Escalating US-Iran tensions could destabilize global markets, heighten geopolitical risks, and increase volatility in crypto and oil sectors.

The post US strikes over 300 Iranian targets in three days as Bitcoin slides to $62K range appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The missile alerts highlight the risk of regional instability, potentially drawing neutral states into the Iran-US conflict, complicating diplomacy.

The post Missile alerts in UAE triggered by trajectory toward Oman amid Iran-US conflict appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz heightens geopolitical tensions, impacting global markets and regional stability, with uncertain outcomes.

The post Iran shuts down Strait of Hormuz amid US tensions appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The Embolo incident highlights the complexities of technology in sports, emphasizing the need for balance between correctness and perceived fairness.

The post Breel Embolo becomes first player sent off under FIFA’s mistaken identity rule at 2026 World Cup appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Iran's shift to unilateral strategies heightens regional tensions, complicates diplomacy, and dims prospects for a U.S.-Iran agreement.

The post Iran ends unilateral deals after US-Iran ceasefire collapse appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

U.S. Representatives Urge Senate to Vote on CLARITY Act in July, Address Ethics Concerns

Rep. French Hill wants a deadline. 

One year after the House passed the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, the Arkansas Republican who chairs the House Financial Services Committee used a Fox Business interview with anchor Maria Bartiromo to press Senate leaders for a floor vote before the August recess.

“I’ve encouraged Senate leadership to put it on the floor,” Hill said. “I think if you schedule a floor date here in the month of July, that will cause these final meetings, these final discussions to take place. You’ve got to have a deadline in Congress to get people to move and find consensus.” 

Hill thanked Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Cynthia Lummis, John Boozman and Tim Scott for working toward a deal, and pointed to the 78 Democrats who backed the House measure a year ago.

Hill’s central argument is that the CLARITY Act would resolve the ethics concerns now used to block it, rather than deepen them. 

Critics point to President Trump’s crypto ventures, including $TRUMP meme coin licensing and World Liberty Financial token sales, which a July 1 financial disclosure tied to about $1.4 billion in 2025 income. 

Hill contends a market framework offers the transparency those critics want. 

“If we passed the CLARITY Act last summer, many of the things that people are expressing concern about — meme coin issuance, co-investment, use of exchange, investing in exchanges — all that would be under a market framework of regulation with clarity, no pun intended, and that would provide a lot of transparency to people that are concerned about the Trump family’s investments,” he said.

Clarity Act pairs with the GENIUS Act

Hill framed the bill as the missing half of a system that pairs it with the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin law enacted last year. 

“Stablecoin is like a cell phone not connected to a cell phone network,” he said, “and the market framework is in fact that network that we need.” To keep the pressure on, Hill plans a field hearing in New York next week, led by digital assets subcommittee chair Rep. Bryan Steil, to make the case for a market structure.

His push drew support from two other voices in the same Bartiromo appearance. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig warned of “mission creep beyond what’s really critical here” and cautioned that a stalled bill leaves the rules to regulators. 

Coinbase Vice Chair Ryan VanGrack, a former SEC official, described the measure as “on the one-yard line,” with senators from both parties “working around the clock to get this across the finish line.”

The Senate returns July 13 with about three weeks before recess. Prediction market Polymarket prices Clarity Act 2026 passage near 39%, a fall from the prior month’s 74%.

This post U.S. Representatives Urge Senate to Vote on CLARITY Act in July, Address Ethics Concerns first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Circle (CRCL) Wins Final OCC Approval for National Trust Bank

Circle Internet Group secured final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency today, to establish a national trust bank, a milestone that sent the stablecoin issuer’s shares higher and deepened its ties to the federal banking system.

The regulator cleared Circle to charter First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., which will operate under the name Circle National Trust. 

The company, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRCL, said the charter places the new entity under direct federal oversight by the OCC, the primary supervisor for national banks and national trust banks.

Circle National Trust will provide fiduciary custody services for digital assets held by Circle and its affiliates. Under the business plan the OCC approved, the bank could extend custody services to a limited set of institutional customers, with a focus on banks and regulated derivatives organizations. 

The charter opens a path for the bank to manage the reserve backing USDC, the largest regulated stablecoin, which would bring that multibillion-dollar pool under federal supervision.

National trust banks differ from traditional lenders. They safeguard client assets and provide fiduciary services, and they do not take deposits or issue loans. The structure aligns its digital-asset infrastructure with a long-standing model for holding client assets under strict fiduciary standards.

“OCC approval to establish Circle National Trust marks a defining step in bringing blockchain technology and digital assets into the core of the U.S. financial system,” said Jeremy Allaire, co-founder, chairman, and chief executive of Circle. He said federal oversight of the trust bank “sets a new standard for transparency, governance, and scale” and unlocks a phase of adoption in which large financial institutions can build on public blockchains with confidence.

Investors welcomed the decision. CRCL shares climbed as much as 14% on the day of the announcement, a rebound from a three-month low. Other crypto-linked names, including Coinbase and Strategy, posted gains near 5% this morning as bitcoin bounced.

CRCL shares have since settled to 5% gains.

Circle’s federal framework

The approval caps a process that began when Circle filed its application on June 30, 2025. The OCC granted conditional approval in December 2025, alongside peers such as Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos. 

The final decision arrives as the GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law enacted in July 2025, moves toward full implementation in early 2027. 

That statute requires OCC supervision of large stablecoin issuers, and the trust charter positions Circle to meet the mandate while bringing USDC reserves into a federal framework.

Circle has built a record of regulatory engagement across markets. It received a BitLicense from New York in 2015, became the first global stablecoin issuer to comply with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework in 2024, and holds licenses in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Bermuda, and Abu Dhabi.

The charter strengthens USDC’s role as regulated digital-dollar infrastructure for payments, settlement, and capital markets, Circle said.

This post Circle (CRCL) Wins Final OCC Approval for National Trust Bank first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Metaplanet Announces Joint Study to Bring Bitcoin-Backed Digital Credit to Japan

Metaplanet wants to turn its bitcoin pile into a credit market. On Friday, Japan’s largest corporate bitcoin holder said it has opened a joint study with three partners to build tokenized credit products backed by bitcoin, a step that pushes the company past simple treasury accumulation and toward the role of a financial platform.

The study group brings together Metaplanet, the yen stablecoin issuer JPYC, the regulated security token platform Progmat, and Siiibo Securities, the licensed brokerage Metaplanet bought last month for 2.1 billion yen, or about $13 million. Siiibo becomes Metaplanet Securities on July 13.

The four firms will examine whether bitcoin can serve as collateral for credit instruments that pay interest each day. Metaplanet frames this as a product that exists in the United States but not in Japan. 

Digitization, the company said, would allow trading and settlement of these instruments around the clock, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with rights management at the holder level, pro-rata interest math handled in software, and redemptions recorded on a public ledger.

Bitcoin-backed credit is a young product class. Public companies that hold bitcoin use the asset as core collateral for debt offerings, and those offerings pay dividends or interest. The design takes a static coin balance and turns it into an instrument that throws off cash.

Metaplanet was blunt about how early this is. “The four companies will examine issues in product design, the need for proof-of-concept initiatives, and the possibility of future issuance,” the company said. “At this time, nothing has been determined regarding issuance timing, terms, yield, product details, distribution methods, or the form of collaboration.” 

Why Japan?

The pitch rests on a gap in Japan’s debt market. That market favors large corporations that can float public bonds. Mid-sized and growth companies face steep costs and heavy operational load around issuance, sales, investor management, interest payments, and redemptions. Many of them stay shut out.

Digital credit, in Metaplanet’s telling, could open the door to those smaller firms. Onchain infrastructure would bridge traditional capital markets and blockchain rails, cut the manual work, and give issuers a path to raise money that a public bond sale did not offer them. If it works, a growth company in Tokyo could raise debt on a system that settles at any hour and tracks every holder in code.

Each partner brings one piece. Metaplanet and its securities arm will design the products that fuse bitcoin with credit, sell them to investors, field customer questions, and manage the instruments after issuance. 

JPYC will test whether its yen-pegged stablecoin can move payments and redemptions through the system. Progmat will supply the regulated tokenization layer, which tracks ownership, processes transfers, and wires the whole thing to the stablecoin payment system.

The division of labor maps onto a full stack: an issuer and distributor with a license, a settlement asset, and a token platform.

Metaplanet’s bigger plan

The study fits a strategy the company calls Project Nova, its plan to build a bitcoin-centric financial platform in Japan. The Siiibo purchase gave Metaplanet a Type I Financial Instruments Business Operator registration, the license Japan requires to structure and sell financial products to retail investors. 

Siiibo, founded in 2019, runs an online platform for private-placement corporate bonds and has backed more than 40 issuers across 100-plus offerings. Metaplanet gains that track record, plus a shareholder base of about 250,000 investors to sell into.

Simon Gerovich, Metaplanet’s president and CEO, has cast the shift in stark terms. “We view Bitcoin not as a treasury reserve asset, but as the foundation of the next generation of financial ecosystems,” he said when the Siiibo deal was announced.

Metaplanet holds 43,000 BTC, worth about $2.47 billion. Strategy and Twenty One Capital are the two public holders ranked above it.

For the moment, the digital credit plan is a set of questions and four companies willing to study them. Whether it becomes a product depends on the proof-of-concept work that remains. But the direction is clear: Metaplanet wants its bitcoin to do more than sit on a balance sheet. It wants the coin to underwrite a market.

This post Metaplanet Announces Joint Study to Bring Bitcoin-Backed Digital Credit to Japan first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin is “A Screaming Buy”: Standard Chartered Backs $100,000 Target, Shrugs Off Strategy (MSTR) Sell-Off

Standard Chartered maintained its end-2026 Bitcoin price forecast of $100,000 in a note to investors on Friday, arguing that the recent weakness reflects a failure by Strategy to explain a strategic shift rather than any deterioration in the company’s balance sheet.

Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, wrote that Strategy — the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, with 843,775 coins, more than 4% of the 21 million that will ever exist — “appears to be pivoting from its ‘never sell Bitcoin’ mantra to a more complex approach.” 

Clear communication of that pivot, he wrote, will determine how fast the pressure on BTC lifts.

Between 2020 and mid-2025, Strategy’s mNAV — enterprise value divided by the value of its Bitcoin — traded above 1.0. That premium lets the company issue shares, buy Bitcoin, and grow its value by more than the value of the new stock. Convincing the market it would never sell was the load-bearing part of the model.

With mNAV near 1.0, that arithmetic no longer works. Kendrick said Strategy is pivoting toward holding Bitcoin as backing for STRC, its perpetual preferred stock, which functions as a credit product.

The STRC feedback loop

STRC pays a 12% annual dividend, settled twice a month in cash, with the rate reset each month to keep the security near its $100 par value. It has about $10 billion notional outstanding, the largest of the instruments Strategy has deployed.

