchase with a 0.96% buy spread carries $0.96 in spread cost. Applied to a $1,000 order, the same illustrative spread would equal $9.60, although the actual spread changes with the asset and market conditions.

For an occasional investor, E*TRADE’s advantage is predictability: a $1,000 order costs $5 before any later sale. Frequent traders should calculate both sides of the transaction, because buying and later selling $1,000 of crypto would produce approximately $10 in commissions if the value remained unchanged.

What Customers Can and Cannot Do The service is currently available through the main E*TRADE website and mobile application. Support for Power E*TRADE is still listed as coming soon.

According to E*TRADE’s crypto account documentation, the main trading conditions are:

Platform Specifications Assets

BTC, ETH, SOL

Trading Hours

24/7 Always Open

Order Types

Market & Limit

Order Size

$10 – $500k

Precision

8 Decimal Places

Transfers

Not Available

Who Is E*TRADE Crypto Actually For? The service is most useful for investors who already manage stocks, funds, and cash through E*TRADE and want a small allocation to BTC, ETH, or SOL without opening and funding a separate crypto exchange account.

It May Be a Good Fit For: Existing E*TRADE clients who want crypto displayed beside their traditional portfolio. Occasional buyers who prefer a fixed and visible commission over a variable fee structure. Investors seeking price exposure without managing wallet addresses, private keys, or blockchain transactions. Users focused only on BTC, ETH, and SOL rather than a broad selection of smaller assets. It Is a Weaker Fit For: Active traders whose cumulative 0.50% commissions could become expensive. Self-custody users who want to control their own private keys. Onchain participants who intend to stake SOL, use Ethereum applications, access DeFi, or send crypto to another person. Altcoin investors who need access beyond the three supported assets. The product is therefore closer to an integrated brokerage service than a full crypto platform. Its strongest feature is convenience, while its main limitation is the lack of control and utility available through a self-custodied wallet.

How Existing E*TRADE Clients Activate Crypto Trading E*TRADE clients do not receive crypto trading automatically. They must open a separate Zero Hash account and link it to an eligible individual brokerage account.

According to E*TRADE’s official account and trading walkthrough, an existing client follows this route:

1

Navigate to Profile

Log in to etrade.com and head straight to your Profile section.

2

Access Trading Features

Go to “Account Preferences,” then select “Additional Trading Features.”

3

Select Crypto Option

Choose “Crypto powered by Zero Hash” from the list.

4

Link Your Account

Pick the brokerage account you want to connect to the crypto portal.

5

Accept & Confirm

Review the agreements and wait for your application approval.

On the web platform, users open Trading and select Crypto. In the mobile application, they tap Trade, select Crypto under Security Type, and choose BTC/USD, ETH/USD, or SOL/USD.

The order ticket supports market and limit orders. Before submission, the preview screen displays the estimated commission, total cost, selected quantity, and available purchasing power.

Crypto Taxes Are Easier to Track, but Not Automatic Trading through a traditional brokerage interface does not place crypto outside US tax rules. Selling BTC, ETH, or SOL for dollars generally creates a reportable capital gain or loss based on the difference between the sale proceeds and the investor’s adjusted cost basis.

E*TRADE states that Zero Hash will furnish Form 1099-DA and make it available through the E*TRADE Tax Center. The form reports proceeds from digital-asset dispositions and may also include cost-basis information where applicable.

That should make record collection easier than trading across several exchanges and wallets, but it does not calculate the investor’s final tax liability. The IRS requires taxpayers to report their digital-asset income, gains, and losses even when a form is missing or does not contain all the necessary basis information.

For a simple buy-and-hold investor, the process may remain relatively manageable. Frequent buying and selling can produce many separate taxable disposals, making the transaction history, acquisition dates, commissions, and cost basis important at tax time.

The 0.50% trading fee also affects the calculation. Transaction costs may be included when determining the acquisition basis or the amount realized on a sale, depending on the transaction. Investors with substantial activity should confirm the treatment with a qualified US tax professional.

No Withdrawals Means No Onchain Control E*TRADE clients can buy, sell, and hold the three supported assets, but they cannot currently transfer them to an external wallet. In plain English, customers receive economic exposure to the assets without direct control over their private keys.

That Creates Practical Limitations: ETH bought through E*TRADE cannot be used to pay Ethereum network fees. SOL cannot be moved into a personal wallet for staking or use across Solana applications. BTC cannot be transferred to a hardware wallet for self-custody. None of the supported assets can currently be sent to another person or deposited into a DeFi protocol. Solana’s inclusion is still notable because E*TRADE launched with only three assets, placing SOL beside Bitcoin and Ethereum. For now, however, that creates brokerage demand rather than direct activity across Solana applications, staking protocols, decentralized exchanges, or payment services.

The assets are held in the customer’s separate Zero Hash account rather than being custodied by Morgan Stanley. They are not covered by FDIC insurance or SIPC protection.

Morgan Stanley expects transfer functionality to launch later in 2026, but final details such as withdrawal limits, supported wallet types, transfer fees, and eligibility requirements have not yet been published.

Until transfers become available, the service is best understood as a convenient way to trade crypto prices inside E*TRADE, not as a replacement for a wallet or a full crypto exchange.

Morgan Stanley Is Building More Than a Trading Feature The E*TRADE rollout is one part of a broader digital-asset strategy.

In April, Morgan Stanley Investment Management launched the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust with a 0.14% sponsor fee. Later that month, it introduced a Stablecoin Reserves Portfolio designed for regulated issuers that need eligible reserve assets.

Strategic Business Pillars

Direct Retail Trading:
Empowering individual investors through seamless integration with E*TRADE.

Regulated Investment:
Providing structured Bitcoin exposure via the MSBT investment vehicle.

Reserve Management:
Specialized cash management services tailored for stablecoin issuers.

Digital Custody:
Future-proofing asset security via Morgan Stanley Digital Trust.

Morgan Stanley’s announcement states that the E*TRADE digital-asset service is eventually expected to transition from Zero Hash to Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, National Association, which remains in organization. Until that transition takes place, Zero Hash continues to provide the crypto account, execution infrastructure, and custody.

What Would Make the Rollout Material The launch expands access, but access alone does not establish adoption. The next evidence should come from disclosed account openings, trading volume, client assets, and the share of activity generated by each supported cryptocurrency.

Three developments would make the rollout more consequential:

A meaningful number of E*TRADE households activating linked crypto accounts. The launch of external transfers, especially for ETH and SOL users seeking onchain access. An expansion beyond the initial three assets or the addition of services such as staking. The rollout’s importance will ultimately be measured by activated accounts, trading volume, client assets, and whether Morgan Stanley expands the service beyond basic buying and selling. E*TRADE has opened a large distribution channel for crypto, but the size of its customer base alone does not establish adoption.

The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice.

Author

Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coindoo and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.

In brief Eligible E*Trade customers can now trade spot Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Crypto trades are executed through Zero Hash, which also provides custody. The launch follows Morgan Stanley's ETF filings, tokenization plans, and stablecoin initiatives announced earlier this year. Morgan Stanley has launched spot cryptocurrency trading on its E*TRADE platform, allowing eligible customers to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana through a partnership with digital asset infrastructure provider Zero Hash.

