Meta gained over 4% in pre-market trading, extending its rally from the prior session.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Meta's pre-market stock gains have widened, with the stock now rising over 4% after closing up 4.7% in the previous trading session.
4 minutes ago
Founder of crypto trading platform RG Coins indicted again by the U.S. Department of Justice for transferring case-related crypto assets while in prison.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Rossen Iossifov, founder of Bulgarian crypto exchange RG Coins, has been indicted on additional charges for allegedly transferring approximately $290,000 in crypto assets that the court had ordered forfeited while he was in prison. Prosecutors alleged that in January 2024, while serving a sentence in a federal prison, Iossifov conspired to move the illicit assets through multiple crypto exchanges and mixing services to evade government seizure. Iossifov was previously sentenced to 111 months in prison in 2021 for his role in laundering nearly $5 million and assisting a Romanian cyber fraud ring in processing illicit funds; he was also ordered to pay over $2.6 million in restitution and forfeit related crypto assets. If the new charges are upheld, he faces up to an additional 25 years in prison.
4 minutes ago
Circle rises over 16% in pre-market trading after securing approval to establish a national trust bank.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Circle (CRCL)’s pre-market gain has widened to 16.63%, with its current price at $73.49. Earlier reports noted that Circle has obtained final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank.
4 minutes ago
Israel is willing to participate in strikes against Iran and is awaiting a statement from Trump.
Israel has informed the U.S. of its willingness to join further American military operations against Iran, and is currently awaiting a decision from U.S. President Donald Trump. Sources said Israel believes the new round of U.S.-Iran military conflict could last several more days. The Israeli Air Force, air defense, and intelligence units are on high alert, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) maintaining close coordination with the U.S. military. (CCTV)
4 minutes ago
BlackRock transfers approximately 8,700 ETH to Coinbase Prime, valued at around $15.81 million.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, BlackRock transferred approximately 8,700 ETH from its wallet linked to its Ethereum spot ETF to Coinbase Prime, valued at roughly $15.81 million based on current prices.
4 minutes ago
QCP: Japan's bond market stabilization drives Bitcoin rebound to near $64,000
QCP Capital has released a new report, noting that the decline in Japanese government bond yields has eased market concerns over the unwinding of yen carry trades and capital repatriation, driving Bitcoin to rebound to around $64,000. While Middle East geopolitical risks, a stronger U.S. dollar, and the Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance continue to weigh on risk assets, Bitcoin has demonstrated some resilience in the $60,000 range. The report adds that future trends will hinge primarily on the global liquidity environment, U.S. inflation data, and the outcome of the Bank of Japan’s month-end meeting.
Strategy, the company formerly known as MicroStrategy, sold 3,588 BTC for approximately $216 million between July 1 and July 5. That’s the largest single Bitcoin liquidation in the company’s history, and it came from the man who once made “never sell” sound like a blood oath.
Michael Saylor’s firm still holds 843,775 BTC after the sale.
From diamond hands to dynamic allocation Strategy didn’t sell Bitcoin because Saylor suddenly lost faith in his thesis. The company sold to replenish USD reserves earmarked for preferred-stock dividends on its Digital Credit securities.
The board authorized potential sales of up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin on June 29, giving management room to sell significantly more if cash needs escalate. The goal, according to the company’s filings, is to avoid issuing additional equity, which would dilute existing shareholders.
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Strategy had already broken the seal in late May 2026, selling 32 BTC for $2.5 million. Selling 3,588 coins at roughly $60,000 each is not a rounding error.
The average sale price of approximately $60,000 per Bitcoin is worth noting because Strategy’s overall cost basis sits above that level — they sold at a loss relative to what they paid for much of their stack. The company reported an $8.32 billion loss in Q2 2026 related to digital assets.
Strategy is now framing this shift as “dynamic capital allocation” designed to improve Bitcoin-per-share metrics.
Why the market cares more than the math suggests 3,588 BTC represents roughly 0.4% of Strategy’s total holdings.
MSTR shares declined several percent intraday on July 6, though they stabilized afterward. Bitcoin itself saw modest selling pressure.
The board authorized up to $1.25 billion in potential Bitcoin sales. That’s roughly 20,800 BTC at current prices, or about 2.5% of the company’s total stack.
The institutional contagion risk The $8.32 billion quarterly loss on digital assets underscores how painful this Bitcoin winter has been for corporate holders who bought aggressively during the bull market. Strategy accumulated the vast majority of its 843,775 BTC at prices that now look elevated compared to current trading levels.
The Bitcoin-per-share metric that Strategy is now optimizing for could actually benefit remaining shareholders if executed well, since selling Bitcoin to avoid equity dilution preserves each share’s claim on the remaining stack.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
TLDRBitcoin ETFs Lead Daily RedemptionsEther Funds Reverse Prior GainsWeekly Flow Trend Shows VolatilityGet 3 Free Stock Ebooks Crypto ETF outflows reached about $147 million on July 9, led by losses in Bitcoin and Ether funds. Bitcoin ETFs recorded $95.3 million in outflows, with FBTC and ARKB driving most redemptions. Ether ETFs saw $52.2 million in losses, reversing strong inflows recorded a day earlier. BlackRock’s IBIT remained flat, removing a key source of inflows that supported earlier sessions. Weekly ETF flows showed volatility, shifting from inflows to consecutive days of outflows. Crypto ETF outflows deepened on July 9 as U.S.-listed Bitcoin and Ether funds recorded combined losses of about $147 million. The session extended a weak trend following earlier signs of stabilization in institutional demand. The data confirmed that crypto ETF outflows continued despite recent price strength in major digital assets.
Bitcoin ETFs Lead Daily Redemptions Bitcoin funds recorded $95.3 million in net losses, reinforcing the latest wave of crypto ETF outflows across major issuers. Fidelity’s FBTC led the decline with $63.3 million in redemptions during the session. Ark and 21Shares’ ARKB followed with $39.9 million in outflows, increasing pressure on the category.
Smaller inflows partially offset losses but failed to reverse overall crypto ETF outflows for Bitcoin products. VanEck’s HODL added $5.4 million, while Morgan Stanley’s MSBT brought in $2.2 million. Bitwise’s BITB posted a marginal inflow of $0.3 million, limiting net declines.
BlackRock’s IBIT and Grayscale’s GBTC remained flat, removing a key source of demand seen earlier in the week. IBIT had previously driven inflows with over $200 million on July 6. Its neutral position allowed crypto ETF outflows to deepen without a strong counterbalance.
Ether Funds Reverse Prior Gains Ether ETFs recorded $52.2 million in net losses, adding to overall crypto ETF outflows across digital asset funds. Fidelity’s FETH accounted for $34.0 million of these redemptions. BlackRock’s ETHA also posted $12.7 million in outflows during the same session.
Grayscale’s ETHB and Bitwise’s ETHW contributed additional declines with losses of $2.7 million and $2.8 million, respectively. Other Ether funds remained flat, including VanEck’s ETHV and Invesco’s QETH. The absence of inflows across multiple issuers reinforced the scale of crypto ETF outflows.
The reversal followed a strong July 8 session when Ether ETFs attracted $70.5 million in inflows. FETH had led those gains before shifting to the largest source of redemptions. This rapid change highlighted how concentrated flows can drive short-term crypto ETF outflows.
Weekly Flow Trend Shows Volatility ETF flow data showed sharp swings throughout the week, reflecting inconsistent demand across issuers and products. Bitcoin ETFs gained $265.7 million on July 6 before slowing to $21.5 million on July 7. The trend reversed on July 8, when funds recorded $84.9 million in crypto ETF outflows.
The July 9 data confirmed a second consecutive day of losses, pushing total crypto ETF outflows deeper into negative territory. Ether funds followed a similar pattern, moving from strong inflows to notable redemptions within one day. This pattern indicated that flows remained uneven and highly sensitive to short-term conditions.
Solana ETFs provided limited support with $0.4 million in inflows, offering only a minor offset to broader crypto ETF outflows. VanEck’s VSOL and TSOL accounted for the small gains recorded in this category. Other Solana products remained flat, leaving overall flows dominated by Bitcoin and Ether declines.
Crypto ETF outflows on July 9 highlighted continued weakness in institutional allocations despite recent market stability. The absence of strong inflows across major issuers allowed redemptions to drive overall performance. The latest session confirmed that crypto ETF outflows remain a key indicator of shifting demand trends.
Japanese lender CRYL has launched Bitcoin-backed loans of up to 1 billion yen ($6.2 million), allowing individuals and businesses to raise fiat currency without selling their BTC.
On Thursday, the company announced that borrowers can access between 1 million yen ($6,200) and 1 billion yen ($6.2 million) at annual rates of 3.5% to 7%. The loans carry collateral ratios of 40% to 60%. They run for one year and can be used for expenses, including taxes, business funding and property purchases.
The launch expands Japan’s small market for regulated crypto-backed financing. In 2020, Fintertech, a Daiwa Securities Group and Credit Saison joint venture, launched a similar service and currently lends up to $3 million against Bitcoin or Ether. However, CRYL's service advertises a higher ceiling and a lower minimum, while limiting collateral to BTC.
CRYL framed the service as adding a third option beyond holding or selling their crypto. However, applicants must undergo screening, and most loans use a lump-sum repayment structure, with principal and interest due after one year.
Bitcoin-backed finance takes shape in JapanFintertech’s product shows that Bitcoin-backed lending has been available in Japan for several years. The company’s website currently lists loans for individuals and businesses with annual rates of 4% to 8%, a 50% collateral ratio and a minimum borrowing amount of 5 million yen ($31,000).
The service also gained a wider distribution channel in October 2025, when Daiwa Securities began introducing customers at its branches across Japan to Fintertech’s digital asset-backed loans. Fintertech is owned 80% by Daiwa Securities Group and 20% by Credit Saison.
Other Japanese companies are exploring how Bitcoin could support more complex credit products. On Friday, Metaplanet Securities, yen stablecoin issuer JPYC and tokenization infrastructure provider Progmat announced a study into using BTC as collateral or credit enhancement for digital corporate bonds and other blockchain-based credit instruments.
Unlike the loan products offered by CRYL and Fintertech, the Metaplanet initiative remains at the research phase, and the companies said no issuance has been decided.
Magazine: Bitcoin’s quantum dilemma: Bigger blocks or STARK proofs?
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
Japanese lender CRYL has launched Bitcoin-backed loans of up to 1 billion yen ($6.2 million), allowing individuals and businesses to raise fiat currency without selling their BTC.
On Thursday, the company announced that borrowers can access between 1 million yen ($6,200) and 1 billion yen ($6.2 million) at annual rates of 3.5% to 7%. The loans carry collateral ratios of 40% to 60%. They run for one year and can be used for expenses, including taxes, business funding and property purchases.
The launch expands Japan’s small market for regulated crypto-backed financing. In 2020, Fintertech, a Daiwa Securities Group and Credit Saison joint venture, launched a similar service and currently lends up to $3 million against Bitcoin or Ether. However, CRYL's service advertises a higher ceiling and a lower minimum, while limiting collateral to BTC.
CRYL framed the service as adding a third option beyond holding or selling their crypto. However, applicants must undergo screening, and most loans use a lump-sum repayment structure, with principal and interest due after one year.
Bitcoin-backed finance takes shape in JapanFintertech’s product shows that Bitcoin-backed lending has been available in Japan for several years. The company’s website currently lists loans for individuals and businesses with annual rates of 4% to 8%, a 50% collateral ratio and a minimum borrowing amount of 5 million yen ($31,000).
The service also gained a wider distribution channel in October 2025, when Daiwa Securities began introducing customers at its branches across Japan to Fintertech’s digital asset-backed loans. Fintertech is owned 80% by Daiwa Securities Group and 20% by Credit Saison.
Other Japanese companies are exploring how Bitcoin could support more complex credit products. On Friday, Metaplanet Securities, yen stablecoin issuer JPYC and tokenization infrastructure provider Progmat announced a study into using BTC as collateral or credit enhancement for digital corporate bonds and other blockchain-based credit instruments.
Unlike the loan products offered by CRYL and Fintertech, the Metaplanet initiative remains at the research phase, and the companies said no issuance has been decided.
Magazine: Bitcoin’s quantum dilemma: Bigger blocks or STARK proofs?
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
New Hampshire’s Executive Council has rejected a proposal to issue up to $100 million in Bitcoin-backed revenue bonds linked to Bitcoin miner CleanSpark.
Summary
New Hampshire’s Executive Council rejected the proposed $100 million Bitcoin-backed bond by a 3-2 vote. CleanSpark planned to post about $160 million in Bitcoin without exposing taxpayers to direct repayment risk. Moody’s assigned the proposed bonds a Ba2 speculative-grade rating before the final state approval failed. The five-member council voted 3-2 against the plan during its July 8 meeting. The decision blocked the final state approval required for the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority to proceed with the transaction.
Meanwhile, the proposal appeared on the state’s July 8 Executive Council agenda. It called for the Business Finance Authority to issue taxable revenue bonds for NH CleanSpark Borrower Trust 2026-1.
The borrower planned to use the proceeds to finance a Bitcoin purchase and cover costs tied to the bond issuance. However, the Executive Council rejected the request after a public hearing and final review.
According to a Wednesday post on X, New Hampshire journalist Kevin Landrigan, three council members voted against the proposal, while two supported it.
NH Executive Council votes, 3-2, against being the first state to issue conduit bond for investor, CleanSpark to buy $100 mil. of bitcoin. No NH taxpayer risk. @KellyAyotte backed it, but Councilors @NHkaren, Dave Wheeler, R-Milford, and Janet Stevens, R-Rye, did not. #nhpolitics
— Kevin Landrigan (@KlandriganUL) July 8, 2026 The vote ended what supporters had presented as the first rated Bitcoin-backed bond issued through a U.S. state authority. The Business Finance Authority had approved the structure in November 2025, but the deal still needed approval from the governor and council.
CleanSpark planned $160M Bitcoin collateral Under the proposed structure, a private borrower connected to CleanSpark would have posted about $160 million in Bitcoin as collateral for bonds worth up to $100 million.
The parties planned to hold the Bitcoin in segregated wallets managed by BitGo. If the collateral value fell below about $140 million, the structure would have triggered liquidation and bond redemption.
The bonds were designed as limited-recourse obligations. Bondholders could claim only the Bitcoin collateral and related proceeds if the borrower failed to repay them.
As previously reported by crypto.news, the state would not have pledged taxpayer funds, its general credit or other public assets to the deal.
Governor Kelly Ayotte supported the proposal. She said the structure could bring new investment opportunities to New Hampshire “without risking state funds or taxpayer dollars.”
However, council members who opposed the plan raised doubts about the use of a state-linked authority for a Bitcoin-backed financing structure.
Moody’s gave bonds a Ba2 rating Moody’s Ratings assigned the proposed bonds a provisional Ba2 rating in March. That rating sits below investment grade and falls within Moody’s speculative-grade category.
The rating agency reviewed two proposed taxable bond series with maturities in 2029. Bitcoin price volatility and the operation of the collateral liquidation process formed key parts of the credit review.
The collateral would have represented about 160% of the principal issued. That overcollateralization aimed to protect bondholders during market declines.
Still, a Ba2 rating shows that Moody’s viewed the bonds as carrying material credit risk. The rating did not provide a guarantee against losses or prevent the council from rejecting the transaction.
Supporters may seek another vote New Hampshire House Majority Floor Leader Keith Ammon criticized the council’s decision. He called it “an extremely short-sighted decision” and asked members to reconsider the proposal after reviewing more information.
Ammon said the rejection could reduce future fee revenue for the Business Finance Authority. However, the authority has not announced a new hearing or revised version of the bond plan.
The decision comes despite New Hampshire’s wider support for digital assets. As crypto.news previously reported, the state approved the initial bond framework in 2025.
New Hampshire also became the first U.S. state to authorize a strategic cryptocurrency reserve. Its law allows the state treasurer to invest a limited share of eligible public funds in qualifying digital assets.
The failed bond vote does not reverse that reserve law. It applies only to the CleanSpark-linked conduit bond proposal presented to the Executive Council.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
The crypto market is going through a quiet phase, but many analysts believe this is when long-term opportunities are created. Crypto Coins continue to be an area of interest as institutional adoption is rising, governments are introducing clearer regulations, and blockchain networks are seeing record usage despite prices remaining below previous highs. Instead of chasing hype, one analyst says the market is focusing on projects with growing adoption, strong revenue, expanding ecosystems, and real-world utility.
