The XRP Ledger recorded its strongest network growth in over three months.
XRP is continuing to hold above the crucial $1.00 support level, trading near $1.04 after falling to a 19-month low of around $1.01 on June 25.
Despite the recent price weakness, Santiment found that interest in the XRP Ledger has remained strong.
FOMO Returns According to the latest data, the XRP Ledger recorded 4,941 new wallet creations in a single day, which is its highest level of network growth in more than three months. This suggests that new users are entering the ecosystem at a time when XRP’s price is under pressure, the analytics firm explained.
At the same time, social sentiment has turned increasingly optimistic. Santiment’s data reveal there are now 3.7 bullish comments for every bearish comment, the highest positive-to-negative ratio in three months. As such, many traders are treating the $1.00-$1.05 range as a dip-buying opportunity, which reflects growing fear of missing out (FOMO).
The firm said this optimism is partly driven by XRP’s history of rebounding after sharp declines, ongoing discussions around ETFs and institutional adoption, and the view that larger holders have continued accumulating during the downturn. Santiment added that it remains important to see whether the surge in new wallets develops into steady buying demand or proves to be only short-term FOMO.
Separate data from CryptoQuant showed that whale activity is becoming more prominent across centralized exchanges overall, but less concentrated on Binance. It found that whales are increasingly spreading their activity across multiple trading platforms.
Institutional Demand Even as the price continues to struggle, XRP investment products have managed to attract fresh capital. US-based spot XRP ETFs attracted $15.34 million in net inflows on June 29. The Bitwise XRP ETF accounted for the largest share at $11.94 million, followed by Canary XRPC at $3.40 million.
You may also like: Crypto Analyst Challenges Ripple’s CEO Take on Strategy: ‘Two Giants, Same Model’ XRP Whales Are Moving On, and Binance Is No Longer Their Top Choice Everyone Expects XRP to Crash Further: Is Ripple About to Surprise the Market? June’s total has now surpassed $62 million, bringing cumulative net inflows across all the spot XRP ETFs to $1.48 billion, according to data compiled by SoSoValue.
The XRP Ledger is moving closer to a native credit layer after RippleX said the XRPL Lending Protocol has entered validator voting.
Summary
XRPL’s lending vote could add native credit markets without relying on outside smart contracts. The protocol separates off-chain credit checks from on-chain repayment, interest and default execution. RippleX says the design targets institutions needing compliant liquidity, working capital and asset financing. Jasmine Cooper, head of product at RippleX, said the network has already evolved through core stages of representing value, moving value and trading value. The next step, she wrote, is to “finance value.”
Ripple’s June 29 post frames credit as the missing layer for on-chain capital markets. The company said tokenized assets can now exist and move on-chain, but many markets still lack tools for borrowing, lending, collateral use and short-term liquidity. The XRPL Lending Protocol is designed to address that gap through protocol-level lending rather than a separate application.
Introducing a new financial primitive to XRPL: Credit (now in voting).
We've spent the last few years evolving the XRPL stack:
— Jazzi Cooper (@jazzicoop) June 29, 2026 Lending design separates credit checks The proposed system keeps credit judgment off-chain and execution on-chain. Ripple said institutions would continue handling underwriting, legal review, credit risk and compliance checks outside the blockchain. Once loan terms are agreed, the XRP Ledger would enforce repayment schedules, interest calculations and default rules.
This design differs from many DeFi lending systems, where risk rules and liquidation logic sit directly inside app-level contracts. Ripple said a blockchain should not replace credit teams or legal processes, but it can standardize what happens after a loan agreement is made. The company wrote that the protocol can manage how liquidity is pooled, how loans start, how interest builds and how defaults are processed.
Vaults and loans form core system The lending framework has two main components. Single Asset Vaults, or XLS-65, pool and manage one asset on the ledger. The Lending Protocol, or XLS-66, then allows that pooled liquidity to move into fixed-term loans with defined servicing and repayment terms.
Ripple’s open-source documentation describes XLS-66 as a lending primitive for on-chain, fixed-term, uncollateralized loans funded from Single Asset Vaults. The same documentation says the system relies on off-chain underwriting and risk management, while offering configurable peer-to-peer loans without banks or other traditional intermediaries.
The protocol also uses compliance controls. Ripple said lenders and borrowers would complete checks before joining pools, and verifiable credentials would decide who can take part and under what conditions. That setup aims to support public blockchain access while giving institutions permissioned controls.
Mainnet launch still needs approval The proposals are not live on mainnet yet. Ripple said XLS-65 and XLS-66 remain subject to validator approval, while infrastructure providers and developers can already test the lending system on devnet.
As reported by crypto.news, XLS-66 entered validator voting on Jan. 28 after XRPL version 3.1.0, alongside the companion XLS-65 proposal. The report said the change would build fixed-term, fixed-rate lending directly into the XRP Ledger without relying on external smart contracts.
Security work has also continued before possible activation. As reported by crypto.news, RippleX developers worked with Common Prefix on formal verification for the lending code, aiming to catch edge cases that normal testing may miss. Halborn later completed a re-audit of the lending protocol and found no critical or high-risk flaws.
The lending vote comes as builders prepare products around the proposed framework. As reported by crypto.news, SOIL has said it wants to become one of the first applications to use XRPL’s native lending infrastructure if validators approve the amendments. That would make the vote important not only for core protocol design, but also for future lending, yield and working capital tools on XRPL.
While everyone is waiting for the CLARITY Act to become law, Crypto Researcher Crypto Crusader believes that people are missing the big picture behind Ripple XRP right now. He says, Ripple is already securing regulatory approvals, forming global partnerships, and preparing major industry events to expand XRP across the global market.
Ripple Builds Global Presence Before CLARITY Act VoteRipple currently holds over 75 regulatory licenses and registrations worldwide and partnerships across Europe, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, the UAE, Singapore, Africa, and the United States.
Meanwhile, Ripple XRP isn’t just waiting for the Clarity Act to get approved, Crusader says it is already taking major steps to expand globally.
“Most people just see Ripple getting a regulatory green light, but what I see is Ripple planting seeds for institutional adoption of XRP in global markets right before CLARITY hits.”
Along with this, Ripple is preparing for one of its biggest events yet. Ripple Swell 2026 and the XRPL Apex Developer Summit will be held together from October 27-29 in New York.
The combined event is expected to bring together major banks, fintech firms, developers, and blockchain companies, increasing expectations for new partnerships and product announcements that could boost XRP adoption.
Ripple Already Has CLARITY, Industry Needs ItThe proposed crypto market structure bill (CLARITY Act) aims to establish clear rules defining which digital assets qualify as securities and which do not, something the crypto industry has fought for years.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently said XRP itself already achieved legal clarity after Ripple’s court victory against the SEC. But the industry does not have it.
“For the industry to really move forward in the United States, you need something like the CLARITY Act to make it clear about other digital assets not being securities.”
Even Crusader says that,
“Once Clarity is passed, there is absolutely nothing holding back Ripple & XRP adoption.” “The infrastructure is already approved, regulated, and primed for mass institutional-grade adoption.”
Clarity Act: All Eyes On July 13As of now, the Senate is currently in recess until July 13, with lawmakers working on final revisions. A Senate vote is expected in late July or early August, although the bill still requires 60 votes, including support from at least seven Democrats.
However, missing the August congressional recess could delay the legislation until next year.
As of now, XRP is trading around $1.04, reflecting a drop of 6% in a week. While XRP price is still about 72.7% below its 2018 all-time high of $3.84.
XRP support says that regulatory clarity, combined with Ripple’s expanding global infrastructure, could become the catalyst that finally unlocks the next stage of institutional XRP adoption.
Story Ends Here
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A significant development has taken place in the United States financial system regarding post-trade infrastructure. The National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC), part of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, has launched 24-hour clearing services, five days a week, for US equities. This effectively provides an almost continuous post-trade structure for transactions taking place beyond traditional market hours.
A new era in post-trade processingThis initiative is noteworthy for its role in enabling extended trading hours from a technical perspective. In securities trading, successful completion of a transaction requires matching, clearing, and risk controls prior to settlement. When these processes are not operating near-continuously, longer trading hours can create operational bottlenecks.
The NSCC’s 24×5 clearing model is designed to address this problem. By extending post-trade services to a broader time window in the US equities market, it helps meet the needs of global investors seeking increased access and flexibility beyond traditional trading hours.
The NSCC’s 24×5 clearing service enables near-continuous matching, clearing, and risk management for trades executed outside regular market sessions.
Leading industry institutions such as Nasdaq, Cboe, MEMX, OTC Markets, Instinet, Apex Fintech, Blue Ocean Technologies, and Bruce Markets have voiced support for this change. Their backing reflects the growing demand among market participants for a flexible infrastructure capable of accommodating longer trading periods.
Why is Ripple Prime’s membership under scrutiny?Another key development centers on the position of Ripple Prime. Formerly known as Hidden Road, the firm became a direct member of the NSCC after being acquired by Ripple and rebranded as Ripple Prime. This membership provides the company with direct access to one of Wall Street’s essential post-trade clearing networks.
Operating at the intersection of traditional finance and blockchain-based infrastructure, Ripple Prime reportedly uses the XRP Ledger for its institutional over-the-counter trades and capital markets services. However, DTCC has not stated that XRPL or XRP is currently utilized for settlement in NSCC clearing processes.
Glossary: The NSCC plays a central role in the US by managing clearing and risk processes for securities transactions. “Clearing” refers to validating and netting trades between parties before they are settled.
This development is viewed as one of the signs that blockchain-focused firms are moving from the margins toward closer cooperation with core financial market infrastructure. Notably, this transformation is unfolding gradually, strengthening existing systems rather than replacing them overnight.
With global investors increasingly seeking access to US equities across different time zones and digital assets markets operating around the clock, traditional financial infrastructure is shifting toward a more interconnected and flexible model. NSCC’s new clearing structure and Ripple Prime’s expanding institutional role are the latest examples of this trend.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
XRP is down 6% on the weekly chart. Where will it stop?
Ripple (XRP) Price Predictions: Analysis Key support levels: $1
Key resistance levels: $1.3, $1.6, $2
XRP is Back at $1 Despite the best efforts from buyers, XRP has returned to the $1 support. This is the third time in the past two weeks that this cryptocurrency tested this level. This is somewhat bearish since bulls have failed to push the price away from the key support.
If seller pressure intensifies this week, then this support may eventually crack and turn into resistance. If so, buyers will most likely retreat to 80 cents, where the next major support level is found.
Source: TradingView Momentum Remains Bearish With clear lower highs and lower lows, XRP is in a bearish trend that is still to find a bottom. Because of this, the price has a good chance to drop lower in the coming weeks and turn $1 into resistance.
Moreover, the momentum indicators remain on the bearish side, with the 3-day RSI close to 30 points, which also indicates a bearish trend. As long as the RSI remains under 50, bears retain the upper hand.
Source: TradingView Weekly MACD About to do a Bearish Cross Another concerning signal can be seen on the weekly MACD. The moving averages are about to do a bearish cross. This would be the first time it happens in 2026, and if confirmed, it’s unlikely XRP will enter a recovery in the future.
Considering the above, the outlook for the second half of the year is negative, with lower lows likely. Best to wait for a bottom confirmation before considering an entry on XRP.
Ripple is expanding its presence and corporate relationships in Asia amid surging interest in blockchain-based payment infrastructures. As central banks, regulatory authorities, and major financial firms across the region increasingly turn to digital asset-focused payment solutions, Ripple’s profile and influence have become more visible than ever.
Digital currency conversations pick up speed in ThailandOne of the most significant examples of this trend is Thailand, where digital currency initiatives are accelerating. The Bank of Thailand is working towards launching a one-to-one baht-backed stablecoin by 2027. While it has not been confirmed that Ripple will provide the technology infrastructure for this project, the company has emerged as a key policy stakeholder in shaping Thailand’s digital currency agenda.
Ripple responded to the Bank of Thailand’s 2021 central bank digital currency (CBDC) discussion paper, highlighting the importance of interoperability with international payment standards to enable smoother cross-border transactions. The company also proposed a two-tier CBDC model in which the central bank issues the currency, while licensed financial institutions handle distribution and customer service.
Mini glossary: CBDC refers to digital forms of a central bank’s official currency. A stablecoin is a digital asset typically pegged to a fiat currency.
Additionally, Ripple has unveiled its CBDC platform built on the XRP Ledger, touting advantages for central banks such as faster settlement, reduced operating costs, greater scalability, and increased energy efficiency. The ongoing dialogue between Ripple and Thai central bank officials—inclusive of recent policy events held with TRM Labs—underscores the deepening engagement between the parties.
Ripple advocates for a CBDC model that is both interoperable with international payment standards and operates on two levels to ensure seamless cross-border transactions.
Japan emerges as a strategic hubRipple’s expansion in Asia is by no means limited to Thailand. The company has established partnerships with banks, payment service providers, and financial institutions across markets such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Regional government openness to CBDCs, tokenized assets, and blockchain-based payment networks is driving even greater value to Ripple’s growing ecosystem.
Japan stands out as a particularly strong strategic base for Ripple. The country’s financial giant SBI Holdings has long been a major investor in Ripple and has supported the company’s payment solutions across Asia. In a move that extends its influence further into the digital asset sector, the SBI Group recently agreed to acquire Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank in a deal valuing the company at $289 million. As a leading Japan-based finance conglomerate, SBI Holdings operates across banking, investment, and digital finance sectors.
RLUSD approval draws the spotlightRipple has made a noteworthy move in Japan’s stablecoin market as well. The company’s RLUSD stablecoin has become the first US dollar-pegged stablecoin to receive regulatory approval for domestic distribution in the country. This marks a pivotal milestone as Japan advances its framework for digital assets.
As Asian economies modernize their payment infrastructures, Ripple’s relationships with regulators, its network of corporate alliances, and its blockchain innovations strengthen its foothold in the region. The deepening ties in both Japan and Thailand suggest that Asia could emerge as Ripple’s most significant growth engine in the years ahead.
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.
Ethlabs Releases First-Week FAQ, Outlines Three Strategic Directions
Nonprofit organization Ethlabs released an FAQ in its first week, stating its goal is to advance Ethereum as the core of global financial infrastructure. Its current work focuses on three major directions: chain-layer scaling (including L1 execution scaling, blob scaling and faster finality), platform building (cross-chain interoperability, block construction and EVM standardization), and ecosystem growth and marketing. The team consists of five former core researchers from the Ethereum Foundation, maintaining a complementary and collaborative relationship with the Ethereum Foundation while operating as an independent nonprofit to ensure neutrality and a long-term public-interest orientation. The organization believes that ETH is highly tied to Ethereum's success, and as DeFi, asset issuance and institutional adoption grow, ETH's value-capture capability will continue to strengthen. Ethlabs has not yet disclosed a specific funding amount, but said it has secured sufficient funds to support operations for the next 2–3 years, and its community funding round remains open.
Singapore Court Orders Terraform to Pay Over US$3 Million to 40 UST Investors
The Singapore International Commercial Court has awarded over US$3 million in total damages to 40 claimants related to the collapse of TerraUSD (UST) in a fraud case against Terraform Labs and its founder Do Kwon. The second phase of the case involved 275 investors, with compensation amounts calculated based on factors such as the quantity and duration of UST held by each claimant. The court found that the defendants made fraudulent representations. This judgment is the second batch ruling for this group of collective claims, with subsequent claims and enforcement progress still to be disclosed.
BlackRock Transfers Over 7,400 Bitcoin and 8,150 Ether to Coinbase
BlackRock transferred 7,432 BTC (approx. US$446 million) and 8,150 ETH (approx. US$12.89 million) to Coinbase addresses.
Strategy Launches Digital Credit Capital Framework, Board Authorizes US$2 Billion Securities Buyback and Approves Up to US$1.25 Billion BTC Liquidation Capacity
Strategy announced the launch of a Digital Credit Capital Framework to strengthen digital credit, improve liquidity and maintain long-term bitcoin exposure. The company increased its dollar reserves to US$2.55 billion, covering approximately 17.4 months of dividends, to be used solely for dividend and interest payments and maintained at a minimum of 12 months. The STRC dividend rate was raised by 50 basis points to 12%, with a target range of US$99 to US$100. Strategy's board also authorized up to US$1 billion in digital credit securities repurchases and up to US$1 billion in Class A common stock repurchases, bringing total buyback capacity to US$2 billion. The company also approved up to US$1.25 billion in BTC liquidation capacity to supplement reserves or support capital operations. Last week, Strategy made no bitcoin purchases, keeping its holdings unchanged at 847,363 bitcoins.
BitMine Adds 27,084 ETH Last Week, Total Holdings Rise to 5.7 Million
According to an announcement, BitMine increased its holdings by 27,084 ETH last week, bringing total holdings to 5,700,040 ETH as of June 28, accounting for approximately 4.7% of Ethereum's total supply and achieving 94% of its goal to “hold 5% of ETH supply.” BitMine disclosed that the total value of its crypto assets, cash and other investments is approximately US$9.8 billion, including US$555 million in cash and securities, 206 Bitcoin, US$180 million in Beast Industries equity and US$74 million in Eightco investment. Staked ETH has risen to 4.879 million, over 85% of total holdings, with an annualized staking yield of about US$211 million, further cementing its position as the world's largest ETH reserve institution.
BlackRock's Aladdin Platform Deepens Support for Ethena's Stablecoin Products
BlackRock and Ethena Labs announced a deepening of cooperation. BlackRock's enterprise investment and portfolio management platform Aladdin will add Ethena's stablecoin USDe to its list of supported crypto assets and provide a US$100 million liquidity facility through Securitize to service BlackRock's BUIDL fund. The new arrangement allows eligible BUIDL clients to redeem BUIDL for USDC, USDtb and other stablecoins outside of market hours and swap back to BUIDL, enhancing interoperability between on-chain Treasury funds and stablecoins. USDe is a synthetic dollar that can generate higher yields, unlike USDC and USDT, which are backed by fiat reserves. BUIDL currently has a locked volume of approximately US$3 billion.
Strategy's Unrealized Losses at About US$13.262 Billion, BitMine at About US$10.397 Billion
According to statistics from Ember, bitcoin treasury company Strategy (MSTR) did not continue purchasing BTC last week, with the market focusing more on its ability to use dollar reserves for interest payments. Strategy currently holds about 847,400 BTC at an average cost basis of approximately US$75,700, resulting in an unrealized loss of about US$13.262 billion, a drawdown of roughly 20.7%. Ethereum treasury company BitMine (BMNR) last week added 27,084 ETH at about US$1,648, bringing total holdings to roughly 5.7 million ETH at an average cost of around US$3,399, with an unrealized loss of approximately US$10.397 billion and a drawdown of about 53.6%.
U.S. Senator Mark Warner to Introduce AI Agent Draft Legislation, Regulatory Focus Shifts to Agent Systems
U.S. Senator Mark Warner plans to release a discussion draft related to AI on Monday, focusing on the fast-growing field of "AI agents." The U.S. Congress has already proposed dozens of AI-related bills covering deepfakes, model safety and other areas, and this draft extends regulatory focus further to the cutting-edge domain of AI agents. According to reports, compared with conversational applications like ChatGPT and Claude, AI agents are becoming a key form driving AI technology growth and capital investment, widely used in customer service systems, automated task processing and various online service scenarios, becoming an important development direction for the next phase of the AI industry.
U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Allow Trump to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to allow Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to remain in her position for now, with the removal dispute between her and President Donald Trump to continue through the judicial process. Trump had previously sought to dismiss her based on unsubstantiated mortgage fraud allegations. The case is seen as a key legal test of whether a U.S. president can directly intervene in Fed personnel matters and influence the central bank's independence. The Supreme Court's decision provides legal protection for Cook to retain her position until the case is finally decided.