In a post on Thursday, Morgan Stanley said the new offering lets investors view their cryptocurrency holdings alongside stocks and other investments in E*TRADE. Digital assets are held in linked Zero Hash accounts rather than by Morgan Stanley. The company said trades will carry a 50-basis-point fee, while crypto transfer functionality is expected later this year.

“Our clients’ needs are evolving, and they want to invest, trade, bank, and plan for the future all in one place,” Matt Jones, Head of E*TRADE, said in a statement. “Whether they’re buying their first share, exploring crypto, participating in an IPO, or planning for retirement, our job is to meet them where they are – with the confidence and trust that comes from being part of Morgan Stanley.”

The rollout coincides with a broader platform update that includes retirement planning tools, fractional share trading, an updated IPO Center, and new features for active traders.

"With the rollout of crypto trading on E*TRADE we're advancing our digital assets strategy and bringing new capabilities to clients in an integrated way," Chad Turner, head of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Platforms, said in a statement.

The launch follows several crypto-related initiatives by Morgan Stanley this year.

In January, the firm filed registration statements with the SEC for spot Bitcoin and Solana exchange-traded funds, marking its move toward offering branded crypto investment products. In April, Morgan Stanley said it was exploring tokenization, tokenized money market funds, and tax-management tools for digital assets. Later that month, the bank introduced a money market fund designed for stablecoin issuers to manage reserves under the GENIUS Act.

Morgan Stanley first disclosed plans to bring crypto trading to E*TRADE in September 2025, saying it would initially support Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana through Zero Hash. The rollout completes that plan, adding direct spot crypto trading to the firm's brokerage platform as it continues to expand its digital asset offerings.

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Morgan Stanley’s brokerage firm, E*TRADE, has completed the rollout of its spot crypto trading offering following an initial pilot earlier this year. This comes as the Wall Street giant continues to deepen its push into the crypto space, with the imminent launch of two new crypto ETFs.

Morgan Stanley Completes Rollout of Spot BTC, ETH, SOL Trading In a press release, E*TRADE announced that it had completed the rollout of spot trading in digital assets. Its eligible clients will now be able to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana directly on its platform through its partnership with Zerohash.

The Morgan Stanley brokerage firm will charge a fee of 50 bps on each trade as its clients buy, sell, and hold crypto in a linked Zerohash account. The firm added that it expects to launch transfer functionality later this year.

The full rollout of spot crypto trading on the E*TRADE platform follows the initial pilot program in May. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that the firm had first announced plans to offer spot crypto trading last year.

This move deepens Morgan Stanley’s push into the crypto space. As CoinGape reported, Morgan Stanley Ethereum and Solana ETFs are nearing launch after the bank filed amended S-1 filings. The bank became the first to offer a crypto ETF after it launched its Bitcoin ETF earlier this year. The BTC Fund currently boasts net assets of $384 million, according to SoSoValue data.

Plans For The National Trust Bank E*TRADE stated that its crypto services will transition to Morgan Stanley’s national trust bank, Morgan Stanley Digital Trust. The firm made this note in relation to launching the transfer functionality later this year.

Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley applied for a crypto-focused national trust bank with the OCC, joining crypto firms such as Ripple, Crypto.com, and Coinbase that have also applied for trust charters. However, it is worth noting that firms such as Ripple have already received conditional approvals.

Meanwhile, USDC issuer Circle recently received approval from the OCC to launch its national crypto bank. Like Ripple, the stablecoin issuer had received conditional approval last year, alongside BitGo, Fidelity, and Paxos.

Please check out our page on Best Regulated Crypto Exchanges in the USA

Ethereum price today: $1,870Ethereum has outperformed crypto majors Bitcoin, XRP, SOL and HYPE following a market boost from cooling inflation reports.The Robinhood Chain launch, ETH ETF inflows, BitMine's accumulation and Clarity Act discussions are spurring the outperformance.ETH saw a rejection at the 100-day EMA after rising 10% over the past week.Ethereum (ETH) has outperformed the top 10 cryptocurrencies since the crypto market began a recovery last week. On a weekly timeframe, the top altcoin is seeing an 8% gain, compared to 2.4%, 1.4%, 1.6%, -1.8% and -3.5% for Bitcoin (BTC), BNB, XRP, Solana (SOL) and Hyperliquid (HYPE).

While cooling inflation reports and declining energy prices were primarily responsible for the recent broad rally across the crypto market, ETH's outperformance stems from several other key factors.

ETH vs Top Cryptos. Source: CoinGeckoWhy Ethereum is outperforming other top cryptosThe Robinhood Chain, launched on July 1 as an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2), has been spurring demand for native ETH. The amount of ETH bridged from the L1 to the L2 chain has surpassed $164 million, a 10x increase in the past week, according to onchain analytics platform Token Terminal.

"If adoption continues, the chain could become a meaningful new source of demand for Ethereum," the platform stated in a Thursday X post.

The chain has seen strong demand over the past week, attracting token launchpads and memecoin activity. In 2024, Solana saw a similar upsurge in memecoin activity before going on a run that outperformed major cryptocurrencies.

Beyond that, Ethereum is also attracting institutional capital again, with $96 million in net inflows over the past three days. Last week, US spot ETH ETFs ended an eight-week outflow streak after recording $84.4 million in net inflows, per SoSoValue data. Since the beginning of the month, the products have only seen two outflow days, while XRP and Solana products are struggling to attract capital.

Similarly, US spot BTC ETFs have posted four outflow days so far in July and are on track to end the week on negative flows.

In addition, Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion has remained a consistent source of demand for the top altcoin, accumulating roughly 70,000 ETH in the past two weeks.

Strategy, on the other hand, which has been a major demand driver for Bitcoin, flipped to distribution over the past two weeks after it sold $216 million worth of BTC. The firm also failed to log any buying activity last week.

Increased discussion and positive sentiment around the Clarity Act are also filtering into Ethereum, as it hosts the majority of onchain activity. The L1 is the largest chain by total value locked (TVL) and tokenized assets, with $40.9 billion and $14.8 billion, respectively, according to DefiLlama data.

Despite several positive developments surrounding ETH currently, the broader crypto market recovery remains fragile amid resumed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Bitfinex analysts also noted that ETH ETF inflows are not yet strong enough to drive prices.

"The $96 million total sits against a market capitalization above $220 billion, which makes it a rounding error even allowing for the illiquid spot market. A bid concentrated in one issuer remains too narrow to call a regime," the analyst wrote in a Thursday market commentary.

"Whether Ether ETFs continue to draw buyer interest remains to be seen; they have struggled to do so across nearly two years since launch."

Bitfinex added that sustained improvements in onchain activity are a "stronger catalyst" for an L1 like Ethereum.

Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH fails to reclaim 100-day EMA despite 10% jumpOn the daily chart, ETH/USDT trades at $1,874, maintaining a constructive bullish bias as price remains above the 20- and 50-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) at $1,780 and $1,810, respectively. The altcoin remains capped by the longer-term 100-day EMA at $1,948 after a 10% rise over the past week, suggesting room for further upside only if this barrier is reclaimed.

Momentum stays supportive, with the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) around 60 and the Stochastic hovering in the low 70s, hinting at a cooldown after a strong rally.

