Fidelity Digital Assets has highlighted a substantial shift in the valuation of U.S. homes when measured in Bitcoin. While the average price of homes in USD has risen by over $100,000 since 2020, they have become approximately ten times cheaper in Bitcoin. This indicates a significant appreciation in Bitcoin’s value relative to the housing market, suggesting increased purchasing power for Bitcoin holders. The current market conditions, with Bitcoin prices fluctuating between $60,000 and $97,000, reflect this trend. The report underscores Bitcoin’s potential role as a store of value that can outpace inflation of fiat-denominated assets such as real estate.
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Key Takeaways Fidelity’s report suggests U.S. homes have become more affordable in Bitcoin terms, indicating Bitcoin’s value appreciation. Market pricing suggests a strong probability of Bitcoin staying above $58,000 by July 12, with a 96% YES scenario currently priced. The contrast between Bitcoin’s performance and real estate inflation appears consistent with increased interest in Bitcoin as a hedge against fiat inflation. What to Watch Observers will be monitoring the upcoming mid-July CPI and PCE data releases, which could influence Bitcoin’s price movement. Any signs of cooler-than-expected inflation might encourage further investment in Bitcoin, consistent with scenarios where Bitcoin’s price remains above key thresholds. Additionally, actions by key financial figures, such as potential rate changes by the Federal Reserve, could further impact market sentiment and Bitcoin’s valuation against the USD.
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Term Structure
Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h July 12 2026 96.2% — — View market → July 12 2026 2.1% — — View market → July 12 2026 52.5% — — View market → July 12 2026 98.6% — — View market →
Fidelity Investments’ Global Macro Director, Jurrien Timmer, has released an updated version of the company’s widely followed performance table, which outlines investment returns over specific periods. The new table highlights a pronounced divergence among asset classes in the first half of 2026.
Striking divergence in asset returnsAccording to the rankings, which track monthly data through June 2026, emerging markets, small-cap stocks, and Japanese equities led the tables. By contrast, Bitcoin, gold, and long-term bonds occupied the lowest positions, showing a stark underperformance relative to other asset groups during the same period.
Fidelity Investments is one of the world’s largest asset management firms, operating globally across equities, bonds, and alternative investments. Jurrien Timmer is recognized for his insights into macro trends and market developments within the firm.
The updated Fidelity performance table reveals that the investment landscape shifted sharply in early 2026, with Bitcoin lagging behind most liquid asset classes.
Bitcoin, gold, and bonds clustered at the bottomIn the rightmost column of the table, which displays data up to June 2026, the orange boxes representing Bitcoin are concentrated near the bottom. This visual underscores that the leading cryptocurrency trailed most major assets in returns during the first half of the year.
Notably, both long-term US Treasury bonds and spot gold also appeared in the same lower segment, even though these assets typically react to different market dynamics. Their simultaneous weak performance drew attention from market observers.
Long-term bonds are debt instruments with extended maturities and are more sensitive to interest rate expectations than short-term bonds. As a result, changes in interest rate outlooks tend to impact their performance more significantly.
An unusual market landscape emergesThe data reveals an atypical scenario where Bitcoin, often considered a high-risk digital asset, appeared in the same underperforming group as gold, traditionally viewed as a safe haven. This concurrent decline suggests that, in the first half of 2026, investors faced pricing behavior that departed from classic risk-versus-protection distinctions.
The fact that the boxes representing Bitcoin are clustered at the bottom of the June 2026 column highlights the digital asset’s clear underperformance when compared to nearly all liquid asset classes.
Statistics also indicate a widening gap between robust equity markets and defensive assets. Investment preferences during the first half of 2026 thus reflected patterns outside traditional norms for both risk-seeking and defensive strategies.
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.
Michael Saylor wants to have his Bitcoin and spend it too. The Strategy executive chairman appeared on Middle Eastern television on June 5 to lay out a financial model that sounds almost too elegant: sell a tiny sliver of your Bitcoin to fund dividends, then use capital markets to buy back even more than you sold.
The pitch centers on Strategy’s “Stretch” (STRC) variable-rate perpetual preferred stock, which carries a 12% annual dividend paid monthly starting July 1. Saylor’s argument is that issuing or selling credit instruments equal to just 1.4% of the company’s capital assets can sustainably fund those distributions while simultaneously growing the firm’s Bitcoin treasury.
The math behind the magic trick Here’s the thing about Saylor’s model. It requires Bitcoin to appreciate by roughly 2.3% annually for the whole machine to keep running. The logic works like this: Strategy sells a small amount of Bitcoin to cover dividend payments, then raises capital through debt or equity instruments to purchase far more Bitcoin than it just sold. Saylor claimed that for every batch of Bitcoin sold to fund dividends, the company can acquire 10 to 20 BTC through subsequent capital raises.
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In practice, this is already happening. In late May, Strategy divested 32 BTC for approximately $2.5 million to fund STRC distributions. That’s a rounding error for a company holding over 840,000 BTC in its treasury.
But the scale of what’s being authorized tells a different story. Under a newly established Digital Credit Capital Framework, Strategy has greenlit up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin sales.
Why the Middle East, and why now The STRC preferred stock, with its 12% annual yield, is designed to appeal to institutional investors in the region. Saylor is essentially packaging Bitcoin exposure as a credit product, which is a framing that makes it palatable to investors who might otherwise avoid direct cryptocurrency holdings.
What this means for investors The bull case for Saylor’s model is genuinely compelling on paper. A 2.3% annual appreciation threshold is low enough that it should be achievable in most market environments.
But the bear case deserves equal attention. The model’s reliance on capital markets access is its Achilles’ heel. During severe Bitcoin drawdowns, the same credit markets Saylor plans to tap for replenishment tend to seize up. In 2022, when Bitcoin fell below $16K, Strategy’s ability to raise capital on favorable terms was severely constrained.
For holders of STRC preferred stock specifically, the key risk metric is the ratio between dividend obligations and Bitcoin’s price trajectory. As long as the 840,000-plus BTC treasury maintains or grows its value, the 1.4% annual draw looks sustainable. But preferred stock holders sit in a structurally subordinated position. They get their 12% yield, but they don’t participate in the upside if Bitcoin triples.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a large-scale missile and drone assault targeting US military bases across the Gulf region. The crypto market’s reaction was swift, violent, and, for leveraged traders, extremely expensive.
Bitcoin plunged to approximately $99.5K in the immediate aftermath of the June 28 strikes before snapping back above $102K.
What happened on the ground The IRGC announced the strikes as retaliation for earlier US airstrikes, deploying a combination of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones against multiple targets. Key installations in the crosshairs included the Ali Al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait and the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.
Most of the incoming threats were intercepted by Kuwaiti and Bahraini defense systems. Initial reports indicate minimal infrastructure damage and no confirmed American casualties.
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The June 28 operation wasn’t the first salvo. Earlier in the month, on June 10, reports surfaced that the IRGC had launched strikes targeting 22 US positions across Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
While Iranian state media broadcast claims of significant damage, independent verification has been scarce.
The crypto market felt it anyway Bitcoin’s drop to roughly $99.5K and subsequent recovery above $102K compressed into a remarkably short window. The move itself, roughly a 2.5% swing, wouldn’t normally raise eyebrows in crypto. But in the context of leveraged positions, it was devastating.
Previous geopolitical escalations involving Iran earlier in 2026 triggered approximately $1 billion in Bitcoin liquidations. Traders running high leverage on perpetual futures contracts get wiped out in exactly these scenarios, where the move is sharp enough to trigger cascading liquidations but short-lived enough that the underlying market barely remembers it happened.
Bitcoin’s ability to reclaim $102K suggests that the selling pressure was almost entirely liquidation-driven rather than reflecting a genuine shift in investor sentiment.
Why crypto keeps reacting to Middle East tensions Iran has historically leveraged cryptocurrency mining as a mechanism to generate revenue outside the reach of international sanctions. Any escalation involving Iran carries a secondary implication for crypto markets: the potential for tighter enforcement, new sanctions frameworks, or disruptions to mining operations.
Iran remains a significant player in global oil markets, and any military conflict in the Gulf region threatens shipping lanes and production facilities. Rising energy costs ripple through every sector, including the energy-intensive Bitcoin mining industry. Higher electricity prices compress miner margins, which can lead to reduced hash rate and, in extreme scenarios, miner capitulation.
What investors should watch next For crypto investors, spot Bitcoin tends to recover quickly from geopolitically driven selloffs. The real risk sits in the derivatives market, where leveraged positions face existential threats from the kind of sudden, headline-driven volatility these events produce.
A confirmed attack resulting in significant American casualties or damage to critical energy infrastructure would likely trigger a very different market response than what we’ve seen so far.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has proven to be one of the most “anti-fragile” assets despite repeated market shocks and government crackdowns, according to CFTC Chairman Michael Selig.
In an interview with Glenn Beck on July 8, Selig highlighted that Bitcoin has repeatedly survived major crises, including the collapse of Mt. Gox, the failure of FTX and regulatory actions under the Biden administration.
He reiterated the CFTC’s position that Bitcoin should be treated as a commodity rather than a security or currency.
“We’ve characterized it as a commodity at the CFTC. It’s just like gold or silver, oil or gas,” Selig said.
Selig also defended the Trump administration’s pro-crypto stance, saying President Donald Trump is not involved in the day-to-day management of his family’s crypto-related business interests and remains subject to federal ethics rules.
Selig urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, describing it as critical to establishing a federally regulated crypto exchanges.
It would also assist in custody rules and protections for self-custody along with limiting the ability of individual states to pursue conflicting regulatory approaches.
The CFTC chairman also reiterated the administration’s opposition to a central bank digital currency in the United States.
"We need to make sure that a CBDC is never possible, and legislation is the most important and future-proof thing in Washington," Selig said.
Image: Shutterstock
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Russia’s State Duma has approved a revised cryptocurrency oversight bill that eliminates the requirement for users to disclose wallet addresses to authorities, setting a cap on retail investment at 300,000 rubles annually, and introducing a 48-hour delay on large foreign transfers. This legislative move marks a significant shift from previous drafts by reducing regulatory burdens on crypto usage. The Central Bank of Russia is designated as the regulatory body, with the law expected to take effect on September 1, 2026. Analysts suggest that these changes could foster a more favorable environment for cryptocurrency markets within Russia, potentially influencing global crypto sentiment.
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Key Takeaways Russia’s revised bill appears to reduce regulatory burdens by removing the requirement to disclose wallet addresses. The legislation suggests a more controlled approach with a cap on retail crypto investments and a delay on large transfers. Market pricing suggests that these developments could influence optimism about Bitcoin’s future price trajectory. What to Watch Observers will closely monitor the implementation of this legislation to assess its impact on the Russian crypto market and global sentiment. The Central Bank of Russia’s role as the regulatory body will be crucial in determining how these changes affect market dynamics. Developments in U.S. crypto legislation and Federal Reserve rate decisions could further impact market perceptions and Bitcoin’s price outlook.
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Term Structure
Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h December 31 1.6% — — View market → December 31 1.9% — — View market → December 31 2.4% — — View market → December 31 3.4% — — View market → December 31 5.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 10% — — View market → January 1 2027 36.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 5.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.8% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.2% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.4% — — View market → January 1 2027 6.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 71.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 12.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.4% — — View market → January 1 2027 4% — — View market → January 1 2027 48.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 24% — — View market → January 1 2027 9.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.6% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.8% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.2% — — View market → January 1 2027 0.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 12.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 22.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 32.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 47.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 66.5% — — View market →
Bitcoin traded near $62,000 today, surrendering part of a rebound that had carried it to $64,000 from last week’s bear-market low of $57,700. The pullback holds the price above the $60,000 level that CryptoQuant treats as support, though it trims a recovery of some 11% off the bottom.
The dip came as CryptoQuant’s Weekly Crypto Report, published today and shared with Bitcoin Magazine, argued the backdrop skews toward further gains. Head of Research Julio Moreno framed the bounce as a bear-market recovery rather than a trend reversal, with one central caution: the firm’s Bull Score Index, an aggregate of on-chain, market, and valuation conditions on a 0-to-100 scale, sits at 20, inside the bearish zone at or below 40 and short of the 60 reading tied to a sustainable bull market.
The report’s bullish case rests on seasonality. Across the past decade, July has ranked among Bitcoin’s stronger months, closing higher in most years shown.
The pattern held in the down-cycles of 2018 and 2022, when Bitcoin gained some 20% and 17% during the month as the broader trend stayed weak. Entering July 2026 off a bear-market low, the report said, that pattern skews near-term risk toward gains.
Bitcoin demand is turning Demand has turned. The 30-day change in total demand — spot plus perpetual futures — collapsed to some -650,000 BTC in early June, the deepest negative reading since 2022, as Bitcoin fell toward $58,000.
It has since recovered toward neutral, with speculative futures demand crossing into positive territory and spot selling easing to its slowest pace since mid-May. A return to positive territory, the report said, would confirm a re-igniting demand engine.
U.S. buyers show signs of stabilizing. The Coinbase Premium Index, a proxy for U.S. spot demand, sank below zero in early June as Bitcoin bottomed near $57,000, one of its weakest readings of the year.
The premium remains under zero, though its path has tracked Bitcoin’s climb off the low and points to steadier institutional appetite.
Valuation added a floor. The on-chain trader unrealized profit/loss margin, for coins held one to three months, dropped below -24% in early June, under the -12% threshold the firm treats as undervalued. Readings at such extremes tend to mark local bottoms as short-term holders capitulate, the report said, and the margin has recovered as price bounced off $57,700.
Today’s slip to $62,000 underscores the report’s own hedge. CryptoQuant reads the market as off its lows, with improving internals but a bearish regime intact.
A durable rally, it concluded, would require the Bull Score Index to climb above 60. Until then, the firm treats the move as a recovery within a bear market, not a reversal — a framing this week’s give-back does little to challenge.
Micah Zimmerman
Micah first discovered Bitcoin in 2018 but remained a skeptic on the sidelines for too long. Since 2021, he has covered crypto and business and now works as a news reporter for Bitcoin Magazine, based in North Carolina.
The Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company has canceled its planned business combination with Cantor Equity Partners I, unwinding what would have been one of the most ambitious bitcoin treasury deals ever attempted through a SPAC structure. The original agreement, signed in July 2025, is now dead, though both parties say they’re negotiating revised terms.
BSTR CEO Adam Back announced the decision on July 8, pointing to changing market conditions as the catalyst. The CEPO shareholder meeting has been postponed indefinitely, and the private placements tied to the original deal will not proceed.
What the deal was supposed to look like BSTR planned to debut on Nasdaq under the ticker BSTR as a dedicated bitcoin treasury vehicle, launching with 30,021 BTC. At the time the deal was structured, that stack was valued at over $3 billion, which would have made it the fourth-largest public bitcoin treasury.
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The bitcoin was coming from two sources. Founders contributed 25,000 BTC directly, with an additional 5,021 BTC sourced through an in-kind PIPE arrangement.
The PIPE financing component alone was potentially worth up to $1.5 billion, making it the largest PIPE ever announced in the context of a Bitcoin treasury SPAC. CEPO itself had raised roughly $200 million through its January IPO, and the combined structure was designed to create a publicly traded vehicle that could actively manage bitcoin assets and develop Bitcoin-native capital markets products.
BSTR was the second Cantor-backed SPAC to chase a Bitcoin treasury strategy. The first resulted in Twenty One Capital, which successfully completed its merger.
Why the deal collapsed The deal had already been showing signs of strain before the cancellation, with the shareholder vote experiencing a series of delays. Back’s public statement emphasized the need to adapt to current market conditions. CEPO shares were trading at roughly $10.50 at the time of the announcement, barely above the typical SPAC trust value, suggesting that investors were already pricing in significant uncertainty about whether the deal would close.
Both sides say they’re still talking. The original business combination agreement is dead, but BSTR and CEPO have indicated they want to explore a different structure and revised terms.
What investors should be watching For anyone holding CEPO shares, there is no deal on the table right now. The shares are trading near trust value, which provides a floor of sorts, but the upside case that attracted speculative buyers has evaporated until and unless new terms emerge.
The original deal was signed in July 2025, and a full year later, it still hadn’t closed. Any restructured deal will need to account for this reality, likely with mechanisms that allow terms to adjust more dynamically with market conditions rather than locking in static valuations months before closing.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 07: Bitcoin mining hardware is displayed at a Bitcoin conference on at the Javits Center April 7, 2014 in New York City.
