Van de Poppe is watching ARB, UNI, AAVE, ETHFI, NEAR, ZEC, SOL, and SUI closely, as these altcoins show interesting market movements.He credits the Robinhood Chain launch for pulling fresh liquidity into Ethereum.Arbitrum and Uniswap have been the two biggest winners from that shift, he said.He says NEAR and Zcash are benefiting most from a growing privacy narrative now.Altcoins are starting to shake off weeks of sluggish price action, and one closely watched analyst thinks it is more than a short blip. In an exclusive interview with Coinpedia, Michaël van de Poppe, CIO and founder of MN Fund, MN Capital, and New Era Finance, walked through the altcoins he is watching most closely right now. He said improving market narratives are pulling fresh liquidity back into important sectors of the market.
Van de Poppe is watching ARB, UNI, AAVE, ETHFI, NEAR, ZEC, SOL, and SUI closely. Each token, he said, is riding a different catalyst, from DeFi adoption to privacy demand to renewed strength in Layer-1 infrastructure.
Robinhood Chain is lifting EthereumPoppe pointed to one launch in particular as the spark behind the recent rally. He credits the Robinhood Chain launch for pulling fresh liquidity into Ethereum. “The first narrative is surrounding the launch of the Robinhood Chain,” he said. “This attracted liquidity and trading volume towards the Ether ecosystem.”
Arbitrum and Uniswap have been the two biggest winners from that shift, he said. “I don’t think that this will stall in the coming period,” he added. “Technically, they are looking great for more upside due to higher timeframe bullish divergences.”
DeFi and privacy tokens hold their groundRegulatory progress is also playing a role, according to Van de Poppe. He pointed to the CLARITY Act as a factor bringing renewed attention to decentralized finance. “Ethereum is doing well on itself, and also other DeFi protocols like AAVE and Ether.fi have been seeing spikes of interest,” he said.
He says NEAR and Zcash are benefiting most from a growing privacy narrative now. “The privacy narrative is an important one,” he said, explaining why trading activity around both tokens has continued to climb.
Layer-1s show early signs of lifeVan de Poppe said infrastructure tokens are quietly strengthening too. “Infrastructure layers are performing better and better, and that signals that the markets are on the edge of turning around,” he said.
He described Solana as “waking up,” while Sui is also showing early signs of recovery. “I expect other Layer-1s to be starting an uptrend,” he added.
What’s Next?The altcoin season index has climbed to 58, signalling a shift in momentum away from Bitcoin and toward alternative assets. Bitcoin dominance has slipped from 58.12% to 56.3%, a move that historically precedes broader capital rotation into altcoins.
ETF flows are reflecting that shift in real time. While Bitcoin funds are seeing outflows, money is moving into Ethereum, XRP and Solana ETF products, showing institutional interest is diversifying rather than retreating from crypto altogether.
The backdrop is not uniformly positive, however. Around 40% of altcoins are currently trading near their all-time lows, a figure that highlights just how uneven this market cycle has been. Most tokens have not recovered anywhere close to their previous peaks, even as a handful of larger assets begin to show renewed strength.
Story Ends Here
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‘Crypto Is The Future’Trump shared a candlestick chart of the ETH/BTC pair showing a 1.32% gain to 0.02837, saying, “ETH is pumping hard! Great to see! Crypto is the future…”
Notably, some users were quick to point out how ETH retreated immediately following Trump’s post.
World Liberty Financial, a Trump family-backed cryptocurrency venture, where he is listed as a co-founder, holds roughly $131 million in ETH, according to DropsTab. This makes ETH the second-largest holding in the platform’s portfolio.
Analyst Flags Crucial ResistanceMeanwhile, leading cryptocurrency analyst Ali Martinez announces a conditional long position on Ethereum, entering only if the price breaks $1,850 resistance.
Notably, ETH surged to an intraday high of $1,842 late Sunday evening before pulling back sharply into the upper $1,700 range
What Do Technicals SayThe Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator, which compares the 12-period and the 26-period exponential moving averages, flashed a “Buy” signal for ETH, according to TradingView.
Conversely, the Stochastic Oscillator, which measures the position of an asset’s current closing price relative to its highest and lowest prices over a set number of periods, signaled a “Sell.”
Price Action: At the time of writing, ETH was exchanging hands at $1,805.05, up 0.02% over the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Ethereum has continued its recovery from the June lows and is now approaching a major technical inflection point. While the recent rally has improved short-term sentiment, the asset is still trading beneath a confluence of long-term resistance levels.
Interestingly, the liquidation landscape aligns closely with these technical barriers, suggesting that ETH could first target overhead liquidity before the market decides whether a larger trend reversal is underway or another corrective leg lower remains ahead.
Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart On the daily timeframe, ETH remains within a broader descending structure in place since the beginning of the year. It has recovered strongly from the major demand zone around $1.45K-$1.55K and is currently testing the key resistance region around $1.80K-$1.85K.
This area is particularly significant because it coincides with the descending trendline that has capped price action since May. The level also represents a major horizontal resistance that previously acted as support before the June breakdown.
Despite the recent strength, ETH remains below the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, both of which continue to trend lower. The 100-day MA is positioned around the $2K-$2.1K resistance zone, while the 200-day MA remains considerably higher near $2.2K, reinforcing the broader bearish market structure.
As long as ETH remains below the descending trendline and the $1.80K-$1.85K resistance zone, the current move can still be viewed as a recovery rally within a larger downtrend. A decisive breakout above this area would shift focus toward the next major resistance at $2K-$2.1K.
ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart The 4-hour chart highlights a clear ascending structure that has developed since the late-June low. Price has respected the rising channel boundaries while forming higher highs and higher lows, reflecting improving short-term momentum.
The market has already reclaimed the $1.62K-$1.64K demand zone and subsequently established another support area around $1.72K-$1.74K. These zones have repeatedly attracted buyers during pullbacks and continue to define the short-term bullish structure.
However, the rally is now approaching the upper boundary of the channel and the major resistance band around $1.83K-$1.85K. This creates a natural area where profit-taking and seller activity could emerge.
From a structural perspective, ETH remains constructive above the $1.72K-$1.74K support region. Losing this level would be the first sign that bullish momentum is fading and could expose the lower channel boundary and the broader support zone around $1.55K.
Sentiment Analysis The Binance ETH/USDT liquidation heatmap provides an important clue regarding the next likely move.
The most significant concentration of short-side liquidity sits above the current market price, particularly within the $1.95K-$2.1K region. This cluster aligns remarkably well with the daily chart resistance zone, the 100-day moving average, and the broader supply area visible on the higher timeframe.
Meanwhile, substantial liquidity pools remain below the market around the $1.45K-$1.55K region, which corresponds closely with the major daily demand zone that has supported ETH throughout the recent recovery.
The alignment between the liquidation map and the technical structure suggests that the market may first be drawn toward the overhead liquidity cluster. A move into the $2K-$2.1K area would effectively sweep a large concentration of short liquidations while simultaneously testing one of the most important resistance zones on the chart.
The reaction at that region will likely determine the next major directional move. If buyers manage to reclaim the $2K-$2.1K resistance area and establish acceptance above it, the recovery could evolve into a broader bullish trend reversal. However, if the liquidity sweep is followed by strong selling pressure and rejection from resistance, ETH could enter another notable decline, potentially targeting the large liquidity pools resting beneath the market around the $1.45K-$1.55K support zone.
Ethereum is trading around $1,793, with the market showing uncertainty after several failed attempts to break above $1,820. The cryptocurrency has remained rangebound, and buyers have not yet established clear momentum to reverse the recent pullback.
Key price levels define short-term outlookThe price zone between $1,770 and $1,800 has become a crucial area for Ethereum’s direction. Holding above $1,770 may allow the price to stabilize, providing the opportunity for a potential move higher. If Ethereum slips below $1,770, however, analysts caution that demand may weaken and trigger a decline towards $1,700.
A decisive advance above $1,820 is viewed as necessary to restore bullish sentiment and lift Ethereum out of its current consolidation phase. In the absence of such a breakout, further sideways movement or additional downward pressure remains possible.
Market observers note that “a strong push above $1,820 would help restore bullish confidence, while continued rejection could keep the market stuck in consolidation or lead to further downside pressure.”
Ethereum’s current positioning keeps investors watching for signals in either direction as the price fluctuates near key resistance and support.
Analysts see possible short-term double bottomTechnical analyst Aksel Kibar identified a potential double bottom pattern on Ethereum’s price chart, suggesting the coin may attempt to stabilize after a steep decline. In this pattern, price forms two similar lows followed by a push towards resistance, which could signal reduced selling pressure if confirmed.
Confirmation of this pattern depends on whether Ethereum can move above the neckline, located near the $1,850 level. If successful, the recovery might extend towards $1,950 and potentially $2,000. Until then, the double bottom scenario remains preliminary.
Long-term accumulation phase persistsJesse Peralta, another market commentator, noted that Ethereum is nearing 1,900 days within its current accumulation period. The only prior accumulation phase of similar scale lasted 721 days and preceded a major expansion.
Extended accumulation phases are often associated with stronger moves once the market finally breaks out. For Ethereum, the long-term breakout zone is expected near $4,000 to $4,200. Before targeting this level, ETH must first reclaim $1,850 and then $2,000, which would strengthen the medium-term bullish view.
Mini dictionary: Accumulation phase refers to a prolonged period in which an asset trades in a relatively narrow range, often indicating that investors are gradually building positions ahead of a potential breakout.
TD Sequential indicator highlights pullback riskTechnical specialist Ali Charts reported that Ethereum’s price is testing the upper boundary of its short-term channel while the TD Sequential indicator has triggered a sell signal. This raises the probability of a correction towards $1,770, with $1,700 as the next support if further selling occurs.
The TD Sequential is a well-known technical indicator that identifies potential points of trend reversal based on price exhaustion patterns.
Mini dictionary: TD Sequential is a technical analysis tool created by Tom DeMark, designed to indicate exhaustion points in trends, helping traders anticipate reversals.
For bullish traders, holding above $1,770 remains critical. If Ethereum maintains this support, further downside may be limited. A decisive break below $1,700, however, would undermine the short-term bullish setup.
ETH/BTC pair attempts to reverse downturnEthereum is also showing early signs of strength against Bitcoin, with the ETH/BTC trading pair attempting a minor reversal after a substantial period of underperformance. Aksel Kibar observed that the pairing is trying to recover from its lows, which could signal capital returning to Ethereum after several months of weakness.
A sustained recovery in the ETH/BTC pair may provide further support for Ethereum’s dollar price during a broader market move.
Critical levels to monitorSeveral price levels are viewed as crucial inflection points for Ethereum in the coming days. If ETH remains above $1,770 and surpasses $1,850, buyers could steer the market towards $1,950 and $2,000. Failing to hold these supports, especially slipping under $1,700, could set the stage for additional selling pressure.
LevelSignificance$1,770Primary support level$1,700Next downside target if $1,770 breaks$1,850Confirmation area for double bottom$1,950Secondary recovery target$2,000Major psychological and technical resistance$4,000–$4,200Long-term breakout zoneEthereum’s near-term outlook hinges on these levels as traders anticipate the next decisive move.
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.
Robinhood Chain surge boosts ETH priceThe successful launch of the layer-2 network Robinhood Chain has boosted investor sentiment around Ethereum. The newly launched blockchain uses ETH as its native gas token and around $141 million in ETH has already been bridged to the chain.
More than half a million wallets holding ETH are now on the network, which surged past the Ethereum L1 and rival L2 Base over the past 24 hours, with DEX volumes of $877.56 million. The L2 is an offshoot of TradFi trading platform Robinhood, which offers tokenized stocks to customers in 120 countries, further strengthening the EVM-compatible ecosystem.
L2s have been seen by many pundits as bearish for Ethereum as they take activity away from the L1 without returning much in the way of transaction fees. However even some former ETH bears are now reassessing that thesis. Influencer Ansem wrote:
"lighter and robinhood L2s are sneakily best setup for an eth bull thesis in a very long time."Mike Dudas from 6th Man Ventures added that "robinhood chain is the single most bullish thing i've seen in eth-land in years."
DeFi LLamaRobinhood surges in 24 hour DEX volume (DeFi Llama)
Ethereum is also getting a boost from its 47% market share of Real World Assets, according to Rwa.xyz data. Leon Waidmann, head of Research at Lisk, noted the Total Value Locked (TVL) on Ethereum of $260 billion has surpassed the $210 billion market cap of Ether. Waidmann said this distortion signals that “ETH is underpriced,” as the current relative valuation is lower than in the 2022 bear market.
UK politicians mull permanent crypto donation ban in wake of Nigel Farage scandalMembers of the UK’s ruling Labour party are considering a total ban on digital asset donations in response to Nigel Farage's resignation from Parliament and the potential influence crypto billionaires had on his policies.
The Guardian reported Thursday that Labour MPs have proposed that a moratorium on crypto donations enacted in March be made permanent after it was revealed that the Reform leader personally accepted millions of British pounds in what he called “gifts” from industry figures.
Farage sensationally resigned from Parliament last week in an attempt to get ahead of an investigation into the donations by the UK's parliamentary standards commissioner.
“Let me be absolutely clear: I have done nothing wrong,” said Farage in an X livestream. “I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money.”
The major parties are refusing to field candidates against him in the upcoming by-election, with his most formidable political opponent the comedy character Count Binface, who has received support from Reform's critics.
Nigel FarageUS Bitcoin reserve hits snag as federal agencies debate for control: BloombergThe Trump administration’s push to establish a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has reportedly hit a roadblock, as the Commerce and Treasury departments are at odds over how the reserve should be structured and which agency should have primary oversight of the holdings.
US President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order called for the SBR to be housed inside the Treasury Department, while other agencies would assist with asset seizures to build the reserve.
However, concerns have emerged over whether the Treasury has the legal authority to manage the Bitcoin (BTC) holdings, partly because of its volatility, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Commerce Department has emerged as a contender to oversee the reserve, the sources said. The Department of Justice is also reportedly working with the departments to determine legally available options, they added.
Wyden urges Senate leaders to keep dev protections in crypto billUS Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has urged Senate leaders to ensure that crypto developer protections stay in the crypto market structure legislation.
Wyden told Senate Minority Leader John Thune and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer in a letter to preserve a section of the CLARITY Act known as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA).
“Developers who make and release software that allows people to manage their own digital assets — and, critically, where the developer does not control user assets — should not be treated as money transmitters solely because they create or publish software,” Wyden wrote.
The letter comes after certain groups and lawmakers opposed the BRCA. A group of law enforcement organizations and a coalition of Catholic organizations last month argued it could create gaps in the oversight of illicit activity.
Senate leaders are pushing for the bill to be passed this month.
WydenTrump says he became ‘a big crypto guy’ partly for politicsUS President Donald Trump says he got involved in crypto “for politics” and became pro-crypto after seeing how much money the industry was making.
At a press conference in the Oval Office on Monday to announce “Trump Accounts,” an investment account for children under 18, Trump was asked whether the accounts would allow for Bitcoin (BTC).
“I’ve become a big crypto guy only for one reason: If we don’t have it, China’s going to have it,” Trump answered. “I’m a fan, I wasn’t initially, I didn’t know much about it, but, for some of my first term, I wasn’t much involved, and I watched it grow, and it's a huge industry.”
“I got involved in it a little bit for politics,” Trump added. “I realized there are a lot of people that love crypto.”
In his first term, Trump said he was “not a fan” of crypto and called Bitcoin “a scam.” Since then, he and his family have built deep business interests in crypto, and Trump has faced criticism for his pro-crypto stance and for making more money out of crypto in 2025 than any of the listed exchanges or miners.
Five senators have called for committee hearings to investigate Trump’s policies potentially being influenced by crypto funding from United Arab Emirates-linked and other entities.
TrumpWinners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $63,762, Ether (ETH) at $1800 and XRP (XRP) is at $1.08. The total market cap is at $2.2 trillion according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are DeXe (DEXE) with a 94% gain, Pyth Network (PYTH) at 19%%, and Arbitrum (ARB) at 15%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Bonk (BONK) which lost 19%, Jupiter (JUP) on -18% and Pi (PI) at -16%.
Top Prediction of the WeekBitcoin nearing late stages of bear market: Jamie Coutts, Real VisionBitcoin could be entering the latter stages of the bear market, with downside momentum beginning to slow down, according to Real Vision chief crypto analyst Jamie Coutts.
“I think we're getting through most of the bear market action. It's still not over, clearly. But you know, I think we're approaching at least the second half,” Coutts said during an interview on Cointelegraph’s Trade Secrets.
He noted that Bitcoin’s volatility has declined by about 50% compared with the previous market cycle, suggesting the current downturn may be less severe than previous bear markets.
Coutts added that he's not comfortable making predictions for a $1 million Bitcoin price in 2030 due to too many variables. However he said:
“I'm more comfortable with a forecast in the next sort of two to three years that Bitcoin should get to sort of $200,000 to 250,000."Top FUD of the WeekStrategy's Saylor needs clarity in BTC pivot message to convince investorsStandard Charter’s global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, believes recent Strategy sale of $216 million worth of Bitcoin to pay for STRC dividends — and Michael Saylor's manner of communicating decisions — “are muddying the waters for BTC near-term.”
“We think effective communication of MSTR’s new strategy (using BTC to back STRC) is key to reassuring markets that wholesale selling is unlikely; this should in turn support BTC prices,” Kendrick wrote in a note to clients on Friday. “Indeed, if this signalling proves effective, it should remove the need for MSTR to actually sell any BTC by supporting STRC’s price,” he said.
