US strikes IRGC communications tower on Qeshm Island near Strait of Hormuz. Hormuz traffic normal by June at 21.5% YES, down from 38% last week.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Democrats Sanders and Warren Push Labor Department to Abandon Bitcoin 401(k) Rule

Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are calling on the Trump administration’s Labor Department to scrap a rule that would open America’s retirement savings accounts to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — a move the lawmakers say puts workers’ financial futures at risk while lining the pockets of President Trump and his family.

In a 14-page letter sent Monday to Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, Sanders (I-VT) and Warren (D-MA) joined House Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) to condemn a proposed Department of Labor rule floated in March.

The rule would give 401(k) plan fiduciaries cover to offer volatile assets — including cryptocurrency, private equity, and private credit — so long as fiduciaries can demonstrate they weighed relevant factors before offering access.

“The proposed rule is harmful to American workers and counter to statute, Congressional intent, existing regulations, and case law,” the letter reads.

What the rule would do

The proposal stems from an executive order President Trump signed last August, directing the Labor Department to revisit its approach to alternative assets in retirement plans. Under current law, fiduciaries managing 401(k) plans are held to a strict “prudence” standard — a requirement rooted in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 and reinforced by Supreme Court precedent.

The Democrats argue the new rule would flip that standard on its head. Rather than requiring fiduciaries to demonstrate due diligence, the rule would presume it — so long as a fiduciary follows the process the rule outlines.

That shift, the lawmakers say, conflicts with decades of legal precedent and exposes the estimated $14.2 trillion sitting in American 401(k) accounts to assets with extreme price swings and limited regulatory oversight.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has warned that crypto investments “have experienced higher levels of volatility relative to more traditional investment assets” and that “the risk of losing all of your investment is significant.” The FBI reported over $11 billion in cryptocurrency fraud losses in 2025 — among the highest losses from any category of cyber-enabled crime.

The Trump conflict-of-interest argument

The Democratic lawmakers went beyond retirement policy, raising pointed conflict-of-interest concerns. Trump’s adult sons manage the family’s crypto business, and the ventures have raised an estimated $5 billion for the Trump family following the September launch of their digital currency, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The family’s crypto portfolio includes World Liberty Financial’s WLFI and USD1 tokens, as well as the official Trump meme coin — which surged past $75 per token at Trump’s January 2025 inauguration before collapsing to around $2.

“The change to the prudence standard described above expands opportunities for President Trump and his family to profit at the expense of taxpayers, workers, and retirees,” the letter reads.

Consumer advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform echoed those concerns.

“Opening 401(k)s to these products risks turning workers’ retirement savings into a Ponzi-like scheme that throws a lifeline to an industry scrambling for fresh cash,” said Oscar Valdés Viera, a senior policy analyst at the organization.

The letter also cited senior poverty statistics: more than 22.8% of seniors in the United States live in poverty, compared with 5.1% in Denmark, 5.8% in France, and 12.6% in Germany — underscoring the stakes for retirees who can’t absorb major losses.

The administration’s defense

The Trump administration has framed the rule as an expansion of worker choice.

“The department’s days of picking winners and losers are over,” Acting Labor Secretary Sonderling said in a statement. “Our rule clearly spells out that managers must evaluate any and all potential product offerings by following a prudent process.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added his support, calling the rule “another step in ushering in President Trump’s ‘Golden Age.'”

This post Democrats Sanders and Warren Push Labor Department to Abandon Bitcoin 401(k) Rule first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Stocks, Led By Strategy (MSTR), Take a Beating as BTC Price Sells Off 

Bitcoin fell into the mid-$67,000s on Tuesday, dragging the entire ecosystem of crypto-linked equities with it.

Bitcoin shed more than 11% over the past week, crashing below $67,000 for the first time since early April, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data. 

The drop hit crypto treasury stocks with full force. Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) tumbled 9.15% on Tuesday, trading at $136.08 at close, with a session low of $134.11 — dangerously close to its 52-week floor of $104.16. Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN) fell 4.23%, to $173.74. 

And Strive, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASST), the Vivek Ramaswamy-founded bitcoin treasury company, dropped 6.23% to $16.10 — despite announcing one of the boldest Bitcoin purchases of the year.

Strategy (MSTR) breaks from buying and sells 32 BTC

One of the sparks this year was a four-page SEC filing. Between May 26 and May 31, Strategy sold 32 Bitcoin for $2.5 million at an average of $77,135 per coin — the company’s first net reduction in bitcoin holdings through a standalone regulatory disclosure since December 2022. 

The proceeds went toward funding distributions on STRC, Strategy’s perpetual preferred stock carrying an 11.5% annual variable dividend.

The numbers are small. Thirty-two coins represent 0.004% of Strategy’s 843,706 BTC treasury, assembled at an average purchase price of $75,699 per coin. The psychological damage, however, was severe. Strategy built its entire equity story on an absolute “never sell” posture championed by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor. That posture is now gone. MSTR stock has fallen nearly 15% from Friday’s close.

Bitcoin price’s discouraging week

Strategy’s sale did not land in a vacuum. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded roughly $3.45 billion in net withdrawals across 11 straight trading sessions through late May — the largest monthly ETF exodus of 2026, with a single session logging $484 million in redemptions. 

Then Mt. Gox, the long-dormant estate of the collapsed Tokyo exchange, moved 10,422 BTC — worth approximately $739 million — in a single transfer at 04:47 UTC on June 2, according to blockchain data from Arkham Intelligence. 

Of the total, 10,306 BTC went to a new address with no prior transaction history. The transfer marks the estate’s largest on-chain movement in months, arriving as its creditor repayment deadline approaches in October 2026. On-chain data showed no immediate exchange inflows tied to the movement, but automated trading systems reacted to the headline, triggering liquidations that amplified the price decline.

Geopolitics added another weight. Iran suspended nuclear negotiations with the U.S. after Israel escalated operations in Lebanon, pushing a risk-off tone into global markets. 

President Trump claimed talks are still moving “at a rapid pace” while brokering a ceasefire understanding with Hezbollah, but the uncertainty was enough to suppress any bid.

Strive buys — and still gets crushed

Against this backdrop, Strive made a calculated move. The company disclosed in an SEC Form 8-K on June 2 that it acquired 2,500 BTC for roughly $185.2 million at an average price of $74,092 per coin — a purchase made into bitcoin’s weakness. 

The buy lifts Strive’s total holdings to 19,000 BTC, placing the Dallas-based company among the top ten publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holders in the world.

CEO Matt Cole, a former $70 billion portfolio manager at CalPERS, has grown Strive’s Bitcoin stack from zero to 19,000 BTC in under a year through a mix of equity offerings and its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock (SATA). 

The company also announced last week plans to expand its at-the-market fundraising programs by $4.2 billion — $2.1 billion in common stock and $2.1 billion in additional SATA preferred shares — to fund continued accumulation. In the same filing, Strive reported cash reserves of $137.3 million, up $44 million, with an 18-month dividend reserve in place.

None of it mattered to sellers on Monday. ASST shares along with everything else. Both MSTR and ASST are now absorbing the structural cost of the treasury model: when Bitcoin drops, the equities drop harder.

Bitcoin’s price sat in the mid-$67,000s at the time of writing, down more than 46% from its October peak above $126,000. 

This post Bitcoin Stocks, Led By Strategy (MSTR), Take a Beating as BTC Price Sells Off  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Iran’s Largest Crypto Exchange in Sweeping Economic Warfare Push

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Nobitex, Iran’s largest digital asset exchange, and three other Iranian crypto platforms on Tuesday, marking the Trump administration’s sharpest blow yet to Tehran’s digital financial infrastructure.

Nobitex processed more than 50% of all Iranian digital asset inflows in 2025, according to OFAC, and has served as a conduit for payments tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, ransomware operations, and attempts to shield regime wealth during internet blackouts that followed U.S. combat operations in Iran, according to the Treasury release.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in announcing the action, pointed to Iran’s economic deterioration as confirmation that the administration’s maximum pressure strategy is working.

“While Iran’s economy is in free fall, the regime has chosen to co-opt digital asset technologies for its own corrupt agenda,” Bessent said, “including evading sanctions and transferring wealth out of the country.”

The designation extends beyond a single platform. Wallex, Iran’s second-largest crypto exchange by volume, received 12% of all Iranian digital asset inflows in 2025 and facilitated IRGC-linked transactions. 

Bitpin, which captured 10% of those inflows, counts investors with reported ties to Iranian sanctions evasion efforts among its backers.

Ramzinex, a Tehran-based exchange founded in 2018, processed more than $2.45 billion in total transactions, including payments for a government-backed Iranian financial institution.

Iran vs. U.S. rocky economic and crypto relations

The action comes at a moment when the scale of Iran’s crypto shadow economy has become a central concern for U.S. national security officials. Iran’s broader crypto infrastructure has been estimated at roughly $7.8 billion, and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has linked Nobitex to a network of wallets and behaviors consistent with IRGC financial activity. 

In April 2026, Tether froze $344.2 million held across two wallets attributed to the Central Bank of Iran — wallets with documented ties to the IRGC-Qods Force and Hizballah — in what TRM Labs described as the largest on-chain freeze of Iranian sovereign crypto reserves on record. 

Bessent told Fox Business last month that the U.S. has now seized approximately $1 billion in Iranian cryptocurrency.

What separates Tuesday’s action from prior sanctions rounds is the designation of Nobitex’s leadership. OFAC named Amir Hossein Rad — the exchange’s chairman, co-founder, and former CEO — for helping reconstitute Nobitex’s operations after a $90 million hack in June 2025. 

Also designated were two co-founders identified as members of the Kharrazi family, which sits inside former Supreme Leader Khamenei’s inner circle, as well as the exchange’s current CEO, Seyed Ali Khoee. 

The designations signal a pivot toward holding individuals accountable rather than targeting platforms alone — a strategy that analysts say carries more deterrent weight because it threatens executives with personal asset freezes and secondary sanctions exposure.

The U.S. treasuries two executive orders

Treasury invoked two executive orders: E.O. 13224, a counterterrorism authority, and E.O. 13902, which targets persons operating in Iran’s financial sector. Both designations carry identical consequences — all U.S. property interests of the named entities and individuals are blocked, and any foreign company or financial institution that continues to do business with them risks exposure to secondary sanctions.

The question that compliance professionals across the industry are watching is whether the SDN listings will compel stablecoin issuers and foreign exchanges to cut off Iranian users at scale. 

OFAC clarified earlier this year that Iranian digital asset exchanges are considered blocked financial institutions regardless of whether they appear on the SDN list — but an explicit SDN designation triggers secondary sanctions against any global counterparty and gives stablecoin issuers direct legal justification for bulk freezes. 