Getty Images
"From outside, people will definitely be thinking that the company is crazy," said Juliet Ye. "Who are they? They're making this bold move, and they do not know anyone in this industry." She was talking about the day a Chinese auto-lending firm spent hundreds of millions of dollars to become a Bitcoin miner.
That was a year and a half ago. Now it is doing the same thing in reverse. Almost every public Bitcoin miner is rushing to lease its power to the hyperscalers building AI's giant training clusters. Cango Inc. is walking the other way.
Cango (NYSE: CANG) is on its third life. It listed in New York in 2018 as China's only US-listed auto-financing platform. In November 2024 it agreed to acquire about 50 exahash of Bitmain rigs and became a pure-play Bitcoin miner. Then, on April 13 this year, it launched an AI-inference subsidiary called EcoHash, with its own software layer, EcoLink. No AI training. No giant new data centers. Just a bet that the small, scattered miners the hyperscalers can't use are where a lot of AI compute will end up.
"What not to do is as important as what to do," said Ye, Cango's senior director of communications. She comes back to that line again and again. It is the whole strategy in nine words.
Energy first, Bitcoin secondYe says the company never set out to mine Bitcoin at all. It set out to own energy.
She would know the history. She has spent eight years at Cango, after the Wall Street Journal and the consulting firm FTI. The story she tells starts with cars. Cango took an early stake in Li Auto, the Chinese electric-vehicle maker, before it went public. When Li Auto listed in 2020, Cango booked a fair-value gain of about 3.3 billion yuan, roughly $508 million, and an appetite for the power business underneath the cars. By 2023 it was scouting energy projects in Australia and the Middle East.
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"During a trip in the Middle East, to look for solar projects, the management bumped into Bitmain," Ye said. That is how an auto lender met Bitcoin mining.
What clicked was not the coin. It was the wiring. "All these mining sites are basically, literally, just energy infrastructure," Ye said. "The only reason there are mining farms is because they use the energy and turn the energy to coin. We can still turn energy into other things." Mining was a way in. "We are not thinking of doing Bitcoin mining from day one. We're thinking of running energy infrastructure from day one."
Getting in was expensive. Cango paid $256 million in cash for 32 exahash of Bitmain machines in November 2024, then took another 18 exahash in stock that closed the following summer, the shares going to a company run by a former Bitmain finance chief. To escape its "China concept stock" label, it sold its entire domestic auto business for about $352 million. It brought in crypto-native leadership, including a new chief executive and a chairman who founded Antalpha, a financing firm tied into the Bitmain world. By mid-2025 the lender was gone. A miner stood in its place.
Why everyone is pivotingCango is not the only miner running for the AI exit. The math of mining has met the math of AI, and both businesses fight over the same thing: electricity.
"AI HPC's future might be Bitcoin mining's past," Leo Wang, a Canaan executive, said on the On The Margin podcast. In 2021 miners were the villains, blamed for burning power. Now that same power is the prize. "It is all energy play," Wang said. "We think in the future, energy will be a scarcer asset for everybody."
What miners hold that AI labs crave is not chips. It is a plug. A new substation and a long-term grid contract can take years to land. "When hyperscalers are looking for someone who can supply them short-term guaranteed power, they turn to Bitcoin miners, because the Bitcoin mining companies have already put money and secured power," Wang said. The miners, he added, "got lucky" that AI showed up just as block rewards got thinner.
The timing tracks the cycle. "We have been following the four-year cycle unbelievably well," crypto investor Michael Terpin said on the On The Margin podcast. After each halving, mining margins tighten, and operators go looking for a second way to make money.
Markets have run with it. Core Scientific was an early mover, leasing capacity to AI cloud CoreWeave, and miners from IREN to the firm once called Bitfarms have followed. "Crypto mining warehouses are quietly switching to AI inference, and pulling in around four times the revenue," the analyst behind the @0xCristal account wrote on X. "A GPU warehouse makes more serving LLM inference than mining blocks."
The bet against the mega-siteThis is where Cango breaks from the herd. The popular move is to turn a few huge sites into AI training campuses and sign one long lease with a hyperscaler. Cango said no to that.
"We are definitely not doing AI training," Ye said. "That sector is already crowded with hyperscalers. It's not realistic for us to compete." The decision came out of the company's own shape. Cango works with more than 30 sites around the world, most of them 10 to 50 megawatts. Too small for a hyperscaler chasing 100-megawatt campuses. But, Ye argues, just right for the other half of AI. "For AI inference, you have to be distributed. You have to be close to your clients to lower the latency," she said. "Ten to 50 megawatts is too small for hyperscalers, but it's perfect for AI inference."
Then she gets to her favorite number. "Over 70% of the power in the mining sector is actually owned by individual players, smaller sites," Ye said. "Only 30% is controlled by those public miners." Those small operators own land and power. They don't own the AI technology, the customers, or the financing. Cango wants to bring all of it. "We are offering them a symbiotic relationship. We come to the sites, we bring the AI playbook, and they own the land, they own the power," she said. "If one thing can make Cango stand up in the next three to five years on the AI front, it's the symbiotic relationship between these smaller sites."
EcoLink is the glue. One small site can't match a hyperscaler's always-on uptime, so Cango spreads the reliability around instead. "If one side is down, we can direct the workload to another site, in milliseconds," Ye said. The buyers, so far, are what she calls the long tail. GPU marketplaces like Runpod and Vast.ai. Distributed inference clouds like Zenlayer. AI startups too small to sign a hyperscaler's terms. Price is the hook: a top provider might charge several dollars per GPU per hour, and a marketplace rents the same chip for under a dollar. None of the early test clients took an exclusive deal, Ye said, and most renewed anyway. "The customer demand is definitely real."
The cash engine, and the costCango has not quit Bitcoin. It still runs about 31.7 exahash, which brought in $98.4 million of mining revenue in the first quarter. That is the cash that keeps the lights on while the company raises money for AI. "Most miners just drop Bitcoin mining for good," Ye said. "For us, it's more a hybrid approach."
The cleanup was brutal. "We're basically clearing the decks," Ye said. "Investors might want to invest in our AI pivot, but they do not want their money used to pay the old debt." So Cango sold 6,451 Bitcoin for around $442 million and cut long-term debt from $557.6 million to $30.6 million in a single quarter, a 94.5% drop. Its coin hoard shrank to about a thousand. Then it raised $75 million tied to the EcoHash launch. The first AI node is going into a 50-megawatt site Cango owns in Georgia, bought last August for $19.5 million. Ye calls it a "living showroom." Two or three more are due by year-end.
The doubtersNot everyone is sold. "People are a little bit cautious about it," Wang said of the AI rush, "because people are worried about a bubble." The story is running years ahead of the revenue. Retrofitting a warehouse full of fans into a liquid-cooled AI data center costs a fortune. Plenty of miners have spiked on a press release and nothing more. The one once called Bitfarms jumped hundreds of percent on its AI rebrand before it booked a dollar of AI revenue, and analysts who track the pivots keep warning that the money needed to finish them runs into the billions.
Bitcoiners have a different worry. As miners switch off rigs, the network's hashrate has slid, and some say the security cost is being waved away. "Bitcoin miners are abandoning the network for AI money," one widely shared X post warned. Cango's own cushion is thin. It had just $7.2 million in cash at quarter's end after the debt purge, and at least one outlet has questioned its standing on the NYSE. Even the marquee deals wobble: CoreWeave's $9 billion bid for Core Scientific fell apart earlier this year.
Ye's answer is the discipline that runs through everything she says. The mega-sites and the marquee training leases will go to the giants. Cango is betting on the rest: the thousands of megawatts spread across small, independent miners, the power the giants can't easily touch. That, she thinks, is where a lot of AI inference will quietly run.
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 07: Bitcoin mining hardware is displayed at a Bitcoin conference on at the Javits Center April 7, 2014 in New York City.
Getty Images
"From outside, people will definitely be thinking that the company is crazy," said Juliet Ye. "Who are they? They're making this bold move, and they do not know anyone in this industry." She was talking about the day a Chinese auto-lending firm spent hundreds of millions of dollars to become a Bitcoin miner.
That was a year and a half ago. Now it is doing the same thing in reverse. Almost every public Bitcoin miner is rushing to lease its power to the hyperscalers building AI's giant training clusters. Cango Inc. is walking the other way.
Cango (NYSE: CANG) is on its third life. It listed in New York in 2018 as China's only US-listed auto-financing platform. In November 2024 it agreed to acquire about 50 exahash of Bitmain rigs and became a pure-play Bitcoin miner. Then, on April 13 this year, it launched an AI-inference subsidiary called EcoHash, with its own software layer, EcoLink. No AI training. No giant new data centers. Just a bet that the small, scattered miners the hyperscalers can't use are where a lot of AI compute will end up.
"What not to do is as important as what to do," said Ye, Cango's senior director of communications. She comes back to that line again and again. It is the whole strategy in nine words.
Energy first, Bitcoin secondYe says the company never set out to mine Bitcoin at all. It set out to own energy.
She would know the history. She has spent eight years at Cango, after the Wall Street Journal and the consulting firm FTI. The story she tells starts with cars. Cango took an early stake in Li Auto, the Chinese electric-vehicle maker, before it went public. When Li Auto listed in 2020, Cango booked a fair-value gain of about 3.3 billion yuan, roughly $508 million, and an appetite for the power business underneath the cars. By 2023 it was scouting energy projects in Australia and the Middle East.
MORE FOR YOU
"During a trip in the Middle East, to look for solar projects, the management bumped into Bitmain," Ye said. That is how an auto lender met Bitcoin mining.
What clicked was not the coin. It was the wiring. "All these mining sites are basically, literally, just energy infrastructure," Ye said. "The only reason there are mining farms is because they use the energy and turn the energy to coin. We can still turn energy into other things." Mining was a way in. "We are not thinking of doing Bitcoin mining from day one. We're thinking of running energy infrastructure from day one."
Getting in was expensive. Cango paid $256 million in cash for 32 exahash of Bitmain machines in November 2024, then took another 18 exahash in stock that closed the following summer, the shares going to a company run by a former Bitmain finance chief. To escape its "China concept stock" label, it sold its entire domestic auto business for about $352 million. It brought in crypto-native leadership, including a new chief executive and a chairman who founded Antalpha, a financing firm tied into the Bitmain world. By mid-2025 the lender was gone. A miner stood in its place.
Why everyone is pivotingCango is not the only miner running for the AI exit. The math of mining has met the math of AI, and both businesses fight over the same thing: electricity.
"AI HPC's future might be Bitcoin mining's past," Leo Wang, a Canaan executive, said on the On The Margin podcast. In 2021 miners were the villains, blamed for burning power. Now that same power is the prize. "It is all energy play," Wang said. "We think in the future, energy will be a scarcer asset for everybody."
What miners hold that AI labs crave is not chips. It is a plug. A new substation and a long-term grid contract can take years to land. "When hyperscalers are looking for someone who can supply them short-term guaranteed power, they turn to Bitcoin miners, because the Bitcoin mining companies have already put money and secured power," Wang said. The miners, he added, "got lucky" that AI showed up just as block rewards got thinner.
The timing tracks the cycle. "We have been following the four-year cycle unbelievably well," crypto investor Michael Terpin said on the On The Margin podcast. After each halving, mining margins tighten, and operators go looking for a second way to make money.
Markets have run with it. Core Scientific was an early mover, leasing capacity to AI cloud CoreWeave, and miners from IREN to the firm once called Bitfarms have followed. "Crypto mining warehouses are quietly switching to AI inference, and pulling in around four times the revenue," the analyst behind the @0xCristal account wrote on X. "A GPU warehouse makes more serving LLM inference than mining blocks."
The bet against the mega-siteThis is where Cango breaks from the herd. The popular move is to turn a few huge sites into AI training campuses and sign one long lease with a hyperscaler. Cango said no to that.
"We are definitely not doing AI training," Ye said. "That sector is already crowded with hyperscalers. It's not realistic for us to compete." The decision came out of the company's own shape. Cango works with more than 30 sites around the world, most of them 10 to 50 megawatts. Too small for a hyperscaler chasing 100-megawatt campuses. But, Ye argues, just right for the other half of AI. "For AI inference, you have to be distributed. You have to be close to your clients to lower the latency," she said. "Ten to 50 megawatts is too small for hyperscalers, but it's perfect for AI inference."
Then she gets to her favorite number. "Over 70% of the power in the mining sector is actually owned by individual players, smaller sites," Ye said. "Only 30% is controlled by those public miners." Those small operators own land and power. They don't own the AI technology, the customers, or the financing. Cango wants to bring all of it. "We are offering them a symbiotic relationship. We come to the sites, we bring the AI playbook, and they own the land, they own the power," she said. "If one thing can make Cango stand up in the next three to five years on the AI front, it's the symbiotic relationship between these smaller sites."
EcoLink is the glue. One small site can't match a hyperscaler's always-on uptime, so Cango spreads the reliability around instead. "If one side is down, we can direct the workload to another site, in milliseconds," Ye said. The buyers, so far, are what she calls the long tail. GPU marketplaces like Runpod and Vast.ai. Distributed inference clouds like Zenlayer. AI startups too small to sign a hyperscaler's terms. Price is the hook: a top provider might charge several dollars per GPU per hour, and a marketplace rents the same chip for under a dollar. None of the early test clients took an exclusive deal, Ye said, and most renewed anyway. "The customer demand is definitely real."
The cash engine, and the costCango has not quit Bitcoin. It still runs about 31.7 exahash, which brought in $98.4 million of mining revenue in the first quarter. That is the cash that keeps the lights on while the company raises money for AI. "Most miners just drop Bitcoin mining for good," Ye said. "For us, it's more a hybrid approach."
The cleanup was brutal. "We're basically clearing the decks," Ye said. "Investors might want to invest in our AI pivot, but they do not want their money used to pay the old debt." So Cango sold 6,451 Bitcoin for around $442 million and cut long-term debt from $557.6 million to $30.6 million in a single quarter, a 94.5% drop. Its coin hoard shrank to about a thousand. Then it raised $75 million tied to the EcoHash launch. The first AI node is going into a 50-megawatt site Cango owns in Georgia, bought last August for $19.5 million. Ye calls it a "living showroom." Two or three more are due by year-end.
The doubtersNot everyone is sold. "People are a little bit cautious about it," Wang said of the AI rush, "because people are worried about a bubble." The story is running years ahead of the revenue. Retrofitting a warehouse full of fans into a liquid-cooled AI data center costs a fortune. Plenty of miners have spiked on a press release and nothing more. The one once called Bitfarms jumped hundreds of percent on its AI rebrand before it booked a dollar of AI revenue, and analysts who track the pivots keep warning that the money needed to finish them runs into the billions.
Bitcoiners have a different worry. As miners switch off rigs, the network's hashrate has slid, and some say the security cost is being waved away. "Bitcoin miners are abandoning the network for AI money," one widely shared X post warned. Cango's own cushion is thin. It had just $7.2 million in cash at quarter's end after the debt purge, and at least one outlet has questioned its standing on the NYSE. Even the marquee deals wobble: CoreWeave's $9 billion bid for Core Scientific fell apart earlier this year.
Ye's answer is the discipline that runs through everything she says. The mega-sites and the marquee training leases will go to the giants. Cango is betting on the rest: the thousands of megawatts spread across small, independent miners, the power the giants can't easily touch. That, she thinks, is where a lot of AI inference will quietly run.
The US informed Israel ahead of its latest reported military strike on Iran, continuing a pattern of coordinated operations between the two allies that has defined the 2026 Iran conflict.
The notification underscores the depth of US-Israeli military coordination that has been on full display since joint airstrikes began earlier this year.
A conflict that keeps escalating The current chapter of US-Iranian hostilities has been building for over a year. Israeli strikes on Iranian targets date back to mid-2025, but the situation crossed a new threshold on February 28, 2026.
That day, the US and Israel launched a coordinated air campaign that saw nearly 900 strikes over 12 hours. The US called it “Operation Epic Fury.” Israel went with “Operation Roaring Lion.” The damage was real, hitting Iranian military sites across the country.
The catalyst was Iran’s escalating nuclear ambitions and its aggressive posture in the Strait of Hormuz. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes through it on any given day.
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A ceasefire followed in June 2026, formalized through a memorandum of understanding that was supposed to reopen the Strait and dial down tensions.
