MSTR, COIN, and HOOD are among the US stocks to watch this week as crypto momentum returns. The action came after new digital asset gains amid the support of crypto and Bitcoin by President Donald Trump.
The total crypto market rose 1.38% to $2.2 trillion in 24 hours. Bitcoin price surged higher to over $64,000, with Ethereum trading over $1,800. Dogecoin price soared near $0.08, with XRP, SOL, and ADA seeing a slight recovery
Trump Endorses Crypto and Bitcoin, Saying He Is a Big Crypto Guy Trump made the remarks on July 6 while answering questions from the media. He was asked whether Bitcoin could be added to Trump Accounts, a savings program for children.
Trump replied, “I’ve become a big crypto guy…I’m a fan.” His remarks assisted in overturning previous pressure on Bitcoin and turning it sharply upwards in the session.
JUST IN: 🇺🇸PRESIDENT TRUMP IS ASKED IF $BTC WILL BE INCLUDED IN TRUMP ACCOUNTS
Trump didn’t directly confirm it, but doubled down on crypto:
“I’ve become a big crypto guy… if we don’t have it, China’s going to have it.”
He says that Bitcoin has “a lot of life,” framing crypto… pic.twitter.com/SwZnY1EC0u
— CryptosRus (@CryptosR_Us) July 6, 2026
The recovery brought crypto-related stocks back into the spotlight. Strategy is still pegged to Bitcoin mood, and Coinbase could benefit as more people trade. Robinhood also stands to benefit if retail crypto demand improves this week.
Strategy (MSTR) Strategy (MSTR) traded at $100.77 at Monday’s close. The US stocks to watch bounced back after an intra-day decline to around the $95 mark, with buyers defending the lower price.
Strategy also traded 3588 Bitcoin worth around $216 million, raising cash amid new market volatility. The sale came as Bitcoin sentiment strengthened short-term following Trump renewing his crypto support. Investors however were still under pressure of preferred-stock commitments and losses in digital assets.
MSTR stock In terms of technicality, MSTR should have more than $100 to maintain momentum. A break above $102 could target $105, while weakness below $100 may expose $97.50 and $95 again.
Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN) Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN) ended at 168.87, gaining 2.05% as Us stocks equities attracted renewed interest. Hours later, the COIN stock was up by a little to 169.27 with a gain of 0.24% as buyers kept the stock close to the session highs.
The intraday COIN stock depicted initial weakness, as it fell to the $160 support zone, but then it recovered with a bang.
COIN stock The momentum later improved in the afternoon, driving the price above the $167.50 and close to the $170 resistance zone. An obvious stop above $170 would open up to $172.50 and 175 this week. However, failure to hold $167.50 may expose $165.48, followed by $162.50 support.
Robinhood Markets (HOOD) Robinhood Markets (HOOD) closed at $117.55 on July 6, gaining 4.28% during regular trading. The US stock is resistant to around $117.49, where the buyers could not resist the late-session strength. Any recovery of that level would open a move to $120 in the ensuing sessions.
HOOD stock Meanwhile, $112.73 remains the first support area after the pullback. If selling continues below $109.82, HOOD could retest the $105 zone. Traders may watch the Us stock sentiment after Trump’s fresh pro-Bitcoin comments boosted market attention this week.
Two of Wall Street’s biggest banks just gave opposite advice on the same artificial intelligence (AI) trade. JPMorgan says the recent dip in AI chip prices is a buying opportunity, while Morgan Stanley says it is time to move on.
The disagreement is about timing, not direction. A sharp pullback in chip shares has capped a huge 2026 run, and both banks still back the AI boom while splitting on where the next gains sit.
JPMorgan Says the AI Chip Dip is a GiftJPMorgan told clients the recent selloff is a buying opportunity. The bank says demand for AI chips remains strong while supply stays tight. It does not expect meaningful new chip capacity to arrive until 2028.
JPMORGAN: BUY THE CHIP STOCK DIP
JPMorgan says the recent pullback in semiconductor stocks is a buying opportunity, arguing the AI-driven chip cycle remains strong and meaningful new supply is unlikely before 2028.
The bank favors semiconductors over hyperscalers, expects…
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) July 6, 2026 Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
That shortage hands chipmakers real pricing power. So JPMorgan prefers chip stocks over the big cloud companies known as hyperscalers. The bank also expects global stocks to reach new highs in the second half of 2026.
Morgan Stanley Says the Leaders are TiringMichael Wilson, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley, sees it differently. His team says the momentum behind chip stocks is fading after they led the entire rally. Chipmaker earnings estimates have also been raised so fast that they now sit at historic extremes.
Wilson’s main clue is a strange disconnect. Hyperscalers like Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are spending more than ever on AI, with capital budgets forecast at $805 billion in 2026 and $1.116 trillion in 2027. Yet their shares have continued to slip.
MORGAN STANLEY SAYS THE AI TRADE IS ROTATING, AND IT'S MOVING AWAY FROM THE STOCKS THAT LED THE ENTIRE RALLY
Michael Wilson's team says momentum is fading in semiconductor stocks as investors shift into names that have actually lagged behind, per Bloomberg
Wilson now favors the… pic.twitter.com/I1kLDU6nYU
— Evan (@StockMKTNewz) July 6, 2026 That gap, in his view, is a warning sign for chip stocks. He even compared the chip rally to silver’s sharp climb earlier in 2026, calling both liquidity-driven moves rather than lasting new trends.
Wilson expects major US benchmarks to stay under pressure in the near term.
“the momentum unwind is happening in some of the larger companies in the index,” Bloomberg reported, citing Wilson.
The numbers show the strain. The Nasdaq Composite fell 4.6% in one late-June week, while the recent chip selloff pushed the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down 7.9% over the same stretch. The index still sits well above its level last September.
Nvidia Earnings Could Settle the DebateInvestors are now waiting for the next big clue. A strong sales forecast from Micron last month failed to lift chip stocks. Many want to hear from Nvidia on the health of AI chip demand.
The bigger tell may be whether hyperscalers stick to their spending plans, especially amid fears that they are overspending on AI. Wilson holds a year-end target of 8,000 on the S&P 500, roughly 7% above current levels.
Why Crypto Investors are WatchingChip stocks and crypto have moved closely together, both trading as high-beta bets on AI and easy money. When semiconductors fall hard, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have often caught the same cold.
Crypto, Chip, and Tech Stocks Correlation HistoryThe danger is that hyperscaler weakness turns into a broad tech selloff rather than a clean rotation, which could drag risk-on flows into crypto lower.
Steady hyperscaler spending on the next earnings calls would support Wilson’s rotation, while sudden cuts would spell trouble for chips and crypto alike.
Strategy sells 3,588 Bitcoin for $216M to fund dividendsMichael Saylor's Strategy sold 3,588 Bitcoin (BTC) to fund preferred stock dividend payments and replenish its cash reserves.
Strategy sold the Bitcoin for $216 million, reducing its total holdings to 843,775 Bitcoin, according to a Monday 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
This included 1,363 Bitcoin sold at an average price of $59,256 between last Monday and Tuesday, and 2,225 Bitcoin sold at an average price of $60,773 between Wednesday and Sunday.
Strategy disclosed the sale of 32 Bitcoin in early June, as its first reported Bitcoin sale since the 2022 tax-loss transaction.
Before Strategy disclosed its latest Bitcoin sale, Bernstein said the company was unlikely to be forced to sell its holdings, citing its liquidity position and cash reserve coverage.
Bernstein's report said Strategy had 17 months of cash to cover dividend obligations and interest payments. It added that the company remained a net buyer of Bitcoin and served as a strong "balancing force" in a market where leading US Bitcoin miners are net sellers due to their pivot to AI.
Donald Trump says ‘nothing wrong’ with $1.4B crypto windfall while in officeUS President Donald Trump has responded to criticism of his 2025 financial disclosures, showing that he earned $1.4 billion in income from crypto-related ventures while in office.
In a Thursday interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen, Trump said that there was “nothing illegal” and “nothing wrong” with profiting from his crypto investments as president. He claimed that other people were responsible for his investments and he didn’t “even know who they are,” not directly answering questions about perceived conflicts of interest as president.
Trump’s comments followed the release of his 2025 financial disclosure report by the US Office of Government Ethics, showing that he took in more than $2 billion from his businesses and investments, about $1.4 billion of which was connected to crypto projects like his memecoin and family’s platform World Liberty Financial. Many advocacy organizations have characterized the investments as a “grift” allowing the president to influence related legislation like the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.
Trump disclosed that his memecoin generated about $636 million, World Liberty sales about $588 million and $197 million from equity in a stablecoin venture.
TrumpUS senator calls for ban on elected officials issuing memecoinsSenator Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the US lawmakers behind negotiations for a digital asset market structure bill in Congress, has proposed barring elected officials and the president from issuing or sponsoring their own tokens, citing President Donald Trump’s and First Lady Melania Trump’s memecoins.
In a Friday notice, Gillibrand said that Congress should support measures barring elected officials and their spouses from “issuing or sponsoring their own digital assets.” The New York lawmaker said that the proposed restriction would include any US president and their spouse, but did not specifically mention extending the provision to the office of the vice president or other members of their families.
“This is a commonsense requirement that should get broad bipartisan support – public officials and their spouses should not be issuing memecoins,” said Gillibrand. “We cannot let self-dealing destroy an opportunity to strengthen consumer protections, crack down on illicit finance, and expand economic opportunity for the millions of Americans our financial system has left behind.”
GellibrandVitalik Buterin shares top priorities for new 'Lean Ethereum' strawmap Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has named quantum resistance, scalability and privacy as three of Ethereum's top priorities under a new "Lean Ethereum" strawmap, which lays out the network's technical direction for the remainder of the decade.
In a post to X on Saturday, Buterin said the collection of upgrades will roll out over the next three to four years, touching nearly every layer of Ethereum in a transformation he compared in scale to the September 2022 Merge, which shifted the network away from energy-intensive mining.
“Quantum safety has shifted up a LOT in priority,” he said, adding that finalizing a quantum-safe solution for blobs has “become urgent.” Enhancing privacy is another priority, Buterin said, stating that it has become a “first class goal.”
Dankrad Feist, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher behind the payments-focused layer-1 Tempo blockchain, praised the new plan but argued the 3-4 year timeline is too slow, stating that AI could help developers ship the upgrades within a year.
Financial companies join forces for US dollar stablecoin, keeping reserve earningsMore than 140 companies have reportedly signed onto a US dollar-pegged stablecoin project that allows them to “receive all of the earnings” from its reserves.
In a Tuesday notice, Open Standard said it was launching the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin, a US dollar-pegged coin supported by financial companies including Visa and Mastercard, as well as crypto companies Coinbase, Ripple, OKX and Bybit. The project will allow businesses to mint OUSD “at no cost and with no artificial limits on volume,” and keep earnings from the coin’s reserves.
“When Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, Coinbase and Google coordinate on a new stablecoin, the signal is unmistakable,” said Rhino.fi co-founder and CEO Will Harborne. “Open USD is the first launch with a real chance to win share from USDT and USDC, because reserve revenue flows back to everyone who holds it. But that same incentive is what drives fragmentation at scale.”
As the week continued, some of the signatories denied making any firm commitments to the consortium.
OUSDWinners and losersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $64,039, Ether (ETH) at $1798, and XRP (XRP) is at $1.14. The total market cap is at $2.12 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are MemeCore (M) at 105%, Lighter (LIT) at 39%, and ether.fi (ETHFI) at 29%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Venice Token (VVV) at -13%, Stable (STABLE) at -10% and Audiera (BEAT) at -5%.
Top Prediction of the WeekBollinger Bands creator eyes Bitcoin bear-market end, 'W'-shaped reversalJohn Bollinger, creator of the Bollinger Bands volatility indicator, believes he has spied a “W”-shaped double bottom on BTC/USD on the charts.
“$BTC has seen a series of bullish patterns broken, evidence of the power of the downtrend,” he commented in X posts on Friday.
"Will this 'W' be the one that breaks the trend?"
“W”-shaped reversals involve two swing lows with a rejected rebound in between, with price ultimately breaking through that rejection level to form a new uptrend.
Bollinger has been bullish on BTC for some time. In early May, he revealed a new long position via his Bitcoin investment vehicle.
As Cointelegraph reported, an increasing number of price indicators are flashing signals not seen since the last bear market in 2022. Despite this, market participants broadly believe that the next macro bottom is still to come and is due in Q3 or later.
Top FUD of the weekTim Draper says Arkham got Bitcoin wallet attribution ‘wrong’Billionaire investor and longtime Bitcoin bull Tim Draper said blockchain analytics company Arkham incorrectly linked him to a wallet involved in a large Bitcoin transfer to Coinbase Prime.
“It just wasn’t me. I haven’t touched it. Arkham has it wrong,” Draper told Cointelegraph, adding that he still expects Bitcoin to reach $250,000 within one year.
The statement came after blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported Friday that a wallet “possibly linked” to Draper had transferred 1,000 Bitcoin worth about $62 million to Coinbase Prime, citing data from Arkham.
Draper is best known in the crypto community as one of Bitcoin’s earliest high-profile investors, having won a US Marshals Service auction for nearly 30,000 Bitcoin seized by US authorities from Silk Road-related holdings in 2014. The holdings are now worth $1.9 billion, meaning Draper selling could have a big impact on Bitcoin's.
Bitcoin profit and loss ratio falls to 43-month lowBitcoin’s realized profit and loss ratio has fallen to a 43-month low of -0.35, a figure that signals extreme market-wide loss conditions but has historically coincided with market bottoms, blockchain analytics platform CryptoQuant said.
The Bitcoin realized P&L ratio — which measures the net percentage of Bitcoin (BTC) in profit or loss relative to total supply — hasn’t fallen this low since December 2022, shortly after FTX shockingly collapsed and sent Bitcoin below $16,000.
“Historically the indicator has marked BTC bottoms with extreme precision,” CryptoQuant said on Thursday. In 2015 and 2019, the Bitcoin realized P&L ratio also fell below -0.35 before price rallies followed.
The data could lift market sentiment, which has repeatedly fallen to near-record lows during the course of Bitcoin’s latest 50% drawdown from $126,080, set in October. Market sentiment has risen cautiously over the last 10 days, with Bitcoin up more than 7% since tanking to a near two-year low of $58,190 on June 25.
Upbit says it only expressed interest in future OUSD participationSouth Korean crypto exchange Upbit said it is not participating in the issuance of Open USD, after its operator Dunamu was named among more than 140 businesses involved in the new stablecoin initiative.
“Upbit has only indicated our potential willingness to consider taking part in the future expansion of the OpenStandard ecosystem,” an Upbit spokesperson told Cointelegraph.
The clarification follows similar pushback from Samsung Electronics and other South Korean companies listed by Open Standard.
According to a Friday report by ChosunBiz, Samsung said it had not held formal discussions with the project and did not know what role it was expected to perform. Meanwhile, Shinhan Financial Group and KBank reportedly said they had only indicated that they would consider the initiative.
Cointelegraph reached out to Open Standard for comments but did not receive a response before publication.
Top Cointelegraph Features of the Week
The biggest blockchain upgrades still to come in 2026From Ethereum’s Glamsterdam and Solana’s Alpenglow, to proposed post quantum security changes for Bitcoin, 2026’s key crypto upgrades are some of the most significant in years.
Has Strategy’s capital overhaul put an end to ‘death spiral’ fears?Has Strategy’s new capital overhaul defused the fears swirling around STRC, or has it simply bought more time before the next bout of stress?
From Bitcoin critics to blockchain believers: The 5 biggest crypto backflipsFrom crypto hater Nouriel Roubini launching the Technodollar to Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff putting out tokenized gold, meet the skeptics who are now cashing in on crypto.
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.
US stocks ended the trading session with little volatility; crypto firm Strategy made a historic sell-down of its holdings, while Samsung opened lower and trended downward after releasing an impressive earnings forecast.
US stocks closed on Monday: the Dow Jones rose 0.3%, S&P 500 gained 0.7%, and Nasdaq advanced 1.1%. According to BIT (bit.com) market data, AI-related US stocks saw strength in chip R&D and manufacturing firms, optical communication concept stocks, and storage sector equities: AAOI rose 1.98%, MRVL gained 1.63%, AVGO climbed 3.73%, ASML advanced 3.12%, Western Digital jumped 7%, while Micron Technology and Intel added around 1%. Strategy, which announced a historic Bitcoin sell-off ahead of yesterday’s market open, traded lower at the opening before climbing back to close flat; STRC edged up 0.81%. Separately, DELL surged 4.36% amid Trump’s market comments. In Asia-Pacific stocks, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics released extremely strong preliminary Q2 results ahead of this morning’s market open. Its operating profit surged over 1800% year-over-year, with quarterly earnings exceeding the sum of the past three years. Revenue also jumped 129% YoY to 171 trillion won. However, strong earnings failed to stem investor selling. According to Bitget market data, South Korea’s KOSPI index plunged quickly after opening, widening its decline to 3%, with Samsung Electronics leading losses, down 5%.
7 minutes ago
Markets brushed off Samsung's stellar earnings preview, with Samsung Electronics opening 3% lower.
According to Bitget market data, South Korea’s KOSPI index opened 96.78 points lower on Tuesday (July 7), down 1.2% to 7954.55 points. Samsung Electronics fell 3%, while SK Hynix dropped 1%. Earlier reports indicated that Samsung released its Q2 performance preview, showing its operating profit surged over 1800% year-on-year, with quarterly earnings exceeding the sum of the previous three years. Meanwhile, the company’s revenue also rose 129% year-on-year to 171 trillion won.