A negative feedback loop took hold once STRC broke from par, hitting an intraday low of $71.25 on June 26. The divergence began after the June 1 disclosure that Strategy had sold 32 BTC the prior week. STRC still trades near $90, according to Standard Chartered. The USD reserve for STRC dividends stands at $2.55 billion, or 17.4 months of coverage.

Bitcoin is a ‘screaming buy’

The problem with “never sell,” Kendrick argued, is that it constrains how Bitcoin gets perceived. Strategy has announced a monetization program that lets it sell BTC from time to time, including up to $1.25 billion in proceeds for the reserve.

Given its Bitcoin backing, STRC is over-collateralized and should trade back toward $100, the note said. Kendrick compared the mechanism to a central bank promising to do “whatever it takes” and, through credibility, never having to act. 

Effective signaling, he wrote, should remove the need for Strategy to sell any Bitcoin. Kendrick treats the episode as noise rather than a signal about BTC’s medium-term direction. At $64,000, he calls the coin “a screaming buy.”

Strategy sold 3,588 BTC for about $216 million last week, its largest disposal to date, using the proceeds to fund preferred stock distributions and refill the reserve. JPMorgan analysts said the formal sale policy introduces “avoidable two-way risk” by making Strategy both buyer and seller. 

Strategy’s stock trades near $98 on Thursday. BTC traded above $64,400 on Friday.

This post Bitcoin is “A Screaming Buy”: Standard Chartered Backs $100,000 Target, Shrugs Off Strategy (MSTR) Sell-Off first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

JPMorgan Says the Real Threat to Bitcoin Isn’t Strategy (MSTR) — It’s Private Blockchains

Strategy’s recent bitcoin sales and its formal monetization program have rattled investors, but JPMorgan analysts see a bigger danger to bitcoin: blockchain adoption that routes around public networks and the tokens that ride on them.

In a report led by managing director Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou and reported by The Block, the bank argued that Strategy is not the main structural threat to the asset. 

The company sold 3,588 bitcoin for $216 million in early July to cover preferred dividends, its largest disposal on record, and such sales can add bursts of selling pressure. The deeper concern, the analysts said, is where tokenization, payments and settlement end up.

Should that activity settle on permissioned rails rather than public chains, the crypto ecosystem could face a structural de-rating — thinner liquidity, weaker capital flows and slower on-chain volume — a drag that would reach bitcoin in time.

Institutions have leaned toward permissioned blockchains, which offer privacy, know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering controls, governance, throughput, legal accountability and regulatory certainty. 

That preference, per JPMorgan, creates a competitive problem for public networks like Ethereum.

The analysts cited the Bank for International Settlements, which has warned against public permissionless chains for systemic financial infrastructure and has pushed instead for “unified ledgers” that hold tokenized central bank money, bank deposits and assets inside regulated walls.

Tokenization as a real-world use case

Banks are building to that spec. Tokenized deposits — digital claims on bank balances, backed by banking regulation and deposit insurance — stand out as the clearest case. Should such deposits spread in the non-transferable forms regulators favor, they could crowd out stablecoins in institutional payments. 

SWIFT’s blockchain project and central bank digital currency efforts such as the digital euro and digital yuan would reinforce that regulated lane.

Real-world asset tokenization tells a similar story. The market sits near $50 billion, much of it on Ethereum for now, though the analysts read that as early experimentation rather than a settled structure. 

As adoption matures, issuance, custody and settlement could migrate to private infrastructure, leaving public chains for distribution and interoperability. DTCC and Securitize show the pattern in motion, and the analysts questioned whether public settlement is even the most efficient model for regulated firms, given the capital savings of deferred, netted settlement.

What could prove JPMorgan wrong

The Clarity Act, even should it pass this year, might not lift the threat; it could embolden bank-issued deposit tokens at the expense of public stablecoins. 

The analysts flagged three ways their thesis breaks: a hybrid model where both chain types matter, stronger stablecoin adoption under friendly rules, or bitcoin holding its role as “digital gold” and a debasement hedge whatever happens across the rest of crypto.

This post JPMorgan Says the Real Threat to Bitcoin Isn’t Strategy (MSTR) — It’s Private Blockchains first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

The ETF became one of Wall Street’s most powerful distribution tools because it turned market exposure into an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand retail product.

Investors could buy an index, a basket of bonds, a commodity thesis, or a tightly packaged theme from the same account they use for blue-chip stocks. This was so convenient that it changed both investor behavior and issuer incentives at the same time.

Once the ETF wrapper became the default way for millions of buyers to gain exposure, issuers had every reason to keep stretching it into new territory.

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That’s the backdrop for the SEC’s latest review of what it calls “novel” ETFs. The agency seems to be revisiting a broader boundary: how much leverage, derivatives exposure, structural complexity, and valuation risk can sit inside a product that most investors still treat as simple by habit.

That’s the backdrop for the SEC’s June 30 request for public comment on “novel” ETFs, which it defines as funds that invest in innovative asset classes or use novel strategies.

The agency listed crypto assets, commodity-focused instruments, single-stock strategies, heightened leverage, blockchain-enabled opportunities, private assets, and event contracts as products under consideration.

It also asked whether existing rules need new portfolio limits, strategy restrictions, or exclusions, beginning an exploratory review ahead of any proposed changes.

An ETF carries a lot of trust, and regulators are now asking whether that trust is being asked to do too much.

Crypto is one of several categories named in the request and is likely to draw particular scrutiny because digital-asset products combine volatile underlying markets with a familiar retail wrapper.

Crypto ETFs bring together several traits regulators tend to watch closely in newer ETF structures. They wrap volatile underlying assets in a familiar format, rely on markets that behave differently from ordinary equity markets, and have a customer base that sees approval as a judgment about the legitimacy of the asset and its wrapper.

An unfamiliar product in a familiar packaging

For years, the crypto ETF fight was about access: would the SEC allow mainstream investors to buy spot Bitcoin through a fund, or would it keep that exposure outside the traditional brokerage channel?

The legal terminology matters here. Spot Bitcoin products such as Fidelity’s FBTC are exchange-traded products rather than ETFs governed by the Investment Company Act of 1940, even though they are widely called ETFs.

The SEC’s request separately asks whether ETPs outside the investment-company framework should use the “ETF” or “fund” label.

That was the first and biggest fight because approval itself was the barrier. However, once a category gets through the door, access is no longer the issue, and product design takes its place.

An ETF can hold a broad stock index and behave in ways most advisers and investors understand immediately. But it can also hold derivatives, use leverage, concentrate exposure in a single issuer, or package an asset whose underlying market couldn't be more different from the exchange where the shares trade.

Those differences all affect liquidity, valuation, investor understanding, and their behavior under stress. They also affect how quickly an ETF can become a complicated, high-risk structure.

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The SEC has strong reason to focus on that line because much of the ETF boom has come from importing riskier exposure into a format retail investors often treat as safe by convention. Issuers want to satisfy demand and keep innovating, but regulators have to decide whether that innovation is making the market easier to use or just easier to sell.

Crypto funds are one of the biggest issues here because the wrapper makes them too familiar. The shares trade through known brokers and sit inside ordinary accounts, while the underlying assets bring weekend trading, fragmented liquidity, custody issues, and an unusually politicized approval process.

Even the trading-hours explanation on Fidelity’s FBTC page shows how the wrapper and the underlying market operate on different schedules. When the SEC looks at novel ETFs, it’s also looking at how long a familiar wrapper can mask an unfamiliar market structure.

That’s why the next phase of crypto ETF regulation is likely to focus on limits. Straightforward spot exposure is easier to explain, supervise, and distribute. Pressure builds once issuers move toward leveraged products, engineered income vehicles, broader token baskets, or hybrid structures that depend on layered assumptions about liquidity and pricing.

At that point, the SEC needs to decide what kind of complexity public-market investors should be asked to absorb through an ETF.

Crypto turns a debate about ETF design into a debate about legitimacy

Crypto ETFs will face more scrutiny because they carry structural complexity and political symbolism.

The crypto market behaves differently from equities, bonds, or broad commodity products with long histories in mainstream portfolios. At the same time, every new crypto ETF approval is seen as a signal about the federal government’s stance toward the asset class.

That symbolism was evident in the SEC’s own 2024 statement approving spot Bitcoin ETPs. The agency stressed that approval did not amount to an endorsement of Bitcoin, underscoring how much political meaning investors attach to a decision the SEC framed as a legal and market-structure judgment.

That’s why this broader ETF debate will shape crypto long after the fight over spot Bitcoin approval fades. If the SEC imposes firmer boundaries around complexity, crypto funds are likely to be among the products most affected.

Approvals may slow, disclosure expectations may get stricter, and issuers may have less room to build products that depend on investors trusting the wrapper more than they understand the underlying exposure.

That's an important distinction for the crypto industry because access only helps normalize an asset class when the products themselves are sufficiently legible for advisers, fiduciaries, and ordinary investors to use with confidence.

Once access begins to resemble a delivery system for engineered complexity, its benefit weakens. At that point, wider distribution starts to expose fragility in the product design.

The broader market should pay attention for the same reason. ETF policy shapes what mainstream investing looks and feels like in retirement accounts, advisory platforms, and self-directed brokerage portfolios.

A category that reaches the public through transparent structures helps build one kind of investor culture. A category that arrives through opaque or heavily engineered products builds another.

Crypto’s long-term place in public markets will depend as much on which of those cultures takes hold as on whether the next fund gets approved.

The SEC’s scrutiny is more than a clash between Washington and the crypto industry. The commission appears to be deciding how much complexity the ETF wrapper should continue carrying and how much of that complexity public investors can reasonably be expected to evaluate for themselves.

Crypto funds are at the center of that problem because they place a volatile, politically charged asset class inside a format investors still associate with simplicity, liquidity, and convenience.

The industry has every reason to want broader access. It has just as much reason to want access that remains understandable once the wrapper is stripped away, and the product design has to stand on its own.

The post Crypto won the ETF fight but now the SEC is questioning if things have gone too far appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure showed how closely digital-asset policy, personal financial interests, branded tokens, and presidential power now sit together.

His highly scrutinized recent filing points to a governance problem that extends well beyond any one politician, because crypto can convert access, symbolism, and regulatory attitudes into value faster than older business interests ever could.

Presidential financial disclosures usually draw attention because of the total. However, the more important issues concern how the income was generated, which entities carried it, what products sat behind it, and how sensitive those products are to decisions made by the same federal government linked to the disclosure.

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That’s what makes Trump’s crypto exposure more serious than other ethics disputes involving his hotels, licensing deals, or marketable securities. Crypto compresses several functions into one domain: it’s an investable asset class, a fundraising mechanism, a branded consumer product, a policy target, and a global market-structure debate all at once.

When a president is economically tied to ventures inside that domain, the overlap between public action and private benefit becomes much bigger.

