Crypto-related stocks in U.S. markets continued their rally during trading hours, with MARA surging 15.27%.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), US-listed crypto-related stocks continued to strengthen during intraday trading. Details: Strategy (MSTR) rose 2.11%; Circle (CRCL) gained 0.83%; MARA Holdings (MARA) surged 15.27% after announcing the acquisition of a Texas-based 2000MW computing power park project company for up to $600 million; Riot Platforms (RIOT) climbed 6.1%.
1 hours ago
Security Warning: Abnormal on-chain fund flows detected for the CodexField project on BNB Chain.
On-chain investigator Specter has issued a community security alert, warning of potential fund misappropriation risks associated with the CodexField project on BNB Chain. On-chain tracking shows the project has amassed over $85 million in funds. Specter detected abnormal on-chain fund flows yesterday: a wallet bridged 17.3 million USDT from TRON to Ethereum, then swapped the tokens for DAI via Bitget Swap on Polygon. So far, $6.5 million has been transferred out, while the remaining $10.8 million is still in transit. The funds were originally bridged from Ethereum to TRON roughly six months ago, and the source wallet is linked to CodexField’s deposit contract. Below are key addresses for users to verify on their own: EVM: 0xBc606358910b3720d136F0d4Ce12b759C270747a TRON: TQNTEYadFVVQeobBtctSjurJ5RpfBsTmqh, TAzpg8L1WkkzCxxZk8TYnvaRYahehh52MK Related deposit contract: 0x9E6A75b546B65E7B9D34E2c9aB8Fe224B9aA52AA Additional red flags: The project requires a minimum $100 deposit for participation. Blockchain security tool Blocksec MetaSuites initially labeled the deposit contract as "Fake CodexField", but Specter’s follow-up investigation found the contract is actually operated by the CodexField team itself. The project uses multiple domains and subdomains to collect user deposits, and the team previously shared these domains via official channels. Its fund flow pattern is unusual, deviating from standard fund management practices: the project bridges funds across multiple blockchains, routes them through intermediate wallets, and ultimately sends assets to centralized exchanges. Specter noted that based on on-chain activity, the project warrants high vigilance. It advises all users interacting with CodexField to exercise extreme caution until the team provides a transparent explanation of its fund movements.
1 hours ago
Post-quantum cryptography management platform QIZ Security closes $17 million seed round.
QIZ Security, a crypto posture and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) management platform, announced the completion of a $17 million seed funding round, led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Merlin Ventures, with participation from Evolution Equity Partners, Qbeat Ventures, Singtel Innov8, and Qino Cyber Capital. The capital will be used to accelerate product R&D and market expansion. QIZ Security was co-founded by Ben Volkow, Lenny Ridel, and Itan Barmes; the team has years of experience in cybersecurity, enterprise services, and post-quantum transformation, with Barmes previously leading Deloitte’s global quantum cybersecurity readiness team. Its platform helps enterprises identify and assess crypto asset risks and implement remediation measures, and is currently applied in industries including finance, telecommunications, healthcare, and critical infrastructure. It has also established partnerships with Cisco, AWS, Google, CrowdStrike, Deloitte, EY, and IBM, among others.
1 hours ago
Hyperliquid recommends that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) formally recognize that on-chain protocols are not required to register, and non-custodial wallets do not serve as financial intermediaries.
Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) and Phantom have jointly submitted comments to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in response to the agency’s request for feedback on whether existing rules keep pace with the evolution of financial technology, proposing to explicitly extend the distinction between "building tools" and "operating regulated businesses" to on-chain markets. The comments note that software engineers have been developing matching engines for regulated futures trading platforms for decades, and the CFTC has never classified them as trading platform operators. However, developers in the digital asset sector have long lacked such clarity, forcing many to opt for offshore development. The current CFTC, led by Chairman Selig, is working to address this gap and carve out room for innovation for fintech firms in digital asset and derivatives markets. The two entities put forward three key recommendations: First, explicitly confirm that merely publishing on-chain protocol software itself does not require registration — a factor often decisive for engineers when choosing where to develop. Second, establish a clear path for the CFTC’s registration bodies to operate regulated functions using on-chain infrastructure, enabling trading platforms and clearinghouses to replace decades-old legacy systems with transparent infrastructure. Third, formalize Phantom’s recent no-action letter into official rules, eliminating the need for self-custody wallet providers to apply for approved exemptions on a case-by-case basis. HPC and Phantom stress that self-custody and transparent on-chain systems can embed investor protection directly into technology, while regulated intermediaries retain responsibility for issues that technology cannot resolve independently. This approach will bring the next generation of financial markets within reach of U.S. consumers.
1 hours ago
Micron raises its U.S. investment plan to $250 billion, betting on demand for AI memory chips.
Micron Technology plans to increase spending on its new U.S. factory to $250 billion to meet the surging demand for memory chips driven by the global artificial intelligence boom. The move adds $50 billion to Micron’s previously announced $200 billion commitment to expanding domestic U.S. chip manufacturing, covering projects in New York, Idaho, and Virginia. The expenditure is expected to run through 2035, and will help the company achieve its target of producing 40% of its DRAM products in the U.S. within the next decade.
1 hours ago
Analysis: Market FUD sentiment toward SOL hits its highest point in 2026, a typical bullish signal.
Crypto research firm Santiment notes that market FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) surrounding SOL has hit its highest level in 2026, a development that typically signals a bullish indicator. Currently, Solana is facing a toxic mix of negative sentiment: trading volume has fallen to its lowest level of 2026, while negative comments have just spiked to their highest daily mark this year. Much of the frustration stems from the fact that despite Solana’s strong narrative around tokenized stocks and real-world asset (RWA) activity, its price has failed to deliver meaningful returns for traders. This is where it gets interesting: when sentiment is excessively negative and trading activity is thin, large holders (whales) often encounter less retail selling resistance if they choose to push prices higher. At a time when traders least anticipate a rebound, SOL may be in this low-attention, high-FUD zone, primed for rapid, sharp price fluctuations.
Bitcoin (BTC) has entered the same 91-day window that ended each of its last three bear markets. History suggests this stretch is the most punishing of any cycle, yet the damage keeps shrinking with each repeat.
Two independent methods now converge on a similar floor. A linear regression on past drawdowns and a logarithmic Fibonacci retracement both point toward a bottom near $47,000 by early October.
Bitcoin Enters the 91-Day Window That Ends Bear MarketsBitcoin trades near $62,865 today. It has fallen close to 50% from its record high of around $126,000 set in October 2025. That decline already matches the scale of past Bitcoin bear markets.
The current drop invites an obvious question. How much further could the price fall before it finds a floor? Past cycles offer a useful guide.
This analysis measures the final 91 days of each past bear market. Each window runs from a local high to the low printed 91 days later.
The 91-day span equals roughly one financial quarter. That makes it a consistent yardstick across every cycle. It also captures the phase when panic selling tends to peak.
The method isolates the closing leg of every bear market. That leg has historically delivered the steepest and fastest losses of the entire cycle. Comparing the three windows side by side reveals a clear trend.
The timing also aligns with Bitcoin’s four-year cycle. Each bear ending has followed a halving-driven peak by more than a year. Some analysts now question whether that cycle still holds.
The Last 3 Bitcoin Bear Markets Ended the Same WayThe first case ran from October 2014 to January 2015. Bitcoin fell 63.54% across those 91 days. The price bottomed at $152 before a slow recovery began.
Liquidity was thin during that period. The market still carried scars from the Mt. Gox exchange collapse. No institutional bid existed to cushion the decline.
The recovery from that low proved slow but powerful. Bitcoin needed most of 2015 to stabilize before its next major advance began.
BTC weekly chart. Source: TradingviewThe second case covered September to December 2018. Bitcoin dropped 56.69% over the same 91-day span. The low arrived near $3,210 during the November capitulation.
That decline was severe, yet it proved milder than in 2014. The shift marked the first clear sign of a shrinking pattern. A deeper market had started to absorb the selling.
The 2018 bottom held for years as a key floor. It later became a launchpad for the powerful 2020 and 2021 rally.
BTC weekly chart. Source: TradingviewThe third case ran from August to November 2022. Bitcoin lost 37.60% across the window. The bottom formed at $15,632 as the FTX collapse drained market confidence.
The drawdown eased again compared with the prior cycle. The sequence now reads clearly, 63.54%, then 56.69%, then 37.60%. Each ending hurt less than the one before it.
That 2022 low has held ever since. It formed the base for the long climb to fresh records above $120,000 in 2025.
BTC weekly chart. Source: TradingviewWhy Each Bitcoin Bottom Hurts Less Than the LastThe shrinking drawdowns are not random. Each cycle brings deeper liquidity and a more mature market structure. That structure blunts the force of every sell-off.
The trend reflects a broader decline in Bitcoin volatility. Larger size and steadier holders dampen the wild swings of the early years. Milder bear endings are one visible result of that maturity.
BTC Volatility Index. Source: CoinglassSpot Bitcoin ETFs now anchor a large share of demand. Institutional desks, larger derivatives markets, and a bigger market cap all absorb pressure. Pushing the price lower takes far more capital than it once did.
On-chain data supports that read. Large whales kept accumulating through the June sell-off. Their buying tends to slow declines that once ran unchecked.
Exchange-traded funds have cut both ways this year. They drained billions of dollars during June before turning positive in early July. That two-way flow shows how institutional access now shapes each move.
Regression Points to a $47,000 Bitcoin BottomA linear regression captures this softening trend. Fitting the three past drawdowns produces the line y = 65.58 minus 12.97x. The slope points steadily toward smaller losses.
The model projects the next final-quarter decline at roughly 26.6%. That figure extends the pattern seen since 2014. It implies the current bear ending should be the mildest yet.
The math itself stays simple. The regression draws the best straight line through the three past drops. Its downward slope of about 13 points per cycle captures the easing trend.
Three data points form a small sample. The regression, therefore, offers a directional guide rather than a precise guarantee. It frames a likely magnitude, not a certain outcome.
Applying the projected drop to the current cycle is straightforward. The recent weekly candle high sits at $64,657. Bitcoin recently rebounded toward that level after a sharp June decline.
A drop of 26.64% from that high implies a bottom near $47,431. The 91-day window runs from July to early October 2026. Bitcoin currently trades around $62,865, so the model still allows meaningful downside.
Several on-chain research firms share a similar timeline. Many independently point to the fourth quarter of 2026 as a likely bottom window. That timing aligns closely with this model.
BTC weekly chart. Source: TradingviewThe full model across four cycles now lines up as follows.
CycleWindow (91d)StartDropBottom1Oct 2014 – Jan 2015$418-63.54%$1522Sep – Dec 2018$7,412-56.69%$3,2103Aug – Nov 2022$25,053-37.60%$15,6324 (projected)Jul – Oct 2026$64,657-26.64%$47,431Start prices for the first three cycles are derived from each window’s high. The 2026 start uses the exact recent high of $64,657.
Log Fibonacci Points to the Same Bitcoin BottomA second method supports the same conclusion. It uses a logarithmic Fibonacci retracement across each cycle. The log scale suits Bitcoin because its moves compound over time.
A linear scale would distort these comparisons. It would exaggerate recent dollar swings and shrink older ones. The log view keeps every cycle proportional and fair.
The prior cycle offers a useful template. That retracement runs from the $69,000 peak down to the $3,122 bear low. It measures how far the 2022 bear retraced the previous advance.
On that scale, the 2022 bottom is revealing. The 0.5 retracement level sat at $14,678. Bitcoin bottomed at $15,632, just above that midpoint.
The market retraced roughly half of its prior advance before turning. The prior cycle levels ran 0.236 at $33,233, 0.382 at $21,149, 0.5 at $14,678, and 0.618 at $10,186. A peer-reviewed study has also linked these long-term moves to network growth.
BTC weekly chart. Source: TradingviewThe current cycle produces a striking parallel. This retracement runs from the $126,272 all-time high down to the $15,632 prior bottom. It maps the current bear against the last full advance.
Here, the 0.5 level sits at $44,428. The regression target of $47,431 lands just above it. That relationship mirrors 2022 almost candle-for-candle.
In both cases, the projected bottom sits slightly above the logarithmic midpoint. Current levels read 0.236 at $77,123, 0.382 at $56,849, 0.5 at $44,428, 0.618 at $34,722, and 0.786 at $24,444. Two separate methods, therefore, point to the same zone.
The 0.5 level often acts as a fair value on a log chart. A bottom near it suggests a healthy reset rather than a full collapse. Both the last cycle and this projection fit that description.
The 0.382 level at $56,849 also matters right now. It sits just below the current price and may act as support. A clean break beneath it would open the path toward the deeper zone.
Each of these historical bottoms preceded a strong recovery. The 2015, 2019, and 2023 rebounds all began near these retracement levels. That history frames why the projected zone matters to longer-term investors.
BTC weekly chart. Source: TradingviewBitcoin Bear Market: The $44,000 to $47,000 Bottom Zone to WatchThe two methods now frame one region. The regression suggests $47,431, while the log-Fibonacci midpoint is $44,428. Together, they outline a bottom range of roughly $44,000 to $47,000.
The timing centers on early October 2026. Both signals point to the same area, which strengthens the case. It suggests the current cycle may rhyme closely with 2022.
The pattern holds across three completed cycles. Each bear market ends with a brutal quarter, yet each proves milder than the last. That trend forms the core of this thesis.
Several factors could still cause the model to break. The sample size is small, and macro shocks remain possible. A hawkish Federal Reserve under Kevin Warsh could deepen the decline.
Heavy ETF outflows could add further pressure. Strong inflows could instead lift the bottom above the projected zone. The price could already have bottomed.
This framework is an analysis, not financial advice.
Traders may watch the $44,000 to $47,000 zone into October. A weekly close well below $44,000 would challenge the model. A hold above that region would preserve the historical rhythm.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Latin America’s biggest stock exchange just made its boldest crypto move yet. B3, the São Paulo-based exchange that dominates trading across the region, launched options on Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana futures on July 6, completing a derivatives trifecta that took roughly two years to build.
The new contracts trade under the tickers BIT, ETR, and SOL. At expiration, they automatically exercise into the underlying futures positions, meaning traders never have to fumble with spot token custody. Settlement happens either in cash or through the futures contract itself.
Advertisement
What B3 actually built The options trade independently from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. São Paulo time. B3 has enlisted designated market makers to keep bid-ask spreads tight and ensure adequate liquidity.
This launch didn’t happen overnight. B3 introduced Bitcoin futures back in April 2024 with a contract size of 0.1 BTC. Ether and Solana futures followed on June 16, 2025. The options layer is the natural next step, giving traders the ability to construct limited-risk strategies around positions they already understand.
Rafael Tsopanoglou Teodoro, B3’s Product Manager for Currencies, framed the expansion as a way to connect Brazilian investors with global market trends while maintaining robust risk management. The entire operation runs under the oversight of Brazil’s securities regulator, CVM.
What this means for investors For retail traders in Brazil, the immediate impact is access. Options allow for strategies like protective puts and covered calls that were previously only available through unregulated venues. The automatic exercise into futures removes a layer of complexity that often trips up less experienced traders.
For institutional investors, B3’s regulated framework is the main draw. Asset managers, hedge funds, and family offices that are mandated to trade on regulated venues now have a compliant way to gain crypto options exposure across three major assets. The CVM oversight means these products come with standardized clearing, counterparty risk mitigation, and the kind of audit trail that compliance departments demand.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Grayscale Investments, one of the largest asset management companies in the market, shared eight cryptocurrencies that stand out in the current market cycle and the key use cases each represents.
Grayscale, sharing from account X, identified eight key use cases for the current cycle: “Digital currency, World Computer, Global payments, High performance, 24/7 on-chain commerce, Tokenization and oracles, Next-generation infrastructure, Mass customization.”
Grayscale, which also identifies the prominent cryptocurrencies in these areas, included Bitcoin and 7 altcoins, including Ethereum and XRP, in its list.
At this point, Grayscale argues that Bitcoin’s fixed supply, institutional investor interest, and adoption as a reserve asset have made it a cornerstone of the cryptocurrency market.
“Bitcoin (BTC) → Digital money
Ethereum (ETH) → World Computer
XRP → Global payments
Solana (SOL) → High performance
Hyperliquid (HYPE) → 24/7 on-chain trading
Chainlink (LINK) → Tokenization and oracles
SUI → Next-generation infrastructure
Avalanche (AVAX) → Mass customization”
Looking at the table, Grayscale describes Ethereum as a global infrastructure for smart contracts and decentralized applications, while highlighting XRP for cross-border money transfers.
