Asset management giant BlackRock (BLK +6.63%) reported second-quarter results on Wednesday, and the numbers came with a milestone: assets under management (AUM) of $15.3 trillion. No company has ever managed more, and none had crossed $15 trillion until now.
Investors cheered, sending shares 6.6% higher on the day.
Round numbers usually make better headlines than investment theses. But in BlackRock's case, the record arrived alongside accelerating client inflows, 31% revenue growth, and the company's highest adjusted operating margin in almost five years.
So what does the record actually mean for the stock? Here's a closer look.
Image source: Getty Images.
Where the $15 trillion came from The best way to judge an asset manager is by its net flows (the new money clients hand it, minus what they pull out), because a rising market can inflate AUM even when clients are leaving.
On that measure, BlackRock is accelerating. Clients added $192 billion of net new money in the second quarter, up from about $68 billion in the year-ago period and about $129 billion in the first quarter of this year.
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That brought first-half net inflows to a record $321 billion. For perspective, the company's AUM stood at $13.9 trillion just three months earlier, at the end of March.
The flows were broad-based, too. ETFs led the way with $178 billion of second-quarter net inflows, and BlackRock said its iShares ETF business crossed $6 trillion in AUM, roughly double its size three years ago. By asset class, fixed income took in the most money of all, at $92 billion. And another $53 billion flowed into the company's active strategies, including a record $7 billion into liquid alternatives.
"In the second quarter clients entrusted us with $192 billion of net inflows, generating 8% organic base fee growth," said BlackRock CEO Larry Fink in the company's second-quarter earnings release, calling that growth rate "well in excess of our target."
The financial results followed the flows. Second-quarter revenue rose 31% year over year to $7.1 billion, helped by market gains, organic growth, higher performance fees, and fees from the company's 2025 acquisition of private credit specialist HPS Investment Partners. Operating income climbed 42% year over year, or 39% on an adjusted basis. And BlackRock's adjusted operating margin expanded to 45.9% from 43.3% a year ago, the highest it has been in almost five years. Adjusted earnings per share rose 15% to $13.91.
One caveat is worth dwelling on, though. Most of the past year's increase in AUM came from rising markets, not new client money. Total AUM grew by roughly $2.8 trillion year over year, and net inflows accounted for $868 billion of that. Markets did most of the rest.
That caveat matters because BlackRock earns base fees as a percentage of the assets it manages -- $5.7 billion of base fees and securities lending revenue in the second quarter alone. A rising market lifts those fees with no extra effort from the company.
In a falling market, the same math runs in reverse -- AUM shrinks, and fees shrink with it. Anyone buying the stock after a big market run should keep that exposure in mind.
Still, the parts of the quarter BlackRock controls looked strong. Organic base fee growth of 8% came in above the company's own target. Technology services and subscription revenue, built around the company's Aladdin platform, grew 13% year over year, with annual contract value up 15%. And management now plans $2 billion of share repurchases in 2026, a signal of confidence in the growth ahead.
So, does the record quarter make the stock worth buying after Wednesday's pop?
At about $1,093 per share as of this writing, BlackRock trades at about 27 times earnings, and shares still sit about 10% below their 52-week high of $1,219.94. The stock also pays a dividend that yields about 2.1% at the current share price.
For a company growing adjusted earnings per share 15%, with organic growth running ahead of its own target, I think that valuation is reasonable. Not a bargain, but reasonable. And I'd be comfortable buying shares here. Of course, a stock built on AUM leans on the market itself -- a deep sell-off could drag fees, and likely the share price, down with it. Investors should size a position accordingly.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Oceania Cruises® is inviting travelers to discover the Caribbean's vibrant cultures, sun-drenched islands and diverse coastal destinations aboard the line's newest and most recently refreshed ships, all offering a sophisticated, adults-only environment. Each itinerary, ranging from seven to 14 days, is designed for guests to explore the region from a new perspective.
Oceania Cruises Caribbean Sailings Sailing aboard Oceania Cruises' intimate, luxurious ships, including Oceania Marina™, Oceania Vista® and Oceania Allura™, for the Caribbean season at the end of 2026 showcases the extraordinary breadth and cultural richness of the region. Itineraries feature popular destinations such as Oranjestad, Aruba; Cozumel, Mexico; and Montego Bay, Jamaica, as well as lesser-known boutique ports, including Basseterre, St. Kitts; Philipsburg, St. Maarten; and Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.
Guests can explore the Caribbean's flavors, lush landscapes, wildlife and lively cultures through a broad array of small-group shore excursions designed to showcase the diversity of the region. Travelers can choose to visit a beekeeping collective in St. Lucia or peruse the antique stalls of Pointe-à-Pitre's Sainte-Anne's Artisanal Village. Alternatively, for those wanting to discover the Caribbean through a culinary lens, they could sample Dutch cheeses and wines in the UNESCO-listed historic section of Willemstad, Curaçao, learn about the dozens of banana varieties and the role they play in Martinique's economy, or enjoy a Chef-led tour of an organic farm and a beachside lunch in Tortola.
"Our Caribbean voyages showcase the remarkable diversity and depth of the region, from its globally recognized islands to its more unexpected discoveries. Plus, our array of enriching experiences ashore offers even the most well-traveled guests a fresh perspective on destinations they may have visited many times," said Jason Montague, Chief Luxury Officer of Oceania Cruises. "Whether sailing aboard our two newest ships, Oceania Allura and Oceania Vista, or embarking on the newly reinspired Oceania Marina, guests can enjoy days exploring ashore before returning to a refined adults-only ambiance and elegant accommodations that provide the perfect retreat at sea."
Beyond the ports of call, Oceania Cruises' onboard experience is equally enriching. Guests can savor themed Chef's Market Dinners in the Terrace Café on select evenings and refine their culinary skills at The Culinary Center, where expert Chef Instructors lead hands-on classes inspired by local ingredients and regional traditions. The spirit of the Caribbean continues throughout the ship, with LYNC digital classes inviting guests to refine their photography techniques to capture the region's vivid coastlines and landscapes.
Highlighted Caribbean Voyages Through 2026:
Dutchman's Caribbean: 14-day voyage roundtrip from Miami, departing November 11, 2026, aboard Oceania Vista. This itinerary spans the Western and Southern Caribbean, with calls in George Town, Grand Cayman; Falmouth, Jamaica; Oranjestad, Aruba; Willemstad, Curaçao; St. George's, Grenada; Bridgetown, Barbados; Basseterre, St. Kitts; and Castries, St. Lucia, inviting guests to tour colorful local markets featuring artisanal sweets and spirits, and sample local rum. The sailing features a blend of colorful Dutch-Caribbean islands, lush volcanic landscapes, vibrant local culture and scenic coastal beauty. Caribbean Island Bliss: 10-day voyage roundtrip from Miami, departing December 2, 2026, aboard Oceania Allura. Offering a mix of turquoise waters, sophisticated towns, local flavors and relaxed luxury, this Eastern Caribbean escape showcases a collection of beloved islands, beginning with a call in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, where travelers can follow an underwater snorkel trail through the clear waters of Trunk Bay. The voyage continues to Gustavia, St. Barts, before arriving in Philipsburg, St. Maarten, where guests can sample local cuisine and catch a glimpse of island life at an open-air barbecue locally known as "Lolo." Additional calls include Frederiksted, St. Croix, and Tortola, British Virgin Islands. Collector's Caribbean: 12-day voyage roundtrip from Miami, departing December 10, 2026, aboard Oceania Marina. Blending French-Caribbean charm and immersive culinary experiences, this port-rich itinerary explores some of the region's most sought-after islands, including calls in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, and Gustavia, St. Barts. In St. John's, Antigua, guests can enjoy a Caribbean cooking shore excursion led by a team trained by Michelin-starred chef Colin McGurran, preparing a three-course menu inspired by local ingredients and the island's rich culinary heritage. The voyage also calls at Fort-de-France, Martinique; Basseterre, St. Kitts; Philipsburg, St. Maarten; and Tortola, British Virgin Islands. Tropical Retreats: 7-day voyage roundtrip from Miami, departing December 21, 2026, aboard Oceania Allura. Surrounded by dense jungle and turquoise waters, this holiday sailing calls at Costa Maya, Mexico, and Roatan, Honduras. Equally enchanting ports of call include Harvest Caye, Belize, on Christmas Day, and Cozumel, Mexico, where a Chef-Led Tequila vs Mezcal Seminar and Taco Pairing Culinary Discovery Tour invites guests to learn about these iconic agave spirits while sampling tacos thoughtfully paired to complement their flavors. Caribbean Celebration: 14-day voyage roundtrip from Miami, departing December 22, 2026, aboard Oceania Marina. This two-week holiday sailing offers wildlife opportunities, sapphire seas and relaxation across ports including George Town, Grand Cayman; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Oranjestad, Aruba; Willemstad, Curaçao; Kralendijk, Bonaire; and a New Year's Eve call at Fort-de-France, Martinique, where a culturally rich shore excursion invites guests to visit a smaller version of the Sacré-Coeur Basilica, explore a museum chronicling the 1902 volcanic eruption and enjoy lunch featuring boucanage, a centuries-old method of cooking meats. The sailing concludes with calls at Basseterre, St. Kitts, and Philipsburg, St. Maarten. Oceania Cruises' 2026 Caribbean voyages are part of the line's expansive portfolio, currently spanning over 600 ports and 250 unique itineraries each year. On all sailings, guests can experience the hallmarks of Oceania Cruises, including destination-rich itineraries, elegantly appointed small ships, highly personalized service and The Finest Cuisine at Sea®.
For more information on Oceania Cruises' collection of small, luxurious ships and curated global itineraries, visit OceaniaCruises.com or call 855-OCEANIA.
About Oceania Cruises®
Oceania Cruises® is the world's leading destination- and culinary-focused luxury cruise line, celebrated for its port-rich voyages and authentic cultural and culinary experiences. The line's intimate, luxurious ships feature an adults-only environment, with a high proportion of spacious rooms and suites, calling on more than 600 marquee and boutique ports in more than 100 countries across seven continents, with destination-intensive itineraries ranging from seven to 180 days. Aboard the designer-inspired ships, guests enjoy personalized service supported by a strong crew-to-guest ratio, alongside The Finest Cuisine at Sea®, prepared by one of the highest chef-to-guest ratios at sea. Oceania Cruises® is also recognized as one of the world's most awarded cruise lines, with accolades spanning luxury, dining, service and destination experiences. Oceania Cruises® has five Sonata Class ships on order scheduled for delivery in 2027, 2029, 2032, 2035 and 2037. Oceania Cruises® is a wholly owned subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NCLH).
Přední asijsko-pacifické indexy uzavírají čtvrteční seanci v záporu, výjimkou je hongkongský index Hang Seng, který posiluje o více než 1,3 %. Hlavním důvodem poklesu je dle agentury Bloomberg přetrvávající nejistota ohledně udržitelnosti AI rally. Největší pokles byl registrován u jihokorejského indexu Kospi, který ztratil bezmála 7 %. Akciím v regionu taktéž nenapomáhá zpřísnění monetární politiky, když tamní centrální banka zvýšila úrokové sazby o 0,25 p. b. na 2,75 %.
Pozornost trhu dnes směřovala k výsledkům TSMC (+1,23 %). Tržby společnosti naplnily očekávání trhu, když dosáhly 1,27 bilionu NT. Provozní marže byla reportována na úrovni 60,3 % při očekávání 58,6 %. Na 3Q společnost projektuje tržby v rozmezí 44,6-45,8 mld. USD. Očekávalo se 43,11 mld. USD. Hrubá marže by měla dosáhnout 65 % až 67 %, analytici predikovali 65,9 %. Kompletní výsledky připravujeme.
Japonský Nikkei 225 -2,65 % na 66926,74 b.
Hongkongský Hang Seng +1,35 % na 25013,73 b.
Čínský Shanghai Composite -1,7 % na 3888,2415 b.
Jihokorejský Kospi -6,37 % na 6820,6 b.
Australský S&P/ASX 200 +0 % na 8840,7 b.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump chose to be the “cryptocurrency industry’s biggest profiteer” over being a leader for working people.
Financial disclosures revealed that Trump earned approximately $1.4 billion in 2025 from cryptocurrency-related ventures, more than any publicly traded cryptocurrency company in the U.S. Overall, he reported over $2 billion in profits in the first year of his presidency.