On the topside, immediate resistance is located at the horizontal level of $1,909, followed by $2,018 and $2,107, where prior supply converges. Above these, additional resistance is seen at $2,211 and then $2,388.

ETH/USDT daily chartOn the downside, initial support emerges at $1,806, ahead of the nearby dynamic floors offered by the 50- and 20-day EMAs. Below these, more substantial demand is seen at $1,741, with deeper supports at $1,524, $1,404 and $1,155 in the event of a broader corrective slide.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)

Bitcoin’s Bounce Is Full of Sellers, But For How Long?

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A prominent whale has reportedly increased their short exposure on Bitcoin via the decentralized perpetual futures platform Hyperliquid, achieving a gain of $131,000 with a 26.7% return over the past 30 days. The move is consistent with activity from large-scale participants on the platform pricing supportive of NO outcomes on near-term Bitcoin upside. This development comes as Bitcoin trades in the range of $65,000 to $65,400, reflecting continued downward sentiment among institutional or high-net-worth individuals. The increase in short exposure by significant market actors may indicate expectations of downward pressure on Bitcoin’s price, which is currently monitored closely due to potential liquidation risks if prices rally to certain resistance levels.

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Key Takeaways The increase in Bitcoin short exposure by a T1 whale appears consistent with a downward outlook on the cryptocurrency. Market pricing suggests a decrease in the likelihood of Bitcoin reaching $82,500 in July. Recent whale activity on Hyperliquid indicates that large investors may expect further declines in Bitcoin prices. What to Watch Market participants will be observing Bitcoin’s price movement closely, particularly the potential for a rally towards key resistance levels that could trigger liquidations. The changes in short exposure by large actors like whales are significant indicators of market sentiment. Additionally, developments such as ETF inflows or regulatory announcements could further influence Bitcoin’s price trajectory. As the month progresses, any significant deviations in Bitcoin’s price could impact the current assessments of market direction.

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Term Structure

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h August 1 2026 0.4% — — View market → August 1 2026 43.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 19.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 14.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 1.4% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 2.4% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 7.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 2.8% — — View market → August 1 2026 5.8% — — View market → August 1 2026 1.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.7% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.2% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.4% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market →

Bitcoin traders got caught on both sides of the same trap this week, according to one chart analyst tracking the recent price swing, and the fallout is exposing exactly which level really matters right now. Bitcoin had been consolidating inside a triangle pattern for days. When price finally broke toward the upside, traders piled into long positions expecting a clean continuation higher.

It didn’t hold. Bitcoin’s triangle breakout was actually a fakeout that liquidated many traders, according to the analyst, who says he avoided the trade entirely because he doesn’t trust breakout setups. His rule instead: enter only at support, ideally right after a liquidity grab, not on a breakout chase.

One Level That Actually Matters

Using a volume profile across Bitcoin’s recent price action, the analyst identified a single price zone that keeps reappearing as the point of control, the area with the heaviest trading volume on the entire chart.

The single biggest support on Bitcoin’s entire chart sits near $62,500, he says. That level lines up with three separate technical tools: the volume profile’s point of control, an anchored VWAP drawn from a recent swing low, and a rising trend line connecting Bitcoin’s recent higher lows.

Reading the Current Pullback as a Wave Count

The analyst frames Bitcoin’s broader move as an ABC correction, with the current leg representing what he calls the “C wave,” itself expected to unfold in five smaller waves. He believes wave one of that structure just completed, and Bitcoin is now working through wave two, the current pullback.

Fibonacci retracement levels give him two targets for where that pullback could end: a shallower target near $63,600, and a deeper one closer to $62,500, which aligns with the volume-based support already identified. A confirmed break below $61,700 would invalidate the current bullish wave count, he said, marking the line where his entire bullish thesis falls apart.

Resistance Levels Standing in the Way

Above current prices, the analyst is watching resistance near $65,700, a zone he says carries extra weight because two separate liquidity pools stack at that same level, alongside the top of a descending channel.

If Bitcoin can push through that resistance while forming a third wave higher, he expects the move to continue toward $68,000, an area that lines up with both an anchored VWAP resistance zone on the daily chart and a Fibonacci extension target. The analyst’s next major upside target for Bitcoin sits near $68,000 to $69,000.

Where This Leaves Traders

The analyst says he remains long on both Bitcoin and Ethereum, along with an existing long position on Hyperliquid, and continues to view pullbacks toward support as buying opportunities rather than reasons to turn bearish, as long as Bitcoin holds above its most recent low.

Story Ends Here

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Cloudflare recently announced the launch of its monetization program via the Coinbase-led x402 machine payments standard. x402, which lets AI agents pay for data online with crypto, has been gaining steam among the AI-pilled, as it unlocks more capable agent interactions with the open web. 

Cloudflare, founded in 2009, has grown from a DDoS mitigation and content delivery network (CDN) provider into one of the internet’s foundational infrastructure companies.

The company, which launched publicly in 2010, had the mission to make web performance and security accessible to everyone, not just large enterprises. Today, Cloudflare powers approximately 20-23% of all websites globally, handles tens of millions of HTTP requests per second across 330+ cities in over 100 countries, touching a significant portion of global internet traffic.

As a result of their adoption and security offering to large portions of the open web, CloudFlare’s integration of x402 is a major development for the structure of the internet. Websites that are increasingly inaccessible to the massive data demands from AI can now sell that data to AI agents for crypto. CloudFlare’s implementation only mentions Stablecoins such as USDC, the Open USD standard, but the protocol supports Bitcoin on-chain and is actively exploring integration of the Lightning network.

The Web is Broken Kevin Leffew, co-author of the x402 protocol and AI GTM at Coinbase, told Bitcoin Magazine there’s a major user experience issue in the way AI currently interacts with the open web and x402 — which is now under the control of the Linux Foundation — is trying to solve it. “Every api call requires an api key, which in turn requires a human, and adds unnecessary friction,” Leffew explained, adding, “our goal is to kill the api key”.

Popular AI agents such as OpenClaw often require API access keys to special paid web search services, to let the AI agents access the web easily, with the mobility that a human user would enjoy. Services of this sort are offered by popular browsers and search engines such as Brave.com and Perplexity. But who out there wants to be paying a subscription service on top of computer hardware and internet access, plus AI token costs to search the web? These services also require a human to sign up with a credit card for a monthly subscription, paying for access that might be blocked by the websites holding valuable data anyway via non-standard methods. A better solution is needed.

AI agents need to be able to think about money and resource costs, and need to have a computer-friendly way to make payments for novel data. An example of this use case was recently demonstrated by an X account called “Lightning Mode AI,”  which built a wrapper over ESPN FIFA data and had an AI agent pay for it in Bitcoin. The Agent was then able to quickly place bets on outcomes on markets like Polymarket, which could potentially let agent owners earn their money, during the soccer World Cup. 

This example by Lightning Mode AI used an older implementation of the idea behind x402 called L402, a protocol developed by Lightning Labs to specifically enable bitcoin payments for data on third-party websites. 