According to the company, Solana attracts developers with its high transaction capacity and low-cost infrastructure, while Chainlink stands out with its oracle infrastructure, which plays a critical role in the tokenization of real-world assets.
HYPE, the token of the Hyperliquid ecosystem, has recently stood out among projects offering 24/7 on-chain derivatives trading and a decentralized trading experience.
Finally, while Sui (SUI) stands out with its next-generation Layer-1 architecture focusing on scalability and user experience, Avalanche is considered a significant alternative in enterprise use cases.
*This is not investment advice.
Follow our Telegram and Twitter account now for exclusive news, analytics and on-chain data!
Wall Street giant Wells Fargo revealed massive crypto holdings via exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and stocks. The banks revealed exposure to Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), Solana, Strategy (MSTR), Bitmine (BMNR) and other crypto stocks.
Wells Fargo Reveals Bitcoin, ETH, Solana ETFs Exposure In its latest SEC filing, $2.5 trillion AUM Wells Fargo disclosed 6.5 million shares in BlackRock Bitcoin ETF (IBIT). It also revealed a new call position and an increase in put position in IBIT amid growing uncertainty during the US-Iran war.
IBIT holdings dropped by 75,102 shares compared to the Q4 quarter. Moreover, the Wall Street giant cut its exposure to the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCO), Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, and the Fidelity Bitcoin ETF (FBTC).
While Wells Fargo decreased holdings in IBIT, Bitcoin exposure increased in Grayscale Bitcoin Mini ETF, Bitwise’s BITB, and GBTC. Notably, BITB holdings climbed 24% quarter-on-quarter.
Meanwhile, Wells Fargo boosts Ethereum ETF holdings with a 65% rise in BlackRock Ethereum ETF (ETHA) shares. The bank now holds more than 1.10 million ETHA shares worth $17.56 million.
In addition, the banking firm holds 257,157 Bitwise Ethereum ETF, 4,637 Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF, and 623 VanEck’s ETHV shares.
Also, Wells Fargo disclosed new exposure to Solana ETFs. It scooped 13,280 in Grayscale’s GSOL and 1,638 in Fidelity Solana Fund (FSOL).
Holding in Strategy’s MSTR, Bitmine, and other Crypto Stocks On the crypto stocks side, Wells Fargo significantly ramped up its position in Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR). The bank boosted its MSTR shares by 125% to almost 726,000 shares, adding an estimated $41.5 million in exposure. Notably, Strategy plans sell Bitcoin, but Grayscale claims Strategy’s Bitcoin sales are good for markets.
It also revealed new holdings in the Trump family’s American Bitcoin Corp (ABTC) and Strive (ASST). This move highlights a preference for established Bitcoin treasury companies over direct mining or trading firms.
The bank significantly increased its holdings in Bitmine Immersion’s BMNR from 2,323 to 21,547 stocks. This makes an 828% rise in Ethereum treasury exposure to $426K.
Robinhood (HOOD) shareholdings jumped from 65% to 2.56 million shares. Wells Fargo also opened put option positions for almost $116K. As CoinGape reported earlier, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev sold HOOD shares earlier this week.
In contrast, the bank sharply reduced its stake in Galaxy Digital by about 97% and 25% in Coinbase (COIN). This signals a strategic shift away from certain crypto stocks.
Also Read: 11 Best Crypto Copy Trading Platforms in July 2026
Wells Fargo has expanded its exposure to Strategy while reducing part of its BlackRock Bitcoin ETF position, according to its latest regulatory filing that also shows larger investments across Ethereum and Solana-linked products.
Summary
Wells Fargo increased its Strategy stake by 125% while trimming its BlackRock Bitcoin ETF holding. The bank boosted Ethereum ETF exposure, added Solana funds, and expanded positions in Bitmine and Robinhood. SEC filings also show reduced stakes in Coinbase and Galaxy Digital despite broader crypto market exposure. According to the bank’s latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the $2.5 trillion asset manager increased its holding in Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) by 125% to nearly 726,000 shares, adding roughly $41.5 million in exposure.
At the same time, the filing shows the bank reduced its position in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) by 75,102 shares compared with the previous quarter, while also opening a new IBIT call position and increasing its put exposure during a period of heightened market uncertainty linked to the U.S.-Iran conflict.
Bitcoin ETF exposure has been rebalanced rather than cut outright Although Wells Fargo trimmed its IBIT position, the filing indicates it did not reduce its Bitcoin exposure across the board. The bank also lowered its holdings in the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCO), the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC).
However, it added to positions in the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), and Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB), with its BITB stake rising 24% from the previous quarter.
Ethereum-linked investments moved in the opposite direction. Wells Fargo increased its holdings in BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) by about 65%, taking its position to more than 1.10 million shares valued at approximately $17.56 million, according to the filing.
The bank also reported ownership of 257,157 shares of the Bitwise Ethereum ETF, 4,637 shares of the Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF, and 623 shares of VanEck’s Ethereum ETF (ETHV).
The filing also disclosed the bank’s first reported positions in Solana investment products. Wells Fargo purchased 13,280 shares of Grayscale Solana Trust (GSOL) and 1,638 shares of the Fidelity Solana Fund (FSOL), adding Solana exposure alongside its existing Bitcoin and Ethereum allocations.
Crypto stock buying has favored treasury companies Beyond exchange-traded funds, Wells Fargo increased investments in several crypto-related companies. Its position in Bitmine Immersion (BMNR) climbed from 2,323 shares to 21,547 shares, an increase of about 828%, lifting its exposure to the company’s Ethereum treasury strategy to roughly $426,000.
The filing also shows new positions in American Bitcoin Corp. (ABTC), the Trump family-backed Bitcoin treasury company, and Strive Asset Management’s treasury vehicle (ASST). At the same time, Wells Fargo expanded its Robinhood (HOOD) holding by 65% to about 2.56 million shares while opening put option positions valued at nearly $116,000.
Robinhood has recently attracted interest from other institutional investors as well. As crypto.news reported on June 27, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest bought approximately $25.54 million worth of shares across Coinbase, SpaceX, Circle, Bullish, and Robinhood through several of its exchange-traded funds. Robinhood was one of the companies added during that round of purchases.
Not every crypto-linked stock received additional capital. Wells Fargo cut its stake in Galaxy Digital by roughly 97% and reduced its Coinbase (COIN) position by about 25%, according to the SEC filing, indicating the bank adjusted individual equity holdings while continuing to maintain exposure across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and crypto treasury companies.
Cover image via U.Today 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.
With the introduction of Robinhood Chain, a new Layer-2 network created with Arbitrum technology, Cashcat (CASHCAT) has rapidly emerged as one of the most talked-about memecoins in the cryptocurrency space. Some traders are wondering if CASHCAT could become for Robinhood Chain what Shiba Inu became for Ethereum, given the token's quick ascent, increasing whale activity, and compelling story.
The most recent catalyst was a wallet called 'Ansem-2,' which spent about $233,000 in a matter of hours to obtain 2.79 million CASHCAT tokens. The wallet is connected to a Solana address that is said to contain millions of dollars' worth of ANSEM tokens and has made significant profits from prior trades involving memes. It remains to be seen if this purchase will be successful, but it has certainly drawn attention. The SHIB comparison is not wholly irrational.
The story, community involvement, and timing of Shiba Inu's rapid expansion were more important than its practicality. The ingredients in CASHCAT seem to be similar. With the official launch of Robinhood Chain on July 1, a completely new ecosystem without a well-known flagship memecoin was created. Traders have historically rushed to find the "native meme" of a new blockchain before it is widely adopted. Additionally, CASHCAT benefits from a well-known narrative.
You Might Also Like
HOT Stories
The token has a stronger identity than the numerous animal-themed tokens that are introduced every week because it makes use of the "Cash Cat" lore connected to Robinhood's branding heritage. The arrangement has produced a potent speculative cycle when combined with high trading volume and growing social media attention. SHIB and CASHCAT, however, differ significantly.
During one of the most exciting periods in cryptocurrency history, Shiba Inu first appeared and went on to develop a sizable community, ecosystem, and brand awareness. The main focus of CASHCAT is still the narrative trade associated with the Robinhood Chain hype. The fact that there is no formal connection between Robinhood and CASHCAT poses the greatest risk. Although the chain was started by Robinhood, the company has not endorsed the token.
Furthermore, there are several CASHCAT tokens on various blockchains, which raises the possibility of traders purchasing the incorrect asset and causes confusion. One thing that SHIB had at the start makes CASHCAT a potential successor to SHIB. However, billion-dollar valuations are rarely sustained indefinitely by narratives alone.
Ethereum picks up momentumWhen compared to many other significant digital assets that are still struggling below crucial resistance levels, Ethereum is exhibiting what may be its strongest recovery attempt in months. While the broader market remains uncertain, ETH has managed to reclaim short-term momentum and is beginning to separate itself from weaker performers. On the daily chart, Ethereum recently bounced from the $1,500 region after a sharp sell-off in June.
ETH has successfully recovered above its 50-day moving average and is currently challenging the 100-day EMA around the $1,800 level, in contrast to many other altcoins that were unable to maintain their gains. This is a significant difference. The majority of large-cap cryptocurrencies are still stuck below short- and medium-term resistance levels. But Ethereum is putting them to the test.
You Might Also Like
Additionally, after the June low, the asset produced a higher low, indicating that buyers are progressively re-entering the market. The RSI supports this view. Momentum is now comfortably above neutral territory after recovering from oversold conditions, suggesting that bullish pressure is increasing without reaching overbought levels.
In the past, this kind of setup frequently emerges in the early phases of more significant trend reversals. Ethereum's relative performance is another positive sign. Assets like XRP and numerous speculative altcoins are still having trouble below significant resistance levels, but ETH has shown a stronger capacity to withstand selling pressure and attract new demand.
This indicates that Ethereum is still one of the healthier assets in the current market climate, but it does not imply that a bull market has returned. The next obstacle is located close to the $1,950-$2,000 area, where the 200-day moving average and earlier support levels meet.
The bullish outlook would be greatly strengthened by a successful break above that zone, which could pave the way for a more extensive recovery phase. Among the major cryptocurrencies, Ethereum seems to be at the forefront of the current recovery. Although the trend has not completely reversed yet, ETH's current rebound appears to be the most convincing when compared to most other assets attempting the same move.
Will Bitcoin bounce?One of the most significant technical turning points for Bitcoin in recent weeks may be near. Even though the market is still under pressure and Bitcoin is currently trading close to $62,000 following a recent rejection, a number of indicators point to an impending attempt at a reversal. The most notable development is Bitcoin's ability to hold above the local lows established during June.
Buyers intervened forcefully to stop a further collapse following the steep sell-off that drove Bitcoin below $60,000. Since then, the asset has experienced a series of higher lows, indicating a progressive weakening of selling pressure. Additionally, the daily chart shows Bitcoin continuously testing the 50-day EMA around $63,000. Bulls have yet to secure a clear breakout, but the gap between price and short-term resistance is getting smaller.
You Might Also Like
After prolonged compression, markets frequently produce stronger moves, and Bitcoin seems to be entering this phase. This interpretation is reinforced by momentum indicators. The RSI has recovered from oversold conditions and is now moving toward neutral territory. It shows that panic selling has mostly subsided and the market is starting to stabilize, even though it is not yet exhibiting significant bullish momentum.
The cluster of moving averages above price continues to be the primary barrier. Bitcoin is still trading well below the 200-day moving average, which is close to $75,000, and below the 100-day EMA, which is around $66,000.
Whether the current recovery turns into a true trend reversal or just another relief rally will probably depend on those levels. Additionally, volume merits consideration. Although it hasn't been strong enough to cause a breakout, recent buying activity has been adequate to maintain support. A surge in participation would significantly improve the chances of Bitcoin reclaiming higher levels.
U.S. regulators propose to block CME Group’s application to launch 24-hour oil contracts.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) plans to block Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)’s application to quickly launch 24/7 oil contracts, amid concerns that energy markets are not ready for an influx of large volumes of all-day derivatives contracts. CME said in June it planned to offer 24/7 trading for a futures contract tied to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil, denominated in 10-barrel lots, citing investor demand to manage positions “whenever news breaks.” On Wednesday, CME filed a self-certification application for the new product, which means the CFTC has only one day to intervene before the contract can be listed for trading. According to people familiar with the matter, the CFTC plans to block CME’s self-certification. CFTC Chair Michael Selesinger has met with executives from energy firms including Shell, Vitol, BP and ExxonMobil in recent weeks. Another application CME submitted for the same product, which requires a 45-day review period, is still under regulatory consideration.
1 seconds ago
Mantle Super Portal has migrated to Chainlink CCIP, bringing institutional-grade security for MNT cross-chain transfers.
According to official announcements, Mantle today announced that its native cross-chain infrastructure Mantle Super Portal—developed in partnership with Bybit—has migrated from LayerZero to Chainlink CCIP. Powered by CCIP, Mantle Super Portal will feature enhanced cross-chain security, decentralized node infrastructure security guarantees, advanced risk management, and institutional-grade security standards, delivering a higher level of protection for cross-chain transfers of MNT tokens valued at over $2.5 billion. Additionally, as an increasing number of regulated assets, such as tokenized equities, move on-chain, the underlying infrastructure supporting them must meet traditional financial standards. This migration will further solidify Mantle’s position as a "distribution layer connecting traditional finance and on-chain liquidity" and underscores Mantle and Bybit’s ongoing commitment to growing MNT through further integrations, opportunities, and use cases. According to the announcement, Mantle Super Portal will be temporarily offline during the migration period, scheduled from July 9 to 15, 2026 (with a possible slight extension of the timeline). Users do not need to take any action, and transfers will automatically resume once the migration is complete.
1 seconds ago
Ahead of the US stock market opening, a crypto whale plans to go long on Nasdaq 100 index positions worth approximately $22 million.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa)’s monitoring, address 0x3e7…f1589 deposited 5 million USDC at 7:30 PM tonight, then opened a 20x long position in XYZ100 (which tracks the Nasdaq 100 index) worth $16.63 million at an entry price of 29,458. Currently, over $5.3 million worth of TWAP orders are still being filled gradually, with the final position valued at around $22 million.
1 seconds ago
SK Hynix sets the price guidance for its U.S. ADR issuance at a 3.1% premium to its South Korean closing price.
Market News: SK Hynix has set the issue reference price for its American Depositary Receipts (ADR) at $149 per unit, a 3.1% premium over its closing price in South Korea.
1 seconds ago
PayPal USD officially launches on the Polygon network.
Paxos has announced that PayPal USD (PYUSD) is now officially native-issued on the Polygon blockchain, and is being offered to the market via Polygon’s Open Money Stack. The move aims to provide institutions and enterprises with a federally regulated on-chain USD settlement solution, covering deposit, withdrawal and compliance functions. The Polygon blockchain currently records an average daily stablecoin settlement volume of over $2.5 billion, with a total cumulative settlement volume exceeding $2.6 trillion. PYUSD is issued by Paxos, a national trust chartered institution regulated by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
1 seconds ago
Glassnode: In the late stage of Bitcoin's bottoming process, the scale of realized losses has reached its highest point since December 2022.
Glassnode says Bitcoin is in the late stages of bottom formation, but capitulation selling by long-term holders remains elevated, with the recent peak in realized losses approaching $280 million daily — the highest level since December 2022. Glassnode notes that this metric needs to shrink significantly for the market to credibly shift back into a bullish state. Last week, Bitcoin rebounded from $58,300 to $64,400 before pulling back to $62,700, and still trades below the short-term holders' cost base of roughly $72,200 and the True Market Mean of around $76,600. Net outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs have narrowed but remain negative.
Germany’s seized Bitcoin wallet has been one of the most watched addresses in crypto for weeks. Every transfer to an exchange became a market event, every balance update became a reason for traders to argue about short-term supply. Now that story appears to have reached its natural end: the tracked wallet balance has been drawn down to zero.
That does not mean the market suddenly becomes risk-free, but it does remove a very specific pressure point. The German selloff was easy to monitor, easy to fear, and easy to build headlines around. Once that wallet is empty, traders have to look elsewhere for the next source of forced supply.
For more details, visit the official Arkham platform.
TL;DR Arkham-tracked German government wallets now show the selloff cycle reaching its final stage.The balance drop removes one of the most visible sovereign Bitcoin supply overhangs from the market.Traders are now watching whether Bitcoin can trade without that repeated exchange-flow pressure. A Visible Overhang Finally Clears What made the German wallet so important was not just the size of the stash. It was the transparency. Arkham-tracked movements showed coins leaving government-linked addresses and heading toward venues such as Coinbase, Kraken, and other exchange-linked destinations. That made the selling risk visible in real time.