Treasury has also warned that any person or company facilitating passage payments through the Strait of Hormuz — whether in fiat, digital assets, or informal swaps — risks sanctions. On May 27, 2026, OFAC designated Iran’s so-called “Persian Gulf Strait Authority,” an IRGC-linked scheme to extort international shipping.

This post U.S. Treasury Sanctions Iran’s Largest Crypto Exchange in Sweeping Economic Warfare Push first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

A Little Story About Inflation – An Excerpt from Bitcoin: The Honest Money

When I was a teenager, I delivered newspapers. I earned 10 German marks (DM) per hour. That was enough money to buy 33 scoops of ice cream, since a single scoop only cost 30 cents, or pfennig, as they were back then.

Fast forward to 2025: today, a teenager delivering newspapers earns at most €12 per hour. However, a scoop of ice cream now costs a hefty €1.50, and sometimes more than €2 in the big cities. This means that for every hour of newspaper delivery, you can afford at best a mere eight scoops of ice cream, but it’s often less than that.

The working time of a newspaper boy or girl has been significantly devalued in Germany over the last forty years. An hour’s work now yields only six to eight scoops of ice cream, compared with the 33 scoops it originally earned in the 1980s. That’s a loss of around 80%.

If I had put my 10 DM in a drawer, found them forty years later, and exchanged them for €5, I’d only get about two to three scoops of ice cream—a loss of over 90%.

This concerns inflation and its redistributive effects. It’s not only saved money that’s devalued; it’s also the time that’s spent earning that money—or to be more precise, earning a fixed basket of goods. As money loses value, so does the actual time we spent earning it. On average, we receive far less in real goods for the work we do.

Inflation, the continual devaluation of money, is a huge problem. The global money supply (M2) is estimated at around $120 trillion (see Figure 4). Even at an inflation rate of 4% (and the global rate is likely higher), the M2of approximately $120 trillion implies that $4.8 trillion in purchasing power is destroyed each year. That’s more than the entire gross national product of Germany. Inflation affects billions of people. Almost everyone, in fact. And the less you earn, the more you are dispossessed by inflation. The vast majority of people, which I estimate at around 90% of all citizens, have no way to avoid the devaluation of money. They lose out as their savings are devalued, and their wages fail to keep pace with rising inflation.

Major historical upheavals and revolutions have very often been preceded by inflation, for example, the French Revolution. Currency devaluation also played a significant role in the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in AD476, some one thousand years before the collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire. Therefore, inflation also represents a serious threat to democratic societies today.

The amount of bitcoin will not increase in the long term. There will never be more than 21 million bitcoin, and no one will ever be able to change that. At this point in early 2026, there are already 19.9 million bitcoin, a good 95% of the set amount. This means that any remaining expansion (or new issuance) of bitcoin will amount to just under 5%; not in the next year, but over approximately one hundred fifteen years. Around the year 2140, 100% of all bitcoin will have been mined, and there will simply not be any more. This means that the share of money you hold in bitcoin will not be devalued against a basket of goods over a decade or even a century. Your share won’t be diluted. Bitcoin does not inflate; when measured in bitcoin, goods actually become cheaper over time. So the money you exchange for bitcoin today will buy you at least as many scoops of ice cream in ten years as it does now—and probably more. A lot more. This is the fundamental essence of bitcoin.

Discover more in Bitcoin: The Honest Money!
This excerpt is just the beginning. Dive deeper into how inflation devalues your money, your savings, and your time in Bitcoin: The Honest Money by Alex von Frankenberg, Ph.D. The paperback is available now.

Order your copy here!

This post A Little Story About Inflation – An Excerpt from Bitcoin: The Honest Money first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Alex v. Frankenberg.

Bitcoin Magazine

Charles Schwab Sets Mid-2027 Target for Advisor Bitcoin and Crypto Spot Trading 

Charles Schwab, the country’s largest custodian for registered investment advisors, is on track to roll out spot cryptocurrency trading, transfers, and custody services for its advisor channel by mid-2027 — a move that could reshape how trillions of dollars flow into digital assets through professional wealth management.

The disclosure came at Schwab’s Advisor Services Midyear Media Roundtable on May 28, where Jalina Kerr, Managing Director and Head of Advisor Experience, confirmed the timeline. 

The advisor product is distinct from what Schwab rolled out to retail clients this spring. In April 2026, the bank announced Schwab Crypto, a spot Bitcoin trading service for individual brokerage account holders, built through Charles Schwab Premier Bank and executed via sub-custodian Paxos. 

That product launched at 75 basis points per trade, triggered debate about whether advisors would find it cost-efficient relative to crypto ETFs, and was restricted from New York and Louisiana residents.

The 2027 advisor build is a different animal. Registered investment advisors require custody infrastructure — the ability to hold client assets in segregated accounts with full record-keeping, reporting, and compliance integration. 

That means Schwab is not just adding a trading button. The firm needs to wire spot crypto into the same custody rails its 16,000+ advisory firms already use for equities, fixed income, and alternatives. 

Kerr noted that advisors currently route client crypto exposure through exchange-traded products on the platform, but demand for direct spot access has risen sharply.

Why the Schwab advisor channel changes everything

The retail crypto story has been told for years — apps, wallets, exchanges, ETFs. The advisor channel is where the next phase of institutional adoption plays out. RIAs collectively manage assets that dwarf most retail platforms, and their clients tend to be higher-net-worth, longer-term holders who want crypto held inside the same account view as their stock and bond portfolios. 

Schwab’s platform custodies roughly $10 trillion in assets across its advisory network, making even a modest allocation shift toward spot crypto a flow event of significant scale.

The competitive dynamic is also shifting fast. Fidelity Digital Assets already offers crypto custody and trading solutions for wealth managers, giving it a meaningful head start. Anchorage Digital has pushed into the RIA market through its acquisition of Securitize For Advisors. Coinbase Prime has built institutional infrastructure that Schwab’s entry would challenge. 

Kerr herself pointed to a core friction: digital assets are not regulated the same way as traditional brokerage and securities products. Every step of the custody chain — from deposit to withdrawal — requires careful legal and compliance review. 

The bank has to define which digital assets qualify, establish safekeeping standards, and satisfy bank-level and broker-dealer-level rules simultaneously, given that Charles Schwab Premier Bank serves as the custodial entity for the retail product.

The mid-2027 target reflects this reality. It is a committed internal roadmap, not exploratory language — a meaningful distinction from the “monitoring the space” posture large banks held for years. 

CEO Rick Wurster has previously discussed Schwab’s appetite for crypto acquisitions if valuations align with strategic goals, and floated the possibility of a stablecoin, suggesting the 2027 advisor launch sits within a larger digital asset build-out rather than a standalone initiative.

This post Charles Schwab Sets Mid-2027 Target for Advisor Bitcoin and Crypto Spot Trading  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Ripple is pushing its dollar-backed stablecoin into Turkey, betting that one of the world’s most active digital-asset markets is ready for a more regulated version of the digital dollars already used to navigate currency weakness and limited access to traditional dollar savings.

On June 2, the Brad Garlinghouse-led company announced that its US dollar-pegged stablecoin, RLUSD, is now available to institutional clients in Turkey through integration agreements with local cryptocurrency platforms BiLira, Bitexen, and Bitlo.

The stakes for capturing market share are exceptionally high. Turkey handled nearly $200 billion in annual crypto transactions, almost four times the United Arab Emirates’ $53 billion, making it the dominant crypto economy in the Middle East and North Africa, according to blockchain data firm Chainalysis.

Ripple targets Turkey’s dollar demand

The rollout places RLUSD inside the domestic order books of three established Turkish gateways.

Ripple executives are aggressively targeting corporate and institutional liquidity, positioning the token as a compliance-first alternative to incumbent stablecoins that currently dominate the offshore market.

Since its global launch in late 2024, RLUSD has scaled to a $1.7 billion market capitalization. Ripple’s strategy in Turkey focuses not on retail day traders, but on capturing high-value corporate flows that require strict regulatory certainty.

Jack McDonald, senior vice president of stablecoins at Ripple, noted that the asset is designed to serve as a bridge for enterprise operations. He noted:

“RLUSD has rapidly gained traction in financial use cases, serving as a vital bridge for payments, tokenization, and collateral management.”

By integrating directly with domestic service providers such as BiLira, Bitexen, and Bitlo, Ripple provides a regulated entry point for domestic institutions that require stringent audit standards to hold digital dollars on their corporate balance sheets or to use them for cross-border supplier payments.

Mustafa Alpay, CEO at Bitlo, said:

“[Turkey crypto] users are looking for secure, digital-native means to manage their wealth and hedge against volatility. By integrating a regulated, enterprise-grade stablecoin like RLUSD, we’re providing our customers with the highest standard of digital dollars for enterprise needs.”

Market shaped by domestic pressure

Meanwhile, market observers have noted that Turkey’s outsized role in the global crypto ecosystem is not solely the result of typical retail speculation.

Instead, it sits at the intersection of speculative trading, robust dollar demand, and profound macroeconomic pressure.

According to Chainalysis, Turkey completely dominates the MENA region in digital asset value received.

More recently, data from TRM Labs showed that Turkey rose to become the fifth-largest global market for retail crypto activity in the first quarter of 2026.

The report showed that Turkey generated $40 billion in crypto volume during that three-month period while broader global retail participation contracted by 11%.

This made Turkey one of the few major global markets to expand during a quarter contraction driven by macroeconomic tightening and reduced retail participation.

For a nominal $1.64 trillion economy, the velocity of capital moving into stablecoins and digital assets reflects deep structural challenges.

With the Turkish lira facing persistent devaluation and domestic monetary environments remaining constrained, dollar-denominated crypto assets have become a functional rail for capital preservation.

However, labeling the market solely as a vehicle of economic necessity misses the full picture.

The high transaction volumes reflect a dual-track digital economy: while some users and corporations rely on digital dollars to hedge against inflation and manage working capital, a massive segment of the market remains highly engaged in speculative trading across decentralized networks.

Turkey's crypto regulatory effort gives Ripple an opening

Ripple’s entry into Turkey is timed against a backdrop of shifting sovereign oversight. As Turkey tightens supervision of its digital asset sector, global firms offering compliance-heavy products are finding a clearer route into the market.

The regulatory environment shifted fundamentally in July 2024, when amendments to the Capital Markets Law introduced stringent licensing requirements for crypto asset service providers operating within the country.

The Capital Markets Board effectively forced platforms to either formalize their operations, enhance trade surveillance, or exit the jurisdiction.