MiCA About to Take Effect: Millions of EU Users May Be Forced to Switch Trading Platforms
The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) will fully take effect on July 1. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) requires crypto-asset service providers that have not obtained a MiCA license to cease or restrict services in the EU and assist users in transferring assets or self-custody. SwissBorg senior executive Alex Fazel said that this compliance deadline could force over 10 million European users to find new platforms. The CEO of OKX Europe estimates that up to 80% of the roughly 3,000 existing virtual asset service providers in Europe may be unable to continue operations after the new rules take effect. Meanwhile, platforms such as Coinbase and OKX that are compliant or applying for licenses are attracting affected users through deposit and transfer rewards.
Chainalysis Launches Draft Blockchain Tracing Standard
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has released a blockchain tracking ontology proposal, aiming to establish an industry standard for on-chain address clustering and tracing. The document breaks down "cluster" into more granular structures such as "wallet fragments" and proposes a two-layer framework: the first layer constructs an address relationship graph, and the second layer annotates analysis confidence levels, helping law enforcement and prosecutors determine whether the data can be used in cases. Chainalysis bases its proposal on hands-on experience from the U.S. Department of Justice money-laundering case against Roman Sterlingov, co-founder of the mixing service Bitcoin Fog, where the judge deemed its Reactor tool "highly reliable" following a Daubert hearing. The company stressed that on-chain analysis alone cannot directly identify end-user identities and must be combined with offline information such as court subpoenas, and called on the industry to maintain independent review and feedback on its methodology.
UK FCA releases final crypto regulatory framework, mandatory licensing regime to take effect in October 2027
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) finalized a comprehensive crypto regulatory framework on Tuesday, with the mandatory authorisation regime taking effect on October 25, 2027. The framework covers prudential requirements, market abuse supervision and stablecoin standards, applying to crypto trading platforms, custodians, stablecoin issuers, lending and staking service providers, and certain DeFi firms with identifiable controlling entities. Firms may apply for authorisation between September 30, 2026 and February 28, 2027; existing anti-money laundering registrations will not automatically convert. On trading platform rules, the FCA requires UK qualifying crypto asset trading platforms to conduct due diligence, meet admission criteria and publish disclosure documents, while removing the previous exemption that allowed fungible crypto assets to be listed without a disclosure document. Market abuse rules cover insider trading and market manipulation. For stablecoins, the FCA removed the obligation to forecast redemptions of reserve assets, permitted limited intragroup custody arrangements, and lowered the K-SII capital factor for stablecoin issuance from 2% to 1%. Crypto assets on qualifying platforms will be subject to a uniform 40% net exposure requirement and a 40% counterparty default volatility adjustment. FCA Executive Director of Payments and Digital Finance David Geale called the framework a major milestone for UK crypto regulation, providing regulatory certainty while preserving room for innovation.
MSTR and STRC both close up over 12%, edge higher after hours
Market data shows Strategy Class A common stock MSTR closed at $92.68 on Monday, June 29, up 12.60% on the day; after-hours price $93.25, up 0.61%. Strategy perpetual preferred stock STRC closed at $83.67 on June 29, up 12.20%; after-hours price $83.76, up 0.11%. Earlier yesterday, Strategy launched a digital credit capital framework, with the board authorizing $2 billion in securities buybacks and approving a facility to monetize up to $1.25 billion in BTC.
BNY Mellon and Circle expand partnership, add USDC minting and redemption functionality
BNY Mellon (BNY) and Circle Internet Group have expanded their partnership, adding USDC minting and redemption capabilities to its digital asset custody platform. Institutional clients can now hold USDC in BNY digital wallets and direct the bank to execute two-way conversions between USD and USDC. USDC becomes the first stablecoin supported on the platform; BNY said it will gradually support additional stablecoin issuers, initially supporting USDC on Ethereum and Solana. BNY was already the primary custodian for USDC reserves, and the new service creates a seamless bridge between traditional fiat and digital assets.
JPMorgan warns yield-bearing stablecoins could morph into 'shadow banks,' calls for tougher regulation
JPMorgan Global Co-Head of Payments Umar Farooq and CEO of Digital Asset & Blockchain Solutions Peter Muriungi jointly published an article calling for a comprehensive U.S. regulatory framework for digital assets, though without directly mentioning the Clarity Act. The two noted that tokenization and programmable money bring innovation opportunities for global payments and 24/7 settlement, but warned that allowing stablecoins to pay yield could cause the innovation to slide into the "shadow banking" realm. The banking sector widely believes that yield-bearing stablecoins could squeeze bank deposits and threaten credit. Farooq and Muriungi stressed that offering "rewards" or "cashback" on balances without the regulatory standards of traditional deposit products would exacerbate consumer confusion and run risk, and that stablecoins should adhere to the same regulatory standards as deposit products while ensuring AML tools are not overlooked.
U.S. SEC issues final judgment in NanoBit crypto fraud case, fines exceed $5 million
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a final judgment against crypto platform NanoBit, with the parties ordered to pay over $5 million in penalties. The case was originally filed in September 2024 under the Biden administration, with the SEC alleging that NanoBit and related individuals impersonated financial professionals in WhatsApp groups to gain investors' trust between September 2023 and June 2024, inducing them to invest in NanoBit and falsely claiming its affiliate was an SEC-registered broker. The SEC said the purported financial professionals promoted fake initial coin offerings, but no trades occurred on the NanoBit platform, and investor funds actually flowed to scam participants — over $2 million was wired to Hong Kong bank accounts, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto assets were misappropriated. The SEC also issued an investor alert warning that fraudsters use social media and instant messaging apps to perpetrate investment scams.
Housing bill containing CBDC ban sent to Trump, 10 days to sign or veto
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday sent the housing bill containing a CBDC ban (through 2030) to President Trump, who has about 10 days to sign, veto or pocket the legislation.
FG Nexus sells another 3,375 ETH, cumulative losses exceed $86.8 million
FG Nexus sold another 3,375 ETH ($5.34 million), bringing cumulative losses to over $86.8 million. The firm bought 50,770 ETH for $196 million and has now sold 41,675 ETH ($94.51 million).
Tom Lee: Crypto market faces both headwinds and tailwinds, pessimism may have peaked
BitMine Chairman Tom Lee posted on X saying he believes cryptocurrencies are high-volatility assets, and that Bitcoin and Ethereum currently face multiple macro headwinds: market expectations of Fed rate hikes, the unresolved Clarity Act legislation, AI-investment-driven FOMO, and private credit diverting funds. But tailwinds also exist: tokenization is a super trend, crypto is positioned to benefit downstream from AI, money is being digitized into software form, and extreme market pessimism may have approached peak pain.
Securitize set to list on NYSE after investors approve SPAC merger
Tokenization infrastructure provider Securitize has received shareholder approval for its SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners II (CEPT), with the deal expected to close Wednesday. The merged company will list on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the ticker SECZ. CEPT shares surged as much as 20% intraday Monday.
Crypto KOL Ansem airdrops 67.38 million ANSEM to over 700 wallets
Crypto KOL Ansem airdropped 67.38 million ANSEM ($9.43 million) to over 700 wallets. Of that, 49.89 million ANSEM ($6.98 million) went to seven wallets, which have sold 38.29 million ANSEM (current value $5.36 million) for $1.29 million, and still hold 11.6 million ANSEM ($1.62 million).
USD/JPY exchange rate breaks above 162, first time in nearly 40 years
The yen's depreciation pressure continues to intensify, with USD/JPY breaking above the 162 level, the first time since December 1986.
Stream Finance Initiates Creditor Registration, Advancing 'Global Settlement' Process
The collapsed DeFi yield protocol Stream Finance has begun collecting information from potential creditors through an online form, preparing for a "potential global solution." Stream first revealed intentions to wind down back in May. The debt structure is complex: direct holders of xUSD, xBTC, and xETH form one class of creditors, while institutional lenders that accepted Stream tokens as collateral (curators on Euler, Morpho, Silo, Gearbox) constitute another. Research firm Yields and More estimates direct debt exposure at approximately $285 million, with the largest curator TelosC at about $124 million and Elixir at about $68 million (representing 65% of its deUSD stablecoin reserves). Stream has collected claim information but has not committed to a specific payout plan, and creditor priority has not yet been determined. Stream is also involved in a legal dispute with former operator Caleb McMeans. Last November, Stream disclosed that an external fund manager lost roughly $93 million in assets, causing xUSD to depeg and freezing approximately $160 million in deposits. xUSD is currently quoted at around $0.08, down about 92% from its peg price.
US CFTC Launches Broad Investigation into Polymarket, Covering Social Media Activity and Fake Trades
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is conducting a broad investigation into the prediction market platform Polymarket, covering aspects including its social media activity. This follows a Wall Street Journal report that Polymarket hired dozens of primarily college-age social media creators to film fake trading videos to attract users. The probe now covers other facets of the company's business. The CFTC and the Department of Justice last year concluded an investigation into whether Polymarket violated a ban on U.S. users, but some U.S. users still bypass the ban via VPNs and other means to access its main platform. Since reaching a settlement with the CFTC in 2022, Polymarket is technically barred from allowing U.S. users on its main platform, but the company is taking steps to reintroduce its main exchange to the U.S. and working with the CFTC to lift the ban. Senators Adam Schiff and John Curtis sent a letter to the CFTC last Thursday, asking the agency to confirm whether it is investigating Polymarket's advertising practices and how the agency has prevented Polymarket from attracting U.S. users since the 2022 action.
OpenClaw Native Mobile App Launches on Apple App Store and Google Play Store
OpenClaw announced the launch of its native OpenClaw mobile app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Users can pair their phones with a private OpenClaw gateway to access localized AI assistant features, including chat, voice calls, approval management, and device-aware automation. The app adheres to a "local-first" principle, with all keys, configurations, and permissions under the user's full control, and device permissions enabled on-demand.
A Whale Opens a New 22,000 ETH Short Position at 25x Leverage, Worth $35 Million
The whale "0xa6e" opened a new short position of 22,000 ETH at 25x leverage, worth $35 million.
Moonshot AI: All Fundraising Activities Are Handled Solely by the Company; Some Institutions and Individuals Suspected of Fraud
On June 29, AI large model company Moonshot AI issued a statement saying that numerous instances of false fundraising and equity transaction information under the name "Moonshot AI" have recently appeared in the market, and the company has identified some institutions and individuals suspected of fraud. In response, Moonshot AI stated that all its fundraising activities are handled solely by the company. The company has not appointed or authorized any third-party institution to act as a financial advisor or fundraising advisor for any of Moonshot AI's financing transactions (including new share transactions and existing share transfers). Moonshot AI emphasized that transfers of the company's existing shares (including ordinary shares, incentive equity, etc.) must be approved internally by the company. Any existing share transaction conducted without company approval is invalid. The company will reject any form of ownership registration and reserves the right to pursue breach of contract liability against the transferor through all legal means. Additionally, the allocation of new share financing quotas is confirmed based on actual funds received; the company has not made any prior commitments or locked quotas with any institution or individual, nor will it proactively request or authorize any institution to issue asset proof documents. Any behavior claiming to have locked an investment quota in Moonshot AI, presenting documents purportedly "sealed by the company to guarantee quotas," or requesting asset proof documents in the company's name is false or fraudulent, and Moonshot AI assumes no responsibility whatsoever.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Ethereum price today: $1,580BitMine acquired 27,084 ETH last week following its inclusion in the Russell 1000 index.ETH ETFs recorded a seventh straight week of outflows and their largest weekly negative flow since January.ETH briefly recovers to $1,600 but faces key descending trendline resistance.Ethereum (ETH) treasury firm BitMine Immersion slowed the pace of its accumulation of the top altcoin following increased weakness across the crypto market.
The Las Vegas-based firm purchased 27,084 ETH last week, increasing its total holdings to 5.7 million ETH worth $9.22 billion at the time of writing. Last week's purchase represents its fourth-lowest so far this year.
BitMine also increased its staked assets by 160,480 ETH during the period. Its total staked ETH is now at 4.879 million ETH, earning annualized staking revenue of $211 million.
The move comes as ETH continues to experience strong risk-off sentiment across the board. Last week, US spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded a seventh consecutive week of net outflows and their largest negative flow since January worth $273.3 million, per SoSoValue data. The products are currently in their longest weekly outflow streak.
"This past week was a challenging one for crypto investors as ETH fell by 8%, even as Ethereum witnessed notable positive developments such as the creation of Ethlabs, and even the Bank of England softened its stance around stablecoins," said BitMine Chairman Thomas Lee in a Monday statement. "We are nearing quarter-end for June, and it is not surprising to see ‘window dressing’ leading to investors reducing their holdings in assets which have fallen in the past 3 months."
Meanwhile, BitMine was added to the Russell 1000 Large Cap index last week following the index's annual reconstitution. The company claims the Investment Company Institute (ICI) estimates that 20% of a company's shares are held in passive funds and ETFs.
“Being added to the Russell 1000 is expected to add hundreds and possibly thousands of additional institutional investors as equity owners of BitMine,” added Lee.
Last week, BitMine, together with ETH treasury SharpLink, also announced that it will fund the recently launched Ethereum research and development non-profit Ethlabs.
BitMine shares closed trading with a 1.77% gain on Monday, but remained below its net asset value.
Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH struggles at descending trendline resistanceOn the daily chart, ETH is extending its bearish bias, with price remaining well below the 20-, 50- and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs), clustered between roughly $1,670 and $2,004.
The top altcoin remains trapped beneath the descending resistance trendline, with the break level near $1,626, while momentum indicators stay soft: the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 35 and the Stochastic at 26 both hint at lingering downside pressure, with only modest signs of stabilization.
On the topside, initial resistance is seen at the trendline break area around $1,626, followed by the 20-day EMA at $1,670 and the horizontal barrier at $1,741. A sustained recovery above $1,806 and the 50-day EMA at $1,826 would be needed to ease the current bearish tone, with further hurdles at $1,909 and the 100-day EMA at $2,004.
ETH/USDT daily chartOn the downside, immediate support is near $1,524, ahead of a deeper floor at $1,404, while a break below $1,155 would expose a more pronounced medium-term bearish extension.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)
US spot Bitcoin ETFs hemorrhaged $231 million on June 29, extending a painful streak to eight consecutive days of net withdrawals. Spot Ethereum ETFs joined the exodus with $30 million leaving the same day, according to data from SoSoValue.
The June rout by the numbers The $231 million Bitcoin outflow on June 29 wasn’t even the worst single day this month. On June 10, Bitcoin ETFs saw $214 million in redemptions while Ethereum products lost $35.6 million.
June 2026 is on pace for over $4 billion in total outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs. That would make it the largest monthly decline since these products first hit the market in January 2024.
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BlackRock’s IBIT, the dominant fund in the space, has been a significant contributor to the recent redemptions.
On the Ethereum side, the $30.043 million net outflow on June 29 is smaller in absolute terms but still part of a broader negative trend. Ethereum ETFs have historically shown mixed flow patterns, oscillating between modest inflows and outflows. But June has tilted firmly negative.
What’s driving the pullback The short answer: macroeconomics. Rising interest rates make safe-haven assets like Treasury bonds more attractive relative to volatile ones like crypto. When a money market fund pays you a competitive yield for doing essentially nothing, the case for sitting in Bitcoin through a choppy stretch gets harder to make, especially for institutional allocators who answer to risk committees and compliance officers.
What’s changed is the duration and consistency of the selling. Previous outflow episodes tended to reverse within a few days as dip-buyers stepped in. Eight straight days without a positive session suggests something more structural is happening beneath the surface.
What this means for investors For traders watching this space, a few things are worth monitoring closely. First, whether the outflow streak breaks. Second, keep an eye on IBIT specifically. BlackRock’s fund is the bellwether for institutional sentiment in crypto ETFs.
Third, watch the macro calendar. Any shift in Fed rate expectations, whether from economic data surprises or central bank commentary, could rapidly change the calculus for institutional allocators. Crypto’s correlation with rate-sensitive assets means that a dovish surprise could reverse outflows just as quickly as hawkish expectations triggered them.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Key Highlights Bitmine purchased 27,084 ETH in the previous week, deploying approximately $43 million at a mean cost of $1,569 per coin. The firm’s Ethereum reserves now total 5.7 million ETH, representing 4.7% of circulating supply, approaching its strategic 5% objective. On June 26, Bitmine secured membership in the Russell 1000 Index, positioning itself for increased institutional capital inflows. BMNR shares advanced 1.7% on Monday, settling at $13.80, despite experiencing a 9% decline across the preceding five trading days. Combined cryptocurrency reserves, liquid assets, and strategic investments total $9.8 billion. Shares of Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) climbed 1.7% during Monday’s session, finishing at $13.80. This uptick followed a challenging week where the equity declined 9% amid widespread weakness in Ethereum prices.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Inc., BMNR
The Ethereum-focused treasury firm expanded its holdings by acquiring over 27,000 ETH during the past week. This strategic accumulation required an investment of approximately $43 million, executing at a mean price of $1,569 per coin.
Current Ethereum reserves at Bitmine have surpassed 5.7 million ETH. This position represents 4.7% of the total 120.7 million token supply currently in circulation.
Bitmine Adds 27,084 ETH, Holdings Reach 5.70 Million ETH
Bitmine announced it acquired an additional 27,084 ETH over the past week, bringing its total holdings to 5.70 million ETH, equivalent to 4.7% of Ethereum’s total supply. The company also reported $555 million in cash… pic.twitter.com/spsaKyN9M8
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 29, 2026
Company Chairman Tom Lee has publicly established an ambition to control 5% of all circulating Ether. The organization refers to this strategic objective as achieving the “alchemy of 5%.”
Major Index Addition Milestone Bitmine formally entered the Russell 1000 Index on June 26. This benchmark monitors the top 1,000 publicly traded American corporations by market capitalization.
According to Lee, this inclusion may attract hundreds or potentially thousands of institutional investment entities. Numerous mutual funds, exchange-traded products, and retirement portfolios benchmark against the Russell 1000 and face mandates to acquire constituent securities following index additions.
Additional cryptocurrency-related enterprises achieved index milestones during the same period. Sharplink, Forward Industries, Gemini, and Galaxy Digital secured Russell 3000 membership on Friday.
Lee referenced academic studies indicating passive investment vehicles may eventually hold as much as 25% of a security’s outstanding shares following major index incorporation. This phenomenon explains why corporations closely monitor annual reconstitution schedules.
Ethereum Market Volatility Market conditions presented challenges alongside positive developments. Ethereum declined 8% throughout the week, temporarily trading beneath the $1,600 threshold.
Lee attributed portions of the selling pressure to quarterly “window dressing” activity, where portfolio managers reduce exposure to recent underperformers. He acknowledged Ethereum’s negative performance across the past ninety days.
Nevertheless, Lee highlighted several encouraging indicators. He referenced the launch of Ethlabs and increasingly favorable stablecoin regulations from the Bank of England as constructive catalysts for network growth.
In addition to its Ethereum position, Bitmine maintains 206 Bitcoin, a $180 million equity stake in Beast Industries, and $74 million invested in Eightco Holdings. When combined with $555 million in cash and liquid securities, aggregate holdings total $9.8 billion.
The organization has staked approximately 4.9 million ETH via its MAVAN infrastructure. At prevailing market rates, this represents roughly $7.7 billion, with Bitmine forecasting annual staking income approaching $211 million from these assets.
Bitmine maintains its position as the world’s preeminent Ethereum treasury operation. Among all cryptocurrency treasuries globally, it ranks second, behind only Strategy Inc., which controls 847,363 Bitcoin valued near $50 billion.