Public reporting on the annual filing with the Office of Government Ethics indicates that the disclosure includes large crypto-related revenue streams, including income tied to Trump-branded token licensing and to World Liberty Financial.

While the line items matter, they are only part of the narrative. The filing shows a political economy in which the president appears linked to ventures whose value, distribution, and commercial prospects move with the government’s stance on crypto.

Politics can become a price signal for crypto

Traditional businesses usually take longer to respond to public policy, but crypto responds faster and across multiple channels at once. A favorable enforcement signal can improve sentiment across a network, and looser banking regulation can widen the commercial room available to issuers and intermediaries.

A White House summit, executive order, or reserve announcement can change how institutions interpret the asset class and how counterparties value the ventures attached to it.

Crypto businesses often react even faster to political shifts. Tokens can be launched quickly, traded globally, marketed continuously, and tied to communities that react almost immediately to political cues.

A branded token, a stablecoin, or a governance-linked venture can simultaneously accumulate value through distribution, licensing, treasury reserves, trading activity, and network effects.

In that environment, the line between policy climate and private upside grows much thinner than it looks in older sectors.

All of this makes Trump’s crypto disclosure more of an institutional problem than a scandal.

Stablecoin law, the SEC's and CFTC's positions, banking access, federal policy toward digital assets under Executive Order 14178, and the White House's attitude all shape the commercial environment around crypto.

When the president and his family hold visible interests in that environment, the market has good reason to view policy through a personal financial lens. That view can then take hold even when a policy position has a defensible public-interest rationale of its own.

That’s also why disclosure alone feels less reassuring here than it often does in older ethics disputes. Disclosures give the public a map of exposure, which is useful, but they don’t resolve the deeper problem when the underlying assets can reprice rapidly in response to political proximity.

Older presidential conflicts offer only a loose comparison. Hotels, licensing deals, and passive investments can raise serious ethics concerns, but they rarely react to political events with the speed or reach of a crypto venture.

Crypto trades around the clock across global venues, and that speed makes it super sensitive to politics. Public office becomes a more immediate input into private financial ecosystems.

Trump's crypto disclosure shows the industry loses something when the boundaries blur

The crypto industry wants pension funds, advisers, banks, payment companies, and lawmakers to treat digital assets as durable financial infrastructure.

That effort gets harder when the most visible political figure tied to the sector also appears to be a major financial beneficiary of crypto-linked ventures. Once that association hardens, every favorable policy move risks being read as self-dealing, even when the underlying policy argument stands on respectable ground.

That comes at a high cost for crypto. Stablecoin legislation can be viewed through the interests of connected issuers and ventures, while a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve announcement can lift confidence in Bitcoin and the wider sector.

Even broadly applicable policies can therefore attract suspicion when politically connected businesses stand to benefit.

Any kind of enforcement pullback can easily look like a general policy reset while still inviting suspicion that proximity and access played some part. The industry may gain regulatory breathing room in that environment and still lose the institutional trust it needs for broader adoption.

The filing is best understood as a warning about governance in the digital-asset era. Crypto has created markets in which influence, affiliation, and value interact with unusual speed and efficiency.

That helps explain the sector’s energy and growth, but it also makes conflict risk more immediate because political proximity can become part of the asset itself, and markets can price that proximity long before legal rules are refined enough to contain it.

Any serious response has to go beyond disclosure formalities. Conflict rules for digital assets would need to address counterparty transparency, recusal expectations around sector-specific policy, direct and indirect token-linked monetization while in office, and the treatment of governance rights or revenue claims held through affiliated entities.

The older blind-trust framework reaches only part of that issue because many crypto ventures derive value from branding, access, and regulatory climate in ways that remain economically potent even when day-to-day management is delegated.

You can see the significance of that shift without taking a partisan political view. A sector that wants to be treated as financial infrastructure needs clearer separation between public power and private token economics.

Trump’s disclosure shows how difficult that separation becomes once a president’s economic interests sit inside a fast-moving, policy-sensitive digital market.

The post Trump’s crypto disclosure exposes an institutional problem that markets price in real time appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Stablecoins won over users by making money easier to move, long before the financial world agreed on what they meant. That helps explain the scale of USDT and USDC: they never had to replace the global reserve system to become powerful.

They simply made dollars easier to move online, and crypto markets made the network effect impossible to ignore.

On July 7, 2026, Beijing and Hong Kong unveiled a group of measures designed to strengthen Hong Kong’s role in offshore yuan finance.

Hong Kong began trial operations of a central gold clearing and settlement system, revived US dollar-denominated gold futures, and said it was exploring yuan-denominated gold futures.

Authorities also expanded the HKMA’s yuan business facility to 500 billion yuan and raised the annual Southbound Bond Connect investment quota to 800 billion yuan.

Taken item by item, that looks like a niche update for bond traders and central-bank watchers. But read together, it points to a much larger change in the city's financial ecosystem.

Hong Kong is being positioned as the place where yuan funding, gold settlement, and access to Chinese capital markets become easier for institutions to use.

The stablecoin market still runs overwhelmingly on digital dollars, but Hong Kong’s package could make yuan funding and gold settlement more usable for institutions seeking non-dollar routes.

Hong Kong is trying to become a more efficient hub for non-dollar activity, especially activity tied to the yuan and to reserve assets global investors already understand. Once the subject is framed that way, the package looks much more consequential than another update on yuan internationalization.

Hong Kong is becoming China’s offshore laboratory

To fully explain the package and its importance, we first need to separate it into the different functions it serves.

Gold is the easiest place to begin. Hong Kong began trial operations of a central gold clearing and settlement system and aims to expand the city’s total storage capacity to more than 2,000 metric tons within three years. Those steps could give the city a larger role in trading, settling, and storing gold at scale.

Gold is one of the most important pillars of global finance because it offers a reserve asset with broad recognition and deep historical legitimacy. While governments, banks, and large investors may disagree on currencies, they have no problem understanding gold.

The HKMA increased its RMB Business Facility for Hong Kong banks from 200 billion yuan to 500 billion yuan (approximately $73.6 billion), with the expansion taking effect on July 10.

That expansion will give banks in Hong Kong access to deeper offshore yuan funding. In practical terms, it will make yuan-based activity outside mainland China easier to fund and easier to scale. A currency extends its reach when financial institutions can consistently access it, price it confidently, and use it in larger transactions without encountering funding bottlenecks.

Bond Connect serves the capital-markets side of the same strategy. The larger southbound quota allows mainland investors to buy more offshore bonds through Hong Kong, widening the city’s role as a bridge between Chinese capital and global markets.

A larger bridge means more use, more intermediaries, and more reasons for institutions to treat Hong Kong as a serious offshore yuan center.

These moves give institutions more ways to operate outside the dollar system, from clearing and storing gold to funding yuan transactions and accessing offshore bonds at scale. That’s the kind of practical advantage that helped dollar stablecoins dominate crypto in the first place, as users followed the route that felt easiest and most liquid.

The market often treats stablecoins as a race among issuers such as Tether and Circle, but that captures only one layer of competition and misses all of the others.

The deeper contest is about which monetary route will become easiest for people and institutions to use. Stablecoins offered a powerful alternative to the dollar, and Beijing is now trying to establish easier access to assets that sit outside the dollar system.

China wants the yuan used more widely abroad, yet its capital controls keep sending traders and savers toward Bitcoin and dollar stablecoins when they need money that can move freely.

Hong Kong offers a partial solution because it gives China an offshore venue where it can deepen yuan use, expand market access, and attract global participation while preserving firmer control over the mainland system.

Gold gives the yuan a broader appeal

Gold gives Hong Kong’s plan an extra source of appeal. By building a larger gold market alongside wider yuan use, the city could draw institutions seeking both access to China’s currency and a reserve asset beyond it.

If Hong Kong succeeds in becoming a larger gold hub, the city could gain credibility as a platform for non-dollar reserve activity beyond its role as a channel for Chinese financial policy.

That helps explain why this development affects stablecoins. Stablecoins made the dollar programmable and portable. Now Hong Kong is trying to make yuan funding, access to Chinese bonds, and gold settlement more usable for institutions seeking alternatives within the traditional financial system.

Both aim to make cross-border finance easier, though they use different tools and serve different goals. Dollar stablecoins move dollars across digital networks, while Hong Kong’s package builds traditional market infrastructure for yuan funding, bonds, and gold settlement.

However, China won't have an easy road to yuan adoption.

The yuan remains a managed currency, which gives Beijing a high degree of domestic control it clearly values but limits how naturally the yuan can spread through global markets.

Dollar stablecoins benefit from the scale, liquidity, and broad confidence in dollar pricing. While Hong Kong can certainly make offshore yuan activity more attractive, it can’t erase the structural cost of capital controls simply by expanding a clearing system or raising a quota.

Hong Kong allows China to invite more global participation around the edges of its system while keeping the mainland core under tighter supervision.

In that sense, Hong Kong functions as China’s offshore laboratory for financial openness. It offers enough flexibility to attract capital and enough oversight to keep the experiment within limits Beijing can accept.

The next stage of the crypto race will be about which monetary routes become easiest to use across borders.

Right now, crypto still primarily meets that need with digital dollars. Hong Kong’s latest package shows China building a different route, one centered on offshore yuan liquidity, bond market access, and gold’s enduring role as a reserve asset.

That route still faces obvious limits. The world’s financial system is being rebuilt through a mix of software, market access, reserve assets, and political control.

Dollar stablecoins remain the clearest expression of that shift inside crypto, but Hong Kong’s yuan-and-gold package shows that China intends to shape the same transition from another angle, one institutional upgrade at a time.

The post Hong Kong builds a gold and yuan network that sidesteps dollar stablecoins appeared first on CryptoSlate.

AI cloud infrastructure provider, CoreWeave, has secured more than $20 billion in debt and equity financing this year, including a recently closed $3.1 billion loan backed by graphics processing units.

The oversubscribed facility shows the scale of institutional demand for companies and infrastructure tied to the AI buildout. Investors have aggressively poured money into the sector throughout 2026, with CryptoRank data ranking AI as the year’s most popular funding category.

In stark contrast, Bitcoin has moved in the opposite direction. The largest digital asset has fallen more than 50% from its previous peak near $126,000, even as the global money supply has expanded to record levels.

Historically, growth in global liquidity has supported risk assets, with Bitcoin often benefiting as capital moved further along the risk curve. For much of the previous cycle, the relationship appeared reliable enough that traders treated it almost as a rule.

However, that relationship has broken down this year as liquidity has continued to expand. One possible explanation is that AI has captured a larger share of the risk capital that might otherwise have supported Bitcoin’s recovery.

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Why are investors funding AI infrastructure over Bitcoin?

Investors are routing tens of billions of dollars toward artificial intelligence infrastructure rather than Bitcoin because the AI sector can offer predictable revenue, income and physical collateral that Bitcoin lacks.