“You can be the crypto industry’s biggest profiteer, or you can be a president for working people. You can’t be both,” the Warren said, adding that Trump chose his “corrupt” cryptocurrency profits.
Uproar Continues Over Trump’s Crypto WindfallThis happened while nearly one million TRUMP memecoin holders collectively incurred $3.81 billion in losses.
Trump insisted his cryptocurrency earnings were neither “illegal” nor “wrong,” and that the U.S. must lead in cryptocurrency or risk losing ground to China.
At the same time, his strong advocacy for the Clarity Act has raised scrutiny. Warren has pointed to "significant flaws" in the bill’s current draft and accused the Senate of "prioritizing legislation that could further boost the Trump family’s cryptocurrency businesses.”
A White House spokesperson told Benzinga earlier that all actions by the Trump administration are taken in the “best interest of the American people,” while rejecting any suggestions of “conflict of interest.”
The spokesperson also accused the media of “recycling” a tired narrative that Democrats have “pushed” for a decade.
Photo Courtesy: Bryan J. Scrafford on Shutterstock.com
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The program has been introduced on Robinhood Chain.
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Virtuals Protocol [VIRTUAL] has announced customizable tokenized indexes on Robinhood Chain! This would allow users to combine multiple assets into a single token.
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In August 2024, Gabriel Holding A/S announced that, as a result of an adjusted growth strategy with an increased focus on the development of the Group’s global textile business, it would initiate a full or partial divestment of the Group’s furniture manufacturing operations, the “FurnMaster business”.
FurnMaster has a leading position in the market and in Europe consists of two companies located in Poland and Lithuania respectively as well as a dedicated department in Gabriel A/S in Aalborg, Denmark.
The transaction agreement entails that a wholly owned subsidiary of Leggett & Platt, Incorporated acquires the shares in the two subsidiaries, UAB FurnMaster (Lithuania) and FurnMaster Sp. z o.o. (Poland), and will assume responsibility for the employees, assets and liabilities of the dedicated FurnMaster division within Gabriel A/S.
The Group’s Mexican FurnMaster business is not included in the transaction and will continue to be offered for sale.
The initial purchase price (Enterprise Value) has been agreed at DKK 67.3 million (approximately EUR 9 million). In addition, there is the possibility of a conditional deferred cash payment of up to DKK 7.5 million (approximately EUR 1 million).
The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions.
Management has prioritised finding a qualified buyer who recognises FurnMaster’s strong market position and possesses the necessary capabilities and platform to further develop the business, while at the same time achieving a transaction value that positively impacts the Group’s financial position.
Management believes that the agreement fully satisfies these objectives, as the transaction both enables the continuing business to maintain its desired strategic focus on the development of the Group’s global textile operations and significantly strengthens the Group’s balance sheet through the cash proceeds from the sale.
With locations in North America, Europe and Asia, Legett and Platt’s Work Furniture business is a leading supplier of components and finished furniture to leading furniture brands. Through its strong global platform, including ownership of Trio Line in Poland, which it has successfully operated for a number of years, Leggett & Platt possesses the organisational structure and competencies required to support FurnMaster’s continued development. Consequently, management is highly satisfied that Leggett & Platt has become the new owner of the business.
For further information regarding the transaction, please contact CEO Anders Hedegaard Petersen, [email protected]
or telephone: +45 96 30 31 17.
Further Information:
Gabriel Holding A/S has been advised throughout the transaction by Deloitte Corporate Finance and DLA Piper.
About Leggett & Platt:
Leggett & Platt (NYSE: LEG) is a diversified manufacturer that designs and produces a broad variety of engineered components and products that can be found in many homes and automobiles. The 143-year-old company is a leading supplier of bedding components and solutions; automotive seat comfort and convenience systems; home and work furniture components; geo components; flooring underlayment; and hydraulic cylinders for material handling and heavy construction applications.
For further information, please visit www.legget.com
This is a translation of the original Danish text. In the event of discrepancies between the Danish and English texts, the Danish version shall prevail.
Gabriel Holding AS - Announcement no 18_Gabriel agrees to sell its European FurnMaster business to Leggett & Platt
Hyperion DeFi, the NASDAQ-listed company trading under HYPD, is putting 500,000 staked HYPE tokens to work. The tokens are being deployed to Skew Technologies through a HYPE Asset Use Service (HAUS) agreement, giving Skew the economic backing it needs to launch perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 permissionless infrastructure.
In return, Hyperion gets equity ownership in Skew plus a cut of the revenues generated from listing services. The revenue share has both fixed and scaling components, meaning Hyperion earns a baseline regardless of how much volume Skew’s new markets attract, while also participating in the upside if trading activity takes off.
How the deal actually works HIP-3, which went live on October 13, 2025, requires anyone deploying a new market to maintain 500,000 staked HYPE as what’s called “alignment capital.” That’s a meaningful barrier to entry, designed to ensure deployers have real skin in the game and face slashing risks if they misbehave.
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Through the HAUS agreement, effective July 15, 2026, Hyperion essentially lends its staked position to Skew, which can then spin up new HIP-3 perpetual futures markets without needing to source and lock up half a million HYPE tokens on its own.
Skew’s initial focus will be on perpetual futures through HIP-3, with plans to eventually expand into outcome-based markets under HIP-4 once the core perps business reaches operational stability.
Why Hyperion is betting big on infrastructure Hyperion DeFi holds the distinction of being the first US publicly listed company built around the Hyperliquid ecosystem. Hyperion CEO Hyunsu Jung has pointed to growing global demand for HIP-3 launches as a key driver behind the company’s HAUS strategy.
This isn’t Hyperion’s first HAUS agreement. The company previously partnered with Felix Foundation in late 2025 under a similar arrangement. Recent reports also indicate Hyperion has been unwinding some of its other HYPE deployment deals.
What Skew brings to the table Skew Technologies is founded by a team with experience in financial markets and institutional trading. David Gil, Skew’s founder, has framed this partnership as a foundation for innovative institutional trading products, suggesting the company sees HIP-3 as a launchpad rather than an endpoint.
What this means for investors For Hyperion shareholders, each HAUS agreement transforms staked tokens into equity positions and revenue streams. The fixed component of the revenue share provides downside protection, while the scaling component offers leverage to trading volume growth.
The risk side of the equation centers on slashing. HIP-3’s alignment capital is actively at risk. If a market operator behaves badly or a technical failure triggers slashing conditions, Hyperion could lose a substantial portion of its deployed capital.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
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Binance launches three U.S. ETF perpetual contracts, offering up to 25x leverage.
According to official announcements, Binance has launched multiple USDT-margined TradFi perpetual contracts, including MUUUSDT, SOXSUSDT, and TZAUSDT perpetual contracts. MUUUSDT corresponds to Direxion Daily MU Bull 2X ETF (MUU), which tracks the daily 2x return performance of Micron Technology. SOXSUSDT corresponds to Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X Shares (SOXS), tracking the daily 3x inverse performance of the NYSE Semiconductor Index. TZAUSDT corresponds to Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA), tracking the daily 3x inverse performance of the Russell 2000 Index.
11 minutes ago
Ostium trading remains suspended, with user margin still frozen.
Perpetual decentralized exchange (Perp DEX) Ostium stated in a post that platform trading remains suspended following the security incident. User positions are still open but cannot be modified temporarily; trading margin remains in the frozen smart contract and has not been moved. Ostium added that its team is continuing to coordinate with relevant authorities, SEAL 911, and multiple security researchers, and will release updates on the timeline for smart contract activity resumption and fund recovery. According to PeckShield’s monitoring, Ostium’s public OLP vault was hacked for approximately 24 million USDC, with the attacker subsequently converting the funds to around 12,100 ETH, of which about 10,500 ETH has been transferred to Tornado Cash.
11 minutes ago
The China-South Korea Semiconductor ETF on the A-share market saw its afternoon decline widen to 5%.
According to market data, the semiconductor sector in China's A-share market continued to weaken in the afternoon, with the decline of China-South Korea semiconductor-related ETFs expanding to 5%.
11 minutes ago
TSMC expects demand to remain strong in Q3, with its full-year revenue coming in higher than earlier forecasts.
TSMC (TSM.N) announced that it expects its third-quarter revenue this year to range between $44.6 billion and $45.8 billion, compared to its Q3 2025 revenue of $33.1 billion. The chipmaker projects demand will remain strong in the third quarter, and forecasts its U.S. dollar-denominated revenue growth for 2026 will be slightly above 40%, an upward revision from its earlier forecast of over 30%.
11 minutes ago
HTX DAO completes Q2 token burn, with HTX’s cumulative burn exceeding 100 trillion tokens.
According to an official announcement from HTX DAO, the second-quarter 2026 HTX token burn was completed on July 15. On-chain data shows that a total of 7,474,935,439,560 HTX tokens were burned in this round, worth over $13.6 million. To date, the cumulative amount of HTX burned and donated has reached 117.79 trillion tokens. Burn details: https://tronscan.org/transaction/06b58562732cbff13ce6a3b2a0556f6ffefd158b4cc4313968750923c779810d/overview. In the first half of this year, HTX DAO’s two-quarter combined burn exceeded $32.82 million. Against the backdrop of intensified market liquidity competition this year, HTX has still been able to consistently execute quarterly burns worth tens of millions of dollars, showcasing strong operational resilience and anti-cyclical capabilities.
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Bitget has added 16 US stock tokens (rTokens), including Kroger, Jabil, and other companies.
Bitget has launched 16 US stock tokens, including rXBI (S&P Biotech ETF-SPDR), rDIA (SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust), rKSTR (SSE STAR 50 Index ETF), rJBL (Jabil), rKR (Kroger), covering sectors such as finance, healthcare, information technology and industrials. The rTokens, marked with the prefix "r" plus stock tickers (e.g., NVIDIA is rNVDA), are issued by Reality, a licensed RWA protocol under Bitget, which connects directly to global liquidity pools like NASDAQ and NYSE via cooperation with regulated broker Alpaca. Its key features include: 1:1 reserve of underlying assets held by licensed custodians; stock dividends distributed 1:1 in token form; support for synchronous mapping of corporate actions (such as stock splits and consolidations); and positions can be used as combined margin for unified accounts and USDT-denominated contracts, allowing users to flexibly manage funds while holding global stock assets.
Asian stocks fell on Thursday as a renewed sell-off in chipmakers exposed the risk of sky-high expectations before TSMC’s quarterly results.
South Korea bore the brunt, with the Kospi down about 6.4% as SK Hynix lost 11% and Samsung Electronics fell more than 8%.
Japan’s Nikkei dropped almost 3%, while Hong Kong bucked the regional weakness.
Bonds found support after US producer prices declined in June, but Brent crude remained above $85 a barrel as the conflict with Iran intensified.
TSMC is expected to report net profit of about NT$632.6 billion for the second quarter, a 59% increase that would mark a fifth consecutive record.
The earnings call is scheduled for 2 AM in New York, with investors focused less on the headline figure than on guidance for advanced chips, packaging capacity and capital expenditure.
ASML has already shown how demanding the market has become.
The Dutch equipment maker lifted its 2026 sales forecast to between €43 billion and €45 billion after reporting €9.3 billion of quarterly revenue and €2.9 billion of net income.
Yet Asian chip shares continued to slide. The contrast suggests investors now require more than earnings beats.
They want evidence that AI infrastructure spending can keep accelerating into 2027 without creating excess capacity or weaker returns.
The sell-off hit South Korea particularly hard because semiconductors carry an unusually large weight in the domestic market.
Losses in Samsung and SK Hynix pushed the Kospi towards bear-market territory and triggered temporary trading halts in several major shares.
The Bank of Korea added another layer of pressure by raising its policy rate to 2.75%, its first increase since January 2023.
The move was aimed at containing inflation, household debt and pressure on the won after consumer-price growth exceeded 3% in May and June.
The decision was widely expected, making the chip rout the clearer driver of Thursday’s losses.
Even so, tighter domestic financial conditions provide an uncomfortable backdrop for technology stocks whose valuations depend heavily on profits expected several years ahead.
US producer prices fell 0.3% in June, their largest decline in 14 months, as energy costs dropped 6.4%.