Kendrick said that Strategy’s long-held “never sell” approach had limited what the company could with its industry-biggest digital asset treasury.
“The problem with the ‘never sell’ approach is that it limits what MSTR’s BTC holdings can do — or, perhaps more importantly, what they are perceived to be doing,” the StanChart analyst said.
Kalshi appeals NY court's rejection of bid to block state gambling law enforcementKalshi is appealing a New York federal judge's rejection of its bid to block officials at the New York State Gaming Commission from enforcing local laws against its sports-related event contracts.
The appeal escalates a growing legal fight over whether sports prediction markets are federally regulated derivatives or state-regulated gambling products. This question has already split courts across the United States.
Judge Analisa Torres rejected that argument and found that New York gambling laws, as applied to Kalshi’s sports-event contracts, were not preempted by the US Commodity Exchange Act. The court said Kalshi had not made a “clear or substantial showing” that it was likely to succeed on the merits.
“Major loss for Kalshi in the nation’s financial capital, with likely knock-on effects in other cases (esp. Connecticut and other SDNY lawsuits),” wrote lawyer Daniel Wallach.
Trader loses $1M after signing phishing token approvalA crypto user lost nearly $1 million on Wednesday after signing a phishing token approval on Ethereum, according to onchain data.
A Scam Sniffer alert on Thursday revealed a victim lost 999,999 USDt (USDT) to an Ethereum phishing token approval scam. Scammers first tried draining a rounded $1 million via multicalls but failed due to insufficient funds, then succeeded seconds later by pulling the exact balance in follow-up transfers.
“The script recalculated and pulled the exact remaining balance,” Scam Sniffer said.
Social engineering via phishing token approvals has become a common crypto scam tactic. Phishing losses totaled $723 million across 248 incidents in 2025, according to CertiK. Scammers trick a victim into giving a malicious actor access to their wallet, taking the form of an innocuous-seeming transaction.
The victim falsely believes that clicking “approve” will only initiate a minor task, but malicious links give the attacker approval to drain funds from the wallet.
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
Robinhood’s launch of its Layer-2 solution, Robinhood Chain, has reportedly sparked optimism for Ethereum, as the platform promises to expand decentralized finance (DeFi) access and tokenize real-world assets using ETH as the native gas token. This development is seen as supportive of Ethereum’s role as a settlement and gas layer, potentially increasing demand for ETH. Meanwhile, Michael Saylor, CEO of Strategy, has stirred the market by suggesting a potential sale of Bitcoin to support dividends, marking a shift from his “never sell” stance. Strategy recently confirmed this shift by selling $216 million worth of Bitcoin.
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The news about Robinhood’s Layer-2 solution is believed to have broader implications, potentially influencing Bitcoin markets as well. Market participants are considering the possibility that positive developments in Ethereum may correlate with upward trends in Bitcoin’s price. Currently, prediction markets indicate a strong likelihood of Bitcoin prices exceeding $56,000 by July 13, suggesting confidence among participants regarding this threshold.
Key Takeaways Robinhood’s Layer-2 launch appears to bolster Ethereum optimism, with potential implications for increased ETH demand. Michael Saylor’s indication of a possible Bitcoin sale suggests a strategic shift, contrasting with his previous “never sell” stance. Current market pricing implies strong confidence in Bitcoin exceeding $56,000, consistent with broader positive sentiment driven by Ethereum developments. What to Watch Future developments in Ethereum’s adoption and DeFi expansion could further influence market sentiment, potentially affecting Bitcoin pricing as well. Market participants will be closely watching any additional announcements from Robinhood regarding the integration and usage of their Layer-2 solution. Additionally, Michael Saylor’s actions and statements regarding Bitcoin holdings remain a critical factor for market sentiment, especially in light of potential future sales.
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Term Structure
Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h July 13 2026 99.9% — — View market → July 13 2026 99.5% — — View market → July 13 2026 94.4% — — View market → July 13 2026 0.1% — — View market → July 13 2026 0.1% — — View market → July 13 2026 0.1% — — View market → July 13 2026 43.5% — — View market → July 13 2026 3.3% — — View market → July 13 2026 99.7% — — View market → July 13 2026 99.9% — — View market →
A busy week lies ahead on the US economic calendar with a raft of inflation data, while tensions are mounting again in the Middle East.
Crypto markets have largely held on to gains over the weekend, but were looking a little shaky on Monday morning as traders digested the latest developments between the US and Iran.
The US has launched several waves of strikes on Iran over an Iranian attack on another container ship in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has declared the Strait closed, while President Trump said otherwise.
Meanwhile, some heavy inflation reports could further rattle sentiment and add to the volatility as the bear market drags on.
“Q2 2026 earnings season has arrived, and Strait of Hormuz tensions are mounting again,” said the Kobeissi Letter.
Economic Events July 13 to 17 US Central Command reported on Monday morning that forces began launching more strikes against Iran “to continue degrading their ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
Crude oil prices were up around 4%, with WTI and Brent hitting $74.50 and $79, respectively, while US stock futures opened slightly lower.
June’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data is due on Tuesday, which could add to the market volatility. This is followed by the Producer Price Index (PPI) data out on Wednesday, measuring wholesale inflation.
Year-on-year measures for both headline CPI and PPI are expected to rise by 3.8% and 6.2%, respectively, reported Yahoo Finance. Rising inflation will put more pressure on the Federal Reserve to hike rates, which is bad news for risk-on assets such as crypto. The escalation of military action in the Middle East is also not good for dampening inflation concerns.
You may also like: Bitcoin’s Recovery Gains Momentum, Putting July Off to a Strong Start Report: AI, Warsh, and Geopolitics Break Bitcoin Correlation With Stocks and Gold Bitwise Report: Crypto Fundamentals Are Getting Stronger Despite Third Straight Negative Quarter June Retail Sales data and July Philly Fed Manufacturing Index reports are due on Thursday, followed by July’s Michigan Inflation Expectations and Consumer Sentiment reports on Friday.
Key Events This Week:
1. Markets React to Strait of Hormuz Closure – Today, 6 PM ET
2. June CPI Inflation data – Tuesday
3. June PPI Inflation data – Wednesday
4. June Retail Sales data – Thursday
5. July Philly Fed Manufacturing Index – Thursday
6. July MI Inflation…
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) July 12, 2026
Several Wall Street banks and finance giants are reporting Q2 earnings this week, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citibank on Tuesday, followed by Morgan Stanley and BlackRock on Wednesday.
Crypto Market Outlook Total market capitalization has remained steady over the weekend, hovering around $2.26 trillion with a very minor dip on Monday morning after the latest airstrikes.
Bitcoin had held ground just above $64,000 for the past 12 hours or so but dipped to $63,400 during early trading, where it remains at the time of writing.
Ether prices fared a little better, holding above $1,800 for most of the past day following a 15% gain over the past fortnight. Escalation of conflict and higher inflation this week could send both much lower.
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.
Robinhood Founder’s Mnemonic Phrase Leaks During a Live Stream; Hackers Exploit the Leak to Hype Meme Coin $1, and the Associated Address Was Subsequently Frozen.
Token Pocket Chief Business Officer Michael posted that the seed phrase of Robinhood’s founder was leaked during his live stream. Hackers gained control over the address, then used it and associated addresses to purchase large volumes of the meme coin $1, prompting thousands of investors to follow suit. This drove the token’s market cap from roughly $500,000 to $14 million in a short period. The $1 token’s price then plummeted, with its trading volume hitting around $20 million in just two hours. After the relevant address was frozen, hackers quickly moved to BNB Chain (BSC), issued new tokens using that address and its associated addresses, created trading hype through wash trading, and eventually dumped the tokens to cash out. Robinhood’s RPC has frozen the address, with nodes refusing to include transactions from it, making transfers and trading impossible.
12 minutes ago
The Nikkei 225 index posted an intraday decline of over 2%, with Kioxia falling more than 10%.
According to Bitget market data, the Nikkei 225 index saw an intraday decline of 2.00%, while Kioxia fell more than 10%.
12 minutes ago
Jefferies raises Moderna's price target from $53 to $60.
Jefferies raises its price target for Moderna (MRNA.O) from $53 to $60.
12 minutes ago
US stock after-hours trading: storage sector falls broadly, SanDisk drops more than 5%
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), the storage sector saw broad declines in U.S. after-hours trading, with individual stocks falling as follows: Seagate Technology (STX) dropped 3.99%, Western Digital (WDC) fell 4.39%, SanDisk (SNDK) slid 5.09%, and Micron Technology (MU) declined 4.96%. Note: U.S. after-hours trading runs from 20:00 ET to 4:00 ET the next day, Sunday through Thursday.
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China's Supreme People's Procuratorate published an article titled "Systematically Resolving the Dilemmas in Criminal Law Regulation of Money Laundering Using Virtual Currency"
According to a report by Procuratorial Daily, researchers from the Yuhu District People's Procuratorate of Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, and the Faculty of Law of Xiangtan University have co-authored an article proposing a systematic solution to the regulatory dilemmas in criminal law for money laundering crimes involving virtual currencies. The article notes that current judicial practice faces three core challenges: behavioral characterization, evidence collection, and recovery of illicit funds and loss compensation. First, Article 191 of China’s Criminal Law, which defines the crime of money laundering, still limits predicate offenses to seven categories, leading to a large number of cases being charged only with the crime of concealing and disguising criminal proceeds. Second, tools such as mixers, privacy coins, and cross-chain transfers fragment the evidence chain, making it difficult for traditional investigation methods to trace the source. Third, conflicts in the legal status of virtual currencies, gaps in procedural rules, and cross-border cooperation barriers hinder the enforcement of illicit fund recovery. In response, the authors put forward targeted suggestions: For the behavioral characterization dilemma, shift from passive identification to active review at the judicial level, and activate the guiding function of procuratorial supervision and assessment standards at the supervisory level. For the evidence verification dilemma, establish adaptive authentication and review standards for electronic evidence, build a tiered standard of proof and reasonable presumption rules, and explore the authorization and standardized application of technical investigation measures. For the illicit fund recovery and loss compensation dilemma, establish a national-level cross-departmental collaborative disposal mechanism, and actively participate in and lead the construction of international rules and cooperation platforms.
12 minutes ago
South Korea's Seoul Composite Index's intraday decline widened to 7%.
According to Bitget market data, South Korea’s Seoul Composite Index has extended its intraday decline to 7%. SK Hynix fell 12.75%, while Samsung Electronics dropped 7.81%.
Leading cryptocurrencies moved sideways, while stock futures slid on Sunday evening amid investor concerns over escalating U.S.-Iran tensions.
Crypto Market Takes A BreatherBitcoin fluctuated sharply between $63,000 and $64,000 as trading volume rose 18% over the past 24 hours. Ethereum spiked to $1,842 in the late evening before retracing sharply, while XRP and Dogecoin traded sideways.
Over $150 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, with $86 million in bullish longs wiped out, according to Coinglass data.
Bitcoin’s open interest fell 0.54% over the last 24 hours, broadly aligning with the drop in spot price. The majority of retail and whale derivatives traders on Binance remained long on the leading cryptocurrency.
"Fear" sentiment prevailed in the market, according to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index.
Top Gainers (24 Hours)
The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.16 trillion, following a dip of 0.06% over the last 24 hours.
Stock Futures Slide On Iran TensionsStock futures traded in the red overnight on Sunday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures fell 106 points, or 0.20%, as of 8:42 p.m. EDT. Futures tied to the S&P 500 dipped 0.27%, while Nasdaq 100 Futures slid 0.51%.
Iran–U.S. military confrontations intensified during the weekend, raising renewed concerns about maritime security and global energy supplies.
The U.S. Central Command said that they launched more strikes against Iran on Sunday to degrade “their ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships” transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
Analyst Sees Bitcoin ‘Déjà Vu”Michaël van de Poppe, a widely followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader, predicts a strong Bitcoin bull run in the next cycle, warning that the previous “shallow” rally will cause many investors to sell “too early.”
“This cycle Bitcoin to $500,000+ is on the table,” the analyst made a bold projection.
Killa, another popular cryptocurrency commentator, said that at least 90% of the current bear phase is complete, noting a striking “déjà vu” between Bitcoin’s current consolidation near $64,000 and the $16,000–$22,000 bear market range in 2022-23.
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TLDR: Uniswap daily fees reached about $5.2 million in 24 hours, placing the decentralized exchange near the top of current crypto fee rankings. Robinhood Chain supplied roughly $4.38 million of the total, far exceeding Ethereum and Base during the same measured period. Only about $73,454 counted as 24-hour protocol earnings, as most swap fees still flowed to liquidity providers rather than UNI holders. Governance proposals could extend protocol fees and the UNI token burn system to v4 pools and Robinhood Chain after community approval. Uniswap daily fees reached about $5.2 million in 24 hours, placing the DEX near the top of crypto fee rankings. Founder Hayden Adams highlighted the figure on X, saying only USDC and USDT generated more fees. DefiLlama recorded $5.16 million during the same period, supporting his estimate.
Robinhood Chain supplied most of that total after launching on July 1. The sharp increase shows how quickly new networks can redirect trading activity. UNI traded near $3.62, up about 35% from its early-July low near $2.70. Yet the token still sits roughly 92% below its 2021 peak.
Uniswap Daily Fees Surge as Robinhood Chain Takes Lead Robinhood Chain contributed about $4.38 million of the reported Uniswap daily fees. Ethereum produced roughly $296,000, while Base added about $288,000. That distribution marks a sudden shift from Uniswap’s traditional Ethereum-led activity.
The Arbitrum Orbit network launched with Uniswap v2, v3, v4, and UniswapX available from day one. Cumulative swap volume crossed $1 billion by July 10, according to a Uniswap governance post. The chain also recorded a 24-hour Uniswap volume peak near $500 million during its first week.
Across seven days, Robinhood Chain generated $10.98 million of Uniswap’s $20.1 million in total fees. That share made the new network Uniswap’s largest short-term fee source. It also placed Robinhood Chain above Ethereum and Base during the measured period. The fee spike shows how concentrated short-term trading activity can become.
Uniswap daily fees reflect charges paid through swaps, but they do not equal protocol income. DefiLlama listed only $73,454 in 24-hour earnings for Uniswap. Most trading fees still flow to liquidity providers instead of the treasury or UNI holders.
The distinction matters when comparing Uniswap with stablecoin issuers or centralized exchanges. Annualizing one strong day would imply almost $1.9 billion in fees. Still, that calculation does not show how much value the protocol retains.
UNI Burn Vote Tests the Value of Rising Protocol Activity Uniswap governance is now considering a wider protocol fee rollout. One proposal would activate fees across v4 pools on several supported networks. Another would extend fee collection and UNI burns to Robinhood Chain.
The Robinhood Chain temperature check runs from July 10 through July 15. It covers v2, v3, and v4 deployments on the network. On-chain votes would follow if the Snapshot proposals pass.
Under the UNIfication system, collected protocol fees move into TokenJar contracts. Searchers can claim those assets after supplying UNI of equivalent value for burning. The process permanently removes the submitted UNI from circulation.
Higher Uniswap daily fees could expand the amount available for this mechanism. Yet liquidity providers may receive slightly lower returns when protocol fees activate. That trade-off could influence where they place capital across competing pools.
Uniswap v4 adds programmable hooks that let developers customize pool logic. These tools support dynamic fees, specialized liquidity rules, and other trading features. Wider v4 adoption could increase activity across more chains.
An exclusive study conducted by the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge has just redefined the environmental hierarchy of crypto blockchains. It indeed demonstrates that Ethereum significantly outperforms Solana in terms of energy intensity relative to its market value. A true revolution for the crypto ecosystem! Figures, methodology, and full analysis in the following paragraphs.
In brief Ethereum consumes about 7.87 GWh of electricity per year, a continuous power of 0.90 megawatt. Its energy intensity is the 2nd lowest in the PoS panel studied by Cambridge, behind BNB Chain. Solana shows the highest absolute consumption (13.48 GWh/year) and an intensity 8.5 times higher than Ethereum. The Merge reduced Ethereum’s continuous power demand from 2.4 GW to 0.90 MW, a drop of more than 99.9%. An annual electricity consumption of 7.87 GWh for Ethereum according to Cambridge The Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance has just published a report titled “Ethereum After the Merge – A Change in Power“. The document indicates that the overall annual electricity consumption of Ethereum is now about 7.87 gigawatt-hours (GWh). This corresponds to a continuous power demand of barely 0.90 megawatts (MW). Which keeps the crypto network more than 99.9% below its initial benchmark line of 2.4 gigawatts (GW).
To arrive at these precise data, Cambridge researchers audited the overall physical structure of the Ethereum network using a bottom-up approach. More concretely, they directly tested the electrical consumption of 20 client software combinations used by nodes on two types of hardware.
Results:
A typical residential setup consumes a median value of 18 watts. A professional workstation climbs to 153 watts. Result of a study conducted by the University of Cambridge on Ethereum’s energy efficiency (Source: Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance) Weighting these results by the actual node distribution, Cambridge obtains an average consumption of about 105 watts per node.
The study lists 8,522 identifiable full nodes:
36% operate on residential connections; 64% in cloud or enterprise infrastructures. The United States hosts 31% of these nodes, followed by Germany (16%), Finland (8%) and France (6%). These four countries alone therefore concentrate nearly 62% of the node network measured by Cambridge.
Ethereum outperforms Solana in terms of energy intensity Certainly, Ethereum uses more electricity than most small PoS networks due to the vastness of its validator set. When adjusting electricity consumption to market value, Ethereum’s efficiency becomes indisputable, however.