While Bitcoin remains a volatile, non-yielding monetary asset, AI infrastructure can provide multiyear, dollar-denominated contracts anchored by top-tier technology companies.

For context, CoreWeave’s recent $3.1 billion delayed-draw term loan facility exemplifies the structural benefits helping AI compete with crypto markets for capital.

The financing provides investors with interest income, identifiable collateral, and a fixed maturity date, while the underlying customer agreements provide visibility into CoreWeave’s projected cash flows.

Moody’s and Fitch rated the facility Ba2 and BB+, respectively, giving institutional investors a conventional credit instrument tied to demand for AI compute.

This structure allows institutional investors to assess GPU value, customer contract strength, projected cash flows and refinancing risk while gaining access to a secondary-market vehicle that offers yield.

On the other hand, Bitcoin provides no comparable revenue stream, interest payment or claim on operating assets. Its returns depend primarily on scarcity and future price appreciation.

Moreover, the scale of AI spending has broadened those opportunities for investors. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) estimates that the five largest hyperscalers will spend more than $1 trillion on AI-related capital expenditure across 2025 and 2026.

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In view of this, Pierre Rochard, CEO of The Bitcoin Bond Company, said the capital rotation is fundamentally a race to secure critical supply bottlenecks. According to him, the AI boom requires an unprecedented physical buildout across power generation, specialized chips and cooling systems.

So, investors are financing tangible assets tied to massive, immediate corporate demand for computing power. And unlike the “software eats the world” era, which multiplied low-marginal-cost companies, the AI era absorbs excess savings directly into physical bottlenecks such as expensive GPUs, data centers, and power grids.

“This is why the AI boom has crowded out Bitcoin,” Rochard argued, adding that capital has rushed toward companies controlling these physical constraints. He said the market is prepaying for an industrial-scale buildout that acts as a major draw on global liquidity.

Ultimately, Rochard noted that this AI capital expenditure supercycle has absorbed the excess fiat liquidity that might otherwise flow into scarce bearer assets, making AI infrastructure a formidable competitor for institutional risk budgets.

How an AI funding reversal could benefit Bitcoin over time

However, the more difficult question facing markets is what happens if the artificial intelligence investment cycle begins to turn. While an AI downturn could trigger short-term market disruptions, the eventual capital rotation could benefit Bitcoin over the long term.

Rochard argues that the current concentration of capital in AI infrastructure will eventually create conditions for liquidity to rotate back toward digital assets. He said:

“When the AI capex cycle turns from boom to overcapacity, the capital now trapped in crowded AI tickers and infrastructure financing will search for an exit.”

According to him, that reversal could begin if earnings estimates fall, depreciation costs overwhelm margins, electricity prices rise, or debt-funded data centers encounter refinancing problems.

In that environment, investors may begin to separate the long-term usefulness of AI from the aggressive prices paid for exposure to it, recognizing that a productive technology can still produce weak investment returns.

Notably, BIS has already warned that the $1 trillion in AI commitments is outpacing free cash flow, forcing companies to rely increasingly on debt.

The BIS warned that disappointing returns could cause AI financing to retreat, turning the capital expenditure boom into an investment downturn with broader consequences for credit and financial markets.

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For Bitcoin, such an AI exit could introduce short-term risks while creating potential long-term structural benefits. If an AI downturn damages highly leveraged data-center vehicles and private credit funds, the initial market response would likely be a broad retreat from risk. Investors might sell equities, credit, and crypto simultaneously to raise cash, pushing Bitcoin lower in the immediate aftermath of a credit freeze.

However, the long-term resolution could favor Bitcoin. Once the initial deleveraging concludes, capital will actively seek assets with distinct return drivers, such as government bonds, gold, and defensive equities.

Rochard argues that Bitcoin could attract part of that capital because:

“[it] is the opposite kind of asset. It has no board promising AI monetization. It has no capex budget. It has no debt maturity wall. Its issuance schedule does not accelerate because Nvidia ships a better chip or because a hyperscaler signs a power contract. It is not a claim on future corporate cash flows; it is a scarce monetary asset competing to be savings technology.”

Ultimately, Bitcoin cannot rely on an AI collapse as an automatic catalyst, but the eventual unwinding of the infrastructure trade could create an opening for capital to reconsider scarce monetary assets that carry no corporate debt, depreciation, or earnings risk.

The post CoreWeave’s $20 billion funding haul shows why Bitcoin is losing the competition for liquidity appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Circle received approval from the OCC on July 10 to establish a bank called Circle National Trust. That does not give the USDC issuer the powers most people associate with a commercial bank.

The national trust bank cannot accept ordinary deposits, make loans, offer checking or savings accounts, or provide FDIC-insured retail banking services. The decision is final, unlike the OCC’s preliminary conditional approval from December 2025, but its approved business remains centered on fiduciary custody.

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What Circle can do at opening

Circle said the bank’s legal name will be First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., operating as Circle National Trust. Upon opening, it will provide fiduciary digital-asset custody for Circle and its affiliates under direct OCC supervision.

That is the only service Circle has confirmed for the bank’s opening. Circle said the bank may eventually provide custody directly to a limited number of institutions, focusing on banks and other regulated financial organizations, if demand warrants expansion.

Managing the USDC reserve is also a future capability rather than a service that arrives with the charter. Circle has not disclosed when the bank will open or what additional operational steps must occur before reserve management moves inside it.

The charter’s strategic value lies in greater control over the infrastructure supporting a stablecoin with a market capitalization of about $73.3 billion.

A federal charter would let Circle bring custody, and possibly reserve management, under one roof instead of relying as heavily on outside firms. The company has not said what that might save or whether it plans to change its current partners.

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The charter gives Circle a federal fiduciary framework that competing stablecoin issuers may find difficult to match quickly. That could help when banks and other regulated firms decide which digital-dollar infrastructure they are willing to use.

It does not automatically deepen USDC liquidity or place the token in more wallets, exchanges and payment products. Those distribution advantages remain contested as Open USD recruits major partners and challenges Circle’s issuer-led economics.

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The charter also carries political friction. The Independent Community Bankers of America argued during the application process that national trust charters can provide nonbank fintechs with bank-like benefits without the full capital and consumer-protection framework that applies to insured commercial banks. The OCC nevertheless granted final approval.

The next tests are operational: when Circle National Trust opens, whether outside institutions demand its custody service, and whether USDC reserve management is later brought under the trust bank. Until then, Circle has gained federal supervision for custody—not the deposit-taking and lending powers implied by saying it simply “became a bank.”

The post Circle can now open a US trust bank but cannot take ordinary deposits or make loans appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The crypto price today paints a cautiously green picture: the total market cap sits around $2.28 trillion, up roughly 1.2% in 24 hours, with Bitcoin holding the $64,000 line and most of the top 10 posting modest gains. But the numbers are only half the story — the big exchanges are racing to let AI software place trades on your behalf, a shift that could change how everyday people trade crypto. Here's your snapshot for today.

What are the crypto prices today?

Here's where the major coins stand as of today, based on live market data:

• Bitcoin ($BTC): ~$64,100, up about 1.4% on the day
• Ethereum ($ETH): ~$1,795, up around 2.5% — the day's stronger large-cap
• XRP ($XRP): ~$1.11, up roughly 1%
• BNB ($BNB): ~$575, up about 1.2%
• Solana ($SOL): ~$78, roughly flat
• Dogecoin ($DOGE): ~$0.07, up nearly 2%
• TRON ($TRX): ~$0.33, slightly lower

Stablecoins USDT and USDC held their $1 peg as usual. Bitcoin dominance remains firm at around 56.4%, while Ethereum sits near 9.5% — a sign the market's recovery is still being led from the top.

Why is the crypto market up today?

Sentiment has quietly improved after a brutal June, Bitcoin's worst month in four years. A few threads are driving today's tone:

• ETF inflows returned. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recently snapped a long losing streak, ending an eight-week run of outflows with roughly $200 million in net weekly inflows — a signal that institutional appetite is thawing.
• The Fear & Greed Index is easing. The gauge climbed to 26 (Fear) from 23 (Extreme Fear), pointing to calmer nerves even if conviction is still cautious.
• Volume stays thin. The catch: trading volumes remain subdued for the summer, leaving the market sensitive to macro and headline risk.

AI is coming to crypto trading — what does that actually mean?

The freshest story today is the race to let software trade for you. An "AI trading agent" is a program you give permission to act on your behalf: instead of tapping buy and sell yourself, you connect an AI assistant that can read the market, decide, and place the trades for you — a bit like autopilot for your account.

Robinhood said this feature will "soon" reach its crypto traders. Eligible US users would be able to link a third-party AI agent — from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic or Grok — to execute trades and manage their portfolio. No firm US launch date has been given yet.

It's not alone. Kraken is reportedly rebuilding its mobile app around a similar AI assistant, making automated trading the app's headline feature rather than an add-on. The takeaway: letting AI place trades is quickly becoming the new battleground for retail crypto apps. It's powerful — but also brand new, so it's worth understanding exactly what you're handing over before switching on any autopilot.

Tokenized stocks keep spreading on-chain

The real-world-asset trend is picking up pace too. Backpack joined the growing race for 24/7 tokenized equity markets, while tokenized SK Hynix shares became accessible through Telegram Wallet, Backpack and Ondo Finance — letting traders access stock exposure around the clock via crypto rails. It's another sign of the line between traditional finance and on-chain finance continuing to blur.

Other crypto news you should know today

A few more threads moving in the background today:

• South Korea tests stablecoins. Gyeonggi Province will begin a stablecoin pilot in August using zero-knowledge proofs and reserve verification for public-fund transparency.
• Binance Pay expands offline. A Kazakh commercial bank moved to connect roughly 5,000 POS terminals to Binance Pay, letting merchants accept crypto payments at physical checkout.
• ESMA scam warning. Europe's securities regulator flagged phishing emails exploiting MiCA rules, reminding firms that official messages only come from its verified domain.

Bitcoin is trading around $64,100 today, holding onto a roughly 2.6% weekly gain and pressing toward the top of a well-defined range. The bitcoin price today sits in a tug-of-war between a firm floor at $58,000 and a stubborn ceiling near $65,581 — and with June's US inflation report due July 14, the next few sessions could set the tone for weeks. Here's the full BTC price analysis.

What is the Bitcoin price today?

As of writing, BTC/USD trades near $64,100, up about 1.5% on the day and roughly 2.6% over the past seven days. The move comes after Bitcoin's worst month in four years in June, making this rebound a meaningful recovery of composure rather than a fresh breakout. Notably, 24-hour volume has been running around 20% below its recent average — a sign the grind higher is happening on thin conviction, not a flood of buyers.

What are the key Bitcoin support and resistance levels?