7 minutes ago
ANSEM's market capitalization hits a new record high, briefly exceeding $440 million.
According to GMGN monitoring data, Solana ecosystem meme coin ANSEM has hit a new all-time high market capitalization, peaking at $449 million, currently trading at $420 million, with a 24-hour trading volume of $51.5 million. BlockBeats Note: Meme coin trading is highly volatile, largely reliant on market sentiment and concept hype, with no actual value or practical use cases. Investors should exercise caution regarding the associated risks.
7 minutes ago
Circle mints an additional 250 million USDC on the Solana network.
According to on-chain data, Circle has minted an additional 250 million USDC on the Solana network. Year-to-date, it has minted a total of 64.78 billion USDC on Solana.
7 minutes ago
USDC accounted for around 70% of adjusted stablecoin trading volume in H1, further widening its lead over USDT.
According to on-chain data from Visa, in the first half of 2026, Circle’s stablecoin USDC accounted for approximately 70% of adjusted stablecoin trading volume, further widening its lead over rival Tether’s USDT. In the same period, USDT held a roughly 25% share. The data shows adjusted stablecoin trading volume hit a record $1.79 trillion in June, up 63% from $1.1 trillion in May and 125% from around $795 billion in June 2025. When calculating adjusted trading volume, Visa excludes bot activity, exchange transfers, and other blockchain transactions that do not reflect genuine economic activity. The data release comes as banks and other financial institutions expand their use of stablecoins in payments, settlements, and fund management. Standard Chartered and BNY Mellon recently added services related to Circle’s USDC rather than building their own infrastructure, reflecting that amid rising activity and demand for fiat-pegged digital assets, financial institutions are increasingly leveraging established stablecoin networks. Adjusted stablecoin trading volume totaled $8.82 trillion in the first six months of this year, higher than the full-year 2024 figure of $5.8 trillion, but still roughly $2 trillion lower than the 2025 record of $10.8 trillion. In 2020, USDT once accounted for nearly 90% of adjusted trading volume, while USDC held less than 10%; by 2022, USDC’s share had risen to around 45%.
7 minutes ago
Trump: Short sellers are taking a heavy hit, and I've never liked short sellers.
US President Donald Trump said: "Some short sellers are in deep trouble and are being liquidated. I have never liked short sellers because they are betting against the country."
Ethereum developers have finalized the roadmap for the much-anticipated Glamsterdam hard fork, scheduled for launch in the second half of 2026. Positioned as one of the most significant changes to the network’s core layer since The Merge, this major update aims to boost Ethereum’s Layer 1 capacity and make the network more efficient for validators, developers, and decentralized applications.
Focus shifts to block validationAccording to the Ethereum Foundation, what sets Glamsterdam apart from earlier upgrades is its strong emphasis on overhauling the block validation process. This round of technical preparations brings substantial modifications to both the execution and consensus layers. Prominent crypto analyst Crypto With Gopal also highlights that the network is moving rapidly toward its next phase of scalability.
Among the headline features are EIP 7732, dubbed “Enshrined Proposer Builder Separation,” and EIP 7928, which introduces block-level access lists as central components of the fork.
Glossary: A hard fork refers to a broad protocol change in a blockchain that is not backward-compatible. EIP stands for Ethereum Improvement Proposal, the standard format for discussing suggested technical updates on the network.
Key proposals: EIP 7732 and EIP 7928EIP 7732 seeks to separate block production from block validation, giving validators a more active protocol-level role in producing blocks. This change is expected to improve network efficiency and reduce reliance on third-party block builders.
EIP 7928, on the other hand, aims to make access lists mandatory at the block level. By doing so, it could accelerate the parallel processing of transactions and potentially drive down gas fees. In essence, gas fees represent the base transaction cost for executing actions or smart contracts on the Ethereum network.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, Glamsterdam is designed to expand Layer 1 capacity and create a more favorable environment for validators, developers, and decentralized applications on the network.
A new batch of EIPs readies for devnet testingDevelopers are planning to include ten new EIPs in the next devnet release. Among the approved proposals are EIP 7708, which introduces a new structure for ETH transfer logs, and EIP 7954, expanding the smart contract size limit from 24 KiB to 64 KiB.
Additional improvements in the pipeline involve enhancements to gas measurement, call data management, opcode sets, and state control mechanisms. Meanwhile, another fifteen EIPs focusing on gas fees, validator architecture, network communication, and staking are still under evaluation. It appears EIP 7904 is unlikely to be accepted.
TitleStatusKey ImpactEIP 7732PlannedSeparation of block production and validationEIP 7928PlannedFaster processing and lower costsEIP 7708ApprovedDefines ETH transfer record structureEIP 7954ApprovedRaises smart contract size limit to 64 KiBPotential impact on developers, validators, and usersThe updated roadmap reveals Ethereum’s ongoing adaptation to its accelerating pace of use and application development. For developers, the proposed changes could simplify the deployment process and trim costs. Validators may benefit from faster block production, while end-users could enjoy a more balanced and predictable fee structure as a direct consequence of the upgrade.
While Glamsterdam signals Ethereum’s commitment to a post-Merge future, it also underlines the network’s goal of achieving higher efficiency and broader scalability across its foundational infrastructure.
With more than a year to go until the full deployment of the upgrade, the current roadmap demonstrates which technical priorities Ethereum is set to tackle next. Notably, proposed changes to block validation sit at the very heart of the network’s long-term roadmap for scaling up its capabilities.
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.
Bitcoin climbed back above $63,000 on Monday and remains unaffected by Michael Saylor’s announcement today. The recovery was supported by a return to positive spot ETF inflows, helping to lift market sentiment out of the extreme fear zone.
Notable Statistics:
Coinglass data shows 90,220 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours for $405.86 million. SoSoValue data shows net inflows of $221.72 million from spot Bitcoin ETFs on Thursday. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw net inflows of $29.08 million. In the past 24 hours, top gainers include Pyth Network, DeXe and LayerZero. Notable Developments:
Trader Notes:
Crypto chart analyst Ali Martinez explained Bitcoin has triggered a TD Sequential sell signal, indicating potential short-term downside after Michael Saylor’s company, Strategy, reportedly sold $215 million worth of BTC.
"Not exactly the combination bulls want to see," he added.
Michael van de Poppe noted that Bitcoin has made a strong rebound from its recent support zone, matching the expected bullish setup.
After a shallow retest, the outlook remains positive, with the next likely target being the $67,000–68,000 resistance area, where price could sweep liquidity above the previous high before determining the next move.
Trader KillaXBT argues that expecting much lower Bitcoin prices is misguided because each Bitcoin cycle has generally seen shallower pullbacks than the previous one.
Relying on a specific historical price target assumes the market will repeat past patterns exactly, but the trend in diminishing retracements suggests market behavior is evolving, making that assumption less reliable.
Image: Shutterstock
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Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
As Ethereum and Cardano face steep declines, investors are increasingly exploring AI-focused blockchain projects such as Stargate LLM.
Summary
Ethereum and Cardano remain under pressure as Stargate LLM promotes its AI-focused crypto presale to investors. Stargate LLM highlights its AI token presale as Ethereum and Cardano continue searching for market support. AThe project is gaining attention amid prolonged weakness in Ethereum and Cardano prices. Ethereum spent 2025 in the room with the majors, trading near $5,000 and trading places with Bitcoin as the asset every altcoin measured itself against. It’s now sitting at $1,700, down 66% in less than a year, still searching for a floor.
Cardano’s story is quieter but just as brutal: a 40% drop in June alone dragged it to territory it hasn’t traded at since 2020, even as whales keep buying the exact dip that’s scaring everyone else out. Neither of these declines happened because the technology broke. They happened because capital moved somewhere else, and it’s worth asking where.
The honest answer this year is AI, a sector on track to more than double into a $1.2 trillion market by 2030, pulling in investment on a scale crypto’s current downturn simply isn’t matching. Stargate LLM is where that rotation is actually landing: a presale still in its early batches, priced at $0.0005 against a $0.025 launch target, a 50X gap that ETH and ADA buyers would need years of recovery to even approach.
Stargate LLM: Positioned for the AI capital rotation While ADA and ETH search for support levels, Stargate LLM is running a presale built around the opposite dynamic: escalating price batches designed to reward early entry rather than punish it. The presale runs across ten batches, starting at $0.0005 and climbing through $0.0015, $0.002, $0.0025, $0.003, $0.003, $0.0035, $0.0045, and $0.007, before reaching $0.0125 in the final batch, building toward a $0.025 launch price target. That structure puts Batch 1 participants at a 50x price ratio to the launch target, a stark contrast to buying ETH or ADA today and hoping for a bounce back toward levels they’ve already visited before.
This is why Stargate keeps surfacing on lists of the best crypto to buy now: it isn’t asking investors to bet on a recovery. It’s offering ground-floor pricing into a sector, AI, that’s growing independently of the broader crypto market’s current weakness. Of the fixed 150 billion coin supply, 96% is allocated to community, ecosystem, and presale participants, with staking rewards, governance votes, and Proof of Usage rewards built into the coin’s utility from day one.
For anyone scanning the market for the best crypto to buy now while ETH and ADA remain stuck in drawdowns, Stargate’s presale batches represent a structurally different kind of entry point, priced for early participation rather than recovery speculation.
Ethereum price: Stuck below $1,900 support The Ethereum Price picture through early July remains bearish across nearly every timeframe. ETH is trading near $1,700, roughly 66% below its August 2025 all-time high of $4,951.66, and sits below its 20-day, 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day exponential moving averages, a technical setup showing sustained weakness rather than a temporary dip. The 14-day RSI near 29 places Ethereum close to oversold territory, and while some analysts point to ETH spot ETF inflows and continued protocol development as longer-term positives, near-term price action tells a story of consolidation, not recovery. Vitalik Buterin’s own sale of ETH holdings earlier in 2026 added further pressure during the slide. Ethereum’s fundamentals as a smart contract platform remain intact, but the immediate technical structure offers little for investors looking for near-term upside.
Cardano News: Whale buying meets falling activity The biggest Cardano News this week is a split between accumulation and decline. ADA closed June at $0.1453, down nearly 40% for the month, even as wallets holding 10 million to 100 million ADA grew their share of supply from 37.66% to 38.13%, signaling whale conviction despite the drop. But on-chain activity tells a weaker story: daily transactions fell to around 17,400, a 45-day low, and smart contract transactions dropped sharply from a June 5 peak near 26,000.
A separate exploit drained roughly $2.4 million in ADA from 374 addresses in late June, though EMURGO has confirmed a recovery path for affected wallets. Support sits near $0.1435, with resistance at $0.1596, leaving ADA in a fragile technical position heading into July.
The bottom line Ethereum and Cardano will likely recover eventually; they usually do. But “eventually” isn’t a strategy, and right now both are stuck defending support levels with no clear catalyst in sight, while an entirely different sector is pulling in capital at a pace neither can currently match. That’s the actual choice in front of anyone deciding where to put money this month: wait for two established assets to rebuild what they’ve lost, or get positioned early in a category still building its floor upward instead of downward. Stargate LLM’s presale, running Batch 1 at 50X below its launch target, is built specifically for that second option. ADA and ETH aren’t going anywhere. The question is whether the next twelve months belong to them catching back up, or to whoever got into AI before the rotation finished.
For more information, visit the official website, buy Stargare, X, and Telegram.
Disclosure: This content is provided by a third party. Neither crypto.news nor the author of this article endorses any product mentioned on this page. Users should conduct their own research before taking any action related to the company.
Tether, the company behind USDT, is preparing to issue the stablecoin natively on Bitcoin through the RGB protocol version v0.11.1. Deployed by the UTEXO software lab, USDT is set to return to the chain where it first launched in 2014 via the Omni-Mastercoin Layer.
UTEXO, the company leading the commercial rollout, has positioned itself as the issuer and distributor of this Bitcoin-native USDT in partnership with Tether. “Finally, after eight years of development—if not more—we are the company that is launching USDT over Bitcoin with strong support from Tether,” said Viktor Ihnatiuk, UTEXO co-founder, in an exclusive interview with Bitcoin Magazine.
The RGB protocol combines its novel client-side validation with the Lightning network for instant, private settlements, while anchoring security to Bitcoin’s UTXO model. Users can expect to be able to handle USDT on native Bitcoin addresses as well as send and receive it over the Lightning network with compatible wallets.
The RGB protocol on Bitcoin also offers significant privacy features to USDT users as the asset benefits from Bitcoin’s UTXO model, which standardizes fresh addresses for every transaction compared to the account-based address reused commonly in EVM blockchains like Tron, Ethereum or Solana. Address reuse is the first mistake of onchain privacy, yet most altcoins built their interfaces to reuse addresses, despite the risk it poses to users. RGB’s integration with the Lightning network further protects user privacy by moving USDT via the offchain payments network, which leaves few marks on the public blockchain. The deep integration with Tether also means that there are fewer middleman companies charging extra fees or collecting data.
On the topic, Vktor emphasized that, “We built Utexo so that USDT could move on Bitcoin the way money is supposed to move: instantly, privately, with no surprises on costs. Our partners integrate our API once and can route USDT on the most resilient open network ever built, with full control over cost structure.”
UTEXO vs TRON UTEXO emerged from a joint venture involving Viktor’s Boosty Venture Studio, Fulgur Ventures, and Tether Investments. The goal was straightforward: bring RGB to mainnet after years of delays under prior development teams. The protocol had been in active development since at least 2016, but failed to be ready for the 2017 bull market, giving the TRON blockchain dominance over USDT volume and usage throughout the developing world, a dominance which it still retains.
UTEXO of specifically building “the last mile” of software needed for wide USDT deployment across the Bitcoin ecosystem, which includes a software development kit, APIs, mid-level protocols, UI design work and even a mint bridge that is live today at mint.utexo.com. This bridge lets users move USDT across popular blockchains with “deterministic low fees” and no middlemen thanks to its direct integration with Tether as the primary mint. The RGB protocol layer was developed by Bitfinex R&D Strategist Federico Tenga.
“Right now if you want to swap USDT to Bitcoin you need to pay high fees for all these wallets who charge you a one percent wallet fee plus a swap provider charge of one percent plus, and you have slippage one percent as well, so you pay three percent, and also you wait forever until the swap happens” Viktor told Bitcoin Magazine, adding that; “with USDT and Bitcoin over Lightning, for the first time you have two main assets on one chain, you can swap instantly without any slippage. You can swap decentralized USDT to Bitcoin and back on-chain. The price is almost the same as spot markets in Binance.”
Networks like Tron that are primarily used to move USDT also add extra fees, swap commissions and friction to the user experience. They require a different address type, with fees paid in an asset like TRX, which is only ever used to move the stablecoin. With most of the monetary volume in the crypto market concentrated in Bitcoin and Tether, having to buy an altcoin just to pay fees ends up feeling like red tape.
Bitcoin, as the payment rails of USDT, also comes with blockchain levels of security that other chains simply can not offer. While USDT will always be fundamentally centralized in Tether as a corporation, the rails can also add risk, for example, if a contentious fork occurs or major bugs are found on novel blockchain systems. Bitcoin, being the oldest and most conservative blockchain, delivers a quality assurance of sorts that can not be matched by other chains.
RGB traces its roots to Peter Todd’s single-use seals back in 2014 and was formalized in 2016 by Giacomo Zucco and Riccardo Casatta. The RGB acronym, originally derived from “Riccardo Giacomo Bitcoin,” was later rebranded “Really Good Bitcoin”. Tether explored the protocol early but faced delays with the previous team. Had RGB shipped on schedule around 2019, the stablecoin landscape and broader DeFi industry might have developed differently around Bitcoin’s UTXO model instead of Ethereum’s account-based system.
As such, bringing USDT back to Bitcoin is a core motivation for UTEXO. Viktor minced no words on the matter: “For the first time in eight years or nine years, USDT is coming back home. We have no chance to fail. If we fail, no one will think about Bitcoin as a settlement layer anymore.”
USDT on Bitcoin via RGB is expected to be launched within weeks, possibly this July, with wallets like Tether Wallet among others announcing support, and exchanges across the world announcing integrations.
A HyperSwap user lost about $12,300 after clicking a fake airdrop link on X, approving one wallet request, and unknowingly giving a scammer control of his funds.
BeInCrypto reconstructed the attack with the victim using public blockchain records. The records show a fast phishing operation inside the Hyperliquid ecosystem.
The scammer took the victim’s position on HyperSwap, withdrew the funds behind it, converted them into HYPE, and moved the money to Ethereum in less than two minutes.
Note: HyperSwap is an exchange that runs on the Hyperliquid blockchain. HyperSwap has its own team, and Hyperliquid does not manage it — just as the creators of Ethereum do not manage applications like Uniswap running on it.
The Trap Started With a Fake X Account The victim used HyperSwap. Like other decentralized exchanges, it lets users trade directly from their wallets without a company holding their funds.
The victim had supplied money to a HyperSwap liquidity pool. In simple terms, he had deposited crypto, so other users could trade against it. In return, he could earn fees.
On HyperSwap V3, that position was represented by NFT #178549. This was not a picture or collectible. It was more like a digital receipt. Whoever controlled that NFT controlled the funds linked to the position.
The victim told BeInCrypto he saw a post on X promoting an airdrop. An airdrop is a token giveaway, often used by crypto projects to reward users.