According to the University of Cambridge’s study report, the crypto network consumes only 33 kilowatt-hours (kWh) for every million dollars of market capitalization. It thus ranks as the world’s second most efficient blockchain behind BNB Chain.
Conversely, Solana records the highest absolute consumption among the PoS networks studied with about 13.48 GWh per year. Its energy intensity peaks at 283 kWh per million dollars of market capitalization.
This ratio demonstrates that Solana is about 8.5 times more energy-consuming than Ethereum to secure an equivalent economic value. Enough to sweep away the received idea that Solana’s throughput performance would guarantee greater efficiency than Ethereum’s historic architecture.
All the crypto networks included in the Cambridge comparison consume about 38 GWh cumulatively over the studied period. Other blockchains fall between 3.6 and 5.1 GWh. Such is notably the case for:
NEAR; Tron; TON. Cardano and BNB Chain remain below the gigawatt hour mark.
Cambridge however specifies an important point: the study does not claim that Ethereum consumes the least electricity in absolute value.
Ethereum: a carbon footprint now linked to the electricity mix Ethereum’s annual carbon footprint rises to only 2.37 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (ktCO₂e). This represents a drastic reduction of 99.98% compared to the Proof-of-Work era. The network’s climate impact now equates to the annual carbon footprint of 900 British households.
Still according to studies by Cambridge researchers, 39.4% of the electricity consumed by the Ethereum network comes from renewable sources and 17% from nuclear. This yields a total of 56.4% low-carbon origin. The remaining 43.6% comes from fossil fuels, with natural gas alone representing 27.7% of the mix.
Alexander Neumüller, research lead of Cambridge’s energy program, summarizes this shift in one sentence:
Electricity is no longer the price of security under PoS.
Cambridge nevertheless specifies an important point: no per-transaction estimate has been made. The reason is that about 92% of Ethereum ecosystem transactions are now settled on layer 2 networks. Which renders the calculation incomplete.
Another clarification: electricity no longer constitutes the adjustment variable of security cost. The residual ecological footprint therefore depends exclusively on the decarbonization of national electricity networks hosting the nodes. Since the energy transition is progressing in the main host countries, Ethereum’s overall environmental footprint is structurally destined to continuously decrease over the coming years.
Ethereum after The Merge: a transformation acknowledged, but nuanced The 15 September 2022 Merge remains undoubtedly the turning point of this story. By definitively abandoning Proof-of-Work, the Ethereum network accomplished an unprecedented technical feat: modifying its engine mid-flight.
The Cambridge study demonstrates that this transition contracted Ethereum’s power demand by 3.5 orders of magnitude.
Decryption: if Ethereum’s electricity consumption before the upgrade was comparable to the height of the Statue of Liberty, the post-Merge network now represents only a simple “golf ball placed at its base.” A striking metaphor illustrating the immediate collapse of energy needs!
That’s not all! By replacing miners with validators staking Ether, Ethereum also dropped its continuous power demand from 2.4 gigawatts to 0.90 megawatts. A decrease exceeding 99.9%. This structural change explains why Ethereum’s energy consumption remains today a favored comparison topic against other proof-of-stake networks.
According to University of Cambridge researchers, a light verification could reduce hardware needs for future nodes. However, broader network participation could offset these gains. The report thus treats future demand as an unknown rather than an acquired downward trajectory.
In any case, the Cambridge study confirms Ethereum’s ecological success after its technological mutation. By surpassing Solana in energy intensity, the crypto network demonstrates its ability to combine economic power and environmental responsibility. Enough to consolidate its hegemony with institutional investors!
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Ariela R.
My name is Ariela, and I am 31 years old. I have been working in the field of web writing for 7 years now. I only discovered trading and cryptocurrency a few years ago, but it is a universe that greatly interests me. The topics covered on the platform allow me to learn more. A singer in my spare time, I also cultivate a great passion for music and reading (and animals!)
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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.
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TIME Magazine has sealed a new deal that will see the media giant hold Ethereum on its balance sheets. The deal marks another of TIME’s foray into the cryptocurrency space. It is one of the leading voices in the media publishing space as the magazine is almost 100 years. The magazine which is infamous for its lists will be adding more cryptocurrency to its balance sheet thanks to a new partnership with Galaxy Digital.
Although not the first time that TIME Magazine will be adding crypto to its balance sheet, it will be the first time it will be adding Ethereum. In a previous deal with Grayscale, the media giant had added bitcoin to its balance sheet. This was done in April and TIME has been holding on to the cryptocurrency since then. This time, attention has turned on Ethereum as it seals its deal with Galaxy Digital.
Related Reading | Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal Maps Out A 300% Rally For Ethereum
Terms Of The Ethereum Deal TIME’s deal with Galaxy Digital comes with commitments that are required of both parties. Galaxy Digital will provide the funding, while TIME will carry out a series of agreed-upon publications throughout the duration of the deal.
The first will be a list compiled by the media publishing. TIME, which is famous for producing lists like 100 Most Influential People and 100 Most Influential Companies, will compile a TIME 100 list for the metaverse. As part of the agreement, TIME will also issue a weekly newsletter titled “Into the Metaverse”. This is to promote the metaverse space that has found popularity recently.
ETH maintaining position above $4,000 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com The project which is being paid for by Galaxy Digital is financed completely in Ethereum. It will run for six months and the newsletter will mainly be an educational one providing information on the rapidly growing metaverse space, and written by TIME Staff Writer Andrew Chow.
Learning About The Metaverse In addition to the weekly newsletter, TIME will also provide additional metaverse educational resources via a new branded content page called “Time for Learning”. This page will be unveiled in December and the media giant will leverage its new partner’s expertise in the metaverse to create education and exciting content for its users.
Since the metaverse is a fairly new concept to the mainstream market, it is important that people understand what it is. This is why the partnership between TIME and Galaxy Digital is important.
Related Reading | U.S. Government To Sell $56 Million Worth Of Crypto Seized In BitConnect Case
Sam Englebardt, Co-Founder and Partner at Galaxy Digital, explained this best when he said, “Before we can build the metaverse, we need to define it, since, today, the word connotes vastly different things to different people.”
Mike Novogratz, CEO and Founder of Galaxy Digital, expressed optimism for the project;
“Over the next decade, the metaverse will become an increasingly important part of the world economy; our physical and digital realities are already becoming hard to distinguish,” We look forward to partnering with TIME, an iconic brand driving innovation, as we seek to bring readers, creators, and the curious into the metaverse and demystify the tremendous amount of transformation happening within.”
Featured image from Financial Times, chart from TradingView.com
Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.
Key Takeaways ETH has regained the $1,800 threshold, climbing 20% from its 2026 bottom at $1,517 Technical charts reveal a double-bottom formation with resistance at $1,815 MVRV ratio has fallen under 0.8, a threshold previously associated with long-term price floors Ethereum spot ETFs attracted more than $84 million following two months of continuous outflows BitMine, led by Tom Lee, has accumulated nearly 200,000 ETH over the past month Ethereum is staging a notable comeback that’s now drawing interest from institutional players and chart analysts alike. ETH has pushed into the $1,811–$1,822 range, marking approximately a 20% gain from its 2026 floor of $1,517.
Ethereum (ETH) Price The recent price movement has created a classic double-bottom setup, with both troughs hovering around $1,517 and a key resistance line positioned at $1,815. This formation typically signals potential trend reversals among technical analysts.
Additionally, Ethereum has broken above its 25-day Exponential Moving Average. The Percentage Price Oscillator is trending upward and nearing a bullish zero-line cross, another indicator closely monitored by momentum traders.
MVRV Indicator Enters Zone Historically Linked to Market Bottoms The Market Value to Realized Value ratio for Ethereum has slipped beneath 0.8. Previous instances occurred in December 2018, March 2020, and June 2022 — each marking significant long-term lows.
ETHEREUM IS OVERSOLD!
On-chain data reveals the ETH MVRV ratio has officially dipped below 0.8, putting it into deep accumulation territory.
Historically, falling below this 0.8 MVRV level signals seller exhaustion, as aggregate market value falls significantly below total… https://t.co/LNkygeXO5n pic.twitter.com/jGhaQlV8fp
— Ali Charts (@alicharts) July 10, 2026
This metric implies ETH might be trading under its fair realized value. Historically, patient investors have viewed such periods as accumulation opportunities rather than selling events.
Analyst Aksel Kibar, CMT, shared on X that Ethereum’s short-term reversal structure appears solid, highlighting a potential near-term double bottom — aligning with current chart patterns.
Wall Street Money Flows Back via ETFs and Strategic Buyers Following two consecutive months of withdrawals, spot Ethereum ETFs recorded more than $84 million in net inflows this week. Though modest in absolute terms, the reversal in flow direction has captured analyst attention.
BitMine (NASDAQ: BMNR), led by veteran analyst Tom Lee, has emerged as a major accumulator. The firm added over $35 million worth of ETH this week alone, bringing total holdings to 5.74 million ETH as it approaches the 6 million mark.
Meanwhile, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index climbed from 15 (extreme fear) to 31, a sentiment shift historically correlated with price rebounds for both Bitcoin and Ethereum.
$ETH as beaten down as this has been, this is still a decent overall area. This + Robinhood activity makes eth look pretty attractive in the short term and I can see this going to 2500ish if btc remains stable pic.twitter.com/XIuPURox4d
— Altcoin Sherpa (@AltcoinSherpa) July 11, 2026
For Ethereum to validate a move toward $2,000, it must sustain levels above $1,817 and overcome resistance between $1,820 and $1,850. Successfully converting this zone into support would open pathways to $1,950 and eventually $2,000.
Should ETH drop below $1,730, the current rally could lose momentum and lead to extended sideways trading.
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.
TL;DR
XRP Ledger AI agents surpassed 1 million transactions, yet total value moved barely exceeded $5,000, showing bots are handling volume, not capital.Chandler Guo, a veteran Chinese Bitcoin miner, forecast a return to $120,000 within a year and a climb to $500,000 within five years, citing capped supply and ETF demand.Robinhood Chain's daily DEX volume hit $877.56 million, edging past Ethereum's $778 million, driven largely by the $CASHCAT memecoin.Spot crypto ETFs booked $281.8 million in net weekly inflows, ending an eight-week streak of outflows, while Bitcoin holds between $61,000 and $66,000.One million transactions for $5,000: Is XRPL's AI economy ready to grow up?A revealing situation has emerged on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) as autonomous AI agents have already completed more than 1 million transactions, yet the total value of these payments in XRP and the RLUSD stablecoin has barely exceeded $5,000, according to XRPL AI Hub.
The impressive one-million figure generated loud headlines, but it also exposed the reality: to secure a meaningful position in the market, the AI economy on the XRP Ledger needs to be measured in billions of transactions, not thousands of dollars.
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The low financial volume is a direct consequence of the structure of current AI traffic. Bots use the blockchain for microtransactions, paying fractions of a cent for API calls, seconds of GPU computing time, or access to text data.
State of agent economy on XRP Ledger, Source: XRPL AI HubXRPL handles these tasks effortlessly thanks to its minimal and predictable fees. Financially, however, the system is still running almost idle. One million transactions prove that machines can communicate with one another, but they are not yet bringing meaningful liquidity to the network.
For the AI ecosystem surrounding XRP and RLUSD to enter the major leagues, it must move beyond the "sandbox" stage and begin managing significant amounts of capital. Real volume will arrive when AI agents stop merely purchasing code and start independently managing corporate funds and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).
Bitcoin at $500,000: Mining veteran Chandler Guo makes bold predictionProminent Chinese miner and early crypto investor Chandler Guo broke his silence on X with a concise prediction: Bitcoin will return to $120,000 within a year and rise to $500,000 over the next five years.
The main value of this statement lies in the author's background. Guo is not a random social media personality but an industry heavyweight who stood at the origins of industrial-scale Bitcoin mining in China. He rarely throws numbers around, which is why his Chinese-language post immediately captured the market's attention.
Chandler Guo predicts Bitcoin to reach $500,000 within 5 years, Source: XBitcoin is currently holding near $63,840, making the half-million-dollar target appear unrealistic. However, Guo's forecast follows a clear logic:
A return to $120,000 is realistic. Bitcoin already tested this level at its 2025 peak, so a return within the next 12 months appears to be a technically justified scenario.The mathematics of scarcity. Fewer than 1 million bitcoins remain to be mined out of the hard-capped supply of 21 million coins. Wall Street agrees. The $500,000 target by the end of the decade aligns with the long-term estimates of Standard Chartered analysts, who link global price growth to capital inflows through spot ETFs.What is the catch? Market history shows that before every major rally, Bitcoin tends to stage severe cyclical corrections that shake out excessively optimistic investors. Mining veterans may be confident about the future, but the speed at which their forecasts materialize will depend on liquidity conditions across global markets.
Robinhood vs Ethereum: How memecoins pushed the broker to the top of the crypto rankingsDefiLlama data recorded a rare shift in the on-chain economy as daily DEX volume on the relatively new Robinhood Chain surged to $877.56 million, surpassing Ethereum's $778 million.
The most remarkable part is the relationship between the figures. Robinhood Chain has only $131.51 million in total value locked. This means users are not simply storing money there but are moving it through the network at extraordinary speed.
Robinhood Chain, a layer-2 blockchain built on Arbitrum, launched on July 1 2026. Management initially planned to develop serious financial instruments and tokenized assets on the network, but retail traders had other ideas. The chain was immediately flooded by a wave of memecoin speculation.
The main hit was CASHCAT, a reference to the historical fact that company CEO Vlad Tenev originally wanted to name the brokerage CashCat. The token's market capitalization quickly surpassed $180 million, accounting for the lion's share of the network's activity.
Top blockchains by 24 hours DEX volume, Source: DefiLlamaThe network's success is also a victory for effective social media marketing. Robinhood understands its audience perfectly. While traditional banks publish dull reports, the broker's official account posts concise lines such as, "We're in a very crypto time of our lives," generating millions of views and creating powerful FOMO.
Vlad Tenev himself played along with the crowd on X. At the height of trading activity, he joked that the network had technically been created for serious DeFi, but that memecoins were also perfectly valid. For the crypto community, this sounded like a green light.
Without spending heavily on advertising, the broker began speaking the same language as crypto "degens" and started pulling liquidity away from other networks.
Should Solana be concerned? Probably not yet. This remains a local triumph for Robinhood, while the leading retail blockchain remains firmly in first place with daily volume of $1.133 billion and a massive TVL of nearly $5 billion.
Crypto market outlook: $197 million ETF comeback and the battle for Bitcoin's codeThe crypto market appears to have found a bottom. Spot ETFs ended an eight-week streak of $8.26 billion in outflows by recording their first $197 million in net inflows.
The market is now caught between renewed institutional demand, an internal developer split over BIP-110, and anticipation surrounding key inflation data. Bitcoin remains within the $61,000–$66,000 range, responding to a total of $281.8 million in capital inflows across all crypto funds.
US spot Bitcoin ETF performance and price action over the past week, Source: SoSoValueKey checkpoints:
ETFs return to the game. After a severe downturn, Bitcoin funds recorded $197 million in weekly inflows, led by BlackRock's IBIT with a net result of $292 million. Together with Ethereum funds, total net inflows reached $281.8 million, indicating that overt selling pressure may be running out of steam.Bitcoin holds its ground. BTC remains trapped between liquidity clusters at $61,000 and $66,000 and is confidently holding the $64,000 level despite external logistical shocks affecting global trade routes. A breakout above the $65,000 resistance level or a decline below the $61,000 support level will determine the direction of the broader two-month consolidation.The ideological battle over Bitcoin's code: BIP-110. The BIP-110 upgrade proposes sharply restricting transaction sizes on the Bitcoin network to suppress block-filling protocols such as Ordinals and Runes. The upgrade is currently supported by only 23% of nodes and 1% of miners' hash rate. The decisive battle for consensus, along with the risk of a chain split, is expected in August 2026, with 55% support required.Ethereum begins to regain strength. ETH rebounded from a low of $1,750, while the ETH/BTC pair climbed above 0.028 amid record withdrawals from Binance and growing long positions on Bitfinex. A sustained move above $1,820 would open the way for momentum toward $1,850–$1,900.The macroeconomic trigger. The release of the latest Consumer Price Index data will be the week's main catalyst. Inflation below expectations could trigger a powerful upward short squeeze. If the figures come in hotter than expected, bears could regain control and attempt to push the market below $60,000. You Might Also Like
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.
Ethereum completed a golden cross against Bitcoin on its short-term chart, with the market now watching for a potential comeback. The MA 50 rose above the MA 200 after a crossover on the hourly chart.
ETH/BTC Hourly Chart, Image By TradingViewThis follows a recent run of outperformance by Ethereum, which has rallied versus Bitcoin since bottoming at 0.025 on June 6. Fresh ETF inflows and rising on-chain activity, especially through Robinhood's new Layer 2 chain using ETH as its native gas token, have helped Ethereum outperform Bitcoin recently.
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The outperformance can be seen in a golden cross developing on the hourly chart. Ethereum bounced from its June lows after a multi-week decline that started in mid-April. After consolidating for a while, Ethereum had a breakout above 0.027, which corresponds with the daily MA 50. Ethereum has traded below the daily MA 50 since April 23.
Galaxy's Head of Research, Alex Thorn, highlighted Ethereum's price action against Bitcoin in a recent tweet, saying, "Can I say something?"
Is momentum back?Ethereum has been in a downward trend since the start of 2026, having begun the year with a death cross on the ETH/BTC daily chart.