That oversight is now extending aggressively into taxation. In March 2026, Reuters reported that Turkey’s ruling AK Party proposed comprehensive legislation to levy a 10% withholding tax on crypto gains realized on authorized platforms, along with a 0.03% transaction levy on service providers.

By structuring tax collection at the exchange level and requiring platforms to act as fiduciary withholding agents that calculate and remit taxes quarterly, the Turkish government is cementing the role of licensed domestic exchanges while heavily penalizing the use of offshore alternatives.

Speaking on this, Reece Merrick, a senior executive officer at Ripple, said:

“The foundations are in place for Türkiye to double down on its position as one of the world’s most dynamic digital asset markets.

For a company like Ripple, which builds its product suite around institutional compliance and regulatory rigor, these barriers to entry act as a competitive moat.

It allows RLUSD to pitch itself to local exchanges not just as a trading pair, but as a fully auditable asset that aligns with Ankara’s tightening oversight and operational mandates.

RLUSD gives Ripple a broader institutional wedge

The Turkish rollout is part of a broader effort to embed RLUSD across Ripple’s institutional financial products, creating an ecosystem that extends well beyond spot-market liquidity.

According to first-quarter 2026 data from digital asset research firm Messari, RLUSD closed the quarter with a $340.3 million market capitalization natively issued on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), representing a 45% quarter-over-quarter increase.

This growth is heavily tied to Ripple's positioning of the stablecoin across its treasury management, prime brokerage, institutional custody, and payment rails.

Simultaneously, institutional demand for on-chain collateral is accelerating. Messari noted that the total market capitalization for real-world assets (RWAs) on the XRPL reached $2.25 billion by the end of Q1 2026, surging 124% from the previous quarter.

As traditional financial instruments like private credit and money market funds are tokenized, they require a reliable, dollar-pegged settlement asset to function properly on-chain.

This ecosystem expansion directly impacts the network's underlying infrastructure. While Ripple aims to limit direct volatility exposure for its institutional stablecoin users, increased enterprise activity on the XRPL inherently drives utility for XRP, the network's native asset.

By offering a compliant digital dollar, Ripple is providing the necessary fiat-pegged liquidity to power higher-level institutional decentralized finance operations without relying on unsustainable business development incentives or fragmented centralized exchange liquidity.

University partnership adds local infrastructure

To anchor its commercial expansion, Ripple is simultaneously building physical and academic infrastructure within the country.

Alongside the exchange integrations, Ripple announced that Istanbul Technical University (ITU) has joined its global University Blockchain Research Initiative. The partnership would be funded directly by RLUSD allocations.

The firm said the partnership will also establish an XRPL validator node on the ITU campus and finance graduate fellowships and advanced blockchain research.

While the academic partnership secures a local footprint beyond exchange listings, the core narrative remains commercial.

For Ripple, Turkey offers a critical test of whether a regulated dollar stablecoin can compete in a market where demand for digital dollars already exists, but regulators are drawing tighter boundaries around how that demand is met.

The post Ripple is bringing its regulated RLUSD stablecoin to MENA’s biggest crypto market appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Today's sudden Bitcoin slide under $68,000 forced a rapid unwind across crypto derivatives markets, erasing nearly $400 million in leveraged positions in one hour as traders who had bet on further gains were caught by the move.

Data from CryptoSlate shows that Bitcoin fell more than 5%, dropping from $71,765 to $67,895, its lowest level since April. The decline pushed the largest digital asset through levels traders had been watching after several sessions of weakening momentum.

The move spread quickly across the broader market. Ethereum fell about 4% to $1,941, while XRP declined more than 3% to $1.24.

Solana, Dogecoin, and BNB also posted losses of more than 3% over the same period, underlining how quickly a Bitcoin-led correction can pressure the rest of the market.

Liquidations accelerate the decline

Coinglass data showed the drop triggered about $394 million in liquidations within one hour.

Long positions accounted for most of the damage, with traders betting on higher prices losing roughly $384 million. Short positions lost about $10.2 million.

Bitcoin traders absorbed the largest losses, with more than $209 million in positions liquidated. Ethereum followed with about $87 million in forced closures, while Solana and XRP traders lost about $27 million and $11 million, respectively.

The figures show how quickly leverage can turn a spot-market decline into a wider market event.

When prices fall through key levels, exchanges automatically close undercollateralized positions, adding sell pressure and forcing traders to exit at unfavorable prices. That process can deepen a move even when the original trigger is less clear.

Over 24 hours, total liquidations reached about $1.02 billion. Long positions accounted for roughly $902 million of that amount, showing that bullish positioning had become crowded before the selloff.

Why did Bitcoin price decline?

Market participants attributed the sudden shift in sentiment to a combination of technical breakdowns and an unexpected disclosure from Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), the software firm known as the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.

On June 1, the Michael Saylor-led firm revealed it had sold 32 Bitcoin for $2.5 million to fund dividend obligations for its preferred stock.

While the nominal volume is statistically irrelevant relative to global daily spot turnover, the symbolic nature of the transaction weighed heavily on trading desks. This is because Strategy essentially wrote the playbook for aggressive, “never-sell” corporate accumulation.

So, its selling action marked a break from its strict holding ethos and introduced a layer of skepticism into the prevailing corporate treasury narrative.

As a result, the news pushed Bitcoin below several critical on-chain support metrics.

According to analytics provider Glassnode, the spot price descent to $68,800 meant Bitcoin had breached the short-term holder cost basis of $76,900, the true market mean of $78,000, and the active investors' mean of $85,100.

Still, BTC's price remains well above its aggregate realized price of $54,000.

Despite the localized panic, some industry executives cautioned against over-indexing on corporate portfolio adjustments.

Pierre Rochard, chief executive officer of the Bitcoin Bond company, dismissed the notion that a minor divestment by Strategy could single-handedly trigger a systemic market drop. Instead, Rochard pointed to broader capital reallocation trends.

According to him:

“The reality is that there is a massive parabolic spike in AI-related equities that is vacuuming up all excess liquidity.”

Furthermore, he emphasized that a resilient labor market and climbing energy prices have effectively killed near-term expectations for dovish interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

Despite this unfavorable macroeconomic landscape, Rochard maintained that Bitcoin's underlying network fundamentals remain fundamentally sound.

The post Bitcoin flash crash below $68,000 triggers around $400 million in liquidation in under an hour appeared first on CryptoSlate.

A nearly $150 million prediction market has devolved into chaos after the platform Polymarket moved to deny payouts to traders who accurately predicted that corporate treasury firm Strategy would sell a portion of its Bitcoin holdings.

The dispute centers on a fundamental disconnect between when an event occurs and when it is publicly disclosed, exposing structural flaws in how decentralized prediction markets resolve multibillion-dollar wagers. Bettors are now locked in a bitter dispute over a technicality that could wipe out millions of dollars in payouts traders believed were guaranteed.

On June 1, Strategy, the business intelligence firm formerly known as MicroStrategy, which holds nearly $60 billion of the top crypto asset, filed a regulatory document confirming it sold 32 Bitcoin, valued at roughly $2.5 million, between May 26 and May 31.

Related Reading

Strategy sold 32 BTC to pay dividends – But the real risk is what happens if it has to sell more Bitcoin

Strategy’s first Bitcoin sale in nearly four years shows how its treasury could become a funding source for the credit products built around it.

Jun 2, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

For participants in a Polymarket contract asking whether Strategy would sell any of its Bitcoin by May 31, the 8-K filing appeared to be definitive proof of a “Yes” outcome.

However, the market is currently navigating a contested resolution process that heavily favors “No.”

Polymarket administrators issued a post-deadline clarification stating that, because the public confirmation of the sale did not emerge until June 1, the transaction does not qualify under the platform's operational customs.

The situation has sparked widespread allegations of market manipulation, drawing intense scrutiny to the mechanics of decentralized betting at a time when prediction platforms are striving for mainstream financial legitimacy.

The timeline of the contested Polymarket trade

The ongoing controversy stems from the contract's specific wording, which stated that the market would resolve to “Yes” if Strategy sold any of its Bitcoin by 11:59 p.m. ET on May 31.

The rules explicitly designated the company's public disclosures and on-chain data as the primary sources of resolution.

When Strategy filed its mandatory 8-K disclosure on June 1, the market remained open for active trading. Observing that the firm had executed a sale objectively before the May 31 deadline, several traders rushed to capitalize on what they perceived as a pricing inefficiency.

One market participant, operating under the pseudonym willo2, staked $527,000 on “Yes” after reading the regulatory filing. Because the market was pricing the odds of a sale at around 80 cents on the dollar even after the disclosure, the trader anticipated a 20% arbitrage opportunity.

Related Reading

Strategy has put Bitcoin sales on the table for repurchases – but will it affect BTC price?

A $1.38B Bitcoin sale would likely be digestible if handled off-market. The bigger risk is that Strategy’s Bitcoin pile is now explicitly listed as a funding source.

May 16, 2026 · Gino Matos

Instead, the trader lost the entire half-million-dollar principal. Following the influx of capital, Polymarket added a clarification to the market description, stating that confirmations outside the specified timeframe would not be honored.

Speaking on these events, Willo wrote on X:

“This was straight-up NOT part of the rules. It was not written down on the market, it did not make sense – and most of all, Polymarket didn't even believe it themselves. Why? Because if it was true, the market would have closed on May 31st. The market didn't close.”

Market analysts have widely condemned the sequence of events. Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at the digital asset management firm Arca, pointed out a critical logical inconsistency in the platform's handling of the timeline.

Dorman noted that if the contract's strict parameters dictated an end precisely at midnight on May 31, the platform should have halted all trading at that exact moment.

According to him, allowing participants to continue buying shares on June 1 while retroactively enforcing a May 31 confirmation deadline created a trap for traders relying on traditional legal interpretations of the contract text.

Jonatan Pallesen, a data scientist who monitors decentralized platforms, characterized the platform's behavior as a form of fraud by omission.

Pallesen argued that while requiring news confirmation to align with the event deadline is a reasonable safeguard against indefinite market delays, failing to explicitly codify that custom in the contract rules exploits retail bettors.

Institutional traders familiar with the platform's unspoken conventions were able to extract significant capital from users who reasonably assumed that a completed sale meant a winning ticket.

The UMA oracle vulnerability

The Strategy dispute has escalated from a single contract into a referendum on Polymarket’s underlying settlement architecture.

Unlike traditional financial exchanges that rely on centralized clearinghouses and legal compliance departments to settle derivatives, Polymarket outsources its truth-finding to Universal Market Access (UMA).