The Scammer’s Post Using a Fake X Account with a Very Similar Username to the Official HyperSwap Account The post appeared to come from HyperSwap. It did not. It came from an impostor account with a handle that closely resembled the real HyperSwap account, HyperSwapX, which is linked from the project’s official website.
The victim followed the link and connected his wallet. He believed he was checking whether he qualified for the airdrop. Instead, he approved a transaction that gave the scammer permission to move his HyperSwap position.
That approval was the key moment.
One Approval Gave the Scammer Control Crypto wallets often ask users to approve transactions. Some approvals are harmless. Others give another address permission to move valuable assets.
To most users, the warning can look routine. A fake site can make a dangerous approval look like a normal step in claiming tokens.
That appears to be what happened here.
At 20:21:51 UTC on June 29, the scammer used the earlier approval to transfer NFT #178549 out of the victim’s wallet. The victim did not sign anything at that moment. The scammer had already secured permission.
The scammer’s address was 0x880C95246D7525b84902E6c040818a7C72d3Aa77. HyperEVM explorer records flagged it as Fake_Phishing3746335, with a “Phish / Hack” tag reported by HashDit.
The NFT moved to another scammer-controlled wallet. Once that happened, the attacker controlled the liquidity position.
Twenty-five seconds later, the scammer withdrew the funds behind the NFT. The position contained about 3,935 USDC and 116.6 WHYPE. Together, they were worth roughly $12,300 at the time.
Theft transaction in hyperevmscan: On June 29, 2026, the address marked as Fake_Phishing3746335 transferred the victim’s NFT (0x39f2…0f9E) to his wallet The Money Was Moved Fast After withdrawing the funds, the scammer prepared to move them away from HyperEVM.
First, the wallet gave permission to LI.FI, a legitimate cross-chain bridge and swap service. A bridge lets users move crypto from one blockchain to another.
There is no evidence that LI.FI took part in the theft. The scammer used it after stealing the funds.
The scammer then converted the stolen USDC and WHYPE into about 175.9 HYPE. Seconds later, the HYPE was bridged from HyperEVM to Ethereum.
The destination was 0xFa47eef42fB2C63DCEA0cAC2295a58036052932D. On Ethereum, that wallet received the funds and almost immediately moved 7.035 ETH onward in one transaction.
The wallet had been created shortly before. It was used once and left almost empty. That pattern is common in laundering chains, where stolen funds pass through temporary wallets to make tracing harder.
From the NFT transfer to the bridge transaction, the active theft took about 84 seconds.
A Wider Phishing Pattern The scammer’s wallet appeared to be part of a broader operation.
Explorer records reviewed by BeInCrypto showed the address had been active for about 33 days. It was also linked to roughly 25 other addresses. That suggests the attacker may have targeted more than one user.
The link to the fraudulent resource has been hanging in messages since June 26 For victims, the problem is practical. Blockchain records can show what happened. They rarely stop it from happening in real time.
Once a user signs a bad approval, the scammer can act quickly. Once funds move across chains, recovery becomes even harder.
The victim later tried to report the suspicious link and get it removed. He said he felt ignored and began to suspect the HyperSwap team had failed to act.
The on-chain evidence reviewed by BeInCrypto points to a phishing attack from an impostor account. The fake X account was separate from HyperSwap’s official account. The official HyperSwap account and official contract were not shown to have carried out the theft.
However, the victim’s experience highlights a serious weakness in the ecosystem. Users can be attacked through fake social media accounts, drained through confusing wallet approvals, and left with few clear options after the money is gone.
During a conversation with BeInCrypto journalists, the victim stated that they tried various ways to warn the Hyperliquid team about the scam, but received no response.
According to the victim, the only active communication channel with HyperSwap was Discord. At the time of writing, the link to it is invalid. So he tried to get the problem across to the ecosystem team where the project works, but that attempt was unsuccessful.
The screenshot shows our interlocutor trying to reach Hyperliquid support via Discord. In this case, the Hyperliquid command ignores the user’s request to send a message about the found vulnerability and prompts him to contact HyperSwap himself. Overall, the scammer’s method was simple. A fake account promoted a fake airdrop. A fake site secured wallet approval. A flagged phishing wallet took the victim’s HyperSwap position, emptied it, and moved the funds to Ethereum.
The loss was about $12,300. The theft took less than two minutes.
The victim suggested that HyperSwap employees may be involved in the theft or are deliberately hiding it. However, BeInCrypto could not find any exact information to support those claims.
Solana price has held above key technical support even after slipping 1.7%, while U.S.-listed spot Solana ETFs have continued attracting fresh inflows as Bitcoin and Ethereum funds recorded weekly withdrawals.
Summary
Solana held above key support as $5.75 million in spot ETF inflows contrasted with Bitcoin and Ethereum fund outflows. Solana ranked second in weekly spot trading volume, while non-vote transactions topped 1 billion for the first time. Rising active users, strong DApp revenue, and bullish technical indicators continue to support Solana’s recovery. After climbing more than 15% last week, Solana (SOL) price met selling pressure near the $80 level, where traders again defended resistance amid the broader market pullback. Even after the recent recovery, the token remains about 73% below its all-time high of $294.33 reached on Jan. 19, 2025.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin fell 1.65% during the same period, dragging the total cryptocurrency market capitalization down 1.47% to $2.14 trillion.
ETF demand has stayed positive despite market weakness Fund flow data showed Solana diverging from the two largest cryptocurrencies during the latest reporting period. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $527 million between June 29 and July 2, extending their losing streak to eight consecutive weeks. Spot Ethereum ETFs also registered net outflows totaling $13.67 million.
By contrast, U.S.-listed spot Solana ETFs attracted $5.75 million in net inflows over the same period. The inflows indicated that investors continued adding exposure despite weakness across the wider digital asset market.
Capital also moved into several other altcoin investment products. XRP ETFs recorded $17.19 million in net inflows, while HYPE ETFs added another $4.32 million during the week.
Away from fund flows, on-chain activity continued to strengthen. According to SolanaFloor, Solana ranked second in global spot crypto trading volume for the second consecutive week, processing $12.25 billion across centralized and decentralized exchanges. That total remained ahead of Bybit’s $10.57 billion, although Binance retained the top position among exchanges during the reporting period.
SolanaFloor also reported that weekly non-vote transactions surpassed one billion for the first time. Unlike validator voting activity, non-vote transactions represent actual network usage generated by users, decentralized applications, and traders. The sharp rise at the beginning of July points to heavier activity across the ecosystem.
Technical structure still favors buyers above key support Network participation has accelerated alongside the recovery. According to Artemis data, Solana’s weekly active addresses climbed from 16.8 million to 29.7 million in just two weeks, an increase of roughly 12.9 million wallets, or about 76.8%. The rebound followed slower activity during June as users returned to decentralized applications across the network.
Source: Artemis Separate ecosystem rankings also kept Solana at the top of several blockchain activity metrics. The network led all Layer 1 and Layer 2 chains in both 24-hour and seven-day decentralized application revenue while also recording the highest decentralized exchange trading volume over those periods. Polygon, Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain and Hyperliquid followed behind across the tracked categories.
Price action continues to support the improving network data. On the daily chart, Solana remains above its 20-day, 50-day and 100-day moving averages, while the MACD indicator is still in bullish territory despite momentum easing after last week’s rally.
Solana daily price chart — July 6 | Source: crypto.news On the 4-hour chart, the Supertrend indicator continues to hold below price near $78.30, and Chaikin Money Flow has stayed slightly above zero, indicating modest buying pressure.
Solana price 4-hour chart — July 6 | Source: crypto.news The latest consolidation has left immediate resistance around the recent high near $84, while the Supertrend level near $78 and the Fibonacci support around $76 remain the first areas buyers may need to defend if selling pressure returns. Together with steady ETF inflows and rising network activity, those technical levels suggest Solana’s recovery remains intact unless those support zones give way.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
Staking has become one of the most common ways for crypto investors to earn passive rewards, but not every staking model works the same way.
Established blockchain networks like Ethereum and Solana generate rewards by helping secure their blockchains, while many newer projects introduce staking as part of a broader ecosystem designed to encourage participation before and after launch.
MemeToro ($MT) follows the second approach. Its staking program offers 35% APY, making it noticeably different from traditional Layer-1 staking. Understanding where those rewards come from helps explain why comparing the three systems requires more than simply looking at headline percentages.
Ethereum and Solana Reward Different Types of Participants Ethereum and Solana both rely on staking to support network security, but they currently produce different reward profiles.
Ethereum staking yields have flattened during 2026, with validators generally earning between 3.2% and 3.8% APY. Lower Layer-1 transaction fees have reduced MEV activity and token-burning dynamics, limiting the additional rewards that validators previously benefited from.
Solana currently offers stronger returns.
Average staking yields sit between 6.5% and 7.1% APY, supported by high transaction volumes across the network. Increased activity from memecoin trading has boosted validator rewards through priority transaction fees and Jito MEV, while liquid staking products such as JitoSOL and mSOL continue attracting fresh capital.
Although both systems reward token holders, their yields are directly tied to blockchain activity rather than promotional incentives.
Why MemeToro Uses a Different Staking Model MemeToro ($MT) is more than a Layer-1 blockchain.
$MT staking is designed as one component of a broader AI-powered ecosystem that is still under development.
The project currently offers rewards of up to 35% APY, encouraging participants to remain engaged throughout the presale and beyond the eventual exchange listing.
Unlike Ethereum or Solana, those rewards are not generated by validating blockchain transactions.
Instead, they form part of the ecosystem’s participation model alongside automated memecoin creation, decentralized prediction markets, SocialFi features, and behavioral finance tools.
Higher APY Doesn’t Automatically Mean Better Value Many investors naturally compare staking opportunities by looking only at annual percentage yields.
In practice, that tells only part of the story.
Lower-yield networks such as Ethereum often provide greater maturity, deeper liquidity, and years of operational history. Their staking systems have been tested through multiple market cycles and are supported by large validator communities.
Higher-yield opportunities usually involve different trade-offs.
Early-stage projects may offer larger rewards to encourage participation while their ecosystems continue expanding. Those returns can be attractive, but investors also need to evaluate roadmap execution, token utility, adoption, and overall project development.
Comparing APY without considering those factors rarely gives the full picture.
Where Analysts See Staking Trends Moving Broader market conditions are also influencing staking decisions.
The Citigroup Global Markets Research Team recently observed:
“With Ethereum closing out a brutal multi-quarter downward stretch, its structural 3.5% staking yield is no longer enough to hedge against capital depreciation. Risk-on liquidity is moving down-curve into high-throughput ecosystems where network velocity drastically enhances the underlying staking profile.”
That observation reflects a wider shift taking place across crypto.
Some investors continue prioritizing established staking networks, while others are allocating part of their portfolios toward earlier-stage ecosystems that offer different reward structures and growth profiles.
Neither strategy is universally better. Much depends on an investor’s objectives and risk tolerance.
Four Steps to Your $MT Allocation MemeToro built its buying process around speed and security, so anyone can complete a purchase without friction:
Reach the Portal: Click through from the main site to the verified presale interface. Link a Wallet: Connect your wallet and switch it to the BNB Chain network. Pick a Payment Method: Use BNB, ETH, stablecoins, or a card, whichever suits you best. Confirm and Receive: Approve the transaction to add $MT directly to your wallet. Buying early does more than lock in a lower price. Token holders get first access to staking rewards, trading tools, and other features as they roll out across the platform.
More Information on MemeToro ($MT) Presale Here:
Website: https://memetoro.com/
X: https://x.com/memetoro_mt
Telegram: https://t.me/memetoro_mt
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ENS co-founder Alex Van de Sande put forward a proposal on Monday to delegate 5 million ENS tokens from the project’s dormant community treasury directly to individual participants. The move, he said, would end the DAO’s dependence on what he characterized as “just a 1-of-1 multisig.”
A governance crisis months in the making The proposal didn’t materialize out of nowhere. ENS DAO has been mired in governance disputes throughout June and July 2026, with blocked votes and escalating tensions between community factions. At the center of the controversy sits Nick Johnson, ENS’s other co-founder, who reportedly holds approximately 50% of the active voting supply through self-delegated tokens.
The disputes have also touched on attempts to expand the ENS Foundation’s role, which some community members interpreted as a potential “governance attack.”
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What 5 million tokens would actually change The ENS DAO originally received an allocation of 50 million ENS tokens. Of those, 5 million were claimed early in 2021 during the project’s initial distribution phase, leaving a substantial portion sitting in treasury wallets.
Van de Sande’s proposal would take 5 million tokens, roughly 10% of the original allocation, and delegate them to individual governance participants. The tokens would remain in the treasury, but their voting power would be assigned to active participants. The ENS DAO treasury valuations range from approximately $88 million in liquid assets to over $350 million in total worth when including the underlying ETH-based endowment managed by Karpatkey.
Katherine Wu, another prominent figure in ENS governance circles, has been involved in the ongoing discussions.
What this means for ENS holders and DAO watchers Van de Sande’s framing of the current setup as a “1-of-1 multisig” is a deliberate provocation, designed to highlight that the current governance apparatus has the trappings of decentralization without the substance. A multisig wallet typically requires multiple signers to approve a transaction. A 1-of-1 multisig is just a regular wallet with extra branding.
Delegating treasury tokens to active participants, rather than selling them or letting them sit idle, represents a middle path between hoarding assets and diluting existing holders. However, redistributing voting power means existing large holders would see their relative influence diluted — the same stakeholders who would need to approve the proposal are those whose power it would reduce.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Solana is now formally in the U.S. spot ETF conversation after a VanEck-linked proposal reached the SEC through a Cboe BZX rule filing.
For more details, visit the official SEC platform.
TL;DR A Solana spot ETF proposal has entered the SEC process through a Form 19b-4 filing.The filing argues that SOL should be treated as a commodity-style crypto asset rather than a security.Approval is not guaranteed, but the filing expands the ETF race beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. The filing is important because spot crypto ETFs in the U.S. have so far been dominated by Bitcoin, with Ethereum products forming the next major battleground. Solana entering the process gives investors a clearer view of which altcoins institutions think can support a regulated fund wrapper.
Solana Gets Its ETF Test VanEck has been one of the more aggressive asset managers in digital assets, and the Solana filing fits that pattern. The central question is whether the SEC will accept the argument that SOL has enough market structure, liquidity, and regulatory clarity to sit inside a spot ETF product.
That is not a small hurdle. Bitcoin and Ethereum already had deep futures markets, years of institutional coverage, and extensive regulatory discussion before their fund structures advanced. Solana has strong network usage and a large market, but it also comes with a different history around outages, token distribution, and how regulators classify major altcoins.
Why The Filing Still Matters Even if approval takes time, the filing changes the conversation. It shows that major issuers are no longer waiting for the SEC to define the next wave of crypto ETF assets. They are forcing the question directly through the rule-change process.
For Solana, that matters beyond the immediate price reaction. ETF filings can reshape how advisers, institutions, and trading desks talk about an asset. SOL is no longer only being pitched as a high-speed chain for DeFi and memecoins. It is now being positioned as the next serious candidate for regulated U.S. fund exposure.
This report is based on the SEC filing for the proposed Solana ETF rule change.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
Ethereum price outlook strengthened Monday as traders watched Vitalik Buterin’s latest roadmap comments. Buterin said Lean Ethereum will unfold over three to four years. The plan represents a significant post-The Merge protocol rebuild.
Bitcoin price hovered above $63,000 following a recovery last week as ETH was approaching the level of 1,800 resistance. XRP price showed strength after breaking its falling channel.
Ethereum Prepares for Biggest Upgrade Since The Merge, Vitalik Says Vitalik Buterin called Lean Ethereum the next significant step of the network. He contrasted its size with The Merge, which transformed Ethereum a consensus system in 2022. The new roadmap does not consist of an upgrade. Rather it is a sequence of protocol modifications over a number of years.
Buterin indicated that almost all significant protocol components were replacable. The idea is to ensure Ethereum is quicker, more confidential, and resistant to future quantum hazards. Developers also desire the network to enhance without disrupting existing applications. This fact is important as Ethereum is compatible with various wallets, exchanges, DeFi apps, and layer-2 networks.
BREAKING: Ethereum is preparing for its biggest upgrade since The Merge, per Vitalik.
This means Ethereum will rebuild nearly every core part of itself over the next 3 to 4 years, making it faster, more private, and quantum-safe, without breaking any apps built on it. pic.twitter.com/7CYMHHrqkc
— Ash Crypto (@AshCrypto) July 6, 2026
The roadmap followed talks among Ethereum researchers in Berlin in late June. It also builds on the draft strawmap introduced earlier this year. That plan outlines several upgrades through 2029. The roadmap is now considered a guarantee to Ethereum by market watchers.
Analyst Predicts ETH Price Could Rally 10% If Support Holds Crypto analyst said Ethereum price has reclaimed its February 2026 lows after its latest rebound. He said future ETH outlook must hold this level to support another 8% to 10% rally. This is an area that now has to be defended by buyers to maintain short-term momentum.
$ETH has reclaimed the Feb 2026 lows.
Ethereum needs to hold above this level for another 8%-10% rally. pic.twitter.com/gOdC3fO9cJ
— Ted (@TedPillows) July 6, 2026
The chart also indicated resistance at around $1,800 and $1,873, which could determine the next Ethereum action. The potential breakout would redirect the focus towards the $2,000 zone. Nonetheless, the inability to hold the reclaimed low could undermine the bullish formation. Traders can then observe the lower demand region at about $1,555 in the event.
