Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Ethereum treasury firm Bitmine made another ETH purchase last week, with its holdings climbing above 5.7 million ETH. BMNR stock is up today amid the announcement of this latest purchase, which also comes as the firm joins the Russell 1000 index.

Bitmine Acquires 27,084 ETH as Holdings Top 5.7 Million ETH In a press release, the firm announced that it acquired 27,084 ETH over the past week, maintaining a steady pace of accumulation throughout this year. Bitmine’s Chairman, Tom Lee, reiterated that they believe the market is in the early stages of a crypto spring and expect to reach the ‘alchemy of 5%’ sometime in 2026.

The company now holds just over 5.7 million ETH, which represent 4.7% of the ETH supply of 120.7 million ETH. Meanwhile, the Ethereum treasury firm has staked almost 4.9 million ETH, worth around $7.7 billion at current prices. The 4.9 million ETH represents 85% of the firm’s total holdings.

Tom Lee said they project annualized staking revenue of $211 million from their staked ETH. Their staking operations have generated a 7-day yield of 2.75% annualized. This development comes as the Ethereum treasury firm joins the Russell 1000.

As CoinGape reported, Bitmine joined the Russell 1000 last week as part of the annual reconstitution of the stock market index. Tom Lee noted that they expect to add hundreds, possibly thousands, of additional institutional investors as equity owners with this move.

Positive Developments Amid Market Downtrend The Bitmine chairman noted that this past week was a challenging one for crypto investors as the Ethereum price fell by 8%. However, he pointed to the fact that ETH witnessed positive developments, such as the creation of Ethlabs, while the Bank of England softened its stance around stablecoins.

“We are nearing quarter-end for June, and it is not surprising to see ‘window dressing’ leading to investors reducing their holdings in assets which have fallen in the past 3 months,” Lee said. Ethereum and the Bitmine stock have recovered today following last week’s downtrend.

ETH is approaching the psychological $1,600 level. Meanwhile, the BMNR stock is up almost 2% at the market open today, trading at around $14, according to TradingView data. However, the stock is still down over 15% in the last week.

Source: TradingView; BMNR weekly chart

CZ: I previously sent a message to Elon Musk to discuss cooperation based on X Money, and received a reply stating that X Money is currently not involved in cryptocurrency.

In an interview, CZ stated that when X Corp launched X Money, he sent a message to Elon Musk on X, inquiring whether Binance could become a partner. Musk responded that X Money is not currently venturing into the cryptocurrency space. CZ added that he hopes X will eventually evolve into a global payments platform, drawing a parallel between this opportunity and Starlink’s achievements in the internet access sector.

4 minutes ago

CZ comments on MicroStrategy: The company’s asset structure is overly complex, but he views Michael Saylor as a "steadfast Bitcoin supporter".

In an interview, CZ stated that Strategy’s preferred stock STRC structure is "too complicated", noting that "it took many attempts to understand STRC". The product relies on Bitcoin as underlying collateral, creating a structural contradiction: while Bitcoin’s long-term appreciation thesis may be valid, its volatility makes it a challenging base for leverage instruments. CZ also emphasized he is not commenting on founder Michael Saylor’s credibility, describing him as a "firm Bitcoin supporter".

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CZ: Binance’s Greek MiCA license application was nearly approved, but was forced to withdraw due to external factors.

In an interview, CZ stated that Binance’s MiCA license application submitted in Greece was fully compliant with regulatory requirements and near approval before being withdrawn, but the process was interrupted by "external political intervention". He added that multiple EU countries had expressed interest in the license, leading to a degree of "competitive lobbying", yet non-regulatory factors ultimately derailed the application, forcing its withdrawal. Binance officially pulled the Greek application last week and said it will shift to other EU member states to pursue MiCA authorization. Responding to market rumors linking Binance to senior EU political figures, CZ noted he has not seen any verifiable documents, only similar claims online, and has not confirmed them. He also pointed out that the EU MiCA transition period will end on July 1, after which unlicensed platforms must cease related services, with national regulators making clear they will not extend the deadline. CZ called the outcome a "lose-lose situation" and cited Japan and Singapore’s regulatory paths as examples, emphasizing compliance processes often require longer timelines.

4 minutes ago

Kraken is set to list the Bittensor subnet Alpha token.

Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), parent company of Grayscale, reposted on X to disclose that crypto exchange Kraken is set to list Alpha tokens from Bittensor subnets. According to leaked details, the first batch of tokens to be listed includes Chutes, Targon, Score, Ridges AI, Hippius, and others.

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Trump: Will Take Immediate Action on Fed Governor Lisa Cook’s Eligibility for Her Position

US President Trump stated that in the lawsuit over the eligibility of Federal Reserve Governor Cook, the Supreme Court remanded the case to a lower court solely on procedural grounds. We will immediately take appropriate action to ensure that individuals who have engaged in misconduct do not continue to make decisions on major matters related to the well-being of the United States.

4 minutes ago

Castle Securities warns that the Federal Reserve’s policies will become more stringent.

Castle Securities stated that investors have underestimated Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s resolve to curb inflation, warning that higher interest rates could put pressure on risk assets. The firm also cautioned that the rally in the artificial intelligence market faces growing risks, including weak demand, declining returns, and intensified political and regulatory scrutiny.

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DECRYPT: Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Highlights the Importance of Obfuscation in Cryptography

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has published an in-depth examination of a sophisticated exploit that drained at least $7.5 million from JaredfromSubway.eth, widely regarded as Ethereum’s most active sandwich-attack operator. According to insights from Chainalysis, the incident unfolded over June 20–21, 2026, when an unknown attacker used a reverse honeypot to turn the bot’s own aggressive trading logic against it.

As explained by Chainalysis, these so-called sandwich attacks are a common maximal extractable value (MEV) tactic on Ethereum.

Bots monitor the public mempool for pending user transactions and insert their own orders around them.

They typically buy a token immediately before the victim’s purchase to push the price higher, then sell right after, profiting from the resulting slippage while the original trader receives a worse execution price.

JaredfromSubway.eth, operating pseudonymously since 2023, built one of the most successful versions of this strategy.

At its peak, the bot was among the network’s largest gas consumers and was estimated to have cost other traders roughly $60 million annually in unfavorable trades while generating tens of millions in profits for its operator.

The June exploit began weeks earlier when the attacker deployed 66 fake token contracts that closely mimicked legitimate assets such as WETH, USDC, and USDT.

These were paired with fabricated liquidity pools engineered to appear as profitable sandwich opportunities.

JaredfromSubway.eth’s bot, optimized for rapid detection of mempool activity, repeatedly interacted with the deceptive contracts.

In doing so, it granted token-spending approvals to the malicious smart contracts.

These approvals were never revoked and accumulated across multiple transactions.

Once sufficient approvals were in place, a tripwire smart contract controlled by the attacker activated.

A single coordinated transaction then swept the bot’s wallets, extracting approximately $7.5 million in Ether and stablecoins.

Chainalysis tracked the subsequent flow using its on-chain tools: the attacker quickly swapped the stablecoins for Ether to reduce freeze risk from issuers, distributed the funds across several wallets, and routed them through Tornado Cash. No recoveries have been reported.

The attack succeeded because the bot granted spending permissions to contracts it never properly vetted.

Chainalysis notes that the operator prioritized speed over basic due diligence, such as checking contract verification status on Etherscan or reviewing deployment history.

This oversight allowed the fake pools to function as an effective honeypot.

The incident carries broader lessons for DeFi participants.

Token approvals function as ongoing permissions that can remain active indefinitely unless explicitly revoked.

Many users—retail traders and automated systems alike—grant broad or unlimited spending rights to contracts they have never reviewed.

Chainalysis highlights the risks of interacting with newly deployed or unverified liquidity pools that lack an established track record.

The firm recommends regularly revoking unused approvals and exercising caution with unfamiliar contracts before approving any spending rights.

Even highly optimized MEV bots are not immune to deception when security hygiene is neglected.

The JaredfromSubway.eth case demonstrates that the same on-chain mechanisms enabling profitable trading can be weaponized by attackers who understand how these systems operate. As Chainalysis observes, protecting against such exploits requires consistent attention to approvals and contract verification, practices that apply equally to sophisticated operators and everyday DeFi users.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) added 27,084 ETH over the past week, bringing its total holdings to 5,700,040 coins and pushing the company to 94% of its target of owning 5% of Ethereum's circulating supply.

As of June 28, Bitmine's 5.70 million (ETH) — priced at $1,569 per coin — represents 4.7% of total ETH supply, which stands at 120.7 million coins, the company announced Monday.

Total crypto holdings, cash, marketable securities, and "moonshot" positions reached $9.8 billion, including a $180 million stake in Beast Industries, a $74 million stake in Eightco Holdings, and $555 million in cash and marketable securities, the company said.

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Challenging week "This past week was a challenging one for crypto investors as ETH fell by 8%, even as Ethereum witnessed notable positive developments such as the creation of Ethlabs, and even the Bank of England softened its stance around stablecoins," Chairman Tom Lee said.

Lee attributed the price weakness to quarter-end window dressing, describing it as investors reducing exposure to assets that have declined over the past three months. Bitmine's pace of accumulation slowed from the prior week, when the company acquired 52,203 ETH.

"We continue to maintain a steady pace of accumulation throughout 2026," Lee said. "We believe we are in the early stages of crypto spring. Bitmine is expected to reach the 'alchemy of 5%' sometime in 2026."

Russell 1000 inclusion On June 26, Bitmine was added to the Russell 1000 Large-cap index as part of the index's annual reconstitution.

Lee said the inclusion is expected to bring hundreds, and potentially thousands, of additional institutional investors into the stock as passive funds and ETFs — which the Investment Company Institute estimates typically hold 18% to 20% of a company's shares — rebalance to reflect the change.

Of Bitmine's 5.70 million ETH, 4,879,157 are currently staked, representing approximately $7.7 billion at the June 28 price. Annualized staking revenues are projected at $211 million, Lee said.

At full scale — when Bitmine's ETH is fully staked through MAVAN, the company's institutional-grade validator network, and its staking partners — projected annualized staking rewards rise to $246 million, based on a 2.75% seven-day yield, Lee added.

Bitmine remains the largest corporate Ethereum treasury in the world and the second-largest corporate crypto treasury overall, behind Strategy, which owns 847,363 BTC valued at approximately $50 billion, per The Block’s data.