Denial of service attacks (DOS) are also potentially solved by a machine native monetary system for the internet. The fundamental vulnerability exploited by these DOS attacks revolves around the bandwidth and computing costs to answer a question or query from an internet user. The user sends a request to view a website, the site’s server must compute, resolve and serve the website data back to the user; this has material costs at scale. DOS attacks send massive amounts of requests, often from malware-infected networks of machines (DDOS), targeting the server resources of their victims. This kind of attack can, in theory, be stopped by simply asking for payment from the user before spending the resources to respond to the user’s query. But the payments must be cost-effective and fast enough for the user experience demands of the digital age. 

Protocols like x402 and L402 enable websites to paywall access to their valuable data, while teaching AI agents how to pay for access. No credit cards needed, no user data explicitly shared with payment networks, no ‘are you a bot’ captchas, no annoying account registrations you never use again, no subscription service for web search api key. Just pay for the data you consume. 

The Economics of Micro Transactions This micro-transaction market between machines is not a new idea. It has been theorized by luminaries of the cypherpunk age like Nick Szabo and others, though it has, up until now, been found lacking. Szabo argued that the biggest problem with micro transactions was not just payment technology, but the cognitive transaction costs involved.

Every time a user makes a payment, their brain needs to calculate whether it is worth it; this also has a cost on users, which can probably be measured in calories, and sometimes deciding to pay a couple of pennies for data is not worth the effort. But AI agents change this equation, in theory.

If AI becomes a new way for users to interact with the open way, then the cognitive costs involved in calculating the merit of spending pennies and even sub-penny values for data might be effectively abstracted away.

Users can simply give their bot a budget with spending policies and let it do its best to use that money wisely. Whether AI agents can be responsible enough to safeguard user funds remains to be seen, but some experiments demonstrate that AI agents can be reasonably resilient at the job. Take Freysa AI, for example, a 2024 era AI agent that held up against 48,000 prompt engineering attempts. Users paid to try to convince the bot to release funds in a smart contract treasury to them; if the bot refused, the bot kept the user’s money, adding it to the treasury. Eventually, someone managed to fool the bot, but not after $50,000 worth of attempts had been made. With hard-coded spending limits, the risk of prompt engineering an AI into giving way its web search lunch money is probably manageable.

The scalability of privacy-preserving digital payments in decentralized, censorship-resistant ways is also effectively already solved. According to Leffew, blockchains like Solana can do payments for a thousandth of a cent and settle it in milliseconds. Bitcoin’s Lightning network can also compete at the micro-transaction scale, and other Bitcoin protocols like the e-cash variants can be as fast as any internet packet, likely beating a highly centralized blockchain system like Solana.  

Viktor Ihnatiuk, co-founder of UTEXO, told Bitcoin Magazine that they are actively working with the x402 developer community to integrate Bitcoin’s layer two protocols via RGB as a payment option. RGB integration would unlock layer two-style Bitcoin payments as well as USDT on Bitcoin settlements. The x402 standard, according to Leffew, is designed to be fundamentally neutral to the payment rails involved, even extensible to fiat rails, though likely will be dominated by cryptocurrencies and, for the foreseeable future, stablecoins. 

Why CloudFlare Should Accept Bitcoin CloudFlare’s x402 pilot program is a great step towards this vision of a cryptographic money actively used as the native currency of the internet. Its focus on stablecoins to start is also understandable, given the powerful brand and adoption of the dollar, which keeps accounting simple. However, there are a lot of underlying risks involved in how stablecoins are used today that Bitcoin solves.

For starters, most of the stablecoin volume moves on top of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) style blockchains, which use an account model of public addresses; these are actively reused, creating long, detailed, public histories of financial engagement for each user. This is abysmal for user privacy, and tooling to obfuscate user flows on EVM blockchains, such as VPNs for crypto payments, are not common.

As a result, AI agents and their users are actively leaking data that might expose them to targeted attacks from organized cybercrime, among other risks.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, uses a UTXO model, where best practices lead people to create a new address for every payment received, resulting in payment trails that can be more difficult to track. Furthermore, Bitcoin’s fast payment protocols like Lightning, Ark or e-cash often deliver much greater privacy benefits to users by moving value off-chain via various smart contract-related technologies.

Last but not least, stablecoins are fundamentally anchored to the U.S. dollar and its foreign policy. If CloudFlare wants to be a viable option for the multipolar world, it will want to start taking a neutral stance on money. The dollar, while still the most valued currency in the world, is starting to lose ground to rising powers in the east, while alternative, geopolitically neutral currencies like Bitcoin continue to rise. Bitcoin might help CloudFlare maintain or even grow its position as critical internet infrastructure in the multi-polar world.

On the flip side, BTC managed to reclaim a key support level, which should provide more upside momentum.

The US CPI data for June brought a much-needed relief rally in the cryptocurrency markets, pushing the largest of the bunch to a new three-week peak at $65,500.

However, after gaining about $4,000 in just a day, the asset was rejected and driven south by $1,500. According to popular crypto analysts, this was not an isolated or accidental rejection, as history might map out the path forward.

Why Was BTC Stopped? Crypto Rover noted that BTC has faced the same scenario after every relief rally during this bear cycle. It surges to the Short-Term Holder Realized Price, and then the bears step up and halt its progress. He believes this is because it’s the average cost basis of recent buyers.

“As soon as they get back to break-even, many sell to exit their positions.”

This pattern first played out in November last year, after the notorious October crash, which wiped out over $19 billion in leveraged positions. BTC was stopped at $115,000 at the time, before similar occurrences took place during January’s rally to $95,000, and the mid-May surge to $83,000.

Merlijn The Trader shared a similar opinion, claiming he envisioned this bull-trap rally to $65,500. He believes another leg down is in the making and predicted a “flush toward the $58.5K-$60K order block.”

He outlined the significance of the $63,000 support. If held, BTC could still see some upward momentum, especially if it reclaims the aforementioned $65,500 resistance. However, a breakdown below $63,000 is likely to result in another sub-$60,000 dip.

On The Flip Side… Another popular analyst, Jelle, outlined a rather contrasting scenario. He indicated that BTC’s recent move represented a “big win for the bulls,” as the asset has “reclaimed the previous range lows.” He warned that bitcoin tends to move slowly during the summer and investors should be cautious about becoming too bullish during such not-ideal market conditions.

You may also like: Don’t Obsess Over Bitcoin’s Bottom as $38K Low Comes Into Focus: Analyst Crypto Social Activity Just Hit a Multi-Month Low: Why That Could Be Bullish for Bitcoin Peter Schiff: Bitcoin Holders Will Soon Regret Not Selling at Current Levels Nevertheless, Jelle added that this is a “good start” for bitcoin, but a more profound move north would require breaking many key levels before “things really change for the better.”

Big win for the bulls, $BTC has reclaimed the previous range lows!

Good start, but still loads of levels to break before things really change for the better.

It’s still summer; tends to be slow – and I’ll treat the market accordingly. DCA, nothing more. pic.twitter.com/XrpNvb3uoE

— Jelle (@CryptoJelleNL) July 16, 2026

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Bitcoin (BTC) may be entering a period of early recovery following several months of weakness, according to analytics firm Glassnode’s latest Week On-Chain report. After prolonged selling pressure from long-term holders throughout 2026, Glassnode observes that this source of market stress has started to ease.