Here are 10 cryptocurrencies that stand out in 2026.1. Bitcoin (BTC)Bitcoin remains the foundation of every crypto portfolio because its supply is permanently limited to 21 million coins.
The analyst says BTC is currently in an accumulation phase as institutions continue buying through spot ETFs and corporate treasury allocations. It remains the largest cryptocurrency and is widely seen as digital gold. Even though this list focuses on altcoins, most experts still recommend holding Bitcoin as the safest long-term crypto investment.2. Ethereum (ETH)Ethereum continues to dominate smart contracts and remains Wall Street’s preferred blockchain.
According to Galaxy Digital VP of Research Lucas Outumuro, Ethereum’s biggest strengths are its credibility, security, Layer-2 scaling, privacy upgrades, and future quantum-resistant roadmap.Why @Uptodatenow flipped from ETH skeptic to ETH bull:
"Credibly neutral settlement layer: the world needs that. Demand exists."
"I used to be very skeptical of… pic.twitter.com/WbwAmAcslv
— The Rollup (@therollupco) July 8, 2026 Ethereum is also benefiting from growing institutional adoption. Robinhood recently launched its own Layer-2 network using Ethereum technology, while tokenized real-world assets and stablecoins continue expanding on the network. 3. Solana (SOL)Solana is becoming one of the fastest-growing blockchain ecosystems.
Developers continue choosing Solana for payments, consumer apps, gaming, DeFi, and tokenized assets thanks to its high speed and low transaction costs.Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz recently described Solana as a “global Silicon Valley” for blockchain developers, where entrepreneurs can build products without worrying about scaling issues. The network also continues attracting major institutions through tokenized asset projects.4. Uniswap (UNI)Uniswap remains the largest decentralized exchange and continues benefiting from rising DeFi adoption.
One of its biggest catalysts this year is its partnership with Robinhood, bringing decentralized trading closer to mainstream investors.The protocol continues generating strong fee revenue while expanding its services across multiple Layer-2 networks, making UNI one of the strongest DeFi projects heading into the next market cycle.5. Cardano (ADA)Although Cardano has received criticism over the past few years, analysts believe the project remains undervalued.
Founder Charles Hoskinson recently argued that Cardano’s ecosystem continues growing steadily through research-driven development and new innovations instead of copying competing blockchains.The network is also expanding governance features, decentralized applications, and developer activity, keeping ADA among the largest blockchain ecosystems.6. Chainlink (LINK)Chainlink continues to strengthen its position as the leading blockchain oracle network.
Founder Sergey Nazarov said recent U.S. crypto legislation, including the GENIUS Act and the proposed CLARITY Act, will increase demand for Chainlink’s infrastructure.The network provides proof-of-reserves, cross-chain interoperability, and data services for stablecoins and tokenized assets. As banks and institutions tokenize more real-world assets, analysts expect Chainlink to play an increasingly important role.7. Bittensor (TAO)Artificial intelligence remains one of crypto’s fastest-growing sectors, and Bittensor (TAO) is widely viewed as its leading project.
According to Early crypto investor Michael Terpin, top AI tokens could outperform Bitcoin over the next few years as AI adoption continues accelerating.Bittensor allows developers to build decentralized AI networks while rewarding contributors through blockchain incentives. As AI investment grows globally, TAO is becoming one of the sector’s biggest beneficiaries.8. Hyperliquid (HYPE)Hyperliquid has become one of 2026’s biggest success stories.
The decentralized perpetual futures exchange processed over $1.34 trillion in trading volume during the first half of the year while generating more than $320 million in protocol revenue.Moreover, the project recently entered the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF, replacing Avalanche, showing growing institutional interest. The analyst also sees future regulated trading products and institutional participation could drive further growth for Hyperliquid.9. Sui (SUI)Sui continues attracting developers through its high-performance blockchain architecture.
The network focuses on payments, gaming, AI applications, decentralized finance, and scalable infrastructure.Mysten Labs CEO Evan Cheng says Sui offers the technology needed to support large-scale on-chain financial applications while handling much higher throughput than many existing blockchains. Its rapidly growing ecosystem keeps it among the top Layer-1 projects to watch.10. XRPXRP remains one of the most hot cryptocurrencies as Ripple expands its global payments business.
The company continues growing its stablecoin ecosystem, tokenized asset services, and partnerships with financial institutions.With clearer U.S. regulations gradually taking shape and Ripple increasing its focus on cross-border payments and tokenization, the analyst thinks XRP could benefit from broader institutional adoption over the coming years. Story Ends Here
Trust with CoinPedia:CoinPedia has been delivering accurate and timely cryptocurrency and blockchain updates since 2017. All content is created by our expert panel of analysts and journalists, following strict Editorial Guidelines based on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). Every article is fact-checked against reputable sources to ensure accuracy, transparency, and reliability. Our review policy guarantees unbiased evaluations when recommending exchanges, platforms, or tools. We strive to provide timely updates about everything crypto & blockchain, right from startups to industry majors.
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XRP broke out of its recent tight range to clear resistance around $1.10 on strong volume and then held near session highs instead of retracing.Traders now view $1.10 as key support, with $1.0880 as the next downside level and $1.1065 to $1.13 as the near-term resistance zone if momentum continues.Analysts remain divided on the broader outlook, with some eyeing upside targets near $1.19 to $1.23 and others warning that a drop below $1.09 could reopen a deeper pullback.XRP spent most of the session grinding inside a tight range before buyers finally forced the move above $1.10. The token pushed through resistance on a late volume spike, hit $1.1065 and then held near the highs rather than giving back the move. That turns $1.10 into the level traders now need to see defended.
News Background• XRP continued to attract attention from analysts tracking steady fund inflows even as bitcoin and ether products saw outflows in some markets.
• The token has spent recent sessions consolidating above $1.08, with traders watching whether that base can support a stronger move toward $1.13.
• Analysts remain split on the larger setup, with some pointing to Elliott Wave targets near $1.19-$1.23 and others warning that a failure to hold $1.09 could reopen downside toward lower support zones.
• Ripple’s expanding European regulatory footprint remains a longer-term support for institutional interest, though the session’s move was driven mainly by technical levels and volume.
Price Action Summary• XRP rose from $1.0827 to $1.1026 during the 24-hour session, gaining 1.8%.
• The token established higher lows through the session as buyers defended pullbacks near $1.0880.
• The main breakout came around 01:00 UTC, when volume jumped to 43.51 million XRP, about 88% above the 24-hour average.
• The move carried XRP to an intraday high of $1.1065 before price stabilized near $1.1020-$1.1040.
• A later 60-minute spike reached 14.17 million in volume, pushing XRP from $1.0958 to $1.1052 before profit-taking slowed the move.
Technical Analysis• The key development is that XRP cleared the $1.0950-$1.1000 area after several sessions of range-bound trading.
• The breakout was supported by volume, which gives the move more weight than the earlier low-volume attempts above resistance.
• Higher lows through the session show buyers are stepping in earlier, with $1.0880 acting as the main support level during pullbacks.
• The post-breakout hold near $1.1020-$1.1040 is constructive because XRP did not immediately lose the $1.10 area after the spike.
• The next test is whether buyers can keep XRP above $1.10 long enough to challenge $1.1065 and then $1.13.
What traders should watch• $1.10 is the immediate support level after the breakout.
• $1.0880 is the next level to watch if XRP slips back into its prior range.
• $1.1065 is the first resistance after marking the session high.
• $1.11 is the next psychological level, followed by $1.13 if momentum continues.
• A clean hold above $1.10 would keep the breakout structure intact, while a move back below $1.0880 would turn the session into another failed range breakout.
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Digital Assets: Quarterly Review and Outlook Q2
Digital Assets: Quarterly Review and Outlook Q2
Digital assets posted a third consecutive quarter of losses in Q2 2026, the longest losing streak since the 2022 bear market, as institutional capital rotated into AI equities and Bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest quarterly outflow since launch. Our report examines what drove the divergence, where structural adoption continued regardless, and what Q3 signals to watch.
3 hours ago
Digital assets posted a third consecutive quarter of losses in Q2 2026, the longest losing streak since the 2022 bear market, as institutional capital rotated into AI equities and Bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest quarterly outflow since launch. Our report examines what drove the divergence, where structural adoption continued regardless, and what Q3 signals to watch.
Why it matters:
Digital assets posted a third consecutive quarter of losses in Q2 2026, the longest losing streak since the 2022 bear market, as institutional capital rotated into AI equities and Bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest quarterly outflow since launch. Our report examines what drove the divergence, where structural adoption continued regardless, and what Q3 signals to watch.
Key Highlights XRP surged past $1.10 resistance during late trading hours, gaining 1.8% to reach $1.1065 Futures Open Interest remains stable at 2.14 billion XRP, increasing from Tuesday’s 2.09 billion The token continues trading beneath its 50, 100, and 200-day exponential moving averages, maintaining short-term bearish pressure Institutional investors show hesitation as XRP spot ETFs recorded approximately $7 billion in withdrawals on Wednesday Critical price zones: $1.10 acting as support, while $1.1065 and $1.13 present resistance barriers XRP posted a 1.8% gain on Thursday, escaping a narrow consolidation zone and pushing through the $1.10 threshold on elevated trading activity. The digital asset ranged from an intraday bottom of $1.0827 to a peak of $1.1065, subsequently settling within the $1.1020 to $1.1040 corridor.
[[IMG_2]]XRP Price The decisive upward movement occurred near 01:00 UTC, when trading volume spiked to 43.51 million XRP—approximately 88% higher than the 24-hour average. An additional surge during the following hour saw 14.17 million XRP change hands, propelling the price from $1.0958 to $1.1052 before sellers emerged to cap gains.
Market analyst Celal Kucuker offered perspective on XRP’s trajectory via X, stating: “Two years ago, XRP rallied over 500% in just one month. Now people say $7 by year-end is impossible… yet there are still 6 months left.” This commentary captures the renewed optimism circulating among retail market participants regarding XRP’s historical performance patterns.
Two years ago, $XRP rallied over 500% in just one month.
Now people say $7 by year-end is impossible…
yet there are still 6 months left.
Never underestimate what Ripple can do. pic.twitter.com/pB9a0BymSf
— Celal Kucuker (@CelalKucuker) July 9, 2026
Retail Participation Shows Gradual Increase Current perpetual futures Open Interest stands at 2.14 billion XRP, marking an uptick from Tuesday’s level of 2.09 billion, based on CoinGlass tracking. This incremental growth indicates retail traders are slowly re-entering the market.
Meanwhile, institutional appetite remains subdued. Spot XRP exchange-traded funds witnessed substantial withdrawals totaling roughly $7 billion on Wednesday, continuing a trend of modest flow activity throughout the week.
[[IMG_3]]Source: SoSoValue Broader market sentiment faced headwinds from escalating geopolitical tensions. US forces conducted strikes against 90 targets situated along Iran’s coastline on Wednesday. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard retaliated with counterattacks on American bases located in Kuwait and Bahrain. Qatar’s Prime Minister called for diplomatic resolution between the parties.
Technical Levels Under Scrutiny XRP continues positioning below critical exponential moving averages: the 50-day EMA at $1.17, the 100-day EMA at $1.28, and the 200-day EMA at $1.49. This cluster of moving averages represents significant overhead resistance.
[[IMG_4]]Source: TradingView Technical analysts remain divided on future direction. Several point to Elliott Wave projections placing targets between $1.19 and $1.23. Others warn that dropping below $1.09 could trigger tests of deeper support areas.
The Relative Strength Index hovers around 45, positioned beneath neutral territory. The MACD histogram displays a slight bullish divergence, hinting at a possible near-term recovery phase.
Throughout Thursday’s trading session, XRP maintained a pattern of ascending lows, with demand materializing around $1.0880 during retracements. The sustained price action above $1.10 following the breakout is viewed favorably by market observers.
Immediate resistance zones include $1.1065, followed by $1.11, and $1.13 should bullish momentum persist.
XRP has been looking weak lately, with activity across the board slowing down. In fact, traders aren’t as willing to take on new positions as they were, with demand yet to push up again too.
Here’s what you need to know.
XRP OI falls as demand takes a hit XRP’s Open interest across all exchanges fell to around $773.5 million; that’s a huge drop from levels above $1 billion in May.
Source: Cryptoquant On Binance alone, the OI fell to nearly $350.6 million. So, it’s clear that leveraged traders may be reducing exposure.
Source: Cryptoquant Lower Open Interest may help reduce some liquidation-based pressure, but there hasn’t been enough participation. XRP’s market cap fell to about $10.89 billion too, so new capital is not entering the market either.
Meanwhile, the NVT ratio being elevated impied that network activity was yet to be strong enough for recovery.
Exchange reserves fall too Binance reserves fell to around 2.62 billion XRP as well. There’s not enough tokens available to sell.
Source: Cryptoquant In theory, lower exchange reserves can help sell-side pressure in the short-term. However, the fall does not mean investors are buying, or that a price recovery could be close.
For now, there’s limited support. Buyers may need to return in strength before the trend improves.
Rumors suggesting that global financial messaging giant SWIFT will support the XRP token, created by Ripple, have been firmly denied by Tom Zschach, the network’s former Chief Innovation Officer. Addressing the speculation directly in a post on X, Zschach issued a concise but categorical response to the claims that have stirred up excitement within the crypto community.
Direct response to the allegationsThis week, several XRP-focused social media accounts circulated claims that SWIFT might shift away from developing its own digital currency infrastructure in favor of adopting widely used public tokens like XRP. The reports suggested that, instead of competing with platforms like Ripple, SWIFT would choose to collaborate with them.
Responding to talk that SWIFT was planning to partner with XRP, Tom Zschach stated simply, “Not going to happen.”
Zschach, who served as SWIFT’s Head of Innovation for six years and played a significant role in charting the company’s digital asset strategies, brings firsthand insight into the organization’s direction. SWIFT is widely recognized as the backbone of international banking communication and payment instruction transmission.
Ongoing criticism of Ripple and XRPIn the past, Zschach has also issued critical comments about Ripple and the XRP token. He has previously questioned both the use cases for XRP and its claims to decentralization, at one point even likening Ripple’s technology to a fax machine in the internet age—a comparison that gained attention among industry insiders.
The former SWIFT executive has argued that Ripple’s hard-fought legal victory over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) does not, by itself, prove corporate resilience. In this light, his recent dismissal of the SWIFT/XRP partnership rumors is consistent with his skeptical stance from previous statements.
Track record in traditional financeThroughout his career, Zschach has held roles at major financial institutions including Bank of America, Barclays, and Lehman Brothers. Since departing SWIFT, he has joined a team working on next-generation infrastructure projects, collaborating with researchers connected to Oxford, Harvard, and Cambridge universities.
No official documents or concrete evidence have been presented in support of the recent claims circulating online. Zschach’s straightforward rebuttal further indicates that, for now, expectations about SWIFT offering native support for XRP remain unsupported by facts.
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.
XRP saw a 1.8% rise in Thursday’s trading, surpassing the $1.10 threshold. The cryptocurrency reached an intraday low of $1.0827 and peaked at $1.1065 before consolidating in a narrow range between $1.1020 and $1.1040.
Trading volume surged overnightThe uptick gained momentum in the early morning hours. Trading volume spiked to 43.51 million XRP, marking an increase of roughly 88% compared to the 24-hour average. In the following hour, 14.17 million XRP changed hands as the price moved from $1.0958 to $1.1052. After reaching this level, selling pressure began to build.
Analyst Celal Küçüker reminded investors that XRP posted gains of over 500% in just one month two years ago, arguing that the possibility of hitting $7 by year-end should not be ruled out prematurely.
This outlook reflects the growing optimism among retail investors in recent days. Activity in futures markets also supports this sentiment. According to CoinGlass data, open interest in perpetual XRP contracts increased from 2.09 billion to 2.14 billion XRP as of Tuesday.
Glossary: Open interest represents the total number of outstanding futures contracts that have not yet been settled. An increase in this figure signals new capital or new positions entering the market, but it does not alone indicate market direction.
Institutional sentiment remains cautiousWhile retail participation is gradually recovering, institutional investors appear less enthusiastic. On Wednesday, spot XRP ETF outflows totaled around $7 billion. The generally weak flow of funds throughout the week reinforced this cautious stance.
Market caution is not limited to cryptocurrencies. Escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have also weighed on risk appetite. On Wednesday, US forces launched strikes on 90 targets along the Iranian coastline. In response, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard targeted US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Qatar’s Prime Minister has since called for a diplomatic resolution between the parties.
Key technical levels take center stageFrom a technical perspective, XRP continues to trade below major exponential moving averages. The 50-day average stands at $1.17, the 100-day at $1.28, and the 200-day at $1.49. This pattern suggests short-term upward attempts may face resistance.