UMA operates as an “optimistic oracle,” a decentralized network where token holders vote to resolve disputed outcomes.

Under this framework, any user can challenge a proposed market settlement by staking a $750 bond. If the outcome is contested multiple times, the decision defaults to a vote by UMA cryptocurrency holders.

The ultimate payout is determined by the weight of tokens cast, rather than an objective judicial review of the facts.

Critics argue that this system is highly vulnerable to manipulation. Eric Conner, a prominent cryptocurrency analyst, noted that the token-voting model is structurally compromised.

Conner argued that large token holders, often referred to as whales, can weaponize ambiguous contract rules to protect their own financial positions and override objective reality to prevent massive losses.

Recent data support these concerns. A WSJ investigation into the platform’s voting mechanics revealed that the ten largest wallets account for more than half of the votes in most Polymarket disputes.

Furthermore, roughly 60% of active UMA voters were directly linked to live Polymarket accounts, and one in five contested markets featured voters who held a direct financial stake in the outcome they were adjudicating.

Polymarket has already recorded over 1,150 disputed markets in the first five months of 2026, eclipsing its entire total for the previous year.

The platform itself has limited recourse, as its decentralized structure technically prevents internal management from overriding a finalized UMA token vote.

Mainstream growth meets decentralized friction

The timing of the $150 million dispute is precarious for the prediction market sector, which has aggressively expanded its footprint into traditional finance and media over the past few years.

During this period, the platforms Polymarket and Kalshi have actively distanced themselves from being labeled as unregulated crypto casinos.

However, they have seen their trading volume increase rapidly to exceed $10 billion in May 2026. This marks a tenfold increase from the same period last year, per DeFiLlama data.

At the same time, they have established content and data integration agreements with major institutions, including the New York Stock Exchange, Dow Jones, The Associated Press, and Fox News.

This rapid institutionalization follows years of intense regulatory friction. In 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) forced Polymarket to shut down its US operations and relocate abroad.

Kalshi subsequently engaged in a prolonged legal battle with the CFTC over the right to host political event contracts, ultimately winning a landmark federal court case in late 2024.

However, the regulatory environment shifted after the 2024 presidential election, which the platforms correctly predicted would be a Donald Trump victory.

Since then, the platforms have enjoyed significant regulatory backing, with Polymarket acquiring a federally licensed derivatives exchange, and the CFTC also asserting its exclusive right to regulate these markets.

CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said:

“Event contracts allow businesses and individuals to hedge event-driven risks, enable investors to manage portfolio exposure, and provide the public with information about the outcome of future events. These products are commodity derivatives and squarely within the CFTC’s regulatory remit.

Despite securing regulatory footholds, the fundamental mechanics of decentralized prediction markets remain highly experimental.

In traditional equity markets, deep liquidity and strict regulatory oversight generally ensure that asset prices reflect material reality.

On platforms governed by tokenized voting systems, the definition of reality is still up for debate.

Until these structural dispute mechanisms mature, traders navigating the booming prediction market economy remain at the mercy of unwritten rules and decentralized juries.

The post Why a $150M Polymarket bet could pay the side that appeared to lose appeared first on CryptoSlate.

At 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for April, and a market that spent years branding Bitcoin as an escape hatch from central banks now hangs on whatever the numbers imply about the Federal Reserve's next move.

This is due to a long chain of cause and effect, where a cooling jobs market gives policymakers room to lower rates, softens the dollar, and pulls capital toward riskier assets, while a hot one keeps the case for elevated rates intact and the financial conditions Bitcoin leans on tight.

JOLTS has never been a major release, but it now sits at the front of a crowded labor week, the first major data point before Friday's payrolls report and the Fed's pre-meeting blackout. The fact that Bitcoin has struggled to hold $70,000 only adds to the volatility.

Markets currently assign a 98% probability that the Fed will hold its benchmark steady at 3.50%-3.75% when it meets on June 16 and 17, so the real action we'll see this week will be in how the data reshapes the outlook for the second half of 2026.

How a jobs survey ended up steering Bitcoin

JOLTS tracks four things that together capture the temperature of the American jobs market: how many positions employers are trying to fill, how many people they hire, how many workers quit, and how many get laid off.

The Fed treats each figure as a distinct signal. A high level of openings suggests employers still compete for staff, which keeps wage pressure alive and inflation sticky. A rising number of quits shows workers feel confident enough to walk away for something better, and a rise in layoffs shows outright stress.

In the March release, openings sat at 6.87 million, the quits rate held at a subdued 2.0%, and layoffs edged up to 1.87 million, showing a labor market that's been loosening at a measured pace. The reason any of this reaches Bitcoin comes down to how it trades in 2026.

As CryptoSlate's macro coverage has documented throughout the year, BTC now behaves as a liquidity-sensitive instrument whose near-term direction tracks real yields, jobs, the dollar, and the Fed's balance sheet far more closely than anything crypto-native.

A softer-than-expected April print would feed the argument that restrictive policy is finally biting, reviving the rate-cut hopes that powered the rally last year, easing Treasury yields, loosening the dollar's grip, and coaxing macro funds and ETF buyers back toward exposure.

A hotter print would swing the pendulum the other way, handing the hawks fresh ammunition, lifting yields, firming the dollar, and squeezing the market's leverage.

The December meeting was a reminder that easing has to translate into actual liquidity for the price to respond, since a confirmed cut still left BTC lower once the details landed, so traders treat the labor data as a clue about timing as much as direction.

Why does this week carry extra weight?

Tuesday's release opens a dense run of labor data, with ADP private payrolls on Wednesday, jobless claims on Thursday, and the official nonfarm payrolls report on Friday, where economists pencil in roughly 85,000 to 96,000 new jobs, down from the prior 115,000.

Payrolls ranks as the most consequential of the four, though JOLTS sets the opening tone and can either reinforce the cooling thesis or muddy it before Friday delivers the final verdict. Once the week closes, Fed officials go silent for their pre-meeting blackout, leaving a narrow window in which data moves expectations while policymakers stay sidelined and unable to steer the reaction.

The June meeting raises those stakes further, because it doubles as Kevin Warsh's debut as Fed chair after he was sworn in on May 22, succeeding Jerome Powell.

Warsh arrives under open pressure from President Trump to cut, faces a committee that mostly favored holding or hiking at its last gathering, and inherits April inflation running at 3.8% year over year, the highest in three years.

His first dot plot and press conference on June 17 will set the tone for the rest of his term, so every jobs figure this week feeds directly into the projections he carries into that room.

Traders have already repriced toward caution after Governor Christopher Waller called rate-cut talk “crazy” and bond desks began pricing a possible hike by year-end, a shift CryptoSlate covered as the rate-cut trade flipping into a hike-risk problem.

With the 10-year Treasury yield hovering near 4.6% and the 30-year above 5%, its highest since 2007, the opportunity cost of holding a non-yielding asset has rarely looked steeper this cycle, and spot Bitcoin ETFs have answered by bleeding close to $2 billion over a recent seven-day stretch.

The most decisive market response would arrive from a report whose components all point in the same direction. Falling openings paired with softer quits and a slight uptick in layoffs would give the bulls their strongest case for easier policy ahead, while rising openings alongside firm quits and minimal layoffs would cement the higher-for-longer trade and keep the pressure on Bitcoin. A mixed result, where openings slip, but layoffs stay tame, would leave the same ambiguity that's trapped BTC for much of the spring.

All of which returns the week to its central irony, where a backward-looking count of April jobs postings becomes the first domino in a sequence that could revive Bitcoin's rate-cut narrative or bury it under the liquidity squeeze that has defined the season. The asset built as an alternative to the monetary system now waits on the system's own paperwork for permission to move.

The post Bitcoin faces first jobs-week test as US job openings data arrives before Friday payrolls appeared first on CryptoSlate.

From a 2011 peak near $1,900, gold spent years carving a deep base, retested resistance around $2,100 in 2020, consolidated again through 2022, then broke decisively higher to reach $3,300 by early 2025 and a record above $5,400 in January 2026.

According to analyst and Real Vision affiliate James Easton, Bitcoin's weekly chart is now drawing the same formation on a compressed timeline: a 2021 peak, a deep base through 2022 and 2023, a recovery and retest of prior highs in 2024 and early 2025, and a pullback that has left BTC sitting at the blue dot.

Traders overlaying the two structures are projecting a move to $300,000 for Bitcoin by the end of 2026 if the pattern holds, arguing that BTC is lagging gold's repricing as a macro hedge asset.

The macro case for that lag closing looked compelling until June 1, when Brent crude jumped by over $6 per barrel to $97.14 after Iran's Tasnim news agency reported Tehran had halted message exchanges with the US and that aligned groups were weighing measures to block the Strait of Hormuz.

Gold's buyer base made the pattern stick

Gold's cup-and-handle resolved because the dollar weakened, real yields fell, central banks accelerated reserve diversification away from US Treasuries, and geopolitical fragmentation made a non-sovereign hard asset structurally attractive.

World Gold Council data show central banks bought 244 tonnes net in the first quarter alone, the seventeenth consecutive quarter of net purchases, sustained even as prices sat 81% above year-ago levels.

Bar and coin demand rose 42% year-over-year to 474 tonnes, gold-backed ETFs added 62 tonnes, and total demand value hit a record $193 billion on a modest 2% volume gain.

The breakout had a buyer base that does not reprice on rate-hike fears because yield sensitivity is structurally irrelevant to a central bank building reserves.

Bitcoin's pattern demands the same macro resolution from a buyer base with the opposite rate sensitivity: US spot Bitcoin ETFs logged ten consecutive trading days of net outflows through May 29, with nearly $3 billion drained during the period, according to Farside Investors data.

BlackRock's IBIT shed roughly $2 billion during the streak, including a $527.8 million single-session exit on May 27.

An ETF holder reprices the position the moment oil pushes inflation expectations higher and rate-hike odds climb. Yield-sensitive institutional capital exits the moment oil pushes rate-hike odds higher, which is precisely what it is doing now.

The oil problem

The Strait of Hormuz carries 20.9 million barrels per day, roughly 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption, according to EIA data.

The Dallas Fed estimates that a two-quarter closure of the Strait of Hormuz would add 0.79 percentage points to the fourth-quarter headline PCE and 0.31 percentage points to core PCE.

On June 1, CME FedWatch data showed traders pricing roughly a 56% chance of at least one US rate hike by year-end. When rate-hike odds rise, the dollar firms, real yields move higher, and liquidity-sensitive assets reprice lower.