Visible supply is psychologically powerful. Even before a sale is confirmed, the market tends to price the risk of one. That is why Bitcoin often looked heavy when large transfers appeared. The coins were not just numbers on a dashboard; they became a running test of how much demand the market could absorb.
What Happens After The Wallet Hits Zero The cleaner takeaway is that a concentrated selloff source has likely stopped being the same daily threat. That matters for sentiment because Bitcoin has also had to deal with ETF flow swings, miner pressure, and legacy distribution fears from other corners of the market.
The market still needs fresh demand to prove the overhang has truly passed. If buyers step in while this selling source fades, the narrative can shift quickly from forced supply to absorption. If Bitcoin remains weak, traders will know the problem was broader than Germany alone.
Why Traders Will Still Watch Arkham The German wallet episode also shows how much on-chain intelligence now shapes short-term trading. Government balances, exchange deposits, and institutional custody moves are no longer background details. They are part of the live market conversation.
For now, the story is simple: one of Bitcoin’s most visible selloff risks has been largely exhausted. That does not guarantee a rally, but it changes the supply backdrop in a way traders cannot ignore.
The Reader Takeaway The useful way to read this story is not as a standalone headline about German BKA, but as part of the wider pressure building around Bitcoin coverage this week. Markets have been jumping quickly from one catalyst to the next, so the cleaner value for readers is in separating the actual development from the instant reaction around it. In this case, the source material gives us a concrete event to work from, rather than a loose rumour or a recycled social-media talking point.
That distinction matters because crypto readers are being asked to process a lot at once: ETF flows, regulatory actions, exchange listings, protocol upgrades, wallet movements, and political signals. A story like this is most useful when it helps them understand where Bitcoin Selloff fits into that broader map. It does not need to be inflated into a guaranteed price call to be worth covering. It simply needs to explain what changed, who is affected, and why the market is paying attention today.
The caveat is also important. Even clean source-backed developments can be overinterpreted when traders are hunting for a fast narrative. A listing does not automatically create lasting demand, a regulatory update does not immediately settle every legal question, and an on-chain movement does not always translate into a finished sale. The better read is to treat the development as a fresh data point and then watch whether follow-up activity confirms the direction of travel.
For NewsBTC readers, that means keeping the focus on what can actually be verified from the source and avoiding the temptation to turn every update into a sweeping market verdict. The story is strong enough on its own terms: it gives investors and traders another piece of context around Bitcoin, while leaving room for the next filing, dashboard update, wallet movement, governance vote, or exchange notice to decide whether the angle grows into something bigger.
This report is based on wallet data from Arkham Intelligence.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
Bitcoin developers have rolled out Bitcoin Core version 31.1, a maintenance release that contains bug fixes and performance enhancements.
The new software notably addresses a significant privacy vulnerability that risked exposing node operators' network data.
Plugging the privacy leakA security vulnerability within the platform's privacy configurations is the most notable patch that has been delivered with the new release. Specifically, the update delivers a fix for an IP address leakage issue.
HOT Stories
The software "fixes an IP address leak when using the -privatebroadcast feature."
The privacy mechanism was failing to route data securely under certain conditions.
You Might Also Like
However, the update now ensures that node operators can remain anonymous without inadvertently revealing their clearnet IP addresses.
Fixing disk overload and wallet tweaksOn top of the security patch, Bitcoin Core v31.1 also resolves a flaw within its database engine that was causing hardware strain. The release contains fixes for the "-privatebroadcast IP address leak as well as leveldb causing excessive disk operations."
This version specifically "fixes an issue where the chainstate database would repeatedly rewrite large portions of itself, causing excessive disk reads and writes during normal operation."
The wallet infrastructure also received important maintenance. Under the designated wallet changes, the development team integrated pull request o "check the final BDB page LSN during migration" alongside a fix to "use outpoint when estimating input size."
Node operators have to promptly update their systems to benefit from the security and database improvements. Users have to shut down their active node entirely before installing the new binaries.
Bitcoin (BTC) is extending its losses on Thursday for the third consecutive day amid renewed tensions between the US and Iran. Risk-off market sentiment intensifies, with Jupiter (JUP) and Pi Network (PI) emerging as the biggest losers over the last 24 hours.
CoinMarketCap's Crypto Fear and Greed Index is at 26 on Thursday, down from 29 on Monday, indicating a clear increase in risk-off sentiment.
Fear and Greed Index. Source: CoinMarketCapBitcoin vulnerable to steeper declineBitcoin shows a steady decline so far this week, reversing before testing the $65,000 threshold. A clear lower-high formation on the daily chart reaffirms the near-term bearish tone, while BTC remains well below the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $65,412 and the 200-day EMA at $75,821.
The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) approaches its signal line, raising the risk of a bearish crossover, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 44 dips below the midline, suggesting that buying pressure remains subdued.
Looking down, the horizontal support around $60,000 emerges as the zone where dip-buying interest could attempt to slow the decline.
BTC/USDT daily price chart.Initial resistance emerges at the 50-day EMA around $65,412, with a subsequent barrier near the broken rising trendline at roughly $75,008. The 200-day EMA at $75,821 marks a higher, more structural ceiling that would need to be reclaimed to meaningfully shift the bearish bias.
Jupiter extends losses on Thursday, following a 10% drop the previous day. The DeFi token remains capped below a local resistance trendline, near the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level at $0.2406, measured from the $0.2766 to $0.1444 downswing.
The 50-day EMA at $0.2070 serves as the key support zone, further reinforced by the 50% retracement level at $0.1998. A slip below this zone could target the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level at $0.1683, followed by the Fibonacci anchor at $0.1444.
Momentum suggests the broader downtrend is intact, with recent recovery attempts losing traction as the MACD has slipped below its signal line and the RSI at 47 hints at fading bullish momentum.
JUP/USDT daily price chart.On the topside, immediate resistance sits at the 200-day EMA near $0.2207, and a sustained break above this barrier would open the way toward the descending trendline break zone around $0.2418.
Pi Network is edging closer to the $0.1000 psychological threshold as the bearish phase extends. PI holds well below the 50-day EMA at $0.1311 and the 200-day EMA at $0.1901, reaffirming a long-term bearish trend.
The MACD and signal line continue to decline as the negative histogram expands, while the RSI at 21 falls deeper into the oversold territory, suggesting that downside momentum remains dominant even as short-term selling pressure may be nearing exhaustion.
PI token tests the S1 Pivot Point at $0.1010, which guards the downside to the S2 Pivot Point at $0.0867.
PI/USD daily price chart.Looking up, initial resistance aligns with the 50-day EMA at $0.1311, which acts as the first cap on any rebound.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)
Iran’s army launched drone attacks on US military targets in the Persian Gulf region. Bitcoin dropped to roughly $99.5K in the immediate aftermath of the strikes before rebounding above $102K shortly after.
What happened and why it matters The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait on June 28, 2026. The strikes were a direct response to US airstrikes conducted near the Strait of Hormuz and other locations in the region.
Advertisement
The current conflict traces back to massive US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, 2026, which resulted in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Since then, Iran has waged a sustained retaliatory campaign targeting US facilities across the Gulf states.
The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow waterway through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply flows.
Bitcoin’s geopolitical stress test In May 2026, when US strikes near the Strait of Hormuz escalated tensions to a new level, Bitcoin fell below $73K. That move triggered roughly $1 billion in liquidations across crypto markets.
What investors should be watching For traders and investors navigating this environment, position sizing matters. The $1 billion in liquidations during the May drawdown wasn’t caused by the geopolitical event itself — it was caused by people who were overleveraged when the event happened.
The Strait of Hormuz remains a critical geographic chokepoint. Oil prices, shipping routes, and global supply chains all funnel through that narrow passage.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Key Takeaways BTC declined 2.1% to approximately $62,115 following Trump’s announcement that the US-Iran ceasefire has ended Brent crude oil prices spiked, momentarily exceeding $80 per barrel Crypto analyst Michaël Van de Poppe identified $61,000 as a critical support threshold Federal Reserve meeting minutes revealed internal disagreement about potential rate increases, pressuring risk-on assets Bitcoin spot ETFs in the US recorded three consecutive days of positive net flows despite price weakness Bitcoin experienced a decline exceeding 2% on Wednesday as heightened tensions between the United States and Iran disrupted global financial markets and triggered a sharp rally in crude oil prices.
Bitcoin (BTC) Price The leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization retreated to approximately $62,115, down from levels above $64,600 observed earlier in the trading week. The pullback intensified after President Donald Trump, addressing attendees at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, declared the ceasefire arrangement “over.”
US military forces conducted strikes targeting Iranian positions on Tuesday in response to assaults on three commercial oil vessels operating near the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. Tehran retaliated with its own military actions. Trump further cautioned that Iran would face another “hard” strike that evening, with the Pentagon subsequently confirming additional operations had been executed.
[[EMBED_0]]
Trump indicated the possibility of reinstating a naval blockade targeting Iranian ports. Additionally, Washington revoked a general license that had previously permitted Iranian oil production and sales activities.
Brent crude futures momentarily surpassed the $80 per barrel threshold, marking their strongest performance since June 22. Meanwhile, US WTI crude climbed past $75 per barrel during the session.
Federal Reserve Concerns Add Downward Pressure Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s June 16-17 policy meeting, published Wednesday, revealed significant disagreement among committee members regarding the appropriate trajectory for interest rates. Several participants advocated for immediate rate increases.
The majority of participants highlighted multiple scenarios where inflationary pressures could remain persistent, citing potential energy supply disruptions in the Middle East, artificial intelligence-driven demand growth, and tariff implementations. Recent CME FedWatch data indicates increasing probability of a rate hike at the September policy meeting. Traders on prediction platform Kalshi currently assign 55% odds to a rate increase occurring sometime in 2026.
Elevated interest rate expectations typically create headwinds for speculative investment vehicles including digital currencies.
Cryptocurrency analyst and trader Michaël Van de Poppe shared on X that Bitcoin might test the $61,000 support zone. He elaborated: “This to happen, and then 1-2 days later; we’re in talks again. And the markets reverse.” Van de Poppe had previously indicated there was “no problem” with Bitcoin’s price movement provided it maintained levels above $60,000.
[[EMBED_1]]
Analyst Ted, writing on X, observed that Bitcoin had developed a hidden bearish divergence pattern on its daily timeframe chart, cautioning: “$BTC has formed a hidden bearish divergence on the daily timeframe. Bitcoin needs to reclaim $62,500 soon, or else things could get ugly.”
[[EMBED_2]]
Exchange-Traded Fund Inflows Remain Strong Notwithstanding the price decline, US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds logged three consecutive trading sessions of net positive inflows through Tuesday, per SoSoValue tracking data. This trend helped offset a prior sequence of outflows and bolstered Bitcoin’s rebound from its late-June price lows.
Glassnode analytics revealed that Bitcoin has been trading beneath its True Market Mean level of $76,600 and the short-term holder cost basis of $72,200 for approximately five months. Daily ETF trading volumes ranging from $650 million to $950 million represent roughly 80% below the peak levels recorded in October 2025.
According to its official page, Polymarket has launched a derivatives trading feature, currently supporting 10 assets including BTC, ETH, SOL, HYPE, gold, silver, the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, WTIOIL, and SPCX, with a maximum leverage of 20x.
10 minutes ago
SMIC surpassed Kweichow Moutai in market capitalization.
According to Bitget data, SMIC’s A-share price rose nearly 15%, pushing its total market capitalization to 1.49 trillion yuan. Kweichow Moutai is currently down 1.43%, with a total market cap of 1.48 trillion yuan. (Jinshi)
10 minutes ago
Bitcoin breaks through $63,000
According to HTX market data, Bitcoin has broken through the $63,000 mark, with a 0.74% rise in the past 24 hours.
10 minutes ago
US tech stocks are experiencing one of the most volatile periods in history, with the volatility ratio of the Nasdaq 100 to the S&P 500 hitting a 23-year high.
The Kobeissi Letter noted in a post that tech stocks are experiencing one of the most volatile periods in history. The ratio of the Nasdaq 100 Volatility Index (VXN) to the S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX) has risen to 1.7, its highest level in 23 years. This marks the first time the ratio has topped 1.5 since 2018. By comparison, the metric peaked at around 1.6 during the 2008 financial crisis. Currently, VXN stands at 28 points, while VIX is at 16 points – the latter is 43% lower than the former. VXN has remained above the 20-point threshold for five consecutive months, the longest such stretch since the 2022 bear market. Markets are pricing in significant volatility risk for tech stocks.
10 minutes ago
Nvidia will collaborate with Hugging Face to develop open-source robotics models.
NVIDIA has announced a partnership with Hugging Face to co-develop open-source foundation models for robotics, combining its GPU ecosystem and CUDA technology, along with Hugging Face’s extensive model library and developer community, to significantly lower the barriers to AI training and deployment for robotics. (Jinshi)
10 minutes ago
A newly created wallet withdrew 500 BTC from Binance, worth $31.15 million.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, a newly created wallet withdrew 500 BTC from Binance, valued at $31.15 million.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
The US military is systematically dismantling Iran’s energy supply chain, with strikes hitting Kharg Island, the country’s most critical oil export hub, and the Gorgan railway line in northern Iran.
Kharg Island handles approximately 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports.
The military campaign so far The conflict, which officially began in late February 2026, has escalated in distinct phases under the Trump administration. In March and April, US forces conducted precision strikes against over 90 military targets on Kharg Island, focusing on missile storage facilities, naval mine depots, and air defense systems.
The initial wave of strikes deliberately avoided oil export infrastructure. That restraint didn’t last forever. After Iran breached a ceasefire and attacked commercial vessels navigating the Strait of Hormuz, US operations resumed in July 2026 with a broader mandate. This time, forces struck more than 80 additional targets, expanding beyond Kharg Island to include transportation networks like the Gorgan railway line.
Advertisement
US officials have indicated that while oil infrastructure on Kharg Island hasn’t been directly destroyed yet, future strikes remain on the table if Iran continues to threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Oil markets and the price surge Brent crude has been trading near $110 per barrel. Energy stocks have reacted favorably, riding the wave of supply-side anxiety.
Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s threats of retaliatory measures against regional energy infrastructure have kept the market on edge.
Bitcoin’s geopolitical volatility play During this conflict, Bitcoin has demonstrated both sides of its safe haven and risk-asset personality. BTC rebounded above $70K during periods when positive diplomatic talks surfaced. When escalations resumed or oil prices surged, Bitcoin dipped, tracking risk sentiment rather than playing the safe haven card.
Reports suggest Iran has been leveraging Bitcoin mining and stablecoins as tools to navigate international sanctions. The country has been dabbling in crypto mining for years, using its subsidized energy to power mining operations.
What this means for investors Iran’s increasing use of crypto to circumvent sanctions is worth watching closely. If Tehran scales up its Bitcoin mining operations or increases stablecoin usage for trade settlement, it could draw more regulatory scrutiny from Washington. The US Treasury has historically responded to sanctions evasion with secondary sanctions and enforcement actions, which could have broader implications for crypto exchanges and DeFi protocols that inadvertently process these flows.
Iran has warned of retaliatory strikes against regional energy infrastructure, which could push oil prices even higher and trigger another round of risk-off sentiment across both traditional and digital asset markets.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Key Takeaways Federal Reserve policymakers identify AI infrastructure expansion as a significant contributor to inflationary pressures through elevated semiconductor, energy, and data center expenses Interest rates remained unchanged at 3.5%–3.75% during June’s policy meeting under new Chair Kevin Warsh Half of the 18 voting committee members anticipate at least one rate increase by the conclusion of 2026 Market expectations show a 69.5% probability of unchanged rates at the upcoming July 29 decision, declining from 80% the previous week Prediction markets indicate a 59% likelihood of a rate adjustment this year, influenced by escalating U.S.-Iran geopolitical risks Central bank officials found themselves at odds during their June policy gathering regarding the appropriate path forward for interest rates. Documents released on Wednesday revealed that numerous policymakers highlighted robust artificial intelligence sector demand as a primary catalyst for inflationary trends.
The central bank’s apprehension focuses on what market observers have dubbed “chipflation”—the phenomenon of escalating semiconductor prices required for data center operations, which subsequently elevate costs for consumer electronics, various devices, and household electricity consumption.
A majority of meeting attendees noted that economic expansion fueled partially by substantial AI-related business capital expenditures “could lead to more entrenched inflationary dynamics.” They anticipated price pressures to remain elevated over the coming months, though some believed conditions might improve should Middle Eastern geopolitical tensions subside.