By July 7, the US was back at it, launching retaliatory strikes on more than 80 targets in southern Iran after Iranian forces attacked commercial tankers. The latest notification to Israel suggests the cycle of escalation is far from over.
What this has meant for Bitcoin When the February strikes hit, Bitcoin sold off. Prices dropped roughly 3%, briefly trading in the $63,000 to $64,700 range as investors rotated out of risk assets.
When the July strikes came, crypto markets barely flinched. The lack of reaction suggests either that traders had already priced in sustained Middle Eastern conflict or that the market’s sensitivity to these events is decaying over time.
The macro picture investors can’t ignore Oil prices remain the primary transmission mechanism between Middle Eastern conflict and global markets. Any sustained disruption to Strait of Hormuz traffic would send energy prices sharply higher, which feeds into inflation expectations, which in turn shapes central bank policy.
The February sell-off demonstrated this logic in compressed form. Bitcoin’s 3% drop came alongside a broader risk-off move that hit equities and other speculative assets too.
What to watch from here The US notifying Israel before strikes signals that whatever is coming next is coordinated rather than impulsive.
For crypto investors, several factors deserve close attention. First, watch oil prices. If Brent crude spikes above recent ranges on any new escalation, that’s your early warning signal for broader risk-asset pressure.
Second, monitor stablecoin flows. During the February strikes, there were signs of capital rotating from volatile crypto assets into stablecoins as a temporary safe harbor.
The June ceasefire’s collapse should be a reminder that diplomatic solutions in this conflict have an expiration date measured in weeks, not years.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
The Federal Reserve just reminded everyone who’s really in charge. Minutes from the June 16-17 FOMC meeting, released on July 8, show policymakers held rates steady at 3.5%-3.75% but are increasingly open to hiking them higher. Bitcoin responded by falling roughly 2.7% to around $62,240, because crypto may be decentralized, but it still dances to the Fed’s tune.
The key phrase buried in the minutes: “some policy firming would likely become appropriate” if inflation remains above the 2% target.
A divided but hawkish committee The committee wasn’t unanimous, but the lean was clear. Nine of the roughly 18-19 FOMC participants now forecast at least one rate hike before the end of 2026. Several members went further, explicitly stating they did not believe current borrowing costs were restrictive enough to tame inflation.
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The committee identified multiple inflation drivers that aren’t going away anytime soon: supply shocks stemming from Middle East instability, tariff-related price pressures, and increased capital expenditure in AI technology.
Massive spending on data centers, chips, and compute infrastructure is creating its own inflationary impulse. Companies are pouring capital into AI buildouts at a pace that’s pushing up costs for energy, construction, and specialized labor.
What rate hikes mean for crypto Bitcoin’s 2.7% decline after the minutes dropped illustrates this dynamic in real time. It wasn’t a panic-driven crash, but it was a clear signal that market participants are recalibrating their risk exposure based on the Fed’s evolving stance.
At 3.5%-3.75%, the federal funds rate is already at a level that puts meaningful pressure on borrowing costs across the economy. A majority of FOMC participants indicated that policy firming could be necessary if inflation persists above 2%.
The liquidity squeeze traders should watch During the Fed’s aggressive tightening cycle in 2022-2023, Bitcoin lost more than 60% of its value from peak to trough.
Stablecoin yields and DeFi lending rates tend to track broader interest rate environments as well. If the Fed does tighten further, on-chain yields could shift in ways that redirect capital flows within the crypto ecosystem. Protocols offering fixed-rate products may see increased demand, while variable-rate lending platforms could face outflows as users seek stability.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Somewhere in Sweden, a Bitcoin mining operation spent the past year moonlighting as critical energy infrastructure. The facility was activated between 11,245 and 11,247 times for frequency regulation on Sweden’s national grid, delivering roughly 30 GWh of regulation energy. That’s not a typo. A crypto mine got called up to stabilize the power grid more than 30 times a day, on average.
Here’s the kicker: 58% of the operation’s revenue now comes from these ancillary grid services, not from mining Bitcoin.
How a Bitcoin mine becomes a power plant in reverse The operation runs under Flexionics Energy AG, a Swiss firm that specializes in converting computing infrastructure into prequalified assets for energy reserve markets.
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The facility operates with approximately 14 MW of flexible capacity. When Sweden’s grid needs stabilization, the miners can throttle their power consumption up or down in real time.
During periods of peak flexibility utilization, the operation’s electricity costs reportedly go negative. That means the grid is literally paying the miners to consume, or not consume, power.
Daniel Batten, an independent researcher who has publicly discussed coaching the operation, has pointed to this facility as evidence that Bitcoin mining is evolving into something the energy sector actually wants around. He’s noted that miners in up to seven other nations are providing similar stabilization services, suggesting Sweden isn’t an isolated experiment but part of a broader pattern.
Why grids need flexible loads more than ever Bitcoin miners, it turns out, are almost perfectly designed for demand response. ASIC machines can be powered down nearly instantaneously. They have no production schedule to protect, no employees to send home, no physical product that spoils if the line stops.
Flexionics Energy AG has built its business around this insight, using AI-driven demand-response systems that adapt energy consumption in real time. The 30 GWh of regulation energy this single facility delivered over the past year is a meaningful contribution to grid stability.
What this means for the mining industry and investors The revenue split at this Swedish operation, 58% from grid services versus 42% from actual mining, represents a fundamentally different business model than what most people associate with Bitcoin mining. It’s a hedge against Bitcoin price volatility, against rising energy costs, and against the halving cycle that periodically slashes block rewards.
The trend also carries strategic implications for where miners choose to set up shop. Locations with high renewable penetration and active ancillary service markets become dramatically more attractive. Miners aren’t just looking for cheap power anymore. They’re looking for grids that will pay them for flexibility.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
War, rising oil prices and Strategy’s Bitcoin sales put extra pressure on BTC’s $60,000 support.Strategy’s Bitcoin sales and fears that a global regulatory crackdown on crypto is being reignited are adding to fragile crypto market conditions.Bitcoin traded down 3.5% on Wednesday as new developments in the US-Iran war pushed oil prices higher and Japan’s bond markets faced renewed stress. That combination triggered broader de-risking across markets. At the same time, concerns over potential Bitcoin sales from Strategy intensified, with traders now bracing for a possible correction below $60,000.
Nasdaq-100 futures (left) vs. Bitcoin/USD (right). Source: TradingView
Bitcoin’s failed attempt to reclaim $64,500 on Monday coincided with a downtrend in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Index. However, the stock market recovered some of its losses on Wednesday while Bitcoin was unable to bounce back from the $62,000 level. This underperformance suggests something else might be pressuring the cryptocurrency.
The surge in Brent crude oil to $74 from $68 the prior week raised inflationary risks due to disruptions in energy supplies following the official breakdown of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding. US President Donald Trump declared the deal “over” after US strikes targeted Iranian sites in response to vessel attacks.
Higher energy costs feed directly into broader price pressures, reducing the likelihood of near-term Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate cuts and limiting odds of economic stimulus packages.
Implied odds for FED Funds target rate on Sept. 16. Source: CME FedWatch Tool
Traders are currently pricing 69% odds of interest rate hikes by September, up from 42% one month prior. This environment weighs heavily on risk assets, with Bitcoin still not widely perceived as an effective hedge.
Global economic uncertainty amid Strategy’s sell pressureAdding to the cautious mood, President Trump demanded an end to US trade with Spain at the NATO summit, labeling the key ally a “wasted cause” for failing to commit to new defense spending targets. Such trade frictions risk slowing global economic activity and amplifying fears of global economic contraction.
Japan 10-year government bonds yield. Source: TradingView
In Japan, government bond yields jumped to a 30-year high, reflecting fears over a lack of central bank independence as the government attempts to adjust the Japan Central Bank’s policy mandate to “achieve a stronger economy.” Japan is the largest foreign holder of US Treasuries, which heightens the risk of global contagion.
The latest round of Bitcoin sales, totaling $216 million, announced by Strategy (MSTR US) on Monday, negatively surprised many after it was revealed that they occurred outside the core $1.25 billion Monetization Program. The company’s 8-K filings stated the program accounts only for proceeds used to fund its cash reserves.
Investors now fear persistent selling pressure from Strategy as the company manages its capital structure and debt obligations, with total annual dividends of $1.76 billion alone. Moreover, Strategy holds over $3.8 billion in convertible debt with the earliest call date before April 2027.
Strategy convertible debt maturity and market value, USD. Source: Strategy
On the regulatory front, documents show India’s central bank strongly backing policies that lean toward prohibiting crypto activities, including barring banks from any exposure to virtual assets to safeguard financial stability. The India tax department additionally highlighted risks of evasion.
The signals of tightening global oversight add another layer of negative pressure on Bitcoin’s price and market sentiment. Bitcoin bears remain in control, with risk appetite diminishing due to socio-political instability, prospects of a more restrictive US Fed monetary stance, and Strategy’s ongoing cash needs.
Sentiment is likely to remain fragile, making a retest of the $60,000 support level increasingly probable in the near term.
This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph's Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research.
The Bitcoin mining industry has a new favorite hobby: pretending it’s actually an AI company. Public miners have signed contracts worth over $70 billion to host AI and high-performance computing workloads, and analysts expect the sector to pull roughly 70% of its revenue from AI by the end of 2026. That’s up from around 30% earlier this year.
But not everyone’s buying the narrative. Some miners are pushing back against the rush to convert their facilities into AI data centers, arguing that the economics don’t always pencil out the way the market assumes they do.
The great AI gold rush Bitcoin miners already have something every AI company desperately needs: pre-secured power capacity. Miners can potentially deploy AI-ready facilities up to 75% faster than new builds, according to industry estimates.
The deals reflect that urgency. TeraWulf locked in a 20-year lease with Anthropic for approximately 401 megawatts of capacity, set to come online in 2027. Cipher Mining signed a 15-year agreement with AWS valued at $5.5 billion.
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Jefferies has taken notice, initiating Buy ratings on several miners tied to the AI transition, including Cipher Mining (CIFR), Hut 8 (HUT), TeraWulf (WULF), and Core Scientific (CORZ).
Hash price, the metric that captures how much revenue a miner earns per unit of computational power, sits near cyclical lows. The post-halving squeeze continues to compress margins, making alternative revenue streams look less like a nice-to-have and more like a survival strategy.
Why some miners are saying no AI workloads and Bitcoin mining have fundamentally different infrastructure requirements. Mining rigs can run in remote locations with interruptible power sources. AI inference and training clusters need stable, high-density power delivery and sophisticated cooling systems that most existing mining sites simply weren’t built to provide.
Converting a mining site to AI means locking into long-term leases with a single hyperscaler or AI lab. If that customer decides to build its own infrastructure, renegotiates terms, or simply goes under, the miner is left with a specialized facility and no tenant.
The split market What’s emerging is a two-tier mining industry. On one side, companies like Core Scientific, Cipher Mining, and TeraWulf are transforming into data center operators that happen to also mine Bitcoin. On the other, a cohort of miners is doubling down on their core business.
Miners with credible AI pipelines have seen their stock valuations re-rate higher, as traditional tech investors enter the picture. Pure-play miners, meanwhile, continue to trade largely as leveraged Bitcoin proxies, rising and falling with the coin’s spot price.
What investors should watch TeraWulf’s Anthropic facility is expected to begin operations in 2027, which will provide the first real-world data on whether these converted mining sites can actually deliver the uptime and performance that AI customers demand.
Cipher Mining’s $5.5 billion AWS deal is another bellwether. If execution goes smoothly, it validates the entire thesis that miners can become credible AI infrastructure providers.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
If you recently received an email from “River Financial” asking you to update your user agreement or hop on a call, there’s a solid chance it wasn’t from River Financial at all. Fraudulent emails impersonating the Bitcoin-focused financial services firm are circulating, employing urgency-laced language designed to prompt immediate action.
The emails reportedly prompt recipients to take immediate action, either by clicking through to update agreements or by scheduling a call with what appears to be a company representative.
How the scam works Scammers craft emails that mimic the visual identity and tone of River Financial, a US-based Bitcoin brokerage and custody platform founded in 2019 by Alex Leishman and Andrew Benson.
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Clicking through likely leads to a phishing page designed to harvest login credentials, personal information, or both. The “schedule a call” variant adds a human element, potentially connecting victims with a live scammer who can extract even more sensitive data through conversation.
River Financial itself has not been compromised. The company’s legitimate operations, which emphasize full-reserve policies and Bitcoin-only services, remain intact. This is a case of brand impersonation, not a platform breach.
Why Bitcoin platforms are prime targets Phishing scams impersonating cryptocurrency platforms have been increasing in frequency. Bitcoin holders represent an attractive target for scammers because crypto transactions are generally irreversible. Once funds leave a wallet, there’s no bank to call and no chargeback to file.
River Financial has positioned itself as a more institutional-grade, trust-focused platform, having received early-stage investment from firms like Polychain Capital. Its emphasis on education and security makes the impersonation particularly ironic, and potentially more dangerous, because users may associate the brand with trustworthiness and let their guard down.
River has previously provided educational resources to help users recognize fraudulent communications. The standard advice applies here: check the sender’s email address carefully, don’t click links in unexpected emails, and navigate directly to the company’s website by typing the URL manually. If an email creates a sense of panic or urgency, that itself is a red flag.
What investors should watch for Legitimate companies almost never ask you to update agreements via email links with urgent deadlines. They don’t cold-schedule calls to discuss your account. And they certainly don’t threaten consequences for inaction in the way that phishing emails typically do.
Enable two-factor authentication on every platform you use, preferably with a hardware key or authenticator app rather than SMS. Use unique, strong passwords for each service. And if you receive a suspicious email, forward it to the company’s official support channel rather than engaging with anything in the email itself.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Ripple has secured a five-year sponsorship with the University of Kansas that will place the XRP logo on Jayhawks athletics uniforms, creating the first crypto jersey sponsorship for a major NCAA Division I athletics program.
Summary
Ripple has signed a five-year deal with the University of Kansas, placing the XRP logo on Jayhawks team jerseys. The partnership includes blockchain and financial education programs alongside Ripple’s existing ties to the university. The announcement follows Ripple’s MiCA license approval in Europe as XRP ETFs post eight straight weeks of inflows. According to Ripple and Kansas Athletics, the agreement takes effect immediately, with XRP branding appearing on football, basketball, and other Jayhawks uniforms. The partnership also includes financial literacy and technology education programs funded by Ripple for student-athletes and members of the campus community.
The announcement comes days after Ripple strengthened its regulatory position in Europe. As previously reported by crypto.news, the company received a Crypto-Asset Service Provider license from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework.
According to Ripple, the approval allows it to provide regulated crypto services across all 27 European Economic Area member states.
Partnership extends beyond jersey branding Kansas Athletics described the agreement as a landmark partnership that brings the XRP brand to one of the country’s best-known college sports programs. The university said the arrangement is built on a shared focus on innovation and excellence while giving Ripple access to millions of college sports fans through the Jayhawks.
In a statement released by Kansas Athletics, Director of Athletics Travis Goff said Ripple selected Kansas Athletics as a platform to introduce XRP to a national audience. He added that displaying the XRP logo on Jayhawks uniforms demonstrates a shared commitment to innovation and excellence between the two organizations.
Ripple said the agreement goes beyond marketing through uniform sponsorships. According to the company, it will also support educational initiatives covering financial technology and digital assets for both student-athletes and the broader university community.
The relationship between Ripple and the university predates the sponsorship. The University of Kansas operates an official XRP Ledger validator through its engineering school with support from Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative, which has provided the institution with a multimillion-dollar grant for blockchain research and education.
Brad Garlinghouse highlights personal connection as XRP ecosystem expands Ripple Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse called the announcement a rare moment where his professional and personal worlds come together. Writing on social media, Garlinghouse noted that XRP has become the first cryptocurrency to appear on the jersey of a major college athletics program before adding, “XRP Family, meet the Jayhawks.”
Rare moment where my professional and personal worlds collide: XRP is now the first crypto on the jersey of a major college athletics program, at my alma mater.
XRP Family, meet the Jayhawks. Rock Chalk! https://t.co/F6uAL0kMNS
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) July 8, 2026 Garlinghouse’s comments carry added significance because the University of Kansas is his alma mater. His remarks accompanied Ripple’s announcement as the company continues expanding its ties with the university through athletics, education, and blockchain research.