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Galaxy Head of Research Alex Thorn called attention to this signal at the year's start, as reported, which went unnoticed in the market, possibly due to the optimism with which cryptocurrencies began the year.
Now, with several months of underperformance, traders are watching for a price bottom on the ETH/BTC chart. This is significant as most altcoins' outperformance has often coincided with a rising ETH/BTC ratio. This is because traders are willing to take more risk when Ethereum outperforms Bitcoin, and vice versa.
The RSI across various timeframes has rebounded from oversold levels to neutral or positive, but a price reversal cannot be confirmed yet.
Ethereum [ETH] reclaimed the $1,800 level and has held this level for three straight days. At press time, Ethereum was trading around $1,807 after rising slightly by 0.26% on the daily charts.
As the price steadies, high-net-worth investors have seized the opportunity to increase their positions.
Ethereum whales continue to accumulate Even as Ethereum struggles to maintain its trend, whales have continued to purchase at every price level.
According to Lookonchain, a whale withdrew 4.948k ETH worth $9.01 million. Following the recent purchase, the whale’s ETH holdings increased to 49,407 ETH, worth $84.3 million.
Source: Lookonchain Additionally, Onchain Lens reported another whale accumulating ETH. According to the on‑chain monitor, two wallets likely linked to the same entity purchased 6,358 ETH worth $11.59 million. In total, these two whales purchased 11.306k ETH worth $20.59 million.
When whales continue to accumulate and the market signals recovery, it indicates strong confidence in the market. Thus, these whales are betting on continued price recovery and subsequent gains on the price charts.
Is ETH’s market demand on the rise? Incentivized by whales, demand seems to have recovered significantly across all market participants. A look at CryptoQuant’s Exchange Netflow data shows strong market accumulation.
As a result, the Exchange Netflow has remained negative for eight consecutive days, marking the longest negative streak YTD. A sustained period of negative net flow suggests that buyers have gained significant control and effectively displaced sellers.
Source: CryptoQuant As a result of these continued exchange outflows, scarcity has increased significantly, while supply available for immediate sale has declined.
In fact, the altcoin’s Exchange Supply Ratio (ESR) declined to a three-week low of 0.13 as of writing. A drop in ESR indicates that fewer Ethereum tokens are entering exchanges than leaving them.
Source: CryptoQuant Historically, such a setup on exchanges has preceded greater price appreciation for Ethereum.
Can ETH sustain its momentum? Ethereum has struggled to maintain an uptrend, but the market seems to be recovering for all market participants.
As a result, the altcoin’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) has remained above 50 for the past eight days. The RSI’s upward trajectory coincides with a shift in exchange activity, suggesting a demand-driven surge.
Source: TradingView Often, when this indicator holds strongly while market demand is strong, ETH tends to make gains. Therefore, if the accumulation persists, traders could see Ethereum hold $1.8k and target $2,000.
However, the altcoin must close above its short-term Moving Average at $1,778 to keep this bullish structure alive. Failure to do so could lead to another price drop.
Final Summary Ethereum whales continue to accumulate ETH, as two whales added 11.306k ETH worth $20.59 million. ETH continues to hover around $1.8k, as bulls show significant control of the market.
Ethereum has completed a golden cross against Bitcoin on its short-term chart, indicating a shift in momentum as investors monitor the possibility of a sustained recovery. The development comes after the 50-hour moving average crossed above the 200-hour moving average, a chart pattern frequently watched by traders for potential trend reversals.
Ethereum’s recent outperformance and ETF inflowsEthereum began outperforming Bitcoin following a local low at 0.025 on June 6. Its rally has been supported by renewed inflows into cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds and growing on-chain activity. Notably, Robinhood recently launched a new Layer 2 network that utilizes Ethereum as its native gas token, which has contributed to an increase in transactional demand on the Ethereum blockchain.
The price resurgence was further confirmed when Ethereum broke above the 0.027 level, a point that aligns with the 50-day moving average. This breakout followed a prolonged consolidation period after a multi-week decline, which started in mid-April. Since April 23, Ethereum had been trading below its daily 50-day moving average until this latest move, signaling renewed market confidence.
Mini dictionary: Golden cross – A chart pattern where a short-term moving average crosses above a long-term moving average, typically seen as a bullish signal by technical analysts.
Technical signals and market sentimentAlex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy, highlighted this price action in a post, drawing attention to the potential implications for the ETH/BTC trading pair. Thorn noted that market sentiment at the start of 2026 was primarily positive, even though Ethereum experienced a death cross—a bearish technical signal—against Bitcoin on the daily chart.
Market optimism at the beginning of the year led many investors to overlook the importance of the death cross on the ETH/BTC pair, even as Ethereum gradually declined relative to Bitcoin.
As the year progressed, Ethereum underperformed compared to Bitcoin until the recent reversal. The market has become increasingly attentive to potential bottoming signals on the ETH/BTC pair, since historical data shows that rallies in altcoins often occur when Ethereum gains strength over Bitcoin.
Current indicators and market outlookThe relative strength index (RSI) on different timeframes has moved from oversold territories to more neutral or positive zones. However, analysts cautioned that no definitive price reversal has been confirmed yet.
Traders often view increases in the ETH/BTC ratio as a sign that risk appetite is returning, since periods of Ethereum strength typically coincide with improved altcoin performance.
Market watchers are closely observing whether the formation of the golden cross on the hourly chart will lead to further upside for Ethereum against Bitcoin. Factors such as ETF inflows and Layer 2 adoption continue to influence sentiment, but technical confirmation remains pending.
IndicatorRecent ValueHistorical ReferenceETH/BTC Price Low0.025 (June 6)Recent multi-week lowBreakout Level0.027Aligned with 50-day MARSINeutral/PositivePreviously oversoldDisclaimer: 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.
AI is a hot topic in the tech world: inevitable superintelligence or just a simple tool? A heated debate launched by Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum. What if the real danger did not lie in AI itself, but in our inability to control it? Let’s enter the war of scenarios for 2040.
In brief Vitalik Buterin questions: is AI an existential threat or just a simple tool? His uncertainty reflects a debate without consensus. Scenarios for 2040: Between Terminator and decentralized utopia, Ethereum proposes blockchain solutions to control AI. Transparency, open source or emergency switches? No perfect answer against AI, but avenues to explore. Vitalik Buterin: A Vague Definition of “Superintelligence” is at the Center of the AI Controversy This is not a technical question but rather a philosophical one opposing supporters of the “AI 2040” scenario (a superintelligence by 2040) to its detractors. Some, like Daniel Kokotajlo (ex-OpenAI), see ASI (Artificial Superintelligence) as an existential threat to be stopped. For others like Yann LeCun (Meta), it is a chimera because current models are just auto-completing machines. Vitalik Buterin plays the disillusioned referee:
If I believed the current AI is a normal technology, I would be on the side of the detractors. If I believed ASI would arrive by 2030, I would be close to the AI 2040 camp. But I don’t know… and that is the problem.
His Plan A? Total transparency and an emergency switch to stop dangerous AI trainings. But even he admits that humanity might be stuck between naive and naive squared… Between those who believe everything will be fine and those who think they can control everything.
2040: The End of the World? Is Ethereum Going to Save the Day? What if 2040 was similar to “Terminator”? Alarmists even see an uncontrollable AI, erasing jobs, manipulating markets, or worse… But in this nightmare, Ethereum and its blockchain could play saviors. How? By making AI accessible to all through transparent smart contracts and DAOs. Indeed, Vitalik Buterin imagines a system where:
AI models would be open source (avoiding domination by a few giants like Google or Meta); Critical decisions would be voted on by the community via decentralized governance mechanisms; “Kill switches” (emergency switches) would be automated and tamper-proof thanks to the blockchain. The only problem is that Ethereum itself cannot guarantee global coordination. If China or the United States refuse to play along, ASI could still emerge in the shadows. Again, decentralization will have its limits.
AI reflects our fears: control or chaos? Vitalik Buterin reminds us that the real debate is not about whether ASI will arrive but about how we will manage its risk. And you, are you ready to trust Ethereum to save humanity?
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Eddy S.
The world is evolving and adaptation is the best weapon to survive in this undulating universe. Originally a crypto community manager, I am interested in anything that is directly or indirectly related to blockchain and its derivatives. To share my experience and promote a field that I am passionate about, nothing is better than writing informative and relaxed articles.
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.
Ethereum is currently approaching major resistance levels as technical signals indicate a heightened risk of further downside. The TD Sequential indicator, often used by traders to identify potential trend reversals, has flashed a sell signal as ETH tests the upper boundary of its price channel.
Technical Analysis: Sell Signal and Resistance LevelsAccording to Ali Charts, a crypto market analyst, Ethereum’s latest rally is encountering resistance at the channel top. Past attempts to break through this area have repeatedly failed, leading to subsequent price declines. The TD Sequential signal adds to concerns, suggesting that the current upward move is running out of momentum after a sustained rise.
If Ethereum fails to overcome the resistance and confirms the sell signal, immediate support is seen near $1,770. Market participants view this level as the first area where buyers could attempt to halt further losses. A break below this support would likely shift the focus to $1,700, the next significant target for potential downside in the short term.
So far, the sell signal requires confirmation via a clear rejection from resistance and follow-through in price action. A decisive move above the channel would negate the corrective outlook, signaling that buyers retain control. However, if ETH cannot sustain gains beyond the channel, further losses may be likely.
Ali Charts underscored the risk: “If the upward move fails to hold, ETH could first sweep liquidity above recent highs but may turn lower toward $1,770 and $1,700, eventually even $1,505.”
Short-Term Structure and Key TargetsOn the 12-hour timeframe, Ethereum’s recovery from late June appears strong, but the broader market structure suggests the possibility of one more move lower. Analyst TraderJBx observed that ETH might temporarily move above its recent highs to attract buyers but could eventually reverse back toward support around $1,505, an area marked by so-called “equal lows.”
Short-term charts show a five-wave advance from the recent bottom. This setup typically favors continued gains after a corrective pullback. Under such a scenario, Ethereum could dip back to the $1,700-$1,760 range before resuming its climb above $2,000.
However, the wider trend remains more cautious. The lows recorded on June 6 and June 26 occurred at almost the same price, with surrounding moves forming classic corrective patterns, increasing the probability of an inverted flat correction. If this pattern plays out, ETH could make a brief move above $1,850, attracting late buyers, before rebounding back down.
A sustained rally above $2,000 would help negate the bearish scenario and could support a larger relief rally. Until Ethereum closes decisively above this threshold, analysts remain cautious, viewing the current advance as a potential liquidity move instead of the beginning of a confirmed upward trend.
Mini dictionary: TD Sequential is a technical indicator developed by Tom Demark that aims to identify the exact time of trend exhaustion and potential price reversals by analyzing a series of consecutive closes higher or lower.
Key LevelSignificance$1,770First support, potential buyer defense zone$1,700Next downside target if $1,770 breaks$1,505Equal-lows zone, key bearish target$1,850Liquidity sweep, possible reversal area$2,000Breakout level to confirm uptrendTraderJBx noted that while short-term charts support further upside after a pullback, the broader structure points to a possible reversal if Ethereum fails to make a sustained breakout above key resistance areas.
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.
BlackRock’s BUIDL, a tokenized U.S. Treasury money market fund on the Avalanche blockchain, has reached over $900 million in assets under management (AUM). This notable increase, from approximately $464 million just a week ago, highlights a significant surge in institutional interest in tokenized assets on Avalanche. The BUIDL fund, maintaining a stable value of $1.00 per token with daily accrued dividends, has become the largest tokenized treasury product on-chain and the biggest real-world asset (RWA) on Avalanche. This development underscores Avalanche’s rising prominence as a key player in the institutional tokenization sector, second only to Ethereum in terms of BUIDL’s AUM.
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Key Takeaways BlackRock’s BUIDL fund on Avalanche has seen its AUM increase from $464 million to over $900 million within a week. The rapid growth in BUIDL’s AUM suggests accelerating institutional adoption of Avalanche for tokenized assets. Avalanche is now the second-largest blockchain for BUIDL by AUM, reinforcing its role as a leading institutional tokenization venue. What to Watch The surge in BUIDL’s AUM could indicate broader institutional adoption of blockchain-based financial products, potentially influencing Ethereum price predictions. Market participants may monitor whether this trend continues and if other blockchains follow suit in attracting large institutional investments. Observers will also be keen to see if BlackRock’s growing involvement in tokenized assets impacts Ethereum-related markets and if similar trends develop within the Ethereum ecosystem.
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Term Structure
Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h August 1 2026 59.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 3.2% — — View market → August 1 2026 30% — — View market → August 1 2026 6% — — View market → August 1 2026 2.2% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 14% — — View market → August 1 2026 13% — — View market → August 1 2026 1.6% — — View market → August 1 2026 2.8% — — View market → August 1 2026 4.2% — — View market → August 1 2026 6.6% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.3% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.2% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.4% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.9% — — View market → August 1 2026 59.5% — — View market →
TL;DR BlackRock’s BUIDL fund exceeded $900 million in assets on Avalanche after growing by approximately 105% in just one week. The tokenized U.S. Treasury fund now manages around $2.87 billion in total assets, making it one of the world’s largest on-chain Treasury products. Ethereum remains the largest BUIDL deployment, while Solana ranks third, reflecting growing multi-chain adoption of tokenized assets. The milestone highlights accelerating institutional interest in tokenized Treasuries as real-world asset adoption continues to reshape blockchain-based finance. BlackRock’s tokenized U.S. Treasury fund BUIDL has crossed another milestone, with assets on the Avalanche blockchain surpassing $900 million, underscoring the growing institutional appetite for real-world assets (RWAs) on public blockchains.
Fresh data from RWA.xyz shows the Avalanche allocation more than doubled in just one week, helping lift the fund’s total assets under management (AUM) to approximately $2.87 billion.
The rapid expansion adds to evidence that tokenized Treasuries are becoming one of crypto’s fastest-growing sectors as traditional financial institutions increasingly adopt blockchain infrastructure for cash management and settlement.
Launched in March 2024 by BlackRock in partnership with Securitize, BUIDL invests primarily in short-term U.S. Treasury bills, cash and repurchase agreements while allowing qualified investors to hold fund shares on-chain. Since its debut, the product has expanded beyond Ethereum to several networks, including Avalanche, Solana, Aptos, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon and BNB Chain.
According to the latest RWA.xyz figures, Avalanche now hosts roughly $902.7 million of BUIDL assets, representing an increase of about $436 million, or 105%, over the past week. Ethereum remains the largest deployment with just over $1.02 billion, while Solana ranks third with more than $616 million.
Treasury Product Metrics Data | Source: RWA.XYZ Avalanche strengthens its position in institutional tokenization The sharp rise in BUIDL assets has reinforced Avalanche’s role as one of the leading destinations for tokenized financial products.
Earlier this year, analysts noted that a major allocation into BUIDL pushed Avalanche’s total tokenized asset market above $1 billion, making it the second-largest blockchain for institutional RWAs behind Ethereum. The latest growth suggests that momentum has continued as asset managers seek networks capable of supporting compliant, high-value financial products with lower transaction costs and faster settlement.
Unlike stablecoins, tokenized Treasury funds generate yield from underlying government securities while offering investors the operational benefits of blockchain-based ownership, including near-instant transfers and continuous settlement.
The broader tokenized Treasury market has also expanded rapidly. Industry data indicates that the sector now manages well over $15 billion in on-chain Treasury assets, with BlackRock’s BUIDL remaining among the largest products globally by assets under management, having been recently made available on OKX.
Institutional adoption continues to reshape crypto markets The latest milestone reflects a broader shift as traditional finance firms increasingly view blockchain networks as infrastructure rather than speculative ecosystems.
Major financial institutions including Franklin Templeton, Janus Henderson, Apollo, and others have introduced tokenized investment products over the past two years, while regulators in several jurisdictions have shown growing support for real-world asset tokenization through clearer digital asset frameworks.
Market observers increasingly see tokenized Treasuries as one of the strongest use cases for blockchain technology because they combine regulated fixed-income products with programmable settlement and improved capital efficiency.
With BUIDL approaching the $3 billion mark and Avalanche emerging as one of its fastest-growing deployment networks, the data suggests institutional capital continues flowing toward tokenized government securities even as broader crypto markets experience periods of volatility. For many analysts, that trend signals that tokenization is evolving from an experimental concept into a core component of modern financial infrastructure.
Crypto markets held firm on Sunday, with Bitcoin (BTC) near $64,000, as digital assets absorbed fresh US strikes on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz once more.
The muted move breaks from earlier in the war. Bitcoin fell about 2% and slid toward $61,000 after June’s escalation, a far steeper reaction than today’s 0.33% dip.
US Launches Third Round of Strikes on IranIran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed and fired on a commercial vessel. The move defied a US demand to guarantee passage through the waterway.
In response, US Central Command (CENTCOM) launched a third round of strikes. Forces hit roughly 140 targets.
Those targets included missile and drone sites, naval assets, and coastal surveillance posts.
“During three nights of strikes this week, CENTCOM has struck more than 300 targets… to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the strait,” CENTCOM said.
The conflict widened across the Gulf. Iran claimed attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, and Oman.
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#بيان | تعرب وزارة الخارجية عن إدانة واستنكار المملكة العربية السعودية بأشدّ العبارات استمرار إيران في سلوكها المزعزع لأمن المنطقة واستقرارها، وانتهاكها لمبادئ القانون الدولي وميثاق الأمم المتحدة وميثاق منظمة التعاون الإسلامي وقواعد حسن الجوار، وذلك بتكرار الاعتداءات الإيرانية… pic.twitter.com/PlXIfEyKjR
— وزارة الخارجية 🇸🇦 (@KSAMOFA) July 12, 2026 Crypto Shrugs Off the EscalationDespite the escalation, major tokens barely moved. Bitcoin posted a 0.33% daily loss. Ethereum (ETH) traded around $1,801, up 2.18% over the past 7 days. XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL) each fell less than 2% on the day.