The report followed softer consumer inflation and reduced the market-implied probability of a July Fed increase to roughly 10%.
That relief supported short-dated Treasuries, but it failed to revive demand for Asian chip shares.
Oil has gained about 12% this week as US-Iran hostilities threaten energy flows, making June’s inflation data appear increasingly backward-looking.
TSMC’s outlook now carries unusual weight. A confident forecast could stabilise the region’s technology trade.
Any caution on customer spending or capacity, however, could deepen a sell-off already driven by an exceptionally high earnings bar.
TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, posted a 77% jump in second-quarter net profit on Thursday, beating market forecasts and hitting a record, riding the wave of surging global demand for its artificial intelligence processors.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co on Thursday reported a 77.4% jump in second-quarter profit year on year, shattering estimates as the world's largest contract-chipmaker continues to set consecutive record-breaking milestones.
Here are TSMC's second-quarter results against LSEG SmartEstimates, which are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:
Revenue: 1.27 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($39.45 billion ) vs. NT$1.264 trillion expectedNet income: NT$706.56 billion vs. NT$632.64 billion expected The Taiwanese tech giant's net income for the three months ended in June was a record high for a fifth consecutive quarter, and surged 23.4% from the prior quarter.
Revenue surged to NT$1.27 trillion, a 36% jump from NT$933.79 billion in the same period year ago. Advanced technologies — 7-nanometer and under — accounted for 77% of total wafer revenue, the company said.
The company capped off a quarter of massive growth that included stellar sales in June released earlier this week.
TSMC shares, which have gained over 58% so far this year, rose 1.23% Thursday.
Asia's most valuable company has been riding robust demand for AI chips it manufactures for global tech giants, including Nvidia, Apple and Broadcom.
The world's largest contract chip maker posted its fifth straight quarter of record earnings amid voracious global appetite for artificial-intelligence infrastructure.
TSMC delivered a far bigger earnings beat than investors expected on Thursday, as demand for advanced AI chips pushed quarterly profit above NT$700 billion for the first time.
Net income surged 77.4% to a record NT$706.56 billion, comfortably exceeding the NT$632.6 billion estimates.
Diluted earnings rose to NT$27.25 a share, equivalent to $4.31 per American depositary receipt.
The most impressive operating figure was a 60.3% margin, which came 1.8 percentage points above management’s guidance ceiling.
TSMC stock closed 1.23% up before the earnings.
Second-quarter revenue rose 36% from a year earlier to NT$1.270 trillion, or $40.2 billion.
Net profit increased by roughly NT$308 billion, beating analysts’ weighted forecast by almost NT$74 billion, while the net profit margin expanded to 55.6% from 42.7%.
Part of that bottom-line surprise came from outside TSMC’s core manufacturing business.
Non-operating gains reached NT$95.83 billion, more than triple the previous quarter’s level.
The figure included NT$63.2 billion generated by the disposal and mark-to-market revaluation of shares in Vanguard International Semiconductor.
That qualification matters, but it does not explain away the quarter.
Operating income itself climbed 65.4% to NT$766.6 billion, showing that the company’s factories and pricing delivered exceptional growth even before the Vanguard gain.
Dan Nystedt, a research analyst at TriOrient, told Reuters before the results that TSMC’s revenue showed “AI demand remains healthy”, particularly across advanced manufacturing and CoWoS packaging.
TSMC’s gross margin reached 67.7%, narrowly exceeding its guidance range of 65.5% to 67.5%.
The operating margin of 60.3% was considerably stronger than the company’s forecast of between 56.5% and 58.5%.
Compared with a year earlier, the gross margin increased by 9.1 percentage points and the operating margin expanded by 10.7 points.
TSMC attributed the improvement to cost reductions and higher factory utilisation, which more than offset the continuing dilution from its overseas manufacturing plants.
Operating expenses also fell to 7.8% of revenue from 9.1% a year earlier.
JPMorgan had expected profitability to exceed TSMC’s own outlook, reportedly forecasting a gross margin of 69.5% because of production efficiencies and premium-priced expedited orders.
The actual gross margin missed that aggressive estimate, but the operating result still came well above management’s guidance.
The sales mix shows why profitability was so strong.
High-performance computing increased to 66% of revenue from 61% in the first quarter, with sales from the platform rising 20% sequentially.
TSMC also separately disclosed 2-nanometre revenue for the first time, with the new process contributing 3% of wafer sales.
The 2nm and 3nm technologies together generated one-third of wafer revenue, while advanced nodes accounted for 77%.
The earnings call now carries greater importance than the headline profit figure.
Investors will want to know whether TSMC can sustain margins near 60% as 2nm production expands and overseas factories account for a larger proportion of capacity.
Bank of America analyst Haas Liu said in a note that supply-chain checks continued to point to a strong AI demand pipeline.
Liu believed TSMC could raise its full-year revenue-growth forecast from the existing outlook of more than 30% and potentially increase capital expenditure to about $58 billion, above the current $52 billion-to-$56 billion range.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is expanding the reach of its venture capital fund to support development of promising defense technologies in British and European markets. Lockheed Martin Ventures, the company's $1 billion startup investment arm, is opening a London office with the goal of investing at least $100 million of its funding in the United Kingdom and Europe.
"We are reaching even deeper into the investing ecosystem, meeting our potential partners where they are," said Chris Moran, vice president and general manager, Lockheed Martin Ventures. "Our presence will help us seize opportunities for investing earlier in the startup lifecycle, ensure technical interoperability with existing platforms, and better support our allied customers."
The decision follows the largest boost in available capital in the fund's history, when the company announced in April that it would boost investment capacity from $400 million to $1 billion. Using a portion of that enhanced funding capacity, Lockheed Martin Ventures Europe will accelerate the insertion of new technologies into defense technology — part of the company's commitment to strengthen the transatlantic defense industrial base.
"We are looking to invest in technologies that complement the company's national security capabilities and help advance solutions to meet current and future customer mission needs, while further strengthening the transatlantic defense industrial base," said Dan Tenney, senior vice president of Global Business Development and Strategy. "We expect our investment strategy to evolve as technologies emerge and the startup environment matures in markets where we do business around the world."
Why it Matters
The decision by Lockheed Martin Ventures leverages rapid increases in venture capital investment, particularly in the United Kingdom and Europe. European customers increasingly seek sovereign capabilities, and as the world's largest aerospace and defense company, Lockheed Martin is uniquely positioned to accelerate their development. The investments will help strengthen the defense industrial base and increase the resilience of our supply chain, generating economic benefits for the United States and our allies. Lockheed Martin Ventures has already invested in a number of promising companies in Europe, with more deals expected to close soon. Facts and Figures
Lockheed Martin Ventures is one of the most active and longest continuously operated Aerospace and Defense corporate venture capital firms in the United States. Since its founding it has matured 60 companies to become suppliers. Lockheed Martin Ventures was founded in 2007 with initial funding of $100 million. To date, it has invested more than $500 million in more than 120 companies, including several in European markets. Over the past two years alone, 25 companies have been added to the portfolio. Companies seeking more information about Lockheed Martin Ventures opportunities can contact the team here.
About Lockheed Martin Ventures
Lockheed Martin Ventures makes strategic investments in companies that are developing cutting edge technologies in core businesses and new segments of the national security market important to Lockheed Martin.
More than a source of capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures provides portfolio companies with access resources such as our world-class engineering talent, state-of-the-art technologies and research, and the full suite of Lockheed Martin's business and technical expertise
For additional information about Lockheed Martin Ventures, visit
www.lockheedmartinventures.com.
About Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is a global defense technology company driving innovation and advancing scientific discovery. Our all-domain mission solutions and 21st Century Security® vision accelerate the delivery of transformative technologies to ensure those we serve always stay ahead of ready. More information at www.lockheedmartin.com.
VMware Cloud Foundation to deliver a secure, unified private cloud platform driving global operational resilience and banking innovation July 16, 2026 02:00 ET | Source: Broadcom Inc.
PALO ALTO, Calif. and LONDON and SINGAPORE, July 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) and Standard Chartered today announced a long-term strategic commitment to accelerate the bank’s global infrastructure modernization by establishing a secure, resilient private cloud foundation to seamlessly support critical banking services across 54 global markets.
As a leading international bank, Standard Chartered requires infrastructure that delivers operational consistency at global scale while staying ahead of evolving regulatory and security requirements. Standard Chartered has realigned its infrastructure delivery to a fully integrated software-defined private cloud environment using VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). VCF embeds intrinsic zero-trust security directly into the infrastructure layer, providing uninterrupted availability and compressing infrastructure deployment from weeks to a day.
With 70% of its global infrastructure footprint already running on the new architecture, Standard Chartered has demonstrated that a consistent private cloud is successful at a global scale—laying the foundation for the next frontier in secure, resilient and compliant banking innovation.
John Sharratt, Global Head of Technology and Infrastructure, Standard Chartered, said, “Standardizing a fully virtualized software-defined infrastructure across our global operations enables Standard Chartered to meet the evolving demands of our clients while strengthening our technological core with the responsiveness, resilience and regulatory compliance that global banking demands. Our client-centric, long-term investments with global service providers, such as Broadcom, strengthen our ability to deliver always-on banking services in an ever changing and dynamic landscape, while accelerating innovation with a secure private cloud foundation.”
“Global financial institutions require infrastructure that combines resilience, security and operational simplicity at scale,” said Krish Prasad, senior vice president and general manager, VMware Cloud Foundation Division, Broadcom. “Standard Chartered is at the forefront of digital banking innovation, and we are proud to support their journey toward a highly automated, AI-driven, modern private cloud with VMware Cloud Foundation,” he added.
By modernizing the infrastructure that underpins its core banking, payments and digital services, Standard Chartered has enhanced its future-ready technology platform for sustainable growth and client-centric innovation—one that is anchored on a secure and resilient private cloud foundation.
About Standard Chartered
We are a leading international banking group, with a presence in 54 of the world’s most dynamic markets. Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, and our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, here for good.
Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
For more stories and expert opinions please visit Insights at sc.com. Follow Standard Chartered on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) is a technology leader that designs, develops, and supplies semiconductors and infrastructure software for global organizations’ complex, mission-critical needs. Broadcom combines long-term R&D investment with superb execution to deliver the best technology, at scale. Broadcom is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. For more information, visit www.broadcom.com.
Media Contacts:
Broadcom
Eloy Ontiveros
Broadcom Global Communications
+1-408-646-3944 [email protected]
Standard Chartered
Aida Mekonnen
Technology & Operations Communications [email protected]
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
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The broader cryptocurrency market shows early signs of recovery, with Bitcoin (BTC) testing a breakout above its 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) around $65,136. Improving risk appetite has investors turning toward DeFi tokens such as Ondo (ONDO) and Ether.fi (ETHFI) that emerge as best performers over the last 24 hours.
CoinMarketCap’s Fear and Greed Index at 36 on Thursday shows a largely recovering market sentiment, up from 28 last week.
Fear and Greed Index. Source: CoinMarketCapCould Bitcoin reclaim $65,000 amid easing geopolitical and inflation risk?Bitcoin’s near-term recovery after testing sub-$60,000 levels earlier this month aligns with the easing geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran. In addition, the bullish US CPI data for June has reduced the odds of interest rate hikes, prompting risk-on sentiment among investors.
Bitcoin inches closer to $65,000 on Thursday, but the EMA around $65,136 keeps the broader technical tone fragile despite a modest recovery. Momentum indicators are more constructive, as the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 55, hovering just above the neutral midline, while the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) maintains an uptrend with its signal line, which together suggests that downside pressure is easing but not yet strong enough to reclaim key overhead levels.
On the topside, immediate resistance is defined by the 50-day EMA at $65,136, and a sustained break above this barrier would open the way toward the $70,000 mark, followed by the 200-day EMA around $74,484.
BTC/USDT daily price chart.On the downside, initial support aligns with the horizontal level at 60,000, where a break lower would expose further weakness.
Ondo rallies on DTC-compliant tokenized stock representationsOndo reclaimed its 50-day EMA at $0.3367 with a nearly 16% rebound on Wednesday. The pair inches closer to the 200-day EMA at $0.3769, which remains an overhead barrier, keeping the near-term bias neutral to mildly constructive.
Momentum tones are supportive, with the RSI at 63 and hovering in bullish territory, while the MACD holds above its signal line, suggesting buyers still retain the upper hand despite nearby overhead supply.