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ETH was trading at approximately $1,565 at the time of publication, according to The Block's price page. BMNR shares were changing hands around $13.56 on Monday, down roughly 13% over the past week and more than 90% below their 52-week high of $161.00.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2026 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

In brief BitMine added another $43 million in Ethereum to its balance sheet last week, despite falling prices. The firm now holds more than 5.7 million ETH valued around $9 billion. As BitMine continued its consistent purchases, top Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy did not add to its holdings last week. Leading Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies stayed consistent in the face of declining crypto prices last week, adding nearly $43 million in ETH to its stash even while top Bitcoin treasury company Strategy opted against accumulating BTC. 

The firm now holds more than 5.7 million ETH, valued around $9 billion. It also holds around 206 Bitcoin, worth $12.3 million. 

“This past week was a challenging one for crypto investors as ETH fell by 8%, even as Ethereum witnessed notable positive developments such as the creation of Ethlabs, and even the Bank of England softened its stance around stablecoins,” said BitMine Chairman Tom Lee in a statement. (Disclaimer: Lee is an investor in Decrypt parent company, Dastan).

Ethlabs, a new nonprofit research and development lab dedicated to championing the future of the Ethereum network and its native asset, is financially backed by BitMine and competing treasury firm Sharplink. 

Lee maintained that crypto's future looks bright, and said the firm “remains focused on the longer-term horizon,” highlighting tailwinds like agentic payments and institutional adoption of crypto rails. 

“We are nearing quarter-end for June, and it is not surprising to see 'window dressing' leading to investors reducing their holdings in assets which have fallen in the past three months,” he said. 

The firm’s primary treasury asset, ETH, has now fallen 22% in the last month of trading, recently trading hands at $1,567. At that mark, ETH is now 68% off its all-time high of $4,946. 

Bitcoin has performed marginally better, dipping 19% in the last month of trading and more than 52% from its all-time high of $126,080, changing hands on Monday at $59,324.

As its primary treasury vehicle slides, so too have shares in BitMine (BMNR). The firm’s stock has fallen nearly 17% in the last five trading days and more than 31% in the last month of trading, recently trading at $13.21—down about 2.6% so far Monday.

Shares are now down more than 91% from a 52-week high of $161 established shortly after the firm adopted its Ethereum treasury strategy last June. 

That crypto-amassing model was pioneered by Bitcoin giant Strategy and its co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, who started aggressively accumulating BTC in 2020. While the firm had aggressively and consistently added BTC on a nearly weekly basis in recent years, it did not add to its holdings last week amid scrutiny of its preferred equity offering, STRC, which fell to new lows on Friday.

Instead, the firm approved plans to sell up to $1.25 billion worth of Bitcoin to build up its cash reserves to fuel dividend payments.

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TL;DR Tom Lee has linked recent crypto weakness to quarter-end “window dressing.” Bitmine added another $43 million worth of ETH, its smallest purchase since early May. The setup matters because it frames the selloff as potentially positioning-driven rather than purely fundamental. Tom Lee Sees Positioning Behind Crypto Weakness Tom Lee has pointed to quarter-end “window dressing” as a possible reason behind the latest bout of crypto weakness, arguing that some investors may be cutting losers or reducing visible exposure before the start of the second half of the year.

That explanation is useful because it gives traders a different way to read the market. When prices fall, the first instinct is often to look for a major new catalyst: bad macro data, regulatory pressure, forced selling, ETF outflows, or a breakdown in risk appetite. Sometimes those factors matter. But at the end of a quarter, flows can also become more mechanical.

Portfolio managers may clean up books. Funds may reduce positions they do not want to show. Traders may de-risk ahead of reporting periods. None of that guarantees a rebound, but it can mean that part of the selling pressure is calendar-driven rather than tied to a new long-term thesis.

Bitmine Keeps Buying ETH, But More Slowly The same update also put Bitmine back in focus after the company added another $43 million worth of Ethereum. The purchase was described as its smallest since early May, which is interesting in itself.

A smaller purchase does not mean the company has abandoned its Ethereum treasury strategy. It suggests a more measured approach while the market is choppy. That is probably the healthier read. Aggressive buying into every dip may look bold, but it can also become reckless if liquidity is weak and sentiment is deteriorating.

For Ethereum, Bitmine’s activity adds another layer to the market conversation. ETH is not just being traded as a high-beta crypto asset. It is also being accumulated by at least some corporate treasury players, even if that lane remains much smaller and less proven than Bitcoin treasury adoption.

Why Traders Should Care The key question is whether the recent weakness is a temporary positioning flush or the start of a deeper risk-off move.

If Lee is right and quarter-end behavior is a major driver, then the market could stabilize once that pressure clears. In that scenario, assets that held up reasonably well, or saw continued accumulation during the weakness, may get a cleaner read in early July.

But there is a caveat. Positioning explanations can be tempting because they make selloffs feel temporary. The market still has to prove it. ETH and broader crypto need actual demand to return, not just a story about why selling may fade.

For Bitmine, the takeaway is straightforward: the company is still adding ETH, but the smaller purchase size suggests some caution. For traders, that makes the next few sessions important. If crypto rebounds after quarter-end, Lee’s window-dressing argument will gain weight. If weakness continues, the market may be dealing with something deeper than reporting-period cleanup.

—

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

The Loopring team closed its decentralized exchange due to poor adoption, obsolescence, and operational issues. The team will return all user funds directly to their Ethereum wallets and cover all gas fees during the distribution process. Loopring officially shut down its decentralized exchange, marking the end of one of Ethereum’s earliest zk-rollup platforms. All trading functionalities were immediately stopped, and the relayer was turned off right after the official announcement made via Loopring’s X account.

The shutdown ends a project that once demonstrated how zero-knowledge rollups could efficiently scale Ethereum. Loopring raised $45 million through its initial coin offering in 2017.

Despite its technical merits, Loopring acknowledged that users never adopted the platform on a meaningful scale. The team pointed out that the lack of a virtual machine on the platform did not allow developers to compose and develop more advanced real-world applications. Without payment use cases and an evolving ecosystem, Loopring found it difficult to compete with new infrastructure built for blockchain technology.

                                        Source: X Article

Additionally, Loopring admitted it was good at the software but failed to build the business acumen needed to drive adoption. Furthermore, it mentioned that the delisting of the LRC token throughout 2026 only worsened the problems.

New zkEVM Networks Outperformed Loopring’s Technology Finally, the development team admitted that modern zkEVM-based networks were able to surpass its proprietary technology. New projects such as zkSync, Scroll, and StarkNet created Ethereum-based environments that allowed deploying smart contracts more easily and developing a decentralized applications ecosystem.

The team admitted that it simply did not make sense anymore to continue working on Loopring. This is why the exchange was closed down in an orderly fashion. The project had earlier ended wallet services in July 2025 owing to scaling issues. The latest update marks Loopring’s eventual exit from the original decentralized exchange business.

Direct Distribution of Assets by Team The Loopring team made assurances that all user funds are still safe despite the imminent closure. Final balances will be computed, an inventory of assets provided, and two weeks allocated to check balances before any distribution can take place.

Distributions will follow after the two-week period, whereby the Loopring team will distribute assets directly to the wallets in batches. The team will automatically convert liquidity pool holdings to the respective token, take care of all gas fees, and undertake the whole process without the need for Merkle proofs.

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Loopring announced that it has shut down its decentralized exchange (DEX) services, with its relayer going offline immediately after the announcement on Sunday.

Though widely recognized as the first zkRollup project on Ethereum, the project said in an X article that it never gained measurable traction.

"As the first zkRollup, we lacked a virtual machine — no composability, no real‑world payment use cases," the team wrote. "That limitation kept our ecosystem from growing."

Loopring also said its zkEVM architecture had been outpaced by modern solutions that are fully compatible with Ethereum smart contracts. The lack of business development and external pressures, including the major exchange delistings of its native token LRC, also contributed to the decision, the team said.

Direct refunds Loopring noted that it will return users' assets directly and cover all transaction costs, instead of requiring users to generate and submit Merkle proofs. The team said the approach would be the "fairest and most hassle-free" way for users.

In the coming days, Loopring said it will publish a full list of users' final balances on Layer 2, including spot balances and AMM positions. Following a two-week review period of the list, the team plans to then upgrade the Loopring DEX smart contract to only allow team-controlled, whitelisted addresses to transfer assets out of the Layer 2.

The closure of Loopring's DEX comes roughly a year after the project sunsetted its DeFi products, including Dual Investment and Portal, saying it would instead focus on improving the Layer 2 network. Loopring had announced the closure of its wallet service earlier that year. Loopring's CEO, Steve Guo, also stepped down in August 2025.

The price of LRC fell 4.24% in the past 24 hours to trade at $0.012 as of 2:45 a.m. ET on Monday, according to The Block's Loopring price page.

"Loopring was born from a pure cypherpunk vision — we were coders who believed that zero‑knowledge proofs could scale Ethereum," Loopring wrote. "Rather than running a hollow service, we choose to end it gracefully." 

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2026 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Loopring DEX Shutdown Shows zkEVM Supremacy

Zoomex hosted the second episode of its World Cup Edition X Space as part of the Zoomex World Cup Impact Pledge, bringing together Champions League winner Didi Hamann and three traders: Mario from Forex Trading & Investing, Crank, and Joseph. Fernando Aranda hosted the session, which ran across World Cup analysis, the German squad debate, career philosophy, and the kind of crypto-to-football comparisons that only hold together when neither side takes them too seriously.

The session continued the five-part charity initiative launched in the first episode. Across five World Cup episodes, Zoomex is committing 1,000 USDT per episode to a charity of each football guest’s choosing, rising by an additional 5,000 USDT if the guest’s World Cup prediction proves correct. Hamann backed Japan to beat Sweden and nominated a homeless support charity in Munich, a cause he backs regularly.

Nothing to Lose. Nothing to Fear. Fernando opened by asking which is harder, a match you must win, or a match you cannot afford to lose. Hamann said the question had never been put to him that way before, and his answer repositioned the difficulty entirely.

“I always say in football, the hardest thing in football is when you play against a team that has nothing to lose. If that makes sense, because we’ve seen a lot of upsets. When a team has nothing to lose, they’re the most dangerous because they just go for it. And if they lose, they lose. It doesn’t matter. But if they win, they can win everything or gain everything.”

That is a different pressure to manage than needing to win. A team chasing a must-win result still operates inside a calculation. A team that only stands to gain has discarded the calculation entirely. From that point of view, he said, having to win is probably the easier of the two situations to be in.

Morocco against Italy was the recent example the panel kept returning to. South Africa against South Korea was another. “Nobody gave them a chance, and here they are in the last 32.” 

Crank had watched the same dynamic unfold in markets many times. Traders who enter without a prebuilt plan are playing from the same emotional state as a team with nothing to lose: exposed, reactive, and without the protection that structure provides. The difference is that in trading, the cost of that freedom comes directly out of your account.