Market sentiment turns on softer US inflation dataUS inflation cooled in the latest reading, with annual price growth coming in at 3.5% rather than the expected 4.2%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Falling energy costs contributed to the softer figures, which helped bolster risk appetite across various asset classes.

Bitcoin reacted more positively to the inflation news than major equities, suggesting that investors increasingly see BTC as distinct from traditional risk assets. Over recent months, the relationship between Bitcoin and stock indices has continued to weaken.

At the same time, Bitcoin’s inverse correlation with the US dollar has intensified, signaling that broader liquidity trends now play a greater role in the cryptocurrency’s price movements than equity market sentiment.

Glassnode highlights, “Bitcoin trades less like a stock proxy and more like an asset that firms when the dollar weakens.”

Mini dictionary: Glassnode is an on-chain analytics company that tracks and interprets blockchain data for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, providing insights for both retail and institutional investors.

ETF outflows slow but new inflows elusiveSpot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US have seen a sharp slowdown in redemptions since the June peak, suggesting the wave of investor withdrawals is losing steam. However, sustained net inflows to these funds have yet to reappear, keeping overall sentiment cautious among institutional participants.

On the derivatives front, Glassnode points out that the options put/call ratio has reached its lowest level of 2026. This shift implies that traders are allowing downside protection to lapse, indicating reduced demand for bearish positions. At the same time, perpetual funding rates show a neutral stance, reinforcing the cautious mood.

Key $69,000 level in focus for Bitcoin’s recoveryDespite signs of stabilization, Glassnode maintains that Bitcoin remains stuck in a “deep value” phase, not yet confirming a clear uptrend. According to the report, Bitcoin is trading above its historical bear-market floor, referred to as the Realized Price, but has yet to break through the next major resistance, the Short-Term Holder Cost Basis, which stands near $69,000. This price marks the average purchase cost for recent investors and is considered a key threshold for a sustained bullish reversal.

Currently, Bitcoin is testing its $66,000 “max pain” options strike, a level that has anchored the spot price for much of the year. Breaking above the $69,000 mark would signal shifting momentum, while a failure to regain this level could confirm continued investor caution.

Key LevelRole in BTC Price ActionRealized PriceHistorical bear-market floorShort-Term Holder Cost Basis ($69,000)Major resistance, break-even for recent buyers“Max Pain” Options Strike ($66,000)Price attracting spot and options activityWhile long-term holder selling pressure is easing, and ETF redemptions have slowed, the market’s recovery is described as tentative. Glassnode reports that a stronger wave of spot buying is required for a sustained uptrend to take hold.

Despite improving fundamental signals, Glassnode suggests the market needs to reclaim and hold above $69,000 to confirm a definitive bullish shift.

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.

In brief U.S. consumer prices fell 0.4% in June, denting rate hike expectations and marking the largest monthly decline since April 2020. Bitcoin and Ethereum trended higher, keeping one analyst’s $100,000 quarter-end price target within reach. Despite the positive inflation report, escalating conflict between the U.S. and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz continues to shadow the market. Bitcoin ticked above $64,000 Tuesday morning, after a widely watched inflation gauge showed consumer prices cooling more than expected in June—bolstering expectations that the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates untouched at the conclusion of its next policy meeting.

The Consumer Price Index fell 0.4% month-over-month in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Tuesday. Economists expected the index, which tracks price changes across a broad range of goods and services, to post a 0.1% decline for the period.

Following the report’s release, Bitcoin steadied around $64,300, up 2.3% on the day, according to CoinGecko data. Bitcoin’s price surge nevertheless lagged behind Ethereum, which posted a 5.4% increase to around $1,890 during the same timeframe.

The largest one-month decrease in consumer prices since April 2020 was prompted by falling energy costs, the inflation snapshot indicated, offsetting a rise in food and shelter costs. On an annual basis, inflation slowed to 3.5%, decreasing for the first time in five months.

Fabian Dori, CIO at crypto bank Sygnum, told Decrypt that the government’s latest inflation numbers marked a hopeful sign for crypto, representing “the first real indication that the energy-driven impulse from the spring is fading rather than broadening.”

Cooler than expected

As conflict in the Middle East squeezed global energy supplies, investors braced for tighter monetary conditions, expecting the U.S. central bank to raise interest rates in an attempt to prevent associated price pressures from spreading to the broader economy.

So-called core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy costs, clocked in at 2.6% in the 12 months through June, down from 2.9% the previous month. Earlier this year, the annual core measure had dipped to 2.5% in February before ticking back up in the spring.

Higher interest rates typically weigh on risk assets like stocks and crypto as the risk-free payouts on government bonds become relatively attractive. Conversely, expectations of accommodative monetary policy tend to buoy digital assets.

On Tuesday, traders grew more confident that the Fed would leave interest rates unchanged later this month at a target range of 3.5% to 3.75%, per CME FedWatch. Still, they expected the U.S. central bank to deliver a 25-basis-point hike in September.

As the war between the U.S., Israel, and Iran has clouded the Fed’s path to reining in inflation to its 2% goal, analysts—including Matt Mena, senior crypto research strategist at exchange-traded fund issuer 21Shares—have said that the conflict could shape crypto prices.

“As long as tensions with Iran don't worsen, fundamentals and catalysts are starting to align for a $100k push by quarter-end,” he told Decrypt.

On Tuesday, the U.S. military said that it was preparing to reimpose its blockade on Iranian ports at 4 p.m. Eastern Time, per AP News. The development followed days of retaliatory strikes between the countries centered on control of the vital Strait of Hormuz.

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Breez has partnered with Turnkey to let developers add non-custodial bitcoin to applications that run wallets from their own servers, the companies announced.

The partnership addresses a structural problem. Many mainstream apps operate from the backend, with a single service handling millions of users. Adding bitcoin under that design has meant holding user keys on company servers. 

Holding keys makes a company a custodian, a status that carries licensing requirements, legal liability, and the security burden of a large store of user funds. The alternative has been to build a separate device-based wallet, a change that breaks the architecture these apps use to reach scale.

Under the new model, each user receives a wallet whose keys are created and stored inside Turnkey’s secure enclaves. According to the companies, those keys stay out of reach of the app’s servers, Breez, and Turnkey. The company’s backend holds a credential that defines what actions it can take, while authority to move funds rests with the user.

In other words, this partnership positions some of the world’s largest consumer apps to add non-custodial bitcoin without rebuilding their backend architecture or taking custody of user funds.

Turnkey supports Spark, the network the Breez SDK is built on. Paired with Breez’s server mode, a single backend can manage wallets for millions of users without storing keys.

Registered passkeys enable bitcoin self-custody apps The approval flow works as follows. The user holds a credential, such as a passkey registered with Turnkey at signup. The server prepares a transaction and displays the amount, the fee, and the destination. 

The user approves the transaction, and it completes. The server cannot spend funds without that approval. For the user, the app’s existing flow does not change, and there is no seed phrase to record.

Turnkey provides embedded wallet infrastructure used by a range of consumer apps and holds a SOC 2 audit. In a note to Bitcoin Magazine, Breez positioned the release as a way for exchanges, fintechs, and neobanks to offer bitcoin and stablecoin services to large user bases without taking custody of funds. 

Exchanges can automate payouts under rules their security teams define, and fintechs can add a non-custodial bitcoin service inside their existing interface.