Analysts remain divided on XRP’s next direction. While some project a move toward the $1.19 to $1.23 range based on Elliott Wave analysis, others warn that falling below $1.09 could trigger a test of deeper support zones. The Relative Strength Index hovers around 45, while the MACD histogram shows a slight positive divergence.
Throughout Thursday’s session, XRP formed higher lows and attracted buying interest near $1.0880 during pullbacks. In the short term, the $1.10 price level is seen as a key support, while resistance is expected at $1.1065, $1.11, and $1.13.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
A fresh wave of speculation linking SWIFT to $XRP has been shut down by one of the organisation's most prominent former officials. Tom Zschach, who served as SWIFT's Chief Innovation Officer for six years before stepping down in April 2026, posted on X to dismiss claims that SWIFT is planning to support XRP, saying the rumoured integration is "not happening."
The denial follows a round of viral posts from XRP community accounts suggesting that SWIFT intends to back XRP rather than develop its own digital asset. No evidence was presented to support those claims.
A Long-Standing Critic Speaks OutZschach's dismissal carries weight given his background. He served six years as SWIFT's Chief Innovation Officer before stepping down, during which time he was responsible for the network's digital asset strategy. Throughout that tenure, he was openly critical of Ripple and XRP. He previously dismissed Ripple's technology by comparing it to a "fax machine" in the modern era of the internet.
Zschach has questioned whether banks will ever be comfortable outsourcing settlement finality to XRP, asking publicly whether institutions would trust "a token that isn't a deposit, isn't regulated money and doesn't sit on their balance sheet."
He has also argued that Ripple's survival of its long-running legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not constitute actual institutional resilience. His position has consistently been that SWIFT's model of neutral, shared governance across thousands of member banks is the appropriate framework for global finance, not a network controlled by a single private company.
Why the Rumour SpreadEarlier this week, several XRP influencer accounts claimed, without any evidence, that SWIFT intends to support established public tokens such as XRP instead of developing its own proprietary token. The speculation appeared to gain traction partly because of the broader context around Ripple's relationship with SWIFT. SWIFT has integrated Ripple Treasury into its certified partner programme with ISO 20022 support, a fact that some community members conflated with a much broader endorsement of XRP as a settlement asset.
Zschach has argued that if tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins achieve scale, banks may see little reason to use an external asset like XRP when they can settle in instruments they already issue and trust. That position sits at the heart of why the SWIFT-XRP integration narrative has consistently faced pushback from within traditional finance circles.
For now, Zschach's direct public denial leaves little room for ambiguity. The rumour, at least in its current form, appears to have no foundation.
Sources:
U.Today: Former SWIFT Exec Shuts Down XRP Integration Rumors
Yahoo Finance: SWIFT CIO Questions Ripple and XRP's Readiness for Global Banking Standards
Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.
Former Ripple Chief Technology Officer and current CTO Emeritus David Schwartz sarcastically commented on the company's new sponsorship deal with the University of Kansas athletics department and the Kansas Jayhawks.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse previously announced that the XRP logo would appear on the teams' uniforms, marking the first such integration in the history of US college sports.
What an amazing coincidence!
HOT Stories
— David 'JoelKatz' Schwartz (@JoelKatz) July 9, 2026 According to sports insiders, like Ben Portnoy, the major five-year contract is valued at approximately $30 million. Schwartz's post was an obvious inside joke as Ripple's multimillion-dollar marketing budget predictably went exactly where the CEO's personal loyalties pointed.
Schwartz entered the comments and replied briefly: "What an amazing coincidence!" The former CTO's reaction points to a well-known background, as Garlinghouse not only graduated from the university but has also served as one of its key donors for years.
What is happening with the XRP price?While the brand expands into the sports sector, XRP is approaching a critical turning point on the price chart. The token is trading around $1.096 and forming a bear flag on the hourly chart.
Two scenarios are currently relevant:
Bearish scenario: A break below the $1.07–$1.08 support zone would activate the pattern and send the price toward $1.04, where a large volume of limit buy orders is concentrated. A cascade of stop-loss orders from long positions could briefly push XRP below this level.Bullish scenario: A move above the $1.096 resistance level and consolidation above the psychological barrier at $1.10 would invalidate the bearish formation, opening the way toward the $1.14–$1.20 targets.Despite the local technical pressure, opening short positions carries increased risk. Historical data shows that July has traditionally been a strong month for XRP, and the token's return since the beginning of the month currently stands at approximately 7%.
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This matches the historical median and is moving toward July's average return of 9.92%. With summer liquidity remaining low, an attempt by sellers to push the price below $1.04 could end in a false breakdown followed by a rapid rebound.
While Ripple's marketing department spends $30 million stitching logos onto jerseys, XRP's short-term fate will be decided not in sports arenas but within the narrow $1.07–$1.10 price range.
XRP’s quiet consolidation ended abruptly Thursday evening. A burst of buy orders in the final hours of the session pushed the token clean through the $1.10 resistance that had held price in check for weeks. The move was a direct challenge to a level that repeatedly rejected upside attempts, and it shifted the near-term structure in a way that places the onus squarely on sellers now.
According to the market update from CoinDesk, XRP closed the day with a 2% gain, landing firmly above $1.10 for the first time since mid-June. The volume that accompanied the breakout was the real story. Earlier trading had been thin and directionless, but the late spike concentrated enough size to overwhelm resting offers and turn a tentative push into a legitimate range breach.
Breaking the range $1.10 was not just a round number. It functioned as an upper boundary for XRP’s price since late June, capping multiple intraday rallies. Each touch triggered a sell-off, reinforcing the zone as a short-term ceiling. A clean close above it, especially one backed by elevated volume, alters the supply-demand balance. Short-term traders who had been fading that resistance are now underwater, and their scramble to cover could amplify any follow-through.
The move also aligned XRP with a broader wave of altcoin strength. While XRP’s 2% rise looks modest, it occurred alongside aggressive expansions in other names, as highlighted by BlockchainReporter’s weekly roundup of top gainers. That context matters. It suggests the breakout was not a token-specific catalyst but part of a wider rotation into altcoins that began picking up momentum late in the week.
Volume and the support question The breakout’s credibility rests almost entirely on how volume behaves in the coming sessions. A single spike does not confirm absorption. The market has seen false dawns before: surges that reversed within a day because there was no sustained buying behind the move. The critical test is whether $1.10 can transition from resistance to support. If buyers defend that level on a pullback, the breakout gains structural weight.
Liquidity patterns on major exchanges suggest the order book above $1.10 is thinning. That means any real demand could propel price toward the next congestion zone near $1.18 without much friction. But it also means that a failure to hold $1.10 would expose the market to a rapid slide back into the prior range, potentially triggering a cascade of long liquidations. Traders remember May’s failed breakout, which snapped back after a single strong hourly candle. That memory will keep some participants on edge.
What’s next for XRP No clear fundamental news drove the move, which makes it a purely technical event. That is both a strength and a vulnerability. A technically driven breakout attracts momentum traders and algorithmic flows, but without a narrative hook—something institutional or regulatory—it can struggle to attract the persistent capital needed for a trend. The lack of a headline means the move’s lifespan depends entirely on price action itself.
The next few Asia and Europe sessions will be important. If XRP can hold above $1.10 through low-liquidity hours, it would give the breakout a chance to settle into a higher range. A fast retracement, by contrast, would signal that late-session buyers were simply hunting stops rather than building a position. For now, the market is in a wait-and-see posture, watching for confirmation that the bid is real.
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Max delves deep into the cryptocurrency realm, with a passion for altcoins and NFTs. Convinced of crypto's transformative potential, he envisions a decentralized financial future. Max's background in the financial sector grants him unique insights into global monetary systems. In his leisure, Max embraces the thrill of adventures and is an avid sports enthusiast, finding balance and rejuvenation away from work.
Italy’s largest bank disclosed an $18 million XRP position, and the interesting part is not the size but the plumbing: the exposure runs through Grayscale’s trust, not through wallets, keys, or even the shiny new ETFs. Bank crypto exposure has more than doubled in two quarters, and the wrappers banks choose reveal exactly how far the regulated world has actually come. This is the anatomy of how a bank buys a token.
Summary
Italy’s largest bank disclosed an $18 million XRP position through Grayscale’s trust, highlighting how regulated banks continue to prefer traditional securities over direct crypto holdings. European banks’ disclosed crypto exposure has more than doubled to $235 million, although most positions remain small, wrapped and focused on strategic exposure rather than treasury investments. The structure banks choose to hold crypto reflects regulatory, capital and custody constraints, offering a clearer signal of institutional adoption than the size of individual investments. The most institutionally significant XRP purchase of the year fits in a footnote. Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest banking group with over a trillion dollars in assets, disclosed a roughly $18 million position in XRP, acquired not on any crypto exchange, not through self-custody, not even through the spot exchange-traded funds that launched to such fanfare, but through shares of Grayscale’s XRP trust, a wrapper most retail traders stopped thinking about years ago.
Intesa bought an approximately $18 million position in the Grayscale XRP Trust
— Degi (@bryLFC88) July 9, 2026 Eighteen million dollars is a rounding error for Intesa, less than 0.002% of its balance sheet, and dismissing the disclosure on size would miss what it actually documents. Bank crypto exposure in aggregate has more than doubled across two quarters, from roughly $100 million to $235 million among disclosing European institutions, and each disclosure is a specimen of the same understudied question: when a regulated deposit-taking institution decides to hold a volatile digital asset, what does it actually buy, through what legal object, on whose books, and why that one? The answers are duller than the headlines and far more informative, because the wrapper a bank selects encodes everything, its regulators’ current mood, its capital treatment, its custody constraints, and its honest time horizon.
This piece uses the Intesa position as a dissection subject. It covers the menu of structures through which a bank can hold crypto and what each one costs in capital, operations, and optics; why a trust, of all things, beat both the ETFs and direct custody for this purchase; what the doubling of bank exposure does and does not signal about the institutional wave every forecast depends on; the XRP-specific reading, since the asset choice is itself information; and the checkable signals that would show bank demand becoming the structural bid the market has priced in advance so many times.
The menu: five ways a bank can own a coin A bank deciding to hold crypto chooses among five structures, and the choice is never about preference; it is about what its regulator, risk committee, and accounting framework will tolerate this quarter.
The first is direct ownership with self-custody: coins on the balance sheet, keys in the bank’s control. It is the purest exposure and the rarest, because it triggers everything at once, the harshest prudential capital treatment, under Basel-derived rules a risk weight so punitive that unhedged direct holdings can require capital near the position’s full value, plus operational custody risk the institution must build or buy, plus accounting volatility straight through earnings. A handful of pioneers run small direct books as strategic learning exercises; as a portfolio structure it barely exists.
The second is direct ownership with third-party custody: the bank owns coins held by a qualified custodian. It softens the operational problem and none of the capital problem, and it is the structure banks build for clients, custody as a fee business, far more often than for themselves; Intesa itself has run a proprietary desk and custody buildout along exactly these lines, which makes its choice of a different wrapper for this position all the more instructive.
The third is the exchange-traded fund: regulated, liquid, redeemable, tracking tightly through the creation-and-redemption machinery that keeps share and coin prices glued. For most institutions the ETF is the modern default, which is precisely why a bank bypassing it deserves attention.
The fourth is the trust or closed-end structure, the Grayscale lineage: a fund holding coins, whose shares trade as securities, historically without the redemption loop that disciplines ETF pricing, meaning shares can and famously did trade at large premiums and discounts to the underlying. The fifth is synthetic exposure, futures, notes, certificates, total-return swaps, owning the price without the asset, the structure of choice where regulators permit derivatives more readily than holdings.
JUST IN: Grayscale has categorized $XRP under the
"Global Payments" investment narrative, highlighting its role in cross-border payments and digital financial infrastructure. As institutional interest in blockchain continues to grow, #XRPArmy pic.twitter.com/g4NEi1p86Y
— Michelle Kirby X (@michelekirby623) July 10, 2026 Read as a ladder, the five structures run from maximum conviction and maximum friction at the top to minimum commitment at the bottom, and where an institution steps on reveals its constraints more honestly than its press releases. A bank in a jurisdiction with settled ETF access, clean capital rules, and a supportive supervisor buys the ETF. A bank that buys a trust is telling you something specific.
Why the trust: the unglamorous logic Intesa’s route through Grayscale’s XRP trust looks, at first glance, like choosing a flip phone, and the logic assembles quickly once the constraints are listed.
The first constraint is geography and availability. The US spot XRP ETFs are new, their European availability to a regulated Italian bank’s balance sheet runs through legal and distribution questions that a US-listed trust security, tradeable as an ordinary share, sidesteps; European institutions have bought American trust shares for years precisely because they slot into existing securities plumbing, custody, settlement, and reporting included, with no crypto-specific operational buildout at all. For a first position, or a small strategic one, the wrapper that requires zero new infrastructure wins on cost alone.
The second is the capital and accounting angle. A trust share is a security, held and risk-weighted as one under frameworks the bank already runs, while direct coin holdings drag the punitive crypto-specific capital treatment; the wrapper does not eliminate the exposure’s volatility, and it can materially simplify its regulatory life. The third is discretion and reversibility: an $18 million security position is entered, marked, and exited like any other line in a trading book, with no wallets to explain, no custodian onboarding, no board-level operational review, an experiment sized and structured to be abandonable, which is exactly how serious institutions run first experiments.
In diesem Video geht es um Goldman Sachs, Intesa Sanpaolo, sinkende XRP Bestände auf Börsen und die Frage, warum der Kurs trotz positiver Onchain Daten noch nicht wirklich reagiert.
Außerdem ordnen wir ein, ob die fehlende Krypto Liquidität wirklich verschwunden ist, oder nur… https://t.co/GcYvrwSBk7 pic.twitter.com/ttVelYqLEj
— CryptoTuts (@CryptoTuts) July 9, 2026 The fourth is the trust’s historical quirk turned feature: with spot ETFs now existing as conversion or competition targets, the old discount problem that made trusts hazardous has largely resolved, while the structure retains its accessibility. The instrument that spent years as the cautionary tale about wrappers, its discounts the very evidence that forced the ETF era into being, now serves as the quiet on-ramp for institutions whose plumbing has not caught up to the products the caution produced. Finance rarely wastes an old vehicle; it reassigns it.
The capital rules: the constraint underneath everything The single largest force shaping how banks hold crypto never appears in the headlines, so it earns its own section: prudential capital treatment, the rules deciding how much of a bank’s own equity must stand behind each asset it holds. The international framework finalized by the Basel Committee sorts crypto exposures into groups, with tokenized traditional assets and qualifying stablecoins receiving conventional treatment, and unbacked cryptoassets, the Bitcoin-and-XRP category, consigned to the punitive tier: a risk weight of 1,250%, the framework’s maximum, which in practice requires capital roughly equal to the exposure itself, plus an aggregate cap holding such exposures to a sliver of a bank’s Tier 1 capital. The design intent was explicit, to make direct crypto holdings nearly uneconomic for banks, and it succeeded: no meaningful direct bank crypto book exists anywhere under full Basel-aligned rules.
The wrapper economy documented in this piece is, in large part, the industry’s negotiated response to that number. A trust share or ETF position may, depending on jurisdiction and interpretation, route through securities and funds treatments instead of the maximum weight; synthetic exposures route through derivatives and market-risk frameworks; and client-custody businesses, where the bank never owns the coins at all, sit outside the exposure caps entirely, which is why custody is where bank crypto revenue actually lives. None of this is evasion, every structure is disclosed and supervised, and all of it is arbitrage in the honest sense: institutions selecting, among permitted forms, the one whose capital cost matches their conviction. The forward-looking point follows directly: the capital rules are under active review in multiple jurisdictions, industry bodies have pressed for recalibration as the classification legislation matures, and any softening of the 1,250% regime would do more for bank demand than a decade of conferences, because it changes the only number bank treasurers actually optimize. Watch the consultations, not the keynotes.