A breakout above the 200-day EMA at $0.3769 could extend its rally to the $0.4524 selling zone, which has capped multiple recovery attempts over the past seven months.
ONDO/USDT daily price chart.On the downside, immediate support is at the 50-day EMA near $0.3367, where a break would likely trigger a deeper pullback and signal that the latest advance is losing traction.
Ether.fi eyes a breakout rally toward the 200-day EMAEther.Fi rises above its 50-day EMA at $0.3813 with an 11% rise on Wednesday. At the time of writing, ETHFI tests breaking above an overhead resistance trendline near $0.4400 on Thursday, potentially reinstating a bullish recovery.
However, the pair remains capped below its 200-day EMA at $0.5077, which could serve as key resistance following the trendline breakout.
The RSI at around 62 suggests firm but not yet overbought upside momentum, and the MACD remains above its signal line in the positive territory, hinting that buying pressure is still driving the recovery.
ETHFI/USDT daily price chart.Looking down, initial support is seen around the reclaimed 50-day EMA at $0.3813 as a more significant bullish defense area.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
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Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Strategy President and CEO Phong Le told Bloomberg Television that the company's balance sheet remains on firm footing at current $BTC prices, pushing back against growing concerns over the firm's leverage.
Debt Risk Only at $8,000 to $10,000Strategy, the largest public holder of Bitcoin, would only begin considering balance-sheet risks if BTC sinks to the $8,000 to $10,000 range. Phong Le identified that range as when the company "would have to consider some of the risk associated with our debt," in an interview with Bloomberg TV. Such a drop would represent a decline of around 85% based on Bitcoin's price at the time of writing.
Le said Strategy must "build a capital structure that can withstand bear markets," and expressed confidence the company remains positioned to benefit from future rallies. "We've been through this in 2022, we're going through it in 2026, and I'm pretty excited about the next bull market of Bitcoin," Le said.
Cash Reserves Bolstered, Bitcoin Accumulation PausedStrategy increased its U.S. dollar reserve by $466.7 million to $3 billion through its at-the-market equity program, according to a regulatory filing. Le said the decision to hold $3 billion in cash reflects feedback from preferred shareholders rather than a change in the company's Bitcoin thesis. Strategy estimated annual preferred dividends and interest expense at approximately $1.76 billion, meaning the $3 billion reserve covers roughly 20 months of obligations without requiring new securities issuance or further Bitcoin sales.
Strategy made no Bitcoin purchases or sales during the period, leaving its holdings unchanged at 843,775 BTC, acquired at an aggregate cost of approximately $63.69 billion at an average price of $75,476 per coin. At its current cost basis, Strategy is already carrying unrealized losses, yet Le framed the company's capital structure as designed to absorb prolonged drawdowns rather than short-term volatility.
Le dismissed concerns over Strategy's market influence, pointing to a recent $200 million Bitcoin sale that "did not move the market," arguing the company's 843,775 BTC, roughly 4% of total supply, does not create systemic selling pressure. Despite the recent pause in accumulation, Le reaffirmed that Strategy plans to remain a long-term buyer of Bitcoin.
Sources:
CoinDesk: Strategy feels 'very secure' until Bitcoin reaches $8,000-$10,000, says CEO
CoinDesk: Strategy adds $467 million in cash, makes no changes to Bitcoin holdings
Bloomberg: Strategy CEO aims to boost preferred shares, buy more Bitcoin
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Bitcoin [BTC] traded toward the $65,000 price level, having gained over 3% in the past 24 hours. The hash rate, on the other hand, is declining as Bitcoin miners continue moving into AI infrastructure.
How will the mining economics affect the current and future prices of Bitcoin?
Bitcoin miner revenue stressed as hash rate declines Looking at the Puell Multiple, BTC miner stress is building, but miners remain adamant about selling.
The Puell Multiple has slipped below the 1 mark, with the reading at 0.71, slightly above the accumulation zone. Historically, the accumulation zone marks a tight revenue stress for miners, as it reflects the supply side of the Bitcoin economy.
Source: CoinGlass Moreover, Hash Ribbons have printed yet another capitulation band as hashrate fades from its peak. Over the past year, hashrate has dropped from 1,106,922,137 TH/s last November to 995,460,294 TH/s.
Source: Blockchain.com/charts Furthermore, Bitcoin mining difficulty has dropped another 5% to 127.17T, which is nearly 17% below the peak of 148.26T seen at the beginning of the year. This indicates miners are getting relief, but it does reduce the network’s security.
With difficulty reducing, a solo miner found a Bitcoin block and earned a full 3.1382 BTC reward worth about $200K. This was somehow luck, as the probability of finding a block with 1 TH/s was roughly 1 in 16,000 years.
Miner reserve flows ticking up…accumulation underway? With that in mind, miner flows were ticking up as per CryptoQuant. That is, inflows outweighed outflows, though by a small margin.
The data showed miner reserves held 1.1943 million BTC, equivalent to $76.76 billion. This was a 1% increase, representing a net flow of more than 224 BTC. This data shows accumulation, as BTC is currently undervalued.
Source: CryptoQuant From the data, it is clear that miners’ wallets are full and distribution has not yet started. The data indicates a supply overhang that is yet to be triggered.
Looking ahead, if miner reserves start bleeding while The Puell Multiple stays depressed, there will be forced selling.
How BTC be affected? But since the reserves are not bleeding, the price of BTC is showing signs of recovery. It has broken above the neckline of an inverted head-and-shoulders pattern, but the signal is only valid if it can stay above it.
Source: BTC/USD on TradingView Otherwise, a break below the neckline alongside miner selling would exert more pressure, curtailing the little recovery seen.
Final Summary Bitcoin miners are seeing a decline in revenue, but they continue accumulating, with their reserves growing by 1%. BTC price has seen a slight recovery due to accumulation, breaking above the neckline of a bullish reversal pattern.
Bitcoin remains under pressure, but the collapsing crypto discussion could leave room for whales to drive the next market move.
Discussion surrounding cryptocurrencies across X, Reddit, Telegram, and other social platforms has dropped to its second-lowest daily level since October 2024. This comes even as Bitcoin continues trading around the mid-$60,000 range.
According to the latest findings by Santiment, while the lack of conversation may appear bearish at first glance, it also reflects weak retail interest, which has often coincided with market turning points.
Crypto Chatter Fades The current sense of “deadness” across social timelines can feel bearish, but Santiment described this disinterest as one of crypto’s “most underrated forms of FUD,” while adding that when people stop posting, debating, and reacting to every market move, conditions become more favorable for large investors.
The analytics platform said markets can become easier for large investors to influence because fewer retail traders are actively crowding trades during periods of low engagement. “Whales don’t need a euphoric crowd to accumulate,” it explained while adding that some of crypto’s strongest rebounds have formed when retail attention was low, sentiment was exhausted, and markets faced less resistance on the way higher.
Bitcoin continues to face pressure from macroeconomic uncertainty, swings in spot ETF flows, and a cautious risk appetite. According to Santiment, when discussion rates are this low, even a modest change in demand can have a more noticeable effect on prices “than the headline mood suggests.”
While history does not guarantee another rebound, previous market cycles have repeatedly rewarded periods when whales had room to accumulate before retail investors realized the market had already begun to recover.
Macro Risks Remain Bitcoin briefly touched $65,000 before undergoing a minor pullback. It is currently trading a little above $64,500. Bitunix analyst Dean Chen believes if the crypto asset manages to hold above this level, “it stands a good chance of sustaining this upward momentum.”
You may also like: Peter Schiff: Bitcoin Holders Will Soon Regret Not Selling at Current Levels Brian Armstrong Asks if Bitcoin Bottom Is In, Crypto Community Can’t Agree Is Wrapped Bitcoin Flashing a Bullish Signal? Exchange Outflows Hit Six-Week High The stronger-than-expected CPI reading has lifted near-term market sentiment, but Bitcoin’s next move is still expected to hinge on several macroeconomic developments, Chen said.
These include whether inflation continues to cool even if energy prices rebound, whether the Federal Reserve sticks to its data-driven approach when making policy decisions, and whether changes in Japanese capital flows lead to shifts in global liquidity.
Two groups of BTC holders sell on the rise. (geralt/Pixabay)Summary
Two distinct groups of on-chain holders are selling into BTC’s price bounce.BTC has jumped to nearly $65,000 on the back of softer-than-expected U.S. inflation reports for June. Some analysts say the inflation data is obsolete, given the renewed strength in oil prices.As macro tailwinds lift bitcoin BTC$64,759.75, two distinct groups of investors are selling into strength, potentially slowing the ascent.
The first are long-term holders, which Glassnode defines as addresses/wallets that tend to hold for at least five months. Long-term holders, who bought near highs last year, are capitulating, or using the bounce to sell their coins at a loss rather than holding through deeper drawdowns. This signifies a lack of confidence in the sustainability of the latest BTC price rise.
Suggesting the same are short-term holders, who scooped up coins near the recent lows. They are currently realizing profits at a pace exceeding $4 million per day in a selling wave reminiscent of what was seen in May, when BTC briefly rose to its 200-day average above $82,000.
The result? Simultaneous selling from both is likely creating overhead supply exactly as the market tries to break higher. It's an indication that conviction remains shaky among those still underwater from earlier in the cycle.
"As price rallies toward $66k, LTH realized loss volume is spiking! Cycle-top buyers are using the relief rally as an exit opportunity, locking in losses at a smaller margin than the sub-60k lows allowed. Selling into strength rather than waiting for recovery is a pattern consistent with exhausted conviction among underwater long-term holders," the analyst added.
"Adding to the sell-side pressure from LTH loss realization, short-term holders who bought near the recent lows are now taking profit at volumes last seen close to the peak in May," the analyst added.
BTC has bounced this week to nearly $65,000 from $61,500, with most of the gains occurring on Tuesday after U.S. consumer price inflation came in softer than expected. Headline CPI rose just 3.5% year-over-year in June, missing the 3.8% consensus forecast and marking a notable cooldown from prior months. Core CPI, excluding food and energy, came in at 2.6% YoY with a flat reading month-over-month.
June's producer price index, offering cues on inflation in the pipeline, also came in lower than expected. Both reports eased fears of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, sending the dollar index lower, down half a percent to 100.48 this week. Treasury yields have dropped as well.
Some observers remain skeptical of the sustainability of this inflation-led bounce, arguing that the collapse in oil prices mainly drove the slower growth in the cost of living in June and that the recent bounce in oil makes that data obsolete.
"The 3.5% [CPI] number was driven by a 10% drop in gasoline through June, and that move had already reversed before the report was published, with Brent at a one-month high as the Hormuz situation escalates," Ryan Lee, chief analyst at crypto exchange Bitget, said in an email.
"Markets are rallying on a June photograph, while July develops differently, and the July print will be the first to carry the war premium," Lee added.
Jasper De Maere, OTC trader at lading market maker Wintermute, also called for caution, while acknowledging inflation-led bounce and profit-taking near $65,000.
“While the inflation data is genuinely constructive and while positive headlines are very refreshing, it's worth noting the backdrop hasn't cleared with U.S. strikes on Iran are into a fourth consecutive day, and the Fear & Greed Index only moved from 22 to 25, still Extreme Fear. One soft CPI print against an active military escalation is not the same as a durable regime shift in risk appetite,” he said in an email.
A working paper from researchers at Stanford University and Singapore Management University has found evidence of coordinated manipulation inside Polymarket's five-minute $BTC prediction markets, raising fresh questions about the structural risks embedded in fast-settling crypto betting contracts.
How the Alleged Manipulation Worked The paper, titled "Settlement Manipulation in Prediction Markets" and co-authored by David Dai, Ruizhe Jia, and Shihao Yu, studied a product that launched on February 12, 2026. On that date, Polymarket introduced a binary contract that paid $1 if Bitcoin closed a five-minute window above where it opened, and $0 otherwise, with a fresh contract opening every five minutes around the clock.
Contracts settle using Chainlink price feeds at the end of each five-minute window, creating incentives to move the spot Bitcoin price just before expiry. Researchers found repeated bursts of one-sided trading on the Binance exchange that temporarily moved Bitcoin's price in the final seconds before bets closed, benefiting traders positioned in the same direction. During settlement periods exhibiting the most anomalous trading behavior, order volumes on Binance surged to roughly 3.9 times normal levels, with irregular patterns predominantly emerging during overnight hours and weekend periods when reduced liquidity creates opportunities for price influence.