The Game Does Not Change at 3-0 Down. As a holding midfielder, Hamann gave himself one instruction regardless of what the scoreboard said, and he never deviated from it.

“I always felt in my position I couldn’t afford to give the ball away because we have players who need to take risks. They give the ball away more often naturally because they have to take chances. And I always felt in my position I had to play the same way whether we are 3-0 up or 3-0 down because I wasn’t the one changing games, scoring goals or setting up goals. It wasn’t my job and I couldn’t do it. But we had players to do that.”

The players around him were Steven Gerrard, Luis Garcia, Cissé, Baros. His job was to win the ball, protect the structure, and put it in their feet as quickly as possible. Getting carried away when the scoreline was comfortable, or trying to do things that were not in his nature when 3-0 down, both produced the same result: a team that had lost its shape.

Istanbul in 2005 is the case study. Hamann came on at half-time, three goals down against an AC Milan side regarded at the time as the best club team in the world. He was warming up on the touchline when the second half was about to begin, and his read was simple.

“I was sure, warming up at half-time, because obviously I came on at half-time, I was sure if we scored one, I’m sure we scored a second one. And then if it’s 3-2, even the most experienced teams do make mistakes. And then after that first goal, the stadium came, there were 40,000 or 50,000 Liverpool fans. And I think AC Milan all of a sudden thought, maybe it’s not over.”

Three goals in six minutes. Penalties after that. He acknowledged luck was part of it, but the more durable point was that the process did not change. Win the ball. Do not concede the wrong goal. Give the ball to the people with the license to take risks.

Cissé had been a guest the previous week and described the same locker room from the other side. Joseph in this session brought the parallel into trading directly: “I always start with a plan, like a coach picks his starting eleven before the match. But if the market moves against me, don’t wait too long. Just like a coach, make a quick substitution when the team is losing control. I exit my position early instead of hoping for a comeback. Sticking to a plan is good, but being too stubborn can really hurt you. At the end of the day, the best traders are not the ones who are always right. They are the ones who know how to manage risks when they are wrong.”

Attack Is Not Enough. Fernando raised the old argument: attack wins games, defence wins championships. Hamann agreed, then sharpened it.

“It’s almost impossible to outscore teams on a regular basis. I do think just attack won’t win. You need a good defence, you need a balance in your team, and a good-holding midfielder. You might get to the quarters, you might get to the semis, you might even get to the final. But I don’t think you win the whole thing.”

The Barcelona side that most people reach for as the purest attacking team of the modern era, Messi, Suárez, Neymar, still had Puyol and Piqué in central defence and Busquets holding midfield. That Busquets point is the sharper one: the best attacking team of the generation was built around arguably the best defensive midfielder of the same generation. France in this tournament ticks the same boxes from the other direction. Mbappé at the front, two of the best centre-backs in the world behind him, a holding structure that does not give teams the space to breathe.

Real Madrid is the present-day example of what happens when the balance is off. The attacking quality is not in question. The defensive midfield structure lags, and at the tournament stage, one bad half against the right opponent ends everything.

On the type of error he finds hardest to watch, Hamann drew a precise distinction. “I don’t mind the technical fault or mistake. You know, if a ball bounces, if you misplace a pass, it shouldn’t happen, but it happens. But what I don’t like is when teams, especially in the Champions League or now in the World Cup, when they make mental mistakes. You see it all the time when they give the ball away in areas where they shouldn’t play, where they get a bit too smart and think they get away with it. You shouldn’t make a mistake because you don’t think. This is what drives me crazy.”

A technical error can be explained by the surface, by fatigue, by a fraction of a second lost to distraction. A mental error has no comparable excuse. At the highest level, with everything on the line, the only reason to stop thinking is overconfidence.

The trading panel had the same split. Mario put it cleanly: “The market is the man and we follow the market. It doesn’t make sense not to change your view if the market is against you. You only lose money when you do it like that.” The stop loss is the instrument that enforces honesty when the mind is arguing for one more minute, one more candle, one more reason to stay in. Mario gave it the most useful name of the session: “The stop loss is like being a good defender. Maybe like the libero. The last man. If you kick him, then you get a red card. That’s the stop loss. Last line of defence.”

Joseph extended the metaphor into position sizing: “It’s just like a football defence. If your back line is not organised, even a great goalkeeper cannot save you every time. In trading, protecting your capital is like protecting your goal. If you defend well, you will always have another chance to win.”

Brazil to Win. Angelotti to Manage. Hamann had made his tournament pick before the first game was played, and he was not changing it now.

“I said at the start of the tournament, I said Brazil, because I think it’s a long tournament. It’s 48 teams now, so it’s a week, 10 days longer than it was before. And there will be at times, there will be a few problems within the team, and you need somebody to handle it and manage it. And I think in Angelotti, they’ve got the perfect man.”

The best defence. A very good attack. An open question in midfield. And the right coach for a campaign that will test squads not just tactically but in terms of internal management. His second breath went to France. “I stick with Brazil, but I think it will take a very, very good team to beat France.”

Germany occupies a different kind of space in Hamann’s thinking, somewhere between professional assessment and obvious personal investment. The read on the squad was honest. Undaf, used so far as the impact substitute, should stay there.

“He’s probably the best sub, the super sub of this tournament. He’s probably the best player coming on in this tournament. So why change it? Because everybody knows when he comes on, there’s a boost going around the ground. There’s a boost going through the team and everybody goes, oh, he’s coming on. We’ve got a chance.”

That psychological effect disappears the moment he becomes expected from the first whistle. The weapon works because it has been withheld. Sané has not delivered on the first two games. Wirth is settling in. Musiala, five months back from a serious injury, has been anonymous by his own standards. Schlotterbeck’s absence has cost the defensive structure its balance with the left foot. Mecha has been the best German player in the tournament and may emerge from it as one of the most watched midfielders in Europe.

On the group stage as a concept, Hamann was pragmatic. “You just have to get out of the group. Nobody talks. Once you get to the last 32, last 16, nobody cares how you got out of the group, how you played in the group. That’s when it matters.”

Crank’s read on the Bitcoin market was built with the same long-cycle logic. He described taking short positions near the top, closing them on the way down, and watching the four-year cycle move toward what he sees as a floor. “Bitcoin is exactly where it should be. My levels right now are golden pocket between 54 and 57. I’m waiting for one more big capitulation, scare you pretty bad, and then we can, based off of four-year cycle theory, start our accumulation phase and bottoming out, which for me is between 41 to 46,000.” Mario put his own range at 43,000 to 45,000 and believed the bottom would arrive within 100 days of the session. Joseph agreed with the range. The disagreement was mostly about timing.

Dark Horses and an 18-Year-Old Who Plays Like a Veteran Among the nations that had caught his attention, Hamann pointed first to the home contingent. Canada had been exceptional. Mexico against England at the Azteca, with altitude and a full home crowd, would be nobody’s idea of a comfortable draw. “That won’t be an easy game. If they play Mexico City, the Azteca with altitude, it’s not an easy thing to beat them there.”

South Africa had made the sharpest impression. “The way they played yesterday. It was absolutely brilliant. Nobody gave them a chance, and here they are in the last 32.” 

Japan was his most dangerous selection from outside the traditional powers. “I think Japan is really a dangerous team. Beat Germany four years ago in Qatar. I think they beat Spain as well. They’ve got that vision. They want to, I think before 2050, they want to be world champions. They want to win the World Cup. Not sure it’s going to happen this year. But this is a nation that improves year after year after year.”

Ivory Coast came up without prompting. “The first 60 minutes against Germany, I think they played exceptionally well. Germany was second best in every aspect.” A team that outplays Germany for an hour in a major tournament is not an accident. They are a dangerous team going forward.

On Morocco, Hamann pointed to an 18-year-old central midfielder without being asked. He had heard about the player before the tournament. He saw him play. Then he looked up the age again.

“Brilliant. 18 years of age, the maturity he plays with, I couldn’t believe. I heard of him before, then I saw him, then I had to look again. How old is he? 18 years. Because usually, central midfielders, they get into the best age, 22, 24, because experience counts for a lot. But the way he plays, how composed. At 18 years of age, unbelievable.”

The Hardest Opponents. The Best Teammates. On the midfielder who made his career most uncomfortable, Hamann did not hesitate. There were players across the years who tried to get inside his head, who wanted him in a conversation on the pitch, who looked for ways to make him react. “I never spoke to the opposition and very rarely spoke to the referee. So that didn’t really bother me.”

The frustration with Patrick Vieira was entirely different: it was purely about quality.

“The most frustrating was probably the best one I played against because he was like a Rolls-Royce. He was quick, he was strong, he could pass, he played in an exceptional team with Arsenal. It was no joy playing against him because he was so good. For me, he was the best and I had never fun playing against him.”

That Arsenal side was the backdrop that made it worse. Vieira in an average team is one problem. Vieira in one of the best club sides he faced across his entire career is a different afternoon entirely.

On the other side of the ledger, the question of superstars and teams produced one of the clearest statements of the session. Messi, Mbappé, Ronaldo, Haaland: are they the reason teams win, or is it the other way around?

“It’s got to be the team. But I think all these guys, they all know that they couldn’t succeed without the team. On your own, you’re nothing. As good as they are, but you need 10 other players. And I think the best example was the last World Cup, where really 10 players worked for Messi and then he made the difference. And that’s how it should be, because you need to cover all the bases as a team.”

On the next German superstar, Hamann was direct. “I said he’s too good to fail because it’s the best player I’ve seen in the last 20 years in a German shirt.” Wirth had a difficult debut season at Liverpool. A new manager changes the conditions. Mecha he views as deeply undervalued. “He’s not a flash player, but he does the things nobody wants to do. He makes it really very efficient. He’s got pace, he’s got physicality, he can score a goal. I think Mecha was very underrated in the last few years. We might even see him at a huge club after the World Cup because now everybody took note of him.”

No Emotions. No Exceptions. Fernando drew the bridge between the two halves of the session: coaches change systems mid-game when the plan stops working, and traders change positions when the market moves against them. The panel each described how they handle that moment.

Crank’s answer was the most absolute. “No emotions in day trading. You are up against robots. Within these algorithms, emotions do not exist. And anybody that trades for a living or is just getting started needs to understand that you’re going to be so numb that you do the same thing every single day. But it’s a system. And once you have it to where it works in your favour and you have it dialled in, you don’t make those adjustments.”

His summary of the choice at the centre of trading was the most direct line of the session: “Do you want to be right, or do you want to be rich?”

Mario agreed without qualification. “No emotions in trading. That’s the worst thing you can do. You have to just shut down your emotions. Just stick to your plan. Every day doing the same thing that works. And emotions don’t work.”