Elsewhere in the XRP ecosystem, developers and validators continue preparing for the XRPL 3.2.0 upgrade, which supporters expect will improve tokenization capabilities and decentralized finance scalability on the network.
The sponsorship news arrives as XRP trades in a volatile market. XRP changed hands at about $1.08 after moving between $1.08 and $1.13 over the previous 24 hours. Meanwhile, XRP futures activity is picking up, with open interest rising by more than 1% over the past four hours, including gains of 0.33% on CME and 0.75% on Binance.
Despite recent price weakness, crypto.news previously reported that spot XRP exchange-traded funds have recorded inflows for nine consecutive weeks.
Despite experiencing significant declines, Ripple aims to solidify its leading position in the blockchain ecosystem.
At this point, Ripple is expanding its corporate digital asset services by forging new partnerships to continue its global growth.
Accordingly, Ripple partnered with Kansas Athletics, the official collegiate sports program of the University of Kansas in the USA.
Kansas Athletics officially announced the partnership.
“Kansas Athletics proudly announces a groundbreaking new partnership with Ripple, bringing the XRP brand to their Jayhawk uniforms.”
With this partnership, XRP will become the first cryptocurrency to be featured on the uniform of a major university sports program.
The inclusion of the XRP logo on the jersey marks a historic milestone for XRP, and initiates the first ever cryptocurrency sponsorship for a major university sports program.
It was also noted that Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is a graduate of the University of Kansas.
XRP 🤝 University of Kansas
History on a jersey patch: the first-ever crypto sponsorship of a major college athletics program starts today. https://t.co/9U9hWIpvq9
— Ripple (@Ripple) July 8, 2026
*This is not investment advice.
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Why Is XRP Appearing on Kansas Jayhawks Jerseys? Ripple is becoming an official sponsor of Kansas Jayhawks sports, placing XRP on the jerseys of a major collegiate athletics program in what the company says is a first for cryptocurrency branding.
The sponsorship links Ripple to the University of Kansas, the alma mater of CEO Brad Garlinghouse. As part of the agreement, an XRP patch will appear on team jerseys, giving the token visible exposure across one of the most recognizable college sports brands in the U.S.
The deal comes after a rule change that opened the door for corporate logos on Division I college jerseys. In January, the NCAA ruled that Division I teams could begin placing corporate marks on jerseys in August. That change creates a new commercial lane for companies looking to reach college sports audiences through uniform placement rather than only arena signage, broadcast ads, or athlete sponsorships.
For Ripple, the Kansas deal is not only a sports marketing agreement. It is also a brand reset after years of legal pressure around XRP. The company is using the jersey placement to put the token back into mainstream view after a long regulatory battle that affected exchanges, investors, and public perception of the asset.
What Does the Deal Include Beyond Jersey Branding? The agreement includes more than an XRP logo on uniforms. Ripple has also committed to funding financial and technology education programs for student-athletes. The company also plans to expand its existing talent pipeline connecting Kansas graduates to careers across the technology industry.
That structure gives the sponsorship a wider institutional frame. Crypto firms have often used sports deals to buy visibility, but college partnerships are likely to face closer review because they involve student-athletes, universities, and education-linked commitments. By adding financial education and technology career programs, Ripple is positioning the deal as a university partnership rather than a simple crypto advertising campaign.
Kansas Athletics framed the agreement around reach, community, and innovation. “Ripple recognizes the unique reach and passion of the Jayhawk community, and we’re proud they have chosen Kansas Athletics as a premier platform to introduce XRP to millions of sports fans,” said Travis Goff, director of athletics at the University of Kansas. “Having the XRP logo displayed on our Jayhawk uniforms reflects a shared commitment to innovation and excellence.”
Investor Takeaway The Kansas sponsorship gives XRP mainstream sports visibility at a time when Ripple is trying to move beyond its SEC case. The deal may help brand recognition, but its market impact depends on whether visibility translates into deeper usage, exchange activity, or institutional interest.
Why Does the SEC Case Still Matter? The sponsorship arrives after Ripple and XRP spent years under legal pressure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2020, the SEC accused Ripple of raising $1.3 billion through the sale of XRP, which the agency said was an unregistered security.
The case weighed on XRP’s market standing. Exchanges delisted the token, investors faced uncertainty, and the asset became a test case for how U.S. securities law would apply to major cryptocurrencies. Ripple was eventually ordered to pay about $125 million, and both the SEC and Ripple dismissed their respective appeals last August.
Garlinghouse used the Kansas announcement to connect the sponsorship directly to Ripple’s post-litigation message. “For four years, a lawsuit that never should have been filed cost XRP holders real value, exchanges delisted a top digital asset, and manufactured doubt that had nothing to do with the technology or its utility,” he said. “With the lawsuit behind us, now is the time to remind people what makes XRP unique, useful and worth paying attention to.”
That framing shows why the jersey placement matters to Ripple. It gives the company a public-facing channel to rebuild XRP’s image after a period when the token’s brand was closely tied to regulatory conflict. Sports sponsorship does not resolve questions about adoption or utility, but it can help restore visibility among retail audiences and mainstream institutions.
What Are the Market Implications for XRP? XRP remains one of the largest non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, with a market capitalization of about $67.5 billion. That scale means the Kansas deal is unlikely to change XRP’s market structure on its own, but it does add to Ripple’s effort to normalize the token after years of legal uncertainty.
For crypto firms, the agreement also shows how the sports sponsorship playbook is changing. Arena naming rights and professional team deals have already been used by exchanges and digital asset companies. College jersey placement is a newer category, and the NCAA rule change may create more opportunities for crypto brands if universities are comfortable with the compliance and reputational risks.
The main question for investors is whether Ripple can convert renewed visibility into stronger ecosystem activity. Jersey exposure can support awareness, but token value still depends on liquidity, payment use cases, partnerships, regulatory clarity, and broader crypto market conditions.
The Kansas sponsorship gives Ripple a high-profile platform at a favorable moment in its legal timeline. It also tests whether crypto branding can move deeper into college sports without triggering the same backlash that followed earlier waves of high-profile crypto advertising.
In brief Ripple has signed a sports marketing deal with the University of Kansas to make XRP the official crypto of Kansas Athletics. The deal places the XRP logo prominently on the jerseys of sporting teams at the university. The company will also fund educational programs about traditional finance and digital assets for student-athletes. Ripple, the payments company whose founders created the XRP cryptocurrency, has inked a multi-year sponsorship deal with the University of Kansas Athletics that will place the XRP logo on the jerseys of all Kansas athletic teams.
As part of the agreement, XRP also becomes the official cryptocurrency of Kansas Athletics.
“This era of college athletics demands innovative, forward-thinking partnerships," Director of Athletics at the University of Kansas Travis Goff said in a statement.
“Ripple recognizes the unique reach and passion of the Jayhawk community, and we're proud they have chosen Kansas Athletics as a premier platform to introduce XRP to millions of sports fans,” Goff said.
Beyond the jerseys, Ripple will also fund educational programs focused on traditional finance and digital assets for Kansas students-athletes, while seeking to connect KU graduates to careers in technology.
“It's a critical time in college athletics to be bold, and that's what is being accomplished with today's announcement,” Kansas Men’s Basketball Coach Bill Self said in a statement. “We will make sure our guys understand the significance of the partnership and why it is beneficial for them moving forward."
The deal reconnects the Jayhawks and University of Kansas with Ripple President Brad Garlinhouse, who graduated from the university and previously described watching Jayhawks games as a “guilty pleasure.”
The crypto industry has a long, and at times controversial, history of sponsorship deals in the sports world.
FTX, the collapsed crypto exchange whose founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted for fraud, famously bought the naming rights for the stadium that hosts the Miami Heat NBA franchise in 2021—only for the FTX logo to be torn down less than two years later. Terra, a crypto network that similarly collapsed and whose founder is also behind bars, signed a five-year sponsorship deal with MLB franchise the Washington Nationals in 2022, and its logo still adorns the ballpark.
More recently, though, crypto companies have been wading back into sports marketing, with leading U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase holding a long-standing sponsorship deal with the NBA. In June of last year, the Paris-based digital asset security firm Ledger also landed a sponsorship agreement with the San Antonio Spurs, which prominently placed the Ledger logo on the Spurs jerseys and arena floor throughout the NBA season.
If the marketing spend for Ripple is to make a positive market impact for XRP, it won’t be felt immediately. The price of XRP today fell around 4.2%, as the cryptocurrency clings to a top 6 spot among digital assets with a $67 billion market cap. The Ripple-linked token notched a new all-time high of $3.65 last year, but has since fallen nearly 71% to trade around $1.07.
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In brief Ripple has signed a sports marketing deal with the University of Kansas to make XRP the official crypto of Kansas Athletics. The deal places the XRP logo prominently on the jerseys of sporting teams at the university. The company will also fund educational programs about traditional finance and digital assets for student-athletes. Ripple, the payments company whose founders created the XRP cryptocurrency, has inked a multi-year sponsorship deal with the University of Kansas Athletics that will place the XRP logo on the jerseys of all Kansas athletic teams.
As part of the agreement, XRP also becomes the official cryptocurrency of Kansas Athletics.
“This era of college athletics demands innovative, forward-thinking partnerships," Director of Athletics at the University of Kansas Travis Goff said in a statement.
“Ripple recognizes the unique reach and passion of the Jayhawk community, and we're proud they have chosen Kansas Athletics as a premier platform to introduce XRP to millions of sports fans,” Goff said.
Beyond the jerseys, Ripple will also fund educational programs focused on traditional finance and digital assets for Kansas students-athletes, while seeking to connect KU graduates to careers in technology.
“It's a critical time in college athletics to be bold, and that's what is being accomplished with today's announcement,” Kansas Men’s Basketball Coach Bill Self said in a statement. “We will make sure our guys understand the significance of the partnership and why it is beneficial for them moving forward."
The deal reconnects the Jayhawks and University of Kansas with Ripple President Brad Garlinhouse, who graduated from the university and previously described watching Jayhawks games as a “guilty pleasure.”
The crypto industry has a long, and at times controversial, history of sponsorship deals in the sports world.
FTX, the collapsed crypto exchange whose founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted for fraud, famously bought the naming rights for the stadium that hosts the Miami Heat NBA franchise in 2021—only for the FTX logo to be torn down less than two years later. Terra, a crypto network that similarly collapsed and whose founder is also behind bars, signed a five-year sponsorship deal with MLB franchise the Washington Nationals in 2022, and its logo still adorns the ballpark.
More recently, though, crypto companies have been wading back into sports marketing, with leading U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase holding a long-standing sponsorship deal with the NBA. In June of last year, the Paris-based digital asset security firm Ledger also landed a sponsorship agreement with the San Antonio Spurs, which prominently placed the Ledger logo on the Spurs jerseys and arena floor throughout the NBA season.
If the marketing spend for Ripple is to make a positive market impact for XRP, it won’t be felt immediately. The price of XRP today fell around 4.2%, as the cryptocurrency clings to a top 6 spot among digital assets with a $67 billion market cap. The Ripple-linked token notched a new all-time high of $3.65 last year, but has since fallen nearly 71% to trade around $1.07.
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A fundamentally new driver of long-term value has quietly formed inside the XRP Ledger (XRPL), as according to the latest on-chain metrics, the volume of commercial transactions executed exclusively by artificial intelligence via the x402 protocol has officially surpassed 1,000,000 transactions.
The historic milestone became clear alongside today's launch of the XRPL AI Hub platform by t54 and the XRP Ledger Foundation (XRPLF). This event forces a new look at the fundamental utility of XRP and the Ripple USD stablecoin.
Number of XRP and RLUSD settlements by AI agents, Source: XRPL AI HubThe published statistics break the myth that the use of crypto assets in the AI sector is limited to chaotic testing. At the moment, the registry has recorded 121 active merchants, but more than 77% of the entire million-transaction volume is distributed among three major infrastructure players:
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Heurist Mesh — 404,091 transactions. A decentralized network of GPU power, where AI agents automatically and by the minute rent computing resources from one another to perform model inference.LucyOS — 367,733 transactions. A specialized operating system for AI, where independent bots continuously trade services and coordinate tasks.AskSurf — 23,076 transactions. An intelligent search service that purchases structured data in real time.The rest of the traffic falls on the "long tail" of dozens of wallets, with around 2,400 operations per address. The identical density of these payments indicates that developers have moved to the pipeline deployment of standard autonomous AI agents.
Why the XRP Ledger architecture fits the AI economyThe integration of the x402 protocol from t54 has completely removed humans from the settlement chain, and programs now operate balances directly, without using bank cards.
According to XRPL Foundation member Vet, the architecture of the XRP Ledger perfectly covers the needs of the autonomous agentic economy because, unlike other blockchains where transaction costs rise unpredictably during peak loads, XRPL offers fixed, extremely low fees. This allows developers to strictly forecast the operating costs of AI.
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Together with high settlement speed, the global liquidity of XRP, and the presence of a built-in decentralized exchange (DEX) for instant automatic asset conversion 24/7, the network gains a powerful fundamental advantage, the contributor emphasized.
As t54 co-founder Chandler Feng briefly noted while commenting on the million-transaction milestone: "Development was slow, and then it happened all at once." And now there are already one million transactions.
Ripple-backed t54.ai has announced the launch of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) in a bid to build an agentic economy on the network. This comes as the network surpasses 1 million agentic payments.
XRP Ledger AI Hub Goes Live As Network Records New Milestone In an X post, the Ripple-backed firm announced the launch of the XRPL AI Hub, providing a single destination for agents, AI projects, tools, and payment services building on the network. The firm noted that the goal is to make the XRPL AI ecosystem easier to discover, navigate, and build on.
“As more agents, merchants, and services come to XRPL, builders need one place to see what is live, what is possible, and where to contribute,” t54.ai said. The firm added that the hub starts with three core areas, including index, which involves live X402 payment activity on the XRP Ledger.
Furthermore, the hub includes docs, SDKs, repos, and developer resources. The third area is the directory, which includes AI projects, agents, services, and merchants building on the XRPL. t54.ai also revealed that they launched this initiative with support from Ripple developers and the XRPL Foundation.
This move comes just weeks after Ripple launched the XRP Ledger AI starter kit, enabling AI agents to pay with XRP and RLUSD on the network. The rollout back then notably enabled X402 payments, with XRPL now a supported chain in the X402 protocol.
XRPL Foundation Announces New Milestone In an X post, the XRP Ledger Foundation announced that the network has surpassed 1 million agentic payments via the x402 protocol. “Time to double down,” the Foundation added.
We just surpassed 1,000,000 agentic payments via x402 on the $XRP Ledger. Time to double down.
XRPL AI Hub is a comprehensive new ecosystem platform for builders, users, and enthusiasts.
Welcome to the agentic economy on the XRP Ledger.https://t.co/VeEwNmEPyp https://t.co/IfXDi2XOno pic.twitter.com/FGcEjj0BkB
— XRP Ledger Foundation (@XRPLF) July 8, 2026
The Foundation also welcomed the launch of the XRPL AI Hub, noting that it is a comprehensive new ecosystem platform for builders, users, and enthusiasts. XRPL validator Vet said that he wasn’t surprised at the milestone.
He opined that the XRPL Ledger is uniquely positioned with its protocol design that fits very well with what AI needs. “Low cost infra, predictable fees, a native asset XRP that’s listed everywhere and is liquid. and of course a native Decentralized Exchange that lets you swap between assets 24/7 with no censorship,” Vet added.
For more information about AI agents, please check out the Top Web3 AI Agents Directory
Ripple announced XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) will appear on the Kansas Jayhawks’ jerseys as the first cryptocurrency on a major college athletics uniform.
XRP Becomes The First Crypto On A College JerseyRipple signed an official sponsorship deal with the University of Kansas, CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s alma mater, placing an XRP patch on Jayhawks team jerseys.
Corporate logos on college jerseys became possible only after the NCAA ruled in January that Division I programs could begin displaying them starting in August.
“Ripple recognizes the unique reach and passion of the Jayhawk community,” said Kansas Athletics Director Travis Goff.
Beyond the jersey placement, Ripple committed to funding financial and technology education programs for student-athletes and expanding a talent pipeline connecting Kansas graduates to careers in the tech industry.
Garlinghouse called it a rare moment where his professional and personal worlds collide, adding on X that the XRP family should meet the Jayhawks.