The Federal Reserve’s own economic projections underscore this unease. The institution’s year-end Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation estimate surged from 2.7% to 3.6%.
According to Nick Ruck, director at LVRG Research, the meeting records validate that the [[LINK_START_1]]AI infrastructure[[LINK_END_1]] expansion is “propelling elevated inflation through unprecedented demand for semiconductors, power resources, and data facilities, despite its potential for enhanced productivity in the future.”
Interest Rate Increase Remains Under Consideration The Federal Reserve maintained its benchmark rate at 3.5%–3.75% during June’s session, though the possibility of a future increase has not been dismissed. Nine committee members out of 18 anticipate at least one upward rate adjustment before 2026 concludes. Among those nine, six forecast two separate quarter-point increments.
Numerous participants indicated the proper federal funds rate would align with or fall marginally beneath the existing range by year’s conclusion. However, an equally substantial contingent argued it should exceed current levels, revealing significant internal disagreement within the committee.
Market sentiment has evolved accordingly. The probability of a rate increase at the July 29 policy meeting currently stands at 30.5% according to CME FedWatch, climbing from approximately 20% just one week earlier. Polymarket figures demonstrate a 59% probability of at least one hike occurring this year, a percentage that increased following President Trump’s announcement of potential military action against Iran this week.
Source: Polymarket Several participants during the June deliberations contended that conditions already warranted immediate rate increases, pointing to elevated inflation threats and resilient labor market conditions.
Elevated interest rates typically present challenges for cryptocurrency markets. They constrain market liquidity, increase financing expenses, and enhance the relative appeal of traditional safe-haven assets like cash and government bonds compared to riskier investments. Market observers noted this week that digital asset markets might see support if the Federal Reserve intervenes to stabilize U.S. equity markets during an economic downturn.
The Federal Reserve’s next scheduled policy meeting takes place July 29. Financial markets will closely monitor any shifts in official messaging as inflation indicators and international security concerns continue developing.
Bank of Japan. (Credit: By Wiiii-Wikimedia Commons/Modified by CoinDesk)Summary
A former Bank of Japan official warns the central bank may raise its benchmark interest rate rapidly this year, potentially to above 2%, as the yen continues to weaken.Faster BOJ tightening could support the yen, potentially weighing over risk assets. BTC and yen have developed a strong positive correlation. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) may raise its benchmark interest rate rapidly this year, as the yen slides, eventually pushing it above 2%.
That's the latest warning from a former Bank of Japan official Tsutomu Watanabe, an economics professor at the University of Tokyo who left the central bank in 1999, according to Bloomberg.
As of now, the official rate is at 1%, the result of recent hikes, and the 10-year benchmark government bond yield hovers above 2.8%, the highest in at least three decades, according to data source TradingView.
Meanwhile, the Japanese yen continues to slide despite recent hikes and hardening Japanese government bond yields. It has depreciated by 60% to 162.36 per U.S. dollar since early 2021, a major decline for one of the most traded currencies in the world. Also, it has dropped 3% so far this year.
Faster potential interest rate hikes by the BOJ may put a floor under the yen, or potentially lift it higher. The question then is whether it will help bitcoin BTC$62,890.39 or work against it.
One theory floating around in markets since long is that a sustained rally in yen could trigger an unwinding of bullish bets across advanced nation government bonds, tech stocks and even crypto that have been supposedly funded by years of cheap borrowing in yen. In such a case, risk assets, including crypto may fall.
But undercutting that theory in recent times is the strong positive correlation between the yen and BTC. Both have been falling against the dollar in lockstep.
Further, rapid rate hikes might worsen Japan's already fragile fiscal position, an argument made by several economists.
Key Takeaways Equity futures showed gains Thursday following a second wave of US military operations targeting Iran Bitcoin maintained support above $62,000, posting a 1.2% daily decline but gaining 1.6% weekly Gold continued its downward trend for the fourth consecutive session as Brent crude advanced 1% to $78.80 per barrel Rate markets adjusted Federal Reserve hike expectations, moving the timeline from December to October The Fear and Greed index for Bitcoin rose to 27, breaking a 40-day streak in extreme fear levels Equity futures climbed Thursday morning as military tensions escalated with the United States executing another wave of strikes targeting Iranian positions.
Contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 both advanced 0.1%. Nasdaq-100 futures posted a 0.3% increase.
E-Mini S&P 500 Sep 26 (ES=F) Late Wednesday, US military officials confirmed they had “initiated further strikes targeting Iran to continue degrading their capacity to threaten maritime freedom in the Strait of Hormuz.”
President Trump announced Wednesday that the ceasefire between the nations was “over.” He additionally suggested the possibility of implementing a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
BREAKING: President Trump says the ceasefire with Iran is "over."
"I don't want to deal with them anymore, they are scum," Trump says. pic.twitter.com/laHQdRKZUV
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) July 8, 2026
Equity markets ended Wednesday’s session with mixed results after surrendering earlier advances. Crude prices surged in response to Trump’s statements.
Crude Advances, Precious Metals Retreat Brent crude rose 1% to reach $78.80 per barrel, marking its third consecutive daily gain.
Gold extended its losing streak to four sessions, hovering around $4,060 per ounce. Rising rate forecasts are pressuring the precious metal, as it becomes less attractive when interest-bearing assets offer higher returns.
Money markets recalibrated their forecast for the Federal Reserve’s next rate increase to October from the previous December estimate.
Digital Assets Demonstrate Stability Bitcoin was changing hands at $62,009, reflecting a 1.2% 24-hour decline while maintaining a 1.6% weekly gain.
Bitcoin (BTC) Price Ether stood at $1,730, down 1.2% daily but posting a 5.7% gain across seven trading sessions.
Solana emerged as the session’s laggard, quoted at $77.25 with a 1.8% daily decrease and 1.7% weekly decline. XRP edged down 0.7% to $1.09.
Bitcoin’s response to geopolitical turbulence has been remarkably subdued. Historically, Strait of Hormuz-related news could trigger 5% single-day declines in Bitcoin. This week’s movement registered just 1.2%.
This behavioral shift has persisted since February. Each successive escalation has generated diminishing price reactions from Bitcoin.
Market participants are increasingly viewing these events through an interest rate lens rather than crypto-specific risk factors. Bitcoin is demonstrating stronger correlation with rate expectations than petroleum prices.
The critical support zone remains at $60,000. Bitcoin has defended this level throughout a simultaneous rate repricing, oil shock, and bond market selloff.
The Fear and Greed index advanced to 27 Thursday, concluding a 40-session stretch in extreme fear territory. The index hasn’t sustained levels above 50 since November.
Government debt instruments in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand also declined Thursday, continuing Wednesday’s worldwide selloff. Two-year Treasury yields approached their 2026 peak.
Market observers are also monitoring developments in the AI semiconductor space. SK Hynix is scheduled to launch its IPO Friday, providing fresh insights into chip demand following June’s sector correction.
Should Bitcoin preserve support above $60,000 amid continued escalations while gold extends its decline, it would reinforce the market’s treatment of cryptocurrency as a rate-sensitive instrument rather than a traditional risk hedge.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs lost a net $85 million on Wednesday, ending a three-day inflow run that had pulled in roughly $509 million, per SoSoValue data. Ether ETFs took in about $70 million the same day, a fifth straight session of inflows.
The bitcoin outflow was broad. BlackRock's IBIT shed roughly $59 million, Grayscale's GBTC lost nearly $64 million, and Fidelity's FBTC gave up about $15 million.
Grayscale's mini BTC fund was the only one in the green at nearly $53 million. Total bitcoin ETF assets fell to about $75 billion.
Ether's flows came from a narrower base but kept pointing the same way. Fidelity's FETH led with roughly $69 million, with VanEck's ETHV adding just over $1 million and every other fund flat. Ether ETF assets sit at about $9 billion.
The split matches the price tape. Bitcoin traded near $62,300 and ether near $1,740, both down about 3% on the day, though ether has outperformed over the past two weeks as the Lean Ethereum roadmap and returning ETF demand gave it a story bitcoin has lacked.
AscendEX has shut down operations after citing regulatory requirements under the European Union’s MiCA framework and mounting financial difficulties, while warning that some customers may not recover their full crypto balances.
Summary
AscendEX has shut down operations, citing MiCA compliance requirements and financial difficulties. The exchange warned users that withdrawals will be reviewed manually and full account balances may not be recoverable. The closure follows weeks of withdrawal complaints after ZachXBT raised concerns about delayed withdrawals and the exchange’s visible hot wallet reserves. According to a notice published by the cryptocurrency exchange on July 6, AscendEX ceased operations on July 1 after the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation came fully into force in the European Union, where the platform does not hold the required authorization. The exchange said financial and operational pressures also contributed to the decision.
Alongside the shutdown, AscendEX said it cannot guarantee that customers will be able to withdraw all of the digital assets held in their accounts.
“We relied on an agreed strategic transaction that was to provide liquidity to grow the platform, and the counterparty did not perform,” the exchange said, adding that weak market conditions had added further strain. AscendEX said it is reviewing its financial position to determine what options, if any, remain available for account holders.
Withdrawals remain restricted For now, the platform said account access has been limited to offboarding activities. Automated withdrawals have been suspended, while all withdrawal requests are undergoing manual review, which could result in delays.
The notice also stated that the exchange cannot provide assurances on either the timing or the amount customers may ultimately recover. It added that all requests will follow the same documented review process without preferential treatment for any group of users.
The announcement follows concerns raised in recent weeks by on-chain investigator ZachXBT.
As previously reported, he said users had reported withdrawals remaining pending for days or weeks, while his review of AscendEX’s publicly identified hot wallets found little to no holdings of major assets including ETH, USDT, USDC, and SOL. He noted, however, that exchange reserves can also include cold wallets, third-party custodians or addresses that are not publicly labelled.
A few days later, ZachXBT urged affected users to report the matter to law enforcement agencies and financial regulators in their jurisdictions. He also claimed the exchange had continued accepting deposits while many withdrawal requests remained unprocessed and said one large user had allegedly received no response from AscendEX co-founder George Jing Cao.
Founded in 2018 as BitMax before rebranding to AscendEX, the exchange previously suffered a security breach in 2021 that resulted in losses of about $78 million. The attack was later linked to the Lazarus Group.
Looking ahead, AscendEX said it will provide further updates once it has more clarity on its financial position. The exchange also warned that if formal insolvency or a similar legal process begins, unresolved customer balances and claims may be handled under those proceedings.
The cryptocurrency market was showing some signs of a recovery earlier this week, with Bitcoin (BTC) briefly reclaiming the $64,000 price level on July 7. 2026. The upswing, unfortunately, was short-lived. BTC has since fallen to the $62,000 level, and is seeing more of a sideways price movement. Let’s discuss what’s going on with the cryptocurrency market dip and if additional headwinds will present bleaker conditions.
New Doubts Loom Over Cryptocurrency MarketSource: Watcher.GuruThe latest cryptocurrency market dip comes amid a re-escalation in the US-Iran conflict. A peace deal between the two countries was almost complete, but, unfortunately, did not go through. The US has restarted its military operations against Iran and the latter has struck US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Many anticipate another energy crisis, which will likely add pressure on the already weak economy. Inflation climbed to 4.2% in May 2026, and could go higher if oil prices go up. The development could lead to an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve. Higher rates often lead to less risky investments. The cryptocurrency sector could take a big hit under such circumstances.
Another factor of concern for the cryptocurrency market is the Indian central bank, the Reserve Bank Of India (RBI), reasserting a call for prohibition in the country. The country is worried about tax evasion and the tax department has warned that trading via offshore exchanges is hard to track. India has one of the largest number of people invested in cryptocurrencies. According to reports, the country has about 39 million cryptocurrency investors holding nearly $2 billion worth of assets.
Also Read: How Long Will Bitcoin Be Down? Bitcoin’s 50% Crash Has a Timeline
The cryptocurrency market has struggled for months and a recovery doesn’t seem to be around the corner just yet. Many experts, including prominent Chinese miner, Jiang Zhuoer, anticipates Bitcoin (BTC) to bottom out at around $42,000-$44,000 by the end of this year before making any positive price movements.
Key Takeaways A cryptocurrency wallet associated with SpaceX transferred only $88 in Bitcoin following a half-year period of no activity The aerospace company maintains ownership of 18,712 BTC valued at approximately $1.16 billion Shares of SPCX finished Tuesday’s session down 6.83%, trading beneath its initial public offering price The equity has declined over 25% from recent peaks even with Nasdaq-100 membership JPMorgan projects that approximately $4.3 billion in passive investment flows could result from the index addition A cryptocurrency wallet associated with Elon Musk’s aerospace venture SpaceX executed a Bitcoin transaction for the first time in half a year, sparking discussion among digital asset observers. Simultaneously, the company’s publicly traded shares have retreated more than 25% from their recent peak levels, despite securing a spot in the prestigious Nasdaq-100 index.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., SPCX
SpaceX-Linked Wallet Executes Minimal BTC Transfer Blockchain tracking service Arkham Intelligence reported that a wallet tied to SpaceX conducted a transaction involving just $88 in Bitcoin on July 8. This marked the conclusion of a six-month period during which the wallet remained completely dormant.
SPACEX JUST MOVED BITCOIN
A tagged SpaceX address just moved Bitcoin for the first time in 6 months. SpaceX (15atF) made a test transaction of $88 of BTC to SpaceX (bc1q9).
Is SpaceX about to move more BTC? pic.twitter.com/vQITSDKtGI
— Arkham (@arkham) July 8, 2026
The modest transaction amount didn’t prevent market observers from weighing in with various theories. Historically, SpaceX’s cryptocurrency wallets have exhibited extended periods of inactivity before executing more substantial movements.
Data from Arkham indicates that SpaceX continues to maintain approximately 18,712 Bitcoin in its holdings, representing a market value of roughly $1.16 billion. The destination wallet in this transaction now contains 614 Bitcoin, worth approximately $38 million.
The previous significant movement from SpaceX wallets involved over 1,016 Bitcoin valued at close to $100 million at the time. Arkham’s analysis also revealed that outbound transfers from SpaceX to unidentified wallets rose during the cryptocurrency market downturn that occurred on October 10 of the previous year.
This activity emerges amid a broader trend of major corporate Bitcoin holders reducing positions. Strategy recently liquidated approximately $216 million in Bitcoin holdings. Additional companies including MARA Holdings, Nakamoto Holdings, and Sequans Communications have similarly announced Bitcoin disposals in recent weeks.
Bitcoin’s price stood above the $62,000 threshold on Tuesday but experienced a nearly 2% decline during the trading session. The decrease followed renewed military confrontations between the United States and Iran, with President Trump expressing skepticism regarding the durability of any potential cease-fire agreement.
SPCX Shares Slip Below Debut Price Amid Nasdaq-100 Inclusion SPCX concluded Tuesday at $149.47, representing a 6.83% decline, with the intraday bottom reaching $148.86. The stock has now surrendered over 25% of its value from the highs recorded roughly one month earlier and has fallen beneath the price level established during its initial public offering.
SpaceX secured its position in the Nasdaq-100 index prior to Monday’s opening bell on July 7. The exchange operator granted an expedited inclusion based on updated guidelines that enable recently listed companies of substantial size to achieve index eligibility more rapidly than previous protocols allowed.
Analysts at JPMorgan calculate that the index membership will compel passive investment vehicles and exchange-traded funds to acquire approximately $4.3 billion in SPCX shares as they execute portfolio adjustments to mirror the Nasdaq-100 composition.
Notwithstanding the anticipated institutional purchasing pressure, market participants have persisted in realizing gains following the equity’s dramatic appreciation after its market introduction.
Major investment banks have expressed optimistic outlooks. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup have each initiated research coverage on SpaceX with elevated price objectives. Morgan Stanley established a $300 target price, representing the most aggressive projection among the three institutions.
Pre-market activity on Wednesday indicated shares climbing 0.49%.
After weeks of massive outflows, institutional investors seem to be changing course. Crypto investment products listed on Wall Street (Bitcoin ETFs) are recording a significant slowdown in selling pressure, a signal the market was waiting for to hope to stop its correction. This reversal, still fragile, offers a glimpse into the mindset of major investors facing economic uncertainties and could mark the start of a new sequence for cryptos.