Joseph described what happens after a stop loss gets hit, a moment most traders find more disorienting than the loss itself. “Getting stopped out and watching the price go back up, that’s one of the most annoying things in trading. But I have a personal rule: after a stop loss, I take a short break, maybe 15 to 30 minutes before opening any new trade. This stops me from revenge trading. It’s like a player who misses a penalty. The best one would take a breath before playing on, not react emotionally. Every loss is a lesson, but revenge trading usually turns one mistake into two.”

Crank closed on the cycle and what it means for the audience watching right now. “Now’s the time more than ever to exit out all the noise and really focus because this is where you separate the boys and girls from the men and women. Be violent with your education right now because this is where lives are changed.”

Which Team Is Bitcoin? Fernando asked the panel to map the major assets to national teams in the tournament.

Brazil collected the Bitcoin allocation from most of the panel. The longest track record, the deepest global fanbase, the benchmark that everything else gets measured against regardless of current charts. Joseph assigned it to Argentina, with a specific reason: the 2022 World Cup, where ten players organised themselves entirely in service of one, and the one delivered. That, in his view, is the most accurate representation of how Bitcoin’s entire ecosystem functions around a single thesis.

France drew Ethereum from most voices, technically foundational, expected to perform at the highest level, measured against a standard that was set years ago and has not yet been surpassed. Portugal went to Solana: fast, direct, talent-driven, with a single player whose presence changes every calculation. Mario broke from the group and pointed to Spain or the Netherlands as the surprise allocations, teams that could outperform expectation the way an asset can when its narrative catches up with its fundamentals.

On which of the major tournament favourites exits earliest, France drew the most votes, followed by Germany. Mario, thirty years a German football supporter, crossed his fingers rather than naming names.

The Lesson From the Zoomex Space The thread connecting both halves of the session was what holds together when the situation changes and the original plan no longer applies.

Hamann’s philosophy as a midfielder, do not vary the process at 3-0 up or 3-0 down, is the same discipline the traders described as the line between consistent performance and emotional reaction. It is not about suppressing the awareness that the situation has changed. It is about having decided in advance what you do when it does.

The 2005 Champions League final is not a story about hope or momentum or the magic of a particular night. It is a story about a team that kept doing the right things in the right order while three goals down, until the conditions changed. “If there were no mistakes, there wouldn’t be any goals,” Hamann said. That applies to both sides of the ball. The team that keeps its structure in a crisis does not create the opening. It creates the conditions for the opening to appear.

Crank’s question applies equally. In football and in markets, the answer to the question of whether you want to be right or rich determines how you behave when the scoreline, or the chart, tells you something you do not want to hear.

The Zoomex World Cup Impact Pledge continues across three more episodes, each with a new football guest, a new charity selection, and a prediction on record. Brazil is going to win the World Cup. Didi Hamann said so, and the charity pool for Munich’s homeless depends on Japan clearing the first hurdle.

About Zoomex Founded in 2021, Zoomex is a global cryptocurrency trading platform with over 3 million users across more than 35 countries and regions, offering 600+ trading pairs. Guided by its core values of “Simple × User-Friendly × Fast,” Zoomex is committed to fairness, integrity, and transparency in delivering a high-performance, low-barrier, trustworthy trading experience.

As an official partner of the Haas F1 Team and global brand ambassador partner of goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, Zoomex brings the same focus on speed, precision, and discipline from the racetrack and the pitch to trading. The platform holds regulatory licenses including Canada MSB, U.S. MSB, U.S. NFA, and Australia AUSTRAC, and has passed security audits conducted by Hacken.

About 60% of World Cup bettors on Polymarket are first-time crypto usersAbout 60% of users who placed their first World Cup bets on Polymarket had never interacted with blockchain protocols before, suggesting prediction markets are becoming an entry point into crypto. The finding is based on a 90-day Bitget Wallet study that tracked the onchain activity of 857,000 active Polymarket users.

Alvin Kan, chief operating officer at Bitget Wallet, told Cointelegraph that earlier crypto onboarding efforts largely focused on making blockchain technology easier to understand through simpler wallets and better user interfaces, but users were still expected to learn how crypto worked before they could participate.

“Prediction markets shifted that dynamic. Users show up because they have a view on something happening in the world,” Kan said.

Trump cancels signing of housing bill with CBDC banUS President Donald Trump canceled the signing ceremony for a housing bill containing a ban on a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as he looked for Republicans in Congress to prioritize a controversial voting bill.

In a Wednesday morning Truth Social post, Trump said that the signing for the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, passed by the US Senate and House of Representatives, would be canceled “until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE America Act.”

The housing bill, passed by the House on Tuesday, included a provision barring the US Federal Reserve from issuing or creating a CBDC “or any digital asset that is substantially similar” until the end of 2030.

Many had expected Trump to sign the bill, aimed at tackling housing affordability, into law on Wednesday without issues. However, the president said in March that he would “not sign other bills” until the SAVE America Act was passed. The legislation would require voters to provide proof of US citizenship in person to register, with critics saying the measure would disenfranchise citizens already eligible to vote.

Trump on housing billBitmine, Sharplink and Joe Lubin back Ethereum R&D nonprofitFormer Ethereum Foundation contributors and Ether treasury firms Bitmine and Sharplink have backed a new research and development nonprofit that aims to make Ethereum ready for institutional use.

Sharplink said on Monday that the organization, Ethlabs, was formed to “ready Ethereum for the next phase of institutional adoption,” with the company pitching in with Bitmine, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin and other Ethereum contributors on its funding effort.

“As stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, funds and autonomous AI commerce move on-chain, they are converging on Ethereum as the neutral, credibly permissionless settlement layer for the global economy,” Sharplink said. “Ethlabs exists to ensure the network is ready to absorb that demand at scale.”

The launch comes days after former Ethereum Foundation contributor Trenton Van Epps warned that Ethereum is facing a core development funding crisis and amid an ongoing wave of departures from the Foundation, most recently co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang, who left last week.

Vitalik ButerinCryptoQuant warns on Strategy's dividend coverage as cash reserve falls 38%After Strategy's dividend coverage fell to 14 months from seven years, CryptoQuant said the company led by Michael Saylor should pause Bitcoin purchases and focus on replenishing its cash reserve, which is down 38% year-to-date.

Strategy's dividend obligations have nearly quadrupled to $1.2 billion, as the company issued substantial new STRC preferred stock, which carries an 11.5% yield.

“They should pause Bitcoin purchases, rebuild cash reserves, and adopt a systematic framework for purchase timing,” wrote the market data analytics provider's CEO Ki Young Ju in a Wednesday X post, adding that the biggest public Bitcoin treasury holder should also create a “disciplined selling framework” for the next bull market.

Strategy's cash reserve fell 38% after the company repurchased $1.5 billion of its 2029 senior notes at a discount, Cointelegraph reported on May 26. Those coffers have since recovered to $1.4 billion after it sold $335.5 million in MSTR shares, which added $300 million to its US dollar reserve on Monday, although it is near a record-low of 14 months' of funds available to pay dividends.

Catholic leaders, US authorities challenge CLARITY Act over illicit activityA group of law enforcement organizations and a coalition of Catholic organizations have become the latest two groups urging caution over the US CLARITY Act, which is heading for a key hearing in July.  

In letters sent Tuesday, four law enforcement organizations reached out to White House officials with concerns that the CLARITY Act could create oversight gaps when it comes to illicit activity. 

“Regulatory certainty should not come at the expense of accountability, transparency, victim protection, or public safety,” they said. The Alliance to End Human Trafficking, founded by US Catholic Sisters, said these oversights could make it harder to crack down on human trafficking. 

Senator Cynthia Lummis said this week, the final text for the bill would be released July 4, with the House Financial Service Committee scheduling a hearing into the Clarity Act on July 17.

Cynthia LummisWinners and LosersAt the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $59,359 which represents a 6.8% decline, while Ether (ETH) is at $1,565, after falling 8.8% for the week.  XRP (XRP) is at $1.04 and down 8% for the week. The total market cap is at $2.06 trillion according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies the top three altcoin gainers are Velvet (VELVET) at 290%, DeXe (DEXE) on 55% and Audiera (BEAT) which was up 49%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are MemeCore (M), which lost 76%, WorldCoin (WLD), which lost 28%, and Mantle (MNT), which was down 20%.

Prediction of the weekBitcoin may fall lower but BTC power-law frames crash to $58K as ‘normal’Bitcoin’s drop to $58,000 lines up with the power-law model’s cycle lows, even though futures market data points to deeper lows for BTC price.

Giovanni's Bitcoin power-law model places the network's long-term trend price near $135,000, making the recent drop to $58,000 roughly 54% below the all-time high and 1.22 standard deviations beneath that trend.

According to the analyst, the key takeaway is straightforward: the previous cycle lows in 2012, 2015, 2019, 2020, and 2022 all fell within a similar statistical range. By that measure, the latest decline falls within a territory that has historically marked the deep bear-market lows rather than a break in Bitcoin's long-term growth path.

Top FUD of the weekBinance faces EU service limits as MiCA rules take effectBinance has notified European Union users that access to key services will be restricted after the exchange failed to secure Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) authorization from a member state before a July 1 deadline.

Those restrictions include halting the onboarding of new EU users and limiting certain services for EU-based accounts effective July 1, according to exchange notices shared by users on social media.

The notices said users will still be able to withdraw their assets after that date, stating that “all digital assets are still available for withdrawal,” in line with applicable regulatory requirements.

The move marks one of the first major transitions under the EU’s MiCA framework after Binance announced it withdrew its MiCA license application in Greece on Wednesday.

Binance recorded over $400 million in net outflows during the week beginning June 22.

Binance’s public messaging is that the company intends to continue pursuing a MiCA license, despite being on pace to miss the July 1 buzzer.

Iran-linked entities moved $3.8B through CoinEx, TRM saysWallets with identifiable links to sanctioned Iranian entities have moved over $3.84 billion through cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx since 2019, making it one of the main channels used to bypass US economic sanctions, according to blockchain analytics company TRM Labs.

About 60 Iranian platforms were tied to the funds, with $2.7 billion of this flowing between CoinEx and Nobitex, Iran’s largest domestic cryptocurrency exchange, at an average rate of about $1 million per day since 2018, wrote TRM Labs in a Wednesday report.

By 2024, CoinEx was Nobitex’s largest external counterpart, nearly nine times that of the next-largest exchange, a pattern that TRM Labs called “inconsistent with independent market behaviour.”