Ethereum Price Analysis The ETH price traded at $1,757 four-hour chart. Ether price fell by 0.80%, and the trading day started around $1,775. The move came after ETH failed to hold above the $1,800 resistance line. The nearest support is the $1,700 line in case the selling pressure persists.
There was also less buying strength indicated by the momentum indicators. The RSI stood at 66. This suggests ETH still holds positive momentum, but buyers have lost some control.
Source: Tradingview The MACD also indicated that following the recent recovery there was a cooling trend. Its histogram became negative and exhibited slower upward movement. To regain a stronger bullish trend, ETH might require a clean break of over $1,800.
Ether ETH derivatives data indicated that there was a mixed trading with a drop of 0.99% volume at $27.23 billion. Nevertheless, open interest increased 0.50% to 24.53 billion, an indication of new positioning in the futures markets.
Source: Coinglass data Options activity looked stronger, with volume jumping 8.94% to $486.14 million. Options open interest also climbed 1.12% to $4.09 billion. The numbers indicate that the exposure of traders did not decrease despite slight pullback in the levels of total volumes.
The cryptocurrency market is experiencing widespread weakness on Monday, with Bitcoin (BTC) sliding under the $63,000 mark amid ongoing risk aversion. Major altcoins, including Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP), are following suit, trending lower toward key support levels at $1,700 and $1.10, respectively.
Persistent capital outflows weigh on Bitcoin and EthereumRisk sentiment in the crypto market remains significantly subdued, weighed down by macroeconomic headwinds, geopolitical uncertainties, and a dearth of clear catalysts. Despite the crypto Fear & Greed Index ticking up to 24 on Monday, from an average of 12 last week, appetite for risk assets has not improved.
Crypto Fear & Greed Index | Source: AlternativePersistent outflows from US-listed Bitcoin spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) underscore waning institutional interest, with $527 million withdrawn last week alone. This marks the eighth consecutive week of net redemptions, reinforcing the ongoing bearish narrative.
Despite the outflows, cumulative inflows remain positive at $51 billion, while net assets under management average $74 billion.
Bitcoin ETF flows | Source: SoSoValueEthereum spot ETFs present a similar grim picture to Bitcoin, with outflows totaling $14 million last week, down from $273 million the previous week. According to SoSoValue, ETH ETF outflows have persisted for the eighth consecutive week, reflecting ongoing institutional investor caution.
Despite the current market headwinds, cumulative inflows hold steady at $11 billion, with total assets under management at $9 billion, signaling that conviction among long-term investors remains resilient.
Ethereum ETF flows | Source: SoSoValueInterest in XRP spot ETFs holds steady, outperforming both Bitcoin and Ethereum to post nearly $12 million in inflows last week. With nine straight weeks of inflows, interest in XRP-related digital investment products remains intact despite the headwinds and broader risk-off sentiment.
Cumulative inflows hold steady at $1.49 billion while net assets under management average $988 million, according to SoSoValue data.
XRP ETF flows | Source: SoSoValuePrice analysis: Bitcoin trades under increasing pressureBitcoin remains capped below a dense ceiling of moving averages, with the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $65,739 and the 100-day EMA at $69,453 reinforcing a broader downtrend defined by the resistance trendline near $71,371.
The Crypto King holds just above the Bollinger middle band around $61,936, suggesting tentative near-term support, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) hovers around 49, pointing to neutral momentum despite a still-positive Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) histogram, which hints that bullish pressure is not yet strong enough to reclaim the overhead structure.
BTC/USDT daily chartOn the topside, initial resistance emerges at the Bollinger upper band near $65,513, followed by the 50-day EMA around $65,739 and the 100-day EMA close to $69,453. Beyond these levels, the downtrend break zone at $71,371 and the 200-day EMA near $75,529 form a broader supply region.
On the downside, immediate support is lies at the Bollinger middle band around $61,936, with further demand near the lower Bollinger band at approximately $58,359. A sustained break below these levels would expose the pair to a deeper leg lower within the prevailing bearish bias.
Ethereum bears tighten grip amid deepeningEthereum trades at $1,756, keeping a bearish near-term bias as price holds below key EMAs. The 50-day EMA at $1,805 and the SuperTrend line around $1,805 form a tight resistance cluster just overhead, while the 100-day and 200-day EMAs at $1,972 and $2,256 respectively sit well above the market, reinforcing a broader downtrend.
Still, momentum has improved, with the MACD line above its signal and in positive territory and the RSI hovering slightly above 50, hinting that recent buying pressure is attempting to challenge this overhead supply.
ETH/USDT daily chartOn the topside, immediate resistance is defined by the $1,805 zone, where the SuperTrend and 50-day EMA converge. A sustained break above this area would expose the next hurdle at the 100-day EMA near $1,972, ahead of the more substantial 200-day EMA barrier around $2,256.
The smart contracts token remains vulnerable to persistent headwinds, with traders likely watching price behavior around the $1,700–$1,750 band for signs of whether the nascent momentum can persist or the dominant bearish trend reasserts itself.
XRP eyes short-term support as headwinds intensify XRP remains capped in the near term, with price holding below the 50-day EMA at $1.18 and well under the 100-day and 200-day EMAs at $1.29 and $1.50 respectively, reinforcing a broader bearish structure despite the recent bounce.
The MACD has turned positive and is edging higher, while the RSI hovers around the neutral 50 line, suggesting improving but still fragile momentum as price oscillates between the Bollinger Bands’ midline and upper layers.
XRP/USDT daily chartOn the topside, initial resistance is seen at the upper Bollinger Band near $1.20, with the 50-day EMA at $1.18 acting as a nearby dynamic barrier that needs to be reclaimed to ease downside pressure. Above these barriers, the 100-day EMA at $1.29 and the 200-day EMA at $1.50 define subsequent resistance layers. Looking down, the Bollinger middle band around $1.10 provides the first notable support, ahead of the lower band near $1.01, where a break would likely reopen the bearish leg toward lower levels.
(This article was created with the help of an Artificial Intelligence tool and reviewed by an editor. Know more.)
Bitcoin, altcoins, stablecoins FAQs Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, a virtual currency designed to serve as money. This form of payment cannot be controlled by any one person, group, or entity, which eliminates the need for third-party participation during financial transactions.
Altcoins are any cryptocurrency apart from Bitcoin, but some also regard Ethereum as a non-altcoin because it is from these two cryptocurrencies that forking happens. If this is true, then Litecoin is the first altcoin, forked from the Bitcoin protocol and, therefore, an “improved” version of it.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to have a stable price, with their value backed by a reserve of the asset it represents. To achieve this, the value of any one stablecoin is pegged to a commodity or financial instrument, such as the US Dollar (USD), with its supply regulated by an algorithm or demand. The main goal of stablecoins is to provide an on/off-ramp for investors willing to trade and invest in cryptocurrencies. Stablecoins also allow investors to store value since cryptocurrencies, in general, are subject to volatility.
Bitcoin dominance is the ratio of Bitcoin's market capitalization to the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies combined. It provides a clear picture of Bitcoin’s interest among investors. A high BTC dominance typically happens before and during a bull run, in which investors resort to investing in relatively stable and high market capitalization cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. A drop in BTC dominance usually means that investors are moving their capital and/or profits to altcoins in a quest for higher returns, which usually triggers an explosion of altcoin rallies.
In brief Vitalik Buterin published an updated "Lean Ethereum" roadmap, which he calls the network's third major iteration following 2022’s Merge. The plan would replace “almost every major piece of the protocol” over three to four years, enshrining recursive STARK proofs and swapping quantum-vulnerable cryptography for quantum-safe alternatives. Buterin said privacy is now a "first class goal" and floated a future Ethereum holding far more data through new, more scalable types of state. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has laid out an updated vision for the blockchain's next several years, billing it as the most sweeping rebuild since the network ditched mining and declaring that Ethereum is "reinventing itself."
In a tweet on Saturday, Buterin shared his takeaways from a recent gathering of Ethereum researchers in Berlin, along with a refreshed "strawmap," a draft roadmap published at strawmap.org. He framed "Lean Ethereum," first sketched out in 2025, as the protocol's third major iteration, on par with the 2022 Merge that moved Ethereum to proof-of-stake. Almost every major component will be replaced over three or four years, he said, without forcing existing apps to migrate.
Two weeks ago, Ethereum researchers met in Berlin to continue charting the protocol's long-term trajectory, following along discussions with client teams in Svalbard in April.
The updated strawmap is at https://t.co/HZEerH1xxI, and I attached a picture of it to this post.
My… pic.twitter.com/KPGayHSySf
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 4, 2026
State changeThe centerpiece is a change in how the network checks itself. Instead of every node re-executing every transaction, Ethereum would verify a compact cryptographic proof of the chain using recursive STARKs, a form of zero-knowledge proof that Buterin wants "enshrined" as a core protocol component.
He also floated a simpler consensus with one or two-round finality, multidimensional gas pricing, and, eventually, a shift beyond the EVM toward an instruction set such as RISC-V.
Quantum safety, privacy and data storageGuarding against the threat posed by Q-Day has climbed the agenda, Buterin said, with anything cryptographically vulnerable due to be swapped for quantum-safe alternatives, and work on quantum-resistant "blobs" already months along.
Privacy, he wrote, is now a "first-class goal" rather than an add-on, factored into pieces like the mempool and the state tree, and the whole effort would rest on formal verification.
The most disruptive piece concerns data storage. Buterin sketched a 2030 network holding roughly 2TB of today's flexible "dynamic" state alongside 100 terabytes of a new, more scalable but restrictive type, well suited to tokens, NFTs, and much of DeFi, if less so to complex contracts like decentralized exchanges. Rewriting an ERC-20 token onto the new storage would not be mandatory, he said, but could cut its fees more than tenfold.
None of it arrives at once. Buterin said the coming Hegotá fork will likely be Ethereum's last before the "Lean" era begins, with a large gas-limit increase expected at the nearer-term Glamsterdam upgrade and further gains in capacity and speed over roughly five years.
The plan lands at a lean moment for the Ethereum Foundation itself, which recently cut staff and tightened its budget, while previous Ethereum upgrades faced repeated delays before implementation.
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Bitmine chairman Tom Lee on the Mainstage at Consensus Miami 2026 (CoinDesk)Summary
Bitmine Immersion bought 42,197 ether last week, worth about $74 million, continung its buying spree.Chairman Thomas Lee attributed ETH's recent outperformance of bitcoin and Bitmine's continued accumulation to rising investor optimism that the proposed Clarity Act will pass and bring greater regulatory certainty to crypto, especially Ethereum.Bitmine now holds 4.8% of ether supply, inching closer to its goal to corner 5% of the asset's supply.Bitmine Immersion (BMNR), the largest Ethereum (ETH) treasury company, stepped up its buying pace last week, purchasing 42,197 ether (ETH) as chairman Thomas Lee pointed to improving prospects for U.S. crypto legislation as a catalyst for the asset.
The latest purchase, worth roughly $74 million based on ether's current price of around $1,750, lifted the company's holdings to 5.74 million ETH, according to a Monday update. The stash is now worth about $10 billion and represents 4.8% of Ethereum's circulating supply, inching closer to the firm's goal of cornering 5% of the asset's supply.
The company also held 206 bitcoin, $527 million in cash and marketable securities, plus stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings, bringing its total crypto, cash and investment holdings to $11.1 billion.
The acquisition marks an increase from the prior week's purchase of 27,084 ETH, though it remains below the six-figure weekly buying pace BitMine maintained earlier this year.
Bitmine buys as Strategy sellsBitmine's continued buying contrasts with a shift at Strategy (MSTR), the largest digital asset treasury and corporate bitcoin holder, which sold about $216 million worth of BTC to raise cash. The sale marked a rare reduction in Strategy's bitcoin holdings and underscored the funding pressures the company faces amid the crypto market downturn and increased dividend obligations.
Strategy selling BTC while Bitmine sold BTC may have contributed to ether outperforming bitcoin through last week by 6%, even though the gains came after a near-continuous downtrend since August.
Lee, however, tied the recent strength in ETH relative to BTC to growing optimism that the proposed Clarity Act could become law.
"Investors have become more optimistic about the passage of the Clarity Act," he said, noting that prediction markets now assign roughly a 50% probability to the legislation passing, the highest level in two weeks.
"We believe regulatory clarity is an important milestone, enabling crypto, particularly smart contract platforms like Ethereum, to benefit as crypto becomes part of our everyday life," Lee said. He pointed to Ethereum layer-2 networks processing USDC transactions for companies including Shopify and Visa as examples of blockchain technology moving into mainstream payments.
The company has also staked more than 4.8 million ETH through its MAVAN staking platform and related infrastructure, generating recurring staking income alongside its treasury strategy. At current prices, those staked holdings are worth roughly $8.5 billion.
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Building the Zcash Machine: Tachyon and Quantum Readiness
Building the Zcash Machine: Tachyon and Quantum Readiness
Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.
Jun 30, 2026
Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.
Why it matters:
Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.
While @Saylor continues to prioritise $BTC, Tom Lee (@fundstrat) is taking a different path, steadily building one of the most significant Ethereum positions in public markets.
Bitmine's total $ETH treasury has now reached 5.74 million tokens, equivalent to 4.8% of the entire global $ETH supply. The milestone puts the company 95% of the way toward its stated "Alchemy of 5%" objective and cements its standing as the world's largest public Ethereum treasury.
Closing In on the 5% TargetThe "Alchemy of 5%" goal has served as Bitmine's guiding benchmark since the company began aggressively accumulating $ETH. Reaching 4.8% is a meaningful threshold, signalling that the firm is now in the final stretch of a target that, if achieved, would give a single public company ownership of one in every twenty Ether tokens in circulation. That level of concentration in a public treasury is without precedent in the Ethereum ecosystem.
MAVAN Staking Infrastructure Driving YieldBitmine has not simply parked its holdings. The firm has transitioned 4.8 million $ETH into its proprietary MAVAN (Made in America Validator Network) staking infrastructure. The network currently generates an annualised yield of 2.68%, which translates into a projected $277 million in yearly staking rewards. By running its own validator network rather than delegating to third-party providers, Bitmine retains greater control over its staking operations and keeps more of the yield in-house.
The combination of scale and self-operated infrastructure positions Bitmine as more than a passive holder. It is now one of the more consequential institutional participants in Ethereum's proof-of-stake network, with a rewards stream that could meaningfully contribute to the company's financials if $ETH prices hold or appreciate.
Whether the firm crosses the 5% threshold will be closely watched by both Ethereum investors and those monitoring corporate crypto treasury strategies more broadly.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies said its Ethereum holdings reached 5,742,237 ETH, bringing the company closer to its goal of owning 5% of Ethereum’s total supply.
Summary
Bitmine now owns 5.74 million ETH, equal to 4.8% of Ethereum’s total supply today overall. Most of its ETH is staked, making validator rewards central to Bitmine’s treasury model now. Russell 1000 inclusion may widen institutional exposure, but ETH price volatility remains a key risk. The company said the holdings equal 4.8% of the 120.7 million ETH supply.
The latest Bitmine holdings update placed its combined crypto, cash, marketable securities and “moonshots” at $11.1 billion. The total includes 206 BTC, $527 million in cash and marketable securities, and equity stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings.
Crypto.news has tracked Bitmine’s steady ETH buying this year. A recent report said Bitmine had already pushed its Ethereum treasury above 5.7 million ETH after adding 27,084 ETH in the previous weekly update.
Tom Lee links ETH bet to regulation Bitmine chair Tom Lee said rising odds for the CLARITY Act had improved sentiment around Ethereum use cases. He said clearer rules could help smart contract platforms as crypto moves deeper into payments and financial services.
“Over the past few days, investors have become more optimistic about the passage of the Clarity Act,” Lee said.
He added that Ethereum layer-2 networks already process USDC activity for firms such as Shopify and Visa.
The company calls its 5% ETH supply goal the “Alchemy of 5%.” Crypto.news previously examined what Bitmine’s 5% Ethereum strategy could mean for ETH, noting that large treasury buying can reduce liquid supply while also creating concentration risk.
Bitmine said it is now 95% of the way toward that 5% target. If Ethereum supply stays near 120.7 million ETH, a 5% position would require about 6.04 million ETH.
Staking supports Bitmine’s model Bitmine said 4,879,157 ETH is now staked, worth about $8.8 billion at $1,800 per ETH. That means about 85% of its ETH position is earning validator rewards through staking.
The company said its own staking operations generated a seven-day annualized yield of 2.68%. It projected annualized staking revenue of about $235 million based on the current amount staked.
Bitmine had staked about 86% of its ETH pile before its Russell 1000 entry. That report noted that staking income has become a core part of Bitmine’s public-market strategy.
Bitmine also promotes MAVAN, its Made in America Validator Network. The company says MAVAN was first built for its own Ethereum treasury but may later serve institutional investors, custodians and ecosystem partners.
BMNR adds Russell 1000 exposure Bitmine was added to the Russell 1000 Large-cap Index on June 26. Lee said the move could bring “hundreds and possibly thousands” of new institutional investors into BMNR’s shareholder base.
Crypto.news had covered the Russell 1000 setup around Bitmine before the inclusion, noting that index membership can put BMNR in front of passive funds and large asset managers.
The company also completed a Series A preferred stock offering in June. As crypto.news reported, Bitmine’s BMNP preferred stock plan carried a 9.5% annual dividend rate and tied investor confidence to the ETH treasury model.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies expanded its Ethereum treasury by 42,197 ETH over the past week, raising its total holdings to 5.74 million ETH, or approximately 4.8% of the total ETH supply, according to a Monday press release.