Gold fell nearly 2% on June 1 as that transmission ran through yields, confirming that even the completed breakout struggles when the shock arrives via rates. Bitcoin faces that transmission more directly, with a record 0.96 correlation to US equities during the war shock period.

The pattern on the chart requires BTC to behave as gold did at the equivalent blue dot: absorbing selling pressure, holding the base, and accelerating as macro conditions ease.

The pattern survives if oil finds a ceiling

EIA's May short-term energy outlook forecasts Brent averaging around $106 in May and June, before easing to $89 in the fourth quarter of 2026 and $79 in 2027 as Middle East production recovers.

The IEA projects a 420,000 b/d contraction in demand in 2026, adding fundamental weight to a supply ceiling.

If that path holds before the Fed actually hikes, financial conditions ease, rate-hike odds fade, and the same forces that drove gold's cup-and-handle resolution become available to Bitcoin: dollar weakness, falling real yields, and institutional reallocation into hard assets.

Bitcoin's 30-day annualized perpetual basis had slipped to -0.45% as of mid-May, against 3.16% a year earlier, a spot-led structure with minimal leverage overlay. The same accumulation profile preceded gold's durable breakout.

VanEck identified the $80,000-$85,000 zone as the key resistance to reclaim for momentum to shift, and Citi's bull case sits at $165,000 within 12 months. The $300,000 requires a melt-up that extends well beyond institutional consensus and demands sustained ETF inflows to compress the available float against rising demand.

The formation fails

If Hormuz disruption extends for two or more quarters, the Dallas Fed's inflation model puts headline PCE 0.79 percentage points higher by the fourth quarter, enough to make a Fed hike more likely than not and ETF outflows self-reinforcing.

Citi's recessionary scenario sits at $58,000, and at that level, the cup-and-handle formation on Bitcoin's weekly chart transitions from a base to a failed breakout, resetting the pattern clock entirely.

Peter Brandt, who set a $300,000-$500,000 target for Bitcoin in April 2026, framed it as contingent on the four-year cycle holding, a caveat that applies with full force when oil threatens to reprice the Fed's path.

§

Gold benefits from war risk as central banks buy more, Asian retail demand accelerates, and ETF holders rotate in. Bitcoin reaches the same destination only through a second-order path, where geopolitical stress must translate into dollar weakness and monetary easing, a sequence that an oil-driven inflation shock actively forecloses.

Whether Bitcoin can complete gold's version of the formation depends entirely on whether oil stops rising before it locks in the rate environment that would make the pattern impossible.

The post Bitcoin’s $300K gold pattern now depends on whether Iran’s oil shock rewrites the Fed path appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Institutional Capital Rotates Out of Crypto Into Artificial Intelligence

$Bitcoin experienced a sharp 5.6% decline, dropping to the $67,400 mark following major corporate developments in the tech and traditional finance sectors. The market sell-off aligns with a massive capital allocation shift after Google launched an $80 billion artificial intelligence (AI) capital raise.

The initiative is notably backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. This collaboration marks one of the largest institutional capital rotations from digital assets into AI infrastructure in recent financial history. Asset managers and corporate treasuries are rebalancing portfolios to fund these high-conviction AI initiatives, pulling liquidity directly out of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Crypto Treasury Inflows Collapse by 95% in May

The pressure on digital asset prices follows a broader liquidity drought that intensified over the last month. Data reveals that crypto treasury inflows collapsed by 95% throughout May, recording their lowest operational levels since 2024.

This drastic slowdown in capital entering crypto funds signaled an early warning of the institutional pivot. The sudden emergence of the mega-cap Google-Berkshire fund has accelerated this trend, leaving Bitcoin to test key support levels as buy-side pressure from corporate treasuries temporarily dries up.

Latest Cryptocurrency Prices

• Bitcoin ($BTC): $67,400 (-5.6%)
• Ethereum ($ETH): $1,920 (-3.2%)
• Solana ($SOL): $76.50 (-4.8%)
• $XRP: $1.23 (-4.7%) 

Ethereum Fails to Hold $2,000 as Bitcoin Plummets

The cryptocurrency market is experiencing a severe intraday correction on June 2, 2026. Ethereum ($ETH) has officially breached its critical $2,000 psychological support zone, hitting an intraday low near $1,963. This macro markdown follows a systemic bleed-out led by Bitcoin ($BTC), which cascaded below the definitive $70,000 threshold for the first time in nearly two months.

The downside momentum accelerated during early European trading hours, triggering automated stop-losses and derivative liquidations across major digital asset exchanges like Bitstamp and Binance.

Why is the Crypto Market Crashing Today?

The driving force behind Ethereum’s sudden decline is entirely tied to the negative structural shift in Bitcoin’s price action. The leading cryptocurrency faced dual headwinds that crushed buyer sentiment over the last 24 hours:

• Strategy’s Surprise Token Sale: MicroStrategy (disclosed on markets simply as Strategy) revealed its first $Bitcoin liquidation since late 2022. The corporate treasury sold $2.5 million worth of BTC to satisfy preferred shareholder dividends. While the nominal amount is small, the break in Michael Saylor's strict "HODL" playbook heavily spooked market participants.
• Massive ETF Outflows: According to institutional data compiled by Bloomberg, US spot Bitcoin ETFs are currently on a record-breaking 11-day streak of net capital outflows, with investors yanking nearly $3.5 billion from fund vehicles amid escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran.

As capital aggressively rotated out of Bitcoin, the wider altcoin landscape collapsed. Since $Ethereum remains tightly correlated with BTC's market dominance, the drop under $70,000 forced an immediate technical breakdown in Ethereum.

Ethereum Technical Analysis: $1,800 is the Next Defensive Line

Looking at the 4-hour ETH/USD chart, the price action paints an intensely bearish picture for short-term holders.

Key Technical Indicators to Watch:

• The $2,000 Pivot: The horizontal orange line represents the critical psychological barrier. By failing to sustain liquidity above $2,000, this zone has officially flipped from an active support floor into a major overhead resistance level.
• Relative Strength Index (RSI): The 14-period RSI has slid down to 39.89, signaling that while the market is approaching oversold conditions, there is still clear room for momentum-driven downside before a technical bounce can be sustained.
• The $1,800 Baseline: If the selling pressure intensifies, the primary macro support targeted by bears sits at the green horizontal line of $1,800.0. Traders should monitor daily and weekly closes closely; a structural failure to defend $1,800 could risk a deeper retest toward late 2024 macro lows.

Bitcoin Price Slips Below Psychological $70,000 Support

The cryptocurrency market faced severe downward pressure on Tuesday morning as the Bitcoin price officially broke below the critical $70,000 psychological baseline. $BTC dropped by nearly 4% over a 24-hour window, hitting intraday lows near $69,371.

This unexpected correction has disrupted weeks of sideways momentum and triggered a cascade of automated sell orders. Total crypto market liquidations surged past $766 million within a matter of hours, with over $600 million consisting of overleveraged long positions being wiped out.

Why Is Bitcoin Crashing? Two Major Catalysts

The sudden breakdown below $70,000 is primarily attributed to a combination of institutional sell pressure and the sudden awakening of long-dormant wallets.

1. MicroStrategy Breaks Its "Never Sell" Stance

Market anxiety intensified following a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 8-K filing revealing that MicroStrategy sold 32 Bitcoins between May 26 and May 31 to fund shareholder dividends. While the dollar amount of the sale was minor—valued at approximately $2.5 million—the psychological impact on retail and institutional investors was massive. MicroStrategy’s departure from its strict buy-and-hold narrative ignited widespread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt), accelerating a $483 million capital flight from U.S. spot $Bitcoin ETFs.

2. Mt. Gox Awakens with $739 Million On-Chain Transfer

Adding fuel to the fire, blockchain tracking firm Arkham Intelligence flagged a massive movement of 10,306 BTC (worth roughly $739 million) out of Mt. Gox cold storage into new active wallets. This represents the largest estate movement in over two months, raising investor concerns that imminent creditor distributions are about to hit the open market.

Bitcoin Prediction: What Is the Next BTC Support Level?

With the $70,000 floor officially invalidated, Bitcoin's short-term technical structure looks increasingly bearish. If the daily candle fails to close back above $70,000, market analysts warn of an extended correction. Weakening spot ETF inflows coupled with escalating macroeconomic uncertainties could pave the way for a deeper retest of the $65,000 macro support zone over the coming weeks.

XRP has broken below the key psychological and technical support level of $1.30. Following a period of distribution throughout May, the token faces heightened selling pressure at the beginning of June.

The technical breakdown coincides with scheduled network updates and localized supply expansions, forcing traders to re-evaluate near-term downside risks and potential reversal areas.

XRP Price Prediction: Downside Acceleration and Key Targets

The 4-hour XRP/USD chart shows a definitive breakdown from a descending triangle structure. The descending yellow trendline has consistently suppressed attempted relief rallies since mid-May, capping higher bounds and compressing price action into horizontal support.

Downside Targets (Support Levels)

• $1.20 Zone: This is the immediate and most critical macro support level on the chart. If selling pressure continues to accelerate, the $1.20 mark serves as the primary defensive floor where historical demand has previously emerged.
• Below $1.20: A failure to hold the $1.20 horizontal boundary could open the door for a deeper correction toward the psychological $1.00 handle, though options market pricing currently assigns a low probability to an immediate sub-dollar drop.

Upside Targets (Resistance Levels)

• $1.30 (The Broken Pivot): The former support level at $1.30 now flips into immediate overhead resistance. XRP must reclaim this level on decisive volume to invalidate the current bearish bias.
• $1.45 Boundary: Marked by the solid horizontal line and the origination point of the current descending trendline, the $1.45 price point remains the definitive barrier holding back structural macro bullish momentum.

Macro Drag: Bitcoin Slides to $70K and Rattles Market Risk

Exacerbating XRP's structural weakness is a sharp decline in Bitcoin ($BTC), which has fallen below the critical $70,000 threshold for the first time since April. The market bellwether faced a sudden wave of liquidations following an SEC filing by its largest corporate holder, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), disclosing a rare sale of tokens to fulfill dividend obligations. Though the sale amount was nominal, it shattered the "never selling" narrative and induced widespread FUD across institutional channels.

This corporate selling pressure has coupled with persistent macroeconomic headwinds reported on Forbes, including massive capital outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs as investors rotate capital into safer equity sectors like artificial intelligence. Furthermore, escalating geopolitical friction in the Middle East has quashed general risk appetite. Because $Bitcoin dictates systemic crypto market correlation, its ongoing battle to maintain the $70,000 floor introduces a severe risk outlook for altcoins. If BTC breaks decisively lower toward $60,000, it will likely drag XRP and the wider market down into a prolonged capitulation phase.