CoinEx denied having any commercial relationship with the Iranian government or domestic Iranian exchanges and disputed TRM Labs’ interpretation, saying onchain fund flows do not demonstrate a platform's knowledge of or participation in illicit activity.

Ethereum Foundation sacks 20% of workforce amid strategic restructuringThe Ethereum Foundation (EF) has laid off 54 employees, roughly 20% of its workforce, as part of a major organizational restructuring.

According to a blog post published Tuesday, the EF will reorganize around five specialized clusters covering protocol, access, user, community and institutional work. The Foundation said the changes are intended to concentrate resources on Ethereum's long-term technical priorities, including scaling, privacy, security and censorship resistance.

Under the new structure, separate teams will oversee Ethereum's core protocol, user access tools, community engagement and work with institutions, while management and operations functions remain organized independently.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation is reducing its budget by roughly 40% as it transitions toward a long-term, endowment-based organization. He said the foundation aims to lower annual spending from about 15% of its remaining funds to roughly 5% after 2030, a shift he said necessitated difficult staffing decisions.

Top feature stories of the weekDoes Botanix’s failure prove Bitcoiners don’t care about DeFi?The failure of Botanix suggests that Bitcoiners still prefer Ethereum DeFi to Bitcoin L2s. How can Bitcoin L2s change to win hodlers over?

Ethereum’s much-hated staking 'tax' may already be obsoleteEthereum’s latest “funding crisis” has triggered a fierce debate over whether to tax staking rewards or to pursue funding from large ETH holders for new organizations like EthLabs.

AI is banking the unbanked in Africa... faster than cryptoAI is widening access to banking for the unbanked across Africa. But used badly, it can simply automate financial exclusion at greater speed.

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.

韩国修订上市规则7月生效，KOSDAQ加密财库公司面临退市压力

Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP) are showing early signs of stabilization on Monday after a correction of nearly 6%, 8% and 7%, respectively, over the previous week. BTC reclaims $60,000, ETH is holding firmly above the critical $1,500 support level, while XRP is also attempting to stabilize around the key $1.00 psychological level. The price action of these top three cryptocurrencies is raising hopes of a short-term recovery after massive corrections.

Bitcoin's mild recovery after a sharp correctionBitcoin price recovers slightly, trading above $60,000, after losing over 6% in the previous week. However, BTC is maintaining a bearish bias as price remains below the 50-, 100-, and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) at $66,971, $70,592, and $76,516, respectively. 

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator hovers near the zero line with a marginally negative reading, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 33 sits just above oversold territory, hinting at fading bearish momentum but not yet signaling a decisive recovery.

On the topside, initial resistance emerges at the horizontal barrier around $64,004, ahead of the 50-day EMA at $66,971 and the 100-day EMA at $70,591, which collectively cap the upside and reinforce the broader downbeat structure. Further up, the 200-day EMA at $76,516 and the prior horizontal level at $84,410 form a wider resistance band that would need to be cleared for the medium-term outlook to shift back to bullish. The absence of nearby defined support leaves the pair vulnerable to further downside probes if selling pressure resumes.

Ethereum could rebound if the $1,500 support holdsEthereum price trades at $1,585 on Monday, finding support around the key $1,500 support zone. However, ETH is maintaining a bearish bias, with price remaining well below the 50-, 100-, and 200-day EMAs at $1,833, $2,010, and $2,290, respectively. ETH is attempting to stabilize after the recent slide, with the RSI ticking up to 33, just above oversold territory. At the same time, the MACD has turned marginally positive, hinting at fading downside momentum rather than a decisive bullish reversal.

On the topside, initial resistance emerges at the 50-day EMA near $1,833, ahead of the horizontal barrier at $2,000 and the 100-day EMA at $2,010, with the 200-day EMA at $2,290 reinforcing a broader cap on recovery attempts. 

On the downside, the next meaningful support is seen at the $1,500 key psychological level, followed by the previously identified horizontal level around $1,385.00, where buyers could attempt to defend the medium-term floor if selling pressure resumes.

XRP steadies at key $1 markXRP price trades at $1.0542, maintaining a clear bearish bias as it sits well below the 50-, 100-, and 200-day EMAs at $1.2060, $1.3123, and $1.5231, respectively. Price also holds below the downward parallel channel reference at $1.1879 and the horizontal cap at $1.3000, reinforcing a technically capped structure. The RSI at 33 stays in weak territory just above oversold, while the MACD remains slightly negative, both indicators hinting that bearish momentum persists, albeit without a fresh acceleration.

On the topside, initial resistance is seen at the parallel channel level around $1.1879, followed by the nearby horizontal barrier at $1.3000 and the 50-day EMA at $1.2060. Additional supply is clustered higher at the 100-day EMA at $1.3123 and the 200-day EMA at $1.5231. A more distant structural ceiling emerges at the horizontal line near $1.9000. 

On the downside, the next meaningful support is seen at the $1.000 key psychological level. Below this level, renewed selling could leave XRP vulnerable to further downside extension until new demand zones emerge on the chart.

(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.

SharpLink just went on a shopping spree. The company scooped up nearly 40,000 ETH worth $62.4 million last week, breaking an eight-month silence that had some wondering whether the firm’s ambitious Ethereum treasury strategy had quietly died on the vine.

It hadn’t. The purchase, totaling 39,196 ETH, kicked off with an initial buy of 5,000 ETH for approximately $7.85 million on June 25-26, executed through FalconX. The rest followed shortly after, all while Ethereum was trading near its 2026 lows between $1,537 and $1,578 per token.

Buying the dip at industrial scale SharpLink now holds somewhere between 868,699 and 876,285 ETH, valued at roughly $1.3 billion to $1.37 billion at current prices. That makes the firm the second-largest public corporate Ethereum treasury holder.

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The company’s average acquisition cost sits at approximately $3,609 per ETH. With the token trading below $1,600, that translates to estimated unrealized losses of around $1.79 billion. In English: for every dollar SharpLink has spent accumulating Ethereum, it’s currently sitting on roughly 56 cents of value.

The people and the strategy behind the treasury SharpLink’s chairman is Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum itself and the founder of ConsenSys. Its CEO, Joseph Chalom, is a former BlackRock executive. When these two decided to pivot a sports-betting tech company into a corporate Ethereum accumulation vehicle, the market paid attention.

That pivot began in 2025 with a $425 million capital raise specifically designed to fund the treasury strategy. The playbook borrows heavily from what MicroStrategy, now called Strategy, did with Bitcoin: raise capital, buy the asset, hold it, repeat. The difference is that SharpLink has layered on a yield component that Bitcoin’s treasury holders can’t easily replicate.

The firm has approximately 22,102 ETH staked, generating on-chain yield that offsets some of the carrying cost of holding a massive position in a volatile asset. SharpLink has also backed Ethlabs, an initiative aimed at bolstering Ethereum’s institutional readiness.

What this means for investors On the noise side, SharpLink is staring at nearly $1.8 billion in unrealized losses. Adding $62 million to a position that’s already deeply underwater could be a case of good money chasing bad. The corporate Ethereum treasury thesis remains largely unproven compared to Bitcoin’s, where Strategy and others have at least demonstrated the model can work in a rising market.

The staking yield strategy does offer a meaningful differentiator. If Ethereum’s staking rewards remain consistent and the network continues to generate fee revenue, SharpLink can present its ETH holdings as a productive asset rather than a speculative bet.

At an average cost basis of $3,609, ETH would need to more than double from current levels just for SharpLink to break even. Staking yields help at the margins, but they won’t close a gap that wide anytime soon.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Leading cryptocurrencies traded in the red overnight on Sunday as renewed U.S.–Iran confrontations threatened a fragile ceasefire.

Crypto Market In Deep SlumberBitcoin attempted a breakout above $60,000, only to encounter sharp selling pressure that drove it below $59,000. Ethereum meandered in the $1,500 region, while trading volume rose 10% over the last 24 hours. XRP and Dogecoin traded in the red.

Over $180 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, overwhelmingly from longs, according to Coinglass data

Bitcoin’s open interest fell 0.69% over the last 24 hours. Smart money sentiment remained "extremely bearish," but traders on Binance, both retail and whales, increased their long exposure.

"Extreme Fear" sentiment prevailed in the market, according to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index.

Top Gainers (24 Hours) 

The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.02 trillion, following a decline of 3.38% over the last 24 hours.

Stocks Rally On Hopes Of De-escalationStock futures ticked higher overnight on Sunday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures jumped 147 points, or 0.29%, as of 8:45 p.m. EDT.  Futures tied to the S&P 500 climbed 0.40%, while Nasdaq 100 Futures gained 0.19%.

Tensions escalated during the weekend after the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire following an alleged ceasefire violation in the Strait of Hormuz.

Later, a Trump administration official reportedly said that the two sides will “stand down for now” and let vessels move freely in the critical oil shipping point.

‘Pretty Interesting Signal’Popular cryptocurrency commentator Michaël van de Poppe speculated on Bitcoin’s moves once it breaks back above $61,000.

“It would strengthen the thesis of the bullish divergence, and the markets can target the $65,000 resistance [and old support of the range] as the next target zone,” the analyst said. “The fact that the markets aren’t falling deeper with all the panic and fear combined is actually a pretty interesting signal.”

Ali Martinez, a widely followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader, said that heavy selling by whales, roughly $880 million over the past week, pushed Ethereum below its key support at $1,633

“If this distribution trend continues into next week, the next high-volume demand targets for ETH sit much lower at $1,237 and $1,089,” Martinez said.

Photo Courtesy: vinnstock on Shutterstock.com

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This week in the cryptocurrency world was a rollercoaster ride, with Bitcoin showing signs of capitulation and gold’s selloff being framed as a buying opportunity. Meanwhile, 21Shares predicts a return to $100,000 for Bitcoin, Ethereum faces a potential funding gap and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urges Congress to pass a crypto bill.

Let’s dive into the details.

‘Bitcoin Is Dead’ Predictions GrowBitcoin’s latest dip below $60,000 has reignited the “Bitcoin is dead” narrative. However, Ryan Rasmussen from Bitwise suggests that long-term investors are using this downturn to accumulate more. He pointed out that such moments have historically coincided with major cycle lows

 Read the full article here.

Peter Schiff Says Gold’s Selloff Is A Buying OpportunityEconomist Peter Schiff views gold’s recent selloff as a buying opportunity, while he describes Bitcoin’s decline as a deflating bubble. Schiff noted that Bitcoin failed to rise with gold’s earlier gains and is now declining in tandem, contrary to expectations.

Read the full article here.

BTC Will Return To $100,000 Even If Bitcoin ETFs Are Growing Slower21Shares’ mid-year check-in report suggests that the cryptocurrency market has transitioned from a speculative phase to an institutionally driven asset class. The report also highlights stablecoins and tokenization as the sector’s strongest long-term themes.

