Cautious sentiment and elevated risk in Bitcoin markets may hinder price recovery, influenced by regulatory and macroeconomic pressures.

The post Bitcoin price falls to $66K as market sentiment turns cautious appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Increased scrutiny on private credit valuations may lead to stricter regulations, impacting investor confidence and reshaping market practices.

The post SDNY prosecutors scrutinize private credit valuation discrepancies appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

RBI's gold reserve strategy underscores a commitment to economic stability, signaling a preference for safeguarding assets amid currency volatility.

The post Reserve Bank of India denies media report of $12B gold sale, calls claims baseless appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

DDPAC's emergence highlights the growing political influence of the crypto sector, potentially leading to clearer regulations and increased market stability.

The post Defend Developers PAC launches to shield software builders ahead of midterm elections appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The plunge in Partners Group's shares highlights growing investor anxiety in private markets, potentially impacting future capital deployment.

The post Partners Group caps redemptions, shares plunge 17% amid private credit fears appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Lava Card Launches Secured Visa Credit Card That Pays Bitcoin Rewards on Every Purchase

Lava has launched its Lava Card, a secured Visa credit card that pays Bitcoin rewards on every transaction and accepts stablecoins as a funding source — a product the company says is built to bring stablecoin payments into the mainstream without asking users or merchants to change how they spend.

The card pays 3% back in Bitcoin for US-based users and 1% for international users on all purchases and 5% back through Lava’s growing network of Bitcoin-aligned merchants. To mark the launch, cardholders earn the elevated 5% rate on Amazon, Apple, and Netflix purchases, Lava told Bitcoin Magazine. 

There is no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee, and no markup on Visa’s official exchange rate, making the card viable for both domestic and international use.

Lava is positioning the rewards structure as a deliberate break from the complexity that defines most card programs. Rather than accumulating points that require transfers, conversions, or fee math, users receive Bitcoin — a balance they can track and hold. The use case is pretty straightforward: spend dollars, earn Bitcoin, build savings.

The card is secured, meaning cardholders spend from a USD balance they fund themselves rather than borrowing. Users can move money onto the card via bank transfer, direct deposit, or by sending stablecoins such as USDC directly to Lava. 

That stablecoin pathway is one of the product’s more ambitious bets. Stablecoin adoption has grown rapidly at the infrastructure level, but everyday spending has lagged — in part because swiping a card at checkout remains the default behavior for consumers and merchants alike. 

Lava Card routes stablecoin balances through standard Visa rails, meaning neither side of the transaction has to adapt.

Users who hold Bitcoin can also fund their spending through Lava’s Bitcoin Line of Credit, borrowing against their BTC rather than liquidating it.

The merchant rewards network, which will offer additional Bitcoin back and exclusive savings to cardholders, is set to expand with partner announcements rolling out over the coming months. 

The card is available to users in nearly every country and accepted anywhere Visa is.

Lava’s line of credit and fundraise

Back in November 2025, Lava announced it raised $200 million in a funding round combining venture and debt capital to expand its bitcoin-backed lending platform. 

The company also launched a new Bitcoin Line of Credit (BLOC), designed to let users borrow against bitcoin without fixed terms or mandatory monthly payments.

The product offers interest rates starting at 5%, plus additional fees, with loans allowing up to 50% loan-to-value against posted bitcoin collateral. 

This post Lava Card Launches Secured Visa Credit Card That Pays Bitcoin Rewards on Every Purchase first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Charles Schwab Launches 24/7 Bitcoin Futures Trading on thinkorswim

Charles Schwab has taken its most direct step yet into around-the-clock cryptocurrency access, announcing that select cryptocurrency futures — including Bitcoin — are now available to trade nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across all thinkorswim platforms.

The move marks a milestone for the Westlake, Texas-based brokerage, which holds $12.61 trillion in total client assets and processed 10.3 million daily average trades in April 2026, the brokerage said. 

Bitcoin futures, trading with a $5 multiplier, represent the flagship product in the new round-the-clock offering — one that Schwab calls its first 24/7 product in the firm’s history.

The timing carries weight. Bitcoin’s price has pulled back from an all-time high of $126,198.07 reached in October 2025 to approximately $66,000 as of June 1, 2026 — a decline of roughly 45% from peak levels. 

Yesterday, Charles Schwab said it is targeting mid-2027 to launch spot crypto trading, custody, and transfers for registered investment advisors, integrating digital assets into its existing advisory infrastructure.

Schwab launches spot Bitcoin trading

It seems that the cooldown has done little to dampen institutional appetite. Schwab separately launched Schwab Crypto in April 2026, a spot trading service giving retail clients direct access to Bitcoin and crypto through a phased rollout — the firm’s first foray into direct digital asset ownership beyond ETFs and futures-linked products.

The 24/7 futures access through thinkorswim builds on that momentum. Unlike spot trading, futures contracts allow clients to gain price exposure to Bitcoin without holding the underlying asset, with both standard and micro-sized contracts available. 

CME Micro Bitcoin futures trading with a $0.10 multiplier, lower the barrier for retail participants who want leveraged Bitcoin exposure without the capital requirements of full-sized contracts.

“As retail trading continues to advance, we’re committed to adding features and resources that expand our offering,” said James Kostulias, Managing Director and Head of Trading Services at Charles Schwab.