Crypto firms sponsoring arenas and professional teams is nothing new, but a patch on a college jersey marks a first for the industry.
The Breakout That Looked Promising Two Days Ago Has Now FailedXRP pushed above its year-long descending trendline earlier this week but couldn’t hold the level, reversing 3% back inside the channel in what the chart frames as a classic bull trap.
Sellers took control the moment follow-through buying failed to materialize.
Support at the $1 to $1.05 demand zone is now the last line of defense. A daily close below $1.05 opens a path toward the $1 psychological floor.
Resistance sits at the $1.10 trendline retest zone and today’s high of $1.1160, which XRP needs to reclaim and hold before any long setup becomes viable.
XRP Longs Got Crushed While Options Activity ExplodesOver the past 24 hours, $8.04 million in long positions were liquidated against just $269.95 thousand in shorts, confirming bulls are taking the brunt of Wednesday’s selloff.
Open interest slipped 4.17% to $2.29 billion, while the overall long/short ratio sits at 0.8954, meaning shorts now slightly outnumber longs across the market.
Options activity tells a different story on sentiment. Options volume jumped 484.96% to $14.72 million and options open interest climbed 46.33% to $38.17 million, suggesting traders are actively buying protection or positioning for a bigger move rather than sitting out the volatility..
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The XRP Ledger is living through a familiar kind of protocol standoff: the people running the network’s most influential nodes say yes, but the broader server base has not followed. A new software release has taken the lead among the ledger’s validators, yet the raw node count still puts the older v3.1.3 client ahead, and the security amendment packed into the upgrade is on a separate, slower ballot. The update needs to cross an 80% threshold on the trusted validator list before it can activate, according to the original report.
The split matters because validator support alone does not guarantee that the network’s transaction relay and full history layers move in unison. Nodes that run the older code still see the chain as valid, but they won’t enforce the new amendment’s rules. That can lead to a schizophrenic network state where the official protocol advances but the infrastructure running it treats the changes as optional. For exchanges, market makers, and custodians watching on-chain settlement, that kind of uncertainty tends to sharpen focus on confirmation logic and reorg risk, however remote.
The security amendment is the real prize. While the broader release ships feature work, the amendment patch is what most node operators will judge on its technical merits. It gets its own vote, and it is running slower. The 80% supermajority mechanism inside the XRP Ledger’s amendment process is designed to prevent rushed changes, but it also means a minority of trusted validators can hold the network back indefinitely if they refuse to upgrade. That is not a bug; it is a deliberate governance choice. But when the software release that bundles the fix already leads among validators, the image of a network half-upgraded can unsettle traders who price the token based on expected protocol hardening.
Why node count still matters more than validator count Validators order the ledger, but regular nodes serve the data. If most full nodes remain on an older client, query responses, transaction submissions, and historical lookups all flow through a version of the code that does not understand the new amendment. This creates a gulf between what the protocol says is the valid chain state and what the surrounding infrastructure reports. It is precisely the kind of operational inconsistency that major integrations try to avoid. The XRP Ledger’s design keeps the amendment process inside the validator set, so non-voting nodes cannot block progress, but a large gap in node adoption still corrodes the practical effect of the upgrade.
The market is unlikely to react strongly to node statistics alone, but the setup is worth watching because it mirrors previous upgrade cycles where validator voting stretched on for weeks while nodes lagged. In those instances, the eventual resolution — whether the amendment activated or was abandoned — gave XRP a brief directional pulse. With no exchange-facing timeline, the waiting itself becomes the story.
The governance test that echoes far beyond one chain Protocol governance fights are not unique to the XRP Ledger. Networks like Ethereum have spent years managing client diversity and upgrade coordination, and even smaller chains have seen validator splits force hard choices. The difference here is that the amendment process does not require a chain halt; it is meant to be seamless, activating once the supermajority clicks into place. But the gap between validator sentiment and node sentiment visible today shows that seamless activation is never automatic. It needs active cajoling, upgrade documentation, and often a bit of pressure from the ecosystem’s economic anchors.
Meanwhile, the wider regulatory climate adds another layer of attention. As major U.S. crypto legislation faces last-minute banking pushback, the operational choices of validators on a network tied to Ripple can feel politically charged even when they are purely technical. That does not mean the node count split has a policy cause; it means the stakes around network reliability look different when the regulatory lens is already focused on the asset.
What traders and watchers should track next The next meaningful signal is not the node count — it is whether the security amendment’s support on the trusted validator list begins to accelerate. If it stalls short of 80%, the market will likely treat the broader software release as cosmetic rather than structural. If it climbs, the narrative could swing from “divided network” to “final countdown” in a single day. The trusted validator list is visible, so on-chain analysts and community dashboards will be the first to know.
In the background, the XRP Ledger’s development activity continues to hold a place among the more actively maintained chains, as seen in recent developer activity rankings. That underlying work matters because amendments rarely land in a vacuum. The network that ships code regularly tends to accumulate the operational experience that makes upgrades less contentious over time. For XRP Ledger, this vote will test whether that muscle memory has taken hold or whether the old pattern of drawn-out validator dances is still the default.
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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.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has taken to social media to react to his company securing a historic five-year sponsorship agreement with the University of Kansas.
Garlinghouse mentioned his background in a celebratory post. "Rare moment where my professional and personal worlds collide: XRP is now the first crypto on the jersey of a major college athletics program, at my alma mater," Garlinghouse stated.
A major deal Notably, this is the first time a cryptocurrency company has partnered with a major NCAA Division 1 athletics program.
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The XRP cryptocurrency logo will be prominently featured on the jerseys of the Kansas Jayhawks' football and basketball teams, as well as across all other university athletic uniforms.
The partnership is obviously a huge step toward mainstream brand visibility for the crypto industry. It will introduce XRP to millions of viewers.
Ripple is making a tangible commitment to the academic and financial future of the university's athletes.
The San Francisco-based crypto firm will provide direct funding for specialized financial and technology education initiatives. Student-athletes as well as the broader campus community will be able to benefit from this.
A personal connection The sponsorship carries deep personal significance for Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who is a Topeka, Kansas native and a proud alumnus of the University of Kansas.
During his time at the university, Garlinghouse earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.
It is worth noting that the University of Kansas is already a participant in the XRP ecosystem. It operates an official XRP Ledger validator through its engineering school.
Despite the landmark sponsorship news, the XRP price is down by more than 4%.
However, market data indicates that the announcement may have spurred some speculative trading activity, as XRP futures open interest saw a slight 1% increase in the hours following the partnership reveal.
Price Falls, But the Ledger Keeps Growing$XRP endured a difficult first half of 2026. The token slid for six consecutive months, touching an intraday low of around $1.01 in late June, as broader selling pressure weighed on altcoins. The network picture, however, told a more complicated story.
According to @finbold, daily active accounts on the XRP Ledger fell across H1, dropping roughly 4,600 to approximately 15,300. That figure sits well below readings from other trackers: Santiment data showed daily active addresses climbing from approximately 23,000 to more than 39,500 in the final weeks of June, a 71.7% increase. The gap reflects different methodologies and definitions, and readers should treat any single data point as one part of a broader picture rather than a definitive read on network health.
What is clearer is the directional shift across H1. Activity had been softening from the 2025 peak, but network users sending and receiving assets on the XRP Ledger peaked at 43,000 on June 30, meaning the half closed on a recovery, not a slide. Separately, Messari's Q4 2025 State of XRP Ledger report recorded average daily senders falling 15.4% quarter-on-quarter from 25,300 to 21,700, a figure from an earlier period that illustrates the broader softening trend rather than H1 2026 conditions specifically.
A Network Accumulating in SilenceThe counterpoint to cooling activity is the ledger's structural growth. Total wallets on the XRP Ledger surged in H1, with the network adding roughly 501,000 new accounts and nearing 8 million all-time. Approximately 7.85 million XRP wallet addresses had been activated on the ledger as of early 2026, according to XRPScan. The ledger had surpassed 7.85 million activated addresses, up from around 4.5 million in 2023 and nearly 6 million in late 2024, roughly 30% wallet growth in just over a year, driven largely by regulatory clarity and the launch of spot XRP ETFs.
Fewer addresses are actively transacting, but more wallets are being created and holding. When wallet creation outpaces transaction volume, it can reflect organic accumulation, but it can equally signal a network idling between catalysts. The bearish case centres on the disconnect between XRP's market capitalisation and on-chain utility: transaction fees generated on the ledger remain minimal relative to the asset's total valuation, suggesting price is still driven more by sentiment than organic usage. On the other hand, the divergence between network activity and token price has caught the attention of market analysts, who say it could indicate renewed accumulation ahead of a potential recovery.
For now, the on-chain data presents a clear split. The question is whether the wall of new wallets represents patient holders waiting for a catalyst, or simply a ledger growing while trading activity slowly cools.
Sources:
Messari: State of XRP Ledger Q4 2025
CoinGecko: XRP Live Price and Market Data
Wealthier Today: XRP Ledger Sees 71% Network Surge, Active Addresses Recover
The number of commercial transactions executed solely by artificial intelligence systems on the XRP Ledger has surpassed 1 million, marking a significant milestone for crypto-enabled machine economies. Latest on-chain data shows this surge in activity via the x402 protocol is no longer just an experimental phase. The threshold became clear following the launch of the XRPL AI Hub, a joint initiative by t54 and the XRP Ledger Foundation.
Bulk of trading volume concentrated in three infrastructure leadersAccording to records, there are currently 121 active sellers involved in AI-driven trades on the network. However, more than 77% of the over 1 million transactions to date have been concentrated in just three major infrastructure providers. Heurist Mesh leads with 404,091 transactions, followed by LucyOS with 367,733, and AskSurf with 23,076 transactions recorded.
Heurist Mesh operates as a decentralized computing network where AI agents can rent GPU power from each other on a minute-by-minute basis to run models. LucyOS functions as an AI-focused operating system, facilitating service exchanges and task coordination among autonomous bots. AskSurf provides a smart search service that enables real-time acquisition of structured data. The XRP Ledger Foundation, a non-profit organization, aims to foster the ongoing development of the XRP Ledger network.
PlatformTransactionsCore Use CaseHeurist Mesh404,091GPU leasingLucyOS367,733Bot-to-bot service and task coordinationAskSurf23,076Real-time structured data acquisitionThe remaining transaction traffic is spread across dozens of wallets, indicating a broader and more distributed agent activity. With an average of around 2,400 transactions per address, it suggests autonomous AI agents are now engaging with the network more routinely and at greater scale.
Key features of the XRPL architectureThe x402 integration developed by t54 has eliminated the need for human intervention in payments and settlement chains. As a result, software agents now manage digital balances directly, without relying on conventional tools such as bank cards.
Mini glossary: The x402 protocol is designed to enable software and AI agents to pay for and access online services directly. With this model, machines can transact with each other over the internet without needing intermediary payment layers.
Vet, a member of the XRPL Foundation, emphasized that the XRP Ledger architecture robustly meets the needs of the emerging autonomous AI economy. According to Vet, while other blockchains can experience unpredictable fee spikes during network congestion, the XRPL’s fixed and very low fee structure allows developers to reliably calculate operating costs for AI applications.
The network further stands out for its rapid settlement times, global liquidity of XRP, and a built-in decentralized exchange that allows for the automatic conversion of assets around the clock. Together, these elements are shaping fresh perspectives on the practical uses of both XRP and Ripple USD.
Reactions to passing the 1 million transaction markVet, a member of the XRPL Foundation, underscored that the XRP Ledger’s architecture is well positioned to fulfill the requirements of an autonomous agent economy, particularly by providing consistently low transaction costs that enable developers to anticipate operating expenses.
Commenting on the growth trajectory, Chandler Feng, co-founder of t54, observed that progress was slow for a lengthy period before suddenly accelerating past the 1 million trade threshold.
Reaching the 1 million transaction milestone stands as a key indicator that the intersection of AI and blockchain infrastructures is transitioning from potential to tangible application. The fact that these commercial transactions now occur directly between software agents signals that the XRP Ledger is taking on a more visible and functional role in the next generation of machine-to-machine economic activity.
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.
TLDR: The XRP Ledger AI Hub has launched as a new discovery point for AI builders, agents, services, merchants, and x402 payment activity on XRPL. The XRP Ledger has surpassed 1 million agentic payments, showing rising machine-driven settlement activity across AI-linked services. XRP price remains under pressure near $1.06, with sellers still controlling momentum below major daily moving averages. Weak ETF flows, lower active addresses, and declining futures interest show that market demand has not matched the network milestone yet. The XRP Ledger AI Hub has gone live as XRPL records a major milestone in AI-linked blockchain payments. t54.ai announced the platform as a single destination for AI agents, developer tools, payment services, and merchants building on the network.
The launch comes as the XRP Ledger Foundation says XRPL has surpassed 1 million agentic payments through the x402 protocol. The milestone adds a fresh utility narrative for XRP and RLUSD, although XRP price action remains weak near $1.06.
XRP is trading below $1.10 after four straight days of losses. Muted ETF flows, weaker active addresses, and lower futures demand continue to weigh on near-term sentiment.
XRP Ledger AI Hub Opens New Door For AI Builders The XRP Ledger AI Hub is designed to help developers track what is already live across the XRPL AI ecosystem. It starts with three core areas covering x402 activity, developer resources, and a directory of AI projects.
The index section tracks live x402 payment activity on the network. The developer section includes docs, SDKs, repositories, and other resources. Meanwhile, the directory highlights AI projects, agents, services, and merchants using XRPL rails.
The launch follows Ripple’s XRP Ledger AI Starter Kit, which introduced tools for agentic payments. The kit supports x402 payments using XRP and RLUSD, allowing AI agents to pay for APIs, compute, and inference services.
That structure matters as AI agents need fast, low-cost, and predictable settlement. XRPL offers short settlement times and fixed-style transaction costs, which can help software agents operate without manual approval loops.
The latest activity also points to deeper merchant adoption. Reports show 121 active merchants are now recorded, with Heurist Mesh, LucyOS, and AskSurf accounting for much of the transaction volume.
XRP Price Stays Weak Despite Agentic Payments Milestone Nevertheless, the XRP Ledger AI Hub launch has not changed the short-term XRP price trend. XRP remains below key moving averages, keeping the market structure under pressure.
The 50-day EMA sits near $1.18, while the 100-day EMA is around $1.28. The 200-day EMA near $1.49 remains a wider resistance zone for any stronger recovery attempt.
Source: TradingView On the downside, traders are watching support near $1.05 and $1.02. A break below this range could expose XRP to another wave of selling, especially if broader crypto sentiment weakens.
On-chain activity also shows caution. Active addresses recently dropped to about 14,500 from nearly 31,000 a day earlier, after peaking near 43,000 on June 30.
ETF activity has also slowed, with no recorded spot XRP ETF flows on Monday and Tuesday. Cumulative inflows still stand near $1.49 billion, but fresh demand remains limited.
Futures data adds to the softer picture. Open interest has slipped from late-June levels, showing weaker speculative appetite as XRP struggles below resistance.
The split between network utility and price action is now central to XRP’s next move. Agentic payments may support a longer-term XRPL adoption story, but traders still need a stronger price reaction above $1.18.
Ripple has signed a five-year sponsorship deal with the University of Kansas, marking a significant collaboration between the cryptocurrency industry and college athletics. Under the agreement, the XRP logo will feature on the jerseys of the Kansas Jayhawks’ football and basketball teams, with plans to extend the branding to uniforms across other athletic departments within the university.
A milestone partnership for college sports and cryptoThis partnership represents the first time a cryptocurrency company has joined forces with a major NCAA Division 1 athletic program. The groundbreaking deal is expected to bring the XRP brand to a broad audience and enhance the visibility of the cryptocurrency sector within mainstream sports culture.
Brad Garlinghouse emphasized that this agreement is deeply personal, noting that XRP will be the first cryptocurrency to feature on the uniforms of his alma mater’s prestigious athletic program.
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, hails from Topeka, Kansas, and is an alumnus of the University of Kansas where he studied economics. For Garlinghouse, the sponsorship goes beyond business interests, carrying significant personal meaning tied to his own academic and regional roots.
Supporting education and technology initiativesAlongside the sponsorship, Ripple will fund new programs focused on the academic and financial development of university athletes. These initiatives are slated to emphasize finance and technology education. The company aims for a broad impact, opening access not only to student-athletes but also to the greater campus community.