In brief Bitcoin ETFs end eight weeks of capital outflows, with $510 million in inflows rekindling hope of a market turnaround. Institutional investors remain under pressure, as the average acquisition cost of ETFs remains well above Bitcoin’s current price. Whale sales are slowing, but Fed monetary policy and geopolitical tensions continue to weigh on market outlooks. The return of capital marks an encouraging signal, though several obstacles could still hinder a lasting Bitcoin recovery. The return of capital to Wall Street after a historic disengagement Bitcoin-backed ETFs have just interrupted an unprecedented downward spiral thanks to a marked reversal in investor activity. The latest market reports reveal particularly precise numerical indicators for the recent period :
Capital injections : investment products attracted about $510 million in net inflows over three consecutive days ; The end of withdrawals : this movement ends a continuous sequence of eight weeks of outflows during which ETFs lost a total of $8 billion ; The interim annual balance : following this prolonged purge, the net outflow balance since the beginning of the year now stands at $2.8 billion. Asked about this change in trajectory, James Butterfill, research director at asset manager CoinShares, confided: “it seems that sentiment is turning”. The researcher also provided a major quantitative detail on the end of this bearish cycle by stating: “these are the largest inflows we’ve seen since the start of outflows at the beginning of May, suggesting we may have passed the worst”.
Regarding the structure of this disengagement, the analysis shows that the capital retraction proportionally represented 8% of the total assets under management of Bitcoin ETFs. This behavior faithfully mirrors capital capitulations observed at cycle lows in 2018. Although spectacular in duration, this unwinding of positions remains technically comparable to the episode in February last year, during which institutional investors withdrew a total of $5.2 billion from these same financial vehicles.
Institutional unrealized losses and the technical review of the purge Beyond recent cash flows, the financial reality of current ETF allocators reveals a critical situation. According to Glassnode calculations based on the average acquisition cost of these financial instruments, the average buyer of these products is currently in an unrealized loss position.
On-chain data indicate that investors mostly gained exposure when Bitcoin was trading around $83,800. This setup explains the current market’s great caution, while the asset is currently trading around $62,000, showing a 4% increase over a week but still affected by its correction to $58,000 at the beginning of the month and its continuous decline from the $126,000 peak set last October.
However, the intensity of this institutional capitulation deserves to be tempered compared to major crises experienced by the ecosystem in the past. Despite the severity and duration of the recent price drop, the peak net daily outflows for these funds stabilized at $733 million. This important psychological threshold did not exceed the absolute disengagement records recorded multiple times throughout last year.
This shows that while outflows set a duration record, daily panic remained relatively contained. Institutional investors thus managed their positions in a more algorithmic and orderly way than in previous cycles.
Whale movements and macroeconomic drags from the Fed The hopes for a structural recovery face underlying market forces and a particularly tight global monetary environment. Alongside ETFs, selling pressure has intensified from whales holding at least 1,000 Bitcoins. These large wallets have liquidated over $40 billion in assets since last year’s price peak.
James Butterfill notes that this major source of devaluation and specific selling pressure has just eased, offering technical relief to the market. However, the U.S. Federal Reserve continues its restrictive policy to fight inflation, while geopolitical tensions in the Middle East keep weighing on risky assets.
James Butterfill highlights the limits of short-term excessive optimism: “we are not in a situation where we can say the Fed is about to cut rates, and that would be very favorable for bitcoin”. The expert reminds the crypto’s intrinsic dependence on central bankers’ decisions concluding : “bitcoin remains very, very sensitive to inflation outlooks, and by extension, the war in Iran and Fed prospects”.
The cross-analysis of this data demands a nuanced reading of market prospects. On one side, the return of inflows at $510 million, despite eight weeks of capital outflows, shows that institutional investors perceive the current zone as a relevant entry point. On the other, the fact that the average cost base is at $83,800 creates psychological resistance, with many players simply waiting to break even in an uncertain macroeconomic context.
Maximize your Cointribune experience with our "Read to Earn" program! For every article you read, earn points and access exclusive rewards. Sign up now and start earning benefits.
Join the program
A
A
Lien copié
Luc Jose A.
Diplômé de Sciences Po Toulouse et titulaire d'une certification consultant blockchain délivrée par Alyra, j'ai rejoint l'aventure Cointribune en 2019. Convaincu du potentiel de la blockchain pour transformer de nombreux secteurs de l'économie, j'ai pris l'engagement de sensibiliser et d'informer le grand public sur cet écosystème en constante évolution. Mon objectif est de permettre à chacun de mieux comprendre la blockchain et de saisir les opportunités qu'elle offre. Je m'efforce chaque jour de fournir une analyse objective de l'actualité, de décrypter les tendances du marché, de relayer les dernières innovations technologiques et de mettre en perspective les enjeux économiques et sociétaux de cette révolution en marche.
DISCLAIMER
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.
According to its official page, Polymarket has launched a derivatives trading feature, currently supporting 10 assets including BTC, ETH, SOL, HYPE, gold, silver, the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, WTIOIL, and SPCX, with a maximum leverage of 20x.
10 minutes ago
SMIC surpassed Kweichow Moutai in market capitalization.
According to Bitget data, SMIC’s A-share price rose nearly 15%, pushing its total market capitalization to 1.49 trillion yuan. Kweichow Moutai is currently down 1.43%, with a total market cap of 1.48 trillion yuan. (Jinshi)
10 minutes ago
US tech stocks are experiencing one of the most volatile periods in history, with the volatility ratio of the Nasdaq 100 to the S&P 500 hitting a 23-year high.
The Kobeissi Letter noted in a post that tech stocks are experiencing one of the most volatile periods in history. The ratio of the Nasdaq 100 Volatility Index (VXN) to the S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX) has risen to 1.7, its highest level in 23 years. This marks the first time the ratio has topped 1.5 since 2018. By comparison, the metric peaked at around 1.6 during the 2008 financial crisis. Currently, VXN stands at 28 points, while VIX is at 16 points – the latter is 43% lower than the former. VXN has remained above the 20-point threshold for five consecutive months, the longest such stretch since the 2022 bear market. Markets are pricing in significant volatility risk for tech stocks.
10 minutes ago
A crypto whale closed a $100 million BTC short position, earning a profit of $5.28 million.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, a whale closed a $100 million Bitcoin (BTC) short position, earning a profit of $5.28 million. Wallet address 0xcf9 opened the short on June 2 at $68,859 and closed it one hour ago at $62,314, holding the position for 36 days.
10 minutes ago
Nvidia will collaborate with Hugging Face to develop open-source robotics models.
NVIDIA has announced a partnership with Hugging Face to co-develop open-source foundation models for robotics, combining its GPU ecosystem and CUDA technology, along with Hugging Face’s extensive model library and developer community, to significantly lower the barriers to AI training and deployment for robotics. (Jinshi)
10 minutes ago
A newly created wallet withdrew 500 BTC from Binance, worth $31.15 million.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, a newly created wallet withdrew 500 BTC from Binance, valued at $31.15 million.
Bitcoin traders face a crucial test as $63,000 remains the barrier bulls must overcome before further upside.
Bitcoin stayed under pressure this week after the United States and Iran exchanged air strikes. Market sentiment worsened further after President Donald Trump said the memorandum of understanding and the ceasefire with Iran “is over.”
The uncertainty briefly pushed the world’s largest crypto asset close to $60,000 on Tuesday. By Thursday, however, it steadied at a little over $62,000.
Real Battle Is at $63K Against this fragile backdrop, crypto analyst Ali Martinez said Bitcoin is trading in what he described as “no man’s land” based on the MVRV Pricing Bands. According to Martinez, BTC is currently positioned between the -0.5 and -1.0 MVRV bands, indicating the market does not present a clear valuation advantage at current prices. He identified the -1.0 MVRV Pricing Band, now at $49,867, as the level he would consider a major buy signal and a prime accumulation zone if Bitcoin declines that far.
In a separate analysis, Martinez also pointed to $63,000 as a major resistance level that the crypto asset has yet to overcome. Around 623,000 BTC were previously traded near this price, making it one of the largest resistance clusters on the chart. Many investors who bought around $63,000 could choose to sell once they return to breakeven, and potentially end up increasing selling pressure. Heightened global uncertainty could also encourage some market participants to reduce risk.
If Bitcoin fails to reclaim $63,000 and subsequently falls below $59,000, Martinez said on-chain transaction history identifies the next major support levels at $46,000, where roughly 115,000 BTC were transacted, and subsequently $37,870, where approximately 206,000 BTC previously changed hands.
War Chatter Hits 3-Month High Online conversations within the crypto community also picked up. Discussions about war across crypto-focused social media have climbed to their highest level since April after Trump’s fresh warning, according to Santiment. Mentions of terms such as “war,” “Iran,” and “ceasefire” spiked sharply across social platforms. Santiment said that the market could witness increased market volatility until traders gain more clarity.
However, the growing skepticism toward political announcements throughout 2026 may reduce the market impact compared with similar developments earlier this year. Even so, if tensions continue to rise, Bitcoin and altcoins could face short-term pressure, while an excessive surge in fear could eventually set the stage for a sharp relief rally as headlines ease.
You may also like: Altcoin Market Reaches Extreme Underperformance, 40% of Coins Trade Near Their ATL Japanese Firms Are Boosting BTC and XRP Holdings – SBI VC Trade Reveals Why SpaceX Bitcoin Wallet Wakes Up With a Tiny Transaction: What’s Next? Tags:
Bitcoin slipped to near $62,000 mark on Thursday as geopolitical risks weighed on market sentiment, while ETF inflows offered support. The cryptocurrency was trading at $62,038 mark.
Ethereum was down 1% to trade at $1,733 mark. Bitcoin also declined 1% in the past 24 hours. Among the major altcoins, BNB, XRP, Solana, Tron, Hyperliquid, Dogecoin, and Cardano fell up to 3%.
Also Read | Smallcap funds deliver 22% average return in 3 months. Is it time to invest, hold or rebalance?
Crypto Tracker
TOP COINS (₹)
54,475 (0.78%)
95 (0.17%)
95 (0.17%)
5,950,956 (-0.05%)
166,296 (-0.22%)
Akshat Siddhant, Lead quant analyst, Mudrex said Bitcoin is trading around the $62,000 level as renewed geopolitical tensions, following President Trump’s announcement ending the ceasefire, have pushed investors toward a risk-off stance and at the same time, Japan’s 10-year government bond yield has climbed to a 30-year high, prompting a broader rotation of capital across global markets.
He further said that despite these headwinds and persistent inflation concerns, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $143 million in net inflows, providing support to prices and the $60,000 level now remains a critical support zone.
The global crypto market capitalisation edged down 1% to $2.14 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. The fear and greed index slightly drops to 25, while the market sentiments remain under fear, said CoinDCX Research Team.
In the past week, Bitcoin and Ethereum were up 2% and 6.5% respectively. Among the major altcoins, BNB, XRP, Tron, Hyperliquid, and Cardano rallied up to 8% whereas Solana and Dogecoin fell 0.9% and 0.7% respectively.
CoinSwitch Markets Desk said Bitcoin slipped to around $61.5K after Trump declared the US-Iran ceasefire "over” and the turmoil raised odds of a September Fed rate hike, adding pressure on risk assets like crypto. $61K remains a crucial level, with traders expecting a reversal once talks resume.
Also Read | Quant Small Cap Fund exits RIL, 8 others; raises exposure to two Adani stocks. Check full list
What other analysts say
Riya Sehgal, Research Analyst, Delta Exchange
Crypto markets are in a macro-led risk-off phase. Bitcoin’s fall toward the $61,500–$62,000 zone reflects pressure from U.S.–Iran escalation, rising crude oil, higher bond yields, Japan bond-market stress, and Strategy-related Bitcoin sale concerns. ETF flows are supportive but limited. BTC spot ETFs saw around $21.4 million of inflows, while Ethereum ETFs saw around $26.9 million.
Nischal Shetty, founder, WazirX
Bitcoin trades near $62,014, with the daily technical outlook remaining cautious as the market consolidates. Moving averages indicate near-term weakness, while balanced momentum signals suggest traders are awaiting the next major catalyst.
Vikram Subburaj, CEO, Giottus
The broader crypto market cap stood near $2.14 trillion. Bitcoin dominance held around 58%. This indicates that traders remain defensive. They are not yet rotating aggressively into altcoins. On-chain signals remain mixed. Long-term holders appear to have resumed gradual accumulation, with net buying estimated in the 50,000-100,000 Bitcoin range.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP bounced after US President Donald Trump said that Iran had called him and wanted to make a deal. US stock futures also turned green following the completion of strikes confirmed by the US Central Command on Thursday.
President Trump Claims Iran Seeks Deal After Second Set of Strikes Stocks and crypto markets reacted positively to President Trump’s latest comments that Iran called him, saying “they want to make a deal so badly.” However, he is unsure about making a deal with Iran again amid ceasefire violations and strikes against US forces in the Middle East.
“I just don’t know if they’re worthy of making a deal. I don’t know that they’re going to honor the deal. That’s the problem,” Trump said. The White House is preparing for a multi-day or even weeks of strikes against Iran over the Strait of Hormuz control.
Bitcoin and XRP bounced after the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said U.S. forces completed strikes on nearly 90 Iranian military targets. These included air defense systems, coastal surveillance sites, missile and drone storage areas, naval assets, and logistics infrastructure
The strikes come after previous operations targeting Iranian military capabilities following attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM says its forces remain on alert and ready to respond.
Meanwhile, sources told CoinGape that Iranian officials rejected Trump’s claim that they are “begging for a deal,” stating that the Trump administration is repeatedly asking Iran to hold back and request talks.
Iran’s IRGC even attacked and hit US military infrastructure in Kuwait’s Camp Arifjan and Ali Al-Salem base in retaliation. It also carried out strikes on the US Fifth Fleet HQ and Sheikh Isa base in Bahrain in a joint missile and drone operation, as per Tasnim.
BREAKING: Iran's IRGC announces it has attacked and hit US military infrastructure in Kuwait's Camp Arifjan and Ali Al-Salem base, along with the US Fifth Fleet HQ and Sheikh Isa base in Bahrain in a joint missile and drone operation, per Tasnim.
The IRGC calls this the "first…
— The Hormuz Letter (@HormuzLetter) July 9, 2026
Bitcon and XRP Climb Higher Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP bounced from recent lows as traders saw Trump’s remarks on Iran as signs of negotiations. BTC dipped near $61,500 earlier amid renewed US-Iran war tensions, but buy-the-dip sentiment triggered a bounce above $62,500.
XRP also recovered, holding near $1.09 after sliding from $1.16 amid US-Iran ceasefire violations. This rebound also comes amid positive developments, including Ripple signing XRP jersey patch deal with Kansas Jayhawks.
In addition, FOMC Meeting Minutes revealed that Fed officials support holding interest rates steady for longer, despite a rate hike still on the table. Bitcoin and XRP trading volumes remain in the red as traders await macro and clear technical catalysts.
Bitcoin has started July on a solid footing, consistent with its historically strong seasonal performance. Supportive comments from President Trump, including remarks that the US is “taking over crypto” and SEC pro-crypto rules changes, have helped sentiment. BIT predicted Bitcoin faces initial resistance at $65,955.
#BTC
If history repeats, things are likely going to pick up for Bitcoin and its Summer relief rally in the second half of July$BTC #Bitcoin
— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) July 8, 2026
If you want to easily, efficiently, and quickly swap one crypto to another crypto, check out these 10 Best Crypto Swapping Sites.
TL;DR Bitcoin ETFs recorded $84.86 million in net outflows on July 8, signaling continued caution among institutional investors. Spot Ethereum ETFs attracted $70.48 million in net inflows, extending their positive streak to five consecutive trading days. The contrasting ETF flows suggest institutional capital is showing stronger interest in Ethereum than Bitcoin in the short term. Analysts continue to monitor ETF activity as a key indicator of institutional sentiment and broader crypto market direction. U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) returned to negative territory on July 8, recording $84.86 million in net outflows after signs of improving investor sentiment earlier in the week. The latest figures suggest institutional demand for Bitcoin remains uneven as investors continue responding to broader macroeconomic uncertainty and crypto market volatility.
While Bitcoin products lost assets, spot Ethereum ETFs attracted $70.48 million in net inflows, extending their positive run to five consecutive trading days. The sustained inflows point to renewed institutional interest in Ethereum, even as Bitcoin funds continue to experience intermittent selling pressure.
The latest ETF flow data follows a difficult period for Bitcoin investment products. Just last week, spot Bitcoin ETFs posted more than $526 million in weekly net outflows, ending one of the weakest stretches of the year before briefly recovering with several days of fresh inflows. However, Wednesday’s withdrawals indicate investors remain cautious rather than fully returning to the market.
Ethereum Continues to Outperform in Institutional Flows Ethereum has recently shown stronger momentum among institutional investors. The latest $70.48 million in inflows builds on several consecutive days of positive demand, suggesting investors are becoming increasingly comfortable with ETH exposure despite ongoing market volatility.