Beyond crypto, the platform update includes expanded fractional and notional trading across most U.S. stocks and ETFs — down to a $1 minimum — along with expected price range data for marginable securities on Schwab.com and dividend reinvestment through Schwab Mobile. 

The fractional trading expansion lets clients place dollar-based orders directly from the standard trade ticket, removing the need for a separate experience.

This post Charles Schwab Launches 24/7 Bitcoin Futures Trading on thinkorswim first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

SEC Highlights Crypto in Its Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026–2030

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 2, 2026, published its Draft Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026 through 2030, placing digital assets at the center of a broad regulatory reset under Chairman Paul S. Atkins.

The plan, which is open for public comment through July 2, 2026, charts a course that the agency says will return the SEC to its core three-part mission: protecting investors, maintaining fair and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation.

Chairman Atkins described the release as “a new day at the SEC,” one aimed at unwinding what his administration views as regulatory overreach from prior years. 

The plan is organized around three goals: renewing regulatory policy to support innovation and capital formation, shifting enforcement practices toward established legal violations rather than expansive agency action, and optimizing internal operations through technology and organizational reform. 

Atkins said the Commission “will not stray” from its foundational mandate set by Congress in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Crypto gets an SEC shout out 

Perhaps the most consequential section of the plan is its treatment of blockchain and cryptocurrency. The document states that “crypto asset technologies have the potential to revolutionize America’s financial infrastructure and deliver new optionality, efficiencies, cost reductions, transparency, and risk mitigation for the benefit of all Americans.” 

The SEC frames this not as a caveat, but as a rationale for building a clearer, more coherent framework that gives innovators legal certainty while preserving investor protection.

Objective 1.1 of the plan calls for the SEC to provide “a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets and distributed ledger technologies through a rational, coherent, and principled approach.” 

This includes clarifying the boundaries of securities law as they apply to digital assets, enabling compliant capital formation through tokenized offerings, and supporting what the document calls “onchain financial infrastructure.” 

The plan also commits to resolving jurisdictional overlap between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — a long-standing point of friction for the crypto industry .

Beyond digital assets, the plan targets capital formation barriers for small businesses and early-stage companies. It calls for modernizing Regulation A, streamlining shelf registration, and reducing disclosure complexity so entrepreneurs can tap both public and private markets with fewer regulatory obstacles.

On enforcement, the SEC signals a shift away from what critics have called regulation-by-enforcement — particularly the approach taken toward crypto firms in recent years. 

The new plan instructs staff to focus on “fraud and manipulation” rather than expanding regulatory reach through ad hoc actions, and states that success in enforcement should be measured by deterrence and market clarity, not by case volume or fine totals.

Tech overhaul on the horizon

The third goal of the plan addresses internal operations, with a focus on modernizing the SEC’s decades-old EDGAR filing system and rolling out artificial intelligence across agency functions. The document notes that AI and blockchain could “improve oversight, reduce costs, and unlock new efficiencies” inside the commission itself. 

The agency oversees approximately $207 trillion in annual U.S. equity trading and holds roughly 19 terabytes of disclosure data on EDGAR — systems the plan acknowledges need meaningful upgrades.

This post SEC Highlights Crypto in Its Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026–2030 first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

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

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

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

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

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

What the rule would do

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

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

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

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

The Trump conflict-of-interest argument

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

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

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

Consumer advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform echoed those concerns.

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

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

The administration’s defense

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

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

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

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

Bitcoin Magazine

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

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

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

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

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

Strategy (MSTR) breaks from buying and sells 32 BTC

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

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

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

Bitcoin price’s discouraging week

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

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

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

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

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

Strive buys — and still gets crushed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vitalik Buterin is challenging one of DeFi's most familiar safety mechanisms: the automatic liquidation that closes a debt-backed position when collateral falls below the required backing for the loan.

In a June 1 Ethereum Research post, Buterin proposed building synthetic, index-tracking assets on top of options, with collateralized debt removed from the base design.

The idea would remove the hard liquidation trigger from the base design and replace it with a slower form of risk: the user's exposure drifts away from the target unless the position is rebalanced.

That distinction is important because the old mechanism is still showing up in market stress. Bitcoin‘s fall below $68,000 triggered about $394 million in one-hour liquidations on June 2, including roughly $87 million in ETH positions, as leveraged bets were force-closed across the market.

The flash crash came one day after Buterin's post and serves as a market reminder: when price moves hit crowded leverage, automatic closures can turn a drop into a wider market event.

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Bitcoin flash crash below $68,000 triggers around $400 million in liquidation in under an hour

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Jun 2, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

The proposal is research-stage architecture: a design argument separate from any protocol launch, Ethereum roadmap commitment, or direct replacement for Aave, Maker, or existing stablecoins. It shifts the focus from collateral buffers and faster price feeds to a more fundamental design choice: whether instant liquidation should remain DeFi's central means of surviving a crash.

Why the safety switch can amplify stress

Most DeFi lending systems are built around the same basic problem. A user locks in collateral, borrows against it, and must keep the position above a required safety level.

In Aave's borrowing documentation, that level is expressed through a health factor. When it falls below 1, the position can be liquidated: a liquidator repays debt on the borrower's behalf and receives collateral plus a bonus.

That structure protects the protocol's solvency, but it also concentrates action at the worst possible moment. If ETH or another collateral asset falls fast enough, users do not choose when to sell. The system chooses for them.

Liquidators compete to close eligible positions, and the collateral can be pushed into markets already short on liquidity.