The partnership extends a series of Breez SDK features aimed at lowering barriers to bitcoin integration. Passkey Login replaced the seed phrase, Stable Balance addressed price volatility, and a separate feature added support for sending the stablecoins USDT and USDC. The companies say the combined tools let backend-run products offer bitcoin and stablecoins to users while custody of the assets stays with those users.

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.

A total of $1.45 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum options are set to expire this week on Deribit, the world’s largest cryptocurrency options exchange by volume and open interest. Market participants are closely monitoring this event, as large-scale options expiries often lead to spikes in volatility across digital asset markets.

Key expiry numbers and market impactDeribit reported that $1.23 billion in Bitcoin options contracts and $218 million in Ethereum options will expire at 08:00 UTC on Friday. Historically, the expiration of such significant volumes can cause traders to adjust, roll over, or close their positions, resulting in increased market activity and price swings.

Options are financial derivatives providing traders the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price by a certain date. The expiry process often triggers strategic moves such as hedging or repositioning, which can amplify spot price movements in both directions.

Deribit stated that these expiries can “flood the market with liquidity and volatility, creating prime conditions for trading short-dated options.”

In the lead-up to expiry, traders are focusing on the put-to-call ratio to gauge market sentiment. Data shows Bitcoin’s put-to-call ratio is currently 0.86, indicating more outstanding call options than puts. This points to a generally bullish outlook among traders holding BTC positions into the expiry date.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s put-to-call ratio stands at 1.54, suggesting a higher demand for protective puts and, therefore, a more cautious or bearish stance from market participants.

AssetOptions ExpiringPut/Call RatioMax Pain LevelBitcoin$1.23 billion0.86$62,500Ethereum$218 million1.54$1,750The ‘max pain’ level for Bitcoin options is $62,500, while for Ethereum options it is $1,750. Max pain refers to the strike price at which the largest number of options contracts expire worthless, often seen as a gravitational point for prices as expiry approaches, though markets do not always move in this direction.

Rising demand for short-dated strategiesDeribit highlighted increased activity and open interest in short-dated, or weekly, options. The exchange reported that substantial interest is building into this week’s expiring contracts, particularly among traders who use short-term strategies to benefit from heightened volatility.

Short-dated options have gained popularity through strategies such as gamma scalping, which involves rapidly buying and selling the underlying asset to hedge options exposures and capitalize on sharp price swings.

Mini dictionary: Deribit – A leading cryptocurrency derivatives exchange specializing in options and futures products, widely used by institutional and professional traders for its deep liquidity and advanced features.

Activity in these shorter-term contracts is expected to further contribute to market volatility as the expiry event unfolds.

Deribit observed, “Big open interest is building into tomorrow’s weekly expiry,” emphasizing the swelling participation in weekly options contracts.

With both large expiring volumes and a surge in short-dated options activity, traders are preparing for potential sharp moves in $BTC and $ETH prices as expiry nears.

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.

English日本語한국어繁體中文ไทยPortuguêsItalianoDeutschFrançaisEspañol Uma carteira de Bitcoin inativa desde dezembro de 2017 transferiu 5.908 BTC, avaliados em cerca de $383 milhões, para um novo endereço às 19h15 (horário do leste dos EUA) de 15 de julho, segundo a plataforma de inteligência blockchain Lookonchain. As moedas foram movidas do endereço legado “138EM…ReyiT” para uma carteira SegWit mais recente, estendendo uma sequência de posições antigas que voltaram a se movimentar esta semana.

A Carteira da Era 2017 Registra Ganho de 284% no Papel Dados da Arkham mostraram que a carteira adquiriu as moedas quando o Bitcoin era negociado perto de $16.800, dando à posição um custo médio de aquisição próximo de $99,6 milhões. Aos preços atuais, o saldo vale cerca de $383 milhões, um ganho no papel de $283 milhões ao longo de aproximadamente oito anos. 7=

A posição atingiu um pico de cerca de $726 milhões durante o recorde do Bitcoin em outubro de 2025, acima de $122.000, segundo reportagem do crypto.news baseada em dados de preço do ciclo. O detentor atravessou a queda de quase 80% em 2018, a alta de 2021 até $69.000 e a retração do final de 2022 para cerca de $15.500.

A carteira destinatária não enviou fundos adiante, e nenhum endereço de depósito de exchange conhecido recebeu a transferência, confirmam registros on-chain.

Analistas Apontam Whale Ratio Próximo de Máximas Históricas A Lookonchain escreveu na publicação de 16 de julho que “o OG recebeu 5.908 $BTC há 8 anos, quando o $BTC era negociado a $16.865, e o manteve desde então”, observando que a posição estava com ganho de 284%. A CryptoQuant relatou separadamente que seu whale ratio de exchanges estava recentemente em 0,99, o que significa que as dez maiores transferências representaram quase todo o Bitcoin depositado em exchanges.

A empresa afirmou que leituras elevadas historicamente antecederam pressão vendedora mais forte, já que depósitos volumosos tendem a preceder alienações volumosas. Nem a movimentação de 15 de julho nem a transferência anterior de 2.931 BTC identificada pela Arkham apresentaram, até agora, evidências on-chain de vendas, segundo pesquisadores de blockchain ouvidos pelo crypto.news.

Por Que a Rotação de Carteira Importa A transferência não parece uma saída direta, e a CoinDesk observou que grandes detentores costumam reorganizar ativos para atualizar formatos de carteira, rotacionar chaves privadas, preparar transferências patrimoniais ou organizar negociações over-the-counter que nunca chegam a tocar exchanges públicas.

A mudança de um endereço legado “1” para um formato SegWit “bc1q” mais recente se encaixa perfeitamente nesse padrão. Essa distinção importa para o impacto no mercado, porque a liquidação OTC absorve a oferta de forma privada, enquanto depósitos em exchanges sinalizam potencial pressão vendedora.

Traders que acompanham o whale ratio em 0,99 têm um cenário mais limpo quando moedas antigas se movem lateralmente, em vez de irem para livros de ordens centralizados.

Atividade Relacionada de Whales Adormecidas Continua a se Acumular Esta é a segunda transferência de sete dígitos de uma carteira adormecida identificada esta semana. Uma carteira separada movimentou 2.931 BTC, avaliados em cerca de $188 milhões, após sete anos de silêncio, quando o Bitcoin era negociado perto de $6.500. A Arkham confirmou que a transferência foi direcionada a um endereço novo e sem rótulo, seguindo o padrão observado esta semana.

Nenhum dos dois grupos apareceu em clusters conhecidos de depósito em exchanges, o que mantém inconclusivas, por ora, as hipóteses de venda. O endereço destinatário permanece passivo até 16 de julho, e os fundos ainda não tocaram em nenhuma plataforma identificada.

O Bitcoin era negociado perto de $64.000 no momento da publicação, uma queda de cerca de 47% em relação às máximas de outubro de 2025. Traders vão observar se o whale ratio se mantém acima de 0,9 e se a carteira destinatária direciona as moedas para exchanges centralizadas nas próximas sessões.

Vincent Van Code, a software engineer and well-known member of the XRP community, has addressed longstanding skepticism regarding the asset’s potential for significant future growth. He directly responded to arguments questioning why major investors are not visibly accumulating XRP if a tenfold or hundredfold price increase is possible.