The 2-hour chart lays out a clean range that's easy to trade around:

• Resistance – $65,581: This is the line that matters. $BTC tapped it in mid-June and got rejected, and it's capped every attempt since. A clean 2-hour close above it is the trigger bulls are waiting for.
• Support – $58,000: The lower boundary has been tested twice (late June and early July) and held both times, forming a higher-low structure. As long as this floor holds, the broader recovery stays intact.
• Current price – ~$64,100: BTC is trading in the upper third of the range, closer to resistance than support — a constructive sign, but not yet a breakout.

What is the Bitcoin RSI telling us?

Momentum is quietly bullish. The RSI (14) reads around 60, sitting above its signal line and comfortably in the upper half of the range without being overbought. That leaves room for further upside before buyers get exhausted — but it's not the kind of stretched reading that screams "top." In short: momentum supports another push at resistance, it just hasn't confirmed the break yet.

Why does the July 14 CPI report matter for BTC?

This is the swing factor. June's US Consumer Price Index lands on July 14, and it's the next major macro catalyst for risk assets. Here's why it's pivotal:

• A cooler-than-expected print would revive hopes of Fed easing, likely pressuring Treasury yields and the dollar lower — a tailwind that could give BTC the fuel to clear $65,581.
• A hotter print would do the opposite, reinforcing higher-for-longer rate fears and potentially knocking Bitcoin back toward the middle of its range.

Complicating the picture, renewed Middle East tensions have nudged oil prices higher, which feeds back into inflation expectations — exactly the channel the market is watching. ETF inflows turned positive recently, but only for a single session, so it's still unclear whether institutional buyers will step up after the data.

Bitcoin price prediction: what happens next?

The setup is a classic coiled range heading into a known catalyst. Two scenarios stand out:

• Bullish case: A 2-hour close above $65,581, ideally confirmed by a soft CPI print, opens the path back toward the June high near $67,250. Clearing that zone would flip the medium-term structure decisively bullish and put the $70,000 round number firmly in play — the next major psychological target and a level analysts widely flag as the gateway to a broader recovery.
• Bearish case: Rejection at resistance or a hot CPI print sends BTC back toward the $61,000–$60,000 mid-range, with $58,000 as the line that absolutely must hold. A break below it would expose deeper support and put the recovery in question.

The most likely near-term path is continued consolidation between $58,000 and $65,581 until CPI forces a decision. Traders will want to watch whether volume expands on any breakout attempt — a move through resistance on weak volume is far less trustworthy than one backed by real participation.

Can Bitcoin reach 70K soon?

Bitcoin is holding a constructive structure — higher lows, supportive RSI, and price pressing resistance — but it hasn't yet earned a breakout. The $65,581 ceiling and the $58,000 floor define the battlefield, and the July 14 CPI report is the catalyst most likely to break the deadlock. Clear resistance on real volume and the road to $70,000 opens up; fail, and this stays a range to respect rather than a trend to chase.

Circle has received final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank, marking one of the biggest regulatory milestones a stablecoin issuer has ever reached in the United States. The new entity — formally First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A. — will operate as Circle National Trust under direct federal oversight, and it places the world's largest regulated stablecoin, USDC, deeper inside the U.S. banking framework than ever before.

What did Circle get approved for with this OCC approval?

The OCC granted Circle a de novo national trust bank charter, which lets the company create and operate Circle National Trust as a federally regulated institution. Importantly, this is a trust bank, not a commercial bank — it cannot take consumer deposits or make loans. What it can do is safeguard client assets under strict fiduciary standards, the same role national trust banks have played for decades.

At launch, Circle National Trust will offer fiduciary digital asset custody services for Circle and its affiliates. Its OCC-approved business plan leaves the door open to eventually serving a limited number of institutional customers — mainly banks, financial institutions, and regulated derivatives organizations — depending on demand.

Why does the Circle OCC trust bank matter for USDC?

Until now, the cash and short-term U.S. Treasurys backing USDC have been held by third-party banking partners. With its own federal trust charter, Circle is positioned to eventually hold those multibillion-dollar reserves under its own federally regulated custody — reducing reliance on outside banks.

Here's why that's significant:

• Reserve management is the endgame. The charter is designed to support future management of the USDC Reserve, which would bring those operations under OCC supervision. That's deferred to a later phase, not day one.
• Custody comes first. When the bank opens, its primary job is fiduciary custody for Circle and its affiliates.
• It lowers the barrier for institutions. Federal oversight makes it easier for banks, asset managers, and other regulated firms to build on Circle's infrastructure with more regulatory clarity.

CEO Jeremy Allaire called the approval a defining step in bringing blockchain technology and digital assets into the core of the U.S. financial system, framing federal oversight as a new standard for transparency and governance.

How does this fit into the wider stablecoin regulation race?

Circle isn't moving alone. The approval lands as a wave of crypto firms chase federal banking status. The OCC granted conditional approvals to Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets back in December 2025, and BitGo has already been upgraded to full approval. Crypto.com secured an OCC custodian license earlier in 2026, and names ranging from Coinbase to traditional finance giants have entered the queue.

The backdrop is the GENIUS Act, the federal framework that set reserve, reporting, and compliance rules for approved stablecoin issuers. Circle's charter is widely read as cementing USDC's position as the incumbent in a newly regulated stablecoin world.

Is there any pushback on the OCC granting these charters?

Yes. Not everyone views the expansion as clean. Some banking groups have questioned the OCC's decision to grant national charters to crypto companies, arguing that crypto trust banks could offer bank-like services without facing the same rules as full-service lenders. Senator Elizabeth Warren has separately challenged whether these firms qualify under the National Bank Act.

So far, that tension hasn't slowed the pace of approvals — but it signals the framework enabling these charters could still face legal or legislative scrutiny down the line.

What happened to Circle stock (CRCL) after the news?

Circle shares (NYSE: CRCL) jumped sharply on the announcement, trading up double digits in premarket before settling to close the session up around 5%. USDC itself, as a stablecoin, held its dollar peg — the market reaction played out in Circle's equity, not the token.

Privacy coins are back in the spotlight. $ZEC is up more than 8% over the past 24 hours, trading near $503 and holding above the closely watched $500 level. The move caps a strong week for Zcash and has traders asking whether this is the start of a bigger breakout or just another burst of volatility in a notoriously high-beta asset. Here is what is actually driving the zcash price and where analysts think it goes from here.

What Is the Zcash Price Today?

The zec price today sits at roughly $503, up about 8% on the day, with an intraday high near $505. That keeps $ZEC comfortably above the $500 psychological level and well clear of the $464 mid-range pivot on the chart. On the 2-hour timeframe, the token is pressing toward overhead resistance near $546, with $385 marking the base of the recent range.

The context matters: this is not an isolated one-day pop. $ZEC has been climbing for over a week, having reclaimed $500 for the first time since early June after a brutal stretch. The privacy coin lost more than 40% of its value in early June, crashing from around $624 toward the $300s in under 48 hours after a critical bug was disclosed in its Orchard shielded pool. Today's strength is best understood as a continued recovery from that shock rather than a reaction to a single fresh headline.

Why Is Zcash Pumping Today?

There is no single news catalyst behind today's specific 8% move — it is a mix of a strengthening fundamental narrative and classic trading-day dynamics.

The dominant driver is the upcoming Ironwood upgrade, expected to activate in late July. Ironwood replaces the vulnerable Orchard shielded pool with a formally verified version, mathematically designed to prevent the kind of undetectable counterfeiting flaw that spooked the market in June. It also introduces a "turnstile" migration mechanism to enforce Zcash's fixed supply and harden its shielded pool. For a privacy coin whose entire value proposition rests on verifiable, private money, that directly addresses the trust damage from the bug — which is why the market is treating it as a genuine catalyst, not just hype.

Layered on top is momentum from social sentiment and derivatives. Zcash's social activity has spiked sharply, with its AltRank climbing into the top tier of coins and the large majority of tracked sentiment reading bullish. That has fed a feedback loop: the fundamental upgrade story sparked a technical breakout, which drew in momentum traders and triggered short liquidations — with over $7.6 million in short positions wiped out during one recent leg higher. In other words, today's 8% is part fundamental conviction, part leveraged short squeeze, and part broad altcoin-rotation beta.

Is This a Real Breakout or Just a Trading-Day Effect?

Honestly, it is both — and that is the key thing to understand before chasing it. The Ironwood narrative gives the rally a real fundamental anchor, which separates it from a purely speculative spike. But the mechanics of the move are heavily leverage-driven. Futures volume has dwarfed spot volume during this rally (recent readings showed ZEC futures turnover well above $1 billion against roughly $115 million in spot), and elevated open interest means the price can reverse just as sharply as it rose. High-beta privacy coins are famous for explosive moves on good fundamental news, followed by volatile pullbacks as speculative capital rotates out.

What Are the ZEC Price Predictions From Here?

On the technical side, the immediate battle is at resistance. As long as $ZEC holds above $500, the bullish case points toward the $546 zone next, with a decisive break potentially opening a run toward the $620–$650 liquidity area that several analysts have flagged. A clean breakout above that region is what bulls would need to talk about higher targets. On the downside, losing $500 would likely shift momentum back to sellers, with support around $464, then $450, and the $385 range floor below that.

Longer-term zec price prediction models are cautiously constructive but wide-ranging, reflecting how much hinges on Ironwood landing cleanly. Third-party forecasting sites put the 2026 average trading price somewhere in the $460–$505 band, with monthly peaks stretching toward the $570–$580 area in a bullish scenario, and some multi-year models projecting a return toward four-digit territory only in later years if privacy-coin demand sustains. These are algorithmic projections, not guarantees, and privacy coins carry outsized regulatory and technical risk — so they are best treated as rough scenarios rather than price targets.

The realistic near-term picture: a successful, verified Ironwood activation in late July could provide the next leg higher, while any delay or technical hiccup would likely trigger a deeper consolidation. Bitcoin's stability and broader altcoin sentiment will also heavily influence where $ZEC trades, given how tightly it moves with overall market risk appetite.

When the EU's MiCA transition deadline reshaped the European crypto market on July 1, the big question was simple: where would displaced users go? Binance has now offered an answer — and it is not the one Brussels was hoping for. Here is what the numbers show and why licensed regulated crypto exchanges are throwing serious money at anyone willing to move.

What Did Binance's CEO Reveal About EU Users?

Speaking at the Reuters NEXT Asia summit in Singapore on July 9, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng dropped a striking statistic. Of the EU users who withdrew funds from the platform after the MiCA transition, roughly 70% moved their crypto into self-hosted wallets, while only about 30% flowed to MiCA-regulated entities.

Teng, a former regulator himself, framed it as a warning shot at the EU. His argument: pushing users toward self-hosted wallets actually undercuts the consumer protection MiCA was designed to deliver, because non-custodial wallets fall outside the AML and KYC controls that licensed exchanges must run. In his words, once crypto goes into a self-hosted wallet, the risks amplify rather than shrink.