The company’s balance sheet assets, including crypto, cash, marketable securities and strategic investments, have surpassed $11 billion. In addition to Ether, Bitmine owns 206 Bitcoin, $527 million in cash and marketable securities, and investments in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings valued at a combined $251 million.
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“We continue to maintain a steady pace of accumulation throughout 2026,” Chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee said in a statement. “We believe we are in the early stages of crypto spring. Bitmine is expected to reach the ‘alchemy of 5%’ sometime in 2026.”
On the regulatory outlook, Lee said investors have become increasingly optimistic about the Clarity Act, adding that clearer rules could boost Ethereum as blockchain technology becomes more deeply integrated into everyday financial services.
Alongside its treasury update, Bitmine highlighted its inclusion in the Russell 1000 Index, the completion of a $273.8 million preferred stock offering in June, and progress with its MAVAN institutional staking platform.
As of July 5, the company had 4.88 million ETH staked, with projected annual staking revenue of approximately $235 million.
Bitmine’s crypto treasury ranks second globally behind Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings.
Unlike Bitmine’s continued accumulation, Michael Saylor’s company sold 3,588 Bitcoin for approximately $216 million last week, marking its second Bitcoin sale this year and its largest disposal to date.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
A viral social media post claiming Ethereum controls 87% of the global stablecoin supply has sparked debate within the XRP community.
However, the chart behind the claim excluded Tron, one of the largest stablecoin networks. The discussion comes as stablecoin activity reaches new highs. At the same time, Ripple’s RLUSD continues to gain traction on the XRP Ledger.
Ethereum and Tron Control 81% of the Market Notably, a crypto user shared Artemis data claiming Ethereum now controls 87% of the stablecoin supply. Longtime XRP critic on X, @ScamDetective5, used the post to further criticize XRP, saying, “The XRP Ledger is not even on the map.”
However, an Artemis dashboard that includes all major blockchains tells a different story. Ethereum remains the largest stablecoin network, with $162.7 billion in circulating supply. This gives it a 52.4% market share, not 87%.
Tron ranks second with $89.4 billion in circulating supply, accounting for 28.8% of the market. Together, Ethereum and Tron host more than 81% of the global stablecoin supply.
Other major networks include:
BNB Chain: $16.6 billion (5.4%) Solana: $16.2 billion (5.2%) HyperEVM: $5.7 billion (1.8%) Base: $4.6 billion (1.5%) Arbitrum: $4.3 billion (1.4%) Polygon PoS: $3.9 billion (1.3%) XRP Ledger: Approximately $1.2 billion (0.4%) The dashboard puts the total stablecoin supply at $312.7 billion.
Source: Artemis Stablecoin Transaction Volume Reaches New High Notably, the market share debate comes as stablecoin adoption continues to grow. According to Visa’s Allium-powered analytics, adjusted stablecoin transaction volume hit a record $1.79 trillion in June. That was up 63% from May and 125% compared with the same month last year.
Visa’s methodology removes bot activity, treasury rebalancing, and repetitive smart contract transactions. The goal is to better measure genuine economic activity.
USDC led June’s transaction volume at $1.21 trillion, accounting for about 67% of the total. USDT followed with $576 billion, or roughly 32%. PYUSD processed another $2.42 billion.
Among blockchains, Base narrowly led June’s transaction volume at $565 billion. Ethereum followed closely with $562 billion, while Tron processed about $320 billion.
The data suggests stablecoins are seeing increased use for payments, decentralized finance, and cross-border transfers despite broader market uncertainty.
RLUSD Gains Ground on the XRP Ledger While the XRP Ledger remains a small player in the broader stablecoin market, Ripple’s RLUSD recently reached an important milestone.
In late June, RLUSD’s circulating supply on the XRP Ledger surpassed its supply on Ethereum for the first time. That made XRPL the largest network hosting Ripple’s stablecoin.
Current figures from the RLUSD Tracker show that the XRP Ledger holds about $848 million in RLUSD. Ethereum holds a far lower figure at $727 million.
Across both networks, RLUSD’s circulating supply has grown to nearly $1.6 billion. The figures indicate growing adoption within Ripple’s ecosystem, even as Ethereum and Tron continue to dominate the overall stablecoin market.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
Tom Lee also weighed in on the potential impact of the CLARITY Act on the crypto market, and ETH in particular.
The Tom Lee-chaired Bitmine Immersion Technologies continues with its Ethereum accumulation strategy, even though it has eased off the gas pedal compared to several weeks ago when it made multiple 100,000 ETH purchases.
In its latest announcement, it said it had added 42,197 ETH over the past week and now controls 4.8% of Ethereum’s circulating supply of 120.7 million tokens.
Closing In on 5% The latest treasury update published minutes ago indicated that the firm held 5,742,237 ETH as of July 5, valued at over $10 billion at prices of around $1,800. However, the token has slipped to $1,740 as of press time, meaning that the company’s unrealized losses are up to $9-$10 billion again.
In addition to its Ethereum fortune, Bitmine also holds 206 BTC, $527 million in cash and marketable securities, and strategic investments in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings worth a total of $251 million.
Chairman Tom Lee continues to favor ETH over BTC, especially if the CLARITY Act passes in the United States, which many analysts believe will help the altcoin more. Additionally, he remains a firm believer in the upcoming ‘crypto spring’ as the bear market phase has almost been exhausted.
“Over the past week, we acquired 42,197 ETH, increasing our pace from the prior week. We continue to maintain a steady pace of accumulation throughout 2026. We believe we are in the early stages of crypto spring. Bitmine is expected to reach the ‘alchemy of 5%’ sometime in 2026,” stated Lee.
Bitmine remains the second-largest crypto accumulator, trailing only Strategy. However, the gap between the two has been slightly reduced over the past week as the Saylor-led company sold over 3,500 BTC.
Staking Business The statement further stated that Bitmine continues to allocate a significant portion of its ETH holdings to staking to generate substantial revenue. It has already staked nearly 4.9 million tokens, or about 85% of its total holdings, through its own institutional platform, MAVAN.
You may also like: Bitmine Buys Another 27,000 ETH Despite Market Slump, Nears 5% of Ethereum Supply Bitcoin (BTC) Dips Below $62K, Ethereum (ETH) Plunges 6% Daily: Market Watch 5 Reasons Why Bitcoin Just Crashed Below $63K as Liquidations Top $500M Based on a current staking yield of 2.68%, the company projects annualized staking rewards of approximately $235 million. If it deploys all of its ETH fortune, then the numbers could rise to $277 million.
Key HighlightsBMNR Shares Recover From Morning WeaknessETH Holdings Approach Landmark 5% ThresholdBitcoin Holdings and Staking Operations Provide Additional ContextGet 3 Free Stock Ebooks BMNR gains momentum following disclosure of $11.1B in cryptocurrency, cash and strategic investments
Company’s 5.74M ETH holdings bring it closer to achieving 5% Ethereum supply ownership by 2026
Ethereum staking portfolio grows to 4.88M ETH as validator infrastructure expands
Addition to Russell 1000 index opens doors for broader institutional investment flows
Company forecasts $235M in yearly staking income from current Ethereum position
Bitmine Immersion Technologies has positioned its substantial Ethereum holdings as the cornerstone of its corporate strategy following disclosure of $11.1 billion in total assets. Shares of BMNR finished trading at $14.36, marking a 1.48% increase, before climbing to $14.43 during pre-market hours. The advance came despite initial session weakness, with the stock recovering to post positive gains.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Inc., BMNR
BMNR Shares Recover From Morning Weakness Bitmine disclosed comprehensive holdings totaling $11.1 billion across digital assets, liquid funds, securities and equity positions. The breakdown included 5,742,237 ETH, 206 Bitcoin, and $527 million in cash and marketable securities. Additional strategic investments encompassed a $180 million position in Beast Industries and $71 million in Eightco Holdings.
The firm has structured its operations around sustained cryptocurrency accumulation paired with institutional market access. Consequently, BMNR stock performance now correlates with both traditional equity dynamics and Ethereum price action. The company’s inclusion in a major market index has further broadened its appeal to institutional capital.
On June 26, Bitmine secured placement in the Russell 1000 Large-cap Index through the annual rebalancing process. Management anticipates increased holdings from passive investment vehicles and exchange-traded funds following this designation. This milestone arrived shortly after the company completed a preferred equity offering in June.
ETH Holdings Approach Landmark 5% Threshold Bitmine confirmed its Ethereum stake now represents 4.8% of total network supply. This calculation uses a baseline of 120.7 million ETH in circulation. The company applied a $1,800 valuation per token for its holdings assessment.
During the previous seven days, the firm added 42,197 ETH to its reserves, maintaining its aggressive 2026 acquisition timeline. Company leadership indicated the 5% Ethereum supply threshold remains achievable within 2026. This benchmark continues to define Bitmine’s treasury management and staking infrastructure priorities.
Earlier this year, Bitmine introduced MAVAN as an enterprise-focused validator platform. The infrastructure supports the company’s own Ethereum reserves while targeting external institutional clients. A significant portion of Bitmine’s ETH currently operates through MAVAN alongside partner staking services.
Bitcoin Holdings and Staking Operations Provide Additional Context The company’s digital asset portfolio includes 206 Bitcoin, though Ethereum dominates its cryptocurrency balance sheet strategy. Bitmine currently holds the distinction of operating the world’s largest Ethereum treasury and ranks second globally among all crypto treasuries.
By July 5, the company’s staked Ethereum position reached 4,879,157 ETH according to internal data. At the company’s $1,800 valuation, this staked allocation represents approximately $8.8 billion. The staked holdings account for roughly 85% of Bitmine’s entire Ethereum position.
Management projects annualized staking income of $235 million based on current committed assets. The company estimates full-year rewards could reach $277 million when applying a 2.68% yield rate. As regulatory frameworks evolve, Bitmine maintains its focus on Ethereum staking and treasury expansion as fundamental business pillars.
Oliver Dale
Editor-in-Chief of Blockonomi and founder of Kooc Media, A UK-Based Online Media Company. Believer in Open-Source Software, Blockchain Technology & a Free and Fair Internet for all. His writing has been quoted by Nasdaq, Dow Jones, Investopedia, The New Yorker, Forbes, Techcrunch & More. Contact [email protected]
Influenced by news that Strategy sold Bitcoin to pay dividends, STRC rebounded to break above $90.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Strategy’s preferred stock STRC has rebounded above $90, trading at $90.125, with a 2.57% intraday gain. Earlier reports noted that Strategy sold 3,588 Bitcoin last week, generating $216 million in proceeds to pay dividends on its digital credit securities. As of July 5, the company’s Bitcoin reserves fell to 843,775 coins, alongside $2.55 billion in U.S. dollar reserves.
7 minutes ago
BlackRock Withdraws 7,546 ETH From Coinbase Prime, Worth Around $13.2 Million
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, BlackRock just purchased and withdrew 7,546 ETH from Coinbase Prime, worth approximately $13.2 million.
7 minutes ago
Four wallets are holding 2x longs on $DEXE on @Aster_DEX, with a combined unrealized profit of ~$1.32M.
The $DEXE price keeps climbing today. Four wallets are holding 2x longs on $DEXE on @Aster_DEX, with a combined unrealized profit of ~$1.32M. The highest return has reached 104.57%.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, publicly listed Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms has deposited 500 BTC, valued at around $30.9 million, with NYDIG Custody, likely for sale.
7 minutes ago
Tom Lee: Rising ETH/BTC exchange rate indicates investors expect improved visibility of crypto use cases.
Chairman Tom Lee of BitMine, the largest Ethereum treasury, stated in a post that despite widespread market skepticism toward ETH, the rise in the ETH/BTC exchange rate shows investors are anticipating an improvement in the visibility of cryptocurrency use cases, which is a positive sign for the market.
7 minutes ago
Jiang Zhuoer: Strategy’s approved 20,000 BTC for sale will likely be fully sold.
Jiang Zhuoer, founder of BTC mining pool BTC.TOP, posted that U.S. crypto asset firm Strategy has sold 3,588 BTC for $216 million. This marks Strategy’s first large-scale BTC sell-off, carried out despite holding $2.55 billion in cash reserves — enough to cover 17.6 months of interest payments — and voluntarily selling more BTC than required to meet its interest obligations. This move signals the breakdown of Strategy’s long-held "never sell BTC" narrative. Jiang said he does not understand the reason behind Strategy’s current large-scale sell-off, noting that even if it lacks U.S. dollars, it could continue raising funds by issuing additional common stock. While this would reduce BTC holdings per share, he argues that preserving the "never sell" narrative and related beliefs is far more important than per-share BTC metrics. If Strategy fails to repurchase BTC at lower prices after the sell-off, it will also lead to a decline in per-share BTC holdings. Jiang added that Strategy’s willingness to bear this cost can only be interpreted as its preparation to conduct significant BTC swing trading. Jiang further stated that the 20,000 BTC already approved by Strategy’s board will almost certainly be sold in full. He believes that during the upcoming bull market phase, the market may witness a sell-off by an entity holding hundreds of thousands of BTC.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin laid out an updated "Lean Ethereum" roadmap in a post on X Saturday, describing a three-to-four-year overhaul he called the network's third major protocol iteration since the 2022 Merge. The plan follows a researcher meeting in Berlin and would replace direct…
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a new set of takeaways on "Lean Ethereum," the multi-year plan to rebuild most of the network's protocol, in a post on X on July 4.
Buterin said the update follows a meeting of Ethereum researchers in Berlin two weeks earlier, which continued discussions held with client teams in Svalbard in April. The revised roadmap, known as the strawmap, was published alongside the post.
Buterin called Lean Ethereum "the third major iteration of Ethereum in the same way that the Merge was the second," adding that "almost every major piece of the protocol will be replaced" over three to four years. He said the rollout is designed, like the 2022 Merge, to minimize disruption to existing applications.
Lean EthereumAccording to Buterin's post, the plan replaces direct transaction re-execution with verification through recursive STARKs, a cryptographic proof system he said would become "an enshrined first-class core component of the protocol."
Other listed changes include swapping quantum-vulnerable cryptography for quantum-safe alternatives, decoupling the available chain from finality to enable one- or two-round finality, introducing multidimensional gas, altering what types of state the network supports, and changing client architecture.
Buterin also said Hegotá — referred to in the post by its internal codename H-star — is "probably Ethereum's last thematically 'pre-Lean' fork." Starting with the following fork, internally named I-star, most future upgrades will carry what he called "a very strong 'Lean' feel."
Quantum Safety and Privacy Buterin wrote that quantum safety "has shifted up a LOT in priority," making a quantum-safe design for blobs — the temporary data storage layer-2 networks rely on — "urgent." He said that work has been ongoing for months. The Defiant has previously reported on Ethereum researchers' efforts toward this goal, including a post-quantum key registry and the Ethereum Foundation's post-quantum research hub.
Privacy, Buterin said, "is no longer an afterthought, it is a first class goal." He said that when designing new elements such as Frames, the mempool, or additions to the state tree, researchers now ask how "quantum-safe, intermediary-free privacy protocol transactions" would pass through them, and at what overhead.
Buterin also tied the plan to formal verification, saying it would allow the protocol to become more comfortable with canonicalization — defining protocol pieces directly as bytecode in a specific language. He pointed to evm-asm, which he said is being written in part to serve as a canonical proof system for the EVM.
State RedesignButerin described changes to Ethereum's state, the running record of account balances and contract data, as "probably the single most disruptive part of the plan." He said there is growing consensus around keeping today's flexible "dynamic" state largely unchanged while scaling it only moderately, and adding a new, more restrictive type of state designed to scale much further without requiring block builders to sync or store all of it.
As an example, Buterin described a possible Ethereum in 2030 holding 2 terabytes of present-day-style dynamic state alongside 100 terabytes of the new, more scalable state type. He said the new format would suit ERC-20 tokens, NFTs and many DeFi applications, but not "highly central" objects such as Uniswap contracts or onchain order books.
No application would be required to migrate, Buterin said, but doing so could be "very cost-effective": rewriting an ERC-20 token to use a new UTXO-based storage design currently under exploration could cut its transaction fees by more than 10x. He listed keyed nonces, ring buffers, UTXOs, statically accessible state and temporary state as current ideas for the new state types, and said the design will need extensive feedback from application developers, including those building privacy-focused applications.
Buterin separately flagged the incentive structure behind storing a much larger total state size as a "first-class research area," noting that simply requiring each node to store a fixed percentage of data doesn't explain why they would be willing to serve it.
On execution, Buterin said Ethereum will eventually need a virtual machine beyond the EVM — at minimum something like leanISA to support recursive STARKs — with leanISA and RISC-V as the leading contenders. His stated preference is for the EVM to become a high-level compiler feature while the protocol interacts directly with RISC-V or leanISA, though he said that shift "is still far away."
Buterin closed the post by saying gas limit increases, blob increases and slot-time decreases will recur over roughly the next five years, with a large gas limit increase expected alongside the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade.
Mixed ReactionsReaction on X centered on the roadmap's ambition and its timeline. Dankrad Feist, an Ethereum Foundation researcher whose work on data sharding gave danksharding its name, wrote that the strawmap "has lots of REALLY COOL features" and that "fully proven STF and scaling to Gigagas with finality in seconds gets me excited," but argued the three-to-four-year timeline "is very slow." He said the Foundation "should be ambitious and get it done in ~1 year," calling that "realistically possible now with LLMs."