Singapore Management University assistant professor Shihao Yu noted that "these contracts have a structural vulnerability" because they settle on a price that traders can move by trading the underlying asset itself. Despite Polymarket's reliance on multiple independent price oracles, contract settlements aligned with Binance pricing approximately 85% of the time throughout the research window.
Scale of the Problem and a Potential Fix Researchers calculated that wallets identified as probable manipulators accumulated approximately $8.2 million in profits across the study period. The paper estimates 821 suspected manipulators were responsible for the bulk of those gains, largely at the expense of retail participants.
The findings land at a sensitive moment for the prediction market industry, with combined monthly volume on Kalshi and Polymarket rising nearly fivefold in seven months, from under $5 billion in September 2025 to about $24 billion by April 2026.
The researchers found that manipulation was largely absent in fifteen-minute contracts, suggesting that lengthening the contract horizon removes the effect and provides the market-design remedy their model and evidence support. The Stanford and Singapore Management University findings suggest that changing the settlement window length and using price-averaging methods could meaningfully reduce manipulation risk.
Sources
"Settlement Manipulation in Prediction Markets" — Working Paper (arXiv)
Polymarket Bitcoin Bets Show Signs of Price Manipulation, Stanford Study Finds — Bloomberg
Traders Took $8.2 Million From Polymarket's Five-Minute Bitcoin Bets, Study Found — Bitcoin Magazine
Bitcoin sustained its recent gains following a rally sparked by better-than-expected US inflation data, with traders monitoring whether the cryptocurrency can maintain key support levels in the coming days. Market participants are watching for potential corrective moves, but sentiment remains broadly optimistic as buying interest returns across digital assets.
BTC consolidates after inflation-driven surgeAs of the latest trading session, Bitcoin is priced at $64,612, marking a 3% increase over the past 24 hours. The daily trading volume reached $48.49 billion, and Bitcoin’s overall market capitalization stood at $1.30 trillion. These figures reflect stronger inflows and growing confidence among investors following the most recent US Consumer Price Index (CPI) release.
Crypto analyst Lennaert Snyder commented on July 15, 2026, that Bitcoin has shown resilience in response to the latest CPI report, successfully surpassing its recent weekly high. Snyder identified the prior weekly low at $61,300 as a significant support level, crucial for the ongoing bullish momentum.
Snyder disclosed that he briefly opened a short position as Bitcoin approached exhaustion during the rally, but clarified that this was a tactical, counter-trend trade. He indicated that his target levels are also areas where he intends to re-enter long positions if technical conditions are favorable.
Lennaert Snyder pointed to two main price scenarios: Bitcoin could temporarily dip to sweep liquidity near $64,300 while maintaining the uptrend if it stays above $63,600. Alternatively, a stronger correction toward $63,300 might trigger new buying, as hidden buy orders could be filled in that region. Snyder continues to target $65,600 as the next upside level.
Mini dictionary: CPI (Consumer Price Index), a key economic indicator measuring changes in the price of a basket of consumer goods and services, often used to gauge inflation trends in the economy.
Technical indicators favor bullish momentumTechnical signals continue to support the bullish case for Bitcoin after the inflation-driven rally. Bitcoin is currently trading above the mid-point of the Bollinger Band, which sits at $62,254. The upper Bollinger Band is positioned at $66,026, indicating there may be further potential for the price to rise before encountering the next notable resistance zone.
Meanwhile, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) stands at 55.38, comfortably above the signal line at 50.63. An RSI reading above 50 indicates prevailing buying pressure and signals that upward momentum could continue if buyers remain active. However, with values remaining below overbought conditions, there is still room for the rally to extend further.
IndicatorCurrent ValueKey LevelsBTC Price$64,612Resistance $65,600 / Support $63,300 & $61,300Bollinger BandsMid: $62,254 / Upper: $66,026Room for upward movementRSI55.38Above signal (50.63), bullishMacro factors influence outlookThe recent price surge in Bitcoin has been driven largely by lower US inflation data. Analysts suggest that softer inflation numbers could increase the likelihood of more accommodating monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, which generally supports risk assets like cryptocurrencies and tech stocks.
Throughout the past two years, key economic announcements such as the CPI have been major catalysts for significant market moves in Bitcoin. Current market conditions highlight how macroeconomic and crypto-specific news continues to play a decisive role in short-term price swings.
With Bitcoin entering the second half of July, traders are monitoring how the price reacts to resistance near $65,600. The sustainability of this level may determine the trajectory for the rest of the month, while market attention remains on key US economic data and potential signals from the central bank.
Bitcoin’s overall outlook remains positive as strong support levels persist, but temporary corrections are still possible following sharp rallies. Investors are expected to watch global economic trends and central bank guidance closely to assess the future direction of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs are staging a comeback as they once again draw investor interest, with fresh capital flowing into these crypto ETFs. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said Bitcoin price is stable right now and he is “very bullish” on the crypto market over the next 12 months.
BlackRock CEO Turns Bullish on Bitcoin and the Broader Crypto Market Larry Fink, CEO of $15 trillion asset manager BlackRock, told CNBC that he’s no longer concerned about excessive leverage in Bitcoin and the crypto market. He claims this is the reason for the greater stability in Bitcoin price at current levels.
Larry Fink added that he’s “very bullish” on the crypto markets over the next 12 months. The comments come amid increasing sentiment in the crypto market after the US CPI inflation cools to 3.5%.
He said investing in data centers, chips, and compute will be the next revolution in finance. Notably, Larry Fink highlighted the growing need for tokenization, which could further boost long-term potential in crypto and blockchain technology.
This shift towards digital representation of physical holdings is spearheaded by the industry’s best RWA issuers, who are actively bridging traditional treasuries and capital markets with blockchain technology.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s bullish stance on Bitcoin price and the broader crypto market grabbed massive interest from the crypto community. The Crypto Market Fear & Greed Index improved slightly today.
Spot Bitcoin ETF Inflows Staging a Comeback After months of choppy flows and overall outflows, US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs are once again drawing investor attention. Fresh capital is returning, with BlackRock Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) leading the inflows.
Bitcoin ETFs recorded $107.7 million in inflows on Wednesday, with BlackRock Bitcoin ETF recording $80.8 million in inflows. This comes after the cooling US PPI data and bullish stance by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
Fidelity’s FBTC also saw $16.9 million in inflows and $10 million in the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF. No outflows were recorded in other Ninspotot Bitcoin ETFs.
Inflows into Spot Bitcoin ETFs. Source: Farside Investors The comeback in spot Bitcoin ETF inflows is in focus amid renewed interest from institutional and retail investors.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin price is trading near the $65,000 levels after a rebound. The intraday low and high are $64,361 and $65,507, respectively. Trading volume has remained stable at around $28 billion over the past few days.
Adoption is easiest to measure when it shows up on the balance sheet. In June, Abra shifted from WBTC to $tBTC, as the main BTC collateral for its Bitcoin-backed lending platform, one of the clearest signals yet that institutional preference is consolidating around tokenized Bitcoin that can be verified onchain. The data told the same story from a different angle: tBTC's DeFi TVL-to-FDV multiple reached 7.4 in Q1 2026, up 228% year over year, while Verifiable Bitcoin Accounts (VBA) continue to meet institutional standards.
Here's the full recap of the month.
HighlightsAbra completed its shift from WBTC to tBTC, making verifiable collateral the foundation of its Bitcoin-backed lending platform.tBTC's DeFi TVL-to-FDV multiple climbed from 6.5 to 7.4 in Q1 2026, up 13% quarter over quarter and 228% over the past year.Lightning to tBTC is now one click on DZap, with Boltz live on the aggregator to bridge BTC from the Lightning Network directly to tBTC on Arbitrum.Full details to each highlight on the sections below.Ecosystem GrowthVerifiable Bitcoin Accounts bring the Bitcoin-level integration path into focus
Verifiable Bitcoin Accounts (VBA) Integration Path | Threshold NetworkVerifiable Bitcoin Accounts rollout continues with a look at its Bitcoin-level integration path, detailing how the design connects to the infrastructure institutions already operate: Bitcoin stays with the institution's existing Qualified Custodian, so adoption requires no change in custody arrangements and integrates seamlessly into the institution's existing compliance structure.
The enforcement layer is what separates the design from conventional arrangements:
Recovery paths are enforced by Bitcoin Script and Bitcoin consensus rather than by counterparty promises. A time-locked withdrawal executes when a specified time period has elapsed.Bitcoin UTXO remains the system of record throughout. Threshold also posted a rundown of Verifiable Bitcoin Accounts FAQs, walking institutions through the basics of how VBAs resolve common tensions in onchain Bitcoin deployment. For institutional teams, the integration path turns an architectural argument into a checklist they can hand to their custody and compliance functions.
Abra moves its Bitcoin-backed lending to tBTC
Threshold x Abra Integration | Threshold NetworkThe month's defining integration came from Abra, which completed its migration from WBTC to tBTC as the preferred collateral base for its Bitcoin-backed lending platform. Abra's borrowers pledge Bitcoin they intend to keep, which makes the quality of the collateral asset the product itself.
The platform serves high-net-worth individuals and institutions across wealth and treasury management, giving clients an edge in trading and collateralized borrowing while segregated account infrastructure keeps them in full control of their assets. The choice of collateral says as much as the integration itself. Platforms carrying fiduciary duties to their clients are re-examining how wrapped Bitcoin is designed, and Abra's move fits squarely within that shift.
tBTC deepens its position across lending markets
tBTC's DeFi TVL to FDV Data | Threshold NetworkThe on-chain data showed the same trend as Abra's decision. tBTC's DeFi TVL to FDV multiple climbed from 6.5 to 7.4 in Q1 2026, up 13% from the prior quarter and 228% over the past year. The multiple is a cleaner read than raw TVL because it strips out price noise and isolates utility. Flows into DeFi have grown in the double digits in $BTC terms every quarter since Q3 2025, a streak that predates the current drawdown and has continued through it.
The distribution of that growth tells the institutional story. Per Alea Research's latest BTCFi snapshot, Aave V3 alone holds $138M in tBTC, representing 29% of tBTC's DeFi TVL and the single largest driver of BTC-denominated growth, with supplied collateral up 24% quarter over quarter. Curve and YieldBasis join it at the top, and together the leading venues account for roughly 57% of all tBTC deployed in DeFi. Depth concentrated in proven protocols is what allocators screen for, and it's where tBTC's liquidity sits.
tBTC TVL in Active Lending Markets | Threshold NetworkMulti-chain swap simplifies the path into tBTC
Multi-chain Swap on the Threshold Bitcoin Router | Threshold NetworkThe multi-chain swap stands as one of the foundational entry points to tBTC and the Bitcoin Economy. Holders of other tokenized BTC can convert to tBTC with a single swap, either through the Threshold App or on external venues such as Uniswap, Curve, and Portal Bridge.
The Threshold Bitcoin Router ties the experience together by unifying positions across all supported networks in a single view. A portfolio spread across chains reads as a single balance, removing the accounting friction that multi-chain deployment usually entails. For users already holding tokenized Bitcoin elsewhere, the distance between where they are and where they want to be is now one transaction.
Boltz goes live on DZap, connecting Lightning to tBTC in one click
The path from Bitcoin's payments layer to its DeFi layer got shorter in June. Boltz, the non-custodial swap protocol supporting Bitcoin, Lightning, and tBTC, is now live on DZap, letting users bridge BTC from the Lightning Network directly to tBTC on Arbitrum in a single click. Boltz natively supports atomic swaps between Lightning and tBTC on Arbitrum, meaning both legs of the trade either complete together or fail entirely, with no party able to default after receiving assets.
For Lightning users, that turns tBTC into the shortest trust-minimized distance between holding sats and deploying Bitcoin in DeFi. For Threshold, every aggregator surface that routes through tBTC widens the funnel into the Bitcoin Economy, confirming a pattern worth noting: the tBTC-on-Arbitrum architecture Boltz built is being adopted by other builders, with DZap's integration extending that reach to its aggregation audience.