Crypto Markets Show Resilience as US-Iran Conflict Escalates. Source: BeInCrypto MarketsOil markets, shut for the weekend, could open higher on Monday. Brent held near $76 a barrel on Friday. Another prolonged closure could rattle energy markets and lift prices as traders price in tighter supply.
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Widespread Disruption Hits Phantom Users@phantom, one of the most widely used self-custody wallets in the crypto space, suffered a significant service outage on July 11, 2026, leaving thousands of users unable to access their portfolios during peak trading hours. The wallet, which first gained traction through the @Solana $SOL ecosystem before expanding to Ethereum and other networks, acknowledged the problem publicly, confirming that some users were experiencing degraded performance.
The service interruption began during peak trading hours across multiple time zones, affecting users primarily on the Solana and Ethereum networks. Many users reported seeing zero balances or frozen price data across various decentralized applications connected to their Phantom wallets.
According to analysts, the fault originated in Phantom's data-aggregation layer rather than its key storage infrastructure, leaving user funds secure on-chain while exposing weaknesses in functional reliability. In practical terms, that layer sits between the blockchain and the user interface, fetching balances, token prices, and related state to help the wallet display information and draft transactions.
Service Restored, But Questions RemainThe outage began around 13:00 UTC and appeared fixed by 16:40 UTC, hitting Phantom during peak trading hours across Solana and Ethereum. Within hours of the initial incident, Phantom confirmed that its mobile app had returned to normal operation and apologised to affected users.
Over 161 user-submitted outage reports were logged within 24 hours, with confirmed issues spanning the mobile app, Phantom backend, and browser extension.
Repeated outages risk eroding Phantom's market position as users prioritise wallets with consistent access during critical trading windows. While the swift resolution and transparent communication helped contain the fallout, the incident underlines how dependent DeFi activity has become on wallet infrastructure that can falter under pressure. Users wanting to monitor Phantom's service health going forward can check its official status page at status.phantom.com.
Sources:
Phantom Official Status Page - Incident History
StatusGator - Phantom Mobile App Outage Tracker
CryptoRank - Phantom Wallet Outage Report
Shibarium, Shiba Inu’s layer-2 scaling solution built to enhance transaction speed and lower costs on the Ethereum network, experienced a substantial drop in network activity over the past day. Data from the Shibariumscan explorer showed that the number of daily transactions on the Shibarium blockchain fell sharply from 5,170 on July 10 to 1,280 on July 11, reflecting a 75% decrease within 24 hours.
Volatility and sharp reversals in transaction countThis fall followed a brief surge in on-chain activity. Daily transactions on Shibarium had climbed from 1,120 on July 9 to 5,170 on July 10, marking a 361% increase. However, this rally was short-lived, with the network’s transaction count quickly retreating to 1,280.
A similar pattern was previously observed in mid-June. On June 17, Shibarium’s daily transactions surged by 3,152%, ballooning from 1,160 to 37,730 in one day. The spike did not hold, as transaction volumes dropped back to their usual levels soon after.
DateDaily TransactionsChange (%)July 91,120–July 105,170+361%July 111,280-75%June 161,160–June 1737,730+3,152%Market conditions drive network activityTransaction volumes on blockchains like Shibarium often fluctuate in response to changing market conditions and levels of user engagement. Broadly, participants in the cryptocurrency sector have reduced on-chain activity, waiting for new market catalysts after an extended period of volatility and selling pressure.
It remains unclear which specific factors are driving the current shifts in Shibarium activity. Possible reasons include a decline in active users or the recent completion of significant ecosystem projects.
Mini dictionary: Shibarium is a layer-2 blockchain network designed to increase the speed and efficiency of transactions within the Shiba Inu ecosystem by operating atop the Ethereum network.
Developers continue to build out new infrastructure in the Shibarium environment, suggesting that current transaction data might not accurately represent future user adoption or network growth.
Broader crypto market trendsThe cryptocurrency market is currently experiencing a period of relative calm following months of downward momentum. Many traders have stepped back from on-chain engagement, contributing to the overall decline in blockchain transactions, including on Shibarium.
Despite the slowdown, a stabilization in crypto derivatives trading has been noted. Open interest, which had been falling, has now steadied. Leverage is on the rise while funding rates have turned positive, reflecting some cautious optimism among active traders.
Any significant upward move in token prices will likely require fresh spot market demand to return. As of the latest available data, SHIB, the native token of the Shiba Inu ecosystem, traded at $0.0000043, down 2.43% in the past 24 hours and 1.23% over the past week.
After periods of heightened activity, Shibarium again saw transaction figures fall sharply, in line with broader market cooling effects.
While recent indicators in derivatives markets suggest some stability, most digital assets have yet to signal a clear bottom.
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.
APX and HASH have rocketed the most in the past day, while BEAT has dumped by over 20%.
Bitcoin’s price experienced minor volatility over the past 24 hours as the US and Iran exchanged a new wave of attacks, and the asset now struggles to remain above $64,000.
Most larger-cap alts have remained sideways over the past day, aside from ZEC and DEXE. The latter has posted a massive double-digit surge to well over $40.
More Volatility to Come Soon? The previous weekend was quite similar in terms of price action, as BTC remained sideways between $62,400 and $63,400. Its more impressive leg up followed on Monday when it jumped to $64,000 before it was violently rejected and driven south to $61,200 after Michael Saylor’s Strategy announced its biggest BTC sale to date.
Unlike the developments that took place after the previous Strategy sale, bitcoin actually rebounded almost immediately this time and rocketed to $64,600. However, it was rejected there again and dipped to $61,600 as the US and Iran broke the ceasefire with new attacks against each other in the middle of the week.
The bulls intervened once again and helped the cryptocurrency recover a lot of ground. The culmination came yesterday, when it pumped to $64,700. However, it couldn’t keep climbing and dipped to $63,600 after the latest attacks in the Middle East. It now trades close to $64,000 again, but more volatility is likely to take place later tonight or tomorrow when the legacy financial markets open for trading.
For now, bitcoin’s market cap remains at $1.280 trillion, while its dominance over the alts on CG is up to 56.8%.
BTCUSD July 12. Source: TradingView ZEC, RAIN, UNI, DEXE Up Ethereum continues its fight with the $1,800 resistance, which has been described as critical by many analysts. XRP, SOL, DOGE, XLM, ADA, and BNB are slightly in the red daily, while TRX, HYPE, and XMR have posted insignificant increases.
ZEC has added 5% of value to trade at $525, RAIN is up by 3% and sits close to $0.015, UNI has tapped $3.65 after a similar increase, while DEXE has stolen the show from the larger cap alts. It has risen by over 17% to $43. APX and HASH are the other double-digit gainers, while BEAT has plummeted by 20% after yesterday’s rise.
The total crypto market cap remains close to $2.260 trillion on CG after a minor daily retreat.
Cryptocurrency Market Overview July 12. Source: QuantifyCrypto
A recent claim by a social media account suggests that Ethereum has maintained ten years without any oracle hacks, attributing the success to a rigorous security focus. Ethereum, known for its decentralized platform, has indeed shown resilience in maintaining its core infrastructure without downtime. However, the broader ecosystem, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi), has experienced numerous oracle-related vulnerabilities and exploits. These incidents often target gaps between protocols rather than Ethereum’s foundational code. The claim highlights an impressive track record for a specific team or protocol within the ecosystem, but overlooks the challenges faced by oracle integrations overall.
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Key Takeaways The claim of zero oracle hacks on Ethereum appears to emphasize specific successes within the ecosystem rather than the broader DeFi landscape. Market pricing suggests that while Ethereum’s core remains robust, oracle vulnerabilities continue to impact the wider DeFi space. Current market odds for “Over $1.2B crypto hack value in 2026” remain at 80% YES, suggesting concerns over ongoing security issues. What to Watch Markets will be observing any further statements or clarifications regarding the security claims within Ethereum’s ecosystem. The role of key actors such as Chainlink and other oracle providers will be crucial in mitigating future vulnerabilities. Monitoring reports from security firms like PeckShield and CertiK may indicate shifts in market expectations about the total crypto hack value in 2026. As developments unfold, these factors could influence the current market outlook on anticipated crypto hack volumes.
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Term Structure
Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h December 31 79% — — View market → December 31 23.5% — — View market → December 31 97.4% — — View market → December 31 1% — — View market → December 31 67.5% — — View market →
WSJ Survey: U.S. Recession Probability Drops to 25%, Down From 33% in April
According to survey data from The Wall Street Journal, the probability of a U.S. economic recession has dropped to 25%, down from 33% in April.
6 minutes ago
Commercial shipping traffic through the Hormuz Strait has dropped significantly.
According to reports from China Central Television (CCTV), commercial shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has dropped sharply following Iran’s announcement of the reclosure of the strait. Citing commercial shipping tracking data, Iran stated that only 11 commercial vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, including 8 oil tankers and 3 cargo ships.
6 minutes ago
Two hackers today spent a total of 11.71 million DAI to buy ETH.
According to Yu Jian Monitoring, two hackers purchased Ethereum today. The first hacker, who stole funds from Coinbase users, spent 7.378 million DAI to acquire 4,049.7 ETH in the early hours of today, at an average price of $1,822. The second is an address that received ETH from Tornado Cash last November; it spent 4.34 million DAI to repurchase 2,405 ETH two hours ago, at an average price of $1,804.
6 minutes ago
Polymarket's weekly revenue topped $11 million this week, hitting an all-time high.
According to Defillama data, Polymarket's weekly revenue exceeded $11 million this week, hitting an all-time high, while the protocol's cumulative revenue has surpassed $97 million.
6 minutes ago
Robinhood Chain’s DEX trading volume exceeded $877 million over the past 24 hours, ranking second among all blockchains.
According to DefiLlama data, Robinhood Chain’s 24-hour DEX trading volume hit $877.6 million, ranking second among all blockchains—only trailing Solana’s $1.133 billion, while Ethereum’s mainnet came in third with $778 million in trading volume.
6 minutes ago
The volume of ETH bridged from Ethereum Mainnet to Robinhood Chain has surged roughly tenfold in a week, surpassing $100 million.
According to Token Terminal data, over the past week, the volume of ETH bridged from Ethereum mainnet (L1) to Robinhood Chain (L2) has surged roughly 10-fold, surpassing $100 million. Robinhood Chain uses ETH as its native gas token, as noted. Token Terminal stated that if adoption of the chain continues to grow, it could become a new, significant source of demand for ETH.
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has called attention to a critical divide within the artificial intelligence community regarding the trajectory of AI development. According to Buterin, the ongoing debates are shaped not just by law or politics, but by a fundamental philosophical question: whether society is on the brink of superintelligent AI or is witnessing another step in technological advancement.
Differing philosophies around AI’s futureButerin stated that the primary distinction among AI proponents hinges on expectations about the pace and scale of progress. One camp envisions the imminent arrival of superintelligent systems, warning of significant global risks and the need for unprecedented international coordination. In contrast, others view AI as a tool whose evolving capabilities reflect routine software development, requiring incremental improvements and controls.
Buterin pointed out that for some, “the main source of disagreement between proponents of AI is not legislation or politics but a philosophical question: the emergence of superintelligence now or merely another stage of technological evolution.” He further noted that “AI progress is viewed through totally incompatible worldviews: in one scenario, superintelligence emerges soon, while in the other, AI remains just another software upgrade.”
This divergence, Buterin suggested, has far-reaching implications not only for technology policy but also for capital allocation and system design in adjacent industries, including blockchain.
Blockchain’s role in future AI ecosystemsThe divide in AI perspectives could influence the long-term architecture of blockchain networks. For the group anticipating rapid advances toward superintelligence, Buterin emphasized the necessity of censorship-resistant hardware, on-chain proofs of model training, and decentralized agent networks. Blockchains such as Ethereum and projects like Bittensor are being considered for these roles, as they may serve as foundational platforms for verifiable and trustworthy AI coordination.
On the other hand, if AI evolves at a steady and predictable rate, integration efforts would likely center around efficiency-oriented tools, decentralized wallets, and marketplaces for handling data and computation within crypto ecosystems.
Mini dictionary: Bittensor: An open-source blockchain project focused on decentralized machine learning and incentivizing global AI talent to contribute models to a distributed network.
Shaping the next era of crypto and AI integrationButerin’s outlook arrives at a crucial time, as 2026 is projected to bring rapid growth in the adoption of blockchain-based application-specific chains (app-chains) and increased use of AI across financial processes. Instead of advocating for one approach, he has encouraged industry players to prepare for both scenarios: a swift jump to superintelligence or incremental progress in AI capabilities.
Future milestones in the industry include the introduction of standards for verifying AI-driven claims on blockchains, equitable sharing of decentralized computational resources, and clearer regulatory guidance regarding the use of autonomous agents.
AI ScenarioBlockchain ImplicationsSuperintelligence Emerges RapidlyCensorship-resistant hardware, on-chain model proofs, decentralized agent networksGradual AI GrowthEfficiency enhancements, crypto wallets, decentralized data marketsThe Ethereum co-founder’s perspective is contributing to the ongoing discussion about how blockchain technology can best support and verify developments in AI, regardless of the path artificial intelligence ultimately takes.
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.
A growing disparity between institutional and retail investors could set the tone for Ethereum [ETH] heading into the new week. At press time, the asset climbed just 1.1% over the past day and posted impressive double-digit gains across the past thirty days.
That sentiment may be turning, though, as rising tension in the perpetual futures market hints that retail investors are shifting bearish and selling into the weekend.
Institutional flows turn bullish Ethereum has held fairly steady around $1,800 over the past day, with institutional investor flows serving as one major contributor.
At the close of Friday’s trading session, SoSoValue reported that these investors recorded a weekly netflow of $84.4 million in net buying. That marked the first weekly net buy across the past nine weeks of trading.
Source: SosoValue During the week, only one day saw net sales, the 9th of July, when investors offloaded $52.08 million as Ethereum fell to $1,748.
Therefore, a turnaround of this kind, after such a long stretch of selling, often signals that institutional investors are recalibrating their outlook and may look to add capital to spot U.S. Ethereum ETFs. That fresh demand could help push the asset’s price higher in the near term.
Retail investors shift the other way Retail investors, meanwhile, have continued to move in the opposite direction, opposing the bullish outlook that institutions have leaned into.
Over the past 24 hours, selling volume has risen across the Ethereum perpetual market. At the time of writing, the Long/Short Ratio that tracks this had fallen to 0.946.
Source: CoinGlass Whenever the ratio drops below 1, as it has here, it points to a growing base of sellers in the market. The bigger concern, though, remains the mounting pressure building on key venues OKX and Bybit.
According to CoinGlass, whales, the high-liquidity players across these exchanges, carried an “extremely bearish” tag. For context, the two exchanges control $4.10 billion and $1.19 billion in total perpetual trading volume, respectively.
Moreover, a bearish stance from these players adds further weight to ETH and could drag the asset lower on the chart.
Short sellers step into ETH Some retail investors are already positioning bearishly, and data shows one trader has opened a massive short worth $12.43 million on ETH ahead of further losses.
For now, though, overall liquidation data suggests those short sellers could still be at risk. The market’s total liquidations continue to work against short traders, who lost $11.49 million over the period compared with $8.30 million on the long side.
If anything, the data shows the market still leans more bearish than bullish. And while retail traders are attempting to set the tone for a decline, they could just as easily bear the brunt of it.
Final Summary Institutional investors bought Ethereum for the first time in nine weeks, a sign that big money may be warming back up to the asset. Retail traders moved the opposite way, selling into the weekend and setting up a tug-of-war that could decide ETH’s next move.
The cryptocurrency market has experienced mixed developments in recent days, but Ether stood out with a 3% increase between Thursday and Friday. This rise occurs in a context marked by the growth of tokenization, the successful launch of Robinhood Chain, and continued purchases by several companies. Despite this favorable dynamic, surpassing the 1,800-dollar threshold remains out of reach. On-chain data and indicators from derivative markets still show signs of weakness, limiting short-term growth potential.
In brief Ether advanced 3% in one week, supported by the rise of Tokenization and institutional purchases. Robinhood Chain has already attracted 106 million dollars in deposits and strengthens the Ethereum ecosystem. Ethereum retains 47% of the real-world assets (RWA) market, confirming its lead in tokenization. On-chain indicators and derivative markets remain weak, hindering a sustained breakthrough above 1,800 dollars. BitMine has accumulated 198,370 ETH in 30 days, illustrating continued purchases by institutional investors. Ether Rallies as Tokenization and Robinhood Chain Drive Fresh Optimism The recent rise of Ether is first based on the rapid development of initiatives related to asset tokenization. Robinhood notably launched Robinhood Chain, a layer 2 solution using ETH as the native gas token. This new infrastructure quickly strengthened user interest in the Ethereum ecosystem. At the same time, the platform is expanding its offer of tokenized stocks to an international clientele, consolidating the adoption of EVM-compatible infrastructures.