Market participants have pointed to Ethereum’s expanding role in tokenization, decentralized finance, and institutional blockchain infrastructure as factors supporting demand. At the same time, several asset managers continue to increase their focus on Ethereum-based investment products, helping sustain inflows even as Bitcoin funds fluctuate.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, remains sensitive to macroeconomic developments. Investors continue to monitor interest rate expectations, global geopolitical risks, and overall risk appetite, all of which have contributed to inconsistent ETF flows in recent weeks.
Ethereum and Bitcoin ETF Flows Remain a Key Market Indicator Spot ETF activity has become one of the clearest gauges of institutional sentiment toward digital assets. Strong inflows typically signal growing confidence from professional investors, while sustained outflows often reflect a more defensive approach.
Although Bitcoin ETFs experienced another day of redemptions, the relatively modest size of the withdrawals compared with previous weeks may indicate that selling pressure is beginning to stabilize rather than accelerate. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s five-day inflow streak suggests capital is selectively rotating toward assets that investors believe offer stronger near-term opportunities.
With Bitcoin trading around the $62,000 level and market conditions remaining highly sensitive to economic developments, ETF flow data is expected to remain one of the most closely watched indicators for institutional participation in the crypto market over the coming weeks.
On July 8, spot Bitcoin ETF flows in the United States returned to negative territory, with ETFs seeing net outflows of 84.86 million dollars for the day. Despite some modest signs of recovery earlier in the week, the numbers revealed that institutional investors remain cautious when it comes to Bitcoin.
Divergence between Bitcoin and Ethereum funds widensOn the same day, spot Ethereum ETFs attracted 70.48 million dollars in net inflows, extending their positive streak to five consecutive trading days. Recent data indicates that, at least in the short term, institutional capital is showing greater interest in Ethereum than in Bitcoin.
Data for July 8 shows net outflows of 84.86 million dollars from spot Bitcoin ETFs, contrasted by inflows of 70.48 million dollars into spot Ethereum ETFs. Notably, Ethereum has now logged five straight days of positive inflows.
An ETF, or exchange-traded fund, allows investors to gain exposure to an asset’s price movements without holding the asset directly. Spot ETFs, as distinct from futures-based products, track the real-time market price of the underlying asset rather than derivatives contracts.
Bitcoin fund weakness persists following last week’s routThe recent trend in Bitcoin investment products has already been under considerable strain. Cumulative net outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs exceeded 526 million dollars last week. Though there were several days of inflows that briefly slowed the exodus after a historically weak period, the renewed pullback on July 8 suggests that many investors are reluctant to re-enter the market with confidence.
Volatility in Bitcoin has been fueled by ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty. Shifting interest rate expectations, global geopolitical tensions, and changing risk appetites are among the key drivers of ETF flows in recent weeks.
Institutional interest in Ethereum gathers momentumEthereum has shown stronger momentum with institutional inflows over the last week. The latest 70.48 million dollar addition builds on a series of consecutive positive days, indicating that, despite market volatility, some investors are carving out larger positions in ETH.
Market participants cite Ethereum’s expanding role in tokenization, decentralized finance (DeFi), and institutional blockchain infrastructure as key factors fueling demand. The growing interest from asset managers in Ethereum-based products is helping to sustain inflows even as Bitcoin funds experience turbulence.
Spot ETF movements continue to be one of the most closely watched indicators for measuring institutional sentiment toward digital assets.
ETF flows offer insight into market directionSpot ETF figures have become a crucial barometer for reading how professional investors view digital assets. Robust inflows are often interpreted as a sign of growing confidence, while sustained outflows point to a defensively oriented market stance.
Though Bitcoin ETFs posted another day of net outflows, the retreat was less dramatic than in previous weeks, suggesting that selling pressure may be stabilizing rather than intensifying. In contrast, Ethereum’s five-day inflow streak reveals that capital is being selectively deployed into areas perceived to offer more compelling short-term opportunities.
With Bitcoin trading around 62,000 dollars, ETF flows are expected to remain a leading indicator of institutional participation in the ever-sensitive and rapidly shifting crypto market in the weeks ahead.
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.
Leading cryptocurrencies fell alongside stocks on Wednesday as the U.S. strikes against Iran threaten peace negotiations.
Crypto Market ShakesBitcoin slipped under $61,500, then climbed back above $62,000 overnight. Ethereum oscillated within the $1,700 region, even as the 24-hour trading volume saw an uptick. XRP and Dogecoin sank lower.
Over $330 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, with $261 million in bullish long positions alone wiped out, according to Coinglass data.
Nearly $400 million in Bitcoin longs risked liquidation if the apex cryptocurrency falls to $60,000.
Bitcoin’s open interest slid 1.40% over the last 24 hours. Smart money sentiment, which refers to the collective outlook and capital allocation of institutional investors, turned "extremely bearish” on Binance.
Top Gainers (24 Hours)
The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.15 trillion, contracting 1.67% over the last 24 hours.
Stocks Dive As Iran Strikes IntensifyStocks slipped further on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 576.76 points, or 1.09%, to end at 52,348.39. The S&P 500 lost 0.28% to close at 7,482.71. The Nasdaq Composite was the outlier, rising 0.2% to close at 25,870.65.
President Donald Trump reposted news of strikes on Iran’s southeastern city of Chahbahar on his Truth social, saying, “This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse.”
Earlier in the day, he declared that the tentative ceasefire and memorandum of understanding with Iran is "over," sending markets reeling.
Bitcoin To Struggle In Short Term?On-chain analytics firm Santiment highlighted a sharp jump in “war-related crypto chatter,” anticipating increased volatility in the days ahead.
“If tensions keep rising, Bitcoin and altcoins may struggle short term, but if fear spikes too far too fast, it can also set up sharp relief rallies when headlines cool,” Santiment added.
Ali Martinez, a widely followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader, identified $63,000 as the major wall bulls need to break.
“Many holders who bought near $63,000 may use a return to their cost basis as an opportunity to exit at breakeven, adding selling pressure around this zone,” the analyst added.
Martinez also flagged downside risks, including potential declines to $46,000 or $37,870 if Bitcoin loses $59,000 as support.
Photo Courtesy: Marc Bruxelle on Shutterstock.com
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Grayscale, a leading digital asset investment firm, highlighted 8 crypto with the most important narratives shaping the market today. Each asset carries a distinct story driving adoption, developer activity, and investor interest.
Here is a closer look at each narrative, its current price, and how far it sits from its all-time high.
Every asset has its narrative:$BTC → Digital money$ETH → World Computer $XRP → Global payments$SOL → High performance $HYPE → Onchain trading 24/7$LINK → Tokenization & oracles$SUI → Next gen infrastructure$AVAX → Mass customization
— Grayscale (@Grayscale) July 8, 2026 What the 8 Grayscale Crypto Narratives Actually MeanEach crypto carries a distinct narrative, from Bitcoin’s digital money to Ethereum’s world computer, driving adoption and investor interest across the market.
Bitcoin (BTC) – Digital MoneyBitcoin remains the original narrative of decentralized digital money and a hedge against fiat debasement. Its fixed supply and growing institutional adoption through ETFs and corporate treasuries reinforce its role as a store of value.
Furthermore, it anchors the entire crypto market as the reserve asset. BTC trades around $62,000, roughly 51% below its all-time high near $126,000, yet long-term conviction stays strong.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens.
Bitcoin (BTC) Price Performance. Source: BeInCryptoEthereum (ETH) – The World ComputerEthereum powers smart contracts and decentralized applications, earning it the title of the programmable world computer. Its dominant DeFi and NFT ecosystems, combined with staking and Layer-2 scaling, sustain relevance despite fierce competition.
Moreover, ongoing upgrades and institutional flows continue to support the network. ETH trades near $1,732, about 65% below its all-time high close to 4,878 dollars from the 2025 cycle.
Ethereum (ETH) Price Performance. Source: BeInCryptoXRP – Global PaymentsRipple’s XRP focuses on fast, low-cost cross-border payments for financial institutions. Regulatory clarity in the United States has meaningfully boosted its utility and adoption potential.
As a result, banks and payment providers increasingly view it as a viable settlement infrastructure. Trading around $1.09, XRP sits roughly 72% below its all-time high near $3.84, with upside tied to expanding payment adoption.
XRP Price Performance. Source: BeInCryptoSolana (SOL) – High PerformanceSolana stands out for its high-throughput blockchain, enabling fast, cheap transactions ideal for memecoins, DeFi, and consumer apps. Despite past network outages, its ecosystem continues to expand through new projects and institutional interest.
Furthermore, ETF launches and treasury strategies have added fresh demand. SOL trades near $77, about 74% below its all-time high of $293, yet developer activity remains consistently strong.
Solana (SOL) Price Performance. Source: BeInCryptoHyperliquid (HYPE) – Onchain Trading 24/7Hyperliquid powers a high-performance Layer-1 optimized for decentralized perpetual futures and spot trading. It has captured a major share of the on-chain derivatives market while generating substantial real revenue.
Moreover, consistent fee buybacks remove tokens from circulation, increasing scarcity and supporting the price. HYPE trades near $67, only about 13% below its all-time high of $76.70, showing remarkable resilience versus peers.
Hyperliquid (HYPE) Price Performance. Source: BeInCryptoChainlink (LINK) – Tokenization and OraclesChainlink provides essential oracle services, connecting blockchains to real-world data and powering the tokenization of assets. As real-world asset tokenization gains traction across finance, its role in infrastructure becomes increasingly critical.
Furthermore, partnerships with major banks strengthen its long-term positioning. LINK trades near $7.59, roughly 85% below its all-time high close to $53, but is positioned for RWA-driven growth.
Chainlink (LINK) Price Performance. Source: BeInCryptoSui (SUI) – Next-Generation InfrastructureSui offers a high-speed, object-centric blockchain designed for scalability in gaming, DeFi, and next-generation applications. Its performant architecture has attracted meaningful developer interest as an alternative to older networks.
Moreover, its technical foundations remain strong despite recent price weakness. SUI trades near $0.70, about 87% below its all-time high of around $5.35, reflecting the broader altcoin correction.
Sui (SUI) Price Performance. Source: BeInCryptoAvalanche (AVAX) – Mass CustomizationAvalanche enables custom subnets for tailored blockchain solutions, appealing to enterprises and specialized use cases. This flexibility supports mass adoption across gaming, finance, and institutional sectors seeking dedicated infrastructure.
Furthermore, subnet-driven growth offers a distinct path toward real-world deployment. AVAX trades around $6.42, roughly 95% below its all-time high near $146, with recovery tied to institutional adoption.
Avalanche (AVAX) Price Performance. Source: BeInCryptoGrayscale’s emphasis comes as the crypto market transitions toward fundamentals such as usage, revenue, and regulatory clarity. Most assets fell sharply from their 2025 peaks. However, their distinct value propositions position them for potential recovery, provided execution follows the narrative.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
The Federal Reserve released minutes from its June 16-17 meeting on July 8, showing a divided committee that unanimously held rates steady at 3.50% to 3.75% while flagging inflation risks tied to artificial intelligence spending.
The meeting was Chair Kevin Warsh’s first since taking over the Fed. All 12 voting members backed the hold, though the minutes revealed disagreement over whether a hike is still needed this year.
Officials Split Over the Case for a HikeA few participants argued a rate increase was justified at the June meeting but ultimately supported holding steady, the minutes said. Most officials cited persistent inflation risk from tariffs, Middle East energy costs, and AI-driven demand for tech, data centers, and electricity.
Nine of 19 officials penciled in at least one rate hike before the end of 2026, a reversal from earlier projections that showed no hikes at all. Warsh did not submit a projection.
At his post-meeting press conference, Warsh described the internal debate in blunt terms.
“We had a good family fight on it for a couple of days, and we ended up, I think, in a better place.”
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
AI Buildout Complicates the Inflation PictureFed staff raised inflation forecasts for 2026 and 2027, citing tariff pass-through, Middle East supply shocks, and surging AI infrastructure investment. Core inflation ran at 3.3% in April and was estimated near 3.4% in May, well above the Fed’s 2% target.
Several participants said AI spending could eventually lower costs through productivity gains, though that effect would take years to appear. Meanwhile, demand for data centers and high-tech equipment keeps adding upward pressure on prices.
Bitcoin Dips as Markets Digest the Hawkish ToneBitcoin (BTC) traded near $62,240 on Wednesday, down about 2.7% over the past 24 hours, according to BeInCrypto data at press time.
Bitcoin Price Performance. Source: BeInCryptoThe move followed a preview of the release that flagged Warsh’s silence on his own rate projection as a key source of uncertainty.
The drop follows Bitcoin options activity that turned call-heavy ahead of the minutes, days after Bitcoin’s rebound toward $64,000 on bullish ETF flows. It shows how sensitive crypto markets remain to rate-hike expectations, a dynamic also visible in the earlier Fed independence fight over Governor Lisa Cook.
Analysts See a Widening Macro-Crypto LinkAhead of the release, Ryan Kirkley, co-founder and CEO of Global Settlement Network, said the moves in oil, Treasury yields, and the dollar showed markets were already repricing for a longer inflation fight rather than a one-off shock.
The minutes bore that out, tying elevated inflation to AI-related demand, tariffs, and Middle East energy costs.
“Crypto is now reacting to oil, rates, the dollar and treasury yields… It bleeds when macro bleeds.”
The next FOMC meeting is scheduled for July 28-29. With inflation still running above target and nine officials now leaning toward a hike, upcoming inflation and jobs data will likely determine whether Warsh’s “family fight” ends in a rate increase or another hold.
Strategy remains under pressure as Bitcoin hovers near $60,000, but recent capital moves have bought the company time, according to Jim Ferraioli, director of crypto research and strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research.
Speaking on Morning Trade Live at the New York Stock Exchange, Ferraioli said the firm led by Michael Saylor faces scrutiny while the price of Bitcoin sits 50% below its peak. Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, has funded much of its buying through preferred equity, including its variable-rate Stretch preferred stock, known as STRC.
That product fell near $70 from its $100 par value before a rebound. To defend the peg, Strategy raised the STRC dividend to 12% and authorized $2 billion in buybacks while unlocking further Bitcoin sales. The stock has since started climbing back toward par.
“The market is supportive of these actions,” Ferraioli said, describing the response as a check on fears of cascading liquidations.
The shift marks a change in tone for a company known for a “never sell” stance.
“We went from never sell Bitcoin to strategically sell Bitcoin,” Ferraioli said, acknowledging fair criticism. He cautioned that a lower multiple could limit Strategy’s capacity to issue shares and buy more Bitcoin in the second half of the year.
Schwab’s perspective on Bitcoin’s slump Ferraioli weighed in on a market bump that followed comments from President Trump, who signaled openness to holding Bitcoin in the new Trump Accounts savings program.
Ferraioli read the move as a sign of one more potential class of buyer, alongside mainstream investors who entered through spot ETFs.
“The crypto market loves narratives,” he said, calling the asset momentum-driven.
On correlations, Ferraioli described Bitcoin as a low-correlation asset, a trait he traced to the four-year halving that cuts new supply. Past ties to tech stocks have broken down, and a historic inverse relationship with the dollar has wavered; Bitcoin has rallied during periods of dollar strength this year.
“Starting points matter,” he said, noting that Bitcoin rose during the Iran conflict as the dollar gained.
He addressed the dollar-yen rate, which trades near 40-year lows. A stronger yen could unwind the carry trade, in which investors sell the yen to buy growth assets. Ferraioli framed a yen rebound as a possible headwind for risk assets, though not a primary near-term risk for Bitcoin.
On the debasement trade, Ferraioli pushed back on the idea that last year’s gold rally, set against a halving of Bitcoin’s market cap, disproved the store-of-value case.
He attributed the gold move to supply constraints and momentum rather than fiscal fear. The federal budget deficit has narrowed from 8-9% of GDP to 5%, near the median across Bitcoin’s life.
“It’s not an endorsement of the fiscal health,” he said, “but it helps put that narrative in check.”
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.
Adam Back‘s BSTR Holdings scrapped its SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners I (NASDAQ:CEPO) Wednesday after failing to raise $1.5 billion in financing.
What Fell Apart And WhyThe deal included plans to raise up to $1.5 billion through private investment in public equity financing to buy more Bitcoin.
The financing never came together.
Bloomberg reported last week that Cantor had already allowed some large investors to reduce their original commitments ahead of a shareholder vote as the transaction struggled to find backers.
Bitcoin has lost roughly half its value since October’s all-time high, making investors far more reluctant to back new Bitcoin treasury vehicles at current prices.