Read the full article here.

Ethereum Could Face A Critical Funding GapFormer Ethereum Foundation member Trent Van Epps warns that Ethereum could face a critical funding gap within the next 3 to 9 months. The Foundation’s treasury, which has funded critical shared resources, is shrinking by design.

Read the full article here.

Andrew Cuomo Urges Congress To Pass Crypto BillFormer New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called on Congress to pass the Clarity Act, emphasizing blockchain’s potential to bring financial inclusion to the unbanked and underserved. Cuomo believes that the adoption of blockchain technology could significantly reduce consumer costs.

Read the full article here.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Ethereum is trading near the $1,570 to $1,580 area after a calm weekend that failed to ease the pressure on the second-largest cryptocurrency. 

Summary

Ethereum trades near $1,570 as ETF outflows and whale selling pressure keep buyers cautious. Analysts see $1,583 as a key support level after whales sold 550,000 ETH this week. A clean move above $1,800 could ease pressure, while losing $1,583 may deepen losses. The price has stayed mostly range-bound, even as new tension in the Middle East tested risk appetite across global markets.

The calm move does not mean the market has turned strong. ETH remains below the $1,800 level that many traders see as a key recovery zone. The asset is also under pressure from ETF outflows, whale selling, and weak spot demand.

ETF outflows weigh on Ethereum sentiment U.S. spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs recorded their seventh straight day of outflows on June 26, according to SoSoValue data. Spot Bitcoin ETFs saw about $445 million in net outflows, while spot Ethereum ETFs posted $12.848 million in net outflows.

Ethereum spot ETF net inflow, source: SoSoValue The Ethereum outflow was smaller than Bitcoin’s, but the streak matters because ETFs can act as a source of steady spot demand. When flows stay negative for several days, that support weakens. This can make it harder for ETH to recover when traders are already cautious.

Earlier Ethereum ETF coverage showed that ETH had already been testing major support as fund withdrawals mounted. That pressure has continued into late June, keeping the market focused on whether institutional demand can return.

Another price analysis noted that ETH traded near $1,600 even after BitMine reportedly bought another 75,000 ETH. That showed that large purchases have not been enough to reverse the wider downtrend.

Whales sell into weak support Analyst Ali Martinez said large holders sold about 550,000 ETH over the past week. At current prices, that sale equals roughly $880 million in fresh supply hitting the market.

The analyst said this selling helped push Ethereum below its immediate $1,633 support level. ETH is now testing volume support near $1,583, a level traders are watching closely because a clean break could open the way for deeper losses.

ETH WHALES SELL $880 MILLION IN ONE WEEK

Large-scale holders have offloaded roughly 550,000 ETH over the past week, injecting $880 million in sell-side supply into the market.

This heavy selling volume has successfully pushed Ethereum below its immediate $1,633 support floor.… https://t.co/2n4rVK4oTK pic.twitter.com/7g1zSPepez

— Ali Charts (@alicharts) June 28, 2026 Ali said if selling continues into next week, the next high-volume demand areas could sit near $1,237 and $1,089. These levels are not guaranteed targets, but they show where past trading activity may attract buyers if ETH breaks lower.

This pressure matches the current chart structure. ETH continues to print lower highs, and buyers have not yet shown enough strength to reclaim the $1,800 area.

Analysts split on ETH’s next move Money Ape warned that Ethereum could post three straight red quarters for the first time. The analyst said ETH may fall below $1,000 if market confidence keeps weakening.

That view reflects the bearish side of the current setup. Ethereum has failed to recover quickly from its slide, and traders remain worried about ETF outflows, whale activity, and weak momentum.

🚨 ETHEREUM IN TROUBLE 🚨

For the first time ever, Ethereum is on track to post three consecutive red quarters.

We could see $ETH under $1,000.

Has the market completely lost confidence in $ETH? pic.twitter.com/jEN7CzJg8L

— Money Ape (@TheMoneyApe) June 28, 2026 Michaël van de Poppe offered a different view. He said anything below $1,800 is not attractive for day trading but may be a strong opportunity for longer-term accumulation.

He also said ETH may be forming a bullish divergence across several timeframes. In his view, a clear break above $1,800 would be more useful than trying to catch every small move inside the current downtrend.

Van de Poppe also pointed to lower levels near $1,505 and $1,385 as possible buying zones if ETH sweeps liquidity. He said he doubts the market is eager to move much lower, but he still wants to see a clean recovery above $1,800.

Derivatives data shows sellers still in control CryptoQuant analyst PelinayPA said Ethereum’s taker buy/sell ratio on Binance remains above 1. That usually points to stronger buying activity, but ETH has not reacted with a strong recovery.

The analyst said this muted response suggests larger sellers may be absorbing buy orders. In simple terms, buyers are active, but they are not strong enough to push the price higher.

Source: CryptoQuant analyst PelinayPA The same report said Ethereum’s fund price has been falling since April. That suggests traders are reducing long exposure in derivatives markets and taking less risk.

This creates a weak setup for ETH. Even when buying activity rises, price action remains soft. That can happen when whales use short rallies to sell into demand.

The analyst said ETH still forms lower highs while fresh lows keep developing. That confirms the broader bearish structure remains in place until Ethereum breaks its current downtrend.

Ethereum price outlook Ethereum’s near-term outlook now depends on the $1,583 support area. If buyers defend this zone, ETH could attempt another move toward $1,633 and then $1,800.

A clean break above $1,800 would be the first stronger sign that bulls are regaining control. It could also shift attention back toward higher resistance zones after weeks of weak trading.

If ETH loses $1,583, traders may look toward $1,505 and $1,385. A deeper sell-off could bring the $1,237 and $1,089 demand zones into focus if whale selling continues.

For now, Ethereum is stable but not strong. The price is calm near $1,570, yet ETF outflows, whale distribution, and weak derivatives demand keep the risk tilted toward another test of lower support.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

Ethereum remains under pressure across higher timeframes, but the latest price action is showing early signs that bearish momentum may be losing strength. While the broader trend remains decisively bearish, the recent movements suggest that sellers may be approaching exhaustion after weeks of sustained downside.

Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart ETH’s recent rejection from the $1.72K-$1.78K supply zone triggered another leg lower, pushing it back into the critical $1.46K-$1.53K demand region. This zone has acted as support multiple times throughout June and continues to attract buyers whenever the price approaches it.

The most notable development on the daily timeframe is the emerging bullish divergence on the RSI. While the asset has continued making lower lows during June, the RSI has been forming higher lows near oversold territory. This divergence suggests that downside momentum is weakening despite ETH remaining near cycle lows.

Although a bullish divergence alone does not guarantee a reversal, it often appears during the latter stages of bearish trends and can serve as an early warning that sellers are losing control. As long as ETH holds above the $1.46K-$1.53K support area, the divergence remains valid, increasing the probability of a relief rally.

However, confirmation would require a break above the nearest resistance zones, particularly the $1.72K-$1.78K supply area. Until then, the broader trend remains bearish despite the improving momentum profile.

ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart On the 4-hour timeframe, Ethereum has spent the past several sessions consolidating above the lower demand zone after the sharp sell-off from resistance.

A descending trendline has capped every recovery attempt since the June 22 rejection. However, the asset is now compressing directly beneath that trendline, while volatility continues to contract. This setup creates the possibility of a short-term breakout if buyers can push through trendline resistance.

A successful breakout would likely target the $1.72K-$1.78K supply zone, which served as the origin of the latest decline. Such a move would align well with the bullish RSI divergence visible on the daily chart and could provide the first meaningful recovery rally in several weeks.

On the downside, the $1.52K area remains the key level to monitor. Losing this support would invalidate the short-term bullish scenario and shift focus back toward deeper downside continuation within the broader downtrend.

For now, Ethereum appears trapped between support and descending resistance, with the next directional move likely determined by whichever side breaks first.

Sentiment Analysis The liquidation heatmap reveals an interesting shift in liquidity positioning.

While liquidity remains concentrated above the current price, particularly between roughly $1.68K and $1.80K, Ethereum is currently trading beneath these large clusters. Markets often gravitate toward areas with substantial leveraged positioning, making those overhead liquidity pools attractive short-term targets.

This creates a scenario where ETH could stage an upside liquidity sweep before any larger directional move develops. A breakout above the 4-hour descending trendline would increase the probability of price moving into these overhead liquidity pockets, triggering short liquidations and fueling a squeeze toward the $1.7K-$1.8K region.

At the same time, the heatmap also shows notable liquidity beneath the market around the lower support region, meaning both sides of the range remain vulnerable to liquidation-driven volatility.

Combined with the bullish daily RSI divergence and the compression beneath 4-hour trendline resistance, the current setup suggests Ethereum may first attempt an upside liquidity grab before the market determines whether a more sustainable recovery can develop. The reaction around the $1.72K-$1.80K liquidity cluster will likely provide important clues regarding Ethereum’s next major trend.

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The decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain sector has witnessed a considerable drop in developer activity over the past week. However, despite decline, Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Polygon are still the top blockchains. As per the data from Santiment, the other prominent blockchains based on developer activity include Solana, Arbitrum, Optimism, Cosmos, Avalanche, Harmony, and Cardano. The data highlights that the DeFi landscape is consistently grappling with minimized developer participation amid decreased investor confidence.

Ethereum Dominates with 6.1K Events and 25 Contributing Developers Ethereum is the leading player when it comes to weekly developer activity. Over the past 7 days, Ethereum witnessed 6.1K developer activity events, showing a 52.61% dip. Additionally, 25 developers took part in these events, highlighting a 96.46% drop. Along with that, BNB Chain has become the 2nd notable blockchain, with a total of 2.7K developer activity events, expressing an 18.02% plunge. Particularly, 9 developers were a part of the respective events, presenting a 97.47% slump.

Coming after that, Polygon has become the 3rd top blockchain when it comes to developer activity. Specifically, it saw 2.2K developer activity events, indicating a 22.84% weekly decrease. At the same time, 5 developers participated in the respective events, expressing a 98.26% drop. Additionally, Solana’s 2K events accounted for an 8.79% decline, while 6 developers contributed to the events, signifying a 97.44% reduction.

Moving on, Arbitrum’s 1.8K weekly developer activity events denote a 16.84% decrease, while the number of developers participating in them was 5, underscoring a 98.01% decline. Additionally, Optimism recorded 1.7K events and 4 developers, displaying 14.22% and 98.33% slumps. Then comes Cosmos, with 1.7K events and just 2 developers, revealing 19.12% and 98.9% drops.