Here are the main figures illustrating this dynamic:
106 million dollars in deposits already recorded on Robinhood Chain. 120 countries now have access to the tokenized stocks offered by Robinhood. 47% market share for Ethereum in the real-world assets (RWA) sector. 260 billion dollars of total value locked (TVL) on Ethereum. 210 billion dollars capitalization for Ether, a level below the network’s TVL. Tokenization thus continues to strengthen Ethereum’s dominant position in the real-world asset market. Apart from stablecoins, assets like Tether Gold (XAUT), Ondo US Dollar Yield (USDY), and Franklin Templeton iBENJI government bonds illustrate this evolution. Tokenized stocks STRCx from Strategy and CRCLon from Ondo also rank among the main sector references.
This dynamic feeds specialist analyses. Leon Waidmann, research director at Lisk, believes the gap between the network’s total value locked and Ether’s capitalization reflects a relatively lower valuation than observed during the 2022 bear market. This interpretation fuels debate on the asset’s current positioning without changing the network fundamentals.
On-Chain Indicators Continue to Limit the Recovery Despite this improvement in Ether’s price, several indicators show network activity remains less dynamic than before. Layer 2 solutions continue their development, and institutional investments hold steady, but overall demand on the blockchain remains limited. The 2026 bear market reduced activity across several segments, while some competing blockchains strengthened their presence in synthetic perpetual futures and automated yield vaults.
The main on-chain data illustrating this slowdown of activity on Ethereum are as follows:
11 million dollars in weekly revenue generated by DApps, compared to 20 million dollars in Q1 2026. Sky: 3.1 million dollars in weekly revenue. Titan Builder: 2.4 million dollars in weekly revenue. Chainlink: 1.1 million dollars in weekly revenue. Active addresses dropped from 5.4 million to 3.2 million, confirming the decline in on-chain activity. Weekly revenues of Ethereum DApps, in USD (left) vs active addresses (right). Source: DefiLlama
This evolution limits Ether’s ability to immediately extend its rebound. Even if tokenization fundamentals remain solid, network usage metrics do not grow at the same pace. Investors therefore continue to monitor these indicators to determine if the recent price rise can be accompanied by a sustained recovery of activity on Ethereum.
Institutional Purchases Provide Fresh Support to the Market Derivative markets also provide a more measured signal. According to Laevitas data, the annualized funding rate of Ether perpetual futures contracts fell back to 3% on Saturday, after reaching 12% the previous day. This level remains below the neutral threshold set at 6%, indicating weaker demand for long positions. This development suggests that operators remain cautious despite the recent price rise.
Annualized funding rate of ETH perpetual futures contracts. Source: Laevitas
At the same time, institutional flows continue to support the market. Arkham Intelligence identified a withdrawal of 20,500 ETH, representing about 36 million dollars, from Galaxy Digital to a new wallet. This movement corresponds to a pattern previously observed during purchases attributed to Tom Lee via BitMine Immersion. Over the last thirty days, BitMine has accumulated 198,370 ETH, bringing the total value of its reserves to 10.3 billion dollars.
These acquisitions offer additional market support, although they are not enough to erase the more cautious signals seen on technical and on-chain indicators. Tokenization continues to expand use cases for the network, while institutional investments maintain steady demand. However, actual blockchain activity remains below the levels observed at the beginning of the year.
Future movements will therefore depend on the balance between these factors. If tokenization continues its development and institutional purchases hold steady, Ether could maintain a solid base. Conversely, a sustained recovery will also require improvement in on-chain indicators and derivative markets to confirm a return of broader demand across the ecosystem.
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Ghiles A.
Journaliste et rédacteur web passionné par l’univers des cryptomonnaies et des technologies Web3. J’y traite les dernières tendances et actualités afin de proposer un contenu de haute qualité à un large public du secteur.
DISCLAIMER
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.
The Ethereum Foundation said it used AI agents to uncover a real vulnerability, which could be the new way of improving blockchain security.
The organization behind the second-largest blockchain network revealed it had employed a coordinated army of AI agents to identify vulnerabilities in Ethereum’s critical infrastructure.
The team said one major bug was successfully discovered and patched before it could become a larger problem. But that could be just the start of this major story.
AI and Ethereum The blog post published by the Ethereum Foundation reveals that the Protocol Security team disclosed that AI-powered agents found a remotely triggerable vulnerability in libp2p’s Gossipsub networking layer. This is a core component used by the blockchain’s consensus clients to communicate with each other.
The AI agents were deployed against the protocol code, cryptographic software, and smart contracts that underpin the network. The most significant issue the team faced was not finding the bug itself, but filtering genuine issues from the overwhelming number of false positives generated by the agents.
The team published its findings only after fixing the issue, but researchers said the bigger breakthrough lies in the process of finding it rather than the bug itself. AI has become highly effective at identifying potential weaknesses, but without a human touch, the process is still far from being good enough for such major tasks.
The Foundation compared AI agents to modern fuzzing tools. They won’t replace human auditors, but can dramatically expand the search process by generating proof-of-concept exploits, tracing attack paths, and testing assumptions at a scale that would be challenging to achieve manually.
Is This the Future? The cryptocurrency community has wondered for a few years how and why the cryptocurrency industry can be linked to artificial intelligence. The EF said that one of the most important connections between the two is now through AI-assisted auditing, which can fundamentally change how blockchain security operates.
You may also like: Analyst Sees Upside for ETH Ahead of Glamsterdam Upgrade ‘Summer of Ethereum Love’ Gaining Steam, Says Lubin, But When Will ETH Price Follow? Charles Hoskinson Says Ethereum Is Adopting Cardano Ideas Without Credit Development teams may deploy more and more AI agents to continuously probe protocol code for vulnerabilities before malicious actors discover them. This could be the opposite of numerous examples in which bad actors employed such agents to hack different blockchains.
Nevertheless, the Foundation cautioned that today’s systems remain far from autonomous as they still generate reports that are duplicates, contain false alarms, or describe attack paths that cannot actually be exploited. The team doubled down that every serious finding still requires careful human review before developers can act on it.
WSJ Survey: U.S. Recession Probability Drops to 25%, Down From 33% in April
According to survey data from The Wall Street Journal, the probability of a U.S. economic recession has dropped to 25%, down from 33% in April.
6 minutes ago
Commercial shipping traffic through the Hormuz Strait has dropped significantly.
According to reports from China Central Television (CCTV), commercial shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has dropped sharply following Iran’s announcement of the reclosure of the strait. Citing commercial shipping tracking data, Iran stated that only 11 commercial vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, including 8 oil tankers and 3 cargo ships.
6 minutes ago
Two hackers today spent a total of 11.71 million DAI to buy ETH.
According to Yu Jian Monitoring, two hackers purchased Ethereum today. The first hacker, who stole funds from Coinbase users, spent 7.378 million DAI to acquire 4,049.7 ETH in the early hours of today, at an average price of $1,822. The second is an address that received ETH from Tornado Cash last November; it spent 4.34 million DAI to repurchase 2,405 ETH two hours ago, at an average price of $1,804.
6 minutes ago
Polymarket's weekly revenue topped $11 million this week, hitting an all-time high.
According to Defillama data, Polymarket's weekly revenue exceeded $11 million this week, hitting an all-time high, while the protocol's cumulative revenue has surpassed $97 million.
6 minutes ago
Robinhood Chain’s DEX trading volume exceeded $877 million over the past 24 hours, ranking second among all blockchains.
According to DefiLlama data, Robinhood Chain’s 24-hour DEX trading volume hit $877.6 million, ranking second among all blockchains—only trailing Solana’s $1.133 billion, while Ethereum’s mainnet came in third with $778 million in trading volume.
6 minutes ago
Binance Wallet has integrated Robinhood Chain.
According to official announcements, Binance Wallet has integrated Robinhood Chain. Users can directly access and trade tokens on Robinhood Chain via the Binance Wallet App and browser extension, delivering a more convenient multi-chain operation experience.
WSJ Survey: U.S. Recession Probability Drops to 25%, Down From 33% in April
According to survey data from The Wall Street Journal, the probability of a U.S. economic recession has dropped to 25%, down from 33% in April.
6 minutes ago
Commercial shipping traffic through the Hormuz Strait has dropped significantly.
According to reports from China Central Television (CCTV), commercial shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has dropped sharply following Iran’s announcement of the reclosure of the strait. Citing commercial shipping tracking data, Iran stated that only 11 commercial vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, including 8 oil tankers and 3 cargo ships.
6 minutes ago
Polymarket's weekly revenue topped $11 million this week, hitting an all-time high.
According to Defillama data, Polymarket's weekly revenue exceeded $11 million this week, hitting an all-time high, while the protocol's cumulative revenue has surpassed $97 million.
6 minutes ago
Robinhood Chain’s DEX trading volume exceeded $877 million over the past 24 hours, ranking second among all blockchains.
According to DefiLlama data, Robinhood Chain’s 24-hour DEX trading volume hit $877.6 million, ranking second among all blockchains—only trailing Solana’s $1.133 billion, while Ethereum’s mainnet came in third with $778 million in trading volume.
6 minutes ago
The volume of ETH bridged from Ethereum Mainnet to Robinhood Chain has surged roughly tenfold in a week, surpassing $100 million.
According to Token Terminal data, over the past week, the volume of ETH bridged from Ethereum mainnet (L1) to Robinhood Chain (L2) has surged roughly 10-fold, surpassing $100 million. Robinhood Chain uses ETH as its native gas token, as noted. Token Terminal stated that if adoption of the chain continues to grow, it could become a new, significant source of demand for ETH.
6 minutes ago
Binance Wallet has integrated Robinhood Chain.
According to official announcements, Binance Wallet has integrated Robinhood Chain. Users can directly access and trade tokens on Robinhood Chain via the Binance Wallet App and browser extension, delivering a more convenient multi-chain operation experience.
Ethereum [ETH] has historically struggled to sustain its outperformance against Bitcoin.
On the technical front, ETH/BTC last posted a strong quarterly rally in Q3 2025, surging 53%, marking its biggest quarterly gain since Q2 2021. However, sellers erased 50% of those gains as the rally lost momentum. This suggests the rotation was temporary, as capital continued to flow into Bitcoin.
Against this backdrop, the ratio’s 5% rally so far in Q3 appears too early to confirm a sustained rotation from Bitcoin into Ethereum. At the same time, Bitcoin dominance is once again pushing toward the key 60% resistance level, gaining 1.5% in July and signaling that capital may already be rotating back into Bitcoin.
Source: TradingView (ETH/BTC) That said, Eric Trump’s recent post on X points in the opposite direction, supporting Ethereum’s rally.
Meanwhile, the on-chain data tells a similar story. Ethereum’s outperformance against Bitcoin [BTC] isn’t happening in isolation. Institutional positioning continues to back the move, with Ethereum ETFs attracting over $128 million in net inflows so far this month, outperforming Bitcoin. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s DATs are recovering, adding further support to Ethereum’s recent strength.
With that said, it may be too early to write off the current ETH/BTC uptrend as just another short-term rotation. The bigger question is whether smart money is positioning ahead of a structural shift that the broader market has yet to price in.
Ethereum’s latest catalyst puts the ETH/BTC ratio in the spotlight A key catalyst may be reinforcing the institutional rotation into Ethereum.
Tom Lee pointed to Robinhood’s recently unveiled Layer 2 chain as a major differentiator, calling it a breakout product that has already generated more volume than many established DEXs. More importantly, the network uses ETH as its native gas token, and settles on Ethereum Layer 1. As activity on the chain grows, each transaction feeds back into Ethereum’s ecosystem, strengthening the long-term demand case for ETH.
The on-chain data backs this up. As the chart below shows, the amount of ETH bridged from Ethereum Layer 1 to the Robinhood Chain has jumped nearly 10x over the past week, surpassing $100 million. That suggests users are actively moving liquidity into Robinhood’s Layer 2 ecosystem, with ETH emerging as the network’s core asset for gas, settlement, and on-chain activity.
Source: Token Terminal In this context, Ethereum’s outperformance against Bitcoin may be more than just another rotation.
Instead, the move looks increasingly driven by improving fundamentals, as institutional inflows, growing Layer 2 activity, and rising on-chain demand continue to strengthen Ethereum’s long-term investment case. If that trend holds, the ETH/BTC breakout could be the first sign of a broader capital rotation into Ethereum through Q3.
Final Summary Ethereum’s rally against Bitcoin is backed by ETF inflows, stronger on-chain activity, and Robinhood’s Layer 2 ecosystem. If these trends continue, the ETH/BTC breakout could signal a broader shift of capital into Ethereum in Q3.
A new Cambridge study placed Ethereum near the lower end of energy intensity among major proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains, although the network still used more electricity overall than most of the PoS networks studied.
The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance estimated that Ethereum consumes about 7.87 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity annually. When adjusted for market value, the network used roughly 33 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per $1 million, the second-lowest figure among the proof-of-stake networks assessed, behind BNB Chain.
Solana used the most electricity among the PoS networks studied, at about 13.48 GWh per year. Its energy intensity was roughly 283 kWh per $1 million of market value, around 8.5 times Ethereum’s, while the networks in the comparison consumed about 38 GWh combined.
The report provides one of the most detailed assessments yet of Ethereum’s post-Merge footprint, giving policymakers and investors a more current basis for comparing blockchain sustainability.
Illustration of post-Merge Ethereum consumption. Source: Cambridge
New estimates map Ethereum’s energy useCambridge measured how much electricity Ethereum nodes used at the wall across 20 combinations of the network’s main software clients. It found that a typical home setup used about 18 watts, while a more powerful workstation used roughly 153 watts.
Using Ethereum’s mix of residential and professionally hosted nodes, the researchers estimated an average power draw of about 105 watts per node. Cambridge counted around 8,522 discoverable full nodes, with 64% running in cloud or enterprise facilities and 36% on residential connections.
Cambridge said Ethereum’s remaining emissions are now driven mainly by the electricity grids supplying its nodes. The study estimated that about 56.4% of the network’s electricity mix came from renewable and nuclear sources, compared with 43.6% from fossil fuels.
Ethereum moved from proof-of-work mining to proof-of-stake validation through the Merge in September 2022. The Merge replaced miners competing with one another using energy-intensive computing equipment with validators who secure the network by staking Ether.
After the Merge, energy estimates showed that the upgrade had reduced the network’s electricity use by more than 99.9%, as the mining process used to secure the blockchain was removed.
Magazine: Bitcoin nearing late stages of bear market: Jamie Coutts, Real Vision
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
A new Cambridge study placed Ethereum near the lower end of energy intensity among major proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains, although the network still used more electricity overall than most of the PoS networks studied.
The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance estimated that Ethereum consumes about 7.87 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity annually. When adjusted for market value, the network used roughly 33 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per $1 million, the second-lowest figure among the proof-of-stake networks assessed, behind BNB Chain.
Solana used the most electricity among the PoS networks studied, at about 13.48 GWh per year. Its energy intensity was roughly 283 kWh per $1 million of market value, around 8.5 times Ethereum’s, while the networks in the comparison consumed about 38 GWh combined.
The report provides one of the most detailed assessments yet of Ethereum’s post-Merge footprint, giving policymakers and investors a more current basis for comparing blockchain sustainability.
Illustration of post-Merge Ethereum consumption. Source: Cambridge
New estimates map Ethereum’s energy useCambridge measured how much electricity Ethereum nodes used at the wall across 20 combinations of the network’s main software clients. It found that a typical home setup used about 18 watts, while a more powerful workstation used roughly 153 watts.
Using Ethereum’s mix of residential and professionally hosted nodes, the researchers estimated an average power draw of about 105 watts per node. Cambridge counted around 8,522 discoverable full nodes, with 64% running in cloud or enterprise facilities and 36% on residential connections.
Cambridge said Ethereum’s remaining emissions are now driven mainly by the electricity grids supplying its nodes. The study estimated that about 56.4% of the network’s electricity mix came from renewable and nuclear sources, compared with 43.6% from fossil fuels.
Ethereum moved from proof-of-work mining to proof-of-stake validation through the Merge in September 2022. The Merge replaced miners competing with one another using energy-intensive computing equipment with validators who secure the network by staking Ether.
After the Merge, energy estimates showed that the upgrade had reduced the network’s electricity use by more than 99.9%, as the mining process used to secure the blockchain was removed.
Magazine: Bitcoin nearing late stages of bear market: Jamie Coutts, Real Vision
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
BNB Chain has maintained its dominant position in the stablecoin sector, recording approximately 15 million active stablecoin addresses per month. Data compiled by Binance Research and Dune indicate that this network consistently outpaces all other blockchains in terms of active stablecoin users.
BNB Chain’s expanding user baseThe percentage of active stablecoin users on BNB Chain was significantly lower in 2021. Since then, the network has experienced robust growth in its user base, reinforcing its standing as the primary blockchain for stablecoin transactions. Competing networks, including Ethereum and Solana, have also seen their user numbers climb, but none currently match the address activity registered on BNB Chain.
Stablecoins are widely used on blockchain platforms for trading, payments, transfers, and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, serving as a critical foundation for on-chain activity. Analysts generally interpret a growing stablecoin user base as a sign of higher liquidity and stronger ecosystem participation. However, user activity tells only part of the story.
Address activity vs. capital flowsHigh address activity does not always translate into greater capital concentration. While BNB Chain leads in active users, it does not hold the largest stablecoin market capitalization or transaction value, nor does it attract the same level of institutional adoption observed on other networks.
The chain’s accessibility and low transaction costs have encouraged many users to conduct smaller-value transfers. In contrast, blockchains like Ethereum attract fewer active addresses but record substantially higher capital flows and more institutional-grade transactions.
From a market perspective, this distinction is significant. Although strong address activity points to heightened retail involvement and network utility, it should not be assumed that every user contributes equally to total economic value.