Institutional accumulation off exchangesVan Code explained that institutional investors have the ability to acquire large amounts of XRP through private transactions, bypassing public cryptocurrency exchanges. These off-market deals, he said, are often invisible to retail participants and do not directly impact exchange trading volumes.

He further suggested that institutional buyers frequently obtain XRP from early holders, some of whom purchased the asset for as little as $0.017. According to Van Code, these long-term investors may be selling significant quantities to institutions seeking a larger allocation without moving the public price.

Addressing the reluctance of prominent investment firms to openly invest in XRP and other digital assets, Van Code noted that internal risk policies remain a significant barrier. Many traditional investment houses still classify cryptocurrencies as speculative and highly volatile, which restricts their involvement regardless of optimistic future outlooks.

Nevertheless, Van Code views the current market environment as a rare window for early adopters. He believes that accumulating XRP for approximately one dollar represents an opportunity to secure exposure at what he considers discounted levels prior to broader institutional adoption.

Van Code emphasized that large investors often use non-public channels to buy XRP, making it difficult for retail traders to detect these moves. He argued that early investors can access opportunities that may not yet be available to mainstream participants.

Mini dictionary: Over-the-counter (OTC) transactions allow investors to trade cryptocurrencies directly with one another, outside of regular exchanges. These deals generally offer higher privacy and can involve much larger volumes compared to traditional exchange trades.

Community comparisons and viewpointsSupporters within the XRP community have echoed Van Code’s perspective. One user, Parker, drew parallels with Bitcoin’s earlier years, pointing out that very few investors accumulated Bitcoin at the $1 level before its price surged.

Parker rejected the notion that the presence of wealthy or institutional buyers automatically precedes large gains, instead attributing breakthrough investment decisions to personal vision and risk tolerance.

Another member, Motorhead, underscored that large investors typically prefer over-the-counter platforms or private pools to conduct high-volume trades rather than utilizing standard retail exchanges. He stressed that such transactions seldom appear in publicly visible order books, keeping much institutional activity out of the spotlight.

Motorhead highlighted that institutional investors tend to use dark pools and OTC markets for their acquisitions, making it unlikely for their purchasing patterns to be obvious to average traders.

Wee Willy, another participant in the discussion, stated that he intends to continue accumulating XRP even if the asset’s price increases to five dollars. He expressed regret about not being able to invest more and shared a similar optimism toward other cryptocurrencies considered compliant with ISO standards. He argued that today’s retail investors have unprecedented access to opportunities that were once limited to high-net-worth individuals or institutions.

The debate over institutional involvement in XRP exposes the varied strategies and considerations shaping today’s digital asset markets. While some view the current environment as a unique entry point, others point to persisting barriers that keep most major firms on the sidelines.

Type of AccumulationVisibility to PublicBuyer ProfilePublic Exchange PurchaseHighRetail, small institutionsOTC/Private TransactionsLowLarge investors, institutionsDisclaimer: 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.

Cover image via depositphotos.com Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

Roughly $1.45 billion worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum options are set to expire on Deribit.

Traders will be closely watching this event since it could trigger more volatility. 

According to Deribit, approximately $1.23 billion in Bitcoin options and $218 million in Ethereum options will expire at 08:00 UTC on Friday. 

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What an options expiry meansOptions are derivative contracts that make it possible for traders the right to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price before a specified expiration date.

Traders often close, roll over, or hedge their positions when options contracts expire. Hence, this repositioning can potentially increase volatility. 

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Deribit noted that the event could create favorable conditions for traders using short-dated options. "This floods the market with liquidity and volatility, creating prime conditions for trading short-dated options on Deribit."

What the metrics showTraders typically pay close attention to the put-to-call ratio, which compares bearish put options with bullish call options.

Bitcoin's ratio of 0.86 indicates there are more call options than puts outstanding. Market players remain relatively bullish on BTC heading into expiry.

Ethereum, by contrast, has a 1.54 put-to-call ratio. This shows greater demand for downside protection or bearish positioning.

For this expiry, Bitcoin's max pain level stands at $62,500 (Ethereum's is $1,750). Markets do not necessarily gravitate toward these levels, but traders often monitor them due to the fact that prices can sometimes drift toward max pain. 

Short-dated options gain popularityDeribit has also noted that there is growing activity in weekly contracts. "Big open interest is building into tomorrow's weekly expiry on Deribit."

The exchange added that short-dated options have become increasingly popular among traders employing gamma scalping. This is a strategy involving buying and selling the underlying asset to hedge options exposure and profit from sharp price movements.

T. Rowe Price, which manages nearly $2 trillion in assets, has launched the first active crypto ETF, which provides exposure to crypto assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Hyperliquid. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas had previously said that this launch was notable because the asset manager was the largest active manager to enter the crypto space.

T. Rowe Price Unveils First Active Crypto ETF In a press release, the asset manager announced the launch of the first active crypto ETF, which began trading on the NYSE Arca today under the ticker TKNZ. “The fund is the first actively managed multi-token spot exchange-traded product* offered in the marketplace,” the firm noted.

The T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF notably offers exposure to Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Solana, and Hyperliquid. The Fund will also hold top meme coins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, making it the first U.S. Fund to offer spot exposure to SHIB.

The asset manager also noted that the crypto ETF is designed to capitalize on emerging trends, momentum-driven rallies, and market rotations among crypto assets. Meanwhile, the Fund will offer a net fee waiver, which will be effective until May 31, 2027. The management fee during this period will be 0.75%.

The T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF joins a host of other crypto ETFs that have launched this year, including the Hyperliquid ETFs. As CoinGape reported, Morgan Stanley’s Ethereum and Solana ETFs are about to launch, with the Wall Street giant filing amendments to its S-1.

‘Smart Timing’ For The ETF Launch Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas commended T. Rowe Price for the timing of the launch of its active crypto ETF. “I think they were smart with the timing- waiting till the Oct selloff dust settled a bit,” he said in an X post.

T Rowe Price’s Active Crypto ETF $TKNZ is ready for launch. Any day now, I’d guess Thursday. I think they were smart with the timing- waiting till the Oct selloff dust settled a bit. pic.twitter.com/5LZO5WHrqn

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) July 14, 2026

It is worth noting that the SEC had approved the crypto ETF last month but waited until now to launch the Fund. The asset manager had first filed for the month in October last year, around the time of the infamous crypto crash.

Meanwhile, Balchunas had previously said that the T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF was notable because the asset manager was “by far the biggest active manager to apply their active prowess to this space.”

Bankless Co-founder: Bitcoin may have entered a sideways consolidation phase, with the bottom largely in place.

Bankless co-founder David Hoffman published an article stating that Bitcoin’s current trend faces two possible paths: sideways consolidation to bottom out, or one final round of panic selling. He opines that Bitcoin is more likely to enter a sideways grinding phase, with its bottom already largely formed.

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SpaceX’s short interest ratio rose to 29% of its outstanding shares, with short positions totaling $25 billion.