Harmony Bottoms List with 1.4K Events and 5 Developers According to Santiment, Avalanche is the 8th top blockchain based on weekly developer activity, with 1.5K events as well as 5 developers. These figures account for 15.79% and 97.58% dips. Additionally, Cardano’s 1.4K events and 3 developers contributing to them show 16.52% and 98.29% decreases. Ultimately, Harmony is the last among the leading blockchains of the week, with its 1.4K events and 5 developers expressing 19.71% and 97.14% drops.

AUTHOR

Umair Younas is a cryptocurrency-related content writer linked with this work since 2019. Here, at Blockchainreporter, he serves as a news and article writer. He is a crypto, blockchain, NFTs, DeFi, and FinTech enthusiast. He has strong command over writing authentic reviews about brokers and exchanges and he has collaborated with our education team to write educational content as well. He has a dream to raise awareness among people about digital currencies. His works are well-researched and brimmed with information hence they provide fresh insights. Stay tuned to his posts if you want to stay up-to-date with the crypto-verse.

17h05 ▪ 5 min read ▪ by Lydie M.

Summarize this article with:

The crypto ranking experienced a rare shift on June 26. Tether’s USDT briefly surpassed Ether in market capitalization, becoming the second cryptocurrency in the market behind Bitcoin. This reversal did not come from an increase in the USDT price, but from Ethereum’s sharp drop to its lowest level in 2026.

In brief USDT briefly surpassed Ether with over 186 billion dollars in capitalization. Ethereum fell near 1,510 dollars, its lowest level in 2026. The growth of stablecoins reveals a crypto market that has become more defensive. USDT reached a capitalization close to 186.06 billion dollars. At the same time, Ether’s capitalization fell to around 185.66 billion. Tether’s stablecoin thus temporarily occupied the second place in the crypto ranking. A scenario that some observers had already considered when Ethereum’s position began to seem less solid.

The crossover remained narrow. By June 27, Ether had recovered a capitalization close to 190 billion dollars thanks to a rebound in its price. USDT remained around 186 billion, with no major variation in its unit value.

This difference highlights a key particularity. Ethereum’s capitalization depends directly on the price of ETH. USDT’s capitalization evolves mainly according to the number of tokens in circulation, as each unit aims to maintain a value close to one dollar.

The surpassing therefore does not mean that investors have suddenly valued Tether as a blockchain technology superior to Ethereum. It rather shows that digital dollars are gaining ground while volatile crypto assets retreat.

Ethereum falls to its lowest level in 2026 Ether fell near 1,510 dollars on Coinbase, its lowest level of the year. The drop reached about 5.2% over twenty-four hours and nearly 9% over a week. It was enough to push its capitalization below that of USDT.

The correction becomes even more striking when compared to the August 2025 peak. At that time, ETH traded around 4,946 dollars. The decline now exceeds 68%, bringing the price back to levels seen in 2023 and April 2025.

Ethereum nevertheless retains significant activity in decentralized finance, stablecoins, and tokenization. But the crypto market does not automatically reward the use of a network. Demand for its token also depends on the economic context, speculation, and investor confidence.

This weakness does not only affect Ether. It weighs on all altcoins, often more sensitive to capital outflows than Bitcoin. When risk increases, investors often favor liquidity or assets considered more defensive.

Stablecoins rise in the crypto rankings USDT is not the only stablecoin to have benefited from the decline. Circle’s USDC also surpassed XRP in capitalization. USDC was nearly 74 billion dollars, against about 65 billion for XRP after its fall to one dollar.

Again, stablecoins did not experience a spectacular price increase. Their value remained close to one dollar. It is the competing crypto assets that declined, allowing stable digital currencies to gain ground.

This growth also reflects a real increase in their supply. The stablecoin market reached new records in 2026, even as several major cryptocurrencies lost value. USDT retains first place, while USDC gains ground in payments and on-chain transactions.

Stablecoins now represent a significant share of the total crypto capitalization. They serve as a temporary reserve for traders, a means of settlement in DeFi, and a tool for international transfers. Their demand no longer depends solely on periods of speculative euphoria.

For Ethereum, the challenge now is to turn its technical activity into a sustainable demand for ETH. For Tether, the issue will be to maintain confidence around its reserves and its dollar peg. In both cases, this episode confirms that stablecoins are no longer just secondary tools. They now occupy the center of the crypto market.

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Lydie M.

Enseignante et ingénieure IT, Lydie découvre le Bitcoin en 2022 et plonge dans l’univers des cryptomonnaies. Elle vulgarise des sujets complexes, décrypte les enjeux du Web3 et défend une vision d’un futur numérique ouvert, inclusif et décentralisé.

DISCLAIMER

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.

Marc Andreessen: Zhipu AI’s GLM-5.2 Rivals Top U.S. Open Models, Large Language Model Capabilities Gradually Move Toward a Multipolar Competitive Landscape

According to monitoring by Beating, a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen noted that many AI practitioners and industry insiders consider Zhipu GLM-5.2 to be the first Chinese AI model that can match or even outperform open models from leading U.S. labs on most tasks, while also being balanced across multiple capability dimensions. This development carries "extremely critical timing significance" amid accelerating global AI competition, as large model capabilities are gradually shifting from being dominated by a small number of U.S. labs to a multipolar competitive landscape. Click the original link below to join Beating’s Feishu AI News Channel, which provides 24/7 uninterrupted monitoring of global AI hotspots and news.

12 minutes ago

Michael Saylor has once again released updates for his Bitcoin Tracker, potentially signaling another round of BTC accumulation.

Michael Saylor, founder of MicroStrategy, has once again shared updates on Bitcoin Tracker, remarking, “We are gonna need more charts.” Per historical trends, MicroStrategy typically announces increases to its Bitcoin holdings the day after such statements.

12 minutes ago

Bank of America: Three key thresholds for US stocks to trigger a "full risk-off" this summer, with signals for these conditions already building up.

BofA Securities chief strategist Michael Hartnett outlined three thresholds for a "full risk-off" trigger this summer in his latest Fund Flow Report: the Mag7 ETF falling below $60, USD/JPY dropping below 110, and the yield curve inverting again. None of these conditions have been met yet, but related signals are building. U.S. stock funds posted a net outflow of $8.5 billion, the first such outflow since March, following a historic $119.2 billion net inflow. The divergence where hyperscale cloud providers continue to underperform chip stocks has pushed the sustainability of AI capital spending to the core of market debate: Apple’s MacBook price hikes and Microsoft’s Xbox price increases are both directly tied to rising memory costs. Rack memory prices at Vera Rubin have surged by 435% cumulatively, and Goldman Sachs forecasts AI capital spending could reach as high as $1.4 trillion by 2027. Hartnett’s core ongoing question is: How much further do cloud providers need to fall before the market starts pricing in capital spending cuts? U.S. equity funds have shifted ahead of the curve, with liquidity flowing out of tech giants and into cyclical assets including semiconductors, small-caps, housing, and REITs — a move the market interprets as a front-run bet on a policy shift toward "affordability". For asset classes, Hartnett believes gold remains highly valuable for allocation below $4,000, and going long on long-dated U.S. Treasuries is currently the most contrarian long-term trade. The U.S. dollar is only suitable for short-term holding rather than long-term allocation, while going long on emerging markets over the long term is his strategic stance. Since Fed Chair Waller took office on May 22, U.S. Treasuries have risen by 3.2% cumulatively, while stocks have fallen by 1.6%, with bonds outperforming significantly.

12 minutes ago

Bank of America: There are three key thresholds for US stocks to trigger a full-scale risk-off move this summer; none of the conditions have been triggered yet, but relevant signals are accumulating.

Bank of America Securities chief strategist Hartnett outlined three triggers for a "full risk-off" environment this summer in his latest Fund Flow Report: Mag7 ETF falling below $60, USD/JPY dropping below 110, and the yield curve inverting again. None of these conditions have been met yet, but signals are building. U.S. equity funds have posted a net outflow of $8.5 billion, the first such outflow since March, following a historic $119.2 billion net inflow. The divergence where hyperscale cloud providers continue to underperform chip stocks has put the sustainability of AI capital expenditure at the center of market debate: Apple’s MacBook price hikes and Microsoft’s Xbox price increases are both directly tied to rising memory costs. Vera Rubin rack memory prices have surged 435% cumulatively, and Goldman Sachs projects AI capital expenditure could reach as high as $1.4 trillion by 2027. Hartnett’s core ongoing question is: How much further do cloud providers need to fall before the market begins pricing in capital expenditure cuts? U.S. equity funds have already shifted ahead of time; liquidity flowing out of tech giants is pouring into cyclical assets like semiconductors, small-caps, housing, and REITs, a move the market interprets as a front-run bet on policy shifting toward "affordability." At the asset class level, Hartnett believes gold still holds strong allocation value below $4,000, and going long on long-dated U.S. Treasuries is the most contrarian long-term trade right now. The U.S. dollar is only suitable for short-term holding rather than long-term allocation, and his strategic view is to go long on emerging markets over the long term. Since Fed Chair Waller took office on May 22, U.S. Treasuries have risen 3.2% cumulatively, while stocks have fallen 1.6%, with bonds significantly outperforming.

12 minutes ago

Samsung Electro-Mechanics plans to sign a 500 billion won large order for AI server MLCCs, and will partner with Sumitomo Chemical to develop glass substrate business.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics is in final negotiations with a major U.S. tech firm over a supply contract for MLCCs (multi-layer ceramic capacitors) for AI servers. Worth around 500 billion won, the deal equals 10% of its component division’s annual revenue last year, making it an extremely large-scale order. Industry sources speculate the client is a leading player with significant clout in the data center sector. Each AI server requires 15,000 to 25,000 MLCCs—over 10 times the number used in a smartphone—with a unit price more than triple that of smartphone-grade MLCCs, earning the component the nickname "golden rice of the AI industry". Samsung Electro-Mechanics currently holds the No.2 position in the global MLCC market with a 20%+ share. The contract is expected to significantly boost its standing in the AI server MLCC market. Industry observers note the deal essentially secures quality validation from a global "big buyer", which will prompt other major tech firms to follow suit. Turning to its glass substrate business, Samsung Electro-Mechanics will formally sign a joint venture agreement with Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical this week. The two firms will invest a combined 500 billion won to set up a glass substrate JV, with Samsung holding a majority stake and contributing around 300 billion won. The JV will be based at the Pyeongtaek plant of Sumitomo Chemical’s South Korean subsidiary Dongwoo Fine-Chem, with production scheduled to launch in early next year. Glass substrates, which offer superior heat resistance to traditional plastic substrates and can accommodate more HBM (high-bandwidth memory) and GPUs, are hailed as "rule changers" for AI semiconductor packaging. Samsung Electro-Mechanics aims to lock in a high-quality supply chain in advance for mass production, while Sumitomo Chemical is using this partnership to enter the next-generation packaging materials market.