The specimen in context: who else, and how Intesa’s disclosure lands within a recognizable cohort, and the cohort’s composition sharpens the reading. European institutions dominate the disclosed-exposure aggregate for a structural reason: MiCA’s arrival gave the continent’s banks a supervisory framework to point to, and supervised clarity, even strict clarity, unlocks more institutional behavior than permissive ambiguity ever has. The cohort’s positions share the Intesa profile almost uniformly, small against the balance sheet, wrapped rather than direct, concentrated in the majors plus, notably, XRP, and framed internally as strategic learning. Around the disclosed positions sits the larger undisclosed economy: bank-run custody for funds and corporates, structured notes and certificates giving private-bank clients crypto exposure, and trading desks making markets in ETPs, all of which generate crypto revenue without crypto balance-sheet exposure and all of which grew straight through the drawdown. The honest map of bank adoption, in other words, is a pyramid: a vast base of client-service activity, a thin middle of wrapped proprietary positions like Intesa’s, and an apex of direct holdings that remains, by regulatory design, nearly empty. Adoption forecasts that conflate the layers, and most do, mistake the pyramid’s base for its apex and misprice both.
What $100M to $235M actually signals The aggregate number behind the Intesa specimen, disclosed bank crypto exposure more than doubling to $235 million in two quarters, invites two opposite readings, and the honest analysis requires holding both.
The deflationary reading starts with scale: $235 million across the European banking system is not institutional adoption; it is institutional curiosity, a few basis points of trading-book capacity spread across a handful of names, an order of magnitude below what single corporate treasuries deployed in the last cycle and three orders below the ETF complex. Banks hold these positions the way they hold any exotic, small, hedged or hedgeable, and structured for exit, and extrapolating a wave from a doubling of a tiny base is the oldest error in institutional-adoption forecasting. The doubling also coincides with the drawdown, which cuts both ways: it is conviction buying weakness, or it is desks accumulating inventory for client products rather than expressing any house view at all, and disclosures rarely distinguish the two.
The inflationary reading counts differently: it counts precedents. Every structure a bank uses for a small position is a structure approved, documented, and reusable for a large one; the expensive part of institutional adoption was never the buying but the permissioning, the risk-committee papers, the regulator conversations, the accounting memos, and each disclosed position is proof that some institution’s permissioning is complete. On this reading, $235 million is not the wave, it is the wave’s paperwork, and the doubling measures how fast the paperwork is clearing. The reading gains force from who is moving: Intesa is not a crypto-adjacent challenger but a systemically important incumbent whose choices get studied by every peer risk committee in Europe, and incumbent behavior is the single best-documented contagion vector in institutional finance.
Both readings share one implication worth stating plainly: the structural bank bid, the one in the conditional price forecasts, remains almost entirely in front of, not behind, the current market, which is precisely why the classification legislation gates so much of every forecast. Banks buy at the pace their constraints dissolve, and the constraints are dissolving on legislative and supervisory calendars, not market ones.
A note on the disclosure mechanics themselves rounds out the specimen. Bank positions of this kind surface through securities filings, fund shareholder registers, and periodic risk disclosures, each with its own lag and granularity, and the analysts who compiled the $235 million aggregate are stitching exactly these sources. The number is therefore a floor, not a census: positions below reporting thresholds, exposures inside synthetic structures, and holdings at institutions with lighter disclosure regimes all escape it, which means the true wrapped-proprietary layer is somewhat larger and its growth rate somewhat smoother than the headline doubling suggests. It also means the series improves mechanically as the asset class formalizes, more filings, finer categories, shorter lags, so part of every future increase will be measurement catching up with reality, a caveat worth carrying into each new headline about bank exposure records.
What a bank position is not Two category errors follow every bank-crypto disclosure, and clearing them sharpens what remains. The first is reading a trading-book position as a treasury strategy. Corporate treasury adopters hold coins as a reserve-asset thesis, financed by their capital structure and marked as conviction; a bank’s wrapped $18 million sits in a book built for exposures that come and go, sized inside limits designed to make its total loss immaterial, and often paired with hedges or client flows invisible from outside. The position’s information value is procedural, not directional: it proves the pipe exists, not that the water is committed. The second error is reading disclosure timing as buying timing. Positions surface through reporting cycles months after their construction, get built across many sessions to avoid moving thin markets, and can be inventory against structured products the bank has sold, not a view at all. The market’s habit of backdating conviction onto the disclosure date has embarrassed every analyst who indulged it, and the professional reading discipline is the same one every filing teaches: the fact is the exposure and its structure; the story is unrecoverable from public data and should be priced accordingly.
There is also the question of what would make a bank sell, which no adoption narrative ever models. Wrapped positions of this size exit for reasons that have nothing to do with crypto, quarter-end optics, risk-limit reshuffles, a supervisor’s raised eyebrow, a desk head’s rotation, and their departure would generate exactly the headlines their arrival did, inverted and equally overread. The institutional bid, when it truly forms, will be identifiable not by any single entry but by its behavior through stress: positions that persist across drawdowns, disclosures that grow through bad quarters, and wrapper migrations toward more committed structures while prices fall. By that standard, the current cohort is untested, the drawdown positions are its first examination, and the next two reporting cycles are worth more than the last ten announcements.
The XRP of it: why this asset, from this buyer The asset selection is its own signal, and it reads differently from a bank than it would from a fund. XRP is, among major assets, the one whose institutional story runs through exactly the world Intesa inhabits: cross-border payments, correspondent banking, and a corporate sponsor that has spent a decade selling to institutions like Intesa, an empire whose honest token accounting this publication has mapped. A European bank taking its crypto first step in XRP rather than only Bitcoin is choosing the asset whose bull case is denominated in its own industry’s plumbing, which makes the position readable as strategic reconnaissance as much as investment: a small, live stake in the asset one’s own payments division will inevitably be asked about.
The timing adds the contrarian layer: the position surfaces with XRP down roughly 70% from its peak, the tradable float at seven-year lows, and sentiment at cycle extremes, which is either exactly when patient institutional money historically steps in, or exactly the environment in which a small position is cheap enough to serve as an option on the payments thesis resolving. Eighteen million dollars does not move the asset. Eighteen million dollars of precedent, from this buyer, in this structure, at this point in the cycle, is the kind of data point the next dozen risk committees cite, and the market’s institutional wave, if it ever arrives, will be assembled out of citations exactly like it.
The historical rhyme deserves a paragraph, because banks have run this exact sequence before. Gold ETFs in the early 2000s, emerging-market debt in the 1990s, and high-yield credit before that each entered bank balance sheets the same way: first as client-service revenue, then as small wrapped proprietary positions justified as market-making inventory, then, after capital treatments matured and a cycle survived, as ordinary allocations nobody announced. The sequence’s clock is measured in years per stage, its motor is regulatory calibration, not price, and its tell, in every prior asset class, was the moment risk committees stopped writing special memos for the exposure, the bureaucratic non-event that never makes news and always precedes size. Crypto’s bank adoption is visibly mid-sequence: the client-service layer is thriving, the wrapped-position layer is doubling off a tiny base, and the special memos are still being written. The Intesa disclosure is one such memo made public, and the forecast it supports is not a price target but a schedule: the asset class is roughly one capital-rule revision and one uneventful cycle away from the stage where positions like this stop being articles.
One more actor deserves mention because it shadows every European bank’s calculus: the ECB and the digital-euro project, whose relationship with private crypto assets ranges from indifference to rivalry depending on the week. A eurozone bank’s crypto position lives under a supervisor whose own institution is building a competing settlement future, and the diplomacy of that position, small enough to be unobjectionable, wrapped enough to be conventional, useful enough to inform the bank’s own digital-asset strategy, explains the specimen’s every parameter as well as any market view does. Banks do not merely hold assets; they hold positions within relationships, and the wrapper is part of the diplomacy.
The signals that would show the wave forming The Intesa specimen suggests its own dashboard, and each line is public. Watch the disclosure aggregate, the $235 million line, for its next doubling and its composition, trusts versus ETFs versus direct, because wrapper migration toward more committed structures is the maturation signal. Watch European ETF and ETP access for banks, the plumbing whose arrival collapses the trust workaround. Watch the supervisory texture, capital-treatment consultations and national supervisor guidance, the constraint whose relaxation moves faster than any narrative. Watch whether custody businesses and proprietary positions converge, banks that custody for clients acquiring house exposure and vice versa, the pattern that preceded every prior asset class’s institutional normalization. And watch the legislation, always, because the classification question sets the risk weights and the risk weights set the size.
The conclusion the dissection supports is deliberately modest and, for that reason, durable. Intesa’s $18 million documents neither a wave nor a fad; it documents a procedure, the specific, replicable, now-approved path by which a trillion-dollar European bank holds a crypto asset without touching a key, and procedures, once they exist, get reused at whatever size conditions permit. The market has spent years pricing the day banks arrive. The disclosure’s quiet news is that the arrival, when it comes, will look exactly like this: no announcement, no wallet, a securities ticket in an old wrapper, and a footnote that compounds.
The dissection closes where it began, with proportion. Eighteen million dollars, one wrapper, one bank: as a market event it is nothing, and the piece has argued it is the most informative kind of nothing, a procedure caught on camera. Institutional adoption was never going to arrive as an announcement, because institutions do not announce; they file, and the filing cadence, the wrapper choices, and the capital consultations are the wave in its only observable form. Readers who want to track it need three bookmarks, the disclosure aggregates, the Basel-review docket, and the European ETP-access rulings, and one habit: when the next bank position surfaces, ask not how much but through what, because in this corner of the market, the plumbing is the story, and it has been telling it, quietly and in public, one footnote at a time.
And one sentence for the traders who read this far looking for the signal: there is none on the tape today, and there is a precise one coming, because bank flows, unlike whale flows, pre-announce themselves through rulemaking, and the rulemaking calendar is public. The edge in this corner of the market is not speed. It is literacy, and the literacy is teachable, which is what this dissection was for.
The specimen will be superseded, probably within a quarter, by a larger name or a bigger number, and the framework will not: five wrappers, one capital regime, a pyramid of adoption layers, and a disclosure lag between them all. Keep the framework, discard the headline, and the next footnote reads itself.
A closing housekeeping note: the exposure figures cited here reflect analyst compilations of public disclosures at this writing, the wrapper landscape is being actively reshaped by ETF access rulings and capital consultations, and readers applying this framework to future disclosures should expect the menu’s relative costs, though not its structure, to have shifted. The structure is the durable part; it always is.
The banks, unlike the traders, are in no hurry, and the wrappers, unlike the narratives, keep perfect records; between those two facts sits everything this piece has argued.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Digital asset markets are volatile, and you can lose your entire investment. Figures are current as of July 9, 2026, and may change. Always do your own research.
Ripple (XRP) is regaining momentum, trading above $1.10 at the time of writing on Monday. This modest rebound mirrors the broader recovery observed across the cryptocurrency market.
Yet, the limited institutional demand and waning retail interest suggest that investors remain cautious, closely monitoring the ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. While the United States (US) has reiterated its commitment to negotiations and diplomatic solutions, market participants appear to be weighing these assurances against persistent uncertainties.
XRP investor participation declines as demand coolsInstitutional demand for XRP investment products continues to lag, as evidenced by subdued activity in spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) on Thursday. According to SoSoValue data, the remittance token also experienced approximately $7 million in outflows the previous day.
This persistent lack of institutional engagement, coupled with the cooling retail demand, poses a challenge for XRP’s short-term momentum, despite the modest recovery from its $1.07 support level.
XRP ETF flows | Source: SoSoValueThe derivatives market mirrors the drop in appetite, with futures Open Interest (OI) down to 2.1 billion XRP on Friday, from 2.14 billion the day before. CoinGlass highlights an incessant bearish trend, given OI stood at 2.38 billion XRP on June 23.
Should this subdued demand persist, it is likely to exert downward pressure on the XRP price, potentially curbing the current rebound. The interplay between institutional hesitation and broader market sentiment will be critical to monitor in upcoming sessions.
XRP Futures OI | Source: CoinGlassPrice analysis: XRP reclaims short-term supportXRP retains a bearish near-term bias as it holds below the key Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs). Price remains under the downward resistance trendline that broke near $1.14, while the 50-day EMA at $1.17, the 100-day EMA at $1.27 and the 200-day EMA at $1.48 all sit overhead, suggesting rallies are still being capped within a broader corrective phase.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) around 47 hints at only modest demand, while the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) stays marginally positive, indicating that any upside attempts lack a decisive trend shift as long as price trades beneath these longer-term averages.
XRP/USDT daily chartOn the topside, initial resistance is seen at the broken downtrend line around $1.14, with further barriers at the 50-day EMA near $1.17 and then the 100-day EMA at $1.27, before the longer-term bearish cap defined by the 200-day EMA around $1.48. Looking down, traders may treat the recent low zone just under the $1.10 handle as a provisional floor, but the technical landscape suggests that failure to reclaim the $1.14–$1.17 band would keep XRP/USDT vulnerable to renewed downside pressure.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)
Crypto ETF FAQs An Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) is an investment vehicle or an index that tracks the price of an underlying asset. ETFs can not only track a single asset, but a group of assets and sectors. For example, a Bitcoin ETF tracks Bitcoin’s price. ETF is a tool used by investors to gain exposure to a certain asset.
Yes. The first Bitcoin futures ETF in the US was approved by the US Securities & Exchange Commission in October 2021. A total of seven Bitcoin futures ETFs have been approved, with more than 20 still waiting for the regulator’s permission. The SEC says that the cryptocurrency industry is new and subject to manipulation, which is why it has been delaying crypto-related futures ETFs for the last few years.
Yes. The SEC approved in January 2024 the listing and trading of several Bitcoin spot Exchange-Traded Funds, opening the door to institutional capital and mainstream investors to trade the main crypto currency. The decision was hailed by the industry as a game changer.
The main advantage of crypto ETFs is the possibility of gaining exposure to a cryptocurrency without ownership, reducing the risk and cost of holding the asset. Other pros are a lower learning curve and higher security for investors since ETFs take charge of securing the underlying asset holdings. As for the main drawbacks, the main one is that as an investor you can’t have direct ownership of the asset, or, as they say in crypto, “not your keys, not your coins.” Other disadvantages are higher costs associated with holding crypto since ETFs charge fees for active management. Finally, even though investing in ETFs reduces the risk of holding an asset, price swings in the underlying cryptocurrency are likely to be reflected in the investment vehicle too.
XRP is at risk of a downside move, as falling open interest and a possible bear flag pattern point to $1.04 as the next key support level.
XRP continues to show signs of weakening momentum, with both on-chain data and technical indicators pointing to intense selling pressure.
A CryptoQuant analysis reveals declining participation in the derivatives market. At the same time, chart analysis suggests a bearish continuation pattern could send the token toward lower support levels.
XRP Open Interest Drops Lower CryptoQuant verified author PelinayPA highlighted that XRP’s open interest on Binance has fallen to $350.6 million, one of its lowest readings in recent months. The decline suggests traders are increasingly closing leveraged positions and preferring to stay on the sidelines as interest in derivative exposure to the asset drops.
The open interest across all exchanges has also followed a similar trajectory. At the time of writing, the metric stood at $776 million, reaching lows last seen in February.
Meanwhile, the Network Value to Transactions (NVT) ratio remains elevated at 162.86. High NVT readings generally indicate that network activity has not recovered enough to impact XRP’s valuation. This suggests that activities on the XRP Ledger remain minimal and continue to affect the asset’s recovery negatively.
XRP OI and NVT/CryptoQuant Taken together, the analyst noted that these indicators reflect a market where risk appetite has cooled considerably, leaving sellers with the upper hand. Unless the current condition changes, the XRP price remains vulnerable and could drop further.
Bear Flag Pattern Puts $1.04 in Focus Meanwhile, a 1-hour chart analysis from Ali Martinez adds to the cautious outlook. In a parallel analysis, he identified a bearish formation that could potentially push XRP lower.
An accompanying chart shows that after a sharp decline, XRP has been consolidating inside what appears to be a bear flag. Its price is compressing between the structure’s upper resistance and the ascending support trendline below.
XRP Bear Flag/Ali Martinez Notably, this type of pattern often represents a pause after an extended downtrend rather than the beginning of a sustained recovery. Prices make higher lows but are unable to break above a horizontal resistance level. Eventually, a breakdown occurs, starting the next leg down.
Martinez suggested that if this is a flag pattern, then XRP is at risk of further downsides. The flag breaking down could start a measured move toward $1.04, a 5% drop from the current market price of $1.10.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
The number of XRP wallets with balances ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 tokens has hit a new all-time high above 1.2 million.
This uptick in wallet addresses, which confirms growing adoption, comes despite the ongoing market downtrend that has triggered massive losses for XRP. Specifically, XRP has collapsed nearly 40% this year to a low of $1.10, with a close to 70% decline from the peak of $3.66.
While prices have struggled, on-chain data indicates that the market continues to see an influx of users, as adoption grows. Notably, the number of XRP wallets holding 1,000 to 100,000 tokens has now grown to a new all-time high of exactly 1,120,198.