Trading metrics underscore Bitmine’s market significance. Through June 26, the stock registered average daily trading volume of $643 million across the trailing five-day period, placing it 240th among all domestically listed securities.
On June 10, Bitmine successfully completed an offering of 9.50% Series A Preferred Stock, generating net capital of approximately $273.8 million. These preferred shares currently trade on the NYSE under ticker symbol BMNP, distributing weekly dividend payments.
Bitmine earned recognition on the Fortune 100 Crypto List announced June 11. The methodology combines quantitative analysis from Inca Digital with qualitative assessments from cryptocurrency sector specialists.
Altcoins remain one of the weakest parts of the crypto market, with most Binance-listed tokens still trading below a key long-term trend line.
Summary
Altcoins face broad technical weakness as 84% of Binance listings sit below 200-day averages. The eight-month slump ranks second-longest since 2020, behind the previous bear market drawdown cycle period. Current prices show limited rebounds, with Bitcoin near $59,464 and Ethereum near $1,588 today levels. CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost said about 84% of altcoins available for spot trading on Binance now trade below their 200-day moving averages.
The 200-day moving average tracks an asset’s average price over roughly the past 200 trading days. Traders often use it to measure whether a market has long-term strength or weakness. Darkfost described the current setup as “total underperformance” across most altcoins listed on the exchange.
Altcoin slump becomes second-longest since 2020 The weak trend has lasted nearly eight months, making it the second-longest altcoin underperformance streak since 2020. Darkfost said the only longer period came during the previous bear market, when the same condition lasted about 10 months.
Altcoins performance, source: CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost The analyst also said “every attempt at a momentum recovery has failed outright.” Total 3, a measure of the altcoin market excluding Ethereum, has also closed below its 200-day moving average on the weekly chart. That adds pressure because the weakness is not limited to small tokens.
Market prices show mixed moves Crypto.news market data showed Bitcoin trading at $59,464, down 1.06% over 24 hours and 6.08% over seven days. Ethereum traded at $1,587.79, up 0.4% in 24 hours but down 7.22% over the week.
Some large altcoins showed small daily rebounds. Solana traded at $73.91, up 1.62% over 24 hours and 4.18% over seven days. Hyperliquid traded at $65.39, up 3.74% on the day, while Zcash traded at $398.97, up 3.81% over 24 hours but down 9.09% over seven days.
Bitcoin link remains strong Darkfost said altcoins have stayed highly tied to Bitcoin’s price action during this cycle. That link matters because weak Bitcoin demand can limit altcoin rebounds, even when some tokens post short-term gains.
As previously reported by crypto.news, Darkfost recently flagged a rise in BTC flows into Binance after Bitcoin moved below $60,000. He said average monthly inflows into Binance doubled from 3,880 BTC to 7,600 BTC since April 13, creating possible sell-side pressure.
As reported by crypto.news, crypto search interest has also fallen to a one-year low. That report said retail attention is lower than during the 2022-2023 bear market, even though prices remain far above old cycle lows.
Selective buying becomes harder Darkfost said long weak periods have “historically also presented medium-term opportunities.” He added that finding them now requires more careful asset selection than in earlier cycles.
That view fits the current split in the market. As reported by crypto.news, Hyperliquid and Zcash recently led parts of the altcoin market, but analysts warned that crowded sentiment and stretched indicators could raise pullback risk.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Key Highlights BitMine acquired 27,084 ETH in the past week, marking its fourth-smallest weekly accumulation this year, pushing total reserves to 5.7 million ETH. US-based spot Ethereum ETFs experienced their seventh consecutive week of net redemptions, shedding $273.3 million in the steepest weekly decline since January. Sharplink re-entered the market after an eight-month hiatus, acquiring 39,196 ETH valued at $62.4 million across three consecutive days. Ethereum has declined approximately 50% year-to-date and approaches the possibility of recording three consecutive quarterly losses. Derivatives markets reveal $4.09 billion in short positions compared to $1.31 billion in long positions, highlighting prevailing bearish sentiment among traders. Ethereum’s market value hovers around $1,580 as the blockchain network contends with diminishing corporate accumulation and persistent outflows from investment vehicles. The cryptocurrency has found it difficult to maintain critical price thresholds throughout June.
Ethereum (ETH) Price BitMine Immersion, holding the distinction of being the largest institutional ETH holder, acquired 27,084 ETH during the previous week. This transaction elevated the company’s aggregate holdings to 5.7 million ETH, representing approximately $9.22 billion in value. The purchase volume represents one of the company’s most modest weekly acquisitions this year.
Simultaneously, BitMine allocated 160,480 ETH to its staking infrastructure. The firm’s staked portfolio now encompasses 4.879 million ETH, producing approximately $211 million in annual staking rewards.
BitMine Chairman Thomas Lee attributed the reduced acquisition pace to end-of-quarter “window dressing” activities. He observed that market participants frequently reduce exposure to underperforming assets during quarterly closings, regardless of positive fundamental developments.
Investment Fund Redemptions Accelerate US spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds registered their seventh straight week of negative net flows. These investment vehicles experienced redemptions totaling $273.3 million over the past week, representing the most substantial weekly decline since January, based on SoSoValue tracking data.
BTC spot ETFs bled $𝟮𝟯𝟭𝗠 in single-day outflows on June 29, while ETH ETFs lost $30M — a combined ~$261M institutional pullback in one session.
𝗛𝘂𝗽𝘇𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲: This is significant structural sell pressure, converging with the $100M+ whale BTC shorts on Hyperliquid… pic.twitter.com/0DwUMBIAuv
— Hupzy (Spot On Chain) (@hupzy_agent) June 30, 2026
BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust experienced the largest redemptions among ETF providers. The trend demonstrates retail and institutional fund investors reducing allocations while certain corporate treasuries maintain their accumulation strategies.
This divergence has generated an atypical market dynamic. Corporate balance sheet strategies continued adding ETH exposure while traditional fund investors redirected capital to alternative investments.
Sharplink, another prominent institutional ETH holder, re-initiated purchases following an eight-month dormant period. Blockchain analytics from Lookonchain documented the company’s acquisition of 39,196 ETH valued at $62.4 million through three separate transactions during the previous week.
Arkham Intelligence data identified the initial purchase batch through FalconX on Thursday. Sharplink executed additional transactions on Friday, complemented by substantial over-the-counter trades throughout the weekend.
As of June 21, Sharplink maintained holdings of 876,285 ETH, establishing its position as the second-largest public corporate ETH holder after BitMine. The company has not publicly addressed the rationale behind resuming its accumulation strategy.
Quarter-End Performance and Derivatives Market Positioning Ethereum has experienced a decline approaching 50% since the beginning of January. This downturn temporarily allowed Tether’s USDt stablecoin to surpass ETH in overall market capitalization during the past week.
Cryptocurrency analyst Max Crypto highlighted in a social media post that ETH approaches the possibility of recording three consecutive quarterly losses for the first time in its history. He characterized this pattern as a structural concern extending beyond temporary price volatility, prompting market observers to monitor whether the asset can prevent a fourth consecutive negative quarter.
ETH IS ABOUT TO MAKE HISTORY.
But it's not something most of us wanted.
For the first time ever, $ETH is set to close 3 consecutive quarters in red.
Even during the brutal bear market of 2018 and 2022, this didn't happen.
What went wrong with Ethereum this cycle? pic.twitter.com/BA79N77KQM
— Max Crypto (@MaxCrypto) June 29, 2026
Derivatives market information from CW indicated that high-leverage short positions on ETH totaled $4.09 billion. Long positions registered $1.31 billion on the identical platform, suggesting that speculative traders anticipate continued downward price movement.
From a technical perspective, ETH trades beneath its 20-day, 50-day, and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages, which range between $1,670 and $2,004. The Relative Strength Index currently registers 35, while the Stochastic indicator stands at 26, both metrics indicating persistent downward momentum with minimal signals of reversal.
Market analyst Daan Crypto Trades remarked on social platform X that Ethereum has been unable to successfully recapture previous support zones. He indicated that a recovery above $1,750 would represent the initial indication of bullish strength on extended timeframes, whereas a breach below the current $1,500 support level, which has provided a floor on two prior occasions, could trigger a decline toward April 2025 price lows.
$ETH Has been failing pretty much every attempt at retaking a previous support or important level.
If we'd see a move back above $1750 at some point, that'd be the first sign of strength on the higher timeframes for me.
Right now sitting at that ~$1.5K support area that has… pic.twitter.com/7cfUEiCQyz
— Daan Crypto Trades (@DaanCrypto) June 29, 2026
Near-term resistance levels for ETH are positioned at $1,626, followed by additional barriers at $1,670 and $1,741. Support zones are established near $1,524, with a secondary support foundation at $1,404.
Ethereum has fallen another 7% this week, extending its monthly losses to nearly 22%, now trading at around $1587. But while the price continues to struggle, Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee believes the recent decline has nothing to do with the ETH Price drop. Here’s why!
Despite this, Bitmine has continued buying Ethereum, bringing its holdings close to controlling 5% of the entire ETH supply.
Tom Lee Blames Quarter-End Selling, Not Ethereum WeaknessIn a recent press release, Tom Lee said that the recent decline in Ethereum price is largely driven by “window dressing,” a quarter-end strategy where fund managers reduce exposure to assets that have performed poorly before the quarter ends.
“This past week was a challenging one for crypto investors as ETH fell by 7%,” explaining that such selling is common as institutional investors rebalance portfolios before quarterly reporting.
Ethereum has dropped nearly 22% over the past month, slightly worse than Bitcoin’s 19% decline.
Despite all, Lee believes the long-term outlook remains positive for the Ethereum price. According to him, Wall Street’s growing shift toward blockchain infrastructure, along with the rise of AI-powered payment systems, continues to strengthen Ethereum’s future.
Bitmine Keeps Buying Despite Ethereum’s FallWhile the Ethereum token price continues to fall, Bitmine is showing no signs of stopping, as they continue to buy more Ethereum.
Last week, the company purchased another 27,084 ETH, increasing its total holdings to 5,700,040 ETH, valued at nearly $9 billion. That now represents roughly 4.7% of Ethereum’s entire circulating supply, putting Bitmine just 0.3% away from its long-term goal of owning 5% of all ETH.
Lee remains confident that Ethereum’s long-term outlook is improving despite the current price weakness.
“We’re in a period where price is lagging fundamentals.” “Ethereum has gained additional assets.”
He pointed to growing real-world asset tokenization on Ethereum, increasing blockchain adoption, and the role Ethereum could play in powering both Wall Street’s digital infrastructure and future AI-based payment systems.
Whale Selling Keeps Pressure on ETHMeanwhile, Crypto analyst Ali Martinez reported that Ethereum whales sold nearly 550,000 ETH, worth around $880 million, over the past week. The heavy selling pushed ETH below the important $1,633 support level.
According to Martinez’s analysis, Ethereum is now testing support around $1,583.
If buyers fail to defend that level, Martinez sees the next major demand zones near $1,237 and $1,089.
Story Ends Here
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According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, the Ethereum Foundation has staked 4,938 ETH (valued at $7.86 million) via Lido, and may stake more.
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The analysis of weekly flows on spot crypto index funds reveals an unprecedented fracture within the sector, challenging the idea of a monolithic institutional block. This data is important, because it shows that professional investors no longer blindly put their money into the two dominant assets, but are beginning to choose growth alternatives.
In brief Bitcoin ETFs record one of the largest waves of capital outflows in their history, driven by massive withdrawals at BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale. Ether funds extend their bad streak with a seventh consecutive week of outflows, revealing a sustained loss of confidence from institutional investors. HYPE and XRP ETFs attract new capital, illustrating a reorientation of flows towards assets considered more promising. This redistribution of investments reflects a sector rotation strategy rather than an institutional withdrawal from the crypto market, a sign of increasingly fine selection of opportunities. The great capital exodus outside Bitcoin funds The institutional financial vehicle segment of the market leader has just experienced a historic decline. For the week of June 22 to 26, 2026, spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced net outflows of 1.79 billion dollars. This massive disengagement represents the third highest week of net outflows in history. Such a liquidation movement shows that “the image of an inexhaustible institutional demand for bitcoin today faces continuous pressure”.
The financial purge peaked with BlackRock, whose IBIT fund lost 1.3 billion dollars. This movement extended systemically to all major facilitators in the U.S. market, with the sale of 314.9 million dollars from Fidelity’s FBTC fund and an outflow of 135.3 million dollars at Grayscale with GBTC.
The data consolidated by statistical tracking platforms confirm that selling pressure was widespread, leaving almost no respite for secondary traditional finance structures :
Managers on the front line : outflows hit Invesco’s BTCO fund for 53 million dollars, Ark & 21Shares’ ARKB for 37.8 million dollars, and Bitwise’s BITB for 34.6 million dollars ; Low-cost structures impacted : even competitive vehicles like VanEck’s HODL and Franklin’s EZBC recorded respective outflows of 6.4 million and 3.1 million dollars ; Derisory compensations : the rare inflows seen on Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust (+71.7 million $), Morgan Stanley’s MSBT (+26.2 million $), and WisdomTree’s BTCW (+3.4 million $) were not enough to reverse the negative trend set by BlackRock. Ether trapped in a systemic outflow spiral While the Bitcoin product sector plunged into the red, a distinct but equally concerning temporal and structural movement affected spot Ether ETFs. They experienced 273 million dollars of net outflows, extending a streak now lasting seven consecutive weeks of outflows for the category.
Day-to-day flow tracking reveals methodical erosion: Monday started with a decline of 66.38 million dollars on BlackRock’s ETHA, followed by Tuesday at minus 82.35 million dollars despite a rebound of 15.69 million dollars towards Fidelity’s FETH fund. On Wednesday, 30.24 million dollars evaporated with no recorded inflow, before Thursday and Friday sealed this weekly decline with respective outflows of 81.87 million and 12.85 million dollars, both driven by liquidations of the ETHA fund.
This prolonged distrust towards Ether is partly due to a technical repositioning of institutional portfolios that struggle to find a short-term growth catalyst on this asset. The daily arbitrages show mathematical regularity in selling, indicating investors are actively reducing their exposure to the historic smart contract network in favor of other opportunities. Unlike Bitcoin, which still benefits from some residual flows through private banks like Morgan Stanley, Ether suffers from an obvious lack of growth drivers among big brokers and undergoes pressure from continuous redemptions, with no other support than BlackRock’s product.
The unexpected surge of HYPE and XRP Conversely, this disaffection around these two major players did not cause a definitive rout outside the crypto ecosystem, but rather a redeployment of liquidity towards more attractive opportunities. Spot HYPE ETFs have established themselves as the indisputable stars of the market by capturing 111 million dollars of net inflows. Indeed, the scenario behind this performance is particular. After a flat week from Monday to Wednesday and modest gains of 1.46 million on Tuesday and 1.82 million on Friday, order books were flooded on Thursday with a large buying wave of 108.09 million dollars.
At the same time, XRP ETFs showed impressive consistency with 22.99 million dollars of net inflows, marked by an inflow of 5.31 million dollars on Monday via Bitwise, 2.05 million on Wednesday via Grayscale, and a final push on Friday of 15.63 million dollars. Solana, on the other hand, stayed out of this altcoins rally, with a net loss of 1.81 million dollars over the week.
Ultimately, the consolidated weekly balance closes with a decline of more than 2 billion USD for the dominant block. However, one cannot interpret these capital movements as a sign of a global disinterest from institutional investors in the Web3 universe. The market shows a new technical maturity: investors are not leaving crypto ETFs, but they are carrying out deep strategic and sectorial rotations.
This increased selectivity indicates that fund managers are now diversifying their backup portfolios by “rewarding products with clearer momentum and temporarily cutting their exposure where their conviction has weakened”. In the long run, this redistribution of financial flows could well mark the end of the systematic correlation between the bitcoin price and the performance of next-generation altcoins.
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Luc Jose A.
Diplômé de Sciences Po Toulouse et titulaire d'une certification consultant blockchain délivrée par Alyra, j'ai rejoint l'aventure Cointribune en 2019. Convaincu du potentiel de la blockchain pour transformer de nombreux secteurs de l'économie, j'ai pris l'engagement de sensibiliser et d'informer le grand public sur cet écosystème en constante évolution. Mon objectif est de permettre à chacun de mieux comprendre la blockchain et de saisir les opportunités qu'elle offre. Je m'efforce chaque jour de fournir une analyse objective de l'actualité, de décrypter les tendances du marché, de relayer les dernières innovations technologiques et de mettre en perspective les enjeux économiques et sociétaux de cette révolution en marche.
DISCLAIMER
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, has underperformed so terribly that virtually all recent long-term holders are now in the red.
ETH prices have plunged to levels not seen since early 2021 (before the launch of spot ETFs in the US and major network upgrades).
Gains erased Trader and analyst Jesse Olson shed light on the staggering on the staggering data.
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Olson noted that the ETH monthly chart is about to print a lower low as the price firmly closes below key monthly support levels. The leading altcoin is an incredible "8 of the last 10 monthly candles have been red."
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ETH has also recorded several unprecedented bearish signals on top of that. The altcoin has recorded a downward-sloping 200-week SMA for the first time ever. Moreover, there is a double top with a lower high.
The price of the BTC rival has returned to the early 2021 levels despite the launch of exchange-traded funds, the Merge, and a huge bull cycle.
More pressureAccording to blockchain tracking account Onchain Lens, deep-pocketed traders are actively shorting the asset. "A gambler whale '0xa6e' has opened a new 22,000 $ETH short position with 25x leverage, valued at $35M," Onchain Lens reported today.
Ethereum's grim price action is heavily tied to a series of compounding issues.
The much-hyped spot ETFs have now turned into a persistent headwind. The ETFs have recently suffered severe and consistent net outflows. Institutional demand has cooled dramatically.
Ethereum is also suffering from the consequences of its own scaling roadmap. After the Dencun upgrade, Ethereum's base layer (Layer-1) revenue plummeted.
Moreover, the Ethereum Foundation is currently facing major financial issues as well as an ongoing exodus of developers.
However, as reported by U.Today, Fundstart's Tom Lee, who is also the chairman of top ETH Bitmine Technologies, remains optimistic in the long-term, recently warning panic-sellers not to make any hasty decisions.
Torsten Slok, Chief Economist at Apollo Global Management, sees the European Central Bank potentially raising rates again in September. The call comes after the ECB already hiked its deposit facility rate by 25 basis points to 2.25% on June 11, its first increase since September 2023.
Slok isn’t alone in this view. A Reuters poll conducted on June 3 found that 49 out of 80 economists expected an additional ECB rate hike at the September meeting. That’s over 60% of surveyed economists betting on more tightening before year-end.
The end of easy money in Europe The June hike marked a decisive shift toward a more hawkish stance, driven largely by inflationary pressures tied to the ongoing Iran conflict. Energy costs, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical uncertainty have forced the ECB’s hand in ways that seemed unlikely just months ago.
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The ECB’s next scheduled meetings are July 23 and September 10. If Slok and the majority of polled economists are right, the September meeting could bring the deposit rate to 2.50%.
Slok’s credentials lend weight to the prediction. He’s served as Apollo’s Chief Economist since 2020, following 15 years at Deutsche Bank and earlier stints at the IMF and OECD.
What rising eurozone rates mean for crypto When central banks raise rates, the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets goes up. Research on the transmission channels between ECB policy and digital asset prices has identified what economists call portfolio rebalancing effects. Rising long-term rates in the eurozone put downward pressure on Bitcoin and Ethereum as institutional investors shift allocations toward newly attractive fixed-income instruments.
The market reaction to the June hike itself was relatively muted. Traders appeared more focused on US inflation data at the time, treating the ECB move as largely priced in.