The record supports that concern. An OECD working paper on DeFi liquidations found a positive relationship between liquidation activity and post-liquidation price volatility across major decentralized exchange pools.

The paper also emphasized that liquidators rely on available liquidity during stress, which means the mechanism designed to restore balance can run into the same liquidity shortage as everyone else.

CryptoSlate has previously covered the operational version of that risk. A 2025 Chainlink-related oracle dispute led to more than $500,000 in liquidations on Euler Finance and revived questions about how protocols should interpret pricing data in illiquid markets.

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May 30, 2025 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Separately, a 2025 ETH decline put nearly $320 million in Ethereum-based DeFi loans within 20% of liquidation, with MakerDAO and Compound exposure concentrated near key price levels.

The common thread is the cliff. DeFi needs a way to handle undercollateralized positions, but the current method often waits until a number is breached and then requires immediate action.

That creates a crowded moment for borrowers, liquidators, oracle feeds, and liquidity providers simultaneously. It also gives sophisticated actors a clear trigger to watch, because the protocol rule announces when a position becomes profitable to close.

For users, the practical consequence is straightforward. A liquidation system can protect a lending pool while still giving the individual borrower the worst possible execution window.

The user may have intended to keep long-term ETH exposure, hedge a cash need, or wait out a sharp wick. Once the threshold is crossed, the system's priority becomes solvency, and the user's timing preference disappears.

How options turn a cliff into drift

Buterin's alternative starts by changing the primitive. A position that can become undercollateralized gives way to a split ETH claim: the proposal divides 1 ETH into two option-like assets, called P and N, tied to a price index, strike price, and maturity date.

At maturity, an oracle resolves the index value and determines how much of the ETH claim each side receives.

The key property is simple: P and N always add back up to 1 ETH. Because the system is dividing a fixed ETH claim between two sides, it can avoid seizing collateral from a borrower to close a deficit.

In Buterin's framing, the design removes the liquidation event by construction.

For a user trying to hold synthetic dollar exposure, the practical experience differs from a debt-backed stablecoin. In the debt model, a user can appear fully hedged until the collateral threshold is breached, at which point the position is force-closed.

In the options model, the holder avoids the sudden close, but the position can gradually stop behaving as the user intended.

Buterin's example uses a user who wants some level of dollar exposure while ETH is trading around $2,500. The user could buy a deep option tied to a lower strike, such as $1,500, and rotate into lower-strike options if ETH falls toward the original strike.

If the user does not rebalance, the exposure drifts. The user keeps a claim, but the hedge becomes less exact.

That is the central tradeoff. The design keeps risk in the system, and changes who controls the timing and what form the damage takes.

Liquidation-based systems outsource the decision to a protocol rule and liquidator bots. The options-based design pushes more of that decision toward users, wrappers, market makers, or automated rebalancing systems.

Buterin also acknowledged a limit for stablecoin use. A medium amount of annualized drift may be acceptable for someone seeking price stability relative to future expenses.

It is much less useful for an accounting stablecoin, where users want to treat the token as a dollar for payments, bookkeeping, or tax reporting.

The oracle tradeoff

The oracle argument may be the proposal's most important protocol-design claim.

Debt-backed liquidations depend on real-time price feeds. A protocol needs a binding price quickly enough to determine when a position is unsafe and to allow liquidators to act.

Buterin argues that this constraint makes real-time oracles hard to secure because they rely on automated actors watching live signals and leave little room for slower dispute resolution.

Options move the critical oracle call to maturity. Oracle risk remains, but the time pressure changes.

If a system can wait to resolve a contract, it can use slower, more contestable mechanisms, including prediction-market-style approaches or expensive fallback oracles that would be impractical for instant liquidation.

That is why the proposal is more than a stablecoin tweak. It shifts DeFi's risk architecture away from a single live price that can trigger irreversible action.

Recent research on liquidation dynamics in DeFi shows why that surface is central: liquidation mechanics can create incentives around price manipulation, MEV, and oracle-extractable value when a profitable closure depends on a market price crossing a trigger.

The benefit still depends on implementation. A wrapper that automatically rebalances for users could make the product easier to hold, but it could also recreate visible timing rules that sophisticated traders can anticipate.

A purely local user agent could hide some timing choices, but would raise its own usability and execution questions. An onchain DAO wrapper would need deterministic rules and deep markets to avoid becoming another predictable target.

Slow oracles help only if the rest of the design avoids forcing the same problem elsewhere. That is the tension Buterin's post leaves for builders.

A slower oracle can give a system more time to settle disputed information, but users still need markets deep enough to rotate exposure and rules strong enough to avoid turning every rebalance into an exploitable signal.

The comparison with prior oracle disputes is useful here because the risk arises when bad data meets a rule that must act immediately.

The options design reduces the need for that instant decision, while builders still have to decide who watches the index, who provides liquidity, and who absorbs losses when the market moves faster than the hedge.

What developers still have to prove

The next test is whether the market structure around Buterin's idea can be competitive with the debt systems it would challenge.

The proposal itself flags slippage as a major risk. Rebalancing through ordinary automated market makers could be expensive, especially if users need to rotate option exposure repeatedly during volatile periods.

Buterin suggested that rebalancing might need a different market structure, closer to patient one-sided market making than an instant sell.

That requirement is the adoption test. If users avoid liquidation but bleed too much value through drift, slippage, or operational complexity, the model becomes elegant research rather than useful DeFi infrastructure.