Retail XRP Wallets Growth This is according to data sourced by Santiment, a market intelligence platform. Of the 1.12 million figure, wallets holding 1,000 to 10,000 XRP tokens account for the larger share, amounting to 819,690. Meanwhile, there are 305,080 addresses with 10,000 to 100,000 XRP.
Despite holding fewer tokens than whale wallets, these smaller addresses are a more accurate assessment of retail adoption. As a result, their steady increase since the start of the year indicates that the XRP ecosystem has continued to attract new users despite the current price struggles.
For context, after reaching a combined peak of 1,095,830 on Feb. 6, 2026, these XRP wallets saw a drastic decline in their number, reaching 1,088,450 by Feb. 10. This marked a loss of about 7,380 retail wallets within four days.
Retail XRP Wallets Growth | Santiment Notably, the drop occurred on the back of the market-wide crash on Feb. 5, which resulted in a massive 19.7% intraday slump for XRP. The altcoin dropped further to a low of $1.11 the next day before staging an impressive comeback that saw it rise 21.07%.
With this rebound, retail wallets resumed their growth path, but it took nearly two weeks to recover the lost figure. The growth has since remained consistent amid the prevalent price uncertainty, and the latest figure shows that XRP has added over 36,000 retail wallets since the Feb. 6 drop.
XRP Accumulation Trend In addition, this cohort of retail XRP wallets has continued to accumulate more tokens, albeit at a slow pace, as the ongoing price downtrend provides an opportunity to procure more for less.
Notably, at the start of the year, wallets with 1,000 to 100,000 XRP held a cumulative balance of 10.48 billion tokens. Today, this figure has increased to 10.73 billion XRP, indicating that they have accumulated 250 million XRP year-to-date.
XRP Accumulation Trend | Santiment However, this pales in comparison with the figures recorded by whale accounts. While fewer in number, wallets holding 1 million to 100 million XRP have added 1.38 billion tokens since the start of this year. This has contributed to the resilience displayed by XRP above the $1 price mark despite the persistent downturn.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
The amount of Ether bridged to Robinhood’s new layer-2 blockchain exceeded $70 million in just the first week, according to Token Terminal.
Robinhood Chain, an EVM-compatible Arbitrum-based layer-2 network that uses ETH as its native gas token, launched on July 1 with the company describing it as “AI-native and purpose-built for real-world assets.”
“If adoption continues, the chain could become a meaningful new source of demand for ETH,” said Token Terminal on Thursday.
Robinhood has also offered tokenized stocks to customers in more than 120 countries, responding to a surging demand for tokenized US equities. Ethereum and its layer-2 scaling networks have been a popular choice for tokenized real-world assets (RWA) with more than 50% market share, according to RWA.xyz, and this move could cement that position even further.
Turning liquidity into economic activity“Robinhood Chain is rapidly turning liquidity into economic activity,” said Token Terminal in a separate post on X.
Robinhood Chain’s daily active users reached 194,000 while daily revenue has grown to $39,000, equivalent to a $14 million annualized revenue run rate, within the chain’s first week, it said.
DefiLlama, a decentralized finance data platform, shows similar figures, showing Robinhood Chain has a total value locked of 46,748 ETH, worth around $83 million at current market prices. Thursday’s inflows alone totaled 31,855 ETH, or around $55 million.
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said Friday that most of what is happening on the Robinhood Chain is ETH-denominated.
“It's the base pair for trading, the highest volume asset, and the gas token to pay for blockspace. It also burns ETH on L1 to pay data storage fees,” he added.
ETH bridged to Robinhood Chain tops $70 million. Source: Token Terminal
Andri Fauzan Adziima, research lead at Bitrue Research Institute, told Cointelegraph that it was “strongly bullish” and early volume “validates the L2 flywheel,” as a “meaningful new demand sink.”
“By using ETH as the native gas token on this high-velocity Arbitrum L2, every transaction I track creates direct, recurring demand while locking capital and onboarding Robinhood’s massive user base.” Tim Sun, HashKey Group senior researcher, said it was “a clear, structural positive for ETH.”
“For Ethereum, the most direct benefit is that Robinhood Chain uses ETH for gas,” he said. “As bridged assets, wallet addresses, and on-chain transactions grow, new demand for ETH is generated.”
“However, the deeper significance lies not just in how much gas is consumed, but in Robinhood’s choice to build its own on-chain financial ecosystem within the Ethereum network. This further solidifies the Ethereum mainnet’s position as the ultimate settlement layer and liquidity foundation for tokenized assets.”Bulls argue Ethereum’s long-term growth thesis comes from RWA tokenization, agentic AI payments, institutional adoption and network upgrades, such as Glamsterdam, expected before the end of 2026, which is expected to increase layer 1 capacity.
ETH prices ticked up on Friday to reach $1,775 but remain at multi-year bear market lows, down 64% from their August 2025 peak.
Features: The biggest blockchain upgrades still to come in 2026
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: $BMNR), chaired by Fundstrat's Tom Lee, has purchased another 20,500 $ETH worth approximately $35.9 million from Galaxy Digital, according to onchain data cited by Lookonchain. The transaction is the company's second major Ethereum buy in as many days and adds further momentum to what has become one of the most closely watched corporate accumulation stories in crypto.
Back-to-Back Buys Push Holdings Higher The latest purchase follows a reported acquisition of 40,000 ETH on July 8, executed through FalconX and Kraken. Combined, the two transactions total roughly 60,500 ETH acquired within days. As of July 5, 2026, Bitmine's holdings stood at 5,742,237 ETH, representing approximately 4.8% of the total ETH supply of 120.7 million tokens. The latest buys reported on July 10 would push that figure higher still, bringing the company closer to its stated target.
The "Alchemy of 5%" and What's at Stake Guided by its philosophy of "the alchemy of 5%," Bitmine is committed to ETH as its primary treasury reserve asset, leveraging native protocol-level activities including staking and decentralised finance mechanisms. A 3.5 million share 9.50% Series A Perpetual Preferred (BMNP) deal raised about $273.8 million to fund additional digital assets, validator growth, and strategic ETH-ecosystem investments.
Chairman Thomas Lee attributed Ethereum's recent outperformance of Bitcoin and Bitmine's continued accumulation to rising investor optimism that the proposed Clarity Act will pass and bring greater regulatory certainty to crypto, especially Ethereum. Lee also believes Ethereum is undervalued, citing tokenization and rising demand from artificial intelligence applications as long-term catalysts.
Annualized staking revenues are projected at $235 million, with 4.9 million ETH representing 85% of the 5.74 million ETH held by Bitmine. Bitmine's crypto holdings rank it as the number one Ethereum treasury and number two global treasury, behind Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR).
Sources:
Bitmine official press release via PR Newswire, July 6, 2026
CoinDesk: Bitmine adds $74 million in Ether as Tom Lee bets on Clarity Act boost
Yahoo Finance: Bitmine Purchases Another $74 Million of Ethereum
TLDR: Bitcoin price recovered toward $64,000 after U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $221 million in net inflows, ending a 10-day period of outflows. Bitcoin and Ethereum gained as market pressure eased, but traders continue monitoring resistance levels and broader macroeconomic conditions. Bitcoin price analysis shows $63,600 as a key support area, while a move above $65,000 could improve short-term market momentum. Stablecoin supply contraction and upcoming U.S. CPI data remain important factors that could influence crypto market direction. Bitcoin price moved back toward $64,000 after U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded fresh inflows, reducing pressure from a prolonged selling period. The recovery followed a 10-day stretch of ETF outflows that weighed on institutional demand.
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs registered $221 million in combined net inflows on July 9, marking a shift from recent withdrawals. The previous outflow period removed about $2.73 billion from the market, adding pressure on Bitcoin during its decline.
Bitcoin also benefited from improved sentiment across risk assets. The broader crypto market gained more than 2%, while lower liquidation levels reduced pressure from leveraged positions.
The rebound has not confirmed a new trend yet. Traders continue to watch whether ETF demand can remain consistent and whether Bitcoin can break key resistance levels.
Bitcoin Price Faces $65K Resistance as Traders Watch Data The Bitcoin price is currently testing the $65,000 resistance area after holding above the $63,600 support level. Market participants are watching this zone because a sustained move higher could improve short-term momentum.
Technical indicators show a mixed outlook. Bitcoin remains above the 25-day moving average, while the MACD indicator is showing early signs of recovery. However, traders are still monitoring whether buyers can maintain strength above recent levels.
Analyst Ali Martinez noted that Bitcoin remains inside a descending channel on the four-hour chart. He identified $63,600 as an important support level and warned that a failure to hold it could expose BTC to lower levels near $59,700 and $56,550.
Bitcoin $BTC is getting rejected at the top of its channel.
This could trigger a pullback toward $59,700, with $56,550 as the next downside target. pic.twitter.com/GvI9fMFQbD
— Ali Charts (@alicharts) July 8, 2026
A move above $65,000 could open the way toward the $66,000 area. Some market watchers are also tracking the $67,400 resistance level, which represents the neckline of a double-bottom formation.
Bitcoin price models remain divided over the longer-term outlook. The stock-to-flow model suggests higher valuations based on scarcity, while cycle-based models indicate that additional volatility could appear before the next major market phase.
Stablecoin supply has also become a factor for traders. Since reaching a peak of about $321 billion, stablecoin supply has declined around 4.4%. A continued decline could reduce available liquidity across crypto markets.
Bitcoin ETF Flows and Macro Risks Shape Next Move Institutional activity remains a key driver for Bitcoin price movements. Bitwise recently pointed to a changing market structure, where professional investors have become more active in Bitcoin compared with earlier cycles.
Despite renewed ETF inflows, investors continue watching inflation data and Federal Reserve policy. The upcoming U.S. CPI report on July 14 could influence expectations around interest rates and risk assets.
Geopolitical developments also remain important. Renewed U.S.-Iran tensions have affected oil prices and created uncertainty across financial markets. Bitcoin has traded alongside broader risk assets during recent periods of market stress.
Bitcoin price has also recovered despite Strategy selling part of its Bitcoin holdings. The company sold about $216 million worth of BTC to increase cash reserves for dividend obligations.
The next key levels remain focused on support near $63,600 and resistance between $65,000 and $67,400. A sustained move above resistance could improve the short-term structure, while a decline below support would expose Bitcoin to further downside risks.
Following the launch of Robinhood’s new Layer 2 blockchain, Robinhood Chain, on July 1, the network has already seen more than $70 million worth of Ether transferred onto the platform in its first week. Data from Token Terminal highlights the rapid influx of liquidity to the chain during its debut, signaling strong early adoption.
First week metrics draw attentionBuilt on Arbitrum and fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, Robinhood Chain uses ETH as its native transaction fee token. The company has positioned the network as both artificial intelligence-friendly and focused on real-world asset tokenization. As a US-based fintech, Robinhood is known for enabling stock and crypto transactions.
Token Terminal analysts suggest that if this rate of user adoption continues, Robinhood Chain could emerge as a significant new source of demand for ETH. They note that the network has swiftly converted liquidity into on-chain economic activity, creating a meaningful new channel for ETH utilization.
Token Terminal emphasizes that Robinhood Chain is rapidly transforming liquidity into economic activity, establishing an effective path for increased ETH demand.
During the network’s opening week, daily active users climbed to 194,000. Daily revenue reached $39,000, which annualizes to approximately $14 million, indicating the chain’s strong growth trajectory since launch.
Liquidity and total value locked soarDefiLlama data paints a similar picture. According to the platform, total value locked (TVL) on Robinhood Chain hit 46,748 ETH, or about $83 million at market prices. On Thursday alone, deposits totaled 31,855 ETH, equal to roughly $55 million based on current valuations.
IndicatorLevelETH moved in first weekOver $70 millionTotal value locked46,748 ETHDaily active users194,000Daily revenue$39,000Uniswap founder Hayden Adams remarked that most of the activity on Robinhood Chain is denominated in ETH. He explained that ETH serves as the primary asset in trading pairs, holds the highest trading volume, and is also the settlement currency for block space fees.
Hayden Adams reported that a significant portion of Robinhood Chain activity is ETH-based, and that ETH is also burned on the mainnet as part of the network’s data storage fees.
Tokenized stocks drive ETH demandRobinhood is also offering tokenized stocks to clients in over 120 countries. Growing interest in representing US stocks on the blockchain is bolstering Ethereum’s and Layer 2 networks’ standing in the real-world asset space. Data from RWA.xyz indicates that over half of the market share for real-world asset tokenization lies within the Ethereum ecosystem.
Andri Fauzan Adziima, head of research at Bitrue Research Institute, stated that early trading volumes confirm a growth cycle for Layer 2 solutions, generating strong new demand for ETH. Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey Group, highlighted that Robinhood Chain’s use of ETH for gas fees is structurally positive for the Ethereum network.
On Friday, the price of ETH climbed as high as $1,775. Nevertheless, the token remains 64% below its August 2025 record high.
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.
The Ethereum Foundation is shifting paradigms and automating its cyber defense. Its « Protocol Security » unit now deploys swarms of autonomous AI agents to continuously attack its own network. The goal is to track, exploit, and fix vulnerabilities before hackers do. This initiative, revealed by the protocol’s security team, marks a major technological breakthrough at a time when the slightest flaw in a smart contract can lead to losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.
In brief The Ethereum Foundation deploys artificial intelligence agents to detect vulnerabilities before hackers. A critical network vulnerability has already been identified and fixed thanks to these new tools. The AI swarms rely on a rigorous organization to audit Ethereum’s most sensitive infrastructures. Researchers must now distinguish real vulnerabilities from AI-generated false positives. A First Concrete Victory Against Network Flaws The preventive offensive led by the Ethereum Foundation immediately proved its effectiveness by uncovering a critical vulnerability at the very core of the software on which the blockchain depends, while quantum resistance becomes a priority. Researchers confirmed they orchestrated direct attack simulations against their own infrastructures, an offensive method known as “red teaming”. In their official report, they share their initial findings highlighting the following key points :
Targeting vital infrastructures : “we launched coordinated AI agents against types of systems on which the network depends, such as system software, cryptographic code, and contracts that must be flawless” ; Discovery of real flaws : scientists add without ambiguity that “the agents found real exploitable bugs” in production code ; Neutralization of a major bug : an anomaly was located in the “gossipsub libp2p” protocol, which represents the peer-to-peer network layer used by Ethereum consensus clients. This bug allowed remotely triggering a panic error threatening node stability. The flaw was fixed and recorded on GitHub under the official reference CVE-2026-34219. Beyond simple detection, this experiment revealed an unexpected technical reality for human engineers. Indeed, the use of large language models for software security changes the nature of auditing work itself, shifting effort from brute research to critical triage. Ethereum Foundation members have expressed their surprise at this dynamic: “the fact that agents find bugs was not the surprise”.
They specify that “the surprise lay in the little work needed to find them, and in the amount of effort required to distinguish real bugs from those that merely seemed real”. This efficiency fits into a general sector trend: last April, a preliminary version of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos model successfully identified 271 vulnerabilities in Mozilla Firefox browser, demonstrating the computing power of these new tools.
The Military Organization of Autonomous AI Agent Swarms To achieve such precision, the Ethereum Foundation set up a rigorous methodological architecture by distributing its AI agents within a structure of highly specific roles. The organization of these swarms relies on four distinct and complementary functions: reconnaissance, flaw hunting, gap filling, and finally validation.
While one group of agents maps potential attack vectors, another strives to reproduce failures to test the viability of exploits directly against production code. Researchers emphasize the importance of this strict framework: “the scheme is there for a reason”.
According to them, “it imposes a specific and verifiable claim as well as a clear definition of the work accomplished. An agent that must write observable proof cannot fallback on a mere ‘that seems risky'”. This rigor eliminates the ambiguity typical of classic automated reports.
The Challenge of Validation Against Machine Illusions The rise in these detailed reports poses a major challenge to security teams, as the technical eloquence of a machine guarantees nothing about its truthfulness. Unlike traditional automated testing tools called “fuzzers” that merely inject random data to crash a program, AI agents write complex impact analyses and create proof-of-concept scenarios.
The downside is the proliferation of convincing false positives. To counter this hallucination phenomenon, the Foundation has established an absolute validation protocol. Researchers remind an immutable golden rule: “one rule matters more than all others. A candidate is not a finding until there exists an autonomous artifact that reproduces the failure on the real code, and that runs for someone who did not write it”. They pragmatically conclude: “the reproducer does not read the report, and it does not care about the confidence level shown by the model. It either runs, or it does not”.