Community and EventsJohn Packel joins Bitcoin for Corporations in NYC
John Packel attends Bitcoin for Corporations NYC | Threshold NetworkThreshold Labs Head of Operations John Packel took part in Bitcoin for Corporations, an invitation-only forum held in New York City. The room brought together corporate treasury and capital markets professionals working through a shared question from different angles: how to put Bitcoin to work without compromising on custody or compliance.
Threshold Forum opens discussion on a Protocol as Arbitrageur modelGovernance attention in June turned to the economics of peg maintenance, with a new proposal on the Threshold Forum recommending that the RebateStaking contract be replaced by a Protocol as an Arbitrageur model. The existing contract underpins the fee waiver framework, which reduces redemption friction for $T Stakers are improving arbitrage efficiency and supporting a tighter BTC-to-tBTC spread. The design has performed as intended, yet it depends on external participants to execute the arbitrage that maintains price alignment, with the value from closing the spread accruing to those participants while the protocol absorbs the cost through foregone fee revenue.
The proposed model would consolidate that function within the protocol itself, conducting the peg-maintaining arbitrage directly rather than subsidizing third parties through rebates, and retaining the associated value in the process. The proposal is under open discussion on the Threshold Forum, where review by tokenholders and contributors determines which proposals advance to a formal vote. Participation ahead of any vote is open to all.
Looking AheadJune's throughline was institutional conviction backed by verifiable data, and the months ahead extend each of these threads: Q2 closes with fresh on-chain data to test whether the growth streak holds through a fifth quarter. The Protocol as Arbitrageur discussion advances through the forum, an example of the network reviewing its own economics in the open. Institutional conversations of the kind John Packel joined in New York continue to seed the evaluation pipelines that produce integrations like Abra's, and the Verifiable Bitcoin Accounts series keeps meeting diligence teams at each stage of that process.
The direction has been consistent for six years, and it remains so now: Bitcoin's utility expands onchain, and Threshold builds the infrastructure that lets institutions verify it rather than take it on trust.
A new academic study has found signs of settlement manipulation in short-duration Bitcoin prediction markets on Polymarket, raising fresh questions about market design, retail protection and the reliability of crypto-linked event contracts.
The paper, titled “Settlement Manipulation in Prediction Markets,” was written by David Dai, Ruizhe Jia and Shihao Yu, with affiliations reported by Cointelegraph as Stanford University and Singapore Management University. The researchers studied Polymarket’s five-minute Bitcoin prediction markets, which allow users to bet on whether Bitcoin’s price will be above or below a reference level at settlement. Polymarket describes itself as the world’s largest prediction market.
The study argues that contracts tied to financial asset prices are uniquely vulnerable because traders can participate in both the prediction market and the underlying spot market. In theory, a trader with enough exposure to a short-term prediction contract can profit by moving Bitcoin’s spot price around the settlement window, even if the price move quickly reverses afterward.
The researchers found that after Polymarket launched five-minute Bitcoin contracts, spot-market order flow spiked near settlement times and was followed by large price reversals. That pattern is consistent with temporary price pressure rather than ordinary information-driven trading. The study also concluded that sophisticated manipulators captured significant profits, mostly at the expense of retail traders.
Short-Duration Contracts Create a Manipulation Window The key problem is timing. In a five-minute binary contract, the payout depends on a single near-term price observation. That creates a concentrated window in which small changes in the underlying asset can determine whether one side of the contract pays out.
If a trader has a large enough position in the prediction market, it may become profitable to trade Bitcoin itself to influence the settlement price. The trader may lose money on the spot-market trade, but gain more from the prediction-market payout. Once the contract settles, the artificial spot-market pressure can disappear, causing the price to reverse.
This is different from ordinary market prediction. A healthy prediction market is supposed to aggregate information and produce a useful probability. A manipulable settlement market can instead reward traders who can temporarily push the underlying price across a threshold.
The paper’s most important finding is that manipulation was largely absent in Polymarket’s fifteen-minute Bitcoin contracts. That suggests the problem is not prediction markets in general, but very short-duration contracts that settle on asset prices participants can influence. By lengthening the contract horizon, the researchers argue, platforms can reduce the profitability of manipulation and improve market quality.
Regulatory Questions for Crypto Prediction Markets The findings arrive as prediction markets are moving further into mainstream finance. Platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi have attracted billions of dollars in trading volume across politics, sports, economics, crypto and cultural events. Supporters argue they provide real-time probabilities and crowd-sourced information. Critics warn that thin liquidity, whale activity and asymmetric sophistication can distort prices.
Bitcoin contracts are especially sensitive because the underlying asset trades continuously across global venues and can be moved over short windows, particularly when liquidity is fragmented. A trader does not need to control the entire Bitcoin market to influence a narrowly defined settlement point.
For regulators, the study raises a familiar derivatives-market concern: contracts can create incentives to manipulate the reference price. Traditional futures and options markets have rules around settlement methodology, position limits, surveillance and anti-manipulation enforcement. Prediction markets tied to financial assets may face pressure to adopt similar safeguards.
For retail traders, the lesson is practical. Very short-term prediction markets may look simple, but they can be structurally complex. A five-minute Bitcoin bet is not just a view on price direction. It may also expose users to settlement games played by better-capitalized traders operating across multiple venues.
The study does not prove that every short-duration Bitcoin contract is manipulated. But it does show that market design can create incentives for manipulation and that onchain prediction markets are not immune from classic financial-market abuses. As prediction markets expand, the integrity of settlement mechanisms may become as important as the accuracy of the predictions themselves.
Currently, the market is showing all the signs of an altcoin cycle.
From the technical standpoint, while Bitcoin [BTC] dominance has trended higher for three straight weeks, recently breaking above the 59% level, Ethereum [ETH] dominance is now taking the lead, pushing the ETH/BTC ratio up more than 10% over the same window. This suggests that capital is rotating across the market rather than remaining solely “Bitcoin-led.”
Ripple is no exception. As AMBCrypto flagged, FOMO around XRP and ETH has climbed to a five-week high, while Bitcoin sentiment remains neutral. More importantly, XRP is leading ETH in bullish sentiment, recording 3.02 bullish comments for every 1 bearish comment compared with ETH’s 2.31-to-1 ratio.
Source: TradingView (XRP/BTC) In essence, FOMO around XRP is building faster than the broader market.
The timing is important. As the chart above shows, the XRP/BTC ratio has recently broken below the key 0.00002 support level, a level that sparked a strong breakout during the Q3 2025 cycle. Since then, the ratio has printed more than four straight lower lows, showing that XRP has continued to underperform Bitcoin.
Now, with sentiment turning bullish again, the question is whether this growing momentum can help XRP reclaim strength against Bitcoin, especially with FOMO building. But the bigger question is whether that FOMO is actually showing up on-chain because, as a Layer 1 network, Ripple’s [XRP] strength ultimately depends on real network activity and capital flows, not just market sentiment.
XRP/BTC consolidates as on-chain momentum builds A 10-week consolidation usually sets the stage for a strong move in either direction.
With FOMO continuing to build, the bias is starting to lean bullish. The XRP/BTC ratio has now spent nearly 10 weeks consolidating around the 0.000015 level, a sign that longer-term accumulation may be taking place rather than short-term capital rotation. If that structure holds, a breakout above resistance could mark the start of a fresh leg higher for Ripple against BTC.
From the on-chain perspective, the setup already reinforces this view. According to DeFiLlama data, XRPL’s DeFi activity is rebounding, with TVL up more than 3% over the last 24 hours. The move has been backed by a 6%+ jump increase in stablecoin supply, pushing nearly $1 billion back into the network.
Source: DeFiLlama To put this into perspective, more than $2 billion in stablecoins have flowed out of the Ethereum network over the same period, highlighting a shift in liquidity toward alternative Layer-1 ecosystems like XRPL.
Against this backdrop, the growing FOMO around Ripple doesn’t look like a fluke. Instead, liquidity is gradually rotating into XRPL, supporting the network’s underlying strength. If this trend continues, the XRP/BTC ratio could be setting up for more than just a short-term rally.
Instead, it could be the early stages of a broader breakout.
Final Summary XRP FOMO is rising, while the XRP/BTC ratio continues to consolidate, increasing the chances of a breakout. Strong XRPL on-chain activity and growing stablecoin flows suggest the rally is being supported by real network growth, not just market hype.
Ethereum is approaching a key technical threshold, with its price edging near the $2,000 level amid renewed institutional interest and increased network activity.
Spot ETFs and Institutional DemandAt the latest reading, Ethereum changed hands at $1,920.11, registering a 1.49% gain over the past 24 hours. The modest uptick is attributed to fresh investments flowing into spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and consistently stable trading activity.
SoSoValue reported that U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs attracted $58.34 million in daily net inflows, growing total net assets above $10 billion. Persistent inflows from large-scale investors typically reflect improving sentiment and greater market liquidity.
Analysts assess that a single day of strong inflows may not mark the beginning of a sustained trend, but ongoing institutional interest could provide stronger support for further price recovery.
MetricValueETH Price$1,920.1124h Change+1.49%ETF Daily Net Inflows$58.34 millionTotal ETF Net AssetsAbove $10 billionTechnical Analysis and Key LevelsEthereum faces its next technical test just below the $1,930–$2,000 resistance zone, a region where previous attempts to rally have lost steam. Market observers suggest that a confirmed close above this band could reinforce a bullish outlook. In contrast, renewed selling may keep ETH in its longer-term trading range.
Technical signals have improved recently, with the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) staying in positive territory and its main line holding above the signal line, hinting at growing upward momentum.
Trading volumes have also increased as the price recovered, reflecting firmer buyer participation. Buyers have been actively defending the $1,874 support zone, which remains an important threshold if the trend weakens.
A breakout beyond $2,000, especially if fueled by sustained trading volume, could provide more definitive proof that buyers are commanding the market.
Mini dictionary: MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence), a momentum indicator used in technical analysis to identify trend changes and the strength of price movements.
On-chain Activity and Market SentimentAccording to DefiLlama, Ethereum’s Total Value Locked (TVL) remains near recent highs, and active addresses are at elevated levels. Steady on-chain participation suggests users are engaging with the network, even amid recent market fluctuations.
Sustained user activity is often seen as a positive long-term signal, reinforcing fundamentals beyond short-term speculation.
Market analyst Ted Pillows commented on Ethereum’s technical setup, emphasizing that the “real test of $ETH will now start.” Pillows explained that since August 2025, Ethereum has often formed local tops within a few days after its daily Relative Strength Index (RSI) moved above 65. If ETH consolidates instead of reversing sharply, it could point to a potential shift in market behavior, not seen since April 2025.
Since August 2025, Ethereum has consistently peaked shortly after the daily RSI crossed above 65. If ETH price manages to consolidate as the RSI resets, it would mark the first major reversal signal since April 2025.
Outlook and Key TriggersMarket participants are closely checking whether Ethereum will break above the psychologically significant $2,000 threshold or face sellers at resistance once again. A successful push higher may encourage renewed bullish momentum and attract further investment. Conversely, a dip below the $1,874 support could put pressure back on buyers and increase the chance of another pullback.
Ethereum’s price action in the coming days may determine the near-term direction for both technical traders and longer-term investors.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
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Binance launches three U.S. ETF perpetual contracts, offering up to 25x leverage.
According to official announcements, Binance has launched multiple USDT-margined TradFi perpetual contracts, including MUUUSDT, SOXSUSDT, and TZAUSDT perpetual contracts. MUUUSDT corresponds to Direxion Daily MU Bull 2X ETF (MUU), which tracks the daily 2x return performance of Micron Technology. SOXSUSDT corresponds to Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X Shares (SOXS), tracking the daily 3x inverse performance of the NYSE Semiconductor Index. TZAUSDT corresponds to Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA), tracking the daily 3x inverse performance of the Russell 2000 Index.
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Hyperliquid's TSMC contract rallied then pulled back, dropping over 4% intraday.
According to market data, Hyperliquid-listed contracts tied to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) surged intraday before pulling back, with their decline once widening to over 4%. Earlier, TSMC released its Q2 2026 financial report: net profit rose 77% year-on-year to NT$706.6 billion, hitting a record high and beating market expectations; Q2 revenue grew 36% year-on-year to NT$1.27 trillion, while high-performance computing (HPC) segment revenue increased 20% quarter-on-quarter.