Fundamental Drivers: Why is XRP Price Down?

The immediate trigger for the increased liquid supply comes alongside Ripple’s standard monthly operations. According to on-chain tracking data compiled, Ripple executed its scheduled escrow unlock on June 1, releasing 1 billion $XRP across three separate transactions.

While the majority of these monthly distributions are historically returned to locked escrow accounts to manage long-term supply inflation, the structural introduction of liquidity often creates short-term headwind pressures when broader market sentiment remains risk-off.

Despite the localized price correction, structural indicators show underlying capital rotation into the XRP ecosystem. Following the definitive settlement of the Ripple vs. SEC lawsuit in late 2025, systemic regulatory risks have largely abated. This institutional shift has fostered continuous inflows into regulated spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and expansion protocols like the RLUSD stablecoin framework, establishing a fundamental divergence between short-term technical volatility and long-term network utility.

Bitcoin has experienced a sharp, sudden correction, breaking down from its recent consolidation range to test lower macro support levels. The premier cryptocurrency plummeted toward the $71,000 threshold, leaving traders questioning whether the psychological support at $70,000 will hold or if a broader market liquidation is underway.

The drop comes at a highly ironic moment for market participants, arriving right alongside major capital restructuring updates from Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy).

Bitcoin Price Analysis: What Happened to BTC Coin?

The 4-hour BTC/USD chart paints a distinctly bearish picture for the short term. After spending days consolidating in a tight distribution phase between $73,100 and $74,500, the bears aggressively seized control.

Key Support and Resistance Levels

• Immediate Resistance ($73,100): This level served as a firm baseline support throughout the final week of May. Now that the price has sliced cleanly beneath it, this yellow horizontal line will act as major overhead resistance on any corrective relief rallies.
• The Crucial Floor ($70,000): This is the ultimate line in the sand for bullish continuation. A breakdown past this psychological milestone could trigger cascading stop-losses and a deeper correction toward the next macro structure level at $65,581.

RSI Flashes Deep Oversold Signals

The Relative Strength Index (RSI-14) has plunged sharply down to 25.55, steering well into oversold territory. While an oversold RSI indicates that the immediate selling pressure may be overextended, it also demonstrates intense bearish momentum. In severe downtrends, the RSI can remain suppressed for extended intervals before a meaningful reversal materializes.

Michael Saylor is the Only Buyer, Not the Only Seller

A significant point of discussion during this downward move is the structural dynamic of institutional accumulation versus broader market distributions. Michael Saylor's Strategy recently made headlines by shifting a massive $2.0 billion through capital markets to aggressively stack another 24,869 Bitcoins, bringing their total holdings to a staggering 843,706 $BTC.

However, the broader market quickly realized a fundamental structural flaw: Saylor may be the most persistent buyer, but he is not the only market participant.

While Strategy acts as a persistent vacuum for circulating supply, systemic liquidity factors are overriding this single-source buying power:

• Spot ETF Exhaustion: Broader spot $Bitcoin ETFs have seen fluctuating inflows, failing to sustain the massive upward momentum observed earlier in the year.
• Macro Capital Demands: In an unexpected twist, SEC filings revealed that Strategy even executed a minor, rare sale of 32 Bitcoins ($2.5 million) to fund corporate preferred stock dividend obligations. While a drop in the bucket, it shattered the psychological illusion of an absolute "never-sell" floor.
• The Supply-Demand Imbalance: When retail traders, miners, and short-term speculators decide to take profits simultaneously, even a multi-billion-dollar corporate treasury bid cannot absorb the entire global sell volume single-handedly.

What is Next for Bitcoin?

The next several daily closes will be pivotal for BTC. If buyers fail to step in and orchestrate a swift recovery back above the $72,000 mark, the gravitation toward $70,000 will become irresistible.

Traders should monitor global macroeconomic indicators, upcoming U.S. economic data releases, and spot ETF net inflow data on tracking platforms like CoinMarketCap to gauge if retail and institutional interest will return to defend the $70,000 baseline.

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TLDR:

• Four 2025 hardforks cut BSC block times from 3 seconds to 0.45s with zero downtime.
• The Q1 2026 quarterly burn removed over 1.57 million BNB, valued at more than $1 billion.
• Ondo Global Markets launched 260+ tokenized stocks and ETFs natively on BNB Chain in 2025.
• BSC-native stablecoin $U reached $1 billion in supply within weeks of its December 2025 launch.

BNB Smart Chain has grown into one of crypto’s most active and technically advanced Layer 1 networks. Since its 2020 launch, the chain has delivered consistent protocol upgrades, ultra-low fees, and a maturing ecosystem.

With deflationary tokenomics, expanding stablecoin supply, and real-world asset integration, BNB Smart Chain continues to attract users and developers at scale in 2026.

Four Hardforks Drive Speed and Fee Reductions

BNB Smart Chain completed four major protocol upgrades in 2025, each targeting speed and cost. The Pascal, Lorentz, Maxwell, and Fermi hardforks ran without a single instance of network downtime.

Together, they reduced block times from three seconds down to just 0.45 seconds. Finality dropped from 7.5 seconds to 1.1 seconds, a dramatic shift for user experience.

Gas throughput doubled to 133 million gas per second following the upgrades. Validators also slashed the minimum gas price from 1 Gwei to 0.05 Gwei during this period.

As BNB Chain confirmed on X, median fees fell well below $0.01 per transaction. Cheaper and faster transactions directly translated into record network activity.

Daily transactions peaked at 31 million in 2025, an all-time high for the chain. The fee reductions made BNB Smart Chain highly competitive against other EVM-compatible networks.

Lower barriers to entry also opened the chain to users in emerging markets. Peer-to-peer stablecoin transfers, in particular, saw strong growth during this period.

The protocol upgrades also strengthened BNB’s deflationary mechanics. BEP-95, launched in October 2021, burns roughly 10% of every gas fee in real time.

Higher transaction volumes mean more BNB removed from circulation permanently. The 35th quarterly burn in Q1 2026 alone eliminated over 1.57 million BNB, valued at more than $1 billion.

RWAs and Stablecoins Expand the Ecosystem

Real-world assets have found a natural home on BNB Smart Chain. Ondo Global Markets launched on the chain in October 2025, introducing over 260 tokenized stocks and ETFs.

Assets include well-known names such as SPY, NVDA, and TSLA. The tokens are fully backed by underlying securities and support 24/7 trading with dividend tracking.

Ondo Finance confirmed in March 2026 that over 60 additional tokenized stocks and ETFs went live on BNB Chain. New additions included assets tied to AI, defense, and energy sectors.

This expansion pushed Ondo past $1 billion in total value locked across all chains. Tokenized commodities like PAXG and XAUT also provide gold-backed exposure on-chain.

On the stablecoin front, USDT leads supply on the chain by a wide margin. USD1 has risen to second place and continues gaining ground quickly.

United Stables launched its BSC-native stablecoin $U in December 2025, backed by USDT, USDC, and USD1. The token reached $1 billion in on-chain supply and features gasless transfers via EIP-3009.

DeFi protocols round out the ecosystem with strong volumes and liquidity. Uniswap now leads trading volumes on BNB Smart Chain following its multi-chain deployment.

Venus provides over $1.6 billion in lending liquidity, while ListaDAO handles liquid staking. PancakeSwap, GMGN.AI, and memecoin launchpads like Four.meme keep retail activity high across the chain.

The post BNB Smart Chain Rises in 2026 With Record Speed, Burns, and Expanding RWA Ecosystem appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says crypto is now a contrarian bet as AI stocks pull capital from digital assets. 
• The Clarity Act faces uncertain passage, with approval odds ranging from 5% to 55% among insiders.
• Hyperliquid surged 72% in May 2026, leading a rotation into fundamentals-driven crypto assets.
• Hougan warns crypto cannot thrive amid regulatory limbo, regardless of on-chain market activity. 

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says the crypto market is transitioning from a momentum-driven trade into a contrarian bet in 2026.

Bitcoin is down 21% year-to-date, while Ethereum, Solana, and XRP have fallen further. ETF outflows and low spot trading volumes reflect fading retail enthusiasm.

With AI stocks drawing capital away from digital assets, Hougan argues that crypto investors must now prioritize fundamentals over sentiment to navigate the current cycle profitably.

AI Dominance and Regulatory Limbo Pressure Crypto Markets

Hougan points to AI stocks as the primary force pulling capital away from crypto. The Nasdaq-100 is up 43% year-over-year, with AI equities, robotics companies, and SpaceX commanding investor attention.

Against that backdrop, crypto has lost its status as the market’s most exciting momentum trade. Hougan wrote in a recent memo that “AI is sucking all the oxygen out of the room,” forcing crypto through a painful but necessary transformation.

The Clarity Act adds another layer of pressure on the asset class. The bill aims to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States.

It recently cleared a Senate hurdle, but Polymarket puts year-end passage odds at just 55%. Hougan noted that Washington insiders he consulted put the odds between 5% and 30%, making approval far from certain.

Hougan framed the institutional dilemma directly: “Imagine you’re an institutional investor today. You can either invest in AI stocks, which seem to set a new all-time high every day, or invest in crypto, knowing there’s an almost 50% chance of a major regulatory setback in the next two months.” That contrast explains why large allocators remain on the sidelines heading into summer.

On the Clarity Act outcome, Hougan was clear about what matters most. “Crypto can survive Clarity failing or rally if Clarity passes,” he wrote.

“But it can’t thrive in the in-between.” Until the legislative picture resolves, major tokens will likely remain under pressure regardless of on-chain activity.

Fundamental Rotation Points to a Maturing Crypto Winter

Hougan noted that the current downturn differs from past crypto winters, where bitcoin typically served as the default safe haven.

This cycle, capital is rotating into smaller assets with credible, revenue-backed narratives. Hyperliquid gained 72% in May 2026 alone, while Zcash rose 50%, Stellar climbed 44%, and BNB added 17% against broad market losses.

Hougan described the pattern as deliberate rather than speculative. “None of them are macro names,” he wrote. “All of them have idiosyncratic stories the market is rewarding.”

Hyperliquid, in particular, has drawn attention for its protocol revenue and transparent on-chain fundamentals, reflecting the kind of asset Hougan says investors now favor.

The Bitwise CIO also used the rotation as a timing indicator for the broader cycle. “In the heart of a crypto winter, everything’s red,” he noted.

“When the green starts to look like real growth, the season is changing.” He argued the current price action suggests the market is closer to the end of winter than the beginning.

Hougan acknowledged the near-term outlook remains uncomfortable, with SpaceX going public and Anthropic filing its S-1 likely to keep AI headlines dominant.