Glossary: An XRP Ledger validator is a server that verifies transactions and helps maintain consistency in the network’s ledger. Universities and institutions can contribute technically to the network by operating such validators.
The University of Kansas is no stranger to the XRP ecosystem. Its School of Engineering already runs an official XRP Ledger validator. This underscores that the partnership is not just for marketing but is also built upon existing technical ties between the institution and the cryptocurrency’s infrastructure.
Market reaction remains subduedDespite the high-profile sponsorship deal, the price of XRP declined by more than 4%. However, derivatives market data reveals that speculative interest in XRP futures increased modestly in the hours following the announcement, with open interest rising by around 1%.
Data shows that open interest in XRP futures increased slightly after the sponsorship announcement.
While the XRP price dropped and derivatives activity saw a limited uptick, investor attitudes suggest that the news was viewed as important for brand exposure but did not sway short-term trading sentiment.
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 XRP Ledger has surpassed 1 million AI-driven payments through the x402 protocol as Ripple-backed t54.ai has launched a dedicated AI Hub for developers, payment services, and autonomous agents building on the network.
Summary
XRP Ledger has surpassed 1 million AI-powered payments through the x402 protocol. Ripple-backed t54.ai has launched the XRPL AI Hub for developers, AI agents, and payment services. The announcements come as over 55% of trusted validators have adopted the xrpld v3.2.0 upgrade. According to a post on X from Ripple-backed t54.ai, the new XRPL AI Hub brings together AI projects, agents, developer tools, payment services, and technical resources into a single platform designed to help users discover and build applications on the XRP Ledger. The company said the hub was launched with support from Ripple developers and the XRP Ledger Foundation.
T54.ai explained that the platform is organized into three main sections. The first tracks live x402 payment activity on the XRP Ledger, while the second provides documentation, software development kits, code repositories, and other developer resources.
A third directory lists AI agents, merchants, services, and projects already operating on the network, allowing builders to identify existing infrastructure before launching new applications.
AI infrastructure on XRPL continues to expand The launch follows Ripple’s rollout of the XRP Ledger AI Starter Kit several weeks ago, which introduced tools allowing AI agents to send and receive payments using XRP and RLUSD. That release also added support for XRPL within the x402 protocol, enabling automated machine-to-machine payments on the network.
Separately, the XRP Ledger Foundation announced on X that the network has processed more than 1 million agentic payments through x402. While sharing the milestone, the Foundation also welcomed the launch of the XRPL AI Hub, describing it as a central ecosystem platform for developers, users, and community participants working with AI applications on the ledger.
Commenting on the achievement, XRPL validator Vet said he was not surprised by the payment milestone. According to Vet, the XRP Ledger’s architecture is well suited for AI-based payment systems because it combines low transaction costs, predictable fees, XRP’s global liquidity, and a built-in decentralized exchange that enables continuous asset swaps without centralized controls.
Validator upgrade continues toward activation The AI-related announcements come as the XRP Ledger continues progressing toward another network upgrade. As crypto.news reported on July 7, more than 55% of trusted validators have already upgraded to xrpld v3.2.0, moving the amendment process closer to activation.
According to XRP Ledger Explorer data cited in the report, 84 trusted validators, representing 55.63% of the validator set, are currently running xrpld v3.2.0, while 353 network nodes, or 42.12% of all nodes, have installed the latest software. Version 3.1.3 remains active on 58 trusted validators and 440 nodes.
Under the XRP Ledger’s governance rules, protocol amendments require approval from more than 80% of trusted validators for two consecutive weeks before they become active. Based on the current validator distribution, roughly another quarter of the trusted validator set must migrate to the latest version before the upgrade can advance toward activation.
The xrpld v3.2.0 release introduces infrastructure updates, bug fixes, and developer improvements across the network. It also implements the XLS-0095 proposal, officially renaming the ledger’s core server software from rippled to xrpld, a change intended to align the software’s identity more closely with the XRP Ledger ecosystem.
Ripple’s landmark five-year sports sponsorship with the University of Kansas may have delighted XRP enthusiasts, but not everyone within the cryptocurrency community is buying the hype.
Zach Rynes, who is widely known as the Chainlink community lead, took to social media to slam what he perceives as a rather desperate marketing stunt.
He believes that there is a disconnect between Ripple’s corporate actions and the retail investors holding its native token.
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As reported by U.Today, Ripple recently announced that the XRP logo will be prominently featured on the uniforms of the Kansas Jayhawks' football and basketball programs.
In response to the announcement, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse celebrated it as a "rare moment where my professional and personal worlds collide."
Sponsoring sports vs. selling softwareAccording to Rynes, a sports marketing campaign focused on retail investors would be entirely illogical for a company that ostensibly offers payments software to institutions.
"Sponsoring a college sports program with the XRP logo on the jersey doesn’t make much sense if you think Ripple’s primary business is selling financial technology to banks," Rynes asserted.
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Instead, the Chainlink community lead posited that the marketing push is meant to appease the retail buyers of the "bank-themed meme coin." "But it makes perfect sense when you understand Ripple is really in the business of selling a premined, bank-themed memecoin to retail," he stated.
Rynes further claims that Ripple uses its massive escrow holdings of XRP to enrich its internal equity holders.
According to Rynes, Ripple executes these "coins they sell to fund corporate acquisitions and equity buybacks of Ripple Labs stock, building enterprise value for the sole benefit of shareholders at the direct expense of token holders."
He further claimed that the firm’s software delivery and other operational units pale in comparison to the revenue generated by unloading tokens onto the open market. "Ripple’s private round valuations are tied to the treasury value of their zero cost basis XRP stash and their ability to extract from it for shareholders, every other business line is a rounding error in comparison," Rynes added.
At the same time, some XRP fans pushed back against the critique by pointing out that LINK is currently sitting in 20th place on CoinMarketCap after previously being viewed as one of the top altcoin competitors.
Haven’t heard a Zach rant against XRP since Link was in 11th spot on market cap on its way to thè flippening https://t.co/Fbin0mH6BB
Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license approval in Luxembourg completes Ripple’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) requirements, making it fully compliant for cryptoasset services across the European Economic Area
Luxembourg — 6 July 2026 – Ripple, the leading provider of blockchain-based enterprise solutions across traditional and digital finance, today announced it has received authorisation of its Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). The authorisation follows the preliminary approval announced in June 2026 and confirms Ripple as fully MiCA-compliant, with its end-to-end regulated crypto payments product now available to financial institutions, corporates and businesses across all 30 countries of the European Economic Area.
“This CASP authorisation means Ripple enters the post-transitional MiCA era fully compliant and ready to scale,” said Cassie Craddock, Managing Director, UK & Europe at Ripple. “The institutions we work with across Europe are looking to build their digital assets services alongside regulated partners, and Ripple is licensed and ready to meet that demand.”
Alongside its EU EMI license, Ripple’s CASP approval makes it one of a small number of digital asset firms to have full authorisation under MiCA, adding to a global portfolio of more than 75 regulatory licenses.
About Ripple
Founded in 2012, Ripple is the leading provider of blockchain-based enterprise solutions across traditional and digital finance. Its solutions span global payments, custody, liquidity, and treasury management, serving as a one-stop shop for moving, storing, exchanging, and managing value. Ripple's stablecoin, RLUSD, and the cryptocurrency XRP underpinning these solutions allow Ripple and its customers to shape the modern financial system.
Ethereum has been testing the crucial $1,800 resistance level in recent days, drawing attention from market observers. On-chain data indicates that around 4.3 million ETH were transacted at this price point in previous sessions. This high level of trading activity has turned $1,800 into a pivotal threshold for determining the cryptocurrency’s short-term direction.
The $1,800 level shapes near-term momentumIf buyers can reclaim control over the $1,800 zone, technical charts point to subsequent resistance levels at $1,980 and $2,079. Clearing these hurdles would suggest a stronger recovery is underway and some of the selling pressure has been mitigated.
Analyst Ali Charts highlights the significance of this high-volume area near $1,800. Some investors who bought here may take profit as prices rise, while others could wait for a more decisive breakout to maintain their positions.
Ali Charts’ data reveal that nearly 4.3 million ETH changed hands around $1,800, making this region one of the most critical short-term thresholds for Ethereum.
Glossary: URPD refers to on-chain distribution data that shows the volume of assets traded at specific price levels. As it reveals areas of investor concentration, it is widely used to evaluate support and resistance zones.
Conversely, failure to overcome the $1,800 barrier could trigger a loss of momentum. In such a scenario, Ethereum may retreat to areas with lower trading volume, with the $1,237 level emerging again as the first major support line.
Cautious outlook prevails in broader analysisMore cautious assessments continue to dominate the technical outlook. The analyst team at More Crypto Online notes that Ethereum has yet to confirm a sustained long-term bottom with a strong technical formation. According to their analysis, it may be premature to declare that the broader downtrend is over.
On the daily chart, Ethereum is trading near both a significant Fibonacci resistance zone and its long-term downward trendline. In the short term, following $1,815, resistance is identified at $1,926, $2,045, and $2,226 as further key levels to monitor.
More Crypto Online emphasizes that while the current bullish move is notable, it does not in itself confirm a full trend reversal. A more robust structure is needed to signal a weakening in the larger downtrend.
On the downside, $1,554 is tracked as the next crucial support level. If Ethereum fails to hold after a rejection at resistance, the bearish setup may gain renewed strength.
The analyst adds that historic correction rates and RSI behavior do not completely rule out the possibility of a deeper bottom, with risks potentially extending as low as the $1,000 region. For a more optimistic picture to emerge, analysts point to the need for a clear five-wave upward structure on higher timeframes.
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.
Ethereum has been trying to recover from its early June sell-off, but the rebound is getting rejected from a technically significant resistance area. While short-term momentum still remains constructive, both the daily structure and the Coinbase Premium Index suggest buyers still have work to do before confirming a broader trend reversal.
Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart The daily chart shows ETH trading around $1.74K after bouncing from the major demand zone at $1.5K. That area once again attracted buyers and produced a sharp recovery, allowing the asset to attack the $1.85K region once more.
Despite the rebound, Ethereum remains below the long-term descending trendline that has capped it since last year. The recovery has also stalled beneath the resistance at $1.85K, which almost aligns with the trendline and represents the first major barrier buyers must overcome.
Adding to the bearish higher-timeframe picture, the price continues to trade below both the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, with the 200-day MA positioned considerably higher near the $2.2K area. This indicates that the broader trend remains bearish despite the recent recovery.
A decisive daily close above the $1.85K resistance could trigger a move toward the next supply zone around $2K to $2.2K, where the moving averages are also located. Until then, the current advance appears to be a recovery within a larger downtrend rather than a confirmed trend reversal. On the downside, losing the $1.5K support would expose the market to a much deeper decline and an overextension of the bearish trend.
ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart The 4-hour chart highlights improving short-term market structure following the strong impulsive rally from the $1.5K region. ETH successfully reclaimed the previous short-term highs around $1.6K, which now acts as bullish order block support following the breakout.
The latest price action shows Ethereum consolidating below the $1.85K resistance zone after failing to extend higher. Recent candles indicate mild profit-taking, while the RSI has cooled from overbought conditions and has fallen back toward the midline, suggesting bullish momentum has weakened in the short term without completely disappearing.
As long as the price holds above the $1.65K order block, the current pullback appears to be a healthy correction within the ongoing recovery. A successful breakout above $1.85K would likely open the path toward the psychological $2K region.
However, failure to defend $1.65K could shift momentum back in favor of sellers and increase the likelihood of another test of the $1.5K support area.
Sentiment Analysis The Coinbase Premium Index continues to provide a cautious backdrop. The indicator remains below the neutral zero line, with the latest reading around -0.07, indicating that ETH is still trading at a discount on Coinbase relative to other major exchanges.
Historically, sustained positive readings have reflected stronger buying activity from U.S.-based institutional participants. In contrast, the current negative premium suggests institutional demand remains relatively subdued despite Ethereum’s recent rebound.
The chart also shows repeated failed attempts to establish a lasting positive premium throughout recent months, implying that rallies have generally lacked consistent institutional accumulation. While the latest recovery in the index hints at improving sentiment, it has yet to reclaim positive territory, making it difficult to argue that large U.S. buyers have returned in force.
For the broader recovery to gain greater conviction, a breakout above the $1.85K resistance accompanied by the Coinbase Premium Index moving back into positive territory would provide stronger confirmation that institutional demand is beginning to support the advance. Until then, Ethereum’s recovery appears constructive but remains technically vulnerable to renewed selling pressure.
Despite months of market volatility, Ethereum and Bitcoin holders continue showing little interest in returning coins to exchanges. This does represent much more than decreased investor trading enthusiasm.
Persistent withdrawals continued reducing the amount of liquid supply available on the market.
As of press time, the total number of Bitcoins stored on exchanges was at an all-time low for any time period since 2017. At the same time, the total number of Ethereum [ETH] stored on exchanges was also at an all-time low for any time period since 2015.
Source: Santiment Simultaneously, ongoing negative Netflows indicate that institutional and longer-term holders prefer to store their coins using self-custody models such as ETFs or corporate treasuries rather than storing them on exchanges.
Therefore, this migration will remove additional coins from potential sales. Yet in turn, it will provide even less selling pressure in the short term to further increase the conviction behind buying. While lower exchange balances may result in lower prices for investors, they do create scarcity.
If demand continues recovering, limited liquid supply could amplify price discovery and support a more structurally driven market cycle.
Long-term holders reinforce Bitcoin’s supply floor Behind the continued decline in exchange balances, Bitcoin [BTC] Long-Term Holders are steadily absorbing the circulating supply. That behavior reflects growing conviction rather than defensive positioning, as experienced investors continue accumulating during market weakness.
Long-Term Holder Net Position Change has returned to positive territory, confirming a shift from distribution toward renewed accumulation.
Meanwhile, HODL Waves and rising illiquid supply show older coins remaining dormant despite recent volatility.
That behavior further reduced Bitcoin’s availability for active trading. On top of that, the Accumulation Trend Score indicated continued buying across smaller and medium-sized wallets.
Supply held by Long-Term Holders approached 15 million BTC.
By contrast, Short-Term Holder supply declined to roughly 16.75 million BTC. The shift suggested Bitcoin continued moving from shorter-term participants into stronger conviction holders.
Source: Glassnode Even so, tightening supply alone may not sustain Bitcoin’s recovery.
A lasting uptrend would still require stronger buying demand to absorb available liquidity. Without that support, Bitcoin could struggle to maintain momentum despite increasingly scarce exchange balances.
Final Summary Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH] exchange supply continues tightening, reinforcing long-term accumulation. Bitcoin needs stronger demand to sustain its recovery amid shrinking supply.
Russia has taken another step toward easing restrictions on cryptocurrency payments. The Financial Markets Committee of the State Duma has approved the updated draft law “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights” for its second reading. If passed, the regulation would legalize the exchange of certain cryptocurrencies for others and permit crypto asset payments in specific situations.
Broader scope for crypto paymentsThe latest version of the bill would allow investors to use digital assets for the purchase of securities outside of public offerings. In addition, it lays a legal foundation for swapping between different cryptocurrencies and for using crypto to pay transfer fees on various blockchain networks.
The Russian Federation will permit the use of digital currencies and digital rights as means of payment for securities, other digital currencies, or digital rights.
The Russian ruble, including the digital ruble, remains the country’s only official payment instrument. However, the bill previously granted exceptions for crypto mining rewards and sanctioned international trade activities, and the latest amendments have further broadened the scope of these exemptions.
Criteria for market entry remain in placeBasic requirements for listing cryptocurrencies on regulated Russian markets remain unchanged. A digital asset must have had an average market value exceeding 5 trillion rubles over the past two years, a daily average trading volume above 1 trillion rubles, and at least five years of trading history on a licensed foreign platform.
Currently, only leading assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum meet these thresholds. Nonetheless, the updated text gives the Board of Directors of the Bank of Russia the authority to approve cryptocurrencies that do not fulfill all three criteria.
The bill’s definition of digital currency may mean that major stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC will not qualify as digital currencies. The language specifies that a digital currency should not have a mandatory issuer.
Expanded access for qualified investorsUnder the new framework, trading platform operators will be able to offer nearly any cryptocurrency to professional investors without prior approval from the central bank. Restrictions remain for retail, or non-qualified, investors, who can purchase only highly liquid crypto assets pre-approved by the monetary authority.