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Ostium trading remains suspended, with user margin still frozen.
Perpetual decentralized exchange (Perp DEX) Ostium stated in a post that platform trading remains suspended following the security incident. User positions are still open but cannot be modified temporarily; trading margin remains in the frozen smart contract and has not been moved. Ostium added that its team is continuing to coordinate with relevant authorities, SEAL 911, and multiple security researchers, and will release updates on the timeline for smart contract activity resumption and fund recovery. According to PeckShield’s monitoring, Ostium’s public OLP vault was hacked for approximately 24 million USDC, with the attacker subsequently converting the funds to around 12,100 ETH, of which about 10,500 ETH has been transferred to Tornado Cash.
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The China-South Korea Semiconductor ETF on the A-share market saw its afternoon decline widen to 5%.
According to market data, the semiconductor sector in China's A-share market continued to weaken in the afternoon, with the decline of China-South Korea semiconductor-related ETFs expanding to 5%.
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TSMC expects demand to remain strong in Q3, with its full-year revenue coming in higher than earlier forecasts.
TSMC (TSM.N) announced that it expects its third-quarter revenue this year to range between $44.6 billion and $45.8 billion, compared to its Q3 2025 revenue of $33.1 billion. The chipmaker projects demand will remain strong in the third quarter, and forecasts its U.S. dollar-denominated revenue growth for 2026 will be slightly above 40%, an upward revision from its earlier forecast of over 30%.
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HTX DAO completes Q2 token burn, with HTX’s cumulative burn exceeding 100 trillion tokens.
According to an official announcement from HTX DAO, the second-quarter 2026 HTX token burn was completed on July 15. On-chain data shows that a total of 7,474,935,439,560 HTX tokens were burned in this round, worth over $13.6 million. To date, the cumulative amount of HTX burned and donated has reached 117.79 trillion tokens. Burn details: https://tronscan.org/transaction/06b58562732cbff13ce6a3b2a0556f6ffefd158b4cc4313968750923c779810d/overview. In the first half of this year, HTX DAO’s two-quarter combined burn exceeded $32.82 million. Against the backdrop of intensified market liquidity competition this year, HTX has still been able to consistently execute quarterly burns worth tens of millions of dollars, showcasing strong operational resilience and anti-cyclical capabilities.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $107.8 million in net inflows on Wednesday, while their Ethereum counterparts pulled in $53.8 million.
The numbers in context Earlier in July, Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $181.1 million on a single day, July 14. So Wednesday’s figure represents a moderation from that pace, though still firmly positive.
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Cumulative net inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs have now surpassed $51 billion since their January 2024 launch.
At $53.8 million, Wednesday’s ether ETF inflows represented roughly half the Bitcoin figure. Ether ETFs launched several months after their Bitcoin predecessors.
Recovery from a rocky start to the year Earlier in 2026, both Bitcoin and ether ETFs experienced multi-week outflow streaks. The summer months have brought a clear reversal, with funds flowing back into both product categories.
BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale have continued to attract the lion’s share of flows.
What this means for investors When the SEC approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, the optimistic projections called for maybe $10 billion in the first year. The actual numbers have blown past even the most bullish forecasts, with cumulative net inflows now exceeding $51 billion.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Another Ethereum-focused non-profit, ETHSystems, has been formed to advance the network’s privacy push.
The latest organization is backed by the world’s largest ETH treasury firm, Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Sharplink, and Joe Lubin (Ethereum’s co-founder).
Commenting on the debut, Bitmine chairman Tom Lee underscored the need for privacy for institutional adoption. He added,
Institutions want confidential systems using Ethereum as the settlement layer. This launch strengthens ETH is the future of money.
According to the ETHSystems team, they will focus on building private and confidential systems for major Wall Street players leveraging Ethereum as a settlement layer.
Source: X This would mark the third entity backed by Bitmine as the Ethereum Foundation (EF) scales down its stewardship role for the network. For his part, educator and analyst David Hoffman of Bankless viewed the move as another step to allow the EF to scale down.
The unbundling of the EF continues…Privacy is such an important frontier, glad someone is taking ownership over it!
Before ETHSystems, two other non-profit organizations, Ethereum Institutional and ETHLabs, were unveiled with Bitmine as the lead financing partner. The trend has increased following revelations that EF could face a funding crisis and fail to advance major upgrades, including post-quantum transition.
Although the new non-profits are made up of former EF executives and team members, Bitmine has now emerged as the core financing partner across the board. To some extent, this goes against the Ethereum ethos of decentralization.
However, it remains to be seen whether other independent players will emerge as EF further cuts down its role in the ecosystem in the coming years.
Will Ethereum flip Bitcoin amid stablecoin push? Ethereum still commands a significant share of total value locked (TVL) across its DeFi ecosystem, with increasing interest from institutional players. And Tom Lee is betting on stablecoins, tokenization, and an AI agent boom as the key catalysts for the chain.
Interestingly, Nick Tomaino, founder of VC firm 1Confirmation, also echoed Lee’s thesis. In fact, Tomaino projected that ETH would eventually flip BTC, citing growing stablecoin adoption.
Reiterating his Ethereum [ETH] outperformance call made last year, he noted,
BTC dominance then was ~60%, it’s now down to ~56%. Other coins were ~24%, now down to ~21%. Meanwhile, ETH dominance then was ~8%; now it’s up to ~9.6%, and stablecoins (which are mostly on Ethereum) are up from ~7% to 13%.
At the time of writing, the ETHBTC ratio, which tracks relative performance between the two assets, was up 17%. This meant that ETH outperformed BTC in the past three weeks on investor gains.
However, this is a limited period which cannot be used to conclusively signal a long-term flip of BTC by ETH.
Source: ETHBTC, TradingView Final Summary ETHSystems has become the third non-profit to step up as the Ethereum Foundation scales down. A venture firm exec believes that Ethereum’s increasing stablecoin dominance could help it flip BTC in market share.
Ether prices have reached their highest level since early June as analysts eye its next move.
ETH tapped a six-week high of $1,940 in late trading on Wednesday and has held on to those gains into Thursday morning, where it remained above $1,900.
CryptoQuant analyst ‘Darkfost’ said on Thursday that the move was driven by positive inflation reports in the US, with CPI and PPI figures that came in well below expectations. ETH has posted nearly 10% gains over the past two consecutive days, he said.
“Since a low of around $1,500 in June, ETH appears to have entered a genuine shift in momentum, now showing a performance of over 25% for the period.”
Ether Short Squeeze Pumps Prices The analyst added that the recent surge isn’t solely down to the strong macro data. “It also owes a great deal to the wave of short position liquidations that had been building up on Binance throughout the move.”
It was one of the largest “short squeezes” ETH has experienced on the exchange since June, with almost $30 million in futures wiped out in an hour or so. The largest single liquidation order over the past 24 hours happened on Binance with ETH/USDT valued at $11.9 million, according to Coinglass.
❌ $30M in Shorts Liquidated in an Hour as ETH Breaks $1,900.
Driven by excellent CPI figures yesterday, followed today by a Producer Price Index (PPI) print that came in well below expectations (-0.3%), ETH has posted a performance of nearly 10% over these two consecutive days.… pic.twitter.com/HzGbUwc5RM
— Darkfost (@Darkfost_Coc) July 15, 2026
Arden House founder Alaoui Capital posted a heatmap showing that $2,000 is the level ETH “wants to test before anything else.” Meanwhile, analyst ‘Satoshi Flipper’ said that ETH has now broken out from its downtrend against Bitcoin, which is also bullish for altcoins.
“ETH just woke up,” said former BlackRock vice president and MilkRoad host John Gillen.
You may also like: XRP and ETH Traders Turn Bullish as FOMO Surges to 5-Week High: Santiment Here’s Why Robinhood Chain Is Ultra Bullish for ETH Despite Cannibalizing Revenue Expert: Bitcoin Faces $8B Attack Risk, Ethereum More Secure He added that bulls need to keep an eye on the $1,950 level at the 100-day exponential moving average, then $2,000. “Crack that and $2,200 comes into play, and then it could be off to the races,” he said.
“This summer just got interesting. Price may finally be reacting to strengthening fundamentals in Ethereum and in ETH the asset.”
Elsewhere on Crypto Markets Total capitalization has remained flat on the day at $2.3 trillion as ETH is the only mover, up 3.2%
Bitcoin was cooling after its venture above $65,000, and most of the altcoins were flat. There were minor gains for XRP, Zcash, and Stellar, but it is Ethereum stealing the show at the moment.
Hayes Adds to ETH Position as On-Chain Activity Picks UpBitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) purchased 1,293 $ETH worth approximately $2.48 million on July 16, according to on-chain tracker Lookonchain. The buy brought his total accumulation on the day to more than 1,900 ETH. The transaction was routed through OTC desks, with Lookonchain noting that Hayes had earlier sent $1.25 million in USDC to Galaxy Digital (@galaxyhq) in exchange for 646 ETH, while a separate $1.25 million USDC transfer was sent to FalconX (@FalconXGlobal), likely for another over-the-counter deal.
The purchase marks a continued return to Ethereum for Hayes. The latest buys follow his sale of 6,000 ETH at a loss of around $606,000 in June. Hayes, the outspoken co-founder of derivatives exchange BitMEX, has been vocally bullish on Ethereum's long-term trajectory, arguing the asset is positioned to benefit from expanding macro liquidity and its central role in facilitating collateral across the decentralized finance landscape.
Three New Wallets Pull 30,000 ETH From Coinbase PrimeThe Hayes purchase coincides with broader whale activity in the Ethereum market. According to Lookonchain, three newly created wallets withdrew 30,000 $ETH worth approximately $57.66 million from Coinbase Prime in the hours preceding the Hayes buy. The new wallets receiving the ETH showed no outgoing transactions, suggesting a holding or accumulation strategy rather than an immediate sale.
Coinbase Prime, the institutional trading platform of Coinbase, is commonly used by large investors, hedge funds, and corporate treasuries for secure custody and trading. Withdrawals from the platform to fresh wallets are generally read by market participants as a bullish signal, as they reduce the supply of tokens readily available on exchanges. Recent data showed Ethereum's exchange supply ratio declining to 0.129, a level last seen in 2016, indicating that more ETH is moving away from centralized exchanges.
The accumulation activity extends beyond Hayes and the three new wallets. Amid extended sideways price movement, a separate whale withdrew 30,010 ETH worth $52.84 million from Coinbase Prime, while Lookonchain reported two additional buyers: one new wallet pulled 8,239 ETH worth $14.5 million from multiple exchanges and another purchased 11,843 ETH worth $20.8 million. Whether sustained demand at this scale can produce a durable price recovery for Ethereum remains to be seen, but the concentration of large-wallet buying in a short window is drawing attention across the market.
Sources:
AMBCrypto: Ethereum Whale Accumulation Data
Yellow.com: Ethereum Whales Pull 87,083 ETH From Exchanges
Bitcoin.com News: Ethereum Whales Load Up
Meanwhile, newly emerged whales have gone on a substantial ETH accumulation spree.
Ethereum (ETH) has stolen the show in the past few days, posting impressive gains and outperforming the market leader and many of the larger-cap alts.
One of the reasons behind this notable rally that drove it to a multi-week peak could be ongoing accumulation by major players, including BitMEX’s co-founder, Arthur Hayes.
Hayes Buys ETH High On-chain data provided by Lookonchain indicated that the popular crypto personality spent roughly $2.5 million to acquire 1,293 ETH. Consequently, he continues to display a somewhat controversial approach to Ethereum given his most recent moves.
CryptoPotato reported back in mid-June that Hayes had accumulated a total of 5,900 ETH for $10.58 million in the span of just a few days. However, he disposed of his entire stash (and some more) just a day later for around $10 million, registering a loss of more than $600,000 in hours.
What’s interesting in this situation is that he seems to be buying high and selling low. His most recent accumulation came at prices of well over $1,900, where ETH has stood for the past day. In contrast, the aforementioned offload took place when the asset dipped below $1,700.
Hayes has also exhibited controversial behavior toward other crypto assets. He received substantial backlash over his overpromotion of tokens like HYPE, ZEC, and WLD, as he disposed of his positions weeks after praising them and long before they reached his massive price targets.