Matt Liston pushed back on compressing the timeline publicly, writing that while a two-year delivery "seems between possible and likely," it "would be irresponsible" for Buterin or the Foundation to communicate a one-to-two-year expectation, adding that "underpromising" is the safer approach.
DeFi analyst Ignas framed the plan as "bullish for $ETH... if only the EF shipped on time," pointing to the Merge, which he said was "'six months away' for about four years." He wrote that the roadmap "addresses all (except one) key feedback" from the market — L1 reclaiming execution from layer-2 networks, privacy, quantum resistance and faster finality — but said Ethereum's tokenomics remain unaddressed, calling it a "non-issue if reduced fees attract more txs/users." Ignas also said the most significant parts of the plan arrive in 2028 and beyond, with finality targeted for 2029, and warned that delays help competitors such as Tempo and Canton compete for institutional and real-world-asset adoption.
Seven ForksThe strawmap was first introduced in February by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, outlining seven forks through 2029 organized around five "north star" goals: a fast L1, a "gigagas" L1 capable of roughly 10,000 transactions per second, a "teragas" L2, a post-quantum L1, and a private L1. The Defiant reported on the original strawmap at the time.
Buterin's update lands roughly a week and a half after the Ethereum Foundation cut its annual budget by about 40% and eliminated 54 roles, or 20% of its staff, as part of a restructuring meant to turn the nonprofit into a leaner, endowment-style organization. Buterin has said the Foundation's technical ambitions for the strawmap remain intact despite the reduced budget.
In brief BitMine added more than $73 million in Ethereum last week, pushing it closer to 5% of the total circulating supply. The firm now holds more than 5.74 million ETH, 4.87 million of which is staked for yield. Shares of BMNR, which were recently added to the Russell 1000 index, are up more than 5% since market open. Publicly traded Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies added around $73 million in ETH last week while Strategy, its leading Bitcoin counterpart, dumped $216 million in BTC to pay dividend obligations.
BitMine now maintains a treasury of 5,742,237 ETH—more than 4.7% of the Ethereum circulating supply—valued at nearly $10 billion, as ETH changes hands at $1,752.
The latest acquisition represents a step up from last week’s $43 million acquisition as BitMine Chairman Tom Lee—an investor in Dastan, the parent company of Decrypt—maintains the view that a period of crypto prosperity is just beginning, pointing to increased odds of the passage of the Clarity Act as another piece of evidence.
“Over the past few days, investors have become more optimistic about the passage of the Clarity Act with prediction markets now seeing approximately 50% probability, the highest odds in two weeks,” said Lee in a statement.
“We believe regulatory clarity is an important milestone, enabling crypto, particularly smart contract platforms like Ethereum, to benefit, as crypto becomes part of our everyday life,” he added.
Odds of the bill’s passage this year sit around 48% on Polymarket as of Monday morning, up 4% in the last week, but down 34% from a February high of around 82% in support of passage before the end of 2026.
Shares in BitMine reflect some additional investor optimism on Monday, jumping more than 5% shortly after market open to trade around $15.14 per share. The stock’s recently addition to the Russell 1000 index is expected to significantly impact the institutional ownership of the firm’s shares, according to Lee.
"Being added to the Russell 1000 is expected to add hundreds and possibly thousands of additional institutional investors as equity owners of BitMine," he said.
In addition to its ETH purchase, the firm has increased its staked ETH to 4,879,157 or nearly 85% of its entire stack, bringing its projected annualized staking revenue to $235 million.
ETH has gained more than 10% in the last week to change hands around $1,752, but remains 65% off its all-time high of $4,946.
Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
In brief BitMine added more than $73 million in Ethereum last week, pushing it closer to 5% of the total circulating supply. The firm now holds more than 5.74 million ETH, 4.87 million of which is staked for yield. Shares of BMNR, which were recently added to the Russell 1000 index, are up more than 5% since market open. Publicly traded Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies added around $73 million in ETH last week while Strategy, its leading Bitcoin counterpart, dumped $216 million in BTC to pay dividend obligations.
BitMine now maintains a treasury of 5,742,237 ETH—more than 4.7% of the Ethereum circulating supply—valued at nearly $10 billion, as ETH changes hands at $1,752.
The latest acquisition represents a step up from last week’s $43 million acquisition as BitMine Chairman Tom Lee—an investor in Dastan, the parent company of Decrypt—maintains the view that a period of crypto prosperity is just beginning, pointing to increased odds of the passage of the Clarity Act as another piece of evidence.
“Over the past few days, investors have become more optimistic about the passage of the Clarity Act with prediction markets now seeing approximately 50% probability, the highest odds in two weeks,” said Lee in a statement.
“We believe regulatory clarity is an important milestone, enabling crypto, particularly smart contract platforms like Ethereum, to benefit, as crypto becomes part of our everyday life,” he added.
Odds of the bill’s passage this year sit around 48% on Polymarket as of Monday morning, up 4% in the last week, but down 34% from a February high of around 82% in support of passage before the end of 2026.
Shares in BitMine reflect some additional investor optimism on Monday, jumping more than 5% shortly after market open to trade around $15.14 per share. The stock’s recently addition to the Russell 1000 index is expected to significantly impact the institutional ownership of the firm’s shares, according to Lee.
"Being added to the Russell 1000 is expected to add hundreds and possibly thousands of additional institutional investors as equity owners of BitMine," he said.
In addition to its ETH purchase, the firm has increased its staked ETH to 4,879,157 or nearly 85% of its entire stack, bringing its projected annualized staking revenue to $235 million.
ETH has gained more than 10% in the last week to change hands around $1,752, but remains 65% off its all-time high of $4,946.
Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
A major decentralized finance transaction on the Ethereum network ended with an estimated $2 million loss after a large swap was routed through a low-liquidity pool. According to blockchain analytics group Lookonchain and security firm GoPlus Security, the user exchanged 1,126.44 ETH—worth about $2.01 million at the time—in a single transaction.
Price impact from pool route deepened lossesInstead of receiving assets close to the original amount, the trader ended up with just 5,776 LIT tokens, valued at around $14,200. GoPlus Security clarified that the loss was not caused by a hack or a standard front-running scenario. Rather, it resulted from a backrunning arbitrage mechanism operating within the same block, exploiting price inconsistencies caused by the trade. GoPlus Security is widely recognized for its work on blockchain and smart contract risk assessment.
GoPlus Security emphasized that this was not a security breach or typical front-running, but rather price manipulation from a backrunning arbitrage opportunity occurring within the same block.
The ill-fated swap was routed through the AVAIL/WETH pool on Uniswap V3. With extremely limited liquidity in this pool, the large ETH order instantly pushed the AVAIL token price far above its actual market value. This forced the trader to purchase the token at a dramatically inflated price, resulting in severe losses.
Backrunning arbitrage within the same block draws attentionThe transaction continued across additional trading routes. After the AVAIL tokens were swapped for USDC, the trader then bought LIT on Uniswap V4. However, due to unfavorable price execution along each step, almost the entire value of the original ETH was wiped out.
As explained by GoPlus Security, after the large swap disrupted prices in the AVAIL/WETH pool, a backrunning participant acquired AVAIL at or near the fair market value from another source. That trader then sold the tokens into the artificially inflated pool, extracting more than 1,072 WETH as profit.
Glossary: MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) refers to the extra profit gained from prioritizing and ordering transactions during block production. A “backrunner” is a participant who quickly moves in to profit from temporary price swings caused by a large order.
On-chain data showed that roughly 1,018 ETH was subsequently sent to Titan Builder as a block producer payment.
Low liquidity raises risk for large tradesBlockchain records reveal that about 1,018 ETH was later paid to Titan Builder as a block builder fee. This highlights how MEV participants can seize pricing imbalances during block production to generate significant revenue. Titan Builder stands out as a key transaction organizer within the Ethereum block-building ecosystem.
The incident has reignited debate about the risks associated with processing large orders through pools with limited liquidity. When a sizable transaction passes through such markets, even a single order can cause rapid and extreme price fluctuations. While arbitrageurs often restore price equilibrium after the fact, users may end up paying far above the true market value during these episodes.
Ultimately, this example underscores the need for smarter routing technologies in decentralized trading. Systems that avoid illiquid pools and better estimate transaction costs on a route-by-route basis could help prevent similar costly errors in the future.
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.
Influenced by news that Strategy sold Bitcoin to pay dividends, STRC rebounded to break above $90.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Strategy’s preferred stock STRC has rebounded above $90, trading at $90.125, with a 2.57% intraday gain. Earlier reports noted that Strategy sold 3,588 Bitcoin last week, generating $216 million in proceeds to pay dividends on its digital credit securities. As of July 5, the company’s Bitcoin reserves fell to 843,775 coins, alongside $2.55 billion in U.S. dollar reserves.
7 minutes ago
BlackRock Withdraws 7,546 ETH From Coinbase Prime, Worth Around $13.2 Million
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, BlackRock just purchased and withdrew 7,546 ETH from Coinbase Prime, worth approximately $13.2 million.
7 minutes ago
Four wallets are holding 2x longs on $DEXE on @Aster_DEX, with a combined unrealized profit of ~$1.32M.
The $DEXE price keeps climbing today. Four wallets are holding 2x longs on $DEXE on @Aster_DEX, with a combined unrealized profit of ~$1.32M. The highest return has reached 104.57%.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, publicly listed Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms has deposited 500 BTC, valued at around $30.9 million, with NYDIG Custody, likely for sale.
7 minutes ago
Jiang Zhuoer: Strategy’s approved 20,000 BTC for sale will likely be fully sold.
Jiang Zhuoer, founder of BTC mining pool BTC.TOP, posted that U.S. crypto asset firm Strategy has sold 3,588 BTC for $216 million. This marks Strategy’s first large-scale BTC sell-off, carried out despite holding $2.55 billion in cash reserves — enough to cover 17.6 months of interest payments — and voluntarily selling more BTC than required to meet its interest obligations. This move signals the breakdown of Strategy’s long-held "never sell BTC" narrative. Jiang said he does not understand the reason behind Strategy’s current large-scale sell-off, noting that even if it lacks U.S. dollars, it could continue raising funds by issuing additional common stock. While this would reduce BTC holdings per share, he argues that preserving the "never sell" narrative and related beliefs is far more important than per-share BTC metrics. If Strategy fails to repurchase BTC at lower prices after the sell-off, it will also lead to a decline in per-share BTC holdings. Jiang added that Strategy’s willingness to bear this cost can only be interpreted as its preparation to conduct significant BTC swing trading. Jiang further stated that the 20,000 BTC already approved by Strategy’s board will almost certainly be sold in full. He believes that during the upcoming bull market phase, the market may witness a sell-off by an entity holding hundreds of thousands of BTC.
7 minutes ago
American Bitcoin adds 500 BTC to its holdings, bringing its total BTC holdings to 8,000.
Bitcoin mining firm American Bitcoin, backed by the Trump family, has increased its holdings by 500 BTC, bringing its total position to 8,000 BTC.
Bitmine (NYSE: BMNR) stock price is up by 4.28% today, July 6, to trade at $14.98 at the time of writing. These gains come after Bitmine announced that it bought an additional 42,197 ETH, with this purchase taking place during the same week that Strategy sold 3,588 BTC.
Bitmine’s Ethereum Holdings Reach 5.74 million ETH Bitmine has disclosed that it now holds 5,742,237 ETH after buying 42,197 coins between June 29 and July 3. The Ethereum treasury company now holds 4.8% of the entire Ethereum supply.
The recent purchase has also increased the amount of ETH that Bitmine has staked to 4,879,157 coins, with this staked amount being 85% of the Ethereum it holds. Bitmine notes that the staked ETH generates a yield of around $235 million every year.
Bitmine’s purchase has stirred gains for the BMNR stock because it moved from an opening price of $14.39 to $15.04 at the time of writing.
But while BMNR stock gained, Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) dropped by 1.17% after Strategy sold 3,588 BTC to buy back the STRC stock.
The divergence between the two crypto stocks suggests that investors could be betting on a HODL strategy by crypto treasury companies.
BMNR Stock Outlook as Bulls Target Key Resistance Level The price of BMNR stock is testing the resistance of $15 after its 4% gain. The last time that Bitmine shares traded above this obstacle of $15 was on June 23.
If BMNR closes above $15, the next obstacle lies at the 50-day EMA level of $15.88, with a move above this EMA set to suggest that the trend is shifting in favor of bulls.
The RSI reading of 53 also supports a bullish BMNR stock forecast. This RSI has moved from a reading of 31 on June 30 to 53 on July 6, suggesting that the momentum is now favoring bulls.
BMNR Stock Price If bulls weaken their grip and investors that want to book profits after the recent gains begin to sell, the crypto stock could move to the support level of $13.
Bitmine’s Chairman Tom Lee Flips Bullish on Stocks in July The gains seen with the BMNR stock price come as the chairman of Bitmine, Tom Lee, says that US stocks are going to rise in July 2026.
Lee was speaking in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, where he opined that the companies that will report their Q3 earnings in July are going to surpass Wall Street expectations, and this could cause stock prices to rise.
He also added that the S&P 500 index could rise from the current 7,500 points and reach 8,000 points in 2026.
Bitmine will release its earnings for the period between April 2026 and June 2026 on July 29, and Wall Street expects the company’s revenue to reach $45 million.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has unveiled a multi-year roadmap that places native privacy, quantum resistance, and protocol simplification at the center of Ethereum’s next major upgrade, describing it as the network’s largest transformation since The Merge.
Summary
Vitalik Buterin has proposed Ethereum’s biggest protocol overhaul since The Merge with a multi-year roadmap. The plan prioritizes native privacy, quantum-resistant cryptography, and more efficient transaction verification. The roadmap remains a draft, with the Hegotá fork expected to be the final upgrade before the Lean Ethereum era. According to a roadmap published on Strawmap.org and shared by Buterin on X over July 6, the proposed changes are expected to be introduced over the next three to four years following discussions among Ethereum researchers in Berlin.
If we want to make the Lean Ethereum consensus chain aggressively more "lean", and add strong validator privacy (ZK-unlink deposit from staking activity from withdrawal, and re-anonymize stakers every day), here is a path:https://t.co/Gdee7tE53R
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 6, 2026 The document outlines coordinated upgrades spanning nearly every layer of the network and presents what Buterin describes as Ethereum’s third major evolution after its transition to proof-of-stake in 2022.
Native privacy becomes a core protocol feature Instead of leaving privacy to applications built on Ethereum, the roadmap proposes making it a built-in property of the protocol itself. The document evaluates key components, including Frames, the transaction mempool, and future state designs, according to whether they can support intermediary-free, quantum-safe privacy while keeping computational costs low.
Building on ideas first outlined in May 2026, Buterin’s latest proposal expands an earlier privacy roadmap into a network-wide redesign. What previously focused on incremental improvements has now developed into a long-term architectural plan covering the protocol’s core infrastructure.
Among the document’s strongest statements is Buterin’s observation that “quantum safety has shifted up a LOT in priority.” The roadmap identifies work on quantum-safe blob designs, which support Ethereum’s rollup-based scaling model, as an urgent priority.
According to the proposal, several cryptographic systems currently used by Ethereum, including BLS signatures, KZG commitments, and ECDSA, would eventually be replaced with post-quantum alternatives. The direction aligns with the post-quantum cryptography standards finalized by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2024.
Protocol redesign targets faster verification and smaller overhead Alongside cryptographic upgrades, the roadmap introduces changes intended to simplify how Ethereum validates transactions. Rather than requiring every node to re-execute every transaction, the proposal recommends recursive STARK-based verification, where one prover performs the intensive computation while the rest of the network verifies a compact cryptographic proof.
The proposal also continues work first discussed by the Ethereum Foundation earlier this year. In February 2026, the Foundation released an initial strawmap examining quantum threats facing Ethereum, while Buterin separately detailed the network’s quantum security risks. The latest roadmap develops those earlier discussions into a more detailed implementation strategy.
Meanwhile, the technical proposal arrives as the Ethereum Foundation continues internal restructuring. The organization has reduced its workforce by roughly 20%, eliminating about 54 positions, while also cutting its budget by a targeted 40%. Recent departures have included protocol contributors Hsiao-Wei Wang, Tomasz Stańczak, Tim Beiko, and Barnabé Monnot.
Community discussion on X has largely focused on the roadmap’s technical detail rather than broad ambitions. Several participants noted that the draft identifies specific signature schemes, cryptographic replacements, and state-size objectives instead of relying on high-level goals.
For now, the roadmap remains a working draft rather than a finalized implementation schedule. According to the document, the upcoming Hegotá fork is expected to be the final major network upgrade before Ethereum enters what Buterin describes as the Lean Ethereum era, where privacy, scalability, and quantum resistance are treated as core protocol requirements rather than optional additions.
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.
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According to new data published by Visa, the adjusted stablecoin transaction volume soared to $1.79 trillion in June. This marks a staggering 63 percent increase from May’s $1.1 trillion, not only surpassing the previous peak of $1.78 trillion in February but also representing a year-on-year surge of 125 percent. The numbers signal a dramatic growth in stablecoin activity across the sector.
A new all-time high in JuneThe data indicates that stablecoin adoption is expanding well beyond simple crypto trading. Use cases are widening to include payments, decentralized finance applications, and cross-border money transfers. Even as the broader crypto market shows signs of stagnation, the sustained increase in stablecoin transaction volume points to a new central role for these assets in the digital asset ecosystem.
Grayscale’s Head of Research, Zach Pandl, remarked that June 2026 became another record-setting month for stablecoin transaction volumes, surpassing even February’s highs.