Both Bitcoin and Ethereum have historically responded negatively to rising long-term interest rates.
What investors should be watching The July 23 ECB meeting will be the next inflection point. Even if the bank holds rates steady in July, the language in its policy statement and press conference will be dissected for clues about September. Forward guidance could move markets well before the actual September 10 decision.
With over 60% of economists now anticipating another eurozone rate increase, crypto traders should treat ECB meeting dates with the same seriousness they give to FOMC announcements. Traders positioned in Bitcoin and Ethereum should be modeling scenarios for both outcomes, because at 2.25% and potentially climbing, the ECB’s deposit rate is no longer something crypto markets can afford to ignore.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Ethereum traded around $1,579.64 on June 30, holding near a support area that has become important for short-term traders.
Summary
Ethereum trades near $1,580 as eight of its last ten monthly candles remain red now. Falling open interest shows traders reduced leverage, but spot ETF outflows still pressure ETH demand. Technical indicators show early stabilization, yet ETH needs $1,700 to $1,800 to confirm strength again. Crypto.news data showed ETH up 0.49% over 24 hours, while the token remained down 6.22% over seven days. Its 24-hour range stood between $1,559.22 and $1,630.03, with trading volume near $11.49 billion.
The move keeps ETH close to the same $1,500 to $1,600 zone that has shaped recent price action. Ethereum recently traded around $1,580 after several days of sideways movement between roughly $1,550 and $1,600. ETF selling and weak market sentiment kept recovery attempts capped near the $1,600 area.
Ethereum remains the second-largest crypto by market value, but the current chart shows a weak long-term setup. Crypto.news data placed ETH’s market cap at about $190.62 billion, while the token remained 68.06% below its Aug. 24, 2025 all-time high of $4,946.05.
Ethereum monthly chart points to weak trend Trader Jesse Olson said Ethereum’s monthly chart was close to printing a lower low because price was closing below monthly support. He also said, “8 of the last 10 monthly candles have been red.” That reading adds to concern that ETH has not yet formed a clean long-term reversal.
$ETH monthly chart is about to print a lower low as price is closing below monthly support.
8 of the last 10 monthly candles have been red.
If you bought Ethereum anytime in the past 5+ years and did not sell to realize a gain, then your purchase is underwater. https://t.co/R0ia3GKnKh pic.twitter.com/1MNxhjAdRB
— Jesse Olson (@JesseOlson) June 30, 2026 Olson also argued that many long-term Ethereum buyers remain underwater unless they already sold to lock in gains. His view reflects the scale of ETH’s drop from its 2025 peak and the failure of several recovery attempts since then.
Daan Crypto Trades also focused on the same weak structure. He said ETH has failed several attempts to reclaim previous support levels and added that a move back above $1,750 would be the first sign of strength on higher time frames.
That level now sits above the current trading range. If ETH cannot hold the $1,500 area, traders are likely to watch the April 2025 lows as the next downside zone. If buyers reclaim $1,700 to $1,800, the market would have a stronger base for recovery.
Ethereum leverage reset lowers crowded risk CryptoQuant analyst Amr Taha said Ethereum derivatives positioning has reset across major exchanges. Binance ETH open interest dropped to about $1.95 billion on June 30, its lowest level since February, while Gate.io open interest fell to a chart low near $1.84 billion.
Ethereum multi exchange open interest, source: CryptoQuant analyst Amr Taha The Gate.io reading sits below the $2.67 billion level seen on April 11, 2025, when ETH traded near $1,570. That means Gate.io leverage is now roughly 31% lower than it was during that earlier market-bottom period, according to the analyst’s data.
Combined open interest on Binance and Gate.io has fallen to about $3.79 billion. Lower open interest means fewer leveraged positions are crowding the market. It can reduce forced selling risk, but it does not create demand by itself.
The reset gives ETH a cleaner derivatives setup than earlier in the year. Still, traders have not yet shown enough spot demand to push the token back above higher resistance. That leaves Ethereum in a fragile zone, with lower leverage but weak trend control.
Spot demand rises as ETF outflows continue CryptoQuant analyst Abdullah Zia said Ethereum spot activity is increasing relative to leveraged trading. He said this can show that whales and longer-term investors are buying ETH through spot markets rather than chasing short-term leverage.
That signal gives bulls one positive data point. It suggests some buyers may be accumulating while derivatives traders step back. A spot-led recovery usually has stronger footing than a leverage-led rally because it is less exposed to liquidation cascades.
At the same time, U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs remain a source of pressure. As reported by crypto.news, spot Ethereum ETFs recorded $273 million in net outflows during the week ending June 26, marking seven straight weeks of withdrawals. BlackRock’s ETHA accounted for $236 million of those outflows.
ETF outflows matter because fund redemptions can force issuers to sell underlying Ether. That selling has repeatedly limited recovery attempts near $1,600. Ethereum ETF outflows also weighed on ETH earlier in June while macro pressure and weak technicals kept the token close to support.
Technical indicators show early stabilization The RSI stood near 35.16, slightly below its moving average near 36.56. That shows weak momentum. The reading is not in deep oversold territory, but it remains well below the neutral 50 level.
MACD showed mild improvement. The histogram was positive near 2.52, while the MACD line near -74.94 sat above the signal line around -77.46. That means bearish momentum has eased, though both lines remain below zero.
Ethereum price chart, source crypto.news These indicators point to early stabilization, not a confirmed recovery. ETH still needs stronger buying volume, a move above $1,700 to $1,800, and RSI above 50 before the trend improves.
As reported by crypto.news, Ethereum’s weak price action contrasts with long-term fundamentals, including high staking participation, corporate treasury holdings and spot ETF assets. The same report noted that ETH remained below key moving averages while its ETH/BTC ratio sat near multi-year lows.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
TL;DR Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. recorded a $231 million net outflow, extending withdrawals to eight consecutive trading days. Spot Ethereum ETFs also remained under pressure, posting $30.043 million in net outflows on June 29. ARKB and BlackRock’s ETHA led their respective markets in single-day inflows despite the broader selling trend. June is on course to become the worst month for U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs since their launch, with nearly $4 billion in cumulative outflows. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs extended their losing streak on June 29 after recording a combined net outflow of $231 million, while spot Ethereum ETFs posted $30.043 million in net withdrawals, according to SoSoValue data. The latest figures mark the eighth consecutive trading day of net outflows for both crypto investment products.
Despite the broader wave of withdrawals, some funds still attracted fresh capital. Ark Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB registered the largest single-day inflow among Bitcoin ETFs at $49.969 million, while BlackRock’s ETHA led Ethereum ETF inflows with $5.869 million. However, those gains were insufficient to offset heavier redemptions across the broader market.
Bitcoin Spot ETFs See $231 Million Outflow as Ether ETFs Lose $30 Million
According to SoSoValue data, on June 29 (Eastern Time), Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded a total net outflow of USD 231 million, while Ark Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB saw the largest single-day net inflow at USD… pic.twitter.com/aTlpGB9mIM
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 30, 2026
The latest decline comes as June shapes up to be the weakest month for U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs since they began trading in January 2024, with cumulative outflows nearing $4 billion.
ARKB and ETHA Defy Broader Ethereum and Bitcoin ETFs Outflow Trend Although investor sentiment remained largely negative, ARKB and ETHA stood out by attracting fresh inflows while many competing funds continued to lose assets. Their positive performance suggests that some investors are still selectively allocating capital to crypto ETFs despite the broader market pullback.
However, the overall trend remains firmly negative. Bitcoin ETFs have now posted eight straight sessions of net redemptions, indicating a more prolonged period of selling than previous pullbacks as the Bitcoin price slips below $60,000. These are often followed by a quick rebound in demand. Ethereum ETFs have followed a similar path, with June largely characterized by persistent outflows after months of mixed fund flows.
According to on-chain data, from June 22 to June 26 (ET), spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $1.79 billion. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw net outflows of $273 million, marking seven consecutive weeks of outflows as institutional interest dwindles.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs Saw $1.79B in Net Outflows Last Week, Third-Highest Weekly Outflow on Record
From June 22 to June 26 (ET), spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $1.79 billion, marking the third-highest weekly net outflow on record. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw net outflows of… pic.twitter.com/6CDFFVY68L
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 29, 2026
Spot XRP ETFs recorded net inflows of $22.99 million, while spot HYPE ETFs saw net inflows of $111 million.
Macro Uncertainty Continues to Pressure Crypto ETFs Market observers attribute the sustained withdrawals largely to the current macroeconomic environment. Elevated interest rates have boosted the appeal of lower-risk assets such as government bonds and money market funds, prompting some institutional investors to scale back exposure to more volatile assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Investors are now closely watching upcoming economic data and any changes in U.S. Federal Reserve policy expectations, as shifts in the interest-rate outlook could influence capital flows into risk assets. Market participants will also be monitoring whether the current outflow streak finally comes to an end, as a return to sustained inflows could signal renewed confidence in the crypto ETF market.
According to SoSoValue data, total net assets held by U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs stood at approximately $73.19 billion following the latest trading session, highlighting that despite recent selling pressure, the products remain a major channel for institutional cryptocurrency investment.
Leading cryptocurrencies pared losses Monday, while stocks closed higher as investors priced in a further easing of tensions between the U.S. and Iran following weekend hostilities.
Crypto Market Recoups LossesBitcoin rose in the early trading hours, but failed to cross the $61,000 barrier. Trading volume surged 82% over the last 24 hours. Ethereum rallied in the afternoon, hitting a high of $1,633 intraday before slipping back below $1,600.
Over $300 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, with short traders facing the majority of the losses, according to Coinglass data
Bitcoin’s open interest increased modestly by 0.80% over the last 24 hours. Interestingly, retail and whale derivatives traders on Binance lowered their long positions in the leading cryptocurrency.
"Extreme Fear" sentiment prevailed in the market, according to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index.
Top Gainers (24 Hours)
The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.2 trillion, following a dip of 0.79% over the last 24 hours.
Stocks Rally Ahead Of Doha MeetingStocks started the new trading week on a high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 306.63 points, or 0.59%, ending at 52,182.74. The S&P 500 lifted 1.18% to close at 7,440.43, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 2.07% to settle at 25,820.14.
President Donald Trump said that a meeting with Iran is scheduled for Tuesday in Doha, Qatar. The discussions are reportedly aimed at managing the Strait of Hormuz and reducing tensions after weekend exchanges of attacks between the two sides.
Where Is Bitcoin Headed?On-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant noted that Bitcoin’s Long Term Holder Spent Output Profit Ratio was approaching 1—a historically rare condition that has marked “generational buying opportunities.”
The metric is used to determine whether investors who have held their Bitcoin for more than 155 days are selling at an aggregate profit or loss. The current reading indicates long-term holders are moving coins at or near a loss.
Michaël van de Poppe, a widely followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader, said that Bitcoin has started the week well, forecasting a “very likely” breakout above $61,000.
“The bullish divergences are still applicable here, indicating that there’s the upside ready to come,” Van De Poppe said.
Photo Courtesy: PJ McDonnell on Shutterstock.com
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In brief Director Carl Rinsch was sentenced Monday to 30 months in prison for defrauding Netflix of $11 million meant to finish a sci-fi series he never delivered. Rinsch lost millions on stock options, then turned the remaining $4 million into nearly $27 million on a Dogecoin bet, prosecutors said. He spent the windfall on Rolls-Royces, a Ferrari, and a $388,000 watch, and must now repay Netflix $11 million in restitution. A Hollywood director who took $11 million from Netflix to finish a TV show, then gambled it on crypto, is heading to prison.
Carl Erik Rinsch, who directed Keanu Reeves in the 2013 film "47 Ronin," was sentenced on Monday to 30 months for defrauding Netflix, capping a saga of failed trades and lavish spending. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff also ordered three years of supervised release and $11 million in restitution.
Director sentenced for production fraud: “Carl Erik Rinsch promised to make a television show,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Instead, he used $11 million meant for production as his personal casino and luxury fund.”https://t.co/5XHj1gWFyi
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) June 29, 2026
Netflix had paid Rinsch's production company more than $44 million to make a sci-fi series called "White Horse," later retitled "Conquest." In 2020, as the COVID pandemic hit, he asked for another $11 million to finish it. Instead, prosecutors said, he moved most of the money into a personal brokerage account and never delivered the show.
Rinsch lost $5.9 million within weeks on speculative options, including pandemic-era bets on a COVID drugmaker and a market crash, according to court filings. He then moved more than $4 million of what was left onto crypto exchange Kraken and bought Dogecoin.
His bet paid off spectacularly: as the meme coin soared, he cashed out nearly $27 million in May 2021, according to a 2023 New York Times report. "Thank you and god bless crypto," he wrote to a Kraken representative.
That windfall funded a spending spree. Rinsch bought five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari, a $388,000 Vacheron Constantin watch, and millions more in furniture, antiques, and designer clothing, some $8.7 million in all, according to a forensic accountant hired by his ex-wife. Rather than return the money, he sued Netflix for more than $14 million he claimed he was owed; an arbitrator ruled against him.
A Manhattan jury convicted Rinsch in December on charges including wire fraud and money laundering. He faced up to 90 years, and prosecutors sought five, but Rakoff imposed a lighter term after the defense presented evidence of an untreated mental health condition, with family, friends, and former colleagues describing a marked change in his behavior beginning around 2019. Reeves, who also produced the doomed series, urged leniency in a letter to the court.
The judge was unmoved on the core conduct. "Improper medication" may have “played a role,” Rakoff said, but Rinsch "was determined to lie to get substantial monies from Netflix." U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, the former SEC chair, said Rinsch "made risky bets on highly speculative stock options and cryptocurrency," and that the sentence "sends a deterrent message.”
Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
In brief Director Carl Rinsch was sentenced Monday to 30 months in prison for defrauding Netflix of $11 million meant to finish a sci-fi series he never delivered. Rinsch lost millions on stock options, then turned the remaining $4 million into nearly $27 million on a Dogecoin bet, prosecutors said. He spent the windfall on Rolls-Royces, a Ferrari, and a $388,000 watch, and must now repay Netflix $11 million in restitution. A Hollywood director who took $11 million from Netflix to finish a TV show, then gambled it on crypto, is heading to prison.
Carl Erik Rinsch, who directed Keanu Reeves in the 2013 film "47 Ronin," was sentenced on Monday to 30 months for defrauding Netflix, capping a saga of failed trades and lavish spending. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff also ordered three years of supervised release and $11 million in restitution.
Director sentenced for production fraud: “Carl Erik Rinsch promised to make a television show,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Instead, he used $11 million meant for production as his personal casino and luxury fund.”https://t.co/5XHj1gWFyi
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) June 29, 2026
Netflix had paid Rinsch's production company more than $44 million to make a sci-fi series called "White Horse," later retitled "Conquest." In 2020, as the COVID pandemic hit, he asked for another $11 million to finish it. Instead, prosecutors said, he moved most of the money into a personal brokerage account and never delivered the show.
Rinsch lost $5.9 million within weeks on speculative options, including pandemic-era bets on a COVID drugmaker and a market crash, according to court filings. He then moved more than $4 million of what was left onto crypto exchange Kraken and bought Dogecoin.
His bet paid off spectacularly: as the meme coin soared, he cashed out nearly $27 million in May 2021, according to a 2023 New York Times report. "Thank you and god bless crypto," he wrote to a Kraken representative.
That windfall funded a spending spree. Rinsch bought five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari, a $388,000 Vacheron Constantin watch, and millions more in furniture, antiques, and designer clothing, some $8.7 million in all, according to a forensic accountant hired by his ex-wife. Rather than return the money, he sued Netflix for more than $14 million he claimed he was owed; an arbitrator ruled against him.
A Manhattan jury convicted Rinsch in December on charges including wire fraud and money laundering. He faced up to 90 years, and prosecutors sought five, but Rakoff imposed a lighter term after the defense presented evidence of an untreated mental health condition, with family, friends, and former colleagues describing a marked change in his behavior beginning around 2019. Reeves, who also produced the doomed series, urged leniency in a letter to the court.
The judge was unmoved on the core conduct. "Improper medication" may have “played a role,” Rakoff said, but Rinsch "was determined to lie to get substantial monies from Netflix." U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, the former SEC chair, said Rinsch "made risky bets on highly speculative stock options and cryptocurrency," and that the sentence "sends a deterrent message.”
Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Carl Erik Rinsch, the director behind the 2013 Keanu Reeves vehicle 47 Ronin, has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for defrauding Netflix of $11 million. The funds were earmarked for a sci-fi series called “White Horse” that never materialized. Instead, Rinsch funneled the money into Dogecoin trades and a lifestyle that would make a Dubai influencer blush.
The sentence, handed down on June 29, 2026, also includes three years of supervised release and full restitution of $11 million to Netflix, plus a $700 fine.
From production budget to Dogecoin portfolio Netflix reportedly advanced more than $55 million for the “White Horse” project between 2018 and 2020. Rinsch took at least $11 million of that and went on what prosecutors described as a spending spree that mixed speculative crypto trading with extravagant personal purchases.
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In 2020, Rinsch reportedly poured millions into Dogecoin. At some point he realized profits of around $23 million. But instead of returning the money to Netflix or actually producing the show, Rinsch went shopping.
The receipts are genuinely remarkable. Five Rolls-Royces. A Ferrari. And $638,000 spent on mattresses.
Rinsch was found guilty of wire fraud and money laundering on December 11, 2025. The sentencing came roughly seven months later.
Keanu Reeves asked for leniency The sentencing process included an unusual detail. Keanu Reeves, who starred in Rinsch’s only major feature film, submitted a letter to the court urging leniency. The judge also considered Rinsch’s documented mental health issues and other letters of support from people in his life.
What this means for crypto investors First, the wire fraud and money laundering convictions confirm that using someone else’s money to buy crypto without authorization is treated exactly the same as any other form of embezzlement.
Second, the restitution order is worth noting. Rinsch must repay $11 million to Netflix, not the $23 million he reportedly made from his Dogecoin trades. Courts are measuring damages by what was stolen, not by what the stolen funds produced through speculation.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Despite ongoing developer activity on the Cardano network, ADA’s price has shown limited movement. At the time of reporting, ADA was trading at $0.1472, reflecting a 2.36% increase over the past 24 hours. However, key market indicators signaled that investors have remained cautious, with no strong upward momentum developing since the start of the year.
Developer momentum highlights network growthIn Cardano’s latest Developer Spotlight, Nuvola Digital took center stage. CEO Raul De Benedittis explained why the company chose Cardano as its consensus layer. He outlined their work on encrypted file sharing, decentralized cloud storage, the transition from Web2 to Web3, and the support of decentralized physical infrastructure networks through their crowdshare model.
Mini glossary: DePIN stands for decentralized physical infrastructure networks—blockchain-based systems for building and operating physical infrastructure with community incentives. The consensus layer refers to the foundational infrastructure where transaction finality and record verification are ensured.
Raul De Benedittis noted that his background in aviation and marine engineering shaped his vision for decentralized infrastructure on Cardano, leading Nuvola Digital to select it as their consensus layer.
This development underscored the ongoing productivity within the Cardano ecosystem. Nevertheless, due to prevailing market conditions, such initiatives are viewed as contributing more to the network’s long-term growth than to short-term price action. This outlook emerged as one reason for ADA’s muted price response.
Technical indicators point to ongoing cautionTechnical signals revealed that ADA remains under pressure. The price’s position near the lower Bollinger Band indicated that, despite some recovery, sellers still held the advantage. The first major breakout level is set at $0.160, while stronger buying interest could test resistance at $0.173. To the downside, $0.145 represents a key support level.