Previously, this group was limited to annual purchases of up to 300,000 rubles in cryptocurrency and could do so through only a single intermediary. Nonetheless, the new regulation somewhat widens access, as under the current structure only highly qualified investors in Russia can acquire digital assets in practice.
The draft law introduces a licensing regime for service providers such as exchanges, brokerages, custodians, and depositories. Furthermore, intermediaries and portfolio managers will be able to conduct transactions with foreign exchanges to link the Russian crypto market to global platforms.
Financial Markets Committee Chair Anatoly Aksakov announced that the committee had approved the bill.
Initially, draft law number 1194918 8 was slated to take effect on July 1. However, proposed amendments delayed the process, pushing the implementation date back to September 1. The regulation now awaits approval by the Federation Council and the signature of Russian President Vladimir Putin to become law.
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 AscendEX collapse didn’t arrive with fireworks. It arrived with frozen withdrawals, a shutdown notice, and a lot of uncomfortable questions. After operating since 2018, the centralized crypto exchange permanently halted trading, deposits, staking, and swap services effective July 1, 2026, while placing all remaining withdrawals under mandatory manual review.
Officially, the exchange blamed the full enforcement of the European Union’s MiCA regulations and the failure of a strategic liquidity transaction. Together, those developments left the platform unable to continue normal operations.
Shutdown Raises Bigger Liquidity QuestionsThe regulatory explanation doesn’t tell the entire story. Independent on-chain observations by ZachXBT had already raised concerns weeks before the closure.
Public hot wallets across Ethereum, Tron, and Solana reportedly showed significantly reduced balances of major assets including ETH, SOL, and USDT. That fueled concerns that liquidity issues may have existed well before the July deadline. The exchange had also previously suffered a $78 million hack in December 2021, adding to speculation that financial pressure had been building for years.
Meanwhile, reports suggested users could still deposit funds while withdrawals were delayed or blocked, creating further uncertainty around the platform’s financial condition.
Manual Withdrawals Offer Little CertaintyPerhaps the most worrying detail lies inside the exchange’s own shutdown terms. Loading profile preview acknowledged that it cannot guarantee either the timeline or the final amount users may receive through the manual withdrawal process.
That’s hardly reassuring. Manual reviews can be expected during extraordinary events, but uncertainty over payout amounts has intensified concerns among users whose assets remain locked.
Some investors have reportedly been unable to obtain transaction IDs for pending withdrawals, leaving them waiting without a clear resolution.
Raisons officielles : pas de licence MiCA, obligatoire en Europe depuis le 1er juillet et un accord de liquidité qui a échoué, la contrepartie n'ayant jamais exécuté
Le plus inquiétant : sur leur propre site, ils écrivent…
— Hasheur (@PowerHasheur) July 8, 2026 AscendEX Collapse Rekindles Custody DebateThe AscendEX collapse is another reminder that centralized exchanges remain dependent on operational resilience, liquidity, and regulatory compliance. As stricter frameworks like MiCA reshape the industry, platforms unable to satisfy those requirements may face increasing pressure.
For users affected by the shutdown, the immediate priority remains recovering their funds. For everyone else, the episode reinforces an old lesson the crypto market keeps repeating: exchange access and asset ownership aren’t always the same thing.
Story Ends Here
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Ethereum is trading near $1,740 at the time of writing after stabilizing above a key support area, but the daily chart still shows a market trapped below its main moving averages. The current setup is not a clean bullish reversal yet; it is a consolidation phase where ETH has stopped falling, while on-chain activity has not shown enough strength to confirm a stronger recovery.
Summary ETH is holding above the $1,700–$1,750 support area. The 50-day SMA near $1,787 remains the first major recovery test. Binance’s Ethereum reserve is moving sideways near 3.86M ETH. Lower velocity and falling volatility point to a wait-and-see market. The Chart Shows Stabilization, Not Strength Yet Ethereum’s latest move on the TradingView daily chart looks like a pause after a steep decline, not a confirmed trend reversal. The price has stopped making aggressive lower lows and is holding above the lower part of its recent range, but it remains below the 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day simple moving averages.
That matters because the first real test is no longer the downside wick. It is whether ETH can reclaim the 50-day SMA near $1,790 and hold above it. Until that happens, the move looks more like a relief bounce inside a broader downtrend than the start of a sustained recovery.
The Support Zone Is Doing the Heavy Lifting For now, the support area around $1,700–$1,750 is the level keeping the chart constructive. As long as ETH holds that zone, the market can keep building a base and attempt another push toward the 50-day SMA.
A break below that area could change the setup. It might suggest that the consolidation failed and that sellers are still controlling the structure. In that case, the previous swing-low region around $1,505–$1,550 becomes the next important downside area to watch.
CryptoQuant Data Confirms the Waiting Game The on-chain picture supports the same conclusion. According to CryptoQuant analysis, Binance’s Ethereum exchange reserve stands near 3,857,896 ETH and has moved sideways over the past few weeks.
That is important because exchange reserve data often shows whether coins are being moved toward trading venues or withdrawn into longer-term storage. A sharp rise in reserves can suggest more ETH is available to sell. A clear decline might point to stronger accumulation or reduced exchange-side supply. The current sideways movement shows neither side has taken control.
Ethereum’s velocity is also weak, sitting near 9.85 after trending slightly lower in recent months. Lower velocity means ETH is circulating more slowly across the network, which points to weaker on-chain economic activity and a slower demand impulse.
The volatility signal points in the same direction. CryptoQuant’s chart shows ATR declining to around 15,362 on the tracked series, suggesting movement has narrowed rather than expanded. In practical terms, ETH is not showing the kind of volatility expansion that usually confirms a new directional phase.
Why the 50-Day SMA Matters The 50-day SMA is the nearest technical barrier because it sits just above current price and near the top of Ethereum’s recent consolidation zone. A daily close above that level may show that buyers are strong enough to push ETH out of the lower range and challenge the next resistance area.
The problem is that the larger trend is still heavy. The 100-day SMA is near $2,024, while the 200-day SMA is around $2,245. That means even if ETH breaks the 50-day average, it can still face a wider resistance band before the daily structure turns convincingly bullish.
What Might Change the Setup For the bullish case to strengthen, ETH needs more than another short bounce. Price needs to reclaim the 50-day SMA, exchange reserves would need to decline more clearly, and velocity would need to recover. That combination can suggest buyers are absorbing supply while network activity improves.
The bearish case may strengthen if ETH loses the $1,700–$1,750 support area while exchange reserves rise. That could point to more coins moving onto exchanges at the same time price support is weakening.
For now Ethereum is in a low-volatility range, not a confirmed recovery. The chart is holding support, but the on-chain data does not yet show strong accumulation or renewed network demand.
The clean bullish signal can be a daily close above the 50-day SMA, supported by falling exchange reserves and improving velocity. The bearish signal might be a rejection near $1,787 followed by a move back below the current support zone. Until one of those happens, ETH remains in consolidation rather than a confirmed trend reversal.
Ethereum just got its own lobbying arm for the suit-and-tie crowd. On July 1, Ethereum Institutional launched as an independent nonprofit designed to do one thing: make it easier for banks, asset managers, and financial giants to build on Ethereum’s blockchain.
The organization is funded by contributors including Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Sharplink, and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin. Its board features Thomas Lee of Bitmine, Joseph Chalom of Sharplink, and Executive Director David Walsh. The mission is straightforward: take the institutional engagement work previously scattered across the Ethereum Foundation and consolidate it under one roof with a broader global mandate.
The numbers behind the push Ethereum currently holds between $161 billion and $180 billion in stablecoins, representing over 50% of the global supply. In the world of real-world asset tokenization, where traditional financial instruments get minted as blockchain tokens, Ethereum commands roughly 53% market share.
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Ethereum Institutional claims connections with over 500 institutions and has hosted what it calls the Institutional Ethereum Forum, a gathering of executives collectively managing around $250 trillion in assets under management.
Who’s already building BlackRock has deployed over $122 million in AUM through on-chain products via Securitize, built on Ethereum’s infrastructure. Visa has been experimenting with Ethereum-based settlement. Coinbase, already one of the largest crypto exchanges globally, continues to expand its Ethereum-native products and services.
The network itself has been running without interruption for over a decade now.
Complementing the Ethereum Institutional launch are other recent ecosystem developments. Ethlabs, a separate entity focused on research and development, has been established to handle the technical side. Ethereum’s protocol has also undergone significant upgrades in 2026, including the Glamsterdam and Hegota updates, which have improved network performance and scalability.
What this means for investors When institutions tokenize real-world assets on Ethereum, they need ETH for gas fees. When stablecoin issuance grows on the network, it deepens Ethereum’s liquidity moats. Every new institutional product built on the chain creates structural demand for the underlying infrastructure.
Ethereum’s 53% share of RWA tokenization and its dominance in stablecoins suggest that institutions prioritize security, liquidity, and track record over raw speed.
Traders and long-term holders should monitor stablecoin supply growth on Ethereum as a leading indicator. If Ethereum Institutional succeeds in its mission, the $161 billion to $180 billion in stablecoins currently on the network could grow substantially.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
In brief Bitcoin fell 2.89% this week, closing at $61,749 after failing to break resistance in the $64–65K range—the key zone bulls needed to reclaim to change the short-term narrative. Ethereum confirmed a weekly death cross for the first time in years, with its 50-week EMA now below its 200-week EMA, and prediction market traders now pricing a 72.3% chance ETH hits $1,500 before it sees $3,000 again. The broader crypto Fear & Greed Index sits at 23 (extreme fear), spot Bitcoin ETFs just ended a 10-day, $2.7 billion outflow streak. The crypto market enters the second week of July in rough shape.
Bitcoin is holding on, but just barely, in the low $60,000s after briefly touching 21-month lows under $58,000 last week. Ethereum is below $1,750, down around 4% on the day, and more than 30% in the last year. The broader market is down, of course, and altcoins are down harder.
The total crypto market cap excluding BTC and ETH shed 30% since January. Crypto IPOs—Gemini, Bullish, BitGo—have imploded since their debut.
The mood is, understandably, grim.
But grim moods have a long history of being wrong at exactly the wrong time. Every major Bitcoin bear cycle since 2009 has ended with a flush, an extreme fear reading, and a moment where the obvious trade looked like going short.
Bitcoin has now been through four such cycles, and in nearly every case, a pre-halving compression phase—where price grinds lower and sentiment deteriorates before the next supply shock—preceded the next leg up. The next halving—when mining rewards, and therefore the supply of newly minted Bitcoin, are cut by 50%—is roughly 21 months away, which historically is when accumulation starts making uncomfortable sense.
The difference this cycle? Crypto is now mainstream.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs, institutional balance sheets, formal accounting standards changes, and a legislative framework for digital assets have all arrived since the last halving. Bitcoin now has a fundamentally different institutional status than it did when BTC was a niche hobby. That doesn't eliminate volatility—it just means the players in this bear market are wearing different suits than last time. Whether that speeds up or delays the bottom is an open question. The charts, for now, have their answer.
Bitcoin price: optimism with an asterisk
Bitcoin opened the week at $63,587, hit a high of $64,657, then closed lower, meaning that the bulls showed up, tried to push through, and failed. Bitcoin is trading hands at $61,749, down 2.89% in the week.
It’s important to note that BTC fell to $58,035 just days ago—a 21-month low—before bouncing.
The resistance zone that stopped the spike is exactly the one everyone was watching. The $64–65K area has been acting as a ceiling since early June, and this week's candle barely kissed it before retreating. On Myriad, a prediction market developed by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, traders are placing nearly 73% odds that Bitcoin touches $55,000 before $84,000. The sentiment among predictors flipped on June 2—before that, the smart money was leaning bullish.
Zooming out on the weekly chart, the Fibonacci retracement (natural support and resistance zones that happen during a trend) of that entire downleg from $82,833 places the $73,245 and $70,284 zone as with the most activity.
The Average Directional Index, or ADX, is at 30.7. The ADX measures trend strength regardless of direction on scale from 0 to 100. When it’s above 25, this tells traders that an actual trend is in place, and 30.7 is solidly there. Based on directionality, bears are in control.
The Relative Strength Index, or RSI, sits at 36.8. RSI measures momentum, similarly on a 0–100 scale: Above 70 signals overbought conditions and usually triggers profit-taking; below 30 signals oversold conditions that typically attract buyers. At 36.8, Bitcoin is close to oversold but hasn't crossed the threshold yet. The technical setup suggests selling pressure may be approaching exhaustion—but "approaching" isn't "done." Right now markets appear to be panic selling.
One note of caution for the bears: The picture painted by the exponential moving averages remains bullish. Bitcoin's 50-week exponential moving average, or EMA, is still above its 200-week EMA. When this happens, it forms a pattern that traders refer to as a “golden cross,” which in this case is technically still intact. But it's narrowing fast. The inverse of a golden cross is a death cross, and if it forms on the weekly chart it would represent a structural shift that very few Bitcoin cycles have survived without a deeper flush first.
Thankfully for permabulls, this has not happened in a while.
Reasons for the bullish case are mostly fundamental:
Spot Bitcoin ETFs just snapped a 10-day, $2.7 billion outflow streak with a $221.7 million single-day inflow on July 2, and have since pulled in roughly $510 million. On-chain data from Glassnode shows long-term holders have returned to accumulation after an extended period of distribution, with buying activity broadening across wallet cohorts.
The Fear & Greed Index at 23, registering “extreme fear,” is historically a contrarian signal—not a guarantee, but a pattern. Some indicators approaching oversold from the weekly chart suggest the selling may be closer to exhausted than just starting.
$BTC has seen a series of bullish patterns broken, evidence of the power of the downtrend. Will this 'W' be the one that breaks the trend?
— John Bollinger (@bbands) July 2, 2026
For the bearish scenario, the technicals are more apparent for those focusing on shorter time frames:
Bitcoin failed to break the exact resistance everyone was watching. ADX at 30.7 with bearish directional index confirms an active downtrend with real momentum. Year-to-date ETF outflows are still negative. Citi downgraded its 12-month Bitcoin forecast to $82,000 with a bear case at $53,000. The Fibonacci target below current price at $57,735 is still the most visible technical magnet on the chart. Myriad's prediction market—where money, not opinions, speaks—says 72.3% chance of $55K first.
Ethereum price: The death cross nobody wanted
Ethereum is trading at $1,729.7, down 3.06% from its $1,784 weekly open. That number is painful enough. But the bigger story isn't the weekly candle—it's what just happened on the weekly chart under the hood.
Ethereum has just confirmed a weekly death cross. The 50-week exponential moving average has crossed below the 200-week EMA for the first time in years. The upcoming days/weeks will be key to define positions for long-term trades if the cross extends and is not invalidated.
On shorter timeframes, death crosses happen regularly and can reverse quickly. On the weekly chart, they represent months of structural deterioration, and they tend to define entire market phases rather than single moves.
Ethereum's daily chart has been in death cross since November 2025, when ETH peaked near $4,100 before beginning its extended decline. That daily bearish structure has now propagated to the weekly frame—a longer-timeframe confirmation that the bear trend isn't a blip.
Traders on Myriad appear as bearish on ETH as they do on BTC, likewise pricing in a 72% chance Ethereum hits $1,500 before $3,000. These odds flipped in May—before that, the market was closer to 50-50 between the two outcomes. The gap between options is now at its largest since June, suggesting conviction has moved firmly into the bearish camp among traders putting actual money on the line.
The Fibonacci retracement on ETH's downleg from $2,465.8 to $1,505.1 defines the zone between $2,098.9 and $1,985.5 as the ones with the most activity to watch for. Current price at $1,729.7 is pinned near the Fib level at $1,731.8. Below that, the next meaningful technical reference is the $1,500 price zone. That's exactly the doom scenario Myriad traders are betting on.
The ADX reads 26.5 with bearish directionality—same story as Bitcoin, just more pronounced. A trend is confirmed, the direction is down, and the bears have the momentum. RSI at 36.9 mirrors Bitcoin's reading almost exactly: bearish, approaching oversold but not there yet.
Some hopium for the bulls: Weekly death crosses on Ethereum have historically appeared around the final stages of bear market cycles—not the middle of them. In prior cycles, the three-day death cross frequently coincided with or immediately preceded significant bottoms. In other words, this is the panic zone in which many people wait to buy the asset for cheap.