This transition to AI-assisted audits outlines a new era for Web3. Recent history shows this approach is bearing fruit globally. Last May, researcher Taylor Hornby used Claude Opus 4.8 to detect a critical vulnerability within Zcash’s Orchard privacy pool. This flaw, dormant for about four years, could have allowed the creation of fake ZEC tokens without a trace.
By internalizing these technologies, the Ethereum Foundation embraces a new operational paradigm. As its experts summarize: “AI hasn’t replaced the security researcher. It has shifted the work”. Access to these swarms offers unprecedented code coverage but requires enhanced human acuity in return.
Researchers conclude: “agents allow us to cover much more ground than we could manually. In return, they demand more careful judgment in the face of a much larger stack of confidently stated claims. It’s a process worth it as long as you remember judgment is the real product”. Going forward, the resilience of blockchains will depend on human ability to arbitrate machine diagnostics.
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Diplômé de Sciences Po Toulouse et titulaire d'une certification consultant blockchain délivrée par Alyra, j'ai rejoint l'aventure Cointribune en 2019. Convaincu du potentiel de la blockchain pour transformer de nombreux secteurs de l'économie, j'ai pris l'engagement de sensibiliser et d'informer le grand public sur cet écosystème en constante évolution. Mon objectif est de permettre à chacun de mieux comprendre la blockchain et de saisir les opportunités qu'elle offre. Je m'efforce chaque jour de fournir une analyse objective de l'actualité, de décrypter les tendances du marché, de relayer les dernières innovations technologiques et de mettre en perspective les enjeux économiques et sociétaux de cette révolution en marche.
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TLDR: ETH latest news shows Robinhood Chain attracted over $70 million in bridged ETH within its first week, adding fresh demand signals for Ethereum. Robinhood Chain reached around 194,000 daily active users and more than $80 million in TVL as early liquidity moved into the new network. DEX volume briefly topped $560 million after CASHCAT trading accelerated, showing how memecoin activity pushed the RWA-focused chain into focus. Arbitrum also gains from the launch, as 10% of Robinhood Chain protocol net revenue flows back to the wider ecosystem under AEP. Robinhood Chain is turning into a fresh Ethereum growth story just one week after launch. In this latest ETH news update, the network has attracted over $70 million in bridged ETH. Token Terminal reported the figure after the chain’s debut week.
The Arbitrum-based Ethereum Layer 2 uses ETH as its native gas token and supports tokenized real-world assets.
The chain has also reached around 194,000 daily active users, while total value locked climbed above $80 million. ETH traded near $1,770 at press time, rising more than 3% over the past week.
ETH Latest News: Robinhood Chain Turns Liquidity Into Demand Robinhood Chain launched on July 1 and quickly pulled liquidity from Ethereum mainnet. Token Terminal data shows ETH bridged to the network jumped 70x in one week. That move matters as every transaction on the chain uses ETH for gas.
Since launch, Robinhood Chain has grown to over $80M in TVL, over $200M in stablecoins, and $800M in cumulative DEX volume. pic.twitter.com/6ctvI2WuZy
— DefiLlama.com (@DefiLlama) July 9, 2026
The platform is built with Arbitrum Orbit and targets tokenized stocks, real-world assets, and AI applications. Robinhood also expanded tokenized stock access to users in more than 120 countries. That gives the network a broad retail base from launch week.
In this ETH latest news cycle, analysts are watching whether activity becomes durable. Token Terminal reported about $39,000 in daily revenue, equal to a $14 million annualized run rate. DefiLlama data also showed TVL near 47,000 ETH, worth more than $80 million.
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said most activity on Robinhood Chain is ETH-denominated. ETH serves as the main trading pair, the highest-volume asset, and the gas token. It also pays Ethereum mainnet data storage fees, which links activity back to L1 demand.
HashKey researcher Tim Sun called the launch a structural positive for ETH. He said wallet growth, bridged assets, and transaction demand all create recurring usage for the asset.
Memecoin Volume Tests Robinhood Chain’s RWA Ambitions Robinhood Chain was designed for tokenized finance, but memecoin trading drove its first major volume spike. DefiLlama data showed daily DEX volume above $560 million at one point. That briefly placed the chain ahead of Hyperliquid in 24-hour decentralized exchange activity.
CASHCAT became the main speculative driver. The token, linked to Robinhood’s early mascot, surged more than 1,000% over three days. It also pushed heavy trading through Uniswap, the network’s main decentralized exchange.
CEO Vlad Tenev added to the buzz after saying Robinhood Chain works well for memes too. He also promoted the broader “Robinhood Summer” theme. The company is covering gas fees for eligible Robinhood Wallet users until September 29.
The latest ETH news focus now sits between two forces. On one side, Robinhood Chain may bring tokenized stocks and RWAs to a larger global audience. On the other side, its first burst of activity came from speculative tokens.
The Arbitrum ecosystem also benefits from the launch. Under the Arbitrum Expansion Program, 10% of Robinhood Chain protocol net revenue flows back to the ecosystem. The split sends 8% to the Arbitrum DAO treasury and 2% to the Developer Guild.
ARB rose nearly 10% after the revenue-sharing details gained attention. Trading volume also more than doubled above $104 million. For Ethereum, the bigger test is whether RWA demand can replace early memecoin flows.
Ahmed Balaha is a journalist and copywriter based in Georgia with a growing focus on blockchain technology, DeFi, AI, privacy, digital assets, and fintech innovation.
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For us, who spent the past month glued to oil charts, the screens have changed. Now we’re refreshing congressional calendars instead. Crypto regulation, not missiles nor crude price, is becoming the biggest talking point as Bitcoin and Ethereum price continue to hold steady. Policy has become the market’s new obsession.
The U.S. approach to crypto regulation may finally be shifting.
Senator Cynthia Lummis says the CLARITY Act is designed to replace years of regulatory uncertainty with clear rules for digital assets.
If it becomes law, it could give institutions more confidence to build in the… pic.twitter.com/0FbqK7khYo
— Kyren (@noBScrypto) July 9, 2026 Although Middle East headlines still grab attention, crypto is now spending more time debating legislation, SEC guidance, and CFTC oversight. For now, politics in Washington seems to matter more than politics in the Gulf.
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Bitcoin Price Holds Up as Markets Await Policy ClarityBitcoin price is holding at the mid-$63,000 range after recovering from June’s selloff. Softer U.S. economic data and easing energy prices have helped improve risk sentiment, while ETF flows remain mixed. Buyers continue stepping in on dips, as institutions remain willing to accumulate despite short-term uncertainty.
Attention is already turning to upcoming inflation data and the Federal Reserve’s next meeting. A cooler CPI reading could give the Bitcoin price another push, but many traders believe Washington will ultimately have the bigger say.
That is because crypto regulation is moving unusually fast. Congress continues debating the CLARITY Act, while regulators are working toward clearer rules on digital assets after years of uncertainty. The SEC and CFTC have already issued joint guidance aimed at defining how crypto assets should be treated under federal law.
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Ethereum Price Finds Support Beyond ETF HeadlinesEthereum price remains under pressure compared with earlier this year, but the network itself grows. Layer 2 activity, tokenized assets, and decentralized finance are all expanding even while ETH trades sideways.
ETF flows have swung between inflows and outflows, yet developers have largely ignored the day-to-day noise. Instead, they remain focused on scaling Ethereum and attracting more onchain activity. It is not exactly headline-grabbing, but builders rarely care whether traders are having a good week.
Robinhood Chain may not move the Ethereum price overnight, but it could quietly strengthen the network over time. Built as an Ethereum Layer 2 using Arbitrum Orbit, the chain settles transactions back to Ethereum and uses ETH for gas. This brings activity and ultimately feeds into Ethereum’s ecosystem.
The Ethereum price could also benefit if lawmakers deliver clearer rules for decentralized finance. Several industry groups continue urging regulators to create frameworks tailored to DeFi instead of squeezing it into decades-old financial rules. It’s looking bright for Ethereum price.
Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio
Crypto Regulation Is the Market’s New CatalystThe biggest shift is psychological. A few weeks ago, people jumped at every geopolitical headline. Now they are dissecting committee schedules, regulatory guidance, and draft legislation with the same intensity.
That helps explain why Bitcoin and Ethereum price have held relatively resilient despite ongoing global tensions. Investors increasingly believe clearer rules could encourage fresh institutional capital, especially if Congress finally delivers long-awaited market structure legislation.
🚨LAWMAKERS PREPARING REVISED CLARITY ACT FOR POSSIBLE INTRODUCTION NEXT WEEK!
U.S. negotiators are working on a new or updated version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which could be introduced as soon as next week, CoinDesk reports.
This comes as Congress returns from… pic.twitter.com/rYp5feGoM8
— Crypto Banter (@crypto_banter) July 9, 2026 It’s becoming more obvious now, crypto regulation has replaced geopolitics as market’s conversation, and both the Bitcoin and Ethereum price are taking their cues from Washington more than the latest oil headline.
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The Ethereum Foundation has dissolved its Protocol Support team as part of a broader restructuring that recently cut about 20% of the nonprofit’s workforce.
Summary
Ethereum Foundation dissolved Protocol Support after five years coordinating upgrades, developer meetings and fellowship programs worldwide. Several team members lost their roles following the Foundation’s broader 20% workforce reduction announced recently. Core protocol work continues under Ethereum Foundation’s new structure, but some support programs face uncertainty. Protocol Support coordinated several parts of Ethereum’s development process. Its work covered core developer meetings, network upgrade tracking, Ethereum Improvement Proposal support and programs that trained new protocol contributors.
The Protocol Support account confirmed the team’s closure on X. It also invited Ethereum organizations seeking experienced developers to contact former team members.
the EF Protocol Support team has been dissolved 🖖
— EF Protocol Support (@EFprotocol) July 9, 2026 Mario Havel, who worked with Protocol Support for more than five years, said he remains at the Ethereum Foundation. However, he confirmed that the rest of his team had been dissolved and that several colleagues had lost their roles.
“I am still part of EF, continuing my work and figuring out what’s most needed in the future,” Havel wrote on X. “However, all of my team, Protocol Support, that I have been part of for 5+ years, has been dissolved.”
I was getting questions about recent EF layoffs and my situation so I should share something public as well.
I am still part of EF, continuing my work and figuring out what's most needed in the future. However, all of my team, Protocol Support, that I have been part for 5+… https://t.co/KRgKxiXQpa
— Mario Havel (@TMIYChao) July 8, 2026 Havel described the closure as the “bitter end” of a team that had supported Ethereum’s core development process through several forms and leadership changes.
Team managed key Ethereum developer programs Protocol Support helped organize All Core Developers meetings, where client teams and researchers discuss proposed upgrades. It also supported breakout calls, tracked network fork readiness and helped contributors understand Ethereum’s technical roadmap.
The team maintained Forkcast, a public platform that tracks Ethereum upgrades, proposed EIPs, testnet launches and mainnet activation plans. Former team lead William Morriss said the restructuring had ended his Ethereum Foundation role.
Protocol Support also ran the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship. The program trained developers seeking to contribute to Ethereum’s core protocol and connected participants with client teams, researchers and other technical groups.
Havel said he and former colleague Josh Davis built the fellowship over four years. The program has since brought dozens of new developers into Ethereum’s core development community.
The Foundation had opened applications for the seventh Ethereum Protocol Fellowship cohort in April. The available statements did not explain whether the current cohort will continue under another team.
Closure follows wider Foundation layoffs The team’s dissolution follows the Ethereum Foundation’s new organizational structure, announced on June 23. The Foundation cut 54 positions, equal to roughly 20% of its workforce, after a months-long review of its activities and spending.
As previously reported by crypto.news, the Foundation reorganized its work into five main areas: protocol, access, user, community and institutional layers. Separate groups handle operations and management.
The Foundation said affected workers would receive severance, career transition support and grants for related expenses. It described the changes as necessary to focus its staff and resources on work that the organization must perform over the coming years.
The latest closure also follows earlier changes to Ethereum’s research and development structure. The Foundation reduced its Protocol Research and Development team in 2025 and renamed the remaining group Protocol.
Core protocol work remains active The new protocol cluster remains responsible for Ethereum’s underlying technology. Its stated tasks include shipping upgrades safely, reducing technical complexity and improving privacy, security and censorship resistance.
Ethereum developers are also working on the Glamsterdam upgrade. The planned update includes changes to block construction, data access and network performance, as crypto.news previously reported.
However, the Foundation has not publicly detailed where every Protocol Support responsibility will move. The future management of developer meetings, Forkcast, fellowship programs and EIP support therefore remains unclear.
Protocol development does not depend on one Foundation team because Ethereum client developers, researchers and independent contributors work across several organizations. Still, Protocol Support provided coordination services that connected many of those groups during network upgrades.
Ethereum is currently holding firm above a key short-term support zone, with analysts closely monitoring the possibility of a move toward $1,840. Observers note that as long as the price remains above the cycle low, the broader outlook suggests Ethereum could continue to establish a solid long-term accumulation base.
Short-term support remains pivotalFollowing its recent upward move, ETH has entered a period of sideways trading, hovering above the crucial support range between $1,720 and $1,745. This area has been defended multiple times by buyers, making it an even more significant technical level in the current environment.
According to analyst Always Win, this setup signals a potential short-term breakout. If buyers continue to protect this support band, the price could soon attempt a push toward the $1,820 to $1,840 range.
Always Win notes that as long as the $1,720 to $1,745 region holds, the short-term upward trend remains valid. Even if Ethereum retests this support, another move higher could follow.
The first resistance to watch is at $1,800. A sustained break above this level would strengthen the case for a breakout and indicate that buyers are regaining control. Beyond this point, the next target zone emerges in the $1,820 to $1,840 range.
IndicatorLevelSignificanceSupport zone$1,720–$1,745Critical for maintaining short-term bullish structureFirst resistance$1,800Breakout scenario strengthens above this levelTarget zone$1,820–$1,840Range to watch if upward momentum continuesConversely, losing the support between $1,720 and $1,745 could undermine the current bullish outlook. If this happens, ETH may be forced to find a new equilibrium within a wider price range.
Triangle pattern hints at long-term accumulationOn a broader scale, some analysts believe Ethereum may be forming a large-scale triangle pattern. The primary condition for this scenario is that the price continues to hold above its current cycle low.
XForceGlobal has commented that Ethereum is moving within a broad corrective structure, and as long as the cycle low is preserved, this could evolve into a strong accumulation phase. According to this analyst, the market may spend more time building a base before the next major upswing begins.
XForceGlobal emphasizes that their bullish expectation is not just about seeking quick gains. At this stage, the main focus is on position sizing and preparing ahead of a larger move once the broader structure is confirmed.
As a result, the cycle low holds particular importance from a macro perspective. If Ethereum remains above this foundation, the accumulation thesis remains intact. However, falling below the cycle low could weaken the triangle pattern and open the door to a deeper pullback.
At present, the primary focus for traders and analysts at both short-term and long-term horizons is the defense of critical support levels. In the near term, the $1,720–$1,745 band remains in sharp focus, while from a wider perspective, retaining the cycle low is key to determining Ethereum’s future direction.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Bitcoin and Ethereum options worth about $1.75 billion expired on July 10 as traders maintained a cautious view of the crypto market.
Summary
Bitcoin options worth $1.5 billion expired as traders watched the key $62,000 maximum pain level. Ethereum’s 1.26 put-call ratio reflected unusually high demand for downside protection during the weekly expiry. Institutional traders sold short-term calls, suggesting limited confidence in a sustained crypto market rally ahead. According to data shared by Greeks.live, about 23,000 Bitcoin options expired with a notional value of $1.5 billion. The contracts had a put-call ratio of 0.97 and a maximum pain level of $62,000.
Meanwhile, 140,000 Ethereum options expired with a notional value of $250 million. The ETH contracts carried a put-call ratio of 1.26 and a maximum pain level of $1,700.
Bitcoin options traders limit short-term upside Bitcoin remained above $60,000 for most of the week and briefly reached $64,000 during Asian trading on Friday. The price later stayed close to a resistance area between $64,000 and $64,500.
The weekly expiry covered about 7% of outstanding options, making it smaller than recent monthly and quarterly settlements. Therefore, the contracts alone were unlikely to cause a lasting move in the spot market.
July 10 Options Data
23,000 BTC options expired, with a put-call ratio of 0.97, a maximum pain point of $62,000, and a notional value of $1.5 billion.
140,000 ETH options expired, with a put-call ratio of 1.26, a maximum pain point of $1,700, and a notional value of $250… pic.twitter.com/6sx0FWNJMF
— Greeks.live (@GreeksLive) July 10, 2026 Bitcoin’s gamma exposure was concentrated near $64,000. A large number of call options also accumulated around that level, which may affect dealer hedging as the price moves through the strike.