BNB price action under pressureRecent movements in the price of BNB reflect this complex situation. Data show that BNB, the native cryptocurrency of BNB Chain, is currently trading near $573 after a prolonged period of declining highs and lows. The price remains below its 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages, signaling that the broader downward trend is still in effect.
Although the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has rebounded toward the neutral 50 mark—suggesting that selling pressure is easing—buyers have not yet provided sufficient momentum for a meaningful breakout. Immediate resistance for BNB hovers at the 50-day EMA, close to $579, with stronger barriers marked by the 100-day and 200-day averages.
Despite these technical headwinds, BNB Chain’s network continues to demonstrate leadership in user activity within the stablecoin market.
Mini dictionary: BNB Chain is a decentralized, public blockchain platform developed by Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. The network supports high-throughput applications and is widely used for trading, DeFi, and digital asset transfers, with a focus on low fees and scalability.
BlockchainMonthly Active Stablecoin AddressesMain AdvantagesBNB Chain15 millionLow fees, high retail activityEthereumLower than BNB ChainHigh capital flows, institutional adoptionSolanaLower than BNB ChainFast transactions, growing user baseWhile BNB Chain maintains its lead in user activity, transaction values and institutional involvement often favor other networks like Ethereum. This nuanced dynamic influences both ecosystem participation and cryptocurrency price behavior.
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.
A week of governance failures, structural shakeups, and infrastructure bets has reshaped the conversation across crypto’s major ecosystems. As reported in the weekly update from WuBlockchain, a malicious governance proposal drained roughly $20 million from the BonkDAO treasury, the Ethereum Foundation disbanded its Protocol Support team, and BNB Chain formally unveiled plans for a standalone AI‑focused Layer‑1. Each development points to a market in flux—where DAO security, core protocol coordination, and the infrastructure needed for AI on‑chain are being stress‑tested simultaneously.
The BonkDAO Governance Exploit A governance proposal that flew under the radar for six days stripped approximately $20 million worth of BONK tokens from the treasury. Only seven addresses cast votes; wallets linked to the attacker controlled 99.878% of the voting weight, according to SlowMist founder Yu Xian. PeckShield monitoring confirmed the drain and tracked roughly $148,000 in BONK being sent to an OKX deposit address. BONK’s price slid 9% intraday.
BonkDAO responded quickly, stating investigators had identified the exchange accounts used to acquire BONK before the proposal, and that the team is coordinating with exchanges, cross‑chain bridges, and the Solana Foundation. Law enforcement has been notified. The incident underscores how low‑participation governance votes—especially those with large treasury holdings—remain a structural weakness many DAOs have yet to solve. The speed with which funds moved through centralized rails also highlights the tension between on‑chain transparency and the off‑chain accountability that follows an exploit.
Ethereum Foundation Clears the Decks While the BonkDAO story unfolded, an internal reorganization at the Ethereum Foundation quietly removed a layer of coordination that had long supported protocol development. The Protocol Support team—which organized core developer calls, tracked upgrade progress, shepherded EIPs, and ran the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship—was disbanded as part of a wider organizational overhaul. The announcement came via the team’s own X account, and no immediate replacement structure was named.
The move raises practical questions about who will manage the coordination burden that keeps Ethereum’s multi‑client upgrade process on track. In a week where the Top 10 Blockchains by Developer Activity list still places Ethereum at the top, any thinning of the social scaffolding around core development deserves attention. Some community members see the restructuring as a push toward greater decentralization; others view it as a cost‑cutting exercise that could slow progress on upcoming upgrades.
BNB Chain’s AI‑Native Layer‑1 Separately, BNB Chain went public with plans for a new Layer‑1 blockchain purpose‑built for AI agent trading. The testnet is expected before the end of 2026, with mainnet deployment targeted for early 2027. Designed to run in parallel with the existing BNB Chain, the network promises sub‑50‑millisecond transaction preconfirmations, 100,000 TPS, and finality within one second—execution characteristics typically associated with centralized exchanges, but with on‑chain self‑custody and transparency.
The design eliminates the public mempool to mitigate front‑running and sandwich attacks, a feature that directly addresses the friction AI agents face when executing high‑frequency strategies on‑chain. BNB Chain CTO David Z framed the new chain as infrastructure engineered for trading velocity without sacrificing verifiability. The team also disclosed ongoing research into quantum‑resistant security, suggesting the chain’s roadmap accounts for long‑term cryptographic risks. As interest in deploying AI agents on‑chain grows, from scalable AI‑driven Web3 applications to autonomous trading bots, a dedicated execution layer could attract liquidity that currently sits on centralized venues.
Policy Shifts, Bridge Migrations, and the Fee Switch The week also brought a regulatory milestone and several protocol‑level moves. Polymarket, through affiliate Coming Home GBA LLC, filed for a Futures Commission Merchant license with the National Futures Association, seeking CFTC approval to offer non‑fully‑collateralized prediction market trading. The application signals Polymarket’s intent to attract more sophisticated capital under a formal regulatory framework—a step that could shift the perception of on‑chain prediction markets from grey‑market novelty to licensed financial infrastructure. This push arrives amid a turbulent legislative period for U.S. crypto, where the line between regulation and unlicensed activity is being redrawn.
On the DeFi side, Uniswap Labs proposed extending its UNIfication burn mechanism to v4 liquidity pools, requesting UNI holders to approve protocol fees on selected pools and divert a portion of revenue to UNI buybacks and burns. The snapshot vote runs from July 7 to 12, and on‑chain voting follows the week after. While community sentiment appears supportive, some LPs have raised concerns that the fee could push liquidity elsewhere. Meanwhile, Mantle completed its migration from LayerZero’s OFT standard to Chainlink CCIP’s CCT standard, joining over $7.2 billion in cross‑chain and wrapped assets that have shifted away from LayerZero since May. The migration wave, triggered by the Kelp bridge exploit earlier this year, underscores how security perceptions can rapidly redraw the cross‑chain infrastructure map.
AUTHOR
Max delves deep into the cryptocurrency realm, with a passion for altcoins and NFTs. Convinced of crypto's transformative potential, he envisions a decentralized financial future. Max's background in the financial sector grants him unique insights into global monetary systems. In his leisure, Max embraces the thrill of adventures and is an avid sports enthusiast, finding balance and rejuvenation away from work.
Two hackers today spent a total of 11.71 million DAI to buy ETH.
According to Yu Jian Monitoring, two hackers purchased Ethereum today. The first hacker, who stole funds from Coinbase users, spent 7.378 million DAI to acquire 4,049.7 ETH in the early hours of today, at an average price of $1,822. The second is an address that received ETH from Tornado Cash last November; it spent 4.34 million DAI to repurchase 2,405 ETH two hours ago, at an average price of $1,804.
1 minutes ago
Polymarket's weekly revenue topped $11 million this week, hitting an all-time high.
According to Defillama data, Polymarket's weekly revenue exceeded $11 million this week, hitting an all-time high, while the protocol's cumulative revenue has surpassed $97 million.
1 minutes ago
The volume of ETH bridged from Ethereum Mainnet to Robinhood Chain has surged roughly tenfold in a week, surpassing $100 million.
According to Token Terminal data, over the past week, the volume of ETH bridged from Ethereum mainnet (L1) to Robinhood Chain (L2) has surged roughly 10-fold, surpassing $100 million. Robinhood Chain uses ETH as its native gas token, as noted. Token Terminal stated that if adoption of the chain continues to grow, it could become a new, significant source of demand for ETH.
1 minutes ago
Binance Wallet has integrated Robinhood Chain.
According to official announcements, Binance Wallet has integrated Robinhood Chain. Users can directly access and trade tokens on Robinhood Chain via the Binance Wallet App and browser extension, delivering a more convenient multi-chain operation experience.
1 minutes ago
Institutions: HBM4 prices could rise to $4–5 per thousand bits in the second half of this year.
DigiTimes reports that fueled by surging AI demand and structural production capacity bottlenecks, the price of next-generation HBM4 may jump from $2 per kilobit to $4–5 or higher in the second half of 2026. This is partly due to the extreme complexity of HBM4 manufacturing: its production cycle lasts four to six months, and initial yields are notably low. Additionally, HBM production consumes approximately three times the wafer capacity of standard DDR5 DRAM, severely restricting the total memory volume manufacturers can output at existing facilities. (Jinshi)
1 minutes ago
The deadline for Bitcoin data limit proposal BIP-110 is approaching, with miner support for the proposal remaining near zero.
Bitcoin’s BIP-110 proposal is approaching its early August deadline, yet miner support for the measure remains below 1%, signaling significant resistance to the initiative. Officially titled “Temporary Soft Fork for Reducing Data”, BIP-110’s core controversy centers on restricting non-financial data on the Bitcoin blockchain. The proposal aims to cap OP_RETURN data capacity within a year, ban most arbitrary data exceeding 256 bytes from being written to the chain, and limit certain script formats primarily used for data storage. Supporters argue the plan would refocus the Bitcoin network on its payment function and reduce node operational burdens; opponents counter that it would escalate policy disputes over block space usage into consensus rule changes, effectively determining which transactions qualify as “acceptable”. Strategy founder Michael Saylor and Blockstream co-founder Adam Back have both publicly opposed BIP-110. Saylor remarked, “There are 110 things more dangerous than junk data”, adding that the proposal would “turn the junk data debate into a consensus change, invalidating some currently valid transactions that pay fees”. Back stated that if supporters cannot accept the status quo, they may choose to fork, but “Bitcoin will not join”. Data shows BIP-110 uses a user-activated soft fork mechanism with a 55% miner signaling threshold, though miner signaling rates have never topped roughly 1% to date, with the current cycle sitting at 0 and no major mining pools backing the measure. The share of nodes running BIP-110 software also remains in the single digits, primarily from Bitcoin Knots users. The proposal’s current signaling cycle will end around block height 959,615, with a voluntary lock-in period expected in early August and activation targeted for around September. If broad support is still absent by then, the initiative could result in a minority of nodes forming a separate chain.
The Hedera network, an open enterprise-scale blockchain ecosystem, has recently experienced a notable security exploit. As a result, the Hedera network has lost a staggering $5.25M amount. As per the data from PeckShieldAlert, the exploiters have already bridged the stolen funds to Ethereum. Specifically, the attacker’s Ethereum wallet was first funded with just 1 $ETH from Tornado Cash, a popular crypto mixing service platform.
Attacker Bridges $5.25M to Ethereum after Hedera Exploit The Hedera network’s exploit has led to a huge loss, and the attacker has already bridged a notable $5.25M to Ethereum. In this respect, the exploiter utilized Tornado Cash to eliminate the trail of the stolen capital after shifting the funds to an Ethereum wallet. At the moment, the wallet reportedly holds approximately 2,360 $ETH.
Apart from that, the wallet also contains 15.58 $WBTC. Cumulatively, these holdings account for a total of $5.25M. The exploit has triggered apprehensions over blockchain security and the movements of assets across chains. The exploiter reportedly bridged the respective funds to Ethereum just following the exploit.
Hedera Yet to Disclose Exact Attack Vector This permitted the attacker to hold the stolen funds within the Ethereum network. Blockchain bridges allow the asset movement between diverse networks, but they can also enable the swift transactions of illegally obtained capital ahead of the start of recovery endeavors. As the exploiter used an Ethereum wallet, it provides the onlookers with clear on-chain records.
At the same time, blockchain analysts and researchers can also monitor the asset transfers in real time. Currently, Hedera has not revealed any extra technical details concerning the exploit, nor has it confirmed the exact attack vector. Overall, the market members will be keenly watching for future updates regarding the exploit from blockchain security entities and Hedera.
AUTHOR
Crypto journalist with years of experience providing in-depth analysis and news on blockchain and decentralized finance. With a keen eye for detail, Shahzaib delivers insightful articles that explore the latest trends, market movements, and innovations within the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. His work focuses on educating readers while offering expert commentary on the evolving landscape of digital assets, DeFi protocols, and the broader impact of blockchain technology.
Where Is Ethereum Node Activity Concentrated? Nearly a third of Ethereum node activity is hosted in the United States, while roughly 39% sits across the European Union excluding the UK, according to new research from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.
The findings show that Ethereum’s infrastructure remains heavily Western-centric, even if it is not dominated by one country. That distinction matters for a network built around geographic and operational resilience. A broad spread across several advanced markets reduces the risk of single-country dependence, but it does not remove exposure to common legal systems, cloud providers, and hosting policies.
Alexander Neumuller, research lead at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, described the distribution as healthy as a personal view rather than a formal finding, while also saying it is an area the Ethereum community should continue to monitor.
“Geographical distribution is something desirable for a network,” Neumuller said.
The issue is not only where nodes are located. Ethereum also depends on the diversity of the infrastructure running those nodes. If too much activity clusters around the same providers, the network can face correlated outages, policy shocks, or operational failures that affect many participants at the same time.
Why Does The One-Third Validator Threshold Matter? Ethereum does not need half of its validators to fail for the network to face a live disruption. If more than a third of validators go offline at once, checkpoints stop finalizing. That makes the one-third threshold a key operational risk level for Ethereum’s proof-of-stake design.
The research flagged concentration around 3 hosting providers: Hetzner, AWS, and OVH. That clustering matters because hosting providers can become points of shared vulnerability. An outage, terms-of-service dispute, regulatory order, or enforcement action affecting a major provider could have wider consequences than an isolated node failure.
Hetzner’s terms of service had at one point barred running blockchain nodes, though Neumuller said that may have changed. The broader point remains: Ethereum’s decentralization is not only about validator counts. It also depends on where those validators connect, what infrastructure supports them, and how exposed that infrastructure is to common failure modes.
Neumuller also cautioned that nodes and validators do not map one-to-one. No one knows precisely how many validators operate behind any single node. That uncertainty makes infrastructure concentration harder to measure and harder to manage.
Investor Takeaway Ethereum’s geographic spread looks healthier than a single-country concentration problem, but hosting-provider clustering remains a live operational risk. The key threshold is not 50% of validators going offline; it is more than one-third failing at once, which would stop checkpoints from finalizing.
Why Is Node Location Also A Legal Question? Ethereum’s node geography carries legal and regulatory weight. In 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission argued that it had jurisdiction over Ethereum because most nodes were hosted in the United States, meaning transactions would fall under U.S. securities law.
That argument shows why node distribution can become more than a technical metric. If a regulator can point to infrastructure concentration inside its borders, it may try to claim stronger authority over activity on a supposedly global network. For Ethereum, a wider distribution across regions can help reduce the force of that argument, but it does not eliminate jurisdictional risk.
The same concern applies to client software concentration. A network can appear geographically distributed while still depending heavily on a small number of dominant software clients. If one dominant client contains a serious bug, the problem can propagate across the network quickly. The Cambridge report includes distribution data for both consensus and execution clients, highlighting that decentralization needs to be measured across several layers at once.
For exchanges, custodians, staking providers, and institutional users, these infrastructure questions are becoming part of operational due diligence. Ethereum’s technical performance is only one side of the risk profile. Legal exposure, hosting concentration, client diversity, and validator resilience all affect how institutions assess the network.
How Did Ethereum’s Energy Profile Change After The Merge? The report, titled “Ethereum After the Merge,” also revisits Ethereum’s energy consumption using updated methodology. The new estimate incorporates empirical data on how nodes are split between residential and commercial hosting, rather than relying only on theoretical assumptions.
Ethereum now consumes about 7.9 gigawatt-hours annually, equal to roughly 1 megawatt of continuous power or about 2,000 UK households. That marks a drop of about 99.98% compared with pre-merge levels, reflecting the shift from proof-of-work mining to proof-of-stake validation.
The research also estimated that sustainable power use across the network now exceeds 56%, compared with a global average of 43%. That makes Ethereum’s post-merge energy profile materially different from its former proof-of-work model and from networks that still rely on energy-intensive mining.
Neumuller said offsetting Ethereum’s total annual emissions with high-quality nature-based removal credits would cost between £25,000 and £55,000, or about $33,500 to $73,800. He described that figure as the finding that surprised him most.
Investor Takeaway Ethereum’s energy risk has fallen sharply since the merge, but decentralization risk has not disappeared. Investors should separate the network’s improved environmental profile from its remaining infrastructure questions around hosting, validators, clients, and jurisdiction.
What Does This Mean For Ethereum’s Institutional Case? The findings strengthen part of Ethereum’s institutional narrative while keeping pressure on its decentralization claims. The energy data gives asset managers, custodians, and corporate users a cleaner environmental argument than Ethereum had before the merge. The node and hosting data, however, show that operational resilience remains an area requiring continued attention.
That split is important. Ethereum can be far less energy intensive while still facing concentration risks. Its long-term institutional adoption will depend not only on lower emissions, but also on whether the network can maintain credible geographic, software, and infrastructure diversity as more value moves onto the chain.
For now, the research presents Ethereum as a network with a significantly improved energy footprint and a decentralization profile that is broad but not risk-free. The next test is whether node operators, staking providers, and infrastructure firms can reduce correlated exposure before a provider-level outage, legal challenge, or software failure turns a theoretical risk into a live network event.
Predict.fun World Cup Knockout Stage: England’s qualification probability stands at 64%, while Norway only secures 35% market support.
Data from prediction market platform Predict.fun shows that the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal will pit Norway against England. As of press time, the market assigns England a roughly 64% probability of advancing, while Norway’s advancement odds stand at around 35%. Notably, Norway, making its first-ever appearance in the World Cup quarterfinals, has already notched its best result in team history. The side’s top striker Haaland has netted 7 goals in the tournament, including a brace in just 11 minutes during the previous round to help Norway eliminate Brazil. For England, Kane has contributed 6 goals, with players like Bellingham and Gordon also consistently chipping in offensively. However, England has conceded goals in two straight knockout matches. Against the in-form Haaland, containing his performance will be the key to deciding the match’s winner.