If that pattern holds, the pain may be closer to ending than beginning. ETH spot ETFs turned positive on July 2 with $29.1 million in inflows. RSI is approaching oversold on the weekly—a zone that has historically been a strong accumulation signal for patient buyers.
Now for the bears: A weekly death cross is a new structural reality, not a temporary signal—it took months to form and typically takes months to reverse. US spot ETH ETFs logged a record 17 consecutive days of net outflows totaling $401 million in May, followed by another 10-day streak in June.
The Fibonacci target of $1,500 is technically the next major level, and it's the exact number Myriad's 72.3% majority is betting on. Citi's bear case for ETH is $1,094. The weekly structure doesn't give bulls much to work with until the price of Ethereum reclaims the $2,000 area—a 15.6% climb from current levels that would require a sustained trend reversal that no indicator yet confirms.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
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In brief Bitcoin fell 2.89% this week, closing at $61,749 after failing to break resistance in the $64–65K range—the key zone bulls needed to reclaim to change the short-term narrative. Ethereum confirmed a weekly death cross for the first time in years, with its 50-week EMA now below its 200-week EMA, and prediction market traders now pricing a 72.3% chance ETH hits $1,500 before it sees $3,000 again. The broader crypto Fear & Greed Index sits at 23 (extreme fear), spot Bitcoin ETFs just ended a 10-day, $2.7 billion outflow streak. The crypto market enters the second week of July in rough shape.
Bitcoin is holding on, but just barely, in the low $60,000s after briefly touching 21-month lows under $58,000 last week. Ethereum is below $1,750, down around 4% on the day, and more than 30% in the last year. The broader market is down, of course, and altcoins are down harder.
The total crypto market cap excluding BTC and ETH shed 30% since January. Crypto IPOs—Gemini, Bullish, BitGo—have imploded since their debut.
The mood is, understandably, grim.
But grim moods have a long history of being wrong at exactly the wrong time. Every major Bitcoin bear cycle since 2009 has ended with a flush, an extreme fear reading, and a moment where the obvious trade looked like going short.
Bitcoin has now been through four such cycles, and in nearly every case, a pre-halving compression phase—where price grinds lower and sentiment deteriorates before the next supply shock—preceded the next leg up. The next halving—when mining rewards, and therefore the supply of newly minted Bitcoin, are cut by 50%—is roughly 21 months away, which historically is when accumulation starts making uncomfortable sense.
The difference this cycle? Crypto is now mainstream.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs, institutional balance sheets, formal accounting standards changes, and a legislative framework for digital assets have all arrived since the last halving. Bitcoin now has a fundamentally different institutional status than it did when BTC was a niche hobby. That doesn't eliminate volatility—it just means the players in this bear market are wearing different suits than last time. Whether that speeds up or delays the bottom is an open question. The charts, for now, have their answer.
Bitcoin price: optimism with an asterisk
Bitcoin opened the week at $63,587, hit a high of $64,657, then closed lower, meaning that the bulls showed up, tried to push through, and failed. Bitcoin is trading hands at $61,749, down 2.89% in the week.
It’s important to note that BTC fell to $58,035 just days ago—a 21-month low—before bouncing.
The resistance zone that stopped the spike is exactly the one everyone was watching. The $64–65K area has been acting as a ceiling since early June, and this week's candle barely kissed it before retreating. On Myriad, a prediction market developed by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, traders are placing nearly 73% odds that Bitcoin touches $55,000 before $84,000. The sentiment among predictors flipped on June 2—before that, the smart money was leaning bullish.
Zooming out on the weekly chart, the Fibonacci retracement (natural support and resistance zones that happen during a trend) of that entire downleg from $82,833 places the $73,245 and $70,284 zone as with the most activity.
The Average Directional Index, or ADX, is at 30.7. The ADX measures trend strength regardless of direction on scale from 0 to 100. When it’s above 25, this tells traders that an actual trend is in place, and 30.7 is solidly there. Based on directionality, bears are in control.
The Relative Strength Index, or RSI, sits at 36.8. RSI measures momentum, similarly on a 0–100 scale: Above 70 signals overbought conditions and usually triggers profit-taking; below 30 signals oversold conditions that typically attract buyers. At 36.8, Bitcoin is close to oversold but hasn't crossed the threshold yet. The technical setup suggests selling pressure may be approaching exhaustion—but "approaching" isn't "done." Right now markets appear to be panic selling.
One note of caution for the bears: The picture painted by the exponential moving averages remains bullish. Bitcoin's 50-week exponential moving average, or EMA, is still above its 200-week EMA. When this happens, it forms a pattern that traders refer to as a “golden cross,” which in this case is technically still intact. But it's narrowing fast. The inverse of a golden cross is a death cross, and if it forms on the weekly chart it would represent a structural shift that very few Bitcoin cycles have survived without a deeper flush first.
Thankfully for permabulls, this has not happened in a while.
Reasons for the bullish case are mostly fundamental:
Spot Bitcoin ETFs just snapped a 10-day, $2.7 billion outflow streak with a $221.7 million single-day inflow on July 2, and have since pulled in roughly $510 million. On-chain data from Glassnode shows long-term holders have returned to accumulation after an extended period of distribution, with buying activity broadening across wallet cohorts.
The Fear & Greed Index at 23, registering “extreme fear,” is historically a contrarian signal—not a guarantee, but a pattern. Some indicators approaching oversold from the weekly chart suggest the selling may be closer to exhausted than just starting.
$BTC has seen a series of bullish patterns broken, evidence of the power of the downtrend. Will this 'W' be the one that breaks the trend?
— John Bollinger (@bbands) July 2, 2026
For the bearish scenario, the technicals are more apparent for those focusing on shorter time frames:
Bitcoin failed to break the exact resistance everyone was watching. ADX at 30.7 with bearish directional index confirms an active downtrend with real momentum. Year-to-date ETF outflows are still negative. Citi downgraded its 12-month Bitcoin forecast to $82,000 with a bear case at $53,000. The Fibonacci target below current price at $57,735 is still the most visible technical magnet on the chart. Myriad's prediction market—where money, not opinions, speaks—says 72.3% chance of $55K first.
Ethereum price: The death cross nobody wanted
Ethereum is trading at $1,729.7, down 3.06% from its $1,784 weekly open. That number is painful enough. But the bigger story isn't the weekly candle—it's what just happened on the weekly chart under the hood.
Ethereum has just confirmed a weekly death cross. The 50-week exponential moving average has crossed below the 200-week EMA for the first time in years. The upcoming days/weeks will be key to define positions for long-term trades if the cross extends and is not invalidated.
On shorter timeframes, death crosses happen regularly and can reverse quickly. On the weekly chart, they represent months of structural deterioration, and they tend to define entire market phases rather than single moves.
Ethereum's daily chart has been in death cross since November 2025, when ETH peaked near $4,100 before beginning its extended decline. That daily bearish structure has now propagated to the weekly frame—a longer-timeframe confirmation that the bear trend isn't a blip.
Traders on Myriad appear as bearish on ETH as they do on BTC, likewise pricing in a 72% chance Ethereum hits $1,500 before $3,000. These odds flipped in May—before that, the market was closer to 50-50 between the two outcomes. The gap between options is now at its largest since June, suggesting conviction has moved firmly into the bearish camp among traders putting actual money on the line.
The Fibonacci retracement on ETH's downleg from $2,465.8 to $1,505.1 defines the zone between $2,098.9 and $1,985.5 as the ones with the most activity to watch for. Current price at $1,729.7 is pinned near the Fib level at $1,731.8. Below that, the next meaningful technical reference is the $1,500 price zone. That's exactly the doom scenario Myriad traders are betting on.
The ADX reads 26.5 with bearish directionality—same story as Bitcoin, just more pronounced. A trend is confirmed, the direction is down, and the bears have the momentum. RSI at 36.9 mirrors Bitcoin's reading almost exactly: bearish, approaching oversold but not there yet.
Some hopium for the bulls: Weekly death crosses on Ethereum have historically appeared around the final stages of bear market cycles—not the middle of them. In prior cycles, the three-day death cross frequently coincided with or immediately preceded significant bottoms. In other words, this is the panic zone in which many people wait to buy the asset for cheap.
If that pattern holds, the pain may be closer to ending than beginning. ETH spot ETFs turned positive on July 2 with $29.1 million in inflows. RSI is approaching oversold on the weekly—a zone that has historically been a strong accumulation signal for patient buyers.
Now for the bears: A weekly death cross is a new structural reality, not a temporary signal—it took months to form and typically takes months to reverse. US spot ETH ETFs logged a record 17 consecutive days of net outflows totaling $401 million in May, followed by another 10-day streak in June.
The Fibonacci target of $1,500 is technically the next major level, and it's the exact number Myriad's 72.3% majority is betting on. Citi's bear case for ETH is $1,094. The weekly structure doesn't give bulls much to work with until the price of Ethereum reclaims the $2,000 area—a 15.6% climb from current levels that would require a sustained trend reversal that no indicator yet confirms.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
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After its recent attempt to rally, Ethereum is once again flashing signs of technical weakness. While the ETH price remains above a critical support zone, trading indicators now suggest that buying power has lost momentum compared to previous periods, raising caution among market participants.
Pressure increases in the technical outlookOn July 8, 2026, the cryptocurrency analyst known as BATMAN reported that Ethereum had formed a hidden bearish divergence. This pattern is observed when the price fails to reach new highs while certain technical indicators test higher levels—a classic warning sign that, although the bullish trend may not be fully over, buyer strength is waning.
BATMAN noted that the hidden bearish divergence on Ethereum’s chart does not necessarily signal an imminent sharp decline, but emphasized that it creates a technical setup which could make further recovery attempts more challenging.
At the time of reporting, ETH changes hands at $1,714.17. Its 24-hour trading volume stands at $13.12 billion, while its market capitalization is $208.21 billion. Over the past 24 hours, the asset has lost 4.33% of its value.
According to Bollinger Band data, the upper band is at $1,839.76, the middle band at $1,677.38, and the lower band at $1,515.01. Ethereum recently approached the upper band before retracing, though it is still trading above the middle band, suggesting a key area for technical support.
MACD stays positive but momentum fadesThe MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) indicator still remains in positive territory. The MACD line stands at -4.01, the signal line at -30.17, and the histogram at 26.16. While the green bars on the histogram reveal lingering bullish momentum, they have begun to narrow, highlighting a softening in market demand.
Ethereum holds its position as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market value. It serves as the foundational infrastructure for decentralized finance applications, tokenization, NFT transactions, and a wide array of blockchain-based solutions. As a result, shifts in the ETH price are closely followed across the broader digital asset market.
Key support and resistance levels aheadWhile technical signals alone do not dictate price direction, they are crucial for identifying potential breakout zones. Should buying appetite recover, Ethereum could break above the $1,840 resistance, making the latest pullback a temporary pause.
If selling pressure continues and ETH falls below the middle Bollinger Band at $1,677, analysts warn that attention may turn quickly to the key support at $1,515.
In the near term, the trajectory of Ethereum’s price will depend on which side—buyers or sellers—gains the upper hand in the next several trading sessions. Although ETH continues to hold above a critical technical support, weakening indicators mean that market players are adopting a more cautious approach.
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.
Three years ago, roughly 8% of tokenized fund assets sitting on Ethereum had any meaningful interaction with DeFi protocols. That number is now 25%.
What it means practically: the money market funds, Treasury products, and other traditional finance instruments that major institutions have been quietly tokenizing on Ethereum are no longer just sitting there looking pretty. They are being put to work as collateral, as liquidity, as productive on-chain capital inside the same DeFi ecosystem that Wall Street spent years dismissing.
The institutions showed up, and then they stayed BlackRock’s BUIDL fund is probably the cleanest example of how this evolution looks in practice. Launched in 2024, BUIDL is a tokenized U.S. Treasury product that did not just get listed and forgotten. DeFi protocols like Ethena and Spark began using it as collateral, giving the fund a second life beyond its yield-bearing face value.
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Then, early in 2026, BlackRock took another step and enabled BUIDL trading directly on Uniswap.
BlackRock is not alone. JPMorgan Asset Management introduced its tokenized money market fund JLTXX in May 2026, following an earlier fund seeded at $100M. UBS entered the market with its uMINT money market token. VanEck launched its own tokenized fund in May 2026, designed specifically to function as DeFi collateral rather than as a standalone product.
Why Ethereum and why now Ethereum remains the dominant blockchain for tokenized real-world assets, tracked by platforms like RWA.xyz, though its share of the overall market has shown signs of softening as the ecosystem expands. Standard Chartered analysts have projected that the broader tokenized asset market could eventually reach into the trillions.
The 24/7 settlement capability that tokenization enables also matters more than it sounds. Traditional money market fund redemptions operate on business-day cycles. An on-chain version settles continuously, which means DeFi protocols can use these assets as collateral without worrying about settlement windows creating gaps in coverage.
What this means for investors and the DeFi ecosystem For crypto-native investors, the 8% to 25% jump in DeFi utilization of tokenized assets signals something important: the yield-bearing collateral available inside DeFi is becoming higher quality. When a DeFi lending protocol accepts a BlackRock Treasury token as collateral instead of a purely speculative asset, the risk profile of that protocol changes.
Protocols that move early to integrate tokenized real-world assets as accepted collateral are positioning themselves as the on-ramps for institutional capital. Spark and Ethena’s early moves with BUIDL suggest they understood this before most.
The risks are real and worth naming. Regulatory frameworks around tokenized securities interacting with permissionless DeFi protocols remain unresolved in most jurisdictions. Smart contract risk does not disappear because BlackRock’s name is attached to the underlying asset. And the concentration of tokenized assets on a single blockchain creates a single point of systemic exposure if something goes wrong at the infrastructure layer.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
SharpLink (Nasdaq: SBET) pulled in 449 ETH in staking rewards for the week ending July 5, 2026. That brings the company’s total Ethereum stash to 887,174 ETH, a pile worth well over $2 billion at current prices and growing larger every single week.
Here’s the thing about SharpLink: it’s essentially turned itself into a publicly traded Ethereum staking machine. And unlike buying an ETH ETF, this one actually generates yield.
The numbers behind the staking engine Since launching its Ethereum-focused treasury strategy on June 2, 2025, SharpLink has accumulated 22,991 ETH purely from staking rewards. That’s ETH earned just by locking up existing holdings and validating transactions on the network.
The company stakes nearly 100% of its ETH through institutional partners Liquid Collective and Figment. A portion of the company’s assets has also been deployed to Linea, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, as part of a broader yield diversification strategy.
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The 449 ETH earned this week translates to roughly a 2.6% annualized yield on the total holdings, which tracks closely with typical Ethereum staking returns.
From gaming company to Ethereum treasury vehicle If you’re wondering how a company called “SharpLink Gaming” ended up holding nearly 900,000 ETH, the answer is a dramatic corporate pivot. The company rebranded in February 2026 to ditch the gaming association entirely and lean fully into its identity as an Ethereum treasury company.
The playbook should look familiar. It’s the same strategy MicroStrategy pioneered with Bitcoin, just applied to Ethereum with an added twist: staking yield. While MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin sits in cold storage generating zero passive income, SharpLink’s ETH actively earns rewards by participating in network validation.
That distinction matters. Traditional ETH exchange-traded products, including spot ETH ETFs, don’t offer staking rewards to holders due to regulatory constraints. SharpLink has positioned itself as the workaround: buy the stock, get exposure to ETH plus the yield that ETFs can’t touch.
The market has noticed. Institutional ownership climbed to 46% by late 2025. The Russell index inclusion in June 2026, when SharpLink was added to both the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000, likely accelerated that institutional buying as index funds were forced to pick up shares.
The discount problem investors should understand SharpLink shares have displayed significant volatility and frequently trade at a discount to the company’s net asset value calculated from its ETH holdings. In simple terms: if you add up all the ETH SharpLink owns and multiply by the current ETH price, the number you get is higher than what the stock market says the company is worth.
Because SharpLink’s value is almost entirely tied to ETH’s price, the stock amplifies Ethereum’s moves. When ETH drops 5%, SBET might drop 7% or 8% as the discount widens.
The 22,991 ETH in cumulative staking rewards since launch is real yield generated from a real on-chain activity. For investors weighing SBET against alternatives, the calculus comes down to whether the staking yield premium, roughly 2-3% annually, compensates for the risks of holding a small-cap equity instead of the underlying asset directly.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