If builders can make rebalancing cheap and less exposed to attack, the idea could become a serious alternative for users who want price stability without signing up for a liquidation cliff.

The same test applies to stablecoin framing. The proposal is most defensible when described as a way to hold a stability-oriented exposure or personal hedge.

It becomes weaker if marketed as a simple dollar replacement. A token that drifts away from its target and needs periodic rotation is a different user promise from a redeemable dollar, an overcollateralized stablecoin, or a conventional CDP-backed synthetic.

For Ethereum, the significance is that one of its most influential designers is treating liquidation as an architectural choice rather than an unavoidable fact of DeFi.

The next signal is whether any protocol team turns the options model into a tested wrapper, simulation, or live market with sufficient liquidity to demonstrate the trade-off in practice.

Until then, the proposal is best read as a direct challenge to DeFi's crash mechanics: the industry can keep trying to make liquidations faster and better collateralized, or it can test designs built without sudden forced sales.

The post Vitalik wants DeFi price crashes to stop triggering automatic liquidations appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin is back at a crossroads it has navigated multiple times in prior cycles, and this may be where the real test begins in this cycle.

After weeks of trying to turn the low-$80,000s into a new recovery zone, BTC has returned to the $66,900-$68,000 area, the same band I have used through several recent CryptoSlate pieces as the difference between repair and renewed downside.

A June 2 break below $68,000 sent Bitcoin from roughly $71,765 to $67,895 and triggered about $400 million in liquidations in under an hour.

By Wednesday morning in London, CryptoSlate's Bitcoin price page showed BTC near $66,942, putting spot price directly inside the shelf.

The price point overlaps with Bitcoin's old cycle highs, the 2024 peak zone, and the failure line from the earlier channel work.

We must now ask ourselves: did Bitcoin revisit a known support shelf before rebounding, or has the market confirmed that the prior bounce failed?

Related Reading

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Jun 2, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

The old map is back in control

My level map always depended on acceptance across sessions over one candle.

In March, my CryptoSlate analysis treated the $68,000-$71,500 area as the range Bitcoin needed to hold and identified $66,900 as the failure line below it.

The idea was that BTC had avoided a larger drop only if it could keep trading above the lower edge and rebuild toward the top of the range.

That same framework came back after the late-March drop toward $65,000. At the time, the recovery case needed Bitcoin to reclaim $68,000 first, then prove it could work back toward the $71,500-$72,000 ceiling.

If it failed there, $66,900 stayed active as the line that kept the downside path open.

That is where the market is again. The June 2 liquidation move dragged price back into the bracket that has separated recoveries from failed bounces throughout the recent channel work.

In practical terms, $68,000 has become the first line Bitcoin has to reclaim to show that the flush was a support test, not the start of another leg lower.

The upper side of the map is just as important. I have repeatedly treated $71,500 as the area where recovery attempts had to prove themselves.

My March 5 analysis warned that repeated rejection there raised the risk of rotation down through $68,000 and $66,900 toward the low-$60,000s.

That sequence gives the current market a cleaner signal. A wick into the band can be noise; a failure to reclaim the band changes behavior.

For bulls, the job is to turn $68,000 back into traded acceptance. For bears, the confirmation is sustained weakness through $66,900.

Until one side gets that, the market remains in the middle of an unresolved argument.

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What actually panned out

The useful part of revisiting these levels is the sequence of decision points, more than perfect tick-by-tick precision.

On that test, the roadmap held up better than it may have felt in real time. Bitcoin held around $70,000 in early March, delaying the $49,000 path as the market tested the upper range again.

The follow-up asked whether the downside call had been invalidated. The market then failed to cleanly clear the upper side of the range.

The repeated inability to turn $71,500-$72,000 into support kept the old risk path alive.

The next phase looked better for bulls. In early May, Bitcoin was back in the low-$80,000s, with the market asking whether a new 2026 high was coming.

That was the V-shaped move from the late-March lows: roughly $65,000 at the end of March, back toward the low-$80,000s by early May.

Even that upside framework kept the $65,000-$70,000 area as the first support zone if risk appetite faded.

The move back to this band follows the first major support region that was supposed to come into play if the low-$80,000s could not hold.

The current price action has therefore answered part of the earlier question. The market delayed the deep-bear case, but it also failed to establish enough acceptance above $71,500-$72,000 to retire it.

The rally stretched higher, lost altitude, and returned to the same shelf that was marked as the next test if momentum broke.

That is the point of looking backward here. The prior framework only had to tell readers which levels would decide whether strength was real.

So far, Bitcoin has respected the order of the map: first the ceiling near $71,500-$72,000, then the repair line at $68,000, and now the $66,900 edge.

Macro did not give Bitcoin much cover

The chart levels gained force as the macro backdrop stopped helping.

In mid-May, I linked Bitcoin's retreat from the low-$80,000s to Treasury yields, ETF-flow dependence, oil, the dollar, and broader risk appetite.

The June breakdown is happening during a jobs-data week, with traders watching labor-market data, Fed expectations, and long-end yields alongside crypto-native positioning.

CryptoSlate's June jobs-week setup noted that Bitcoin was facing JOLTS and payrolls with the 10-year Treasury yield near 4.6%, the 30-year above 5%, ETF outflow pressure, and a market still pricing a Fed hold.

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That gives the current level a macro catalyst. It is a support zone being tested as the bond market continues to pressure long-duration risk assets.