Still, he maintained that contrarian bets reward patience. “It’s probably not going to feel good to add crypto exposure,” he wrote. “But that’s the thing about contrarian investing.”

The post Bitwise CIO: Crypto Is Now a Contrarian Bet as AI Stocks Steal the Spotlight appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• UK lawmakers urged regulators to avoid delays in final stablecoin rules.
• The report said a GBP stablecoin market could support faster and cheaper payments.
• The committee backed one-to-one reserve backing for stablecoin issuers.
• Lawmakers questioned proposed holding limits and unremunerated backing asset rules.
• The report urged HM Treasury to review risks tied to private unhosted wallets.

UK lawmakers have urged regulators to avoid delays in final stablecoin rules as global frameworks move ahead. The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee warned that slow action could weaken the UK’s position. Its report calls for rules that support safe innovation while addressing financial stability and consumer risks.

Committee Sees Room for a GBP Stablecoin Market

The committee argued that a sterling stablecoin market could support faster and cheaper payments. It also linked the technology to settlement efficiency and programmable payment services. The report noted that stablecoins could complement existing forms of money. It also stated that new payment options could increase competition across the UK payments sector.

Lawmakers pointed to the UK’s established financial services industry as an advantage. They argued that the country should allow a GBP stablecoin market to form and grow. The committee also noted that a strong market could support wider services around stablecoins. It linked those services to new business opportunities in the wider digital finance sector.

However, the report also identified risks that regulators must address before wider adoption. These include financial stability concerns, banking sector disruption, and consumer protection issues. The committee also raised concerns about illicit activity linked to stablecoins. It described that issue as a global concern for regulators and policymakers.

Lords Back Core Rules but Question Limits

The committee supported much of the Bank of England and FCA stablecoin framework. It backed the proposed requirement for issuers to hold one-to-one backing assets. Lawmakers also welcomed the Bank of England’s proposed backstop lending facility. The report viewed that tool as part of the wider risk management framework.

However, the committee questioned parts of the UK’s planned regime. It noted that some proposals would diverge from rules used in other major markets. The report focused on holding limits, unremunerated backing assets, and commercial bank restrictions. It stated that these measures could shape how the market develops.

The committee recommended that the Bank reconsider the 40% central bank deposit requirement. It argued that unremunerated assets may affect how issuers manage reserves. It also urged regulators not to impose holding limits before risks justify them. The report warned that early limits could restrict GBP stablecoin growth.

Report Calls for Timelines and Flexible Regulation

The committee urged regulators to keep current timelines and avoid further delays. It stated that final rules should give firms certainty and market confidence. The report also recommended a flexible approach to future stablecoin use cases. It argued that regulators should not assume how digital settlement tools will develop.

Lawmakers urged regulators to avoid applying a harsher risk lens to stablecoins. They asked authorities to compare risks with other payment methods fairly. Baroness Noakes, the committee chair, noted that dollar stablecoins dominate the global market. She also stated that the UK has moved more slowly than the US and the EU.

“The UK is lagging behind compared with the US and the EU,” Noakes stated. She added that the UK was now moving in the right direction. The committee also addressed commercial bank involvement in stablecoin issuance. It recommended changes to proposed PRA rules on separate branding and insolvency-remote entities.

The report further urged HM Treasury to review rules for private unhosted wallets. It asked officials to consider legislation if current laws cannot deter illicit activity. Noakes stated that no one knows how a UK stablecoin market may develop. She added that regulation must allow innovation while ensuring risks receive effective controls.

The post UK House of Lords Pushes Bank of England on Stablecoin Rule Delays appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Ripple opens an expanded D.C. office to deepen engagement with U.S. digital asset policymakers.
• CLO Stu Alderoty says Ripple builds the future of digital assets with regulators, not around them.
• The office will serve as a hub for convening regulators, financial institutions, and industry partners.
• Ripple’s policy focus covers consumer protection, regulatory clarity, and U.S. financial innovation leadership.

Ripple has opened an expanded Washington D.C. office, deepening its commitment to U.S. digital asset policy. The blockchain firm is planting a firmer stake in the nation’s capital at a defining moment for the industry.

Policymakers are actively debating frameworks covering market structure, stablecoins, and payments modernization.

Ripple’s move positions the company at the heart of those conversations. The expansion reflects a long-term bet on constructive engagement over confrontation.

Ripple’s D.C. Expansion Targets the Heart of Digital Asset Policymaking

The new downtown office will anchor Ripple’s policy engagement and stakeholder convening in Washington. It is designed to bring together regulators, financial institutions, policymakers, and industry partners.

Ripple sees the space as more than a physical address and as a platform for shaping financial infrastructure policy. That ambition drives the company’s decision to deepen its Washington footprint now.

The philosophy behind the move is straightforward. Chief Legal Officer Stu Alderoty put it plainly: “Ripple has always believed the future of digital assets should be built with policymakers and regulators, not around them.”

That position separates Ripple from peers who have taken a more adversarial approach to oversight. The company is not waiting for rules to be written and intends to help write them.

Alderoty further tied the expansion to a broader national interest. “Expanding our Washington D.C. presence reflects our long-term commitment to constructive engagement, regulatory clarity, and U.S. leadership in financial innovation,” he said.

Those three pillars define how Ripple approaches every conversation with lawmakers and regulators. They also explain why the company is investing in a permanent, expanded presence rather than periodic visits.

The timing of the expansion carries weight. Congress and federal agencies are currently considering legislation that could reshape how digital assets are classified, traded, and regulated.

Ripple’s expanded presence ensures the company has direct access to those deliberations as they unfold. Early engagement in policy processes tends to produce outcomes more favorable to innovation.

Deepening Commitment Comes as U.S. Digital Asset Policy Reaches an Inflection Point

Ripple’s expanded Washington presence arrives as the broader digital asset industry recalibrates its approach to regulation. Several major firms have grown their policy teams and D.C. footprints over the past year.

Ripple’s move fits that trend but carries particular credibility given its decade-long record of enterprise blockchain deployment. Operational history gives the company a practical voice that newer entrants cannot match.

Alderoty reinforced the consumer-facing dimension of the company’s policy goals. “As blockchain and digital assets become more integrated into the financial system, Ripple is committed to helping shape policy that protects consumers, supports responsible innovation, and keeps America competitive,” he stated.

That framing positions Ripple as an advocate for end users, not just industry interests. It is a deliberate effort to build trust with skeptical regulators and lawmakers.

The expanded office will also serve as a convening space for broader industry and regulatory dialogue. Ripple is positioning itself as a facilitator of conversations, not just a participant in them.

Bringing diverse stakeholders together is a deliberate strategy to build credibility over time. That credibility, sustained through consistent engagement, translates into lasting policy influence.

Ripple’s deepening commitment to Washington reflects a clear-eyed view of where digital asset policy is headed. The company believes the United States has a critical opportunity to lead global financial innovation responsibly.

Sustained engagement, not reactive lobbying, is how Ripple intends to help shape that outcome. The expanded D.C. office is the clearest signal yet of that long-term commitment.

The post Ripple Expands Washington D.C. Office to Shape U.S. Digital Asset Policy appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Wintermute confirms long-term funds are buying BTC in OTC tranches with an 18-month price outlook.
• BTC and ETH ETFs shed nearly $2B in combined outflows over ten days, the longest streak since launch.
• Wintermute places key BTC downside support between $60,000 and $65,000 amid summer weakness.
• Crypto missed two straight weeks of the equity rally as AI earnings drove rotation into Nasdaq stocks.

Crypto market maker Wintermute reports that long-term funds have begun accumulating Bitcoin through OTC desks in tranches, even as spot prices sit near $72,000.

The firm’s June 1 market update says these buyers see current levels as attractive on an 18-month horizon. The move comes as BTC and ETH ETFs recorded nearly $2 billion in combined outflows over ten days, marking the longest redemption streak since their launch.

BTC OTC Desks Record Quiet Accumulation From Long-Duration Holders

BTC OTC activity is picking up from longer-term oriented funds, Wintermute confirmed in its weekly update. The firm stated that it is “seeing longer-term holders start to TWAP into the market through the OTC desk, with no appetite to call the exact bottom but a view that these levels look attractive on an 18-month basis.”

The move comes in tranches rather than single large orders, a method that avoids moving spot price.

Wintermute placed key downside support between $60,000 and $65,000. That range represents the floor longer-term holders appear to be referencing when sizing their positions.

The firm described the setup as “relatively weak into the summer months” but noted the underlying cycle looks more like a reset than a structural breakdown.

The OTC accumulation stands in contrast to what is happening in the ETF market. BTC spot ETFs recorded approximately $1.4 billion in outflows during the most recent week, extending the longest redemption streak since their launch.

ETH ETFs shed around $240 million over the same period. Between May 20 and May 29, combined BTC and ETH ETF outflows reached nearly $2 billion.

Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, began selling during this window as well. That development added to bearish sentiment across crypto-native circles.

Wintermute noted that “the bid that carried BTC from $70k to $80k in April is gone,” with the marginal dollar now sitting in Nvidia, Dell, and small-cap equities instead.

Crypto Sits Out the Equity Rally as Macro Pressure Persists

Wintermute noted that crypto has now missed two consecutive weeks of the broader risk-asset rally. The firm said “the risk-on rotation went into Nasdaq and the Russell 2k” while crypto, described as “the most risk-sensitive cross-asset class, got skipped.” The S&P 500 logged its ninth straight green week, gaining 1.9%, while the Nasdaq rose 8% on the month.

The macro backdrop explains part of the divergence. April PCE printed at 3.8% headline, with core rising to 3.3%. The bond market is pricing a 35–40% probability of a rate hike before year-end.

Wintermute flagged that “it’s not unthinkable to see stagflation and double dip inflation pop up again in Q3,” particularly with AI-driven demand keeping the broader economy hot.

Equities are climbing through that backdrop on the strength of an AI earnings story. Wintermute observed that “equities aren’t rallying because the macro improved — they’re rallying because AI earnings keep printing and the market is choosing to look through everything else.” Crypto has no equivalent narrative, leaving it fully exposed to the same headwinds the equity market is bypassing.

Near-term catalysts include Wednesday’s CPI and PPI data and the Monday launch of CME Nasdaq crypto index futures.

Wintermute identified ETF flows as the key metric to watch, noting that “sustained inflows marked the institutional return in April” and that their continued absence is “what’s keeping spot heavy.”

The post Wintermute: Long-Term Funds Are Buying BTC in OTC Tranches Amid ETF Outflows appeared first on Blockonomi.