Wednesday’s announcement formally scrapped the original agreement, canceled the private placement financing, indefinitely postponed a shareholder meeting that had been scheduled for July 10, and returned shares to CEPO shareholders whose redemption requests were pending.
The companies said any revised deal will be detailed in future SEC filings if one is reached.
Back Previously Called a Weak Market a Buying OpportunityEarlier this year, Back told CoinDesk that launching during a weaker Bitcoin market could actually benefit BSTR by letting it accumulate coins at lower prices ahead of a potential recovery.
That framing hasn’t changed, but the inability to raise $1.5 billion from institutional investors shows the market disagrees with the timing.
BSTR is not alone. Across the broader Bitcoin treasury company space, shares of listed accumulators have slumped alongside Bitcoin itself, drying up the premium valuations that made equity-funded Bitcoin buying attractive in the first place.
CEPO Trades Near Key Support With Neutral MomentumCEPO trades just above its major moving averages, sitting roughly 1.9% above the 20-day SMA at $10.46 and 1.5% above the 200-day SMA at $10.49.
RSI sits at 53.09, a neutral reading that points to range-bound trading rather than a directional move in either direction.
Key support sits at $10.50, aligning with the 50-day EMA and the broader cluster of long-term averages.
Holding that level keeps buyers in control. Losing it removes the only nearby structural floor the stock has.
Image: Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Fidelity Digital Assets has highlighted a substantial shift in the valuation of U.S. homes when measured in Bitcoin. While the average price of homes in USD has risen by over $100,000 since 2020, they have become approximately ten times cheaper in Bitcoin. This indicates a significant appreciation in Bitcoin’s value relative to the housing market, suggesting increased purchasing power for Bitcoin holders. The current market conditions, with Bitcoin prices fluctuating between $60,000 and $97,000, reflect this trend. The report underscores Bitcoin’s potential role as a store of value that can outpace inflation of fiat-denominated assets such as real estate.
Advertisement
Key Takeaways Fidelity’s report suggests U.S. homes have become more affordable in Bitcoin terms, indicating Bitcoin’s value appreciation. Market pricing suggests a strong probability of Bitcoin staying above $58,000 by July 12, with a 96% YES scenario currently priced. The contrast between Bitcoin’s performance and real estate inflation appears consistent with increased interest in Bitcoin as a hedge against fiat inflation. What to Watch Observers will be monitoring the upcoming mid-July CPI and PCE data releases, which could influence Bitcoin’s price movement. Any signs of cooler-than-expected inflation might encourage further investment in Bitcoin, consistent with scenarios where Bitcoin’s price remains above key thresholds. Additionally, actions by key financial figures, such as potential rate changes by the Federal Reserve, could further impact market sentiment and Bitcoin’s valuation against the USD.
Get prediction market intelligence as a structured API feed. Early access waitlist.
Term Structure
Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h July 12 2026 96.2% — — View market → July 12 2026 2.1% — — View market → July 12 2026 52.5% — — View market → July 12 2026 98.6% — — View market →
Fidelity Investments’ Global Macro Director, Jurrien Timmer, has released an updated version of the company’s widely followed performance table, which outlines investment returns over specific periods. The new table highlights a pronounced divergence among asset classes in the first half of 2026.
Striking divergence in asset returnsAccording to the rankings, which track monthly data through June 2026, emerging markets, small-cap stocks, and Japanese equities led the tables. By contrast, Bitcoin, gold, and long-term bonds occupied the lowest positions, showing a stark underperformance relative to other asset groups during the same period.
Fidelity Investments is one of the world’s largest asset management firms, operating globally across equities, bonds, and alternative investments. Jurrien Timmer is recognized for his insights into macro trends and market developments within the firm.
The updated Fidelity performance table reveals that the investment landscape shifted sharply in early 2026, with Bitcoin lagging behind most liquid asset classes.
Bitcoin, gold, and bonds clustered at the bottomIn the rightmost column of the table, which displays data up to June 2026, the orange boxes representing Bitcoin are concentrated near the bottom. This visual underscores that the leading cryptocurrency trailed most major assets in returns during the first half of the year.
Notably, both long-term US Treasury bonds and spot gold also appeared in the same lower segment, even though these assets typically react to different market dynamics. Their simultaneous weak performance drew attention from market observers.
Long-term bonds are debt instruments with extended maturities and are more sensitive to interest rate expectations than short-term bonds. As a result, changes in interest rate outlooks tend to impact their performance more significantly.
An unusual market landscape emergesThe data reveals an atypical scenario where Bitcoin, often considered a high-risk digital asset, appeared in the same underperforming group as gold, traditionally viewed as a safe haven. This concurrent decline suggests that, in the first half of 2026, investors faced pricing behavior that departed from classic risk-versus-protection distinctions.
The fact that the boxes representing Bitcoin are clustered at the bottom of the June 2026 column highlights the digital asset’s clear underperformance when compared to nearly all liquid asset classes.
Statistics also indicate a widening gap between robust equity markets and defensive assets. Investment preferences during the first half of 2026 thus reflected patterns outside traditional norms for both risk-seeking and defensive strategies.
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.
Michael Saylor wants to have his Bitcoin and spend it too. The Strategy executive chairman appeared on Middle Eastern television on June 5 to lay out a financial model that sounds almost too elegant: sell a tiny sliver of your Bitcoin to fund dividends, then use capital markets to buy back even more than you sold.
The pitch centers on Strategy’s “Stretch” (STRC) variable-rate perpetual preferred stock, which carries a 12% annual dividend paid monthly starting July 1. Saylor’s argument is that issuing or selling credit instruments equal to just 1.4% of the company’s capital assets can sustainably fund those distributions while simultaneously growing the firm’s Bitcoin treasury.
The math behind the magic trick Here’s the thing about Saylor’s model. It requires Bitcoin to appreciate by roughly 2.3% annually for the whole machine to keep running. The logic works like this: Strategy sells a small amount of Bitcoin to cover dividend payments, then raises capital through debt or equity instruments to purchase far more Bitcoin than it just sold. Saylor claimed that for every batch of Bitcoin sold to fund dividends, the company can acquire 10 to 20 BTC through subsequent capital raises.
Advertisement
In practice, this is already happening. In late May, Strategy divested 32 BTC for approximately $2.5 million to fund STRC distributions. That’s a rounding error for a company holding over 840,000 BTC in its treasury.
But the scale of what’s being authorized tells a different story. Under a newly established Digital Credit Capital Framework, Strategy has greenlit up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin sales.
Why the Middle East, and why now The STRC preferred stock, with its 12% annual yield, is designed to appeal to institutional investors in the region. Saylor is essentially packaging Bitcoin exposure as a credit product, which is a framing that makes it palatable to investors who might otherwise avoid direct cryptocurrency holdings.
What this means for investors The bull case for Saylor’s model is genuinely compelling on paper. A 2.3% annual appreciation threshold is low enough that it should be achievable in most market environments.
But the bear case deserves equal attention. The model’s reliance on capital markets access is its Achilles’ heel. During severe Bitcoin drawdowns, the same credit markets Saylor plans to tap for replenishment tend to seize up. In 2022, when Bitcoin fell below $16K, Strategy’s ability to raise capital on favorable terms was severely constrained.
For holders of STRC preferred stock specifically, the key risk metric is the ratio between dividend obligations and Bitcoin’s price trajectory. As long as the 840,000-plus BTC treasury maintains or grows its value, the 1.4% annual draw looks sustainable. But preferred stock holders sit in a structurally subordinated position. They get their 12% yield, but they don’t participate in the upside if Bitcoin triples.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a large-scale missile and drone assault targeting US military bases across the Gulf region. The crypto market’s reaction was swift, violent, and, for leveraged traders, extremely expensive.
Bitcoin plunged to approximately $99.5K in the immediate aftermath of the June 28 strikes before snapping back above $102K.
What happened on the ground The IRGC announced the strikes as retaliation for earlier US airstrikes, deploying a combination of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones against multiple targets. Key installations in the crosshairs included the Ali Al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait and the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.
Most of the incoming threats were intercepted by Kuwaiti and Bahraini defense systems. Initial reports indicate minimal infrastructure damage and no confirmed American casualties.
Advertisement
The June 28 operation wasn’t the first salvo. Earlier in the month, on June 10, reports surfaced that the IRGC had launched strikes targeting 22 US positions across Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
While Iranian state media broadcast claims of significant damage, independent verification has been scarce.
The crypto market felt it anyway Bitcoin’s drop to roughly $99.5K and subsequent recovery above $102K compressed into a remarkably short window. The move itself, roughly a 2.5% swing, wouldn’t normally raise eyebrows in crypto. But in the context of leveraged positions, it was devastating.
Previous geopolitical escalations involving Iran earlier in 2026 triggered approximately $1 billion in Bitcoin liquidations. Traders running high leverage on perpetual futures contracts get wiped out in exactly these scenarios, where the move is sharp enough to trigger cascading liquidations but short-lived enough that the underlying market barely remembers it happened.
Bitcoin’s ability to reclaim $102K suggests that the selling pressure was almost entirely liquidation-driven rather than reflecting a genuine shift in investor sentiment.
Why crypto keeps reacting to Middle East tensions Iran has historically leveraged cryptocurrency mining as a mechanism to generate revenue outside the reach of international sanctions. Any escalation involving Iran carries a secondary implication for crypto markets: the potential for tighter enforcement, new sanctions frameworks, or disruptions to mining operations.
Iran remains a significant player in global oil markets, and any military conflict in the Gulf region threatens shipping lanes and production facilities. Rising energy costs ripple through every sector, including the energy-intensive Bitcoin mining industry. Higher electricity prices compress miner margins, which can lead to reduced hash rate and, in extreme scenarios, miner capitulation.
What investors should watch next For crypto investors, spot Bitcoin tends to recover quickly from geopolitically driven selloffs. The real risk sits in the derivatives market, where leveraged positions face existential threats from the kind of sudden, headline-driven volatility these events produce.
A confirmed attack resulting in significant American casualties or damage to critical energy infrastructure would likely trigger a very different market response than what we’ve seen so far.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has proven to be one of the most “anti-fragile” assets despite repeated market shocks and government crackdowns, according to CFTC Chairman Michael Selig.
In an interview with Glenn Beck on July 8, Selig highlighted that Bitcoin has repeatedly survived major crises, including the collapse of Mt. Gox, the failure of FTX and regulatory actions under the Biden administration.
He reiterated the CFTC’s position that Bitcoin should be treated as a commodity rather than a security or currency.
“We’ve characterized it as a commodity at the CFTC. It’s just like gold or silver, oil or gas,” Selig said.
Selig also defended the Trump administration’s pro-crypto stance, saying President Donald Trump is not involved in the day-to-day management of his family’s crypto-related business interests and remains subject to federal ethics rules.
Selig urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, describing it as critical to establishing a federally regulated crypto exchanges.
It would also assist in custody rules and protections for self-custody along with limiting the ability of individual states to pursue conflicting regulatory approaches.
The CFTC chairman also reiterated the administration’s opposition to a central bank digital currency in the United States.
"We need to make sure that a CBDC is never possible, and legislation is the most important and future-proof thing in Washington," Selig said.
Image: Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Russia’s State Duma has approved a revised cryptocurrency oversight bill that eliminates the requirement for users to disclose wallet addresses to authorities, setting a cap on retail investment at 300,000 rubles annually, and introducing a 48-hour delay on large foreign transfers. This legislative move marks a significant shift from previous drafts by reducing regulatory burdens on crypto usage. The Central Bank of Russia is designated as the regulatory body, with the law expected to take effect on September 1, 2026. Analysts suggest that these changes could foster a more favorable environment for cryptocurrency markets within Russia, potentially influencing global crypto sentiment.
Advertisement
Key Takeaways Russia’s revised bill appears to reduce regulatory burdens by removing the requirement to disclose wallet addresses. The legislation suggests a more controlled approach with a cap on retail crypto investments and a delay on large transfers. Market pricing suggests that these developments could influence optimism about Bitcoin’s future price trajectory. What to Watch Observers will closely monitor the implementation of this legislation to assess its impact on the Russian crypto market and global sentiment. The Central Bank of Russia’s role as the regulatory body will be crucial in determining how these changes affect market dynamics. Developments in U.S. crypto legislation and Federal Reserve rate decisions could further impact market perceptions and Bitcoin’s price outlook.
Get prediction market intelligence as a structured API feed. Early access waitlist.
Term Structure
Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h December 31 1.6% — — View market → December 31 1.9% — — View market → December 31 2.4% — — View market → December 31 3.4% — — View market → December 31 5.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 10% — — View market → January 1 2027 36.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 5.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.8% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.2% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.4% — — View market → January 1 2027 6.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 71.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 12.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.4% — — View market → January 1 2027 4% — — View market → January 1 2027 48.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 24% — — View market → January 1 2027 9.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.6% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.8% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.2% — — View market → January 1 2027 0.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 12.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 22.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 32.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 47.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 66.5% — — View market →
Bitcoin traded near $62,000 today, surrendering part of a rebound that had carried it to $64,000 from last week’s bear-market low of $57,700. The pullback holds the price above the $60,000 level that CryptoQuant treats as support, though it trims a recovery of some 11% off the bottom.
The dip came as CryptoQuant’s Weekly Crypto Report, published today and shared with Bitcoin Magazine, argued the backdrop skews toward further gains. Head of Research Julio Moreno framed the bounce as a bear-market recovery rather than a trend reversal, with one central caution: the firm’s Bull Score Index, an aggregate of on-chain, market, and valuation conditions on a 0-to-100 scale, sits at 20, inside the bearish zone at or below 40 and short of the 60 reading tied to a sustainable bull market.
The report’s bullish case rests on seasonality. Across the past decade, July has ranked among Bitcoin’s stronger months, closing higher in most years shown.
The pattern held in the down-cycles of 2018 and 2022, when Bitcoin gained some 20% and 17% during the month as the broader trend stayed weak. Entering July 2026 off a bear-market low, the report said, that pattern skews near-term risk toward gains.
Bitcoin demand is turning Demand has turned. The 30-day change in total demand — spot plus perpetual futures — collapsed to some -650,000 BTC in early June, the deepest negative reading since 2022, as Bitcoin fell toward $58,000.
It has since recovered toward neutral, with speculative futures demand crossing into positive territory and spot selling easing to its slowest pace since mid-May. A return to positive territory, the report said, would confirm a re-igniting demand engine.
U.S. buyers show signs of stabilizing. The Coinbase Premium Index, a proxy for U.S. spot demand, sank below zero in early June as Bitcoin bottomed near $57,000, one of its weakest readings of the year.
The premium remains under zero, though its path has tracked Bitcoin’s climb off the low and points to steadier institutional appetite.
Valuation added a floor. The on-chain trader unrealized profit/loss margin, for coins held one to three months, dropped below -24% in early June, under the -12% threshold the firm treats as undervalued. Readings at such extremes tend to mark local bottoms as short-term holders capitulate, the report said, and the margin has recovered as price bounced off $57,700.
Today’s slip to $62,000 underscores the report’s own hedge. CryptoQuant reads the market as off its lows, with improving internals but a bearish regime intact.
A durable rally, it concluded, would require the Bull Score Index to climb above 60. Until then, the firm treats the move as a recovery within a bear market, not a reversal — a framing this week’s give-back does little to challenge.
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.
The Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company has canceled its planned business combination with Cantor Equity Partners I, unwinding what would have been one of the most ambitious bitcoin treasury deals ever attempted through a SPAC structure. The original agreement, signed in July 2025, is now dead, though both parties say they’re negotiating revised terms.
BSTR CEO Adam Back announced the decision on July 8, pointing to changing market conditions as the catalyst. The CEPO shareholder meeting has been postponed indefinitely, and the private placements tied to the original deal will not proceed.
What the deal was supposed to look like BSTR planned to debut on Nasdaq under the ticker BSTR as a dedicated bitcoin treasury vehicle, launching with 30,021 BTC. At the time the deal was structured, that stack was valued at over $3 billion, which would have made it the fourth-largest public bitcoin treasury.
Advertisement
The bitcoin was coming from two sources. Founders contributed 25,000 BTC directly, with an additional 5,021 BTC sourced through an in-kind PIPE arrangement.
The PIPE financing component alone was potentially worth up to $1.5 billion, making it the largest PIPE ever announced in the context of a Bitcoin treasury SPAC. CEPO itself had raised roughly $200 million through its January IPO, and the combined structure was designed to create a publicly traded vehicle that could actively manage bitcoin assets and develop Bitcoin-native capital markets products.