The tension is sharper because equities have held up better. US stocks are near record highs even as oil-driven volatility and rate pressure remained in the background.

Bitcoin, by contrast, has given back the early-May rally and moved back toward the same old all-time-high bracket that once defined the upper end of prior cycles.

That divergence changes the tone of the level test. If stocks are still near records while Bitcoin is losing the low-$80,000s and revisiting old-cycle highs, the weakness points to more than a broad risk-off washout.

It points back to crypto-specific pressure, ETF flow sensitivity, and the failure to build acceptance above the recovery ceiling.

Bitcoin is weakening into a known technical shelf without an obvious macro relief valve.

If yields keep pushing higher or ETF flows fail to absorb the selling, the chart levels become harder to defend. The same price shelf is being tested by liquidity, macro pressure, and trader behavior at once.

The next test is acceptance over one wick

This is why $66,900 and $68,000 carry more weight than the exact low from a single overnight move.

If Bitcoin can defend the $66,900 area and reclaim $68,000, the first repair target is acceptance back inside the prior range, followed by another attempt to rebuild toward $71,500-$72,000.

That would leave the liquidation shock on the chart, but it would show that the market treated the move as a flush into support rather than a confirmed breakdown.

If Bitcoin loses that defense, the lower path becomes the cleaner signal. A March CryptoSlate overlap piece directly connected $66,900 resistance or failure to a possible move toward $61,700, and the broader roadmap keeps the yearly low near $60,000 in focus, with that level beneath.

From the current $67,000 area, that is close enough to keep in view while still requiring BTC to lose the shelf first.

That's why I tend to work with roadmaps rather than predictions.

$71,500-$72,000 was the zone that would have shown recovery strength. $68,000 was the first repair line. $66,900 was the lower edge. $61,700-$60,000 was the next area if the edge failed.

Bitcoin is now sitting on that edge again.

The market can answer without drama. A sustained reclaim of $68,000 would put the range-repair case back on the table.

Failure to hold $66,900 would bring the return to $61,700 and the yearly low near $60,000 into question. Until one of those happens, the most honest conclusion is that Bitcoin has returned to the exact bracket that was supposed to decide whether the prior bounce was real.

The post Bitcoin returns to the price that capped 2021, defined 2024, and now tests the rally again appeared first on CryptoSlate.

A House of Lords committee has told the Bank of England to rethink stablecoin caps before the UK's regime is finalized.

The Financial Services Regulation Committee published its report, Stablecoins: waiting for regulation, on June 3, turning a technical debate over reserve design into a test of whether the UK can build a pound-denominated stablecoin market without making it uneconomic from the start.

The pressure point is the design of the safeguards. The committee supports 1:1 backing and accepts that stablecoins can create risks around financial stability, consumer protection, and illicit finance.

Its challenge is more specific: the Bank's proposed safeguards may be calibrated for a market that does not yet exist in the UK.

Two measures sit at the center of that critique. The Bank has proposed temporary per-coin holding limits of £20,000 for individuals and £10 million for businesses.

It has also proposed requiring systemic sterling stablecoin issuers to keep at least 40% of backing assets as deposits at the Bank of England that do not earn interest.

The Lords report says those choices could shape whether a GBP stablecoin market develops at all. If a pound stablecoin cannot be held in useful amounts or generate enough reserve income to support the issuer's business, the UK could end up with clear rules, but few firms willing to build the products those rules are meant to govern.

Related Reading

Revolut’s digital pound trial shifts the UK payments debate from crypto hype to consumer protections and clarity

Revolut is about to test a pound stablecoin in the UK's regulatory sandbox, and the scale of the trial matters less than where it sits.

Mar 2, 2026 · Andjela Radmilac

The Rules Under Pressure

The Bank of England's November 2025 consultation proposed a split backing model for systemic sterling stablecoins.

At least 40% of backing assets would sit as deposits at the Bank, while up to 60% could be held in short-term sterling-denominated UK government debt.

The Bank's case is that central-bank deposits provide immediate liquidity if holders seek large redemptions in a short period. In its consultation, it said the threshold aligned with estimates of possible short-term redemption requests drawn from stress events in traditional and crypto markets.

The 60% government-debt allowance was meant to improve issuer viability compared with an earlier model that would have placed all backing assets in unremunerated central-bank deposits.

That compromise is now under pressure. The Lords committee concluded that remuneration and liquidity requirements for backing assets could have a significant effect on issuer viability and UK competitiveness.

It urged the Bank to consider the impact of requiring a proportion of unremunerated assets and to reconsider whether deposits held at the Bank should be remunerated at Bank Rate.

The committee also pushed the Bank toward a more flexible approach to backing-asset composition. It said the Bank should be open to a principles-based and less prescriptive model, with requirements adjusted as market behavior and risks become clearer.

The same logic applies to holding limits. The Bank's proposal would cap each individual's holdings of a systemic stablecoin at £20,000 per coin and each business's holdings at £10 million, with possible exemptions for businesses that need higher balances in normal operations.

In a November news release, the Bank framed those limits as temporary tools to protect access to credit while the financial system adapts to new forms of money.

The committee's recommendation was sharper. Given the early stage of the GBP stablecoin market, it said the Bank should monitor growth and impose holding limits only if financial stability risks clearly warrant them.

If limits become necessary, the committee said the Bank should consult to ensure they can be implemented in a practical way that still meets the Bank's objectives.