The claim has been widely reported by Cointelegraph, Reuters, Yahoo Finance and others, so the 70/30 figure is Binance's own data — and it comes with obvious self-interest, given the exchange's exclusion from the bloc. Supporters of self-custody read the same numbers very differently: holding your own keys removes counterparty risk, and many see direct control as the whole point of crypto, not a loophole.

Why Did So Many Binance Users Leave?

The exodus was triggered by Binance's own regulatory setback. The exchange withdrew its MiCA regulation license application in Greece on June 24, after reports that the Greek regulator was preparing to reject it. With no license in place by the July 1 deadline, Binance stopped serving new EU customers and began restricting services, forcing existing users to decide where to move their balances.

The result was Binance's heaviest weekly outflows in more than three years. Net outflows hit roughly $1.23 billion in the week beginning June 29 — up about 207% from the prior week, according to DefiLlama data reviewed by Cointelegraph. That is a lot of capital suddenly looking for a new home.

Are EU Exchanges Welcoming Ex-Binance Traders?

Absolutely — and aggressively. The MiCA deadline handed licensed platforms a rare opening: a wave of experienced traders, already holding funds, being forced to move whether they like it or not. What followed is best described as a land grab, with regulated crypto exchanges competing hard for every migrating account.

The offers have been substantial. OKX Europe rolled out its "Time to Switch" campaign with deposit bonuses of up to 8% (paid out over 52 weeks) plus 400 euros in BTC welcome rewards for new users, and reported record EU sign-ups in the run-up to the deadline. Coinbase countered with a transfer bonus of up to 5% for users moving funds before mid-July.

These campaigns are structurally different from typical crypto marketing. Instead of chasing newcomers, they target established capital from users who already know how to move funds — and are being pushed to do so anyway. Every migrated account becomes a durable source of trading volume, staking balances and fees, which is exactly why the incentives are so generous.

Which MiCA Exchanges Offer the Biggest Rewards?

This is the key question for anyone with funds still sitting on Binance or another platform that did not make the MiCA cut. The bonuses are real, but they are time-limited, capped, and vary a lot by exchange, region and deposit method — so it pays to compare before you move rather than jumping at the first offer you see.

We have put together a full, up-to-date breakdown of every MiCA-regulated exchange currently paying users to switch, including the exact bonus structures, caps and deadlines: see our complete comparison of the best regulated MiCA exchanges here.

What Does This Mean for Europe's Crypto Market?

Teng's 70/30 split points to a deeper shift: many Europeans are not simply swapping one exchange for another — they are choosing to hold assets directly. That leaves the EU with a narrower, more heavily supervised market on the licensed side, and a growing pool of self-custodied capital that sits beyond any regulator's reach. MiCA has settled who is allowed to operate. The open question now is where users actually want to keep their crypto — on a regulated platform, or in their own wallet.

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Japan's evolving regulatory landscape could prove particularly meaningful for Shiba Inu.

• Iranian forces struck the GFS Galaxy after accusing the vessel of ignoring navigation orders in Hormuz.
• U.S. forces launched a third round of strikes as Tehran declared the strategic waterway closed indefinitely.
• Hormuz carries about 20 million barrels of oil daily and roughly 20% of global liquefied natural gas trade.
• Nearly 6,000 seafarers remain stranded as severe security risks sharply reduce commercial shipping traffic.

A Cyprus-flagged container ship was struck in the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian forces accused it of violating navigation instructions in the strategic channel. The attack pushed an already volatile maritime dispute into a more dangerous phase and prompted another round of American military action.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the M/V GFS Galaxy switched off its systems, followed an unauthorized route, and ignored orders to change course. Tehran called the action a warning shot, while U.S. Central Command reported major engine-room damage, a fire, and one missing civilian crew member.

GFS Galaxy Strike Triggers Fresh U.S.-Iran Escalation

CENTCOM said American forces began a third round of strikes against Iranian positions shortly after the vessel was hit. The exact weapon remained unconfirmed, although initial social-media reports described the incident as a missile attack.

Iran then declared the Strait of Hormuz closed until further notice, linking the decision to continued U.S. involvement in the region. Iranian officials warned that further retaliation could include attacks on additional American-linked military bases.

Initially, Washington demanded a public guarantee that commercial vessels could use every shipping lane without facing attacks, restrictions, or tolls. However, President Donald Trump said Friday that the ceasefire had ended, even as he maintained that negotiations with Tehran would continue.

Despite the renewed fighting, diplomatic efforts remained active. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi in Muscat to discuss possible mechanisms for ensuring safe passage through the region.

Following the meeting, Oman said negotiations would continue at both technical and political levels. Meanwhile, a reported framework proposed keeping the southern corridor in Omani waters open to international shipping.

Under that proposal, vessels using the northern lane would require prior Iranian approval but would not pay tolls.

Hormuz Disruption Deepens Energy and Seafarer Risks

The incident followed earlier attacks on Qatari and Saudi commercial tankers. Those strikes led to U.S. attacks on Iranian positions and retaliatory action against American military sites across Gulf states.

As a result, the Joint Maritime Information Center raised the threat level for Strait of Hormuz transits to severe. Traffic had fallen to between one-fifth and one-third of prewar levels. The economic exposure is substantial because the waterway carries a large share of global energy supplies.

About 20 million barrels of oil moved through it daily in 2024. That volume represented roughly one-fifth of worldwide petroleum consumption, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. About 20% of global liquefied natural gas trade also used the route.

Most of that gas came from Qatar, leaving Asian importers especially exposed to interruptions. At the same time, fewer vessel movements could increase insurance and transport costs, even without a complete physical blockade.

Beyond the economic impact, the disruption has also intensified risks for maritime workers. The International Maritime Organization said nearly 6,000 seafarers remained stranded aboard hundreds of vessels in the Persian Gulf on July 8.

Consequently, the IMO urged operators to avoid unnecessary voyages while crews could not be protected. It had also verified at least 46 attacks on international shipping near Hormuz since February 28.

Although Iran’s declaration cannot automatically prevent every vessel from sailing, military threats, damaged ships, and rising insurance costs can severely restrict maritime traffic. The GFS Galaxy attack therefore intensified pressure on diplomatic negotiations while threatening the gradual recovery of regional shipping.

The post Iran Fires Missile at Commercial Vessel in Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Officials Say appeared first on Blockonomi.

• Gate recorded $207 million in weekly net outflows as scrutiny grew over a reported $1.7 million theft.
• Bitrace traced 49.96 ETH, 746,475 HSK, and 1.565 million USDT withdrawn from the compromised account.
• Gate denied a system-wide breach, saying the security change request passed identity and review checks.
• Investigators linked the fund trail to Newpay, while recovery depends on police and third-party cooperation.

Gate recorded about $207 million in net outflows over seven days as scrutiny increased over an alleged $1.7 million theft from a customer account. A July 11 Wu Blockchain snapshot placed the exchange second among centralized platforms for weekly outflows.

Meanwhile, Binance led inflows with approximately $308 million. Considering that DeFiLlama uses a rolling window, its dashboard later showed Gate’s seven-day outflow widening to about $251 million. The platform tracked nearly $3.98 billion in assets.

The dispute began after @jheioff said an identity-verified account was taken over and emptied without authorization. Bitrace later reported withdrawals of 49.96 ETH, 746,475 HSK and 1.565 million USDT, valuing the combined loss near $1.7 million.

Gate Details Identity Checks Behind Security Change Request

Account security settings reportedly changed between July 4 and July 6, after which five withdrawals were completed on July 7. The customer then discovered the missing funds on July 8 and promptly reported the incident.

Consequently, the timeline placed the exchange’s identity checks and account-recovery procedures under closer scrutiny. Gate, however, denied that the incident resulted from a platform-wide breach and released further details about the security change request.

According to the company, the applicant provided accurate identity information, historical trading records and an Alipay transaction recording. Gate also said the applicant’s IP address originated from the same region as the account’s recent activity.

In addition, the exchange said it sent email and SMS alerts when the application was submitted. The request subsequently underwent a two-day review period, followed by a 24-hour withdrawal restriction.

Gate said it received no objection during either window, although the customer later challenged the legitimacy of the process. Nevertheless, the exchange apologized for its initial public response, acknowledging that its tone failed to prioritize the customer’s concerns.

Following the criticism, Gate formed a task force involving its security, compliance, legal and business teams. At the same time, the company assisted with police documentation and began continuously monitoring the withdrawn assets on-chain.

Bitrace Traces Withdrawn Assets Through Newpay-Linked Wallet

Bitrace said the assets were divided across several transactions before converging at an address associated with Newpay, a non-KYC payment service. The service is linked to the Xinbi ecosystem, giving investigators a possible destination for examination.

However, the analysis does not establish how the account was compromised or identify who controlled the receiving wallets. Gate said it contacted Tether and exchanges receiving the assets, seeking cooperation to freeze funds reaching identifiable platforms.

Nevertheless, recovery will depend on law enforcement action, judicial coordination and assistance from third-party services. The exchange-flow figures also require caution as DeFiLlama removes token-price movements when calculating changes in tracked balances.

Therefore, outflows may include customer transfers, internal wallet reorganizations or regulatory migrations rather than withdrawals linked to one incident. Binance’s positive weekly reading followed heavy monthly outflows around Europe’s July 1 MiCA deadline.

Meanwhile, Bybit progressively restricted its global platform for European Economic Area residents. Even with those factors, Gate’s seven-day outflow showed customer movement during increased attention around account security and withdrawal controls.

However, the data does not prove a solvency problem. Instead, it records a decline in tracked assets while the theft investigation and recovery efforts continue.

The post Gate Outflows Hit $207M After User Reports $1.7M Account Theft appeared first on Blockonomi.

• US prosecutors plan to dismiss Matthew Goettsche’s BitClub charges with prejudice before his October trial.
• The DOJ’s case alleged BitClub collected at least $722 million in Bitcoin through manipulated mining returns.
• The proposed dismissal follows nearly seven years of litigation and review of about two million records.
• Several BitClub associates already pleaded guilty to fraud, securities, money laundering, or tax offenses.

US prosecutors are preparing to end the criminal case against Matthew Goettsche, the alleged architect of the $722 million BitClub Network scheme. The planned move comes shortly before an October trial that could have tested one of the government’s longest-running cryptocurrency fraud prosecutions.

According to a Bloomberg Law report, the DOJ has directed federal attorneys in New Jersey to seek dismissal with prejudice. In a July 8 letter, defense lawyers told U.S. District Judge Claire Cecchi that both sides had reached an agreement in principle. However, they said more time was needed to complete its terms and obtain formal court approval.

BitClub Fraud Case Nears Dismissal Before October Trial

Goettsche was indicted in December 2019 on charges involving wire fraud conspiracy and the sale of unregistered securities. Prosecutors said BitClub operated from April 2014 to December 2019, selling shares in cryptocurrency mining pools to investors worldwide.