12 minutes ago

Crypto KOL Ansem has continued pumping his eponymous meme coin, with ANSEM’s market cap briefly surging past $78 million.

According to GMGN data, Solana ecosystem meme coin ANSEM briefly hit a market cap of over $78 million before pulling back to $74 million. It has seen a 356x price surge in 24 hours, with 24-hour trading volume reaching $49.4 million. Today, crypto KOL Ansem announced on social media that, due to Pump.fun’s refusal to distribute airdrops, he is issuing a “stimmy” (stimulus fund) to “the trenches” — a term referring to on-chain meme coin traders. As of press time, Ansem has been posting buy calls continuously to stoke community sentiment. BlockBeats reminds users: Most meme coins lack real-world use cases and are highly volatile; please protect your assets and avoid FOMO.

12 minutes ago

Taiko says it is ready to bring its Ethereum layer-2 network back online after a June 21 security breach. 

Summary

Taiko says the attack path is closed after outside experts reviewed its latest security fixes. The restart plan will restore chain activity before reopening the bridge under withdrawal quotas. Recent bridge attacks show why projects now face close scrutiny over proof validation controls. The project says the attack path is now closed, outside security experts have reviewed the fixes, and users will not lose funds.

The update marks a shift from emergency response to staged recovery. Taiko plans to restore the chain, back the bridge assets, reopen network activity and then unpause bridge operations under limits.

Taiko says attack path is closed Taiko said the June 21 attack path has been closed after a review by independent security experts. The team said it now has a staged plan to restore the chain while protecting user funds and network stability.

Taiko is ready to come back online.

The June 21 attack path is closed, the fixes have been reviewed by independent security experts, and we have a clear, staged plan to restore the chain. We're doing it in four careful steps, to ensure user’s security and stability before it…

— Taiko.eth 🥁 (@taikoxyz) June 28, 2026 The project said the first step will deploy the fixes and confirm the chain’s finalized state. Taiko also said the review must confirm there are no forged checkpoints or attacker claims still reachable.

The update follows an earlier warning after Taiko confirmed a compromise of its chain-state verification mechanism. As previously reported, the project had urged users to withdraw bridge funds and asked exchanges to pause TAIKO deposits while the team contained the issue.

Blockaid had linked the attack to flawed source-signal proof checks. The security firm said crafted message proofs were accepted on Ethereum without matching valid events on Taiko, allowing unauthorized releases from the ERC20 Vault.

Bridge backing comes before full access Taiko said the second step will replenish the bridge so every L2 asset is backed 1:1. The team said users will be able to verify the backing on-chain.

This step matters because bridge users rely on the claim that assets on the L2 match assets held or locked elsewhere. If backing becomes weak after an exploit, users may lose trust in wrapped or bridged balances.

Taiko said the Security Council will handle key restart actions. The council will also submit the proposal that unpauses the bridge once the chain finalizes properly and the network remains stable.

The team said it will reopen the bridge with conservative withdrawal quotas. Taiko said it does not expect the limits to stop users from moving assets, but it will use them as an extra safety guard.

Network activity returns in stages After the fixes and bridge backing steps, Taiko plans to bring network functions back online. Transfers, swaps and trading on L2 will return before the bridge fully opens.

That order gives the team time to watch the chain under normal activity before allowing free movement to and from the bridge. It also lowers the risk of a rushed restart after a security breach.

Taiko said, “No user will lose funds.” The team also warned users that there is no claim site and that the project will never contact users first through direct messages.

That warning targets phishing risks that often follow crypto exploits. Fake recovery links, support accounts and claim pages can lead users into signing harmful transactions or exposing wallet details.

Bridge security remains under pressure The Taiko breach adds to a series of recent bridge security failures. A Verus Protocol bridge exploit drained more than $11.5 million after attackers used forged cross-chain transfer messages.

Axelar also disabled Secret Network bridge routes after a $4.7 million exploit. Aztec Connect later lost about $2.1 million after an old contract suffered a verification mismatch.

A separate report said cross-chain bridge exploits caused $28.6 million in May losses, or about 42% of the monthly total. That figure shows why bridge proof checks and recovery plans now face close review.

Taiko’s next test is execution. The project must restore activity, prove 1:1 backing, reopen withdrawals safely and keep users away from scam recovery channels.

In a move that continues to garner interest in both traditional and cryptocurrency markets, SharpLink Gaming has once again increased the size of its Ethereum treasury by acquiring roughly $46.7 million worth of ETH.

Becoming a top-tier investorRecent on-chain data indicates that the company received 29,195.83 ETH at an average acquisition price of $1,599.50 per coin from Galaxy Digital approximately ten hours ago.

After the most recent acquisition, SharpLink's on-chain holdings now total more than 202,000 ETH, or roughly $342 million at current market prices.

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ETH/USDT Chart by TradingViewThe approach clearly resembles Michael Saylor's Bitcoin-focused strategy at Strategy. Businesses using this model treat cryptocurrencies as core treasury reserves rather than as speculative side investments.

Ethereum has emerged as SharpLink's preferred asset. This strategy has more justification than just price appreciation. Ethereum provides more opportunities through staking, in contrast to Bitcoin. Companies may be able to generate yield while maintaining exposure to the asset's long-term value by holding substantial amounts of ETH. This results in a treasury model that combines recurring blockchain-generated rewards with the potential for capital growth. 

SharpLink's strategyAdditionally, SharpLink's expanding market share represents a direct wager on Ethereum's potential future in digital finance. Ethereum is still one of the main networks anticipated to benefit from the continued growth of decentralized finance, tokenized assets, stablecoin infrastructure, and blockchain settlement systems. Establishing a sizable treasury position now enables the business to gain exposure prior to a possible acceleration of wider institutional adoption.

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Nevertheless, there are risks associated with the strategy. SharpLink's balance sheet is becoming more susceptible to changes in the price of Ethereum, which remains a highly volatile asset. The business is essentially tying the performance of a single cryptocurrency to a sizable portion of its corporate value.

The purchase is noteworthy from a market standpoint since it took place while Ethereum was still in a more general downward trend. Despite a recent stabilization around $1,600, the asset is still below its major moving averages. Such circumstances might present an opportunity for treasury-focused buyers to make purchases before sentiment improves.

It is unclear whether SharpLink will eventually surpass Strategy in Ethereum holdings. Nonetheless, it is evident that the business is gradually becoming one of the biggest publicly visible corporate ETH holders, and its most recent $46.7 million acquisition reinforces this commitment.

Altcoins

28 June 2026 | 13:38 Ethereum is ending the second quarter of 2026 in a rough spot: two consecutive double-digit negative quarters, a market cap that has slipped out of the global top 100 assets, and a derivatives market where buyers are present but unable to push price higher.

Key Takeaways Ethereum is closing Q2 2026 with two straight double-digit negative quarters. Its market cap has fallen out of the global top 100 assets. Buyers are active in derivatives, but price isn’t responding. The only comparable back-to-back negative Q1 and Q2 were in 2022; 2018 remains the sharpest downside risk scenario for what follows. One of the most telling signals is in the order flow. The Taker Buy/Sell Ratio sits at 1.13, meaning aggressive buyers are outnumbering sellers on Binance. Normally that pushes price up. It isn’t. The Fund Price at $12.59 has been declining since April despite that buying pressure, and that combination is the problem.

What it points to is absorption: the sell orders are large enough to neutralize the incoming buy flow without price responding. When buying pressure exists but price stays flat or falls, the more likely explanation, as the analysis frames it, is distribution, larger holders using bounces to exit, rather than accumulation building a base. It’s worth being precise that order-flow data can’t name who is selling; what it shows is buying being absorbed, and distribution is the reading that best fits that behavior.

On-chain data confirms who is doing the selling. Crypto analyst Ali Charts wrote on X that large-scale holders offloaded roughly 550,000 ETH over the past week, injecting $880 million in sell-side supply into the market. That selling pressure pushed ETH below its immediate $1,633 support floor, with the market now testing critical volume support at $1,583. According to URPD data cited by Ali Charts, losing that level opens a path toward extended liquidations, with the next high-volume demand zones sitting at $1,237 and $1,089 if distribution continues into next week.

2026 in Historical Context The quarterly numbers put the weakness in perspective. Q1 2026 finished at -29.26% and Q2 at -24.75%. The only year in ETH’s recorded history with a comparable back-to-back negative Q1 and Q2 was 2022, which posted -10.75% and -67.34% respectively. 2018 had a positive Q2 (+15.29%) before collapsing in Q3 (-48.69%) and Q4 (-41.62%), making it the relevant downside risk scenario rather than a structural match. In every other year that opened with a negative Q1, ETH recovered in Q2. 2026 has not followed that pattern.

Year Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 2018 -46.61% +15.29% -48.69% -41.62% 2022 -10.75% -67.34% +24.09% -9.94% 2026 -29.26% -24.75% — — That matters for what comes next. The historical Q3 average is +7.4% with a median of +8.19%, and Q3 has been positive in the majority of recorded years, which may normally be an encouraging base rate. But there is some exceptions: in 2018 for example, Q3 came in at -48.69%. So the historical record cuts both ways, the typical Q3 is positive, but still sometimes it was sharply negative.

The Top-100 Milestone ETH falling out of the global top 100 assets by market cap isn’t a separate event, it’s a direct consequence of the price decline. It’s a measure of how far Ethereum’s market cap has compressed relative to the full universe of global assets, equities, commodities, and everything else ranked by size. The milestone is symbolic rather than mechanical, but it captures how much ground the asset has given up.

🚨 WILD: Ethereum is no longer a top 100 asset ranked by market cap. pic.twitter.com/9IRIBJMkq6

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) June 27, 2026

Pulling it together: the order flow shows buyers active but unable to move price, which most plausibly reflects larger holders distributing into strength; the quarterly record shows a two-quarter decline matched structurally only by 2022, with 2018 providing the sharpest downside risk scenario for what follows; and the market-cap milestone underlines the scale of the compression. None of this predicts where ETH goes next. The data describes a market under real structural pressure, with a forward path that the history can frame but not settle.

The signal worth watching into July is straightforward: whether this absorption pattern breaks toward heavier selling, or whether the steady buyer flow finally overcomes the resistance that has been capping it. That probably could give a sign on which way the pressure is resolving.

Ethereum is trading for $1,570 at the time of writing after 6.7% drop for the past 7 days, according to CoinMarketCap data.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Consult a professional before making investment decisions.

Author

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