The downtrend in the On Balance Volume (OBV) indicator also suggested that, despite recent gains, buyer interest has not significantly strengthened. This points to the ongoing recovery lacking broad participation, indicating that the move has yet to evolve into a full-fledged reversal.
IndicatorLevelImplicationCurrent price$0.1472Up 2.36% in the last 24 hoursFirst resistance$0.160A breakout could support further upsideSecond resistance$0.173Could be tested if buying acceleratesNearby support$0.145A drop below could trigger more sellingMoving averages confirm downtrendA second chart highlighted a similar picture. ADA’s price remains below both the 50-day moving average at $0.202 and the 200-day moving average at $0.275. This structure signals a persistent downtrend over the broader time frame.
On a brighter note, the MACD histogram’s slight shift into positive territory suggested a possible easing of selling pressure. If ADA can sustain a move above $0.160, the likelihood of a new attempt toward $0.173 may increase. Conversely, if $0.145 support is lost, a deeper pullback remains possible until buyers regain momentum.
Futures data show investors remain cautiousCoinGlass open interest data also pointed to ongoing caution among investors, even after the recent recovery. While the price has begun to stabilize, changes in open interest indicate that confidence remains insufficient for larger directional trades in the market.
A sustained rise in both price and open interest could signal renewed market participation, while weakening open interest may suggest a loss of momentum in the latest move.
Overall, the Cardano ecosystem continues to gain strength through developer contributions. In the near term, however, broader market trends remain the main factor shaping ADA’s price. As a result, investors are keeping a close eye on technical confirmations and the wider direction in the cryptocurrency market.
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 Cardano (@Cardano) Foundation has called on Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) to cast deliberate, manual votes on governance actions rather than defaulting to automatic abstention. The message, directed at a key pillar of the network's Voltaire-era governance structure, underlines growing concerns about passive participation undermining the integrity of on-chain decision-making.
Why Active Voting Matters The Foundation is telling SPOs they need to actually show up and vote, not just let the system auto-abstain on their behalf, but deliberately choose Yes, No, or Abstain on governance actions, even if abstaining is what they planned to do anyway. An explicit abstain vote signals that an SPO reviewed the proposal and made a conscious decision. Auto-abstain means they did not bother looking. In a governance system built on transparency and accountability, the gap between those two is enormous.
Cardano's governance structure, part of its Voltaire era, splits decision-making power across three groups: Stake Pool Operators, Delegated Representatives (DReps), and the Constitutional Committee. Most governance actions require at least two of these three groups to approve them, with SPO votes often needing a minimum of 51% approval for certain action types.
The Summit Vote That Fell Short The Foundation's call comes in the wake of a significant governance outcome. Cardano's Voltaire-era delegated representatives rejected the Cardano Foundation's 7.8 million $ADA treasury ask for the 2026 Singapore Summit, with yes votes drawing 65.21% of stake, 1.46 percentage points below the two-thirds threshold. By headcount, the proposal carried easily, with 135 DReps voting yes, 61 voting no and 24 abstaining, but stake-weighted math determines outcomes for treasury actions, and the stake split fell on the wrong side of the line.
The request had already undergone significant revisions before the vote. Initially, organizers requested 14.07 million ADA, or roughly $3.66 million, to fund both the Cardano Summit and a sponsorship package for TOKEN2049 in Singapore. After community concerns about the scale of the spending request, the proposal was split into two separate initiatives, reducing the summit budget by more than 20% and introducing more accountability measures, including audited fund management, milestone-based payments, and oversight from an independent committee. It still did not clear the bar.
The Foundation itself, which holds voting power as a DRep, abstained from the summit vote, saying it wanted to avoid directing the outcome. The Foundation said it would cancel the Singapore event and begin winding down preparations, despite the proposal receiving majority support from delegated representatives.
Despite the cancellation, Cardano will maintain a presence in Singapore during the same week. A separate proposal by EMURGO to sponsor TOKEN2049, held October 7 to 8, passed the governance vote.
The episode highlights the real stakes of passive governance participation. Automatic abstention may sound neutral, but in governance it can create a quiet accountability gap. A vote is a signal. It tells the network where participants stand, what they support, what they reject, and what they are willing to defend publicly. With proposals of this magnitude hinging on fractions of a percentage point, the Foundation's push for active SPO engagement carries clear practical weight.
Sources:
Crypto Briefing: Cardano Foundation urges SPOs to vote on governance action, not auto-abstain
The Defiant: Cardano Community Votes Down 7.8M ADA Summit Budget
The Block: Cardano Foundation cancels 2026 summit after treasury funding vote falls just short
GeneralCelebrating eight years with eight memorable moments in Tezos' history.
10 minute read
June 29, 2026
Eight years. What a journey it’s been. Since June 30, 2018, Tezos has gone from an ambitious idea to a blockchain with 21 protocol upgrades, one of the most recognized digital art ecosystems in Web3, and a roadmap that continues to push the industry forward.
Looking back, there are countless moments that helped shape this journey. Some were technical breakthroughs. Others were community-driven. Some challenged long-held assumptions, while others opened entirely new chapters for the ecosystem.
To celebrate Tezos’ eighth birthday, I wanted to look back at eight moments that, in my opinion, best capture what has made Tezos such a unique blockchain over the years. There are plenty of other milestones that deserve to be mentioned, but these are the eight that made my list.
Happy Birthday, Tezos. Now, let’s take a trip down memory lane.
1. The Launch: Proving Proof of Stake Could Work #When Tezos launched in 2018, it did so with Proof of Stake at its core, at a time when most major blockchains still relied on Proof of Work.
While the concept had existed for years, Tezos became the first major blockchain to show that Proof of Stake could successfully secure a public network at scale. It also introduced delegation, allowing users to participate in securing the network and earn staking rewards without giving up custody of their tez.
Eight years later, it’s hard not to appreciate just how ahead of its time Tezos was. Many of today’s leading blockchains now launch with Proof of Stake, while others have abandoned Proof of Work in favor of it. What was once considered an ambitious design choice has since become the direction much of the industry has taken, and Tezos led the way.
2. Athens: The First Self-Amendment #Probably my favorite upgrade because it reminds me of home.
For years, hard forks had been the blockchain industry’s way of introducing major protocol changes. While they often brought improvements, they could also split communities, create competing chains, and leave users choosing sides.
Tezos set out to change that.
In May 2019, the activation of Athens turned one of Tezos’ boldest ideas into reality. Instead of hard forking, the network successfully upgraded itself through its on-chain governance process, marking the first successful self-amendment of a blockchain.
Seven years later, Athens remains, in my opinion, one of the defining moments in Tezos’ history. It demonstrated that a blockchain can evolve without fragmenting its community or splitting into competing networks.
3. Tenderbake: Changing the Heart of Tezos #Athens showed that Tezos could evolve without hard forks. Tenderbake took that idea to a whole new level.
When the Ithaca 2 upgrade activated on April 1, 2022, Tezos introduced Tenderbake and did something that very few blockchains have ever attempted. It replaced its consensus mechanism while the network was live. Considering that consensus is the very component responsible for keeping a blockchain running, that’s about as fundamental a change as you can make.
Tenderbake didn’t just change how the network reached consensus. It also introduced deterministic finality, improving transaction certainty for users and creating the foundation for many of the network improvements that followed, including the huge reductions in block times and finality that we have today.
More than anything, though, Tenderbake reinforced one simple idea. On Tezos, no part of the protocol is untouchable. If something can be improved, it can evolve through on-chain governance and self-amendment, even the governance process itself, as we had seen with Edo.
4. Kathmandu: Protocol-Funded Development #This next one is a little different. In fact, there’s a good chance many of you don’t even remember it.
With the Kathmandu upgrade, an independent community developer contributed a piece of code that became part of the protocol. Along with that contribution came an invoice. Once the proposal was approved and activated, the protocol itself automatically paid the agreed 3,000 tez to the contributor.
The amount itself wasn’t really the point. It was the fact that a protocol amendment didn’t just introduce new code, it also rewarded the person who wrote part of it. It’s a small detail in the grand scheme of things, but one that has always stuck with me. Mainly because, although protocol development has always been funded by Tezos Foundation, it was a reassuring reminder that another path already exists should it ever be needed.
5. The First Major Governance Test #One of the original promises of Tezos was that disagreements over protocol upgrades wouldn’t have to end with hard forks and competing chains. In 2022, the Ithaca upgrade proposal became the first real test of that idea.
After concerns were raised during the Exploration period, the original Ithaca proposal was rejected. Rather than splitting the community, protocol developers went back, refined the proposal, and returned with Ithaca 2. This time, multiple competing versions entered the governance process, sparking one of the most active and contested voting periods in Tezos’ history, with passionate debates and different parts of the community backing different paths forward.
In the end, the governance process did exactly what it was designed to do. A proposal was selected, compromises were made, and development moved forward without creating competing chains or splitting the community. Years later, Oxford followed a similar path, with community feedback leading to refinements before the redesigned Adaptive Issuance was eventually introduced in ParisB. All these moments helped to improve the feedback loop between protocol developers and the rest of the community, turning disagreements into discussions that ultimately led to better protocol upgrades.
6. A New Era for Staking with ParisB #And speaking of ParisB, that brings us to the next moment on the list.
The ParisB upgrade introduced the biggest overhaul to Tezos’ staking model since the network launched. It introduced a new staking role alongside delegation, rebalanced how rewards are distributed between active stakers and delegators, and introduced Adaptive Issuance, allowing the protocol’s tokenomics to adjust dynamically based on network participation.
The goal was to encourage more users to actively stake their tez and strengthen the economic security of the network. The results have been hard to ignore. At the time the overhaul was introduced, around 7.5% of the total supply was actively staked. Today, that figure has grown to more than 29%, with participation continuing to increase.
Interestingly, while much of the industry has gradually adopted the staking model that Tezos helped pioneer, Tezos itself didn’t stand still. The staking overhaul pushed the model even further, introducing greater flexibility, accessibility, and stronger incentives for securing the network.
7. Real Adoption: The hic et nunc Moment #Of course, I couldn’t leave hic et nunc off this list. It’s impossible to talk about the history of Tezos without talking about art and the incredible community that formed around it.
At a time when high gas fees on Ethereum had become a major barrier for artists, hic et nunc offered something different. Thanks to Tezos’ low transaction costs, artists from around the world could finally afford to mint and collect on-chain. For many, it wasn’t just their first experience with Tezos, but their first meaningful experience with blockchain technology altogether.
The NFT boom eventually faded, but the Tezos art community didn’t. While hic et nunc eventually gave way to community-driven efforts like Teia, alongside platforms such as Objkt, the culture it helped spark continued to grow. Today, the Tezos art scene remains one of the strongest and most active in the industry, with artists, collectors, galleries, and exhibitions continuing to thrive years after the hype has moved on.
To me, that’s what makes hic et nunc one of the defining moments in Tezos’ history. It brought thousands of new people to Tezos through creativity, helping establish an artistic identity that has made the Tezos art scene second to none.
8. Tezos X: The Next Chapter #And finally, I wanted to end this list by looking ahead.
At TezDev 2024, the Tezos X proposed roadmap was unveiled, outlining one of the most ambitious visions in Tezos’ history. Instead of focusing on a single protocol upgrade, it presented a long-term direction for the network, built around Smart Rollups, the Data Availability Layer, and a modular architecture designed to deliver massive scalability without compromising decentralization or on-chain governance. The roadmap has since evolved, but this was the moment when that journey began.
Since then, that vision has gradually been taking shape. The Data Availability Layer was activated on mainnet, Etherlink launched and continued to mature, and Tezlink emerged on testnet in preparation for Tezos X, which is now just around the corner. Together, they will introduce a shared execution layer where different runtimes can interact with extraordinary composability. At the same time, projects like TzEL are exploring entirely new possibilities made possible by this evolving architecture.
The unveiling of the Tezos X proposed roadmap felt like the natural final moment for this list because it marked the beginning of a completely new chapter for the protocol that is still being written.
So there you have it. These are the eight moments I chose to celebrate Tezos’ eighth birthday. I’m sure everyone would come up with a different list, and that’s part of what makes this ecosystem so special. Tezos has so many sides, so many stories, and so many important milestones that you could probably write an entire book about them.
As for me, I genuinely believe the most exciting moments are still ahead of us. If the first eight years have taught us anything, it’s that Tezos has never been afraid to challenge itself, evolve, and try things that few other blockchains would even attempt. I can’t wait to see what this list looks like another eight years from now.
Now I’d love to hear from you. Which moments would make your list? Did I leave out one that you think absolutely deserves to be there? Let me know, I always enjoy seeing how other people experienced the Tezos journey.
Happy Birthday, Tezos. Here’s to many more years of innovation, creativity, and continuous evolution.
TRON’s [TRX] stablecoin settlement growth reflects more than rising transaction volumes. This is because it increasingly serves as the preferred network for real-world dollar transfers.
Low fees, fast settlement, and deep Tether [USDT] liquidity continue attracting remittances, peer-to-peer payments, and cross-border transactions that require speed over complex DeFi functionality.
Source: TRONSCAN This trend was helpful for processing $1.96 trillion in stablecoin settlements for the first quarter of 2026 on TRON. Meanwhile, TRON also hosts approximately $85-86 billion in USDT. Much of this usage stems from users’ need for recurring payments.
As such, there is strong evidence to support that the usage patterns are providing a foundation for structural value in the network.
If the flow of payment dollars into the system continues to grow at the same rate or possibly increases and if USDT issuance continues to expand, then TRON will solidify itself as a leader in stablecoin settlement. Otherwise, faster competitors could erode its edge.
User activity reflects payment growth TRON’s growing use of stablecoins for transaction settlement has boosted network activity. However, adoption trends show both positive and negative signals.
Daily active users rose 16% over the past thirty days to roughly 4.4 million, exceeding the Q1 average of 3.2 million and indicating stronger engagement from existing participants.
Source: TRONSCAN However, quarterly data shows active addresses eased to 15.8 million from the Q4 2025 peak, while new address creation also declined. Thus, it appears that despite the decline in the number of new users being added, there continues to be strong activity due to the ability of users to pay using the network’s stablecoins.
Long-term growth of the network will likely depend upon additional new users entering the ecosystem in addition to sustained payments through the stablecoins. If existing users continue driving transaction growth, network activity could remain elevated. Moreover, sustaining long-term expansion will likely require stronger new-user onboarding alongside continued stablecoin payment demand.
Capital retention supports network growth TRON’s expanding payment network is retaining capital on-chain, but growth remains concentrated in stablecoin settlements rather than broader DeFi activity. At press time, TVL has grown to roughly $4.4 billion and is supported mainly by stablecoins anchoring liquidity on the network.
Source: DeFiLlama Rather than exiting immediately after settlement, much of that capital circulates among transfers, which sustains transaction volume and network revenue. Efficiency also supports recurring TRX burns and validator rewards without significantly raising user costs.
However, dominance in payments has not translated into strong adoption of DeFi. Lending, decentralized exchanges, and smart contract activity remain relatively smaller contributors to usage.
If retained liquidity gradually expands into these sectors, TRON can strengthen its broader ecosystem. Otherwise, it will likely continue leading payments, relying less on growth driven by DeFi.
Final Summary TRON’s payment growth remained strong, but broader ecosystem expansion still depends on DeFi adoption. TRX retained payment liquidity, though sustained growth requires stronger on-chain utility beyond settlements.
Tron (TRX) extends its decline, trading below $0.330 on Tuesday, drifting toward the key technical support zone. Despite the recent price dip, Tron Inc. (TRON) continued to accumulate, expanding its treasury to more than 702.9 million TRX. However, weakening derivatives metrics suggest traders remain cautious, capping the potential upside move for TRX.
Tron Inc. buys the dipsTron Inc. announced in its X post that the firm acquired 152,867 TRX tokens on Monday, bringing the total reserve to 702.9 million TRX. The firm has been steadily accumulating TRX since last week.
“The company aims to further grow its Tron Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) holdings to enhance long-term shareholder value,” said TRON in its X post.
If these accumulations continue and grow, they could support the native token TRX in the long term by enhancing adoption and reducing circulating supply, thereby increasing its price. However, in the short term, they failed to lift traders' sentiment and TRX prices.
Derivatives metrics cap TRX recoveryOn the derivatives side, metrics support a bearish bias. Tron’s futures Open Interest (OI) dropped to $260 million on Tuesday and has been continuously falling since the end of May. This drop in OI reflects waning investor participation and projects a bearish outlook.
TRON open interest chart. Source: CoinglassIn addition, CoinGlass’ long-to-short ratio for TRX read 0.61 on Tuesday, nearing the lowest level over a month. The ratio below one suggested that traders are betting on the asset price to fall.
TRX long-to-short ratio chart. Source: CoinglassTron Price Forecast: Nears key support zoneTron price extends its correction, trading below $0.330 on Tuesday after a mild correction the previous day. TRX maintains a mildly bearish near-term bias, holding just above the broken upward trendline support around $0.319 and the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $0.317, while remaining capped by the 50% retracement at $0.322.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) near 40 suggests subdued bullish momentum, and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) hovers slightly above zero with a modest positive line reading, hinting at fading upside pressure rather than a decisive recovery.
On the downside, immediate support is seen at the trendline break near $0.319, followed by the 200-day EMA at $0.317, with a deeper floor at the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement at $0.309.