8 hours ago
Polymarket generated $1.88 million in revenue over the past 24 hours, placing it third among crypto protocols.
According to Defillama data, Polymarket generated $1.88 million in revenue over the past 24 hours, surpassing Canton and Hyperliquid to rank as the 3rd highest-earning crypto protocol. The protocol’s cumulative revenue has exceeded $94 million.
8 hours ago
JPMorgan Chase is testing an AI investment agent that can autonomously adjust stock and bond allocations.
JPMorgan Chase is testing AI agents that can autonomously adjust the proportion of stock and bond investments to dynamically rebalance portfolios based on changes in market conditions. Test results show that in a 20-year historical backtest, the best-performing AI model delivered an annualized return 0.7 percentage points higher than the traditional "60/40" stock-bond portfolio, while also boasting lower volatility. All 8 AI agents tested by JPMorgan achieved higher risk-adjusted returns. However, the bank noted that the results are still based on simulated tests and do not represent actual investment performance. JPMorgan also warned that large-scale adoption of AI could lead to convergence of trading strategies, increase crowded trades, and amplify market volatility under stressed conditions.
8 hours ago
Yangtze Memory Technologies announced its IPO advisory team, comprising a total of 31 members from CITIC Securities and China Securities Co., Ltd.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) official website updated the first-phase progress report on Changjiang Storage’s IPO counseling work on July 10. A total of 31 personnel from two securities firms, CITIC Securities and China Securities Construction Investment, form the counseling team. The current counseling period runs from May 19 to June 30, 2026, with work carried out via multiple methods including on-site due diligence, centralized training sessions, and targeted issue communications. The next phase of counseling will focus on two areas: First, for issues identified during the process, coordinate timely discussions between intermediaries and the company, develop standardization plans, and urge the counseled entity to fully implement rectification requirements. The working group will also continue to push the company to improve its corporate governance and internal control systems, enhancing its standardized operation level. Second, urge the company to thoroughly understand laws, regulations and rules related to issuance, listing and standardized operation, and clarify its responsibilities and obligations in areas such as information disclosure and fulfillment of commitments. (Jinshi)
8 hours ago
Analyst: Bitcoin may be entering the final stage of a bear market, projected to rise to $250,000 over the next two to three years.
Real Vision’s chief crypto analyst Jamie Coutts has stated that Bitcoin may be entering the late stages of its current bear market. While the bear market is not yet over, downward momentum has begun to weaken. The current BTC price is roughly 50% lower than its all-time high of $126,100 set in October 2025. Coutts described the current trend as a “typical bear market,” pointing out that Bitcoin’s volatility has fallen by around 50% compared to the previous cycle, suggesting this downturn may not be as severe as prior bear markets. However, he cautioned that all current trend indicators remain clearly bearish, and markets do not mechanically replicate historical cycles. He noted that longer-term momentum indicators are starting to show bullish divergence, signaling that negative momentum is decelerating—but this does not mean Bitcoin has technically exited the bear market. Beyond tightening global liquidity, deteriorating on-chain demand was a key factor driving Bitcoin’s earlier decline. On long-term price projections, Coutts is cautious about Bitcoin reaching $1 million by 2030; instead, he forecasts BTC will rise to $200,000–$250,000 over the next two to three years. He also warned that the Bitcoin community needs to address the potential threat of quantum computing more definitively by 2027, as major protocol upgrades could take approximately five years to complete.
8 hours ago
The probability that Bitcoin will rise to $70,000 this year has climbed to 79%.
Prediction market platform Polymarket now puts the probability of Bitcoin rising to $70,000 this year at 79%, up from 54% as of June 26. Additionally, the odds of Bitcoin hitting $80,000 stand at 32%, while the probability of it reaching $90,000 is 19%.
Ethereum has undergone significant change over time, particularly since The Merge.The upgrade replaced the energy-intensive Proof-of-Work (PoW) system with Proof-of-Stake (PoS).
With this change, Ethereum currently uses about 8,522 physical nodes, many of which house multiple validators, and nearly 894,000 validators.
Source: CCAF Report As a result, Ethereum now consumes only 7.87 GWh of electricity annually, or about 0.90 MW of continuous power. That is less than half the British Museum’s annual electricity consumption.
Before The Merge, the network required roughly 2.4 GW of continuous power.
Since then, Ethereum’s electricity consumption has fallen by more than 99.9%, marking one of the largest energy reductions by a major blockchain.
Is Ethereum truly decentralized? Additionally, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) report highlighted that Ethereum’s infrastructure is decentralized despite being geographically concentrated. Of all nodes, roughly 62% are hosted by the United States (31%), Germany (16%), Finland (8%), and France (6%).
Source: CCAF Report Another significant discovery is that 56.4% of the electricity used to power Ethereum originates from sustainable sources, such as 17% nuclear energy and 39.4% renewable energy.
Given the electricity mix of the main host nations, natural gas continues to be the largest fossil fuel source at 27.7%. The fact that Ethereum’s sustainable energy share is higher overall than the global average of about 43% shows how much the network depends on cleaner electrical grids.
What does Ethereum’s carbon footprint mean for the network? At the same time, Ethereum’s carbon footprint has dramatically decreased in tandem with its dramatic decrease in electricity consumption. As per the report, the network has reduced its emissions by 99.98% from its final Proof-of-Work era to an estimated 2.37 kilotonnes of CO₂ equivalent (ktCO₂e) per year.
Source: CCAF Report To put this into perspective, Ethereum’s yearly emissions are equivalent to the carbon footprint of roughly 900 households in the UK.
Interestingly, future developments, like stateless verification, may further minimize the need for energy and hardware, reducing Ethereum’s carbon footprint while maintaining its decentralization and security.
What’s ahead? This further coincided with Ethereum’s development that has entered a new phase as researchers unveiled “Lean Ethereum,” a multi-year overhaul aimed at the network’s long-term evolution. The plan intends to replace the Ethereum protocol’s cores over a period of roughly three to four years, as opposed to a single upgrade.
While these developments were happening, Ethereum’s price surged by 1.42% in the previous day and was now trading at $1,798.71 at press time. The MACD and RSI indicators also showed that bulls are more aggressive than they were previously. However, ETH needs to surpass the $1.8k mark in order for the bulls to continue.
Source: Trading View Final Summary Ethereum roughly has 62% of all nodes hosted by the United States, followed by Germany, Finland, and France. The network has reduced its emissions to an estimated 2.37 kilotonnes of CO₂ equivalent (ktCO₂e) per year.
11 July 2026 | 19:01 Ethereum trades near $1,805 on July 11, pushing above the falling 50-day moving average and probably going for a retest attempt.
The rebound from the $1,505 June low has now returned Ethereum to the exact zone where its last weeks of trouble began. Price is working through a confluence at $1,805: the horizontal shelf that rejected the late-June recovery attempt and the descending 50-day SMA have converged into almost a single band. Holding above it after the initial push would be the first successful retest of the 50-day since the average turned lower in May.
Daily technical chart for ETH/USD, displaying recent price trends against key moving averages. Clearing the band probably would shift the target to the 0.382 Fibonacci retracement of the decline, around $1,870. Above that, the chart is thin until the 100-day average and the $2,000 area where a rising trendline was lost. Failure at the current confluence, by contrast, leaves the sequence of lower highs intact and puts the $1,700 area back in play as the first support, with the $1,505 low as the structural floor.
A Tenfold Bridge Spike Adds a Demand Angle The flow data supplies the fundamental story the chart lacks. ETH bridged from Ethereum mainnet to Robinhood Chain increased roughly 10x over the past week, crossing $100 million in cumulative deposits, according to Token Terminal data. The chain, Robinhood’s layer-2 network built for its tokenized equities push, uses ETH as its native gas token, which means every account funded and every transaction executed on it consumes ETH-denominated resources.
ETH bridge deposits from Ethereum to Robinhood Chain have surged by approximately 10x in the past week, surpassing $100 million. The number is small against Ethereum’s market capitalization which is around $219B per CoinMarketCap, and one week of bridge flows does not establish a trend. What makes it worth tracking is the mechanism: unlike exchange inflows, which typically precede selling, bridge deposits to an ETH-gas network represent ETH being put to work rather than put up for sale. If Robinhood’s tokenized stock volumes keep scaling, the bridge becomes a recurring bid for ETH from a brokerage user base that mostly did not hold it before, a demand source independent of crypto-native sentiment.
Confirmation for the bullish read is specific: a daily close above the 50-day band, a hold on the retest, and continued weekly growth in Robinhood Chain deposits. Rejection at $1,805 paired with a flattening of the bridge curve would mean both the technical and the flow argument failed at the same time, and the range floor becomes the operative level again.
The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice.
Author
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coindoo and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
Every blockchain transaction begins its life in the mempool, a public waiting area where unconfirmed transactions sit until a block builder decides to include them. Many users assume the network processes transactions on a first-come, first-served basis, yet modern block builders apply far more sophisticated methods that weigh economic value above arrival time.
Specialized block builders on networks like Ethereum compete to assemble the most valuable block possible by selecting and ordering transactions that maximize revenue while staying within protocol rules. Understanding how this competition works explains why some transactions confirm within seconds while others linger, and why transaction fees fluctuate during busy periods on the network.
Key Takeaways Block builders pull transactions from the mempool and private order flow to assemble candidate blocks that fit within each block’s gas limit. Higher priority fees generally improve a transaction’s chance of quick inclusion because they increase the reward the proposing validator collects. Transaction ordering shapes block value as heavily as transaction selection, since execution sequence changes on-chain outcomes. MEV opportunities such as arbitrage and liquidations strongly influence how builders arrange transactions within a block. Proposer-Builder Separation lets specialized builders compete on bids while validators propose the highest-value valid block. How the Mempool Feeds a Block Builder’s Selection Process When a user broadcasts a transaction, it enters the mempool and joins thousands of other pending transactions waiting for a chance at inclusion. Block builders monitor this pool continuously, scanning for valid transactions they can package into a profitable block.
Builders cannot include everything they see because each block carries a fixed gas limit that caps how much computational work it can hold. They evaluate incoming transactions against factors such as offered fees, execution requirements, and overall profitability before assembling a candidate block that fits within that ceiling.
Public mempools supply most of the transactions builders work with, though a growing share now arrives through private order flow routed directly from wallets, decentralized applications, and searchers who want to shield their activity from front-running. This private flow gives builders access to opportunities that never surface on the open network, which shapes both the composition and the value of the blocks they produce.
Fee Prioritization Drives Most of a Builder’s Selection Decisions A block builder works toward one central objective, extracting the maximum economic value from every block it constructs. Transactions that attach higher priority fees usually win inclusion ahead of cheaper ones because they hand the proposing validator a larger reward. Under Ethereum’s fee market, the protocol burns the base fee and lets builders capture the priority fees along with any additional value they generate through ordering, which explains why the tip attached to a transaction carries so much weight in the selection process.
Builders also confirm that every selected transaction satisfies protocol requirements, including valid signatures, sufficient account balances, correct nonces, and appropriate gas limits. Any transaction that fails these checks gets excluded regardless of the fee attached to it, since an invalid entry would waste block space and forfeit the reward it promised.
As congestion builds across the network, competition for limited block space intensifies and pushes users to raise their priority fees in pursuit of faster confirmation. This bidding dynamic accounts for much of the fee volatility traders encounter during market surges, NFT mints, and other moments of concentrated demand.
Transaction Ordering and MEV Shape How Builders Construct Blocks Selecting transactions represents only half of a builder’s job, since the sequence in which those transactions execute carries just as much weight as the decision to include them. Blockchain transactions alter the network’s state as they run, so a different ordering can produce a different set of outcomes and a different total value. Builders arrange their chosen transactions deliberately to draw the highest possible return from each block they assemble.
Maximal Extractable Value stands out as one of the strongest forces shaping this arrangement. Searchers scan the network for profitable openings such as decentralized exchange arbitrage, lending-protocol liquidations, and other market inefficiencies, then submit bundled transactions to builders who weave those bundles into the wider block. MEV introduces a hidden layer of cost and opportunity that affects both traders and protocols, and it has become a defining feature of how Ethereum blocks come together.
MEV improves market efficiency in some situations, yet it has also drawn scrutiny over front-running, sandwich attacks, and transaction censorship. These concerns have pushed researchers toward fairer ordering mechanisms that aim to protect ordinary users without stripping builders of the incentives that keep them competing.
Proposer-Builder Separation Improves Efficiency Across Ethereum Ethereum’s ecosystem leans increasingly on Proposer-Builder Separation, a design that hands block construction and block proposal to different participants. Validators often receive finished block proposals from competing builders instead of assembling blocks themselves. Each builder submits a bid that reflects the value of its proposed block, and the validator selects the highest-paying valid block before proposing it to the network, which lets builders pour resources into sophisticated optimization while validators earn stronger rewards without shouldering the complexity of construction.
This separation has sharpened competition and lifted efficiency, though it has also concentrated influence among a small set of dominant builders. Researchers and core developers continue to explore ways to curb that centralization, and upgrades tied to Proposer-Builder Separation aim to push more of this process into the protocol itself over the coming years.
Conclusion Block builders occupy a central position in the process that determines which transactions join the blockchain and in what order they execute. They monitor mempool activity continuously, prioritize transactions according to economic incentives, optimize ordering to raise block value, and assemble blocks that comply with protocol rules. Proposer-Builder Separation, private order flow, and MEV extraction have each reshaped how this process works, and ongoing research into fairer ordering and reduced builder centralization continues to influence its direction.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 1. What is a block builder?
A block builder is a specialized participant that selects, orders, and packages transactions into a candidate block for a validator to propose to the network.
2. Why don’t builders process transactions in the order they arrive?
Builders prioritize the transactions that maximize a block’s total value, which makes fee levels and ordering more decisive than arrival time.
3. What is the mempool?
The mempool is a temporary holding area where valid but unconfirmed transactions wait before a builder includes them in a block.
4. How does MEV affect transaction selection?
MEV encourages builders to reorder and combine transactions so they can capture extra profit from arbitrage, liquidations, and similar opportunities.
5. Does paying a higher fee guarantee inclusion?
Paying more improves the odds of inclusion, though builders still need every transaction to satisfy protocol rules and still optimize the block’s overall value, so a high fee on its own offers no guarantee.
The Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol Security team disclosed a vulnerability on July 9 that could have allowed any random, unauthenticated peer on the network to crash an Ethereum validator node. One message. That’s all it would have taken.
The bug, tracked as CVE-2026-34219, was found in the Rust implementation of libp2p’s gossipsub protocol, the peer-to-peer messaging layer that Ethereum consensus clients use to talk to each other. The kicker: it was an AI agent that flagged the issue first.
What the bug actually does Here’s the technical version: the vulnerability is a remotely triggerable panic caused by an integer overflow in the backoff expiry handling of PRUNE control messages. The CVSS severity score came in at 5.9, which qualifies as “Medium.”
In English: when one Ethereum node tells another to back off for a while (a normal part of network housekeeping), an attacker could craft a message with values large enough to cause an integer overflow. That overflow triggers a panic in Rust, which doesn’t just log an error and move on. It crashes the entire process.
The word “remotely triggerable” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. An attacker didn’t need special permissions, didn’t need to authenticate, didn’t need to be a validator themselves. They just needed to connect as a peer and send one carefully constructed PRUNE message. The target validator goes down.
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The AI angle, and its limits The Ethereum Foundation has been exploring AI agents as part of its security research toolkit, and this bug represents one of the clearest wins for that approach so far. An AI agent successfully identified the vulnerability in the gossipsub codebase.
But look, the Foundation was careful not to oversell the achievement. While AI flagged the issue, validating that it was a real, exploitable bug required substantial human effort. Anyone who has worked with AI code analysis tools knows the drill: for every genuine finding, there’s a pile of false positives that need to be manually triaged.
The team emphasized that AI can speed up the search for vulnerabilities but cannot replace the need for reproducible evidence and thorough human review.
The fix and what didn’t happen The patch landed in libp2p-gossipsub version 0.49.4, and the vulnerability was publicly disclosed via a GitHub advisory. The standard responsible disclosure playbook: find the bug, develop a fix, coordinate with affected parties, then go public.
No funds were lost. No user data was exposed. No nodes were actually crashed in the wild by an attacker exploiting this specific vulnerability. The Ethereum Foundation stressed the zero-impact outcome as evidence that proactive security measures are working.
The affected systems include Ethereum consensus clients and validators that rely on the gossipsub protocol for peer-to-peer communication. Practically speaking, that’s a wide blast radius. Gossipsub is how attestations, blocks, and other consensus messages propagate across the network.
What this means for investors Ethereum investors should take two things from this disclosure. First, the good news: the security pipeline, from discovery through patching, functioned properly. A medium-severity vulnerability in critical infrastructure was identified, fixed, and disclosed without any operational disruption.
Second, the more nuanced read: bugs like CVE-2026-34219 are a reminder that Ethereum’s security surface area is enormous. The consensus layer alone involves multiple client implementations, each with their own dependencies, written in different languages. A single library like libp2p-gossipsub can introduce vulnerabilities that affect the entire validator set.
Traders and longer-term holders should pay attention to how quickly consensus clients integrate patches after disclosures like this one. Patch adoption speed across the validator set is a meaningful, if underappreciated, metric for network health. A patched vulnerability that half the network hasn’t updated for is still a vulnerability.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