Grayscale, a leading digital asset investment firm, frequently stands out with its in-depth institutional analysis. Its research division regularly provides evaluations on capital flows in crypto markets and updates on the evolving infrastructure landscape.
USDC dominates June transaction volumeDespite Tether’s USDT retaining its crown as the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, June’s transaction volume spotlighted Circle’s USDC. Visa’s data illustrates that USDC accounted for $1.21 trillion in transactions — around 67 percent of the total. By contrast, USDT saw $576 billion in volume, securing about 32 percent market share. PayPal’s PYUSD rounded out the top three with $2.42 billion in transactions.
These figures reveal a clear divergence between market capitalization and real-world usage. Which stablecoins are chosen for payments and on-chain liquidity flows provides fresh insight into evolving user preferences and trends within the broader crypto economy.
Base and Ethereum neck and neck for network activityIn June, most stablecoin operations took place on Coinbase’s Ethereum layer 2 network Base, which processed $565 billion — about 31.5 percent of the total volume. Ethereum’s mainnet closely followed at $562 billion, while Tron ranked third with $320 billion, accounting for roughly 18 percent of all transactions measured.
Mini glossary: A layer 2 network is a scaling solution built atop the main blockchain that aims to process transactions faster or more cost-effectively. Base is one such network operating on Ethereum.
Visa, working with Artemis, Allium Labs, and Castle Island Ventures, has refined its calculation methods to filter out high-frequency bot trades, exchange treasury rebalancing, and repetitive smart contract activity. The company emphasizes that this approach is designed to more accurately reflect genuine, organic stablecoin activity.
New launches and institutional interest intensifyingAs competition in the stablecoin market heats up, Open Standard announced the launch of Open USD (OUSD) on Tuesday. The project has reportedly secured backing from more than 140 organizations spanning payments, banking, technology, and crypto — including heavyweights Visa and Mastercard.
Nick Ruck, head of LVRG Research, commented that the record-breaking volume underscores how stablecoins are establishing themselves as foundational infrastructure for value transfer, liquidity provisioning, and decentralized finance — independent from price volatility.
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.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs traded in the United States recorded $526.64 million in net outflows between June 29 and July 2. With this latest development, the streak of withdrawals from these products has now reached its eighth consecutive week. This marks the longest continuous weekly outflow period seen since spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in the US.
Outflows continue in Bitcoin and Ethereum fundsThe cautious approach from institutional investors, combined with weaker momentum in Bitcoin, was clearly reflected in ETF data. According to SoSoValue, the total net assets of US spot Bitcoin ETFs fell to around $74.37 billion. In the same period, Bitcoin traded near $61,500. During June alone, outflows from these products totaled approximately $4.5 billion, underlining the sustained pressure in the market.
Wu Blockchain reported that US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw nearly $527 million in net outflows over the period from June 29 to July 2, bringing the outflow streak to eight consecutive weeks.
Spot Ethereum ETFs mirrored this trend. In the same timeframe, Ethereum ETFs experienced $13.67 million in net redemptions, also marking their eighth straight week of outflows. The simultaneous withdrawals from funds tied to the two largest digital assets signal that investor appetite for risk remains subdued across the sector.
Diverging trends in altcoin ETFsWhile Bitcoin and Ethereum products continued to lose assets, certain altcoin ETFs bucked the trend by attracting fresh capital. Spot Solana ETFs posted $5.75 million in net inflows for the week. XRP ETFs stood out with $17.19 million in new investments, representing the strongest performance in the altcoin ETF category. Hyperliquid ETFs also saw positive flows, gaining $4.32 million in net inflows despite a noticeable slowdown compared to previous weeks.
Glossary: SoSoValue is a data platform commonly used to track ETF flows and market metrics in digital asset markets. Net inflow refers to the difference between money entering and exiting a fund.
This divergence suggests that, rather than exiting the crypto ETF market entirely, some investors are reallocating capital toward alternative digital assets. Although Bitcoin remains the predominant option among institutional vehicles, select interest in altcoin-based products appears to be holding steady.
Brief signs of recovery prove short-livedDespite a weak weekly outlook, there were limited signs of recovery at the period’s close. On July 2, US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted over $221 million in daily net inflows, breaking a 10-day outflow streak. However, this single-day shift was not deemed sufficient to reverse the broader eight-week trend.
Market observers attribute the prolonged outflows to macroeconomic uncertainty, rising interest rate expectations, and diminished risk appetite. With pressure persisting on Bitcoin, it appears institutional investors continue to scale back their exposure by redeeming ETF shares.
In the period ahead, ETF flows are expected to serve as a key gauge of institutional sentiment. Sustained net inflows could suggest renewed confidence in Bitcoin, while ongoing outflows may indicate demand will remain muted until broader market conditions improve.
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.
Key Takeaways Blockchain security company Coinspect has identified a critical security weakness dubbed “Ill Bloom” that impacts cryptocurrency wallets on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Tron, Solana, and additional networks The security issue originates from inadequate random number generation used when creating wallet recovery phrases in specific mobile wallet applications Hackers have successfully stolen a minimum of $5 million starting May 27, including one coordinated assault that emptied 431 wallets totaling $3.1 million The vulnerability has existed since 2018, meaning wallets created years ago could still be compromised Users can verify their wallet’s safety using a complimentary verification tool provided by Coinspect Coinspect, a prominent blockchain security organization, has revealed a critical security flaw named “Ill Bloom” that threatens thousands of cryptocurrency wallets worldwide.
The security weakness is rooted in insufficient randomness during the seed phrase generation process used by certain software wallets. When wallet applications employ inadequate random number generators during the creation phase, the resulting mnemonic phrases become susceptible to prediction and exploitation by malicious actors.
Multiple blockchain networks are impacted, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Rootstock, Tron, and Solana.
According to Coinspect’s investigation, this security flaw has existed for at least six years, dating back to 2018. Alarmingly, vulnerable wallets were still being created as recently as several weeks ago, putting both longtime users and newcomers at serious risk.
Timeline of the Exploitation Campaign The first major coordinated attack occurred on May 27, when cybercriminals targeted 431 wallets from a pool of 2,114 identified vulnerable addresses, successfully draining $3.1 million worth of digital assets.
A second wave of attacks struck over the weekend, with approximately $2 million extracted from compromised wallets. Current estimates place total losses at a minimum of $5 million, though Coinspect suggests the actual figure may be considerably higher when accounting for losses across all affected blockchain networks.
To prevent further exploitation, Coinspect has deliberately withheld complete technical specifications of the vulnerability, limiting the information available to potential attackers.
According to the security firm, hardware wallet owners remain unaffected by this particular vulnerability. Most popular software wallet providers are also considered secure. The primary risk group consists of individuals who generated their recovery phrases using obscure or lesser-known mobile wallet applications.
Historical Precedents of Seed Generation Vulnerabilities The Ill Bloom vulnerability is not an isolated incident in the cryptocurrency security landscape.
During 2023, Ledger’s cybersecurity division discovered that the browser extension version of Trust Wallet contained a seed generation weakness that significantly reduced randomness. This flaw reduced potential phrase combinations to approximately four billion possibilities, making it feasible for attackers to crack wallets within 24 hours using modest GPU computing power. Trust Wallet addressed the vulnerability before any user funds were compromised.
Similarly in 2023, a security weakness in the Libbitcoin Explorer wallet software resulted in $900,000 being stolen through systematic private key brute-force attacks.
What makes the Ill Bloom vulnerability particularly concerning is that it doesn’t originate from a single wallet provider, making remediation efforts more complex and widespread.
SlowMist, a respected security monitoring organization, has confirmed it is actively tracking the ongoing situation. Coinspect is calling on wallet developers to implement weak mnemonic detection capabilities directly into their applications.
Concerned users can access Coinspect’s specialized verification tool to determine whether their wallet addresses are vulnerable. If unauthorized transactions have occurred from your wallet, the Ill Bloom vulnerability may be responsible.
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.
Deribit by Coinbase, via its broker-dealer DRB Panama Inc., and SignalPlus, a leading provider of software and infrastructure solutions for crypto derivatives, today announced the launch of The Island, their fifth trading competition and biggest edition to date.
Running for 35 days, the competition features up to $600,000 USDC in prizes across solo and team competition, daily and weekly reward rounds, Mystery Box deposit mechanics, short-dated options challenges, and a Private Island jackpot.
Registration for The Island opens on June 29 at 08:00 UTC, with the competition running from July 6 at 08:00 UTC through August 10 at 23:59 UTC. To participate, users must trade through SignalPlus on Deribit. Competition standings will be based on eligible options and futures trading volume only, with options weighted 1.0 and futures weighted 0.5.
The campaign is designed around eleven core arenas spanning weekly volume competition, daily reward loops, team participation, referral-driven expansion, whale and block-trade incentives, and dynamic ecosystem progression in one connected experience. New mechanics in this edition include the Mystery Box deposit experience, a weekly P&L leaderboard, short-dated options reward multipliers, and the Flash Arena, where higher short-dated options volume unlocks more jackpot shots and reward opportunities.
Key Details
Total Prize Pool: Up to $600,000 USDC Registration Period: June 29, 2026, 08:00 UTC – August 10, 2026, 23:59 UTC Competition Period: July 6, 2026, 08:00 UTC – August 10, 2026, 23:59 UTC Eligibility: Open to eligible retail traders on Deribit via SignalPlus Registration Link: https://t.signalplus.com/deribitislandcompetition This campaign is run by DRB Panama Inc and is not targeted at or intended for residents of Dubai, UAE. T&Cs apply. Virtual Assets are subject to extreme market volatility, involve a high degree of risk, and can lose value, in part or in full.
Early Bird Incentives
Users who register by July 7th will receive 3 free Deribit options. Team captains who invite five or more friends to register by July 7th will have a chance to win a Cressi Velvet Wetsuit valued at 300 USDC. Among the first 10 participants to reach 200M in trading volume by July 12, one randomly selected winner will receive two RIMOWA suitcases valued at 5,000 USDC in total. “The Island brings together everything we want this competition to be: bigger scale, stronger participation loops, and a structure that rewards how active options traders actually engage,” said Luuk Strijers, Senior Director from Deribit by Coinbase. “With solo and team competition, short-dated options mechanics and aspirational rewards led by the Private Island jackpot, this is our most ambitious retail trading campaign yet.”“We are excited to partner with Deribit by Coinbase once again on the latest edition of the competition,” said Chris Yu, CEO and Co-Founder from SignalPlus. “The Island is designed to make participation more dynamic and more rewarding, whether traders are competing on volume, teaming up with their network, or engaging through short-dated options and daily missions. Together, we are creating a more immersive experience for sophisticated retail traders.”
Competition Highlights include:
Core Arena: Weekly solo and team trading leaderboards designed to reward notional trading activity across individual and squad-based competition. Mystery Box Deposit Round: Users who register and maintain deposits for seven days unlock Mystery Box draw chances tied to guaranteed USDC prizes and premium rewards. Daily Reward Ecosystem: Daily individual and team missions encourage repeat engagement, with volume-based rewards and team milestone unlocks. Flash Arena: Short-dated options trading powers daily reward multipliers and jackpot-style shooting mechanics, including access to the Private Island reward opportunity. Block Arena: High-balance and block-trade participants can unlock fee rebates and luxury reward opportunities. Expansion Arena: Referral mechanics reward both community growth and successful invitations of higher-value traders. In addition to the Private Island headline reward, this year’s prize pool includes a range of premium rewards such as a Rolex Watch, Apple Vision Pro, NVIDIA Stock, Luxury Turkey Trip, Ledger Stax, Gentle Monster Sunglasses, Razer Keyboard, SOL spot rewards, trading fee coupons, and daily USDC prize pools.
The Island invites participants into a dynamic retail trading competition that combines strategic trading with team-based participation and a tiered reward structure. With every trade, participants move closer to exclusive rewards, from daily USDC prizes to the Private Island headline jackpot. The event begins today.
About Deribit
Deribit by Coinbase is a centralized, institutional-grade provider of crypto derivatives ecosystem, specializing in Bitcoin and Ethereum options and futures. With state-of-the-art infrastructure, Deribit offers instantaneous price discovery, low-latency execution, advanced risk mitigation tools, and deep liquidity through a network of top-tier market makers. Deribit facilitates the majority of global crypto options volume and upholds rigorous proof-of-reserves practices to maintain the highest standards of integrity and transparency.
About SignalPlus
Signalplus provides trading software and infrastructure for crypto derivatives, helping professional and sophisticated retail traders access options, futures, and spot markets with advanced execution and analytics tools. SignalPlus delivers a comprehensive options trading suite tailored for crypto derivatives traders.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has published a sweeping multi-year overhaul of the protocol. He named native privacy a “first-class goal” alongside quantum resistance and massive scalability upgrades, a shift he says is comparable in scale to The Merge.
Vitalik Buterin Privacy and Quantum Resistance Move to the Front of the Queue Vitalik Buterin shared the plan via X on July 4–5, 2026, days after Ethereum researchers gathered in Berlin to refine the network’s long-term direction.
If we want to make the Lean Ethereum consensus chain aggressively more "lean", and add strong validator privacy (ZK-unlink deposit from staking activity from withdrawal, and re-anonymize stakers every day), here is a path:https://t.co/Gdee7tE53R
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 6, 2026
The document, published on strawmap.org, outlines coordinated protocol changes expected to roll out across three to four years. Also it aims to touch nearly every layer of the Ethereum stack. Buterin described the effort as Ethereum’s third major transformation. The first being the shift to proof-of-stake in 2022, known as The Merge.
The announcement builds directly on momentum from May 2026, when Buterin outlined a shorter-term privacy roadmap for Ethereum. This signaled that what began as incremental thinking had evolved into a full architectural commitment.
Now, rather than treating privacy as an application-layer add-on, the new Lean Ethereum roadmap evaluates every core protocol component, Frames, the mempool, and future state structures by whether they can support intermediary-free, quantum-safe privacy with low overhead.
Under the Lean Ethereum roadmap, Buterin writes that “quantum safety has shifted up a LOT in priority.” Work on quantum-safe blob designs, the data structures that underpin Ethereum’s rollup scaling, is already underway and described as urgent.
The plan calls for replacing quantum-vulnerable components (BLS signatures, KZG commitments, and ECDSA) with post-quantum cryptography, a direction that mirrors the NIST post-quantum encryption standards finalized in 2024.
On scalability, the strawmap proposes replacing direct transaction re-execution across all nodes with recursive STARK-based verification, a cryptographic method where one prover does the heavy computation and all other nodes verify a compact proof.
Earlier coverage on the broader quantum threat to Ethereum revealed that Buterin mapped out Ethereum’s quantum risks. It was revealed when the Foundation first unveiled its strawmap in February 2026, a thread that now reads as groundwork for today’s more urgent posture.
A Leaner Foundation Behind a Leaner Protocol The technical overhaul arrives as the Ethereum Foundation undergoes its own restructuring. The organization cut approximately 20% of its staff, around 54 roles, and reduced its budget by a targeted 40%. Recent departures include protocol contributors Hsiao-Wei Wang, Tomasz Stańczak, Tim Beiko, and Barnabé Monnot.
The Ethereum community reaction on X has been broadly positive on technical direction, and the Ethereum price forecast has also strengthened, with observers noting that the plan is more specific than typical. This is because long-range crypto promises, naming actual signature schemes and state-size targets.
The strawmap remains a living draft, not a confirmed schedule. The Hegotá fork is described as likely the last before the Lean era begins.
For context on how Ethereum’s speed and scalability narrative has been framed in prior months, Vitalik Buterin explained what faster Ethereum would cost in March 2026, making this Lean Ethereum roadmap the clearest answer yet to that earlier question.
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Lighter (LIT) surged more than 20% on Monday to $2.6, its highest level since January, after the perpetuals exchange unveiled a tokenomics overhaul that adds permanent burns and a revamped staking model.
The move made LIT the top gainer among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies. It extended a rally that has lifted the token roughly 40% over the past week, far outpacing the broader market.
Lighter (LIT) Token Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto MarketsFollow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Lighter Introduces Tokenomics UpdateLighter has bought back LIT with exchange revenue after its token launch. The exchange said it has repurchased about 15.5 million LIT, or roughly 6.3% of the circulating supply. Lighter said it plans to use the buybacks to permanently reduce the LIT supply through burns.
The burns will run by sending LIT to a burn address on the Ethereum (ETH) mainnet. Lighter plans its first burn in the weeks after the second quarter closes. It noted it may burn undistributed LIT rather than the exact repurchased tokens.
“This is economically equivalent for LIT holders and allows Lighter to manage treasury operations efficiently and avoid unnecessary costs,” the exchange said.
Staking Rewards Shift to ReserveLighter also changed how it funds staking rewards. Since launching its staking program in January, it has distributed about 3.72 million LIT using pre-TGE revenue, including roughly 170,000 LIT through its fee credits program.
That approach is ending. The exchange will now fund staking rewards using its remaining ecosystem tokens, which total 250 million LIT.
The protocol is targeting a 6% annualized staking yield. With about 125 million LIT currently staked, that would distribute roughly 7.5 million LIT per year.
LIT still trades well below its $7.86 record set in December. Whether the new model sustains demand may hinge on trading revenue holding up in the months ahead.
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Coinbase faced sharp criticism this weekend after an AI-generated alert on its prediction markets reportedly declared a false World Cup result, saying Norway had beaten Brazil before the match was played.
The notification claimed Norway won 3-2, with striker Erling Haaland scoring twice, and framed the fabricated outcome as breaking news. Users flagged the alert on social media, where critics called it dangerous and irresponsible.