On the topside, initial resistance comes at the 50% retracement at $0.322, ahead of a confluence of the 100-day EMA at $0.327 and the 50-day EMA at $0.329. In comparison, stronger supply is located at the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement near $0.335 and the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level around $0.351, which would need to be reclaimed to negate the current capped tone.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)
Note: Please do your own research before making any trades for the aforementioned token outside Binance to avoid any scams and ensure the safety of your funds. This is a general announcement. Products and services referred to here may not be available in your region. Fellow Binancians, Binance is excited to announce the 66th project on the HODLer Airdrops page - OpenGradient (OPG), the Network for Open Intelligence, a decentralized infrastructure network designed to host, inference, and verify AI models at scale. Users who subscribed their BNB to Simple Earn (Flexible and/or Locked) and/or On-Chain Yields products from 2026-06-22 00:00 (UTC) to 2026-06-24 23:59 (UTC) will get the airdrops distribution. The airdrop is estimated to be distributed to eligible users’ Spot Accounts within 5 hours of this announcement. OPG HODLer Airdrops Details: Token Name: OpenGradient (OPG)Total Genesis Token Supply: 1,000,000,000 OPG Max Token Supply: 1,000,000,000 OPGHODLer Airdrops Token Rewards: 6,400,000 OPG Circulating Supply upon Listing on Binance: 190,000,000 OPG (19% of Total Token Supply)Smart Contract/Network Details: BNB Smart Chain (0x5feCcD17C393CaF1001D18164236A37E731FCb9d)Base (0xFbC2051AE2265686a469421b2C5A2D5462FbF5eB)Listing Fee: 0Research Report: OpenGradient (OPG) (will be available within 48 hours of publishing this announcement) BNB Holding Hard Cap: User’s Average BNB Holding / Total Average BNB Holding * 100% ≤ 4% (If the holding ratio is greater than 4%, the BNB holding ratio will be calculated as 4%) Introducing Binance HODLer Airdrops: Binance HODLer Airdrops is a program that rewards BNB holders with token airdrops based on historical snapshots of their BNB balances. By subscribing BNB to Simple Earn, users are automatically eligible for HODLer Airdrops (as well as Launchpool and Megadrop rewards). By subscribing BNB to On-Chain Yields, users are automatically eligible for HODLer Airdrops and Launchpool rewards. Unlike other earning methods that require ongoing actions, HODLer Airdrops reward users retroactively, offering a simple way to earn additional tokens. By subscribing BNB to Simple Earn products and/or On-Chain Yields, users can automatically qualify for token rewards. How to Benefit from HODLer Airdrops: Head to [Earn] and search for BNB. Subscribe to Simple Earn (Flexible and/or Locked) and/or On-Chain Yields products with your BNB holdings.Snapshots of user balances and total pool balances will be taken multiple times at any point of time each hour to get users’ hourly average balances in Simple Earn (Flexible and/or Locked) and/or On-Chain Yields products. Binance will use historical snapshots of user balances at random periods after this announcement to calculate user rewards. For example, reward calculation for HODLer Airdrops on 2024-06-11 may use snapshots of user balances between 2024-06-01 to 2024-06-07 as reference.Eligible users will receive HODLer Airdrops rewards in their Spot Accounts within 5 hours after the HODLer Airdrops is announced. Subscribe BNB to Simple Earn Now! Project Links: WebsiteWhitepaperX Terms & Conditions: Users must complete account verification (KYC) and also be from an eligible jurisdiction to participate in HODLer Airdrops.BNB Simple Earn assets collateralizing against Binance Loans (Flexible Rate) are not entitled to HODLer Airdrops rewards.BNB subscribed to Simple Earn products will still provide users with the standard benefits for holding BNB, such as Launchpool, Megadrop, and HODLer Airdrops eligibility and VIP benefits.Participation in HODLer Airdrops is subject to eligibility based on the user's country or region of residence. Binance reserves the right to disqualify any participants who tamper with Binance program code, or interfere with the operation of Binance program code with other software.Staked Lista BNB (slisBNB) and slisBNB Non-Transferable Receipt (slisBNBx) in Binance Wallet (Keyless) will be supported in HODLer Airdrops reward calculation.At any snapshot time, any one of users’ supported assets must be greater than 0.01 BNB to be included in the calculation.Users need to be from an eligible jurisdiction to participate in HODLer Airdrops. Currently, users residing in the following countries or regions will not be able to participate by subscribing to BNB Simple Earn or On-Chain Yields Products: Australia, Canada, Cuba, Crimea Region, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, New Zealand, Netherlands, North Korea, Russia, United Kingdom, United States of America and its territories (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands), and any non-government controlled areas of Ukraine.Please note that the list of excluded countries provided here is not exhaustive and may be subject to changes due to evolving local rules, regulations, or other considerations. This list may be updated periodically to accommodate changes in legal, regulatory, or other factors. There may be discrepancies between this original content in English and any translated versions. Please refer to the original English version for the most accurate information, in case any discrepancies arise. Thank you for your support! Binance Team 2026-06-30
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Michael Saylor’s First Public Statement Following MicroStrategy’s New Policy: Stronger Credit, Stronger Equity, More Bitcoin
MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor delivered his first public remarks after the release of the "Digital Credit Capital Framework": "Stronger credit, stronger equity, more Bitcoin." Saylor’s declaration appears to explain the motivation behind the launch of the framework—specifically, the strategic logic of achieving more Bitcoin holdings by strengthening credit and equity structures.
3 minutes ago
SK Hynix plans to order semiconductor testing equipment, with a total price of up to $259 million.
SK Hynix is negotiating with semiconductor equipment manufacturers over the supply of semiconductor testing equipment needed for its Cheongju P&T7 plant. Equipment suppliers are verbally coordinating the number of units that can be delivered next year. The equipment industry forecasts the plant will order around 200 units, including HBM4 testers. At a price of 1.5 billion to 2 billion won per unit, the total cost could reach up to 400 billion won (approximately $259 million). (TheElec)
3 minutes ago
Jefferies reaffirms buy rating for AVGO, sets target price at $550.
Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis reiterated a Buy rating on AVGO and set a $550 price target, noting that the recent pullback in the stock creates a buying opportunity, with fiscal 2028 EPS projected to reach $30–$40. The analyst emphasized that Broadcom’s TPU roadmap is advancing as planned, the long-term agreement signed with Google through 2031 guarantees minimum revenue, and concerns over competition from MTK are overstated.
3 minutes ago
A whale invested $1.11 million to open a 3x long position of 8,253.89 ETH.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa), a certain whale added 1.11 million USDC in margin to Hyperliquid one hour ago, then opened an ETH long position worth $13.05 million, with an entry price of $1,581.9 and a liquidation price of $1,078.5.
3 minutes ago
OKX Star: One Person, One World-Class Company
According to official announcements, OKX has officially launched OKX.AI, a decentralized platform for the agent economy that enables AI Agents to post tasks, accept assignments, process payments, submit reviews, and conduct arbitration. OKX Founder and CEO Star stated in a post on X: "Over the past two decades, the world has been rebuilt around apps; over the next ten years, it will be rebuilt around agents. Agents will serve humans, be hired by humans, receive payments from humans, and collaborate with humans to complete complex tasks, while humans will channel more energy into imagination, judgment, purpose, and truly unique value." Star emphasized that this is not an era of more efficient software, but a new economic era. He added: "The future will no longer belong only to companies with the most employees, but also to individuals with the best agents. One person can be a world-class company. Welcome to the Agentic Economy, welcome to OKX.AI."
3 minutes ago
Royal Bank of Canada raises S&P 500 target to 8,150 points, while cautioning the rally will not be smooth sailing.
Lori Calvasina, chief U.S. equities strategist at Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets (RBC Capital Markets), lifted her 12-month target for the S&P 500 by 250 points to 8,150 on Monday. Compared with last Friday’s closing level, the revised target implies a 10.8% upside potential. The bank believes the U.S. stock market still has room to rise, but warns the rally will not be smooth sailing. In a research note sent to clients on Monday, Calvasina wrote: “We still view this forecast as optimistic but not unrealistic. Our core view is that the stock market will rise overall over the next year, though the trend will not be a straight-line rally.” The target hike is partly driven by positive signals from earnings per share (EPS) and valuation expectations. The strategist forecasts adjusted trailing four-quarter EPS will reach $337 in the first quarter of next year. Meanwhile, her model still retains conservative assumptions, and she warns market volatility is unavoidable during the rally, with the biggest risk being the Federal Reserve resuming interest rate hikes. Data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool shows the market is pricing in a 64% probability of a rate hike at the Fed’s September policy meeting.
BNB (BNB), formerly known as Binance Coin, remains under pressure, trading below $555 on Tuesday after closing below the lower boundary of its parallel channel last week, confirming a bearish technical breakdown. Muted institutional and weakening derivatives activity continue to weigh on sentiment. Meanwhile, the technical outlook suggests sellers could drive BNB toward the next key support at $488 if downside momentum persists.
Muted institutional demandSoSoValue data shows that BNB’s spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) have remained largely silent since their launch on May 28, indicating a lack of meaningful institutional demand for the token. This muted demand fails to provide a cushion against falling BNB prices.
Total BNB spot ETF net inflow daily chart. Source: SoSoValueDerivatives metrics support a bearish biasBNB’s derivatives metrics support a negative outlook. BNB’s futures Open Interest (OI) dropped to $780.77 million on Tuesday after a mild rise in early June but has been continuously falling since mid-January. This drop in OI reflects waning investor participation and projects a bearish outlook.
BNB open interest chart. Source: CoinglassIn addition, CoinGlass’ long-to-short ratio for BNB reads 0.83 on Tuesday, nearing its lowest level in over a month. This ratio, being below one, reflects bearish sentiment in the market, as more traders are betting on the asset’s price to fall.
BNB long-to-short ratio chart. Source: CoinglassBNB Price Forecast: BNB confirms a bearish technical breakdownBNB price trades at $553 on Tuesday, extending a bearish phase after closing below the lower boundary near $570 in the previous week, confirming a technical breakdown. Moreover, BNB is extending its retreat well below the 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) at $604.74, $630.63, and $679.81, respectively, which collectively cap the upside.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) near 35 suggests emerging oversold conditions, and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator remains negative. Still, it is no longer deteriorating sharply, hinting at weakening downside momentum rather than a confirmed reversal.
On the downside, the technical target is at $488.21 (based on the distance between the channel extrapolated from the breakdown point). However, BNB could find support around the $500 psychological level before gravitating toward its channel breakdown target.
On the topside, initial resistance is now seen at the broken lower channel boundary at $570, followed by the 50-day EMA at $604.74 and the 100-day EMA at $630.63, with a more meaningful barrier at the 200-day EMA at $679.81.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Michael Saylor’s First Public Statement Following MicroStrategy’s New Policy: Stronger Credit, Stronger Equity, More Bitcoin
MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor delivered his first public remarks after the release of the "Digital Credit Capital Framework": "Stronger credit, stronger equity, more Bitcoin." Saylor’s declaration appears to explain the motivation behind the launch of the framework—specifically, the strategic logic of achieving more Bitcoin holdings by strengthening credit and equity structures.
3 minutes ago
SK Hynix plans to order semiconductor testing equipment, with a total price of up to $259 million.
SK Hynix is negotiating with semiconductor equipment manufacturers over the supply of semiconductor testing equipment needed for its Cheongju P&T7 plant. Equipment suppliers are verbally coordinating the number of units that can be delivered next year. The equipment industry forecasts the plant will order around 200 units, including HBM4 testers. At a price of 1.5 billion to 2 billion won per unit, the total cost could reach up to 400 billion won (approximately $259 million). (TheElec)
3 minutes ago
Jefferies reaffirms buy rating for AVGO, sets target price at $550.
Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis reiterated a Buy rating on AVGO and set a $550 price target, noting that the recent pullback in the stock creates a buying opportunity, with fiscal 2028 EPS projected to reach $30–$40. The analyst emphasized that Broadcom’s TPU roadmap is advancing as planned, the long-term agreement signed with Google through 2031 guarantees minimum revenue, and concerns over competition from MTK are overstated.
3 minutes ago
A whale invested $1.11 million to open a 3x long position of 8,253.89 ETH.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa), a certain whale added 1.11 million USDC in margin to Hyperliquid one hour ago, then opened an ETH long position worth $13.05 million, with an entry price of $1,581.9 and a liquidation price of $1,078.5.
3 minutes ago
OKX Star: One Person, One World-Class Company
According to official announcements, OKX has officially launched OKX.AI, a decentralized platform for the agent economy that enables AI Agents to post tasks, accept assignments, process payments, submit reviews, and conduct arbitration. OKX Founder and CEO Star stated in a post on X: "Over the past two decades, the world has been rebuilt around apps; over the next ten years, it will be rebuilt around agents. Agents will serve humans, be hired by humans, receive payments from humans, and collaborate with humans to complete complex tasks, while humans will channel more energy into imagination, judgment, purpose, and truly unique value." Star emphasized that this is not an era of more efficient software, but a new economic era. He added: "The future will no longer belong only to companies with the most employees, but also to individuals with the best agents. One person can be a world-class company. Welcome to the Agentic Economy, welcome to OKX.AI."
3 minutes ago
Royal Bank of Canada raises S&P 500 target to 8,150 points, while cautioning the rally will not be smooth sailing.
Lori Calvasina, chief U.S. equities strategist at Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets (RBC Capital Markets), lifted her 12-month target for the S&P 500 by 250 points to 8,150 on Monday. Compared with last Friday’s closing level, the revised target implies a 10.8% upside potential. The bank believes the U.S. stock market still has room to rise, but warns the rally will not be smooth sailing. In a research note sent to clients on Monday, Calvasina wrote: “We still view this forecast as optimistic but not unrealistic. Our core view is that the stock market will rise overall over the next year, though the trend will not be a straight-line rally.” The target hike is partly driven by positive signals from earnings per share (EPS) and valuation expectations. The strategist forecasts adjusted trailing four-quarter EPS will reach $337 in the first quarter of next year. Meanwhile, her model still retains conservative assumptions, and she warns market volatility is unavoidable during the rally, with the biggest risk being the Federal Reserve resuming interest rate hikes. Data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool shows the market is pricing in a 64% probability of a rate hike at the Fed’s September policy meeting.
When your crypto sits on a centralized exchange, the exchange holds it for you. That's how most people first buy and store crypto, and it works well. This guide is about another option: holding your crypto yourself, on BNB Chain.
Moving to BNB Chain works differently. You hold your own crypto in a wallet only you control, and you connect straight to apps that let you trade, earn, borrow, and send money anywhere, without asking anyone for permission. This is what people mean by decentralized finance, or DeFi: financial tools that run on a public blockchain instead of inside a single company.
This guide covers what makes DeFi different, why people make the move, what you can do on BNB Chain, and how to do it yourself. The easiest way is to treat it as something to experiment with: start with a small amount, get comfortable with how it works, and do more once it feels familiar.
Why move to DeFi on BNB ChainThe short version: you get more control over your money and more to do with it. Here's what that looks like in practice:
You stay in control. Only you can move your funds. No withdrawal limits, no account reviews, no waiting on support to release your own money.You can put your crypto to work directly. Swap, earn, lend, and borrow straight from your wallet, instead of leaving it sitting in an account doing nothing.It's open to anyone. There's no application and no approval. If you have a wallet, you can use it, wherever you happen to be.You can check everything yourself. Every transaction is recorded on the blockchain and anyone can verify it, so you're not taking a company's word for what's happening with your money.BNB Chain keeps it cheap and fast. Most actions cost a fraction of a cent and go through in seconds, across a wide range of apps.There's a trade-off worth saying plainly. Holding your own crypto means holding your own responsibility. There's no support line to reset a password, so keeping your keys safe is on you. The good news is that this comes down to a few simple habits, and the rest of this guide walks through them.
Centralized exchanges vs holding your own cryptoThe core difference comes down to one question: who holds the keys?
On a centralized exchange, the exchange holds your private keys for you. A private key is the secret that controls the crypto in a wallet, a bit like a password that can never be reset. Because the exchange holds the keys, it manages your crypto on your behalf. This setup is called custodial: a third party holds custody for you.
When you hold your own crypto, you hold the keys yourself. This is called self-custody, or non-custodial. You're not relying on any company to store or release your funds, and the other side of that is responsibility: keeping your keys safe is down to you, because if you lose them, nobody can recover them for you.
What You Can Do on BNB ChainOnce your funds are in your wallet, you connect to apps directly. There are no accounts and no sign-ups, and "connecting" just links your wallet so you can approve each action yourself. Here are the main things people do on BNB Chain, what each one means, and the apps built for it.
Swapping tokensSwapping is trading one token for another, like exchanging BNB for a stablecoin. On BNB Chain you do this on a decentralized exchange, or DEX, which lets you trade straight from your wallet without handing your funds to anyone. Instead of matching buyers and sellers through an order book, most DEXs use pooled funds that you trade against, a model called an automated market maker (AMM).
A couple of things are worth knowing before your first swap. "Slippage" is how much price movement you'll accept between asking for a trade and it going through, and the default setting is usually fine for popular tokens. If something is not a well-known token, check its contract address against an official source first, because scammers often launch fake tokens using a real one's name.
PancakeSwap is the largest DEX on BNB Chain. It has no accounts and no sign-up, so connecting your wallet is all it takes to start trading.
Holding StablecoinsNot everything on BNB Chain has to move in price. Stablecoins are tokens built to hold a steady value, usually pegged to the US dollar, so one coin stays worth about a dollar. People use them to sit out volatility, to send money quickly, and to pay for things, all without giving up self-custody.
Several widely used stablecoins run on BNB Chain, including USDC, USDT, USD1, and U. You can hold them in your wallet, swap into and out of them on PancakeSwap, send them to anyone, or put them to work in the earning and lending options below.
BNB Chain has also been running a zero-fee campaign on stablecoin transfers, covering the network fee on USDC, USD1, and U when you withdraw them from major exchanges, send them between wallets, or bridge them onto the chain. While it runs, moving those stablecoins can cost you nothing.
Earn Yield On Your CryptoRather than letting crypto sit idle, you can earn a return on it. There are a few ways to do that, from low effort to more involved: staking, liquid staking, and supplying your assets to a lending market that pays interest.
Native BNB staking is one of the simpler, lower-risk options. You delegate your BNB to a validator, a participant that helps run the network, and earn a share of the rewards. Two things to plan around: when you decide to unstake there's currently a seven-day wait before your BNB returns to your wallet, and while validators can be penalised for poor performance, on BNB Chain that penalty comes out of the validator's own stake rather than yours. Picking a reliable validator still matters, mainly so you don't miss rewards. You can stake through the official BNB Chain staking app.
Liquid staking solves the main downside of regular staking, which is having your funds locked up. With Lista DAO, you stake BNB and receive slisBNB, a token that represents your staked BNB and keeps earning rewards while staying usable across other apps. Lista DAO holds the large majority of the BNB liquid-staking market.
Supplying to a lending market lets you earn interest by lending out assets you're not using. Both Lista DAO and Venus, one of the longest-running lending protocols on BNB Chain, let you supply stablecoins, BNB, and other assets to earn a variable yield. Venus also runs yield vaults that offer fixed-rate and structured returns.
Lending & BorrowingThe same protocols you use to earn also let you borrow. Borrowing in DeFi means putting up crypto you own as collateral and taking out a loan against it, so you can get cash or another asset without selling what you hold.
These loans are over-collateralized, which means you lock up more value than you borrow. The risk to understand is liquidation: if your collateral drops in value, or the asset you borrowed rises, past a set point, the protocol automatically sells your collateral to repay the loan, and you take the loss. Volatile prices make this happen faster than people expect, so if you borrow, leave a wide buffer and keep an eye on it.
Venus lets you borrow across its Core markets, which cover a broad range of assets, with Venus Flux focused on capital efficiency. Lista DAO lets you borrow against collateral such as BNB and slisBNB, including its own stablecoin, lisUSD, across markets with variable or fixed rates. If your goal is simply to earn rather than to take out a loan, supplying and lending keep things simpler.
Own Real-World AssetsDeFi is no longer limited to crypto-native tokens. Real-world assets, or RWAs, are everyday assets like stocks, bonds, and gold that have been turned into tokens you can hold in your wallet. Putting them onchain means you can own a piece of the offchain world, hold or trade it at any hour, and use it across BNB Chain apps, while a regulated custodian holds the real asset behind the token.
A few of the things you can hold on BNB Chain today:
Tokenized stocks and ETFs. bStocks, xStocks, and Ondo Finance both bring tokenized US shares and ETFs (names like NVIDIA, Tesla, and Apple) to BNB Chain as standard tokens, backed one-to-one by the real shares held in custody. You can trade them around the clock instead of only during market hours, and use them across apps like PancakeSwap, Venus, Lista, and Aster.Tokenized gold. Tether Gold (XAUt) and XAUm each represent one troy ounce of physical gold held in a vault, giving you gold exposure you can hold and move like any other token.Tokenized treasuries and funds. Ondo Finance brings tokenized US Treasuries and yield-bearing funds, such as USDY and OUSG, onto the chain, and Lista DAO lets you use tokenized treasuries and bonds as collateral and yield. These are a way to hold steadier, income-paying assets straight from your wallet.Tokenized private-company exposure. Colb Finance offers tokenized pre-IPO positions, giving you onchain exposure to private companies like SpaceX without owning the shares directly.As with any token, check you have the correct contract from an official source before buying. A tokenized asset is only as trustworthy as the issuer holding the real thing behind it.
Advanced Trading with PerpetualsPerpetuals, or "perps," are a form of leveraged trading. Leverage means borrowing to open a position bigger than the money you put in, which multiplies your gains and your losses by the same amount. A perps position can be liquidated and the money you committed lost in full, so this is for traders who already understand derivatives and are using money they can afford to lose. If your aim is just to hold your own crypto and earn a steady return, you can skip this entirely.