Robinhood Markets has completed its $180 million acquisition of WonderFi, a Toronto-based provider of digital asset products and services. With the deal, Robinhood is entering the Canadian market by acquiring an established operator of regulated crypto exchanges.

As part of the acquisition, WonderFi’s two regulated crypto trading platforms, Bitbuy and Coinsquare, will become part of the Robinhood brand. Canadian customers will be invited to use the Robinhood app, which offers a flat 0.5% fee per CAD trade, along with the company’s user interface, user experience, and global infrastructure.

Major Canadian Crypto Push

In its official press release, Robinhood said it will continue supporting WonderFi’s existing institutional relationships in Canada while building on the institutional business it has developed through Bitstamp. The expansion is part of Robinhood’s broader strategy to build an integrated global financial ecosystem.

Following the acquisition, Robinhood now has more than 1 million international funded customers, including approximately 300,000 funded customers that came through WonderFi. WonderFi employees will join Robinhood’s existing Canadian workforce of more than 240 employees. Robinhood established its Canadian headquarters in Toronto in 2024 as an engineering hub, citing Canada’s strong technology talent pool.

In a statement, Johann Kerbrat, SVP and General Manager of Robinhood Crypto & International, said

“WonderFi has extensive experience operating regulated crypto platforms that serve beginner and advanced crypto users alike, making it an ideal partner to accelerate Robinhood’s mission in Canada. We’re pleased to have closed our acquisition and look forward to delivering innovative, user-centric investing products to Canadian customers.”

The deal comes months after Robinhood reported a sharp decline in crypto trading activity during the first quarter. Crypto transaction revenue fell 47% year-over-year to $134 million, while crypto trading volume dropped 48% to $24 billion. The company also missed analyst expectations for earnings and revenue, even though net income increased 3% to $346 million.

Layer 2 Plans

In February, Robinhood launched the public testnet for Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer 2 network built using Arbitrum technology. The testnet gives developers early access to the network ahead of a planned mainnet launch later this year and allows them to build and test applications using standard Ethereum tools.

According to the company, several infrastructure providers, including Alchemy, Chainlink, LayerZero, and TRM, had already begun integrating with the network.

The post Robinhood Officially Enters Canada After Closing WonderFi Acquisition appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Ripple’s native cross-border token has not been spared by the overall market-wide calamity that has only worsened today, with a fresh nosedive to a multi-month low.

What’s particularly interesting about XRP’s crash toward $1.20 is that it comes on the token’s 14th birthday.

The last time the popular altcoin traded at such low levels was briefly during the early February crash when it tanked to just over $1.10. Aside from that quick leg down, it hasn’t been below $1.30 since before the US presidential elections in 2024.

However, this crash now comes after several consecutive breakout rejections at prices between $1.50 and $1.60. The latest such unsuccessful attempt came in mid-May, when XRP soared to $1.55 only to be halted and driven south hard.

Today’s price drop to $1.20 registered minutes ago has left around $30 million in liquidations from leveraged traders. It has also wiped out billions from XRP’s market cap, which has helped USDC surpass it on CoinGecko as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by that metric.

XRP’s market cap stands below $75 billion as of press time, down from over $85 billion just several days ago.

Interestingly, today marks the asset’s 14th birthday, which makes the crash even more painful. On this date in 2012, Ripple co-founder Arthur Britto released lines of code that created 100 billion XRP tokens. He began working together with David Schwartz and Jed McCaleb in 2011.

Ali Martinez weighed in on the asset’s recent price performance and predicted that it could continue its path south to somewhere around $1.14 after it broke down from a rising trend-line symmetrical triangle.

The post XRP’s Birthday Turns Sour as Ripple Price Plummets to 4-Month Low appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, recently climbed to a record high above $73, as growing trader interest and optimism continued to build around the project.

According to Santiment, social activity and positive sentiment surrounding the token have surged across X, Reddit, Telegram, and other crypto communities.

Soaring Social Interest

The analytics platform reported that HYPE’s social dominance has climbed to its highest level of 2026. Santiment found that positive commentary has risen alongside the token’s price, amidst growing confidence among traders as Hyperliquid continues to stand out as one of the market’s strongest-performing projects.

Several developments have contributed to the momentum, including growing perpetual futures trading volume, the continued expansion of Hyperliquid’s decentralized trading infrastructure, and increasing recognition of the platform as a credible competitor to centralized derivatives exchanges.

Other recent initiatives, such as the launch of new trading products, rising protocol revenues, and speculation about future ecosystem growth, were also some of the factors supporting investor confidence. As these developments have attracted attention, discussions surrounding HYPE have accelerated, making it one of the most widely discussed crypto assets.

From a technical perspective, crypto analyst Ali Martinez believes HYPE’s rally may still have room to run. He noted that previous sell signals have been invalidated and identified $97 and $163 as potential upside targets if the token’s momentum continues.

Wall Street Takes Notice

A similarly bullish view was recently shared by Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan, who described Hyperliquid as one of the most important crypto projects to emerge in recent years. The exec asserted that the platform has evolved into a financial “super-app” offering access to multiple asset classes beyond crypto.

He also said Hyperliquid represents a new generation of crypto tokens designed to accrue value from the outset, citing its buyback-driven model. Based on these factors, Hougan further argued that HYPE remains significantly undervalued despite its strong performance.

Investor appetite for HYPE is also evident in the ETF market. After 21Shares launched the first US spot Hyperliquid ETF under the THYP ticker, Bitwise followed with BHYP. The two funds have attracted more than $57 million and nearly $80 million in inflows since their respective debuts, according to SoSoValue.

The post Hyperliquid’s (HYPE) Social Dominance Hits 2026 High as Bulls Target Triple-Digit Prices appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin’s on-chain activity remains well below the levels seen during the peak of the 2021 bull market. In May 2021, the network averaged roughly 1.12 million active addresses per day and nearly 489,000 newly created wallets daily.

Today, those figures have dropped to around 624,000 active addresses and 278,000 new wallets per day. Compared to the 2021 bull market peak, these figures are down by roughly 44% and 43%, respectively, according to Santiment.

Fewer Wallets, Fewer Transactions

Active addresses are commonly used to measure how many unique participants are transacting on the network, while network growth tracks the creation of new addresses interacting with Bitcoin for the first time. Based on these metrics, Santiment said Bitcoin is attracting fewer new participants and generating less day-to-day transactional activity than it did during the height of retail-driven enthusiasm five years ago.

The decline has occurred even as BTC’s price has remained well above its 2021 levels for much of the current market cycle. Santiment explained that one factor behind the trend could be the increasing role of spot Bitcoin ETFs and other institutional investment vehicles, which allow investors to gain exposure to the asset without moving coins on-chain or creating new wallets.

The firm also noted that many long-term holders have become increasingly passive, choosing to store their BTC rather than transact frequently. As a result, the network remains highly valuable but is less active than it was during the retail-fueled rally of 2021. However, Santiment said the slowdown in activity should not automatically be viewed as a bearish signal.

Strong price swings have historically encouraged more activity on the Bitcoin network. This time, the decline appears to be linked to a lack of major price movement, as well as growing interest from investors in traditional markets such as equities and gold.

Attention Returns Despite Weak Activity

Investor attention in the broader crypto market has begun to recover. May witnessed a renewed focus on digital assets, with discussions surrounding Bitcoin rising by roughly 24% compared to April. According to Santiment, the increase indicates that traders are once again positioning for opportunities in the crypto market, even as capital deployment remains selective and broader participation is still weak.

At the same time, the firm observed a growing shift of investor attention toward traditional equities. Strong performances from technology, artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductor, and defense stocks have encouraged many traders to diversify beyond crypto, while discussions around stocks and ETFs have become increasingly common within crypto-focused communities.

Regulatory developments also remained a major point of interest. Santiment noted that optimism surrounding the CLARITY Act continued to build throughout May, as market participants anticipated long-awaited regulatory guidance for digital assets in the United States. However, repeated delays and procedural hurdles left the legislation unresolved by month-end, which turned some of the initial optimism into frustration.

Meanwhile, Strategy remained one of the most closely watched Bitcoin-related companies. The firm’s disclosure of a 32 BTC sale – the first publicly reported Bitcoin sale in its history – sparked debate over whether its long-standing “never sell” philosophy is evolving.  But the sale appears tied to managing preferred stock obligations rather than a change in Strategy’s Bitcoin approach. The company still holds 843,706 BTC.

The post The Surprising Disconnect Between Bitcoin’s Price and Network Activity appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The largest meme coin by market capitalization has followed the broader crypto market’s decline, but that hasn’t stopped analysts from making bullish price predictions.

Several technical indicators reinforce the optimistic outlook, suggesting bearish pressure may soon ease.

Rebound Incoming?

As of this writing, DOGE trades at around $0.096, representing a 6% plunge on a weekly scale. While this might sound concerning, the meme coin has held up far better than BTC (down 10% during this period) and well-known altcoins such as BCH and SUI, which have dropped by almost 20%.

The asset has become the subject of numerous price predictions lately, with Ali Martinez being among the commentators. He claimed that the TD Sequential indicator has flashed a buy signal on DOGE, adding that if the $0.096 support holds firm, $0.11 could be next. X user CryptoBoss made a similar forecast, arguing that the current levels offer a buying opportunity and envisioning a rise to roughly $0.108 in the following days.

CoinForge and MikybullCrypto were even more optimistic. The former thinks the meme coin is about to do “something insane.” They reminded that in 2024 DOGE formed a descending triangle pattern before exploding during the breakout phase.

“In 2026, DOGE is about to form that same breakout phase,” the analyst predicted.

For their part, MikybullCrypto opined that the OG meme coin is at a level that could trigger a massive rally to a new all-time high, setting a target of $2.50. It is important to note that such a price explosion seems unrealistic at this time, given that Dogecoin’s market cap would need to skyrocket to over $385 billion. Currently, BTC is the only cryptocurrency with a higher capitalization than that, while ETH (the second-largest digital asset) has less than $240 billion.

Observing Some Indicators

DOGE’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) backs the bullish case shared by the aforementioned analysts. The technical indicator has dropped below 30, indicating the asset is oversold and potentially poised for a price surge. The index ranges from 0 to 100, and conversely, anything above 70 is seen as a sign of an impending pullback.

Next on the list is Dogecoin’s exchange netflows. According to CoinGlass, outflows have outpaced inflows over the past several days, suggesting that investors have abandoned centralized platforms in favor of self-custody. This development reduces immediate selling pressure.

The post Dogecoin (DOGE) Dips Below $0.10, Yet Key Indicator Flashes a Buy Signal appeared first on CryptoPotato.