Why The Bank Is Cautious

The Bank's concern goes beyond competition with banks. In the UK, bank deposits do more work inside the credit system than they do in some other major markets.

In oral evidence to the committee in March, Sarah Breeden, the Bank's deputy governor for financial stability, said banks provide about 85% of household credit in the UK, compared with roughly 30% to 40% in the US.

Her argument was that if deposits moved rapidly into payment stablecoins and that funding was not replaced, the result could be a drop in credit for households and businesses.

That is the financial-stability case for a circuit breaker. The Bank is designing for a future in which stablecoins are widely used as money for everyday payments, beyond their current use in crypto trading.

If adoption moved quickly through social media platforms, e-commerce networks, wallets, or automated payment tools, the Bank worries that money could leave deposits faster than banks and funding markets could adjust.

Related Reading

The world’s central banks finally see crypto as a real monetary threat to TradFi

The stablecoin debate has left crypto regulation behind and entered the territory of monetary sovereignty.

Apr 25, 2026 · Andjela Radmilac

The committee accepts that risk. Its report says stablecoins can pose challenges around financial stability, illicit finance, and consumer protection.

It also welcomes 1:1 backing, audited reserves, disclosure, statutory trust protections, and the proposed Bank backstop lending facility for systemic issuers.

The disagreement is about timing and prescription. Lawmakers are asking whether the Bank should impose caps and reserve economics before there is enough evidence about how a pound stablecoin market would behave.

A protective rulebook could reduce the chance of a disorderly shift out of bank deposits. It could also make the regulated version of the product less attractive than offshore, dollar-denominated, or non-systemic alternatives.

The stakes are higher because the report describes the UK stablecoin market as nascent while the global market is already large and dollar-led.

It says the global stablecoin market was estimated at more than $310 billion in 2026, overwhelmingly dominated by US dollar stablecoins and two issuers, Tether and Circle.

For the UK, that creates a strategic problem. A sterling stablecoin market could support cross-border payments, tokenized settlement, programmable payments, and competition in payments.

It could also reduce the risk that UK users and businesses default to dollar stablecoins because pound alternatives never get enough regulatory clarity or commercial scale.

The committee says the UK is already lagging the US and EU in developing a stablecoin regime, though it says the country is now moving in the right direction.

The FCA's stablecoin issuance and crypto custody consultation covers the non-systemic side of the regime, while the Bank's rules apply once a sterling stablecoin becomes systemic.

The transition between those regimes remains one of the areas issuers need to understand before they can build durable business plans.

Related Reading

Bank of England’s 24/7 settlement plan shows where tokenized finance can enter core markets

The Bank of England is laying the groundwork for tokenized finance by fixing the old settlement clock that still governs trillions in payments.

May 23, 2026 · Andjela Radmilac

The Next Signal Is The Draft Rulebook

The timing makes the Lords report more than a retrospective critique. Breeden told the committee in March that the Bank expected draft rules in the middle of 2026, final rules by year-end, and applications from stablecoin issuers by the end of the year.

That means the next policy document will show whether the Bank treats the report as a reason to change the design or as a challenge to explain the existing model more clearly.

The signals to watch are specific: whether per-holder caps remain, whether the Bank shifts toward aggregate issuance guardrails or monitoring triggers, whether the 40% deposit share is adjusted, and whether any Bank deposits receive remuneration.

Rewards will count, too. The committee noted relatively little demand for issuers to pay interest on stablecoins, but said the treatment of rewards, rebates, or other incentives could affect the creation of a GBP stablecoin market and the UK's international competitiveness.

That question connects stablecoin rules to the broader payments market, where card networks and financial apps already compete through reward structures.

The report also asks for more clarity from HM Treasury on when a stablecoin becomes systemic. That threshold is central for issuers because it determines when a firm moves from the FCA-only track into dual regulation by the Bank and FCA.

If the transition is too uncertain, scaling may become a risk in itself.

CryptoSlate has already covered adjacent UK payment infrastructure moves, including Revolut's pound stablecoin sandbox trial and the Bank's 24/7 settlement plans.

The Lords report moves the debate to a different point: whether the UK's stablecoin rulebook will let a sterling market become commercially meaningful once tokenized payments enter the system.

The Bank is still finalizing the regime, and the committee is still asking for financial-stability protections. The new pressure is for the Bank to show that its safeguards will not stop a pound stablecoin market before it has a chance to form.

That is the live test for the UK's crypto-hub promise. The next draft rules will show whether the Bank's stablecoin firewall is a temporary guardrail, a redesign in progress, or a cost issuers decide the pound market cannot absorb.

The post Bank of England stablecoin caps may choke the UK’s pound-token market before launch appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin’s aggressive break below $70,000 has shifted the market from a debate over dip-buying to a more defensive question of how far traders now need to insure against the next leg lower.

Data from CryptoSlate showed that the largest cryptocurrency fell to as low as $65,404 over the past day, triggering $1.8 billion in liquidations and wiping out bullish leverage that had built around hopes of a quick recovery.

This failed rebound has pushed traders toward protection at levels that only recently looked distant.

Options positioning now shows demand building around the $60,000 and $50,000 strikes, a sign that investors are preparing for a deeper reset as Strategy’s first Bitcoin sale in years, ETF outflows, AI-driven capital rotation and unresolved macro pressure weaken the sources of support that carried the market earlier in the year.