BSTR was the second Cantor-backed SPAC to chase a Bitcoin treasury strategy. The first resulted in Twenty One Capital, which successfully completed its merger.
Why the deal collapsed The deal had already been showing signs of strain before the cancellation, with the shareholder vote experiencing a series of delays. Back’s public statement emphasized the need to adapt to current market conditions. CEPO shares were trading at roughly $10.50 at the time of the announcement, barely above the typical SPAC trust value, suggesting that investors were already pricing in significant uncertainty about whether the deal would close.
Both sides say they’re still talking. The original business combination agreement is dead, but BSTR and CEPO have indicated they want to explore a different structure and revised terms.
What investors should be watching For anyone holding CEPO shares, there is no deal on the table right now. The shares are trading near trust value, which provides a floor of sorts, but the upside case that attracted speculative buyers has evaporated until and unless new terms emerge.
The original deal was signed in July 2025, and a full year later, it still hadn’t closed. Any restructured deal will need to account for this reality, likely with mechanisms that allow terms to adjust more dynamically with market conditions rather than locking in static valuations months before closing.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 07: Bitcoin mining hardware is displayed at a Bitcoin conference on at the Javits Center April 7, 2014 in New York City.
Getty Images
"From outside, people will definitely be thinking that the company is crazy," said Juliet Ye. "Who are they? They're making this bold move, and they do not know anyone in this industry." She was talking about the day a Chinese auto-lending firm spent hundreds of millions of dollars to become a Bitcoin miner.
That was a year and a half ago. Now it is doing the same thing in reverse. Almost every public Bitcoin miner is rushing to lease its power to the hyperscalers building AI's giant training clusters. Cango Inc. is walking the other way.
Cango (NYSE: CANG) is on its third life. It listed in New York in 2018 as China's only US-listed auto-financing platform. In November 2024 it agreed to acquire about 50 exahash of Bitmain rigs and became a pure-play Bitcoin miner. Then, on April 13 this year, it launched an AI-inference subsidiary called EcoHash, with its own software layer, EcoLink. No AI training. No giant new data centers. Just a bet that the small, scattered miners the hyperscalers can't use are where a lot of AI compute will end up.
"What not to do is as important as what to do," said Ye, Cango's senior director of communications. She comes back to that line again and again. It is the whole strategy in nine words.
Energy first, Bitcoin secondYe says the company never set out to mine Bitcoin at all. It set out to own energy.
She would know the history. She has spent eight years at Cango, after the Wall Street Journal and the consulting firm FTI. The story she tells starts with cars. Cango took an early stake in Li Auto, the Chinese electric-vehicle maker, before it went public. When Li Auto listed in 2020, Cango booked a fair-value gain of about 3.3 billion yuan, roughly $508 million, and an appetite for the power business underneath the cars. By 2023 it was scouting energy projects in Australia and the Middle East.
MORE FOR YOU
"During a trip in the Middle East, to look for solar projects, the management bumped into Bitmain," Ye said. That is how an auto lender met Bitcoin mining.
What clicked was not the coin. It was the wiring. "All these mining sites are basically, literally, just energy infrastructure," Ye said. "The only reason there are mining farms is because they use the energy and turn the energy to coin. We can still turn energy into other things." Mining was a way in. "We are not thinking of doing Bitcoin mining from day one. We're thinking of running energy infrastructure from day one."
Getting in was expensive. Cango paid $256 million in cash for 32 exahash of Bitmain machines in November 2024, then took another 18 exahash in stock that closed the following summer, the shares going to a company run by a former Bitmain finance chief. To escape its "China concept stock" label, it sold its entire domestic auto business for about $352 million. It brought in crypto-native leadership, including a new chief executive and a chairman who founded Antalpha, a financing firm tied into the Bitmain world. By mid-2025 the lender was gone. A miner stood in its place.
Why everyone is pivotingCango is not the only miner running for the AI exit. The math of mining has met the math of AI, and both businesses fight over the same thing: electricity.
"AI HPC's future might be Bitcoin mining's past," Leo Wang, a Canaan executive, said on the On The Margin podcast. In 2021 miners were the villains, blamed for burning power. Now that same power is the prize. "It is all energy play," Wang said. "We think in the future, energy will be a scarcer asset for everybody."
What miners hold that AI labs crave is not chips. It is a plug. A new substation and a long-term grid contract can take years to land. "When hyperscalers are looking for someone who can supply them short-term guaranteed power, they turn to Bitcoin miners, because the Bitcoin mining companies have already put money and secured power," Wang said. The miners, he added, "got lucky" that AI showed up just as block rewards got thinner.
The timing tracks the cycle. "We have been following the four-year cycle unbelievably well," crypto investor Michael Terpin said on the On The Margin podcast. After each halving, mining margins tighten, and operators go looking for a second way to make money.
Markets have run with it. Core Scientific was an early mover, leasing capacity to AI cloud CoreWeave, and miners from IREN to the firm once called Bitfarms have followed. "Crypto mining warehouses are quietly switching to AI inference, and pulling in around four times the revenue," the analyst behind the @0xCristal account wrote on X. "A GPU warehouse makes more serving LLM inference than mining blocks."
The bet against the mega-siteThis is where Cango breaks from the herd. The popular move is to turn a few huge sites into AI training campuses and sign one long lease with a hyperscaler. Cango said no to that.
"We are definitely not doing AI training," Ye said. "That sector is already crowded with hyperscalers. It's not realistic for us to compete." The decision came out of the company's own shape. Cango works with more than 30 sites around the world, most of them 10 to 50 megawatts. Too small for a hyperscaler chasing 100-megawatt campuses. But, Ye argues, just right for the other half of AI. "For AI inference, you have to be distributed. You have to be close to your clients to lower the latency," she said. "Ten to 50 megawatts is too small for hyperscalers, but it's perfect for AI inference."
Then she gets to her favorite number. "Over 70% of the power in the mining sector is actually owned by individual players, smaller sites," Ye said. "Only 30% is controlled by those public miners." Those small operators own land and power. They don't own the AI technology, the customers, or the financing. Cango wants to bring all of it. "We are offering them a symbiotic relationship. We come to the sites, we bring the AI playbook, and they own the land, they own the power," she said. "If one thing can make Cango stand up in the next three to five years on the AI front, it's the symbiotic relationship between these smaller sites."
EcoLink is the glue. One small site can't match a hyperscaler's always-on uptime, so Cango spreads the reliability around instead. "If one side is down, we can direct the workload to another site, in milliseconds," Ye said. The buyers, so far, are what she calls the long tail. GPU marketplaces like Runpod and Vast.ai. Distributed inference clouds like Zenlayer. AI startups too small to sign a hyperscaler's terms. Price is the hook: a top provider might charge several dollars per GPU per hour, and a marketplace rents the same chip for under a dollar. None of the early test clients took an exclusive deal, Ye said, and most renewed anyway. "The customer demand is definitely real."
The cash engine, and the costCango has not quit Bitcoin. It still runs about 31.7 exahash, which brought in $98.4 million of mining revenue in the first quarter. That is the cash that keeps the lights on while the company raises money for AI. "Most miners just drop Bitcoin mining for good," Ye said. "For us, it's more a hybrid approach."
The cleanup was brutal. "We're basically clearing the decks," Ye said. "Investors might want to invest in our AI pivot, but they do not want their money used to pay the old debt." So Cango sold 6,451 Bitcoin for around $442 million and cut long-term debt from $557.6 million to $30.6 million in a single quarter, a 94.5% drop. Its coin hoard shrank to about a thousand. Then it raised $75 million tied to the EcoHash launch. The first AI node is going into a 50-megawatt site Cango owns in Georgia, bought last August for $19.5 million. Ye calls it a "living showroom." Two or three more are due by year-end.
The doubtersNot everyone is sold. "People are a little bit cautious about it," Wang said of the AI rush, "because people are worried about a bubble." The story is running years ahead of the revenue. Retrofitting a warehouse full of fans into a liquid-cooled AI data center costs a fortune. Plenty of miners have spiked on a press release and nothing more. The one once called Bitfarms jumped hundreds of percent on its AI rebrand before it booked a dollar of AI revenue, and analysts who track the pivots keep warning that the money needed to finish them runs into the billions.
Bitcoiners have a different worry. As miners switch off rigs, the network's hashrate has slid, and some say the security cost is being waved away. "Bitcoin miners are abandoning the network for AI money," one widely shared X post warned. Cango's own cushion is thin. It had just $7.2 million in cash at quarter's end after the debt purge, and at least one outlet has questioned its standing on the NYSE. Even the marquee deals wobble: CoreWeave's $9 billion bid for Core Scientific fell apart earlier this year.
Ye's answer is the discipline that runs through everything she says. The mega-sites and the marquee training leases will go to the giants. Cango is betting on the rest: the thousands of megawatts spread across small, independent miners, the power the giants can't easily touch. That, she thinks, is where a lot of AI inference will quietly run.
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 07: Bitcoin mining hardware is displayed at a Bitcoin conference on at the Javits Center April 7, 2014 in New York City.
Getty Images
"From outside, people will definitely be thinking that the company is crazy," said Juliet Ye. "Who are they? They're making this bold move, and they do not know anyone in this industry." She was talking about the day a Chinese auto-lending firm spent hundreds of millions of dollars to become a Bitcoin miner.
That was a year and a half ago. Now it is doing the same thing in reverse. Almost every public Bitcoin miner is rushing to lease its power to the hyperscalers building AI's giant training clusters. Cango Inc. is walking the other way.
Cango (NYSE: CANG) is on its third life. It listed in New York in 2018 as China's only US-listed auto-financing platform. In November 2024 it agreed to acquire about 50 exahash of Bitmain rigs and became a pure-play Bitcoin miner. Then, on April 13 this year, it launched an AI-inference subsidiary called EcoHash, with its own software layer, EcoLink. No AI training. No giant new data centers. Just a bet that the small, scattered miners the hyperscalers can't use are where a lot of AI compute will end up.
"What not to do is as important as what to do," said Ye, Cango's senior director of communications. She comes back to that line again and again. It is the whole strategy in nine words.
Energy first, Bitcoin secondYe says the company never set out to mine Bitcoin at all. It set out to own energy.
She would know the history. She has spent eight years at Cango, after the Wall Street Journal and the consulting firm FTI. The story she tells starts with cars. Cango took an early stake in Li Auto, the Chinese electric-vehicle maker, before it went public. When Li Auto listed in 2020, Cango booked a fair-value gain of about 3.3 billion yuan, roughly $508 million, and an appetite for the power business underneath the cars. By 2023 it was scouting energy projects in Australia and the Middle East.
MORE FOR YOU
"During a trip in the Middle East, to look for solar projects, the management bumped into Bitmain," Ye said. That is how an auto lender met Bitcoin mining.
What clicked was not the coin. It was the wiring. "All these mining sites are basically, literally, just energy infrastructure," Ye said. "The only reason there are mining farms is because they use the energy and turn the energy to coin. We can still turn energy into other things." Mining was a way in. "We are not thinking of doing Bitcoin mining from day one. We're thinking of running energy infrastructure from day one."
Getting in was expensive. Cango paid $256 million in cash for 32 exahash of Bitmain machines in November 2024, then took another 18 exahash in stock that closed the following summer, the shares going to a company run by a former Bitmain finance chief. To escape its "China concept stock" label, it sold its entire domestic auto business for about $352 million. It brought in crypto-native leadership, including a new chief executive and a chairman who founded Antalpha, a financing firm tied into the Bitmain world. By mid-2025 the lender was gone. A miner stood in its place.
Why everyone is pivotingCango is not the only miner running for the AI exit. The math of mining has met the math of AI, and both businesses fight over the same thing: electricity.
"AI HPC's future might be Bitcoin mining's past," Leo Wang, a Canaan executive, said on the On The Margin podcast. In 2021 miners were the villains, blamed for burning power. Now that same power is the prize. "It is all energy play," Wang said. "We think in the future, energy will be a scarcer asset for everybody."
What miners hold that AI labs crave is not chips. It is a plug. A new substation and a long-term grid contract can take years to land. "When hyperscalers are looking for someone who can supply them short-term guaranteed power, they turn to Bitcoin miners, because the Bitcoin mining companies have already put money and secured power," Wang said. The miners, he added, "got lucky" that AI showed up just as block rewards got thinner.
The timing tracks the cycle. "We have been following the four-year cycle unbelievably well," crypto investor Michael Terpin said on the On The Margin podcast. After each halving, mining margins tighten, and operators go looking for a second way to make money.
Markets have run with it. Core Scientific was an early mover, leasing capacity to AI cloud CoreWeave, and miners from IREN to the firm once called Bitfarms have followed. "Crypto mining warehouses are quietly switching to AI inference, and pulling in around four times the revenue," the analyst behind the @0xCristal account wrote on X. "A GPU warehouse makes more serving LLM inference than mining blocks."
The bet against the mega-siteThis is where Cango breaks from the herd. The popular move is to turn a few huge sites into AI training campuses and sign one long lease with a hyperscaler. Cango said no to that.
"We are definitely not doing AI training," Ye said. "That sector is already crowded with hyperscalers. It's not realistic for us to compete." The decision came out of the company's own shape. Cango works with more than 30 sites around the world, most of them 10 to 50 megawatts. Too small for a hyperscaler chasing 100-megawatt campuses. But, Ye argues, just right for the other half of AI. "For AI inference, you have to be distributed. You have to be close to your clients to lower the latency," she said. "Ten to 50 megawatts is too small for hyperscalers, but it's perfect for AI inference."
Then she gets to her favorite number. "Over 70% of the power in the mining sector is actually owned by individual players, smaller sites," Ye said. "Only 30% is controlled by those public miners." Those small operators own land and power. They don't own the AI technology, the customers, or the financing. Cango wants to bring all of it. "We are offering them a symbiotic relationship. We come to the sites, we bring the AI playbook, and they own the land, they own the power," she said. "If one thing can make Cango stand up in the next three to five years on the AI front, it's the symbiotic relationship between these smaller sites."
EcoLink is the glue. One small site can't match a hyperscaler's always-on uptime, so Cango spreads the reliability around instead. "If one side is down, we can direct the workload to another site, in milliseconds," Ye said. The buyers, so far, are what she calls the long tail. GPU marketplaces like Runpod and Vast.ai. Distributed inference clouds like Zenlayer. AI startups too small to sign a hyperscaler's terms. Price is the hook: a top provider might charge several dollars per GPU per hour, and a marketplace rents the same chip for under a dollar. None of the early test clients took an exclusive deal, Ye said, and most renewed anyway. "The customer demand is definitely real."
The cash engine, and the costCango has not quit Bitcoin. It still runs about 31.7 exahash, which brought in $98.4 million of mining revenue in the first quarter. That is the cash that keeps the lights on while the company raises money for AI. "Most miners just drop Bitcoin mining for good," Ye said. "For us, it's more a hybrid approach."
The cleanup was brutal. "We're basically clearing the decks," Ye said. "Investors might want to invest in our AI pivot, but they do not want their money used to pay the old debt." So Cango sold 6,451 Bitcoin for around $442 million and cut long-term debt from $557.6 million to $30.6 million in a single quarter, a 94.5% drop. Its coin hoard shrank to about a thousand. Then it raised $75 million tied to the EcoHash launch. The first AI node is going into a 50-megawatt site Cango owns in Georgia, bought last August for $19.5 million. Ye calls it a "living showroom." Two or three more are due by year-end.
The doubtersNot everyone is sold. "People are a little bit cautious about it," Wang said of the AI rush, "because people are worried about a bubble." The story is running years ahead of the revenue. Retrofitting a warehouse full of fans into a liquid-cooled AI data center costs a fortune. Plenty of miners have spiked on a press release and nothing more. The one once called Bitfarms jumped hundreds of percent on its AI rebrand before it booked a dollar of AI revenue, and analysts who track the pivots keep warning that the money needed to finish them runs into the billions.
Bitcoiners have a different worry. As miners switch off rigs, the network's hashrate has slid, and some say the security cost is being waved away. "Bitcoin miners are abandoning the network for AI money," one widely shared X post warned. Cango's own cushion is thin. It had just $7.2 million in cash at quarter's end after the debt purge, and at least one outlet has questioned its standing on the NYSE. Even the marquee deals wobble: CoreWeave's $9 billion bid for Core Scientific fell apart earlier this year.
Ye's answer is the discipline that runs through everything she says. The mega-sites and the marquee training leases will go to the giants. Cango is betting on the rest: the thousands of megawatts spread across small, independent miners, the power the giants can't easily touch. That, she thinks, is where a lot of AI inference will quietly run.