Coinbase AI Alert Draws Backlash Over Fake World Cup ResultUsers accuse Coinbase of hallucinating results for a game that had not started, delivering factually incorrect alerts to millions of customers.
this is what happens when a crypto company uses AI to generate sports prediction markets @coinbase is hallucinating results
for a World Cup game that hasn’t even been played yet and sending factually incorrect notifications to its millions of users as “breaking news”… pic.twitter.com/coD8xY2O0S
— jay (@jay_drainjr) July 5, 2026 The knockout-stage fixture was set for Sunday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Coinbase’s own market page listed the match under a weather delay, so no result existed when the alert went out.
Coinbase Chief Executive Brian Armstrong responded within hours, acknowledging the reports publicly.
“Taking a look with the team – thx for reporting it,” Armstrong responded in his first public comment on the error.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Incident Tests Coinbase’s Truth-Seeking PitchThe timing is awkward. Armstrong has promoted prediction markets as a reliable way to surface facts. He argues financial stakes produce better information than traditional media.
“Prediction markets are the ultimate form of truth seeking. When there’s skin in the game, the output is far more reliable,” Armstrong stated in January.
However, those words now sit beside an AI system that invented, or rather, “hallucinated” a result. Coinbase’s 2025 shareholder letter also calls being the “most trusted name in crypto” its core strategy.
That pitch has drawn scrutiny before. In late 2025, Armstrong read out words that traders had bet he would say on an earnings call. The move nudged a market tied to his own remarks.
“And I just want to add here the words Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Staking, and Web3 to make sure we get those in before the end of the call,” Armstrong stated, blurting out the predicted words without any apparent context.
The mishap also lands as Coinbase leans hard into AI. Armstrong fired engineers in 2025 who refused to use new coding assistants.
He said in September that about 40% of daily code was AI-generated, with a target above 50%. The firm has since cut its AI costs while adding automated features.
~40% of daily code written at Coinbase is AI-generated. I want to get it to >50% by October.
Obviously it needs to be reviewed and understood, and not all areas of the business can use AI-generated code. But we should be using it responsibly as much as we possibly can. pic.twitter.com/Nmnsdxgosp
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) September 3, 2025 Coinbase rolled out prediction markets across the US as part of its Everything Exchange. Early market flow was powered by Kalshi, a partner in the prediction market race.
The exchange has also fielded betting promotion concerns in its consumer app. In March, Armstrong addressed a separate targeting bug that pushed unwanted alerts.
“Looks like there was a bug on targeting for these push notifications – getting fixed now…The alternative is for us to apply a heavy hand and dictate what customers should or should not trade and I don’t think people want that either – too paternalistic, and anti free market,” he said.
Meanwhile, the error revives questions about AI safeguards in financial products used by millions.
The company will likely disable automated match alerts until it can verify outcomes. Past fixes suggest a patch and an apology could follow. Repeated failures, however, point to deeper product strain.
Coinbase and Armstrong did not immediately respond to BeInCrypto’s request for comment.
BNY Mellon: Urgency for further Federal Reserve tightening has diminished.
Jeff, Senior Macro Strategist at the Bank of New York Mellon, pointed out that weak U.S. labor data and improved inflation metrics have reduced the urgency for the Federal Reserve to implement further monetary tightening. However, this does not resolve lingering questions about whether the growth slowdown is within a controllable range or whether policy expectations have been overly adjusted. He remarked, “The global narrative is growing less unified.” In the U.S., the key question is whether the Federal Reserve can maintain patience without inflation risks reemerging; in Europe, meanwhile, the focus of discussions has shifted from urgent inflation management to issues including economic growth, fiscal credibility, and defense financing.
1 seconds ago
Recently, only two whales on Hyperliquid have completed position building for MU, with the average entry price for long positions standing at $1,019.
According to Hyperinsight’s monitoring, following the U.S. stock market’s closure for Independence Day last Friday, U.S. stock trading volumes slowed sharply over the weekend, with MU’s 24-hour volume reaching just $99 million. Only one whale built and held a MU (Micron Technology) position on Hyperliquid over the weekend. This whale’s address (0x93c) was created three days ago and currently only engages in long MU trades on Hyperliquid. Approximately three hours ago, the address opened another long position of 1,319.5 MU with 7x leverage, worth roughly $1.33 million, at an average entry price of $1,002 and a liquidation price of $904. Separately, only one whale also opened a MU position during last Friday’s market closure and has held it since. This whale currently holds a long position valued at approximately $8.31 million, with an average entry price of $1,036, and is currently in a slight unrealized loss.
1 seconds ago
DeFi protocol Summer Finance hacked, $6 million in losses
According to Blockaid's monitoring, DeFi protocol Summer Finance is under ongoing attack, with approximately $6 million in assets stolen so far.
1 seconds ago
JPMorgan Chase maintains an "Overweight" rating on Tencent, with a target price of HK$690.
JPMorgan said in a report that uncertainties surrounding Tencent’s WeChat AI Agent include whether it can fully integrate into the WeChat platform, the extent of its transaction permissions, and whether Tencent can build a supply system accessible to AI Agents without relying on existing e-commerce platforms to open inventory. With Tencent launching the beta test for WeChat AI Agent in June, the bank has significantly boosted its confidence in the agent’s value creation framework. The Agent service is now sufficiently visible, enabling a clear distinction between its existing components and areas still under development. This has shifted WeChat AI Agent from an AI initiative with no clear timeline to a phased rollout project with observable milestones. The bank believes the initial impact of WeChat AI Agent’s launch on Tencent’s stock price will likely stem from a reduction in risk premium and higher valuation multiples, rather than short-term earnings per share growth. It assigned Tencent an "Overweight" rating, with a target price of HK$690.
1 seconds ago
South Korea is pushing forward civil enforcement rules for virtual assets, with plans to allow courts to seize and liquidate crypto assets.
South Korea’s Supreme Court has issued a legislative notice for the Partial Amendment to the Civil Execution Rules, which will for the first time bring virtual assets under the scope of civil compulsory enforcement. Following a public comment period, the amended rules are set to take effect on October 1, 2026. Key provisions include: Compulsory enforcement of claims for digital asset transfers (courts may launch enforcement via seizure orders, barring third-party debtors like trading platforms from transferring assets to the debtor, while restricting the debtor from disposing of such claims); Compulsory enforcement of digital assets themselves (courts may seize virtual assets held by the debtor, which will be taken over by enforcement officers, with the debtor prohibited from disposal); Liquidation methods: Seized digital assets can be monetized via transfer orders or auction orders. For assets with low liquidity, conversion into other digital assets prior to auction is allowed.
1 seconds ago
Garret Jin increases his short position on ZEC, with the position valued at $14.9 million.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, Garret Jin, agent of the "BTC OG Insider Whale", has increased his ZEC short position to 32,759.57 ZEC, worth $14.9 million. Garret still holds a 5x leveraged BTC long position valued at $80 million, currently with a loss exceeding $16.38 million.
BNY Mellon: Urgency for further Federal Reserve tightening has diminished.
Jeff, Senior Macro Strategist at the Bank of New York Mellon, pointed out that weak U.S. labor data and improved inflation metrics have reduced the urgency for the Federal Reserve to implement further monetary tightening. However, this does not resolve lingering questions about whether the growth slowdown is within a controllable range or whether policy expectations have been overly adjusted. He remarked, “The global narrative is growing less unified.” In the U.S., the key question is whether the Federal Reserve can maintain patience without inflation risks reemerging; in Europe, meanwhile, the focus of discussions has shifted from urgent inflation management to issues including economic growth, fiscal credibility, and defense financing.
1 seconds ago
Recently, only two whales on Hyperliquid have completed position building for MU, with the average entry price for long positions standing at $1,019.
According to Hyperinsight’s monitoring, following the U.S. stock market’s closure for Independence Day last Friday, U.S. stock trading volumes slowed sharply over the weekend, with MU’s 24-hour volume reaching just $99 million. Only one whale built and held a MU (Micron Technology) position on Hyperliquid over the weekend. This whale’s address (0x93c) was created three days ago and currently only engages in long MU trades on Hyperliquid. Approximately three hours ago, the address opened another long position of 1,319.5 MU with 7x leverage, worth roughly $1.33 million, at an average entry price of $1,002 and a liquidation price of $904. Separately, only one whale also opened a MU position during last Friday’s market closure and has held it since. This whale currently holds a long position valued at approximately $8.31 million, with an average entry price of $1,036, and is currently in a slight unrealized loss.
1 seconds ago
DeFi protocol Summer Finance hacked, $6 million in losses
According to Blockaid's monitoring, DeFi protocol Summer Finance is under ongoing attack, with approximately $6 million in assets stolen so far.
1 seconds ago
JPMorgan Chase maintains an "Overweight" rating on Tencent, with a target price of HK$690.
JPMorgan said in a report that uncertainties surrounding Tencent’s WeChat AI Agent include whether it can fully integrate into the WeChat platform, the extent of its transaction permissions, and whether Tencent can build a supply system accessible to AI Agents without relying on existing e-commerce platforms to open inventory. With Tencent launching the beta test for WeChat AI Agent in June, the bank has significantly boosted its confidence in the agent’s value creation framework. The Agent service is now sufficiently visible, enabling a clear distinction between its existing components and areas still under development. This has shifted WeChat AI Agent from an AI initiative with no clear timeline to a phased rollout project with observable milestones. The bank believes the initial impact of WeChat AI Agent’s launch on Tencent’s stock price will likely stem from a reduction in risk premium and higher valuation multiples, rather than short-term earnings per share growth. It assigned Tencent an "Overweight" rating, with a target price of HK$690.
1 seconds ago
South Korea is pushing forward civil enforcement rules for virtual assets, with plans to allow courts to seize and liquidate crypto assets.
South Korea’s Supreme Court has issued a legislative notice for the Partial Amendment to the Civil Execution Rules, which will for the first time bring virtual assets under the scope of civil compulsory enforcement. Following a public comment period, the amended rules are set to take effect on October 1, 2026. Key provisions include: Compulsory enforcement of claims for digital asset transfers (courts may launch enforcement via seizure orders, barring third-party debtors like trading platforms from transferring assets to the debtor, while restricting the debtor from disposing of such claims); Compulsory enforcement of digital assets themselves (courts may seize virtual assets held by the debtor, which will be taken over by enforcement officers, with the debtor prohibited from disposal); Liquidation methods: Seized digital assets can be monetized via transfer orders or auction orders. For assets with low liquidity, conversion into other digital assets prior to auction is allowed.
1 seconds ago
Garret Jin increases his short position on ZEC, with the position valued at $14.9 million.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, Garret Jin, agent of the "BTC OG Insider Whale", has increased his ZEC short position to 32,759.57 ZEC, worth $14.9 million. Garret still holds a 5x leveraged BTC long position valued at $80 million, currently with a loss exceeding $16.38 million.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
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.
Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP) began the week on a constructive note after surging over 6%, 13% and 10% in the previous week. BTC holds steady around $63,500, ETH approaches a key technical resistance at $1,800, while XRP has broken above the upper boundary of a falling channel, strengthening the bullish outlook.
Bitcoin could extend gains if it closes above the $64,000 resistance zoneBitcoin price trades at $63,500 on Monday after surging over 6% in the previous week. BTC is maintaining a capped bias as price remains below the 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs), all of which sit well above spot.
The immediate ceiling is the horizontal level around $64,004, with the 50-day EMA near $65,763 adding to overhead supply further up, while the longer-term 100-day and 200-day EMAs near $69,469 and $75,427 respectively, reinforce a broader bearish structure despite a modestly positive Relative Strength Index (RSI) around 51 and a firmly positive Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD), which hint at improving but still constrained momentum.
On the topside, a break above the nearby horizontal resistance at $64,004 would open the door toward the 50-day EMA at $65,763, followed by the 100-period EMA at $69,469 and the 200-day EMA at $75,427, before the more distant horizontal barrier around $84,410 comes into focus.
On the downside, the absence of clearly defined nearby supports in the provided data suggests that any renewed selling below $63,554 would rely on emerging price action and lower historical lows to attract dip-buying interest rather than on pre-identified structural floors.
Ethereum nears the 50-day EMAEthereum price trades at $1,784 on Monday, up over 13% in the previous week. ETH maintains a bearish bias as it remains below a stack of key EMAs. Price is capped first by the 50-day EMA near $1,806, with the 100-day EMA around $1,972 and the 200-day EMA near $2,241 reinforcing the broader overhead supply zone.
Momentum, however, is improving, with the RSI hovering near 57 and the MACD firmly positive, suggesting upside attempts may continue but will likely struggle while these EMAs remain intact above spot.
On the topside, immediate resistance is seen at the 50-day EMA around $1,806, followed by the 100-day EMA near $1,972 and the horizontal barrier at $2,000, before the longer-term 200-day EMA up toward $2,242.
On the downside, the nearest meaningful structural support is the horizontal level around $1,385, where buyers previously emerged, with any decline toward that zone likely to test the resolve of the nascent recovery despite the currently constructive momentum backdrop.
XRP closes above the upper boundary of the falling channelXRP trades at $1.148 on Monday after rallying over 10% and breaking above the upper boundary of the falling channel in the previous week. However, XRP maintains a broadly bearish configuration, with price holding below the 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day EMAs, clustered between roughly $1.180 and $1.500, keeping the medium-term trend capped despite a modest rebound from recent lows.
Momentum is improving, with the RSI hovering just above the 50 line and the MACD in positive territory, suggesting a corrective recovery within a still-dominant downside structure.
On the topside, immediate resistance aligns with the 50-day EMA near $1.183, followed by the 100-day EMA around $1.286 and the horizontal barrier at $1.300, with the 200-day EMA near $1.495 and the prior resistance line around $1.900 reinforcing a broader supply zone higher up.
On the downside, initial support emerges at the lower parallel-channel region around $1.110, where a break would expose further weakness, while holding above this area would allow buyers to keep testing the nearby moving-average ceiling.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)
Cryptocurrency prices FAQs Token launches influence demand and adoption among market participants. Listings on crypto exchanges deepen the liquidity for an asset and add new participants to an asset’s network. This is typically bullish for a digital asset.
A hack is an event in which an attacker captures a large volume of the asset from a DeFi bridge or hot wallet of an exchange or any other crypto platform via exploits, bugs or other methods. The exploiter then transfers these tokens out of the exchange platforms to ultimately sell or swap the assets for other cryptocurrencies or stablecoins. Such events often involve an en masse panic triggering a sell-off in the affected assets.
Macroeconomic events like the US Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates influence crypto assets mainly through the direct impact they have on the US Dollar. An increase in interest rate typically negatively influences Bitcoin and altcoin prices, and vice versa. If the US Dollar index declines, risk assets and associated leverage for trading gets cheaper, in turn driving crypto prices higher.
Halvings are typically considered bullish events as they slash the block reward in half for miners, constricting the supply of the asset. At consistent demand if the supply reduces, the asset’s price climbs.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has published a long-term development plan he calls "Lean Ethereum," outlining a sweeping set of protocol upgrades expected to roll out over the next three to four years. The plan, shared publicly via a draft known as the strawmap, touches nearly every layer of the network.
Quantum Resistance and Privacy Take Center Stage Buterin was direct about the urgency of one issue in particular. "Quantum safety has shifted up a LOT in priority," he said, adding that finalizing a quantum-safe solution for blobs has "become urgent." He also confirmed that quantum resistance has moved significantly higher on Ethereum's development priorities, with work on quantum-safe blob designs already underway for several months.
Privacy has become a first-class goal, not an afterthought, extending Buterin's broader privacy push. Rather than treating privacy as an application-layer feature, Buterin said future protocol upgrades will be designed with privacy built into their architecture. To support both goals, the roadmap explores RISC-V or leanISA virtual machine designs to support programmable privacy while maintaining scalability.
The roadmap also proposes integrating recursive STARKs, cryptographic proofs designed to verify computations efficiently, as a native verification component within the Ethereum protocol. Buterin calls Lean Ethereum the network's third major evolution after the Merge, with upgrades spanning three to four years and touching nearly every core part of the protocol.
Foundation Restructuring Adds Pressure on Delivery The roadmap arrives against a backdrop of significant organisational change at the Ethereum Foundation. The Foundation laid off 54 employees and announced a roughly 40% budget reduction, executing one of the most sweeping structural overhauls in the organisation's history. Vitalik Buterin framed the cuts as part of a deliberate shift to an endowment model, targeting a long-term annual spending rate of 5% of treasury assets by 2030, down from roughly 15% before this year.
Tomasz Stańczak stepped down as co-executive director in February, followed by co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang, bringing total senior departures since January to nine. Protocol coordinators Tim Beiko and Barnabé Monnot also left in May.
Some in the community have pushed back on the timeline. Researcher Dankrad Feist argued the three-to-four-year window is too slow and suggested AI could help developers ship the upgrades within a year, while crypto analyst Ignas Fiodorovas praised the plan but cast doubt on the Foundation's ability to deliver within the stated schedule, citing its history of missing deadlines. The strawmap is still a draft, not a confirmed schedule, but it signals clearly where Ethereum's core development priorities are headed for the remainder of the decade.
Sources:
BeInCrypto: Vitalik's Lean Ethereum Roadmap Draws Pushback on Its Timeline
Unchained Crypto: Ethereum Foundation Cuts 20% of Staff and 40% of Budget
CoinDesk: Ethereum Foundation Cuts 20% of Staff Amid Leadership Exodus