How BTC's failed bounce turned $70,000 into resistance

Analysts at BIT Official noted that Bitcoin was already trading defensively after sliding towards $72,000 last week, when geopolitical tensions tied to the Strait of Hormuz prompted a broad retreat from risk assets.

The firm noted that a brief reprieve materialized after President Donald Trump suggested the US would lift a naval blockade, while April core PCE inflation aligned with expectations at 3.3% year-over-year.

This data and political development eased immediate macroeconomic anxieties and forced over-leveraged bears to cover their shorts.

As a result, Bitcoin briefly spiked toward $73,400 over the weekend, giving bulls leverage to argue the selloff was exhausted.

However, that narrative collapsed when the recovery failed to attract meaningful spot volume.

When Iran’s foreign ministry explicitly denied nuclear talks, disputed Trump’s uranium claims, and insisted the strait would reopen strictly on its own timeline, the geopolitical relief trade vanished. Without a formal de-escalation, Bitcoin was left entirely exposed.

Consequently, the market was quickly dragged back to $70,000, which is a critical juncture where options positioning, market psychology, and short-term holder cost bases converged.

Indeed, that level had served as both a psychological floor for bulls and a prime target for bears hunting for forced liquidations.

Once Bitcoin sliced through that support, automated liquidation engines began aggressively unwinding undercollateralized long positions.

The decline further accelerated rapidly into a vacuum, as spot buyers proved unwilling to absorb the selling pressure.

Strategy’s sale gives bears a cleaner script

BTC's decline under $70,000 also came at a highly vulnerable moment when the corporate treasury narrative fractured.

This week, Strategy confirmed that it sold 32 BTC for $2.5 million to fund cash distributions and dividend payments on its high-yield perpetual preferred stock.

The sale came as a shock to the market because Strategy had positioned itself as the definitive corporate proxy for the Bitcoin accumulation trade.

Over the past years, the Michael Saylor-led company business model relied heavily on equity issuance, preferred stock, and uninhibited access to capital markets to construct the largest public-company Bitcoin treasury in existence.

To the broader market, the company was not just a major holder but also a symbol of permanent, price-agnostic demand.

However, that perception is now under enormous strain as the firm most synonymous with the “never sell” philosophy liquidated coins to meet a routine cash obligation.

Jeff Dorman, the CIO of Arca, noted:

“From a sentiment standpoint, how do you think the average Bitcoin investor is going to react when every major news outlet and social media influencer starts writing that “MicroStrategy is now a seller of BTC”? This company has bought over $50 bn of Bitcoin, and currently owns roughly 4% of the total 21 million outstanding.”

That pivot armed bears with a clean, simple argument right as Bitcoin slipped below major support.

Market observers argued that the sale complicates the market’s base-case assumption that Strategy will act as an uninterrupted buyer in all macroeconomic environments.

In fact, some have postulated that the firm could make more sales in the future in order to actively manage its balance sheet.

AI’s liquidity pull leaves Bitcoin without its ETF cushion

This structural shift in sentiment coincides with the evaporation of Bitcoin’s most reliable safety net: the institutional ETF bid that anchored the earlier stages of the bull run.

According to SoSoValue data, Bitcoin ETFs have bled more than $4 billion over the trailing four weeks. This marks the most aggressive redemption cycle since the spot products debuted, starving the market of the steady inflows required to absorb routine selloffs.

Market analysts attribute this severe capital flight to a generational rotation into artificial intelligence.

Institutional allocators are actively liquidating crypto positions to free up dry powder for a looming wave of tech mega-IPOs, primarily targeting high-growth ventures like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI.

Pierre Rochard, CEO of the Bitcoin Bond Company, pointed out that this AI boom has added $19 trillion in market capitalization to the top 50 public equities over the past 12 months, roughly 13 times Bitcoin’s total market value.

He said that capital expenditure cycle is drawing liquidity and attention away from Bitcoin, making the asset’s resilience notable despite the pressure.

Independent Bitcoin analyst Matthew Case described the move as an “AI IPO liquidity vacuum,” arguing that institutions that rode Bitcoin and crypto exposure higher now have a rare chance to position for major private-market and pre-IPO opportunities tied to SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI.

This capital rotation aggressively starves Bitcoin of its marginal buyer. During periods of robust ETF inflows, institutional demand acts as a shock absorber, cushioning the blow from macroeconomic friction, geopolitical headlines, and derivatives volatility.

With that bid suddenly sidelined, the market is dangerously exposed; a standard technical decline can cascade much further before encountering strong spot support.

$60,000 becomes the market’s next insurance level

Consequently, traders have fundamentally repriced their risk models. The market is no longer structured around highly leveraged bets anticipating a swift return to $70,000.

Instead, capital is aggressively repositioning for the reality that Bitcoin’s next durable line of defense may reside significantly lower.

Deribit data shows traders have built roughly $1.2 billion in open interest around the $60,000 strike, while the $50,000 strike has attracted about half that amount. Cumulatively, $1.8 billion worth of open interest are situated at these strike prices.

The positioning marks a change from the structure that dominated earlier in the rally. When ETF inflows were strong and Strategy remained an unquestioned buyer, pullbacks were treated as opportunities to add exposure.

After the liquidation wave, ETF redemptions and Strategy’s sale, the same pullbacks are being treated as events that need to be insured.

As a result, traders with material Bitcoin exposure are moving toward puts and collar structures designed to preserve some upside while limiting losses if the drawdown accelerates.