However, Greeks.live said large call trades increased during the week because traders sold short-term calls slightly above the market price. This strategy generates income when traders expect an asset to remain flat or fail to rise beyond a selected strike.
The activity suggested that institutional traders had doubts about Bitcoin’s near-term upward momentum. Still, the 0.97 put-call ratio showed that the total number of puts and calls in the expiry remained nearly balanced.
Options skew retains downside bias In a separate options market update, Greeks.live said Bitcoin’s 25-delta skew had stabilized after a sharp repricing during June.
The one-day, seven-day and one-month readings stood at -6.4%, -6.7% and -7%, respectively. Negative skew means traders are paying more for downside protection than for similar bullish positions.
BTC's 25 delta skew has stabilized across the curve following the sharp repricing observed through June, although downside protection continues to command a premium across all major maturities. Current readings stand at -6.4% (1D), -6.7% (7D), and -7.0% (1M), indicating that… pic.twitter.com/An1c7KyrgY
— Greeks.live (@GreeksLive) July 7, 2026 “Puts continue to trade at a premium to calls across all major expirations,” the firm said.
However, it added that the size of that premium had become more uniform across different contract periods.
The data showed that defensive demand was no longer concentrated only in contracts close to expiry. Medium-term options also accounted for a larger part of the downside premium.
Greeks.live described the setup as a “more normalized term structure” but said options pricing retained “a persistent downside bias.” The statement reflects current positioning and does not guarantee that Bitcoin will decline.
The July 3 expiry also showed demand for short-term downside protection. That event involved $1.9 billion in BTC options, with maximum pain at $61,000.
Ethereum puts remain unusually elevated Ethereum’s put-call ratio reached 1.26, meaning put options outnumbered calls in the weekly batch. The ratio remained high for a second consecutive week after reaching 1.29 during the previous expiry.
Greeks.live linked much of that activity to protective positions with strike prices below $1,500. These puts were deeply out of the money as expiry approached, but they showed that some traders had hedged against a sharper ETH decline.
Ethereum gamma exposure was concentrated near $1,750, with call accumulation also visible around the level. However, ETH remained below the $1,700 maximum pain area during parts of the settlement period.
Ether traders showed heavier put demand during the July 3 expiry. The earlier batch included 135,000 ETH contracts with a 1.29 put-call ratio and maximum pain at $1,650.
Broader markets keep crypto activity subdued The options expiry followed a week of mixed price action across crypto and traditional markets. U.S. and South Korean equities also faced corrections, while traders assessed interest-rate policy and geopolitical risks.
As reported by crypto.news,Bitcoin recently lost the $64,000 level after a hawkish Federal Reserve decision. The change in rate expectations reduced demand for several risk assets.
Open interest remained large despite the smaller weekly expiry. Bitcoin options open interest across exchanges stood near $28.7 billion, while Ethereum options open interest was about $4.4 billion.
Key HighlightsOrganizational Overhaul Dissolves Centralized Operations UnitTraining Initiatives Transition Into Revised FrameworkNetwork Enhancement Responsibilities Reallocated Across New Divisions Protocol Support team at Ethereum Foundation officially disbanded after half a decade of operations.
Team facilitated critical network upgrades, developer conferences, and proposal advancement processes.
Instrumental in shepherding Ethereum through landmark transitions including The Merge, Dencun, and Pectra.
Fellowship program cultivated next-generation contributors for protocol advancement and client development.
Responsibilities now distributed throughout foundation’s reorganized framework.
After five years of operations, the Ethereum Foundation has officially closed its Protocol Support division, which served as a central hub for network upgrade coordination and developer education initiatives. This dissolution comes as part of a broader organizational transformation that has streamlined personnel and restructured the foundation’s operational blueprint into distinct functional tiers. The Protocol Support team leaves behind infrastructure that played a pivotal role in Ethereum’s migration to proof-of-stake and numerous subsequent network enhancements.
Organizational Overhaul Dissolves Centralized Operations Unit Launched in 2021, Protocol Support was established by the Ethereum Foundation to serve as a liaison among client development teams, academic researchers, proposal authors, and infrastructure operators. The division orchestrated All Core Developers conferences and maintained oversight of technical initiatives preceding each scheduled network modification. Additionally, the team facilitated the progression of Ethereum Improvement Proposals through discussion phases, experimental validation, and practical deployment.
the EF Protocol Support team has been dissolved 🖖
— EF Protocol Support (@EFprotocol) July 9, 2026
During its initial operational phase, the division facilitated Berlin, London, and Arrow Glacier upgrades. Subsequently, it managed coordination efforts for Rayonism, Amphora, and Kintsugi testing environments as Ethereum approached The Merge milestone. This work synchronized validation schedules, contributor conferences, and public communications throughout the proof-of-work departure.
Following The Merge, Protocol Support continued facilitating Shapella, Dencun, and Pectra implementations while sustaining dialogue among Ethereum’s distributed development communities. The division monitored experimental network advancement and equipped contributors for scheduled production deployments. This coordination minimized disconnects between strategic determinations, validation efforts, and ecosystem readiness.
Training Initiatives Transition Into Revised Framework An initial mentorship initiative evolved into the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship under the team’s stewardship, designed to develop emerging core contributors. This program educated developers across protocol investigation, validation methodologies, and client architecture within Ethereum’s technical landscape. Participants gained access to seasoned researchers, development organizations, and specialized technical committees.
The team operated Forkcast, a tracking system monitoring proposal status, testnet deployments, upgrade preparedness metrics, and production activation schedules. Contributors relied on this platform to monitor evolving timelines and technical specifications throughout multiple network modifications. This initiative established a unified reference resource for intricate upgrade intelligence.
Personnel from the disbanded unit announced the closure through social channels and encouraged interested organizations to reach out to available talent. Mario Havel continues his tenure at the Ethereum Foundation, though the broader team structure has been eliminated. Former division head William Morriss likewise acknowledged that the reorganization concluded his foundation engagement.
Network Enhancement Responsibilities Reallocated Across New Divisions On June 23, the foundation disclosed its most recent staff reduction, eliminating 54 positions. Concurrent with these cuts, internal operations were reconfigured into protocol, access, user, community, and institutional divisions. These modifications terminated multiple centralized units and redistributed obligations throughout the revised architecture.
The newly formed Protocol Layer will inherit portions of Protocol Support’s previous upgrade management and coordination functions. Additional teams will assume developer education, community engagement, and Ethereum Improvement Proposal assistance responsibilities. Nevertheless, the foundation has not provided comprehensive details regarding future allocation of these specific functions.
Protocol Support’s closure marks the end of an era after guiding Ethereum through numerous transformative technical achievements. The team’s contributions encompassed network strategizing, developer synchronization, validation assistance, fellowship administration, and public upgrade documentation. Ethereum’s restructured organization will continue these responsibilities without the former division’s unified operational identity.
Oliver Dale
Editor-in-Chief of Blockonomi and founder of Kooc Media, A UK-Based Online Media Company. Believer in Open-Source Software, Blockchain Technology & a Free and Fair Internet for all. His writing has been quoted by Nasdaq, Dow Jones, Investopedia, The New Yorker, Forbes, Techcrunch & More. Contact [email protected]
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.
Ethereum price has rebounded to nearly $1,800 after easing geopolitical tensions and an aggressive short squeeze across crypto derivatives restored appetite for risk assets, while traders now watch whether bulls can force a breakout above a key technical ceiling.
Summary
Ethereum price has climbed back toward $1,800 as easing geopolitical tensions triggered a sharp short squeeze. Technical indicators favor bulls, with ETH reclaiming $1,750 and testing resistance near $1,800-$1,833. Analysts see scope for a move toward $1,900, though failure to hold $1,750 could revive bearish pressure. The second-largest cryptocurrency has recovered sharply from this week’s low near $1,505, when U.S. strikes on Iranian targets triggered a broad sell-off across digital assets. Sentiment reversed over the past 24 hours after fears of further escalation subsided, prompting investors to rotate back into higher-risk assets
A wave of forced short liquidations accelerated the move, pushing ETH through several resistance levels and back toward the psychologically important $1,800 mark.
Asian markets added another catalyst. South Korea’s Kospi index jumped roughly 4% as artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks rallied, encouraging a wider return to growth assets.
Ethereum participated in that rotation despite U.S. spot Ether ETFs recording a combined net outflow of about $52 million on Thursday, suggesting overseas spot demand and crypto-native buying more than offset weaker institutional flows in the United States.
Fresh regulatory developments also improved sentiment. CFTC leadership has urged the U.S. Senate to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a proposal that would establish a clearer regulatory framework for digital assets.
At the same time, Ethereum continues to dominate the tokenized real-world asset market with nearly half of global RWA value secured on its network, reinforcing the chain’s position as institutional tokenization activity expands.
Source: RWA.xyz Ethereum has reclaimed key resistance, but $1,800 remains the decisive hurdle The daily chart shows Ethereum reclaiming the 2/8 Murrey Math pivot near $1,750 after bouncing from the 0/8 support around $1,500. Price is now testing the upper edge of that range near $1,800, while the Chaikin Money Flow has climbed back into positive territory at 0.08, suggesting capital has started returning after weeks of sustained selling.
Ethereum price daily chart — July 10 | Source: crypto.news On the 4-hour chart, ETH has broken above the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement at approximately $1,773 and is trading just below resistance near $1,833. Momentum has strengthened as the MACD completes a fresh bullish crossover with expanding positive histogram bars, while the RSI has climbed above 62 without yet entering overbought territory. Together, those indicators leave room for another advance if buyers maintain control.
Ethereum price 4-hour chart — July 10 | Source: crypto.news Derivatives positioning supports the technical picture. CoinGlass liquidation data shows one of the largest short liquidation clusters sitting between $1,790 and $1,810. A sustained move above that zone could trigger another round of forced buying, while the next concentration of leveraged positions appears closer to $1,850. As long as those liquidity pockets remain overhead, volatility is likely to stay elevated.
Ethereum liquidation heatmap | Source: CoinGlass Commenting on the latest structure, analyst Ted Pillows wrote:
“ETH is holding above the $1,750 level, which is a good sign. Spot demand is picking up a bit, which could push Ethereum towards the $1,850–$1,900 zone in the coming weeks.”
Separately, fellow analyst Alex Marzell argued that Ethereum has bounced from the lower boundary of a long-term descending channel and believes “one clean breakout above the upper trendline could change everything.”
$ETH is quietly setting up for something big.
Ethereum just delivered a strong bounce from the bottom of this massive descending channel.
The structure is still bearish for now, but one clean breakout above the upper trendline could change everything.
Breakout = trend… pic.twitter.com/Jp6Knn10CW
— Alex Marzell (@MarzellCrypto) July 10, 2026 Failure to hold $1,750 would weaken the recovery setup Despite the improving momentum, Ethereum has not yet confirmed a trend reversal. The $1,800-$1,833 region combines Fibonacci resistance with a dense liquidity pocket, making it the first major test for bulls.
Repeated rejection from that area would increase the likelihood of another move toward $1,725, while a break below $1,750 would expose the $1,620-$1,550 support region that launched the current recovery.
Macro risks also remain. Any renewed escalation in the Middle East, stronger-than-expected U.S. inflation data, or another wave of ETF outflows could reduce demand for risk assets and interrupt Ethereum’s recovery. Until buyers establish support above $1,800, the current advance remains a recovery rally rather than a confirmed long-term trend reversal.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
Meta gained over 4% in pre-market trading, extending its rally from the prior session.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Meta's pre-market stock gains have widened, with the stock now rising over 4% after closing up 4.7% in the previous trading session.
3 minutes ago
Founder of crypto trading platform RG Coins indicted again by the U.S. Department of Justice for transferring case-related crypto assets while in prison.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Rossen Iossifov, founder of Bulgarian crypto exchange RG Coins, has been indicted on additional charges for allegedly transferring approximately $290,000 in crypto assets that the court had ordered forfeited while he was in prison. Prosecutors alleged that in January 2024, while serving a sentence in a federal prison, Iossifov conspired to move the illicit assets through multiple crypto exchanges and mixing services to evade government seizure. Iossifov was previously sentenced to 111 months in prison in 2021 for his role in laundering nearly $5 million and assisting a Romanian cyber fraud ring in processing illicit funds; he was also ordered to pay over $2.6 million in restitution and forfeit related crypto assets. If the new charges are upheld, he faces up to an additional 25 years in prison.
3 minutes ago
Circle rises over 16% in pre-market trading after securing approval to establish a national trust bank.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Circle (CRCL)’s pre-market gain has widened to 16.63%, with its current price at $73.49. Earlier reports noted that Circle has obtained final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank.
3 minutes ago
Bitcoin mining company Cango will implement a 1-for-10 share consolidation.
Cango Inc. (NYSE: CANG), a Bitcoin mining company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, announced that its board of directors has approved a 1-for-10 share consolidation in accordance with authorization from its special general meeting of shareholders held on June 24. All issued and outstanding Class A and Class B common shares will be consolidated at a ratio of 10-for-1, with each share class remaining unchanged. The consolidation will take effect at 5:00 PM ET on July 20, 2026. Class A common shares are expected to begin trading on a post-consolidation basis starting from the opening of the New York Stock Exchange on July 21, with the stock code remaining “CANG” and the CUSIP number updated to G1820C 110. Following the consolidation, the total authorized share capital will remain at $100,000, consisting of 100 million common shares with a par value of $0.001 per share. No fractional shares will be issued; fractional portions will be canceled and revert to the company’s authorized unissued shares, with no consideration provided to holders.
3 minutes ago
Israel is willing to participate in strikes against Iran and is awaiting a statement from Trump.
Israel has informed the U.S. of its willingness to join further American military operations against Iran, and is currently awaiting a decision from U.S. President Donald Trump. Sources said Israel believes the new round of U.S.-Iran military conflict could last several more days. The Israeli Air Force, air defense, and intelligence units are on high alert, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) maintaining close coordination with the U.S. military. (CCTV)
3 minutes ago
QCP: Japan's bond market stabilization drives Bitcoin rebound to near $64,000
QCP Capital has released a new report, noting that the decline in Japanese government bond yields has eased market concerns over the unwinding of yen carry trades and capital repatriation, driving Bitcoin to rebound to around $64,000. While Middle East geopolitical risks, a stronger U.S. dollar, and the Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance continue to weigh on risk assets, Bitcoin has demonstrated some resilience in the $60,000 range. The report adds that future trends will hinge primarily on the global liquidity environment, U.S. inflation data, and the outcome of the Bank of Japan’s month-end meeting.
Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP, and Dogecoin (DOGE) have recovered as technical talks between the US and Iran continue, according to a US official.
This comes as Middle East tensions rise following two days of strikes that threatened to collapse an already fragile ceasefire, with President Trump saying the ceasefire is “over.”
Technical Talks with Iran Will Proceed, Says US Official A US official confirmed that the US remains committed to a resolution and that technical talks with Iran will proceed, Bloomberg reported. These focus on issues including nuclear matters, the performance-based MOU, sanctions, and shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
As a result, Oil prices slipped lower, the US 10-year Treasury note eased to around 4.54%, and the US dollar index (DXY) fell toward 100.5 on Friday. This helped trigger a significant jump in Asian stock markets and crypto prices of Bitcoin, XRP, and DOGE.
Meanwhile, Israel tells the US it has new intelligence implying Iran is planning a new assassination attempt against President Trump. At Khamenei’s funeral last week, Iranian mourners displayed a banner reading “We Will Kill Trump.”
Tensions in the Middle East are rising as reports claim Kuwait, the UAE, and Bahrain carried out coordinated strikes targeting Iran, with U.S. intelligence support. This comes after Iranian attacks on Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, and Qatar, including targeting U.S. military infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Democrats such as Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, and Mark Warner slammed Trump for failing to secure a ceasefire and dragged America back into a “dangerous and illegal war” with Iran.
Having failed to secure a lasting peace or achieve his stated objectives, President Trump has once again dragged America back into a dangerous and illegal war with Iran.
By ignoring the vote of the Congress to stop this war, the President has doubled down on endangering American…
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 9, 2026
Investors Push Bitcoin, XRP and DOGE Prices Higher Bitcoin and the broader crypto market saw a notable upside momentum over the past few hours. BTC price climbed above $64,000 after a more than 1% jump in just an hour. In the last 24 hours, BTC has climbed nearly 4% over the past 2 days.