As SpaceX’s share price has fallen back to near its IPO price, short sellers are rapidly increasing their bearish positions on the company. Data from S3 Partners shows that roughly 185 million SpaceX shares are currently sold short, accounting for about 29% of its publicly traded float, equivalent to around $25 billion in short positions. Three weeks ago, the estimated number of SpaceX shares sold short was just 40 million, making up 5% to 7% of its float. The stock has dropped roughly 20% cumulatively since July, and on Wednesday it briefly fell below its $135 IPO price for the first time. KeyBanc Capital Markets noted that when SpaceX went public, its publicly traded shares made up only 5% of its total share count of around 13 billion. The first batch of large-scale restricted shares is expected to unlock around the release of its second-quarter financial results, at which point roughly 11% of the total share base will become eligible for sale; multiple subsequent batches of restricted shares, each accounting for about 4% of total shares, will also be unlocked starting about 70 days after the IPO. Elon Musk’s roughly 42% stake in SpaceX remains locked until June 2027. The company’s 13th Starship test flight is scheduled for Thursday, which could impact market sentiment toward the stock.

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Ansem: If PUMP delivers on its airdrop promises and improves community relations, the token could surge 10 to 15 times.

Renowned crypto KOL Ansem has published an article arguing that token buybacks alone do not effectively support valuation. Hyperliquid generates ~$800 million in annualized revenue, while Pump.fun brings in around $440 million annually. Both platforms regularly use a portion of profits to repurchase tokens, yet Hyperliquid’s fully diluted valuation (FDV) stands at roughly $65 billion, compared to Pump.fun’s mere $1.4 billion. He notes that the valuation gap between the two is not primarily driven by revenue, but by the "trust premium" shaped by team conduct and market decisions. Hyperliquid rarely overpromises, consistently rolls out products, and rewards core users per preset metrics, fostering strong trust between its team and community. By contrast, Pump.fun has generated $1 billion in cumulative revenue and raised $1 billion via ICO, but has yet to deliver on its previously promised user airdrop. Ansem believes that if Pump.fun fulfills the airdrop and addresses core users’ concerns, PUMP’s price could surge 10 to 15 times, while boosting the platform’s trading volume, visibility, and revenue growth. He also cited Bitcoin as an example: the cryptocurrency has no revenue, yet boasts a $1.3 trillion market cap, with its value rooted in its fixed 21 million coin supply and the trust built from the network’s ongoing operation. Beyond tangible metrics like revenue, trust, meme effects, and attention are also key factors influencing asset valuation.

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Keyrock acquires BlockFills' institutional trading and brokerage business for $3.25 million

Keyrock has completed the acquisition of BlockFills' institutional trading and brokerage business, with the deal covering its trading technology, institutional client relationships, and derivatives trading team. The acquisition will also expand Keyrock's regulatory scope, including an entity registered with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority and another UK entity seeking authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Keyrock did not disclose the transaction price in its announcement. Per prior court documents and disclosures from company representatives, the total acquisition value is $3.25 million, payable in two installments, with certain arrangements subject to regulatory approval. BlockFills suffered major losses during the February 2026 crypto market crash, after which it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Keyrock was ultimately selected as the buyer in the firm's bankruptcy proceedings.

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Serenity: Declines in storage and AI-related crypto assets likely stem from deleveraging and cascading margin liquidations.

Serenity noted that Micron Technology announced today it has signed a long-term memory agreement with Qualcomm, but Micron’s stock price still fell by 5.37% following the announcement. He believes that, with multiple structural agreements continuing to take effect, the current decline does not appear to stem from issues with storage or AI stocks themselves. The related drop is more likely due to the winding down of deleveraging and margin call liquidation chains.

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1inch co-founder Anton Bukov stated he was fired at the end of November 2025 and announced the launch of a new project, Second Tier.

1inch co-founder Anton Bukov published a statement saying he was fired at the end of November 2025. While he remains a co-founder of the decentralized exchange aggregator and holds a 50% stake, he is no longer involved in the company’s operations, product architecture, security design, or related oversight duties. Since co-founding 1inch in May 2019, Bukov led work on protocol architecture, security, and economic model design, and contributed to launching key products including the 1inch Router, 1inch Fusion, cross-chain atomic swaps, and shared liquidity automated market makers (AMMs). Bukov noted that feedback from users and team members over the past year led him to realize he could not stay on the sidelines of the company’s management and operations. He subsequently spent months learning leadership and communication skills and driving internal changes, before being dismissed in late November 2025. He also announced the launch of a new project called Second Tier, with plans to collaborate with like-minded teams to build secure, efficient systems that bridge the gap between economic intent and real-world execution.

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The Senate passed a resolution on Wednesday stating that Sam Bankman-Fried should “under no circumstances” receive executive clemency, a rebuke of the FTX founder’s request that President Donald Trump commute or pardon his sentence.

The measure, S. Res. 772, cleared by unanimous consent, a procedure that adopts a resolution when no senator objects. It expresses the sense of the Senate that Bankman-Fried should receive neither a pardon nor a commutation, and it affirms the chamber’s commitment to “the rule of law and integrity of the United States financial system.” 

The resolution is nonbinding and does not limit the president’s constitutional power to grant clemency.

Senators Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, and Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, sponsored the measure. The two serve as the top Republican and top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets subcommittee. They introduced the resolution on June 17, days after Bankman-Fried filed a formal pardon application with the Justice Department.

Lummis is the crypto industry’s most committed advocate in Congress and has spent years drafting the legislation the industry seeks. On this measure she has led the push to keep one of the industry’s most infamous figures in prison. “He had his day in court,” Lummis said when she and Gallego introduced the resolution. Gallego’s statement closed with four words: “Keep him locked up.”

The text of the resolution states that Bankman-Fried’s 25-year sentence “reflects the extraordinary scale and deliberateness of his crimes, his lack of remorse, and the catastrophic harm inflicted upon millions of victims.”

Bankman-Frieds’ attempts to get out of jail Bankman-Fried, 34, filed his petition on June 8. His application seeks a “pardon after completion of sentence,” a form of clemency that would not erase his conviction but would restore civil rights such as voting and jury service and lift barriers to licensing, employment, and housing after he leaves prison. 

He is not eligible for release until around 2044.

Trump said in a January interview that he had no intention of pardoning Bankman-Fried. During his second term the president has granted clemency to other figures tied to crypto and to online markets, including Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, along with other white-collar offenders.

A jury convicted Bankman-Fried in November 2023 on seven counts tied to the collapse of FTX, a case prosecutors described as one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history. American customers lost more than $8 billion. A judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison in 2024.

Bankman-Fried ran two companies at the same time. FTX was a crypto exchange, which holds customer money the way a broker does and is not supposed to spend it. Alameda Research was a trading firm he owned. 

He moved billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits to Alameda, which used the money for trades, venture investments, political donations, and Bahamian real estate. FTX’s software exempted Alameda from the rules that would have forced it to cover its losses like any other trader.

The arrangement came apart once Alameda’s balance sheet was found and reported that much of what the firm counted as assets was FTT, a token FTX had created and could issue at will. The collateral behind Alameda was, in effect, an asset its sister company had invented. The exchange Binance said within days that it would sell its FTT holdings, and the price of the token dropped.

Customers moved to withdraw their deposits, and FTX could not return the money because it was no longer there. The exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022.

CoinDesk was the first to report on FTX’s dubious balance sheets.

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.