Whales, Abraxas Buy Too With speculation running rampant about ETH’s future following its notable surge past $1,900, the broader Ethereum ecosystem shows that other participants are joining through large acquisitions. Additional data from Lookonchain suggested that three newly created wallets withdrew nearly $58 million in ETH from Coinbase Prime earlier today. The analysts concluded that “whales continue accumulating ETH.”
You may also like: Ethereum Tops $1,900 in a Six-Week High, Where to Next For ETH? XRP and ETH Traders Turn Bullish as FOMO Surges to 5-Week High: Santiment Here’s Why Robinhood Chain Is Ultra Bullish for ETH Despite Cannibalizing Revenue Moreover, wallets linked to Abraxas Capital deposited $40 million worth of bitcoin into the veteran US exchange Kraken earlier this week. Lookonchain noted that they used a large portion of the capital they gathered to rotate into ETH after withdrawing 8,153 tokens from the platform.
Abraxas Capital is selling $BTC and buying $ETH!
Over the past 3 hours, Abraxas Capital withdrew 8,153 $ETH($15.3M) from #Binance and #Bybit, while depositing 618 $BTC($39.99M) into #Kraken.https://t.co/qwAXChjYvp pic.twitter.com/EdWBYF36Lf
Dogecoin [DOGE] had tried to scale the $0.080 resistance zone at the start of July, but was unable to. It appeared that the bulls might be making another attempt to drive prices higher.
Source: Joao Wedson on X Founder and CEO of crypto intelligence platform Alphractal, Joao Wedson, observed in a post on X that whales were going long on Dogecoin while retail continued to hold short positions.
This sentiment shift occurred as DOGE fell just below the $0.07 round number earlier in July. The analyst believed that this change must persist if the memecoin can change its long-term downtrend measurably.
As things stand, a short squeeze is possible, but sustained demand is needed to help drive the memecoin towards recovery.
Source: CoinGlass The 3-month liquidation map revealed that a price move toward $0.08 was more likely than a downward drop, based solely on liquidation concentrations.
The cumulative short liquidation leverage was stronger. This meant that a price move higher would force more liquidations, and these market buy orders in the perpetuals market could help Dogecoin climb even higher.
Yet, it is possible that such gains would quickly reverse and turn out to be just a short squeeze.
Let’s see if the price charts agree with the liquidation map.
Whale longs versus bearish structural trends Source: DOGE/USDT on TradingView The February low at $0.08 was breached in June, making the $0.118 swing high the level that anchors the downtrend in place. Interestingly, the $0.081 level marked the 23.6% retracement level.
It is a short-term resistance zone, and has acted so in recent weeks. If reclaimed as support, a rally up to $0.108 is possible.
There is also a potential bearish scenario where Bitcoin [BTC] is unable to climb meaningfully past $65k. In which case, Dogecoin might make a final sweep of the $0.08 area before falling to new lows.
Final Summary Whales have been going long on Dogecoin even as retail remained short, a sentiment divergence that could have a say in price trends. A lack of strong buying pressure and the potential of a short squeeze to $0.08 meant a Dogecoin recovery remains unlikely.
Dogecoin (DOGE) is holding a narrow trading range, with buyers consistently defending support near $0.072 as sellers remain active at resistance levels. Analysts suggest that this consolidation may soon resolve into a decisive price movement, which could set the tone for the next phase in DOGE’s trajectory.
Dogecoin price consolidates as key support holdsAt press time, DOGE is priced at $0.07467 with a 24-hour trading volume of $686.32 million. Its market capitalization stands at $12.73 billion, reflecting the coin’s position among leading cryptocurrencies by market value.
Despite a period of stability over the past 24 hours, technical indicators reveal a potential shift in momentum. Aman, a cryptocurrency analyst, notes that DOGE is currently trading within a constricted range, maintaining support above $0.072. The meme coin is facing selling pressure against a descending trendline, signaling a key technical standoff.
According to Aman, if buyers can push DOGE above the current downtrend line, the bullish sentiment could strengthen. This scenario would open a path toward the resistance near $0.08. However, a breakdown below $0.072 would likely erode buyer confidence and risk further declines.
DOGE remains in a tight band between $0.072 support and its trendline resistance. A clear break above could shift momentum toward the $0.08 area, while losing support could invite more selling pressure.
Technical analysis points to historic cycle repeatTrader Tardigrade, another prominent analyst, draws parallels between DOGE’s current price action and patterns observed during previous market cycles. He highlights the emergence of a four-phase structure that occurred prior to the coin’s rallies in earlier years.
Historical chart analysis shows that the completion of the 2014-2017 cycle preceded major gains from 2017 through 2021. Some market observers claim that the current phase, covering 2021 to 2026, is mirroring those past dynamics. This leads to speculation that the next cycle, from 2026 to 2030, could trigger significant upside for DOGE.
Trader Tardigrade’s outlook focuses specifically on the current falling wedge formation. Technical traders often view this chart pattern as a signal for a bullish reversal, suggesting DOGE is in the latter stages of consolidation ahead of a potential breakout.
If the setup plays out as previously observed, some analysts believe that DOGE could achieve a long-term price target as ambitious as $70, though such forecasts remain speculative and depend on both market sentiment and broader conditions in cryptocurrencies.
Mini dictionary: Falling wedge formation, a technical analysis pattern characterized by converging trendlines where both support and resistance slope downwards; typically regarded as a bullish indicator if price breaks above the upper trendline.
Support LevelResistance LevelBreakout Target$0.072Descending trendline / $0.08Potential move above $0.08, longer-term speculation up to $70Despite these optimistic outlooks, DOGE’s near-term movement remains closely correlated to Bitcoin, which is currently in a consolidation phase. Any breakout in DOGE’s price action will depend largely on whether buyers can maintain key support levels while overcoming bearish technical resistance.
Traders continue to monitor the situation closely, weighing the possibility of a breakout against the risk of further price declines if key support is lost.
Technical patterns alone do not guarantee future performance. Both analysts and traders caution that historical similarities do not ensure a repeat outcome in the volatile crypto markets.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Leading cryptocurrencies traded sideways on Wednesday, while stocks rallied as investors digested softer inflation data amid heightened tensions with Iran
Bitcoin Steadies, Ethereum GainsBitcoin climbed to an intraday high of $65,507, only to encounter strong resistance soon after. Ethereum, meanwhile, broke $1,900 for the first time since Feb. 3, while XRP and Dogecoin moved sideways.
Over $300 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, mostly wiping out bearish short bets, according to Coinglass data
Bitcoin’s open interest rose 0.39% over the last 24 hours. Retail derivative sentiment on Binance remained “Neutral,” with volume of buy orders slightly exceeding sell orders during the period.
"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 $2.2 trillion, following a dip of 0.79% over the last 24 hours.
Stocks Climb On Favorable Inflation DataStocks extended the gains on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 150.37 points, or 0.29%, to end at 52,658.64. The S&P 500 advanced 0.38% to close at 7,572.40, while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite spiked 0.62% to settle at 26,269.22.
Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions kept investors on edge as the U.S. launched a second wave of strikes against Iran’s military assets.
‘Attractive Long-term Accumulation Area’Michaël van de Poppe, a widely followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader, said that indicators are flashing bottom signals and backed a dollar-cost averaging strategy during such periods.
The analyst reacted to a chart showing Bitcoin’s relative unrealized profit hitting lows comparable to past accumulation phases in 2020 and 2023.
“The cycles don’t need to repeat themselves on Bitcoin, but the behavior does repeat itself,” Van De Poppe said. “This is the time.”
Ali Martinez, another popular cryptocurrency commentator, says investors need not buy the “exact bottom” for long-term returns.
“Personally, I believe even current prices represent an attractive long-term accumulation area,” Martinez said. “My plan is to accumulate during periods of weakness and look to take profits during the next major cycle, around 2029.”
Photo Courtesy: Zakharchuk on Shutterstock.com
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Cardano (ADA) recently flipped its initial $0.16 resistance level into a support zone on the 4-hour chart, trading at $0.1651 at press time. While this structural swap signals bullish momentum, one analyst notes that the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is lagging behind, which may cause the coin to retest its lower resistance ($0.16).
Cardano (ADA) near-term price predictionAccording to Nick Valdez, ADA’s short-term upside momentum may hit a roadblock as RSI stalls around the mid-40s. Typically, this signals depletion of the buying pressure necessary to drive a vertical price breakout. It could also signal a possible liquidity hunt or a market in need of consolidation when coupled with a price above the support level.
For this reason, Valdez argues that ADA could drift slightly downward to test the strength of its lower trendline and shake out weak hands. Should buyers step in to defend this lower support, the analyst anticipates a price bounce that would validate the support zone as a new baseline.
Even more, if this defensive structure holds, it could clear the path for a rally towards the upper resistance zone of $0.20 established earlier this month.
Source: X
Recent developmentsOn July 15, ADA whale holdings hit a multi-year high, or about 67% of the total circulating supply. While this supports bullish technical patterns, the coin still shows overbought signals and a resultant price stagnation between $0.14 and $0.20 in the past month.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Aside from that, Volvo Group has joined the Cardano Foundation in discussions regarding blockchain utilization in supply chain management.
UPDATE
VOLVO GROUP JOINS THE CARDANO FOUNDATION TO DISCUSS BLOCKCHAIN FOR SUPPLY CHAINS 😱😱😱
The @Cardano_CF spotlighted an interview with @VolvoGroup Trucks Operations on how blockchain can improve supplier trust, compliance, and country-of-origin tracking.
The discussion… pic.twitter.com/XG8AMoWSKH
— Mintern (@MinswapIntern) July 15, 2026 What to watch forFor now, traders should continuously monitor 4-hour candle closes relative to the trendline. They should also watch out for the RSI line hooking up, which would indicate an influx of buyers, rising demand, and a possible uptrend.
Additionally, the November launch of the Leios upgrade could boost throughput, potentially driving demand for and adoption of ADA. The market is also anticipating Cardano ETF approvals towards the end of the year.
Story Ends Here
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HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aramco awarded Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) a multi-year contract to deliver integrated stimulation and completion services for unconventional gas development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This award is part of a broader multi-billion contract, supporting one of the largest unconventional gas development programs globally.
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Under the program, Halliburton will deploy intelligent automation solutions for fracturing to optimize performance in real time and support disciplined implementation across multi-well campaigns. These technologies support digital integration across operations while advancing efficiency and operational reliability.
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GBP/USD Price Forecast: Maintains constructive uptrend above 1.3500 despite mild lossesThe GBP/USD pair trades with mild losses around 1.3535 during the early European trading hours on Thursday. Markets might turn cautious ahead of the UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report and the US Retail Sales data, which are due later on Thursday.
Traders raise their bets on rate hikes from the Bank of England (BoE) this year, given the expected impact on inflation from higher oil prices. Money markets are fully pricing in a hike by the November policy meeting, with a second rate hike priced in by April 2027, according to Reuters. Prior to the US-Iran war, traders had been expecting the BoE to lower interest rates twice this year. Read more...
British Pound weakens below 1.3550 on renewed US strikes on IranThe GBP/USD pair declines to near 1.3530 during the early Asian session on Thursday. The British Pound (GBP) weakens against the US Dollar (USD) as renewed conflict and shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz have reignited energy-driven inflation risks. Traders brace for the UK monthly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report and the US Retail Sales data, which are due later on Thursday.
The US military said it has launched another wave of strikes against Iran in a further effort to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, per the Guardian. Explosions were reported late on Wednesday on Iran’s Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas, and locations in the Sistan-Baluchestan province. Read more...
The British Pound Sterling breaks out on the strength of someone else's weaknessCable spent the London morning drifting, printed the session low at 1.3381 shortly after 10:00 GMT, and then spent the New York afternoon repricing the entire Dollar complex. The Pound trades near 1.3540 at writing, up better than 1% in one of its strongest sessions of the year, after tagging 1.3558 and clearing both the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) and the 1.3400 handle in a single afternoon. The move answers a month of indecision around those levels with the subtlety of a brick.
The significance here is structural rather than cosmetic. The 50-day and 200-day EMAs sit clustered at 1.3376 and 1.3385, and most of July's price action had been compressed between that band and the 1.3400 shelf, a coil that has now released in one direction. A single session does not repair a downtrend that ran from late April into early July, but it does shift the burden of proof onto Dollar bulls for the first time in months. Read more...