In addition to purchasing mining shares, participants received rewards for recruiting new members. Prosecutors said this structure combined investment sales with aggressive network marketing. Over its five-year operation, BitClub allegedly collected at least $722 million in Bitcoin.

According to the indictment, the platform’s operators manipulated displayed mining returns and overstated the daily earnings presented to customers. Prosecutors further alleged that investor funds were not always used to purchase the mining equipment promoted by the company.

Internal communications also formed a central part of the government’s case. In those exchanges, prosecutors said Goettsche referred to prospective investors as “dumb” and “sheep” while discussing how the business could attract them.

Moreover, Goettsche allegedly instructed a collaborator to increase displayed daily mining earnings by 60%. The order came despite warnings that the adjustment was unsustainable and resembled a Ponzi-style operation.

The proposed dismissal follows nearly seven years of litigation, repeated plea negotiations and the review of approximately two million electronic records. Against that backdrop, Goettsche recently argued that the prolonged proceedings violated his constitutional right to a speedy trial.

DOJ Policy Shift Meets Prior BitClub Guilty Pleas

Bloomberg reported that Goettsche’s lawyers contacted senior DOJ officials after earlier settlement discussions collapsed. A department spokesperson said officials later reassessed the case because of its age and the amount expected to be recovered for investors.

However, the spokesperson denied that pressure from Goettsche’s legal team influenced the decision. Should the court approve a dismissal with prejudice, US prosecutors would be permanently barred from refiling the same charges against him.

Such an outcome would contrast sharply with the cases of several BitClub associates who previously admitted criminal conduct. One such, Romanian programmer Silviu Catalin Balaci, pleaded guilty to helping alter the mining earnings displayed to investors.

Similarly, promoters Joseph Abel and Jobadiah Weeks admitted selling unregistered BitClub shares. Gordon Beckstead also pleaded guilty to money laundering and tax offenses involving more than $50 million in transfers.

The reported resolution also follows an April 2025 DOJ memorandum that narrowed criminal enforcement centered mainly on registration violations. Nevertheless, the policy continued to prioritize fraud cases involving financial harm to cryptocurrency investors.

Consequently, the proposed dismissal would end the central prosecution without a jury ruling on the government’s fraud allegations. However, it would not necessarily signal a broader retreat from cryptocurrency fraud enforcement.

Until prosecutors formally file the dismissal request and Judge Claire Cecchi approves it, Goettsche remains charged. He also continues to be legally presumed innocent.

The post US Prosecutors Move to Drop Charges Against Alleged $722M BitClub Mastermind appeared first on Blockonomi.

• Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust added nearly 1,000 BTC, lifting tracked holdings to 5,761 coins in two weeks.

• The trust had drawn about $408 million in net inflows by July 10 despite sustained Bitcoin market weakness.

• Bitcoin traded about 11% above Fidelity’s lower power-law support boundary in the model published on July 5.

• Three Glassnode-based indicators remained below neutral levels, keeping a bullish reversal unconfirmed.

Morgan Stanley’s spot Bitcoin product continued attracting investor capital during the market downturn, adding nearly 1,000 BTC within two weeks. As a result, the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust’s tracked holdings climbed to 5,761 BTC, worth approximately $370 million, with the asset trading near $64,000.

The increase reflected continued demand for the bank-affiliated investment product despite weaker market conditions. Nevertheless, key on-chain indicators remained below their bullish thresholds, suggesting that accumulation was strengthening even though a broader market reversal had not yet been confirmed.

Morgan Stanley Trust Adds BTC as Fund Inflows Continue

Arkham Intelligence linked the increase to several large transfers from Coinbase Prime into wallets associated with the trust. The deposits included 495.8, 171.9, 166.2, 154.8, 143.3, 126.1, and 120.4 BTC.

Source: Arkham Intelligence

Arkham separately said the product received roughly $13.2 million in Bitcoin during the week. The platform reported that the wallets had recorded no sale since May. However, its post lacked transaction links needed to verify every attribution independently.

Nevertheless, the activity does not represent a corporate treasury purchase by Morgan Stanley. Instead, the trust holds the asset for shareholders through a passive exchange-traded structure.

Moreover, its SEC prospectus states that the fund does not attempt to identify market bottoms or sell at market peaks. Consequently, changes in its holdings generally reflect share creations, redemptions and other settlement activity rather than discretionary trading decisions.

Morgan Stanley launched the product on NYSE Arca on April 8, making it the first cryptocurrency exchange-traded product offered by a United States bank-affiliated asset manager. Since then, investor demand has remained firm despite weaker market conditions.

According to Farside Investors, the fund had recorded about $408 million in net inflows by July 10. Therefore, the expanding Bitcoin balance points to continued participation

Bitcoin Nears Power-Law Support as Reversal Signals Lag

Meanwhile, Fidelity Director of Global Macro Jurrien Timmer said Bitcoin was moving closer to a long-term power-law support line. His chart analysis placed the asset at $62,685, while the model’s lower boundary stood near $56,488.

As a result, Bitcoin remained roughly 11% above the projected support level at the time. Although previous downturns developed near the same band, the model provides historical context rather than confirmation of a market bottom.

At the same time, analyst Ali Martinez pointed to three Glassnode-based indicators that remained below their neutral thresholds. Those measures included the adjusted Spent Output Profit Ratio, the Puell Multiple and the Reserve Risk Multiple.

Martinez’s indexed chart subtracts one from each underlying multiple, which places the neutral threshold at zero. Therefore, a negative aSOPR reading indicates that transferred coins were sold at an average loss.

Glassnode also excludes outputs held for less than one hour when calculating aSOPR. By removing these short-lived transactions, the adjustment reduces market noise and provides a clearer view of realized profitability.

Meanwhile, the Puell Multiple compares the daily dollar value of miner revenue with its 365-day average. A reading below one shows that miner income remains below its annual benchmark.

Reserve Risk, by comparison, measures Bitcoin’s price against the conviction of long-term holders. Low readings suggest that committed investors remain reluctant to sell despite weaker market conditions.

Martinez identified an aSOPR move above zero as the first possible signal of a broader reversal. Further breakouts in the Puell Multiple and Reserve Risk Multiple would provide stronger confirmation of a bullish transition.

Until those thresholds are crossed, the data supports an accumulation narrative rather than a confirmed recovery. Therefore, the trust’s rising holdings reflect sustained investor demand, while the broader market continues to show restraint.

The post Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust Adds 1,000 BTC as Bitcoin Nears Long-Term Support appeared first on Blockonomi.

• XRP’s 50 EMA, 100 EMA and 144 WMA are now compressing during a prolonged two-week consolidation phase.
• A rebound toward $1.60, followed by a Fibonacci-zone retest, could validate the proposed double bottom.
• Weekly RSI near 34 shows bullish divergence, suggesting downside momentum may be weakening around support.
• Analysts identify $1.22 and $1.60 as key confirmation levels before any broader trend reversal is verified.

XRP is testing a critical long-term support zone as analysts assess whether the latest decline has established a durable market bottom. Technical signals, including moving-average compression, wave patterns and weekly momentum, suggest the asset may be entering a broader bottoming phase. However, confirmation still depends on its ability to reclaim key resistance levels and hold support during any retest.

Moving Averages Compress Near a Critical Price Zone

According to market analyst EGRAG Crypto’s two-week chart, the 50 EMA, 100 EMA, and 144 WMA are converging during an extended consolidation. The analyst said this is the first major compression of those averages within the current structure.

According to the chart, similar compression previously appeared after a macro low and before a large price expansion. Nevertheless, the current setup still requires several confirmation steps.

The first condition is a rebound toward the 50 EMA near $1.60. EGRAG then expects a rejection, followed by a retest of the 0.618-to-0.50 Fibonacci area. That zone sits below the rebound target and is described as the decisive accumulation range.

Holding it would support a double-bottom structure after a lower low. The chart places XRP near $1.10, close to the lower section of the long-term triangle. It also shows rising support extending from earlier cycle lows.

The two-week chart also marks a red horizontal support band and a narrowing symmetrical triangle. XRP price remains above the lower boundary, but it has not broken the upper trendline.

EGRAG listed $5.00 to $6.50 as a conservative measured-move range if the previous cycle’s expansion repeats. Higher Fibonacci extensions were marked near $9, $15, and $31.

Those figures remain technical targets rather than confirmed outcomes. Their relevance depends on price reclaiming resistance and preserving the proposed retest zone.

Weekly RSI Divergence Adds Momentum Confirmation

On the same accord, market analyst Dark Defender’s weekly chart presents a separate framework based on Elliott Wave structure and relative strength. The analyst identified the recent low as a possible Wave 4 completion.

The chart places major reference levels at $0.9327, $1.2193, $1.8815, $2.9032, and $5.8563. XRP was shown near $1.11, between the first two levels.

According to the chart’s analysis, a rising lower trendline supported the recent decline, while the XRP price remained below a descending resistance line. That leaves the market compressed between support and overhead supply.

Dark Defender also marked a hidden bullish divergence on the weekly RSI. The indicator was near 34, close to the lower end of its recent range. Basically, a bullish divergence appears when momentum improves while price remains weak.

As a result, traders often use that pattern to identify fading downside pressure, although it does not confirm reversal. That distinction matters, as technical compression can precede movement in either direction.

Momentum evidence therefore needs confirmation from price and volume. Together, the charts identify clear thresholds that separate a potential durable base from a confirmed long-term reversal.

The combined evidence supports a developing bottom thesis, not a completed one. The strongest confirmation would come from a sustained recovery above $1.22 and then $1.60.

Until those levels are reclaimed, the charts show stabilization rather than a verified trend change. The bottom may have formed, but price confirmation remains incomplete.

The post XRP Tests Long-Term Support as Analysts Assess Whether the Bottom Is In appeared first on Blockonomi.

Even in times when XRP and the company behind it were not in good shape in their home country, Japan has long stood out as a major ally. However, the most recent regulatory and institutional developments suggest that the country could play an even bigger role in their future.

Over the past several months, Japan has accelerated efforts to modernize its digital asset framework and has proposed legal reforms to classify many cryptocurrencies as financial instruments, paving the way for spot ETFs. It also introduced a more investor-friendly tax regime.

Although the legislation still needs to complete the entire process before such financial vehicles are allowed to launch, the direction has become increasingly clearer. This could be significantly beneficial for XRP.

XRP, Ripple, and Japan

For starters, SBI continues with its pro-Ripple initiatives. Both parties have been tangled for years through SBI Ripple Asia to expand cross-border payments across the region. Meanwhile, SBI VC Trade remains one of Japan’s largest XRP-friendly exchanges.

Most recently, Ripple and SBI announced that the former’s stablecoin, RLUSD, has launched in the country after receiving approval from the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA), which expanded their partnership into the regulated stablecoin market.

SBI has also filed for a product that could eventually become the first Japan-based XRP ETF. Instead of pairing the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, the proposed products went for BTC and XRP, highlighting the firm’s conviction that Ripple’s token could become a core institutional asset in the country.