Aster is a decentralized exchange for perpetual futures and spot trading across several networks including BNB Chain. It's non-custodial, has a simple mode and a professional order-book mode, and encrypts orders before they reach the chain so your position details stay private until they fill. It also offers yield products under Aster Earn, including the asBNB liquid-staking token and the USDF yield-bearing stablecoin. Availability is restricted in some places, so check whether you can use it where you are.
Moving Assets in from Other ChainsIf your funds are on a different blockchain, such as Ethereum, a bridge moves them across to BNB Chain. The official BNB Chain Bridge connects several established cross-chain routes through one interface, including providers like Celer cBridge and Meson.fi.
Both of the latter are also part of the zero-fee stablecoin campaign, so while it runs, bridging supported stablecoins like USDC onto BNB Chain through them can cost nothing.
This is the one area to slow down on, because fake bridge sites are among the most common and costly scams in crypto. Attackers build copies that look identical to the real site, pay for ads so the fake ranks above the real one, and register web addresses that change a single character. Reach the bridge only through the official bnbchain.org site and bookmark it, check both the source and destination networks before confirming, and make sure you'll have a little BNB on the receiving side to cover fees. As with any transfer, send a small test amount first.
Moving from a Centralized ExchangeEverything above runs on a wallet you control. This section covers the actual move: understanding wallets, picking and setting one up, and bringing your funds across.
The Two Types of WalletsA wallet is the app or device that stores your keys and lets you hold crypto yourself. They come in two main types, and plenty of people use both.
Hot wallets are software wallets that stay connected to the internet, either as a phone app or a browser extension. They're free, quick to set up, and handy for everyday activity like swapping tokens or trying out an app. Because they're online, they suit the amounts you use regularly rather than your long-term savings.
Hardware wallets, also called cold wallets, are physical devices that keep your keys completely offline. You confirm each transaction on the device itself, so even if your computer is compromised, your keys never leave the hardware. They cost money and add a step to each transaction, which is a fair price for protecting larger holdings you plan to keep for a while.
A common setup is a hardware wallet for savings you rarely touch and a hot wallet for day-to-day activity.
Choosing and setting up a walletAny of these three non-custodial wallets supports BNB Chain and works as a starting point.
Trust WalletTrust Wallet is a non-custodial wallet available as a phone app and a browser extension, with support for many blockchains including BNB Chain. Your keys are created on your device and never sent to Trust Wallet's servers, so the company can't access, freeze, or recover your wallet. It includes built-in scanning that flags risky addresses and app connections before you confirm a transaction.
SafePalSafePal offers a software wallet (phone and browser extension) as well as air-gapped hardware wallets such as the S1 and X1, with support for over 200 blockchains including BNB Chain. The hardware devices keep your keys offline on EAL6+ certified secure-element chips and sign transactions over Bluetooth or by scanning QR codes. It suits people who want the option to pair a hardware device with their everyday wallet.
OneKeyOneKey is an open-source, non-custodial wallet that pairs a phone and desktop app and a browser extension with optional hardware devices (its Classic and Pro lines). Your keys stay on your device and are never uploaded, and you can use the app on its own or add a hardware wallet later. The newer hardware models use EAL6+ certified secure-element chips, keep keys offline, and confirm transactions on the device itself. OneKey requires no identity verification and screens transactions for phishing, risky addresses, and harmful approvals, showing you in plain language what you're about to approve.
Setting It Up SafelyThe setup is quick, and a few of the steps are what separate a wallet that's truly yours from one a scammer can empty.
Download only from the official source, meaning the official website or the App Store and Google Play listings linked from it. Fake wallet apps are common.Write your recovery phrase on paper, by hand. Your recovery phrase (sometimes called a seed phrase) is the list of 12 or 24 words the app shows you when you set up. Store it somewhere private and offline. Don't screenshot it, save it in notes or email, or type it into any website.Confirm the phrase when the app asks, then keep the paper somewhere safe. A second copy in a separate place protects against fire or loss.Pick the right network before you send or receive. For most apps in this guide that's BNB Smart Chain.Keep a little BNB for gas. "Gas" is the small network fee every action costs, paid in BNB and often a fraction of a cent. A small amount on hand keeps your transactions moving.Moving Your Funds AcrossOnce you've got a wallet, moving your crypto over is straightforward. The one habit that matters, every single time you send crypto anywhere, is to test first.
Set up your wallet and write down your recovery phrase offline (how to choose one comes next).Send a small test amount from your exchange to your wallet's address. Check you've picked the right network, usually BNB Smart Chain (BSC), the main BNB Chain network for trading and apps, and confirm the funds arrived before doing anything else.Once the test lands, send the rest. Keep a little BNB in your wallet to cover network fees.That test transfer takes a few minutes and costs almost nothing, and it's the simplest way to catch a wrong address or wrong network before it costs you anything real.
Staying Safe OnchainA few safety habits worth keepingThese take seconds and prevent the situations that cost people the most:
Never share your recovery phrase or keys with anyone. No real app, support agent, or "wallet check" will ever ask for them. Anyone who does is trying to rob you.Reach apps through bookmarks or by typing the address yourself. Most losses start with a link from a direct message, an ad, a reply, or a group chat. Treat those as suspect.Test with a small amount first whenever you send to a new address or try a new app.Review your approvals now and then. Apps ask permission to use your tokens, and old permissions can become a risk later. There's a free tool for clearing them out, covered further down.Two free tools do most of the work of keeping a self-custody setup safe. Neither can move your funds; both just show you information.
DappBay is BNB Chain's directory for finding apps. Its Red Alarm feature and Risk Scanner let you paste in a contract or wallet address and check it for known warning signs, and see whether a project has already been flagged as high-risk. Make it your first stop before using anything unfamiliar, and treat a flag as a stop sign. One caveat: a clean result is reassuring but not a guarantee, so pair it with your own research.
BscTrace is the block explorer for BNB Smart Chain, a read-only window into everything happening onchain and one of the most useful safety tools you have. (BscScan is a comparable explorer for the same chain.) It can't move your funds; it only shows you verified, public data. Use it to confirm a transaction went where you intended, including that test transfer, and to check whether a contract is verified before you trust it.
If you need to check a token approval, you can use BscScan. Its Token Approval Checker lets you see every app you've given permission to spend your tokens, and cancel the ones you no longer use for a tiny fee. A quick review every few months is cheap insurance.
How to Get StartedThe easiest way to begin is small. Set up one wallet, send a test amount from your exchange, and confirm it on BscScan before moving anything else. From there you can go at your own pace, whether that's swapping on PancakeSwap, earning through staking or lending, or simply holding your own keys and deciding what's next later on.
When you're ready to explore what's live on the chain, DappBay lists active BNB Chain apps by category, and doubles as the safety check worth running before you connect to any of them.
This guide is educational and is not financial, legal, or tax advice. Product availability varies by location. Onchain activity carries risk, including the possibility of losing everything you put in, and that risk is higher for leveraged and borrowed positions. Always reach apps by typing the official address or using a saved bookmark, never through a link in a direct message, reply, comment, ad, or unofficial group, and you are responsible for verifying every link, address, and contract you interact with.
Ripple (XRP) trades around the key $1.00 psychological level on Tuesday, consolidating as the token awaits its next directional catalyst. Stellar (XLM) extends its recovery above $0.178 after posting modest gains at the start of this week. Despite recent stabilization, mixed on-chain and derivatives data across both altcoins indicate cautious market sentiment, suggesting traders remain indecisive about the sustainability of the recovery.
Mixed on-chain outlookCryptoQuant’s summary data shows mixed sentiment. XRP’s spot markets show large whales' orders with neutral conditions in other metrics, supporting a potential recovery.
However, XLM shows an overheating condition and selling-side dominance in the spot and futures markets, with mixed retail activity, hinting at cautious sentiment among traders and capping any potential recovery.
XRP summary data chart. Source: CryptoQuant
XLM summary data. Source: CryptoQuantDerivatives metrics suggest cautious sentimentDerivatives data shows a mixed outlook. CoinGlass’ long-to-short ratio for XRP read 0.93 on Tuesday, slipping toward bearish territory. However, XLM reads 1.02 during the same period, flipping into bullish territory.
XRP long-to-short ratio chart. Source: Coinglass
XLM long-to-short ratio chart. Source: CoinglassIn addition, XRP funding rates turned negative on Tuesday, reading -0.0016%. For XLM, funding rates flipped negative on Saturday, reading -0.0143% on Tuesday, indicating that shorts are paying longs and suggesting bearish sentiment.
XRP funding rates chart. Source: SoSoValue
XLM funding rates chart. Source: SoSoValueSome other signs of optimismSoSoValue data shows some signs of optimism. Spot Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) recorded an inflow of $15.34 million on Monday after a $15.63 million inflow on Friday last week. If this inflow trend continues and intensifies, XRP could see a recovery ahead.
Total XRP spot ETF net inflow daily chart. Source: SoSoValueXRP technical outlook: Stabilizes around key support zoneXRP price trades at $1.051 on Tuesday, stabilizing around the key $1.000 psychological level for the past four days. Despite this recent consolidation, XRP maintains a bearish bias as price remains well below the 50‑day, 100‑day, and 200‑day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) at $1.200, $1.307, and $1.526, respectively.
XRP also trades under the upper boundary of the downward parallel channel at $1.162, reinforcing a capped structure. At the same time, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 33 stays in weak territory and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) remains slightly negative, hinting that downside pressure still dominates.
On the topside, initial resistance appears at the channel boundary around $1.162, followed by the 50‑day EMA at $1.200. Higher up, the $1.300 horizontal barrier aligns with the 100‑day EMA at $1.307 to form a dense supply zone, ahead of the more distant 200‑day EMA at $1.526 and the major horizontal level at $1.900.
With no meaningful support levels defined below the market in the current dataset, any renewed selling could leave price vulnerable to discovering fresh demand zones at lower levels.
XLM technical outlook: Extends recoveryStellar trades at $0.178 on Tuesday, extending its recovery. However, XLM is maintaining a bearish bias as price remains below the short- and medium-term EMAs. The 50-day EMA at $0.188, the 100-day EMA at $0.184 and the 200-day EMA at $0.199 all sit overhead as a layered supply zone, suggesting rallies are likely to be capped while these levels remain unreclaimed.
Momentum aligns with this cautious tone, as the RSI at 42 drifts below its midline and the MACD remains below zero, hinting at waning buying interest after the recent bounce.
On the downside, immediate demand is clustered just below the market at the horizontal support of $0.177, reinforced by the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement of the latest upswing at $0.173; a break below this area would expose the deeper horizontal floor near $0.142.
On the topside, initial resistance is located at the 100-day EMA at $0.184, followed by the 50-day EMA at $0.188; a sustained move above these EMAs would be needed to ease selling pressure, with further barriers emerging at the 200-day EMA at $0.199 and the 61.8% retracement at $0.200, ahead of higher Fibonacci levels at $0.218 and $0.237.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)
Chainlink’s holder count just veered parabolic. Fresh Santiment data shows LINK’s non-empty wallets on Ethereum climbed to 892,800—a jump of more than 8,000 new holders in only five days. At that pace, the network could breach 900,000 before the end of the week, with 1 million in sight by late summer. The on-chain signal arrives via a Santiment market note that points to a stark divergence: wallet growth is accelerating while LINK’s price remains pinned near local lows.
That divergence is the most important piece. When a network’s holder base expands aggressively without a corresponding price push, it often suggests stealth accumulation by investors who are not yet being chased by retail momentum. The current pattern echoes phases seen in other top-20 assets before liquidity rotates back in—new addresses rising, price flatlining, crowd sentiment still cautious. Nobody knows for sure whether this accumulation front-runs a broader repricing, but the data signals conviction among the wallets coming on-chain now.
Why Real-World Asset Narratives Are Fueling the Growth The timing isn’t random. Chainlink has been piling up credentials across the institutional tokenization landscape. Projects tied to real-world asset settlement, such as the DTCC’s collateral experimentation and the Project Pangea initiative, are leaning on oracle infrastructure to bridge off-chain data with on-chain execution. At the same time, the push toward 24/5 equity data streams and the tokenization of traditional instruments gives LINK direct exposure to a market transitioning from proof-of-concept to live infrastructure. That shift has become clearer with developments like Bullish’s $4.2 billion acquisition of Equiniti and Ondo’s settlement with JPMorgan, moves covered in a recent tokenization roundup that tracked how deeply financial plumbing is now integrating with public blockchains.
The steady rise in LINK wallets aligns with that trend. It doesn’t prove that every new holder is an institution, but it does match a pattern of positioning ahead of broader recognition. When the market was focused on meme coins or synthetic dollar yields, Chainlink was quietly cementing itself as the primary data layer for tokenized securities, stablecoin protocols, and institutional smart contracts. The wallet jump suggests someone is paying attention before the headline wave.
What a 900K Milestone Could—and Could Not—Mean Crossing 900,000 holders will be psychologically significant, but it is only a piece of the picture. Not all wallets represent unique users, and growth can be inflated by exchange deposit addresses, service-related wallets, or a few large entities splitting holdings. Santiment’s metric measures non-empty wallets, which filters out zero-balance clutter but still captures a broad set of on-chain footprints. The more critical question is whether the rising holder count coincides with a drop in exchange-held supply and an increase in withdrawal activity, signs that newly created addresses are pulling tokens off exchanges into cold storage or DeFi positions.
For now, the main takeaway is the mismatch between on-chain expansion and price apathy. When an asset adds thousands of holders in less than a week while still trading in a depressed range, it rewires the risk-reward calculation for traders who wait for the crowd to confirm what the data has already started to show. Whether that reset arrives this summer or takes another quarter depends on how fast real-world asset narratives turn into capital flows.
AUTHOR
Max delves deep into the cryptocurrency realm, with a passion for altcoins and NFTs. Convinced of crypto's transformative potential, he envisions a decentralized financial future. Max's background in the financial sector grants him unique insights into global monetary systems. In his leisure, Max embraces the thrill of adventures and is an avid sports enthusiast, finding balance and rejuvenation away from work.
Key Highlights Over 6,100 fresh wallet addresses joined Chainlink’s network within a 48-hour window, representing the most significant expansion spike of 2026. Analytics from Santiment reveal LINK has surpassed 892,800 active wallets on Ethereum, with more than 8,000 new addresses appearing in just five days. This rapid user base expansion occurs while LINK’s market value hovers near recent bottom levels, trading around $7.30. Chainlink’s technology plays a central role in the real-world asset tokenization sector, which has expanded by over 100% since the beginning of 2025. Major financial players including the DTCC, UBS, and Mastercard are actively collaborating with Chainlink to develop tokenized asset systems. Chainlink’s ecosystem is experiencing a remarkable surge in user adoption despite its token continuing to struggle with price performance. Recent analytics indicate the network onboarded 6,100 new unique wallet addresses within a mere two-day period. This represents the most aggressive user acquisition rate the protocol has registered throughout 2026.
Chainlink (LINK) Price Address growth serves as a fundamental metric for gauging network adoption and genuine usage, distinct from speculative price movements. It’s entirely possible for a digital asset to experience downward price pressure while simultaneously expanding its active user community. This divergence appears to be exactly what Chainlink is demonstrating at present.
Santiment Intelligence, a respected blockchain data analytics platform, published findings highlighting this unusual pattern. The firm’s official account noted that Chainlink’s address count has entered a “parabolic” growth phase. Their data indicates LINK on the Ethereum network has reached 892,800 wallets containing balances, representing an influx of over 8,000 new holders within a five-day timeframe.
✍️ TL;DR: Chainlink’s holder count has gone parabolic
📊 Metrics used: Total Holders
🔗 Link to chart: https://t.co/dtIQSALghS
📈 Chainlink’s holder growth is suddenly accelerating in a big way. $LINK on Ethereum is now up to 892.8K non-empty wallets, adding more than 8K holders… pic.twitter.com/rr4POGHn9a
— Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) June 29, 2026
Breaking Down The User Growth Metrics Analysts at Santiment observed that maintaining the current velocity, Chainlink could breach the 900,000 holder threshold before the current week concludes. Their projections further suggest that if this momentum sustains, the network might achieve the 1 million holder milestone by the conclusion of the summer season.
The Santiment analysis also drew connections between this adoption wave and recent institutional developments. The report referenced Project Pangea, ongoing DTCC collateral initiatives, the expansion of tokenized financial products, and around-the-clock equity data delivery systems as catalysts driving renewed interest. The analysts suggested that this pattern of accumulation during price weakness often precedes broader market recognition and momentum shifts.
LINK has experienced approximately 20% depreciation over the trailing three-month period. Current market data shows the token exchanging hands at $7.30, a significant decline from its 52-week peak of $27.70.
$LINK is back in the same monthly accumulation zone that preceded its previous explosive rallies.
If history repeats, a breakout from this base could open the path toward the $30+ region. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/bsQxpzsw9j
— FOUR | Crypto Spaces (@X_Four_iv) June 29, 2026
Despite facing downward price pressure, Chainlink continues advancing its position within the real-world asset tokenization ecosystem. This emerging sector involves representing traditional asset ownership—including equities, fixed income instruments, and property—on distributed ledger technology. The tokenized asset market has experienced explosive growth, expanding from $15.2 billion in early 2025 to $32.2 billion currently.
Both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are actively developing platforms for tokenized equity offerings. The DTCC, the critical infrastructure provider for securities clearing and settlement operations, has established a strategic partnership with Chainlink to construct the technical foundation for continuous trading capabilities.
Understanding Chainlink’s Infrastructure Position Chainlink provides oracle services and connectivity solutions that bridge blockchain networks with external data sources and traditional systems. Its technology operates across both permissionless public blockchains like Ethereum and permissioned private networks deployed by financial institutions.
🐋 WHALE WATCH: RWA IS THE UNDISPUTED WINNING NARRATIVE OF 2026!
The market is entirely distracted. $LINK is somehow down -35% YTD despite locking in 15 massive institutional partners this year.
The TradFi partnerships prove the adoption is real: $ONDO: Broadridge J.P.… pic.twitter.com/TYKRL9WWEU
— Whale Factor (@WhaleFactor) June 28, 2026
This interoperability proves crucial as traditional financial institutions explore both public and private blockchain architectures. Chainlink’s technology stack accommodates both paradigms, positioning the protocol to capture value regardless of which model achieves dominance.
The protocol’s institutional partnership roster features prominent names including UBS, Mastercard, and various U.S. government entities. Chainlink also claims its infrastructure underpins over 70% of decentralized finance applications currently operational.
Market strategists specializing in blockchain metrics caution that wallet proliferation in isolation doesn’t guarantee imminent price appreciation. They emphasize that on-chain transaction volumes, accumulation behaviors, and technical price structure must all align to validate a sustainable trend reversal.
Currently, Chainlink’s wallet metrics continue their upward trajectory while the token’s market price remains anchored near multi-month support levels. The immediate data point market participants are monitoring is whether the network successfully crosses the 900,000 holder mark by week’s end, as current growth rates indicate is probable.
Chainlink (LINK), which has recently been under selling pressure in the cryptocurrency market, continues to expand its investor base despite its weak price performance.
According to recent data shared by the on-chain analytics platform Santiment, there has been a remarkable increase in the number of wallet addresses holding LINK in recent days. The data shows that in the last five days, the number of LINK wallets with a balance above zero has increased by more than 8,000, reaching 892,800.
According to market data, Chainlink’s native token, LINK, is trading at $7.29 at the time of writing. Despite losing approximately 6.84% of its value over the past seven days, investor interest in the project remains high. The increase in the number of wallets, in particular, suggests that some market participants view the current price levels as a long-term investment opportunity.
In on-chain analytics, the number of wallet addresses with balances greater than zero is a closely watched indicator for measuring the adoption level and investor interest of a cryptocurrency. While this increase can stem from new investor inflows as well as existing users distributing their assets across different wallets, the overall picture suggests that activity on the network is strengthening.