The post Bitcoin’s plunge to $65,000 has traders paying to protect against a fall to $50,000 appeared first on CryptoSlate.

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

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

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

Ripple targets Turkey’s dollar demand

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mustafa Alpay, CEO at Bitlo, said:

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

Market shaped by domestic pressure

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Turkey's crypto regulatory effort gives Ripple an opening

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RLUSD gives Ripple a broader institutional wedge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

University partnership adds local infrastructure

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

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

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

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

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

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

The boundary between traditional payment networks and decentralized infrastructure is dissolving. Global payment leaders Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe are in advanced stages of launching a collaborative, institutional-grade stablecoin platform.

The joint initiative aims to standardize digital currency routing across legacy financial systems and capture the rapidly expanding market share of programmable, dollar-pegged digital assets.

The Push for Native Onchain Settlement

The cooperative project signals a collective strategic pivot. Stablecoin networks processed an unprecedented $33 trillion in total transaction volume last year, pushing past the cumulative settlement figures of standard credit card processors. Rather than competing against decentralized protocols externally, the payments triumvirate is building a native layer to absorb and route these token flows directly through their own ledgers.

The platform's primary utility centers on institutional settlement, business-to-business (B2B) cross-border routing, and programmatic liquidity provisioning. According to industry insiders, top-tier U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is also positioned to participate in the joint launch, adding a deep consumer liquidity foundation to the network.

Integrating Bridge Infrastructure for Merchant Scale

The move leverages major corporate infrastructure plays executed recently. Stripe’s ongoing integration of its $1.1 billion acquisition, Bridge—a leading stablecoin orchestration network—supplies the technological backbone for the system. Concurrently, Visa has expanded its pilot programs with Bridge to enable programmatic, stablecoin-backed card issuance across 18 countries, targeting growth to over 100 countries.

The architecture addresses three core corporate payment bottlenecks:

• Instant Currency Authorization: Automated conversion mechanisms that allow digital asset balances to clear instantly at terminal points-of-sale without price slippage.
• Direct Acquiring Settling: Enabling international merchants to receive business revenues directly in major fiat-backed tokens like USDC or EURC, completely bypassing traditional banking intermediaries.
• Low-Cost B2B Remittances: Providing international supply chains with cross-border rails that cut standard transaction fees from the standard 1.5% to 3% down to sub-0.1% levels.

By pooling their technical reach, the participants create an insulated payment system that prevents capital flight from legacy banking systems toward entirely non-intermediated, decentralized payment architectures.

The digital asset market is experiencing heavy selling pressure today. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization has fallen to $2.29 trillion, marking a significant 8.7% decline over the past week.

As liquidations mount across major exchanges, traders are assessing whether this downward trajectory is a temporary correction or the start of a prolonged bearish phase.

Why is the Crypto Market Crashing Today?

The current market downturn stems from a combination of macroeconomic data releases, shifting monetary policy expectations, and heavy derivatives liquidations.

1. Macroeconomic Pressures and Interest Rate Outlook

Risk assets, including cryptocurrencies, are reacting to recent economic data indicating sticky inflation. This has led market participants to price in a "higher-for-longer" interest rate environment by global central banks. When interest rates remain elevated, capital typically rotates out of speculative assets like cryptocurrencies and into yields guaranteed by government bonds.

2. Cascading Derivatives Liquidations

The breach of key technical support levels for Bitcoin triggered an automated wave of long liquidations. According to data tracking platforms like Coinglass, hundreds of millions of dollars in leveraged bullish positions were wiped out within a 24-hour window. This forced selling accelerated the downward momentum across all major altcoins.

3. Institutional Capital Outflows

Data from institutional fund managers reveals a slowdown in net inflows into spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. A multi-day streak of net outflows indicates that institutional appetite has cooled off temporarily, reducing the baseline buying pressure required to sustain higher price levels.

Top Cryptocurrencies Price Analysis

Large-cap digital assets are flashing red, with layer-1 protocols suffering the sharpest intraday losses.

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Update

$Bitcoin is currently trading at $66,600, reflecting a 3% drop over the last 24 hours. BTC failed to sustain its position above the $68,000 psychological threshold. The immediate horizontal support now sits at $65,000. If buyers fail to defend this zone, a deeper retest of the $62,000 macro level is likely.

Ethereum (ETH) Price Update

$Ethereum has underperformed Bitcoin today, dropping 5% in the last 24 hours to trade at $1,880. The asset has broken below its short-term moving averages. Analysts monitor the $1,800 support level closely, as breaking below it could invalidate the current medium-term bullish structure.

Solana (SOL) Price Update

$Solana has matched Ethereum's downside, falling 5% over the past 24 hours to sit at $75.00. Despite strong network activity, SOL remains highly sensitive to broader market liquidity drains. Resistance is now firmly established at $82.00, while structural support rests near $70.00.

Ripple (XRP) Price Update

$XRP has shown relative resilience compared to its peers, down just 1.5% in the last 24 hours to trade at $1.23. Ongoing regulatory developments and liquidity patterns unique to the asset have decoupled its short-term price action slightly from the broader market dump, though it remains capped by overhead resistance at $1.30.

Market Outlook

The crypto market structure is currently undergoing a leverage flush. While the immediate intraday trend remains bearish, historical data shows that corrections of 10% to 15% are common structural occurrences during broader market cycles. Market participants are advised to monitor institutional fund flows and upcoming regulatory announcements, which can be tracked on major