Institutional Demand

Given the relatively short history of the cryptocurrency industry and the lack of regulation in most jurisdictions, proper regulatory frameworks can open the door for additional investments from larger players and institutions. Japan has been at the forefront of crypto regulation, and XRP has generally benefited from this.

Unlike the prolonged legal battle Ripple endured in the US against the SEC, Japanese regulators have long treated its token as a crypto asset rather than a security. Combined with SBI’s banking relationships and Ripple’s growing enterprise presence, that regulatory certainty has helped create one of XRP’s strongest international footholds.

If Japan indeed approves spot crypto ETFs, XRP could be among the earliest beneficiaries, thanks to its history and the infrastructure already in place there.

The post Could Japan Become XRP’s Biggest Growth Market? Here’s Why the Odds Are Rising appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin corporate treasury firms became a major thing in the past couple of years, led, of course, by Michael Saylor’s Strategy. Several such entities emerged during more favorable times for the entire crypto industry. Now, though, the landscape has changed, and there’s a new seller on the horizon.

Empery Digital has disposed of 1,400 BTC for just over $87 million, becoming the latest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury firm to monetize part of its holdings amid ongoing market pressure.

Empery Sells Too

The firm published a Form 8-K filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission indicating that it has sold the units between May 7 and July 10 at an average price of approximately $62,200 per bitcoin. As such, it has reduced its crypto reserve by nearly half. As of the filing day of July 10, Empery held 1,514 BTC compared to 2,914 before the sales, alongside almost $74 million in cash.

The company said it will use the proceeds to support several corporate priorities rather than signal a complete withdrawal from bitcoin. Empery Digital’s EMPD stock actually rose by over 1.5% on Friday after the BTC sale news went viral.

The entity added that it used $10 million to repay part of its outstanding debt on July 7, leaving $45 million under its debt facility. Additional proceeds are earmarked for ongoing operations and high legal expenses connected to stockholder litigation. It will deploy a substantial portion of the newly acquired cash to help finance a previously announced property acquisition.

It also plans to expand into AI infrastructure, agreeing to invest $65 million for a 25% stake in a Hunt Properties-managed entity that is acquiring and redeveloping a power-intensive industrial facility in the US.

Joining the Pack

As mentioned above, Empery Digital has joined a growing list of companies selling their BTC during this time of market distress. The largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency actually made two sales in the past few months. The first was a minor one for just 32 units, while the second, announced earlier this week, was for a more significant 3,588 BTC.

Analysts continue to debate whether this is only a net-negative development for bitcoin or if there is more to the story. The reality is that miners also made similar moves before Strategy. As reported in April, BTC miners sold more units in Q1 this year than the entire 2025 combined. On-chain data show they had disposed of over 32,000 BTC in Q1, which was described as the largest quarterly liquidation on record.

The post It’s Not Just Strategy: This Corporate Holder Sold $87M in Bitcoin appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Despite gaining over 10% since its recent multi-year low at under $58,000, bitcoin is still not out of the woods yet as the bears continue to dominate, said Ali Martinez.

Meanwhile, fellow analyst Ted Pillows believes BTC, alongside the S&P 500, is poised for more losses, but the cryptocurrency is poised to outperform the index.

Still Bear-Dominated Market

In its most recent post on BTC’s market structure, Martinez outlined the three critical factors that have to change to overcome its current state. First, it’s the aSOPR (Adjusted Spent Output Profit Ratio), an on-chain metric measuring whether bitcoin investors are selling their units at a profit or a loss on average. It continues to hover below 1, showing that most sales are concluded by holders realizing losses.

“The first technical confirmation of a trend reversal from bearish to bullish will be the aSOPR metric crossing back above zero,” the analyst said.

The second is the Puell Multiple, which measures miner profitability by dividing the daily dollar value of newly issued BTC by its 365-day moving average. It shows whether miners are experiencing extreme income stress, as seen earlier this year during one of the largest miner walkouts.

The last factor brought up by Martinez was the Reserve Risk Multiple. The on-chain technical indicator demonstrates the confidence of long-term holders relative to its price, and it’s also below 1. Bitcoin would require a “confirmed break on the aSOPR, followed by zero-line breakouts on the Puell Multiple and Reserve Risk Multiple” to validate the start of a new bull market.

$82K and Its Importance

Michaël van de Poppe believes $82,000 holds particular significance in the current BTC structure, as the 50-week Moving Average is positioned around that level. Historically, this key MA has served as major resistance, and bitcoin solidified the end of its previous bear market only after it reclaimed that line.

At first, BTC would have to break past the 21-week MA (currently around $75,000) before heading toward the more important 50-week MA, said van de Poppe.

Separately, Ted Pillows focused on bitcoin’s relation and correlation with the S&P 500, claiming that both asset classes will “drop over the coming months.” However, he expects the cryptocurrency to emerge victorious after the final leg down. For now, though, the reality is quite different, as the index is up by over 10% this year, while BTC is down by almost 27%.

The post These 3 Missing Pieces Are Holding Bitcoin Back, Says Analyst appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Ripple’s XRP has shown signs of stabilization after its prolonged downtrend, with buyers successfully defending a key support region and triggering a short-term market structure shift. Although the broader trend remains bearish, the recent price action suggests that selling pressure is weakening, and the market may be preparing for a larger recovery attempt if current support levels continue to hold.

XRP Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily timeframe, XRP remains inside a broader descending channel and continues to trade below the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, which are both trending lower and maintaining the long-term bearish structure.

However, the recent decline toward the $1.02-$1.06 support zone appears to have attracted significant demand. This region aligns with a previous liquidity sweep below the April lows, where the market briefly traded beneath support before quickly recovering. Since then, the asset has established a higher low and has begun building a base above this demand area.

The price recently bounced from the support zone and is now attempting to reclaim the horizontal resistance region around $1.22-$1.28. This area is particularly important because it also coincides with the descending 100-day moving average and the upper boundary of the broader bearish structure.

A successful reclaim of the $1.22-$1.28 resistance zone would strengthen the recovery scenario and potentially open the path toward the major supply area near $1.55. Until that breakout occurs, the broader trend remains corrective within a larger downtrend.

XRP/USDT 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart presents a more constructive outlook. Following the sweep of liquidity below the $1.02-$1.06 support region, XRP formed a market structure shift (MSS), marking the first indication that sellers were losing control of the short-term trend.

The subsequent rally produced a change of character (ChoCh) as the price broke above a previous lower high and challenged the descending trendline that has capped rallies since mid-June. Although the token initially faced rejection near trendline resistance around $1.16-$1.18, the pullback has remained relatively shallow, and buyers continue defending the former breakout zone.

Importantly, the market has not returned to the lows despite the rejection, suggesting that demand remains active beneath current prices. As long as XRP holds above the $1.03-$1.06 support area, the bullish structure established after the liquidity sweep remains intact.

The key level to monitor now is the descending trendline and the $1.15-$1.18 resistance area. A decisive breakout above this region would confirm a higher-high formation and could accelerate momentum toward the larger daily resistance zone between $1.22 and $1.28.

Conversely, failure to break the trendline could lead to additional consolidation between support and resistance before a larger directional move develops.

Overall, the recent price action favors gradual recovery, but XRP still needs to reclaim the trendline resistance and the $1.22-$1.28 supply zone before a broader bullish reversal can be confirmed.

The post Ripple Price Analysis: XRP Looks Ready for a Comeback as Sellers Fade appeared first on CryptoPotato.

While buyers have successfully defended the $58K-$60K support region and established a series of higher lows on lower timeframes, Bitcoin is now approaching a confluence of technical resistance where bullish momentum will face its biggest test since the breakdown from the mid-$70K region.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily timeframe, Bitcoin remains below both the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, which continue to trend lower and maintain the broader bearish structure. Nevertheless, the recent price action has become increasingly constructive.

Following the sharp sell-off toward the $58K support zone, Bitcoin formed a higher low while the RSI continued to recover and push higher. The momentum indicator has now climbed back above the midline, suggesting that bearish pressure has weakened considerably compared to the aggressive decline seen throughout June.

The price is currently approaching a key bearish order block between $65K and $66.5K. This region also represents the last significant lower-high structure before the most recent leg down, making it a critical area for market structure confirmation. A decisive daily close above this resistance zone could establish a change of character and open the door toward the larger resistance cluster around $72K-$74K.

However, failure to reclaim this area would preserve the broader downtrend and could trigger another rotation back toward the $60K-$61K support zone. Therefore, the reaction around the current resistance region will likely determine whether the recent rally evolves into a trend reversal or remains a corrective bounce.

BTC/USDT 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart shows a much stronger recovery structure. Since sweeping liquidity beneath the $58K support region, BTC has printed a sequence of higher lows and higher highs while advancing toward the upper boundary of the descending channel that has contained the price since mid-June.

The market is now pressing directly against the channel resistance near $64K-$65K while simultaneously testing the lower boundary of the broader supply zone between $65K and $66K. This creates a pivotal technical area where buyers must prove they can maintain momentum.

A breakout above the descending trendline and subsequent reclaim of the bearish order block would provide the first meaningful confirmation that the corrective structure has ended. Such a move would likely trigger a change of character and increase the probability of a continuation rally toward the $72K-$74K resistance zone.

On the downside, the former intra-range liquidity zone around $61K-$62K has now transitioned into an important support area. As long as Bitcoin remains above this region, the short-term bullish structure remains intact.

Sentiment Analysis

The one-week liquidation heatmap continues to show a substantial concentration of liquidity above the current market price, particularly within the $65K-$67K region. This aligns almost perfectly with the bearish order block and channel resistance highlighted on the technical charts, creating a strong confluence area that could attract price in the near term.

Notably, the liquidity data confirms the technical setup. The resistance zone identified on the charts corresponds directly with one of the largest visible liquidation clusters on the heatmap, reinforcing the idea that Bitcoin may attempt to sweep this overhead liquidity before establishing its next directional trend.

Below the market, liquidity remains comparatively thinner near current levels, while larger concentrations are positioned much higher around the mid-$60K area. This suggests that the path of least resistance may remain upward in the short term as market makers seek to target those leveraged positions.

If Bitcoin successfully sweeps the $65K-$67K liquidity cluster and secures acceptance above the bearish order block, the probability of a broader bullish continuation would increase significantly. Conversely, if the liquidity sweep is followed by a sharp rejection, it could signal that the move was primarily liquidity-driven and increase the risk of another corrective decline toward the $61K support area.

For now, both the technical structure and liquidation positioning continue to favor an upside liquidity grab, with the $65K-$67K region emerging as the most important near-term battleground for Bitcoin.

The post BTC’s Hidden Liquidity Cluster That Will Decide the Next Move: Bitcoin Price Analysis appeared first on CryptoPotato.