The derivatives market showed buying in the last few hours, as per CoinGlass data. The total Bitcoin futures open interest climbed 2.70% to above $47 billion in the last 4 hours. Massive buying was recorded across CME, Binance, OKX, Bybit and other crypto exchanges.
Total Bitcoin Futures Open Interest Climbs. Source: Coinglass XRP also bounced higher, holding near $1.11 amid positive developments, including US-Iran talks on a potential ceasefire and nuclear deal. The intraday low and high were $1.09 and $1.11, respectively.
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh has announced task forces, led by industry insiders such as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and XBOX CEO Asha Sharma, to overhaul central bank strategies, with a focus on AI, data, and inflation.
Whereas Dogecoin (DOGE) pumped more than 2% in the last 4 hours, with the price currently trading at $0.074. XRP and DOGE futures open interests also jumped 1% in 4 hours, signaling positive sentiment for further upside.
To capture these swift market movements, active traders can compare the leading platforms by exploring our guide to the best crypto apps for mobile trading.
With over four years of experience in covering and tracking the financial markets, Sneha Agrawal is a dedicated Crypto Journalist and Editor with passion for researching and writing the crypto pieces. She is currently leading the Block of Fame, here at CoinGape. She likes to keep track of political, legal and financial happenings all around the world - without which she deems her day incomplete. Apart from her Journalistic endeavours, she is a solo traveler, museum goer, and a keen reader of books.
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.
Meta gained over 4% in pre-market trading, extending its rally from the prior session.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Meta's pre-market stock gains have widened, with the stock now rising over 4% after closing up 4.7% in the previous trading session.
3 minutes ago
Founder of crypto trading platform RG Coins indicted again by the U.S. Department of Justice for transferring case-related crypto assets while in prison.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Rossen Iossifov, founder of Bulgarian crypto exchange RG Coins, has been indicted on additional charges for allegedly transferring approximately $290,000 in crypto assets that the court had ordered forfeited while he was in prison. Prosecutors alleged that in January 2024, while serving a sentence in a federal prison, Iossifov conspired to move the illicit assets through multiple crypto exchanges and mixing services to evade government seizure. Iossifov was previously sentenced to 111 months in prison in 2021 for his role in laundering nearly $5 million and assisting a Romanian cyber fraud ring in processing illicit funds; he was also ordered to pay over $2.6 million in restitution and forfeit related crypto assets. If the new charges are upheld, he faces up to an additional 25 years in prison.
3 minutes ago
Circle rises over 16% in pre-market trading after securing approval to establish a national trust bank.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Circle (CRCL)’s pre-market gain has widened to 16.63%, with its current price at $73.49. Earlier reports noted that Circle has obtained final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank.
3 minutes ago
Bitcoin mining company Cango will implement a 1-for-10 share consolidation.
Cango Inc. (NYSE: CANG), a Bitcoin mining company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, announced that its board of directors has approved a 1-for-10 share consolidation in accordance with authorization from its special general meeting of shareholders held on June 24. All issued and outstanding Class A and Class B common shares will be consolidated at a ratio of 10-for-1, with each share class remaining unchanged. The consolidation will take effect at 5:00 PM ET on July 20, 2026. Class A common shares are expected to begin trading on a post-consolidation basis starting from the opening of the New York Stock Exchange on July 21, with the stock code remaining “CANG” and the CUSIP number updated to G1820C 110. Following the consolidation, the total authorized share capital will remain at $100,000, consisting of 100 million common shares with a par value of $0.001 per share. No fractional shares will be issued; fractional portions will be canceled and revert to the company’s authorized unissued shares, with no consideration provided to holders.
3 minutes ago
Israel is willing to participate in strikes against Iran and is awaiting a statement from Trump.
Israel has informed the U.S. of its willingness to join further American military operations against Iran, and is currently awaiting a decision from U.S. President Donald Trump. Sources said Israel believes the new round of U.S.-Iran military conflict could last several more days. The Israeli Air Force, air defense, and intelligence units are on high alert, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) maintaining close coordination with the U.S. military. (CCTV)
3 minutes ago
BlackRock transfers approximately 8,700 ETH to Coinbase Prime, valued at around $15.81 million.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, BlackRock transferred approximately 8,700 ETH from its wallet linked to its Ethereum spot ETF to Coinbase Prime, valued at roughly $15.81 million based on current prices.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has strongly denied claims that he will be leaving the project, stating that the rumors are untrue. In a statement made via the X platform, Hoskinson rejected the allegations of his departure from Cardano, calling them “absolutely not true” and “completely false, fabricated.” The statement comes after speculations circulated on social media in recent days.
Hoskinson stated that the rumors originated from video clips taken out of context and videos created in response to this content. According to him, some users edited and manipulated their old statements or speeches to create a false narrative, and this content quickly spread within the Cardano community. Hoskinson argued that this manipulative content led to both the distortion of his own words and the creation of a false perception of the project.
Hoskinson, in particular, directly refuted the claim that he described Cardano as a “failed project,” emphasizing that he did not use such a phrase. He stated that he did not make any negative assessments regarding Cardano’s future and that rumors of retirement plans were completely unfounded. This statement simultaneously denied claims that he would withdraw from the project and end his active role.
Cardano stands out among major blockchain projects in the cryptocurrency sector with its smart contract infrastructure, scalability goals, and academically based development approach. Therefore, news about founding figures like Hoskinson can directly impact investor sentiment and community perception.
Market observers point out that unverified content spreading on social media can cause price and perception fluctuations, especially in large crypto projects. Hoskinson’s recent statement is seen as a step aimed at dispelling the uncertainty surrounding Cardano and restoring the community’s confidence in the project’s leadership.
*This is not investment advice.
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The Midnight Foundation has reopened the Glacier Drop redemption portal after completing a security review caused by an incident involving a subset of Cardano wallets connected to SecondFi.
In a recent update, the Foundation confirmed that Glacier Drop redemptions resumed on June 9 at 17:00 UTC. This ended a temporary suspension introduced as a precautionary measure last month.
Security Review Confirms Glacier Drop Platform Remains Safe The Foundation paused NIGHT token redemptions last month after reports emerged that EMURGO’s SecondFi platform had suffered a security breach. During the attack, hackers stole 16 million ADA from 374 wallets, prompting the Foundation to temporarily close the Glacier Drop redemption portal while it investigated whether the incident posed any risk to Glacier Drop participants.
Following its assessment, the Foundation confirmed that the Glacier Drop redemption infrastructure remains secure and unaffected by the SecondFi exploit.
As a result, all NIGHT tokens that completed their thawing process during the suspension are now immediately available for eligible users to redeem. The Foundation also stressed that the precautionary pause did not alter the Glacier Drop distribution schedule. This ensures participants remain on the original redemption timeline.
Glacier Drop Redemption Schedule Remains Unchanged For context, the Foundation launched the Glacier Drop portal in August 2025 to distribute NIGHT tokens through a phased redemption model. Under this mechanism, allocated NIGHT tokens gradually thaw and become redeemable in four equal quarterly installments, with 25% unlocking during each phase.
The first redemption window ran from December 10, 2025, to March 9, 2026, followed by the second phase between March 10 and June 7, 2026.
The program has now entered its third thaw period, which began on June 8, 2026, and will continue until September 5, 2026. Meanwhile, the fourth and final redemption phase is scheduled to run from September 6 through December 4, 2026.
With the portal back online, eligible participants can once again redeem any NIGHT tokens that have thawed according to the established Glacier Drop schedule.
Midnight Advises SecondFi Users to Follow Recovery Guidance Although the Midnight Foundation has confirmed that its redemption infrastructure is secure, it advises users who have used a SecondFi wallet to follow the official guidance issued by the SecondFi team.
Meanwhile, SecondFi has unveiled a phased response plan designed to help affected users secure their assets and prepare for potential recovery. The strategy begins with Quarantine Mode, followed by a secure wallet export scheduled for next week. The final stage may include an asset recovery process, depending on the outcome of the ongoing investigation and recovery efforts.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has rejected recent rumors claiming he is stepping away from the Cardano ecosystem.
In a recent video update, Hoskinson revealed that he became aware of how widely false claims about his departure from the Cardano ecosystem had spread. According to him, even industry contacts and members of the public believed he was preparing to leave Cardano.
He explained that the speculation stemmed from out-of-context video clips and reaction content that misrepresented his previous remarks. Hoskinson stressed that he has never said Cardano was failing or that he intended to leave the ecosystem. Instead, he described the claims as fabrications designed to mislead the community.
“I’m Not Leaving Cardano Ecosystem”: Hoskinson Furthermore, Hoskinson argued that the rumors form part of a broader campaign to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about Cardano. He maintained that the ecosystem continues to make steady progress, with additional hard forks, roadmap milestones, and new initiatives still under development.
“I’m not leaving. I am not going anywhere. I’m not retiring,” Hoskinson said, reaffirming his dedication to Cardano’s long-term vision.
Hoskinson Reaffirms Commitment to Cardano Hoskinson emphasized that both he and his company, Input Output Global (IOG), remain fully committed to Cardano’s long-term growth and development.
To support his point, he highlighted several major initiatives currently advancing across the ecosystem. These include the Leios scaling upgrade, the partner chains strategy, as highlighted by Midnight’s progress, and the recently launched RealFi testnet, which is expected to transition to mainnet soon.
In addition, he pointed to Pogun’s efforts to introduce Bitcoin decentralized finance (DeFi) capabilities to Cardano. According to him, these parallel initiatives demonstrate that Cardano is expanding rather than slowing down.
How the Exit Rumors Started Speculation about Hoskinson’s potential exit from Cardano gained momentum after analytics platform TapTools announced its shutdown amid escalating governance disputes within the Cardano ecosystem. Around the same time, Hoskinson announced he was taking a break from X, prompting several media outlets and community members to speculate that he was preparing to leave Cardano.
However, Hoskinson has since returned to social media and resumed his regular broadcasts, repeatedly assuring the community that he remains fully committed to the ecosystem.
Since his return, Cardano has continued to advance its roadmap by launching the Leios testnet and introducing the RealFi testnet, an initiative aimed at expanding financial services for underserved populations. Throughout this period, Hoskinson has consistently reiterated his ambition to help position Cardano as the top-ranked cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap.
However, the token has remained under bearish pressure. Currently ranked as the 14th biggest crypto on CoinMarketCap, Cardano is trading at $0.1662, with a valuation of $6.06 billion.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has confirmed that the ecosystem is close to launching a political party.
He made the announcement during his latest broadcast, where he also dismissed rumors that he plans to retire or leave the Cardano ecosystem. Reaffirming his long-term commitment to the network, Hoskinson revealed that preparations for the political party are already underway. He said the initiative is expected to launch soon, allowing ADA community members to participate.
“We are working on a political party, and we’ll imminently be launching that soon, and give people an opportunity to participate,” Hoskinson remarked.
His commentary signals that the initiative has progressed from a proposal to an active project, although Hoskinson did not provide a specific launch date.
A New Governance Structure for Cardano Hoskinson’s latest remarks build on his earlier proposal to establish a political party that would operate as a large, Delegate Representative (DRep) within Cardano’s on-chain governance system.
The idea emerged after months of governance disputes across the ecosystem. Several treasury proposals, including some associated with Hoskinson, failed to secure DRep approval. The resulting governance tensions eventually contributed to the cancellation of Cardano Summit 2026. In response, Hoskinson first suggested becoming a DRep before unveiling plans to create a political party.
In his view, the proposed organization would coordinate decision-making on ecosystem growth, treasury allocations, and long-term strategic priorities. The initiative would also give ADA holders and ecosystem participants a structured way to engage in governance by joining the organization and voting on key initiatives.
Hoskinson Backs the Cardano PRIME Proposal Meanwhile, Hoskinson has publicly endorsed the Cardano PRIME proposal. He expressed his support by replying “LFG” after AlphaGrowth announced that on-chain community voting for PRIME had officially begun.
PRIME is a 12-month initiative led by AlphaGrowth to accelerate Cardano’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem through protocol security audits, responsible liquidity incentive programs, and market expansion. The proposal seeks 120 million ADA in treasury funding, valued at approximately $19.2 million at an assumed ADA price of $0.16. If successful, the initiative aims to increase Cardano’s total value locked (TVL) by more than $200 million.
Such growth would represent a significant expansion from Cardano’s current TVL of roughly $73 million, with stablecoins currently accounting for most of the capital locked on the network.
Hoskinson has repeatedly emphasized that expanding Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem is one of the network’s highest priorities. He has previously described 2026 as a “do-or-die” year for Cardano’s DeFi ambitions, underscoring the need to attract more liquidity, users, and decentralized applications to the blockchain.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
PANews, July 10 – Humanoid robot R&D company 1X Technologies announced the launch of its new-generation NEO humanoid robot hand system, featuring 25 degrees of freedom, a tendon-driven design, and gear ratios of approximately 5:1 to 15:1. All joints support force control and are fully back-drivable, achieving near-human levels of dexterity and force control. The hand is equipped with high-resolution tactile sensing capable of detecting normal force, contact position, and shear force, and meets IP68 waterproof and dustproof ratings along with food-safety standards.
In terms of performance, the thumb CMC joint delivers a peak torque of 3.5 Nm, the finger MCP joints reach 2.6 Nm, distal flexion force hits 45 N, wrist torque is 17.75 Nm, and positioning accuracy is ±0.2 mm. The hand is mounted on forearm motors and driven by tendons routed through the wrist, enabling delicate operations such as assembling LEGO bricks, picking up coins, screwing in light bulbs, operating zippers, sorting fruit, pouring tea, plugging in USB-C connectors, and holding wine glasses. 1X stated it already has the production capacity to manufacture 10,000 hand units per year.
When a metaverse token and a DeFi yield protocol suddenly top the whale activity charts, something is shifting in the order books. According to the on-chain update from Santiment, Decentraland’s MANA saw a 833% weekly increase in the number of whale transactions over $100,000. Pendle on Arbitrum wasn’t far behind at 800%, followed by a mix of stablecoins and smaller-cap tokens.
The data highlights a sudden repositioning by larger wallets across a set of assets that don’t usually dominate whale activity rankings. USAT jumped 400%, MakerDAO’s DAI on Optimism also rose 400%, Telcoin climbed 350%, and Virtuals Protocol’s VIRTUAL recorded a 300% increase. Even stablecoin transfer counts spiked—MakerDAO’s USDS, for example, moved 154% higher in large transaction count. The screener, which tracks divergences in on-chain metrics, underscores how rapid shifts in whale behavior can signal underlying market structure changes before price reflects them.
Such increases in whale transfers often hint that large holders are preparing for something—whether that’s deploying capital into DeFi protocols, moving funds between chains, or repositioning ahead of ecosystem developments. The presence of stablecoin pairs also suggests possible liquidity provision or off-ramping. Pairing that with the fact that some of these tokens, like MANA, are tied to metaverse NFTs, adds another layer. Recently, $X@AI BRC-20 NFTs and Courtyard topped weekly NFT sales rankings, reflecting a broader resurgence of interest in digital collectibles. Whale accumulation in related tokens may follow that trend.
However, investors should be careful about drawing straight lines between on-chain whale activity and imminent price moves. A spike in large transactions can just as easily reflect distribution as accumulation. The data from Santiment only shows an increase in transaction count—not whether wallets are buying or selling. Without additional on-chain metrics like exchange netflow or realized profit/loss, the picture remains incomplete. Whales may be moving tokens to centralized exchanges for sale, or to cold storage for long-term holding.
What This Means for Altcoin Traders Whale transaction spikes on low-volume altcoins like Telcoin or Virtuals can have outsized effects on liquidity and short-term volatility. While a recent top crypto gainers roundup featured TON and SIREN making big moves, none of the tokens on Santiment’s whale list appeared there. That divergence is worth noting—it suggests the whale action may not yet be reflected in market price, or it could indicate positioning for a move that hasn’t materialized. Monitoring whether these transaction counts hold or increase further could offer a pre-price signal for savvy market participants.
For traders, the data adds a signal to monitor alongside order book depth and funding rates. Tokens like Pendle and Ether.fi, which are central to liquid staking and yield markets, could see renewed interest if whale accumulation continues. But for now, the surge in transaction counts tells us that size is paying attention—just not yet in which direction.
AUTHOR
Max delves deep into the cryptocurrency realm, with a passion for altcoins and NFTs. Convinced of crypto's transformative potential, he envisions a decentralized financial future. Max's background in the financial sector grants him unique insights into global monetary systems. In his leisure, Max embraces the thrill of adventures and is an avid sports enthusiast, finding balance and rejuvenation away from work.