Chainlink is considered one of the most important projects in the sector with its decentralized oracle infrastructure that connects blockchain networks with real-world data. Used in many areas such as decentralized finance (DeFi), tokenization, and transferring real-world assets to the blockchain, the project continues to play a critical role in the ecosystem.
Market analysts say that despite the short-term weakness in the LINK price, the steady increase in the number of wallets could be a positive indicator supporting long-term investor confidence. However, experts emphasize that investment decisions should not be based solely on the number of addresses, and that other fundamental indicators such as transaction volume, network usage, and overall market conditions should also be considered.
*This is not investment advice.
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The Chainlink ecosystem is witnessing rapid growth in its user base, even as the price of LINK remains subdued. According to the latest data, more than 6,100 new wallet addresses joined the network within a 48-hour period, marking the most significant address growth rate seen throughout 2026 so far. This surge in participation comes as users continue to flock to Chainlink, despite its token’s ongoing price challenges.
Sharp Rise in Address GrowthBlockchain analytics platform Santiment reported that the number of Chainlink wallets holding a balance on the Ethereum network has climbed to 892,800. In just five days, over 8,000 new addresses have been added, highlighting an acceleration in the expansion of the protocol’s user base. The rise in wallet addresses serves as a crucial measure of adoption, independent of price movements.
Santiment described the address growth as nearly parabolic, noting that Chainlink’s Ethereum-based wallet count has reached 892,800, with more than 8,000 new users joining in just five days.
Analysts suggest that if the current pace continues, Chainlink may surpass the 900,000 wallet milestone by the end of the week. Should this trend persist, the network could approach 1 million users before the end of the summer, underlining the protocol’s increasing appeal.
Institutional Interest Amid Ongoing Price PressureDespite these gains in network growth, LINK’s price has fallen about 20% over the past three months and is now trading around $7.30. This price level keeps the token near its recent lows. Still, Santiment points out that the increase in new addresses may be driven by developments such as Project Pangea, DTCC’s collateral initiatives, the expansion of tokenized financial products, and the continuous supply of stake data.
Some market observers note that accumulation trends during periods of price weakness can pave the way for broader interest once momentum returns.
Chainlink has positioned itself as a key infrastructure provider in the tokenization of real-world assets. This includes the representation of traditional assets like equities, fixed-income securities, and real estate on blockchain platforms. The market grew from $15.2 billion at the start of 2025 to $32.2 billion, reflecting the scale and potential of this emerging niche.
Mini glossary: Tokenization refers to the process of converting ownership or rights to a traditional asset into a digital token on a blockchain. DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation) is a central institution in US capital markets, providing clearing and custody services for securities.
Chainlink’s Infrastructure RoleChainlink delivers crucial oracle and connectivity solutions that integrate blockchain networks with external data feeds and traditional financial systems. The protocol operates across both open networks, such as Ethereum, and permissioned private networks used by financial institutions. This versatility heightens its significance as organizations test diverse blockchain architectures.
Key institutional players like DTCC, UBS, and Mastercard have collaborated with Chainlink on various initiatives. Major stock exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, are also exploring tokenized equity structures. Chainlink’s technology is increasingly viewed as a vital bridge connecting conventional finance with blockchain innovation.
Nevertheless, market experts caution that a rise in wallet numbers alone is not sufficient to guarantee lasting price gains. Other indicators—such as trading volumes, on-chain activity, accumulation patterns, and technical trends—must also align to confirm a sustained bullish outlook for LINK.
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.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
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KuCoin is facing new scrutiny after blockchain investigator ZachXBT claimed the exchange sent legal warnings to a victim whose stolen funds were allegedly routed through KuCoin-linked accounts.
Summary
A crypto investigator claims KuCoin sent legal warnings after stolen funds were allegedly routed through accounts. The case centers on a reported $250K Atomic stealer theft and five alleged KuCoin deposit addresses. The dispute adds pressure as KuCoin remains under scrutiny over past AML and compliance failures. The case involves a reported $250,000 Atomic stealer theft from Aug. 18, 2025, according to ZachXBT’s Telegram post.
ZachXBT listed one theft address and five alleged KuCoin deposit addresses. He claimed the accounts involved “purchased mule KYC,” a term used for accounts verified with another person’s identity. The claims have not been confirmed by court filings or an official KuCoin statement.
The screenshot shared with the post appears to show a message signed by KuCoin Customer Care and Support Team. It says KuCoin respects the right to raise concerns through legal and regulatory channels, but warns that false or unlawful statements may lead to legal claims.
The message also says, “All rights are expressly reserved.” The post drew further attention after DNBWIZARD shared the exchange on X and said, “Hilarious @kucoincom threatening to sue me.”
KuCoin allegations echo earlier compliance concerns The dispute comes after years of pressure on KuCoin’s compliance record. In January 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice said KuCoin pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and agreed to pay more than $297 million in penalties. The DOJ said KuCoin failed to maintain effective AML and KYC programs and allowed suspicious activity on its platform.
The DOJ had charged KuCoin and two founders in March 2024, alleging that the exchange failed to maintain proper anti-money laundering controls. Prosecutors said KuCoin had received more than $5 billion and sent more than $4 billion in suspicious and criminal funds between 2017 and 2024.
Related stolen funds cases remain in focus As reported by crypto.news, a fake Ledger Live app stole at least $9.5 million from more than 50 victims earlier this year. That report said the stolen funds were routed through more than 150 KuCoin deposit addresses and into a centralized mixing service.
The same report said blockchain investigator ZachXBT traced stolen funds through transactions into KuCoin deposit addresses linked to AudiA6. It also noted that recovery would likely require law enforcement action and cooperation from exchanges.
As previously reported by crypto.news, KuCoin secured a MiCA license in Austria through its European subsidiary in late 2025. The approval allowed the exchange to offer regulated services across the European Economic Area under the EU’s passporting rules.
However, Austria’s regulator later barred KuCoin’s European arm from new business and onboarding customers, citing compliance staffing issues. The restriction followed KuCoin’s earlier push to present itself as a regulated European platform.
Securities finance is one of the largest markets that almost nobody outside Wall Street thinks about, and it is already starting to move onchain. Lending against securities collateral is a multi-trillion-dollar business. Repo alone averages around $12.6 trillion in daily exposures in the U.S., margin lending sits at a record $1.3 trillion, and wealth-management securities-based loans add over $400 billion on top of that. Securities lending, counted separately, keeps roughly $4.6 trillion of assets on loan and generated a record $15 billion in revenue in 2025. Almost none of this activity touches a blockchain today, which presents an opportunity.
The best way to move it onchain is to get the market structure right. Between the borrower and the lender sits a stack of custodians, lending agents, tri-party collateral managers, prime brokers, and clearing houses. Each layer of the stack takes a fee, adds a settlement delay, and obscures information. Collateral gets trapped inside bilateral relationships, rehypothecation chains stretch out of view, and when something fails, nobody can see why for days. Every level of the stack creates work, friction, and cost.
Improving that market structure is what Aave V4 is built to do, and the onchain rails are already at scale. The stablecoin market has crossed $322 billion, Aave secures roughly $23 billion in liquidity, GHO is live as a native dollar for Aave, and Aave Horizon is past half a billion dollars in total deposits powering RWA-backed loans. The cash leg, the liquidity, and the collateral pipeline all exist now.
Why V4 fits V4 separates the system into liquidity hubs and spokes. A hub is a deep pool of capital, and spokes are the modular venues (i.e. markets) that plug into it, each with its own risk parameters, asset scope, and rules. That single design choice maps almost perfectly onto how a securities financing market wants to be organized, with shared liquidity underneath and segmented, compliant venues on top.
Three flows run through it, and together they are the market.
Securities backed lending A tokenized security is posted as collateral in a spoke with conservative, asset-specific haircuts, and the owner borrows GHO or stablecoins against it without selling. The position stays transparent, the haircut is explicit, and liquidation runs automatically rather than through a back office. The owner keeps the upside and unlocks the liquidity, and the bank balance sheet is freed up. This is already a $400 billion book in U.S. wealth management alone and still undeserved, and as real-world assets tokenize toward $16 trillion by 2030, every one of those assets becomes collateral that can be borrowed against instantly. Horizon has already grown past half a billion dollars in institutional RWA deposits, so the demand is clear. For the end user, liquidity arrives in minutes against tokenized collateral instead of through a bilateral facility negotiated over days, and the rate is transparent and set by a deep shared pool.
Repo This is the giant. Repo is short-dated, collateralized cash borrowing, mostly against Treasuries, and the U.S. market alone averages around $12.6 trillion in daily exposures. Onchain, repo is simply borrowing the stablecoin cash leg against tokenized securities in a low-risk hub, which is exactly what V4 is built to do. Atomic delivery-versus-payment removes settlement fails, terms become programmable and can run 24/7 rather than on the banking calendar, and the roughly $5 trillion of opaque non-centrally-cleared bilateral repo becomes transparent and continuously margined. The market that most needs clean settlement and live collateral visibility is the one V4 serves best.
Securities lending The tokenized security itself becomes a borrowable asset in a hub. Borrow demand from the short side and the settlement-coverage side pays a rate that flows straight back to the suppliers who own the asset, and the lending-agent function of matching, pricing, and collateral management collapses into the protocol. This is where the fee pool sits, with $15 billion in 2025 revenue against tens of trillions in lendable supply. Today lending agents keep roughly 20 to 30 percent of that revenue, several billion dollars a year skimmed before the owner sees a cent. Route the same flow through a protocol and that take compresses toward zero, with the spread accruing to the owner instead.
A proposed market structure There are two ways to lay this out, and both share the same spokes. They differ only in how the liquidity underneath is organized.
Option A: one shared Liquidity Hub A single liquidity hub acts as the settlement and collateral core. It holds the cash leg, keeps unified accounting of every position, prices collateral through oracles, so maximum depth lives in one place and is shared by everything above it.
Around it sit purpose-built spokes, each a venue with its own rulebook but the same liquidity underneath. An SBL spoke accepts tokenized securities as collateral and lets owners draw stablecoins or GHO against conservative, asset-class haircuts. SBL spoke can be divided into multiple spokes, depending on the risk. A repo spoke handles short-dated collateralized cash borrowing against high-quality securities, atomically settled and continuously margined. A securities-lending spoke lists tokenized securities as borrowable assets, with the borrow fee routing to the owners who supply them.
The strength of this layout is depth, since one pool means the deepest possible liquidity and the simplest accounting. The limitation is that risk lives in one place, so isolation has to be engineered at the spoke layer rather than being structural.
Option B: multiple hubs by asset category and risk The alternative is to run several liquidity hubs, each scoped to an asset category and a risk profile, and let spokes connect to more than one at once. A low-risk treasuries hub with tight haircuts is where most repo naturally lands, a medium-risk credit and money-market hub serves other needs, and a higher-risk equities hub carries wider haircuts and stricter liquidation thresholds. Each hub prices and isolates its own risk.
The spokes route across these hubs automatically. The repo spoke sends Treasury collateral to the treasuries hub, the SBL spoke sends an equity basket to the equities hub, and the same user sees one venue while the protocol places each position in the pool whose parameters fit.
This buys three things. Risk isolation becomes structural rather than configured, so a shock in equities can be contained without ever touching the treasuries pool that backs repo. Pricing gets sharper, because each hub sets rates and haircuts for one risk profile instead of blending many. And regulatory separation gets easier, since a hub can be scoped to a single regime while spokes still aggregate the experience across all of them. The tradeoff is shallower depth per hub, but because spokes pull across multiple hubs, aggregate liquidity and composability are preserved. Credit lines between hubs to particular Spokes can increase the liquidity flow while preserving risk isolation exposure up to the credit line.
The practical path is a spectrum rather than a binary. Start unified for depth and simplicity, then graduate to category-and-risk hubs as collateral types scale and isolation becomes worth the fragmentation. The same spokes carry over either way.
Roles, in either model The firms that used to be separate layers become parameters and participants. The lending agent becomes a risk manager tuning hub and spoke parameters, the tri-party collateral manager becomes the hub's accounting and liquidation engine (the protocol itself), and the prime broker and clearing house become an operator running a permissioned venue. The custodian's ledger becomes the chain itself.
What changes structurally The functions that used to live in separate firms move into protocol roles, so the work survives while the rent does not. Collateral that used to sit inside bilateral agreements goes to work, since the same asset can back exposure across every hub it qualifies for, no prefunded inventory parks at each counterparty, and no float bleeds yield. A permissioned spoke or a jurisdiction-scoped hub enforces KYC, jurisdiction, and eligible-asset rules at the edge while still drawing on shared liquidity, so a regulated institution gets a venue that fits its rules without fragmenting the order book the rest of the market relies on.
Settlement happens at a different speed entirely. Traditional securities markets still settle one day after the trade in the United States and two days after across much of Europe, and the industry's recent step to one-day settlement alone cost participants around $30 billion to implement. V4 settles atomically, around the clock, with no failures and near-zero marginal cost, and the reconciliation that takes days in traditional finance becomes a single state read onchain.
What it unlocks For asset owners, borrowers, and cash lenders, the gains are concrete. The addressable market runs into the trillions, with repo averaging roughly $12.6 trillion in daily exposures in the U.S., margin at $1.3 trillion, and securities lending at $4.6 trillion on loan, all sitting on collateral headed toward $16 trillion tokenized by 2030.
Yield is kept rather than skimmed, since the 20 to 30 percent of securities-lending revenue that agents capture today routes back to the asset owner. Settlement no longer fails, because atomic, 24/7 delivery-versus-payment replaces the T+1 and T+2 cycles and the intraday failures that plague bilateral repo. Capital works harder, since pooled hub liquidity ends idle prefunded inventory and lets the same collateral move across venues. Risk becomes visible and contained, with positions, haircuts, and rehypothecation transparent in real time and category hubs keeping a shock where it starts. And access takes minutes, so an owner can borrow against tokenized holdings on demand at a transparent, market-set rate instead of negotiating a bilateral line over days.
The takeaway Securities finance has been waiting for a settlement and collateral layer that can function without a stack of intermediaries. Securities-backed lending, repo, and securities lending are three faces of the same balance sheet, where you borrow cash against what you hold, finance it short-dated, or lend it out for yield, and together they move tens of trillions of dollars on plumbing that skims billions and settles in days.
V4 hosts all three on one architecture, whether that is a single deep hub or a mesh of category-and-risk hubs that spokes route across, with the liquidity, the stablecoin cash leg, and the institutional pipeline already live. The plumbing finally gets an upgrade, the value flows to the people who own the assets, and the market that runs on it is measured in trillions. This is the market Aave can capture.
Over $21 Million Recaptured Since LaunchAave and Chainlink have recaptured more than $21 million in combined revenue since the launch of Chainlink Smart Value Recapture (SVR) in 2025, according to Token Logic data shared by Josef Abregab (jfab.eth). Around $14 million has flowed to Aave and $7 million to Chainlink. SVR fees on Aave also recorded their third highest month on record in the latest period, per the same data.
In March 2025, Aave integrated Chainlink SVR into its Core Ethereum market, enabling the protocol to recapture value from liquidation-related MEV that had historically leaked to network validators, external searchers, and block builders. The milestone adds a meaningful new revenue line for both DAOs and reflects a broader shift in how DeFi protocols think about value that was once simply left on the table.
How SVR WorksChainlink SVR Feeds introduce a way to recapture Oracle Extractable Value (OEV), a subset of non-toxic Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) associated with oracle updates that is most commonly observed during the liquidation process of lending protocols. Historically, tens of millions of dollars worth of liquidation OEV has been leaked and captured by participants of the block building process, with none of the value returning to the DeFi protocols or oracle infrastructure that generated it.
Built in collaboration with BGD Labs, Flashbots, and other Aave DAO contributors, Chainlink SVR recaptures oracle-related MEV using a combination of Chainlink oracle networks and Flashbots' MEV-Share service. By sending oracle updates through a dual aggregator architecture, SVR enables an auction for the opportunity to backrun liquidations, allowing the DeFi protocol and the Chainlink Network to share in the payment offered by searchers instead of letting it leak entirely to third parties.
Recaptured OEV revenue is split between the Aave and Chainlink communities, with an initial discounted rate of 65% to the Aave ecosystem and 35% to the Chainlink ecosystem, as confirmed in an Aave DAO vote. The value recaptured by SVR provides DeFi protocols with an additional revenue stream while also supporting the economic sustainability of Chainlink oracles.
The cumulative $21 million figure in the Token Logic data is ahead of an earlier milestone reported by Aave's own blog, which put total recaptured revenue at roughly $16 million across approximately 3,900 liquidation events in the first nine months through early February 2026, representing an average recapture rate of 73% of total non-toxic MEV from liquidations. The gap between the two figures reflects continued growth in SVR activity through mid-2026.
A future upgrade to Chainlink SVR is planned featuring increased decentralization, enhanced gas efficiency, and cross-chain capabilities.
Sources:
PR Newswire: Aave Integrates Chainlink SVR on Ethereum Mainnet
Chainlink Docs: Smart Value Recapture (SVR) Feeds
Polkadot (DOT), once among the highest-performing cryptocurrencies of the 2021 bull market, has become one of the sector’s biggest decliners. Since reaching its record high of around $55 in November 2021, DOT has plunged to nearly $0.80—a dramatic collapse that marks a roughly 98.54% loss. This sharp downturn has reignited discussions about the risks of buying into market hype at its peak.
Massive loss for DOT investors since 2021 highsAccording to calculations shared by crypto analyst Crypto Patel, an investor who committed $100,000 to DOT at its November 2021 peak would see their holdings shrink to just about $1,459 today. This stark example underlines the scale of the erosion in value experienced by DOT holders over the past few years.
After launching in 2020, DOT delivered strong monthly gains, fueled in large part by excitement over parachain auctions and a broad crypto market rally. That momentum pushed the token to its all-time high in late 2021. However, sentiment soon reversed and DOT entered a long-term downtrend characterized by a series of lower highs and lower lows.
At its November 2021 peak, a $100,000 DOT investment would now be worth just $1,459—meaning about 98.54% of its value has been wiped out.
Key resistance levels and technical signalsPrice zones that previously provided strong support—particularly between $4.00 and $4.20—now act as resistance. The current price’s attempt to stabilize near $0.80 alone does not suggest a lasting recovery is underway. For a genuine rebound, technical analysts are watching for higher lows, movement above key moving averages, and a breakout above major resistance levels.
Network innovation continues with the JAM upgradeWhile DOT’s price performance has frustrated investors, Polkadot developers remain focused on expanding the network’s technical capabilities through the upcoming JAM protocol. Polkadot is recognized as a multi-chain ecosystem aimed at interconnecting different blockchains, and JAM upgrades would further enhance this vision.
With the JAM protocol, Polkadot aims to allow applications to run directly on its infrastructure while maintaining parachain security. The upgrade is expected to support parallel operations, including smart contracts, AI agents, media applications, and more, thereby broadening the network’s potential use cases.
Glossary: In the Polkadot ecosystem, JAM refers to a technical architecture designed to move the network beyond simply providing parachain security, enabling general-purpose computation. “Parachain” is the term used for independent blockchains that are connected to Polkadot and benefit from its security.
According to the Polkadot team, JAM could bolster the DOT economy by addressing computational demand across the network, rather than focusing solely on parachain security. The upgrade is projected to reduce operational costs by around 40% and accelerate development activity within the network.
Nevertheless, for confirmation of any reversal in DOT’s price trend, clearer improvements in technical indicators are required. Currently, while some investors follow the project’s long-term roadmap, market participants are closely monitoring DOT’s reaction to critical resistance zones in the short term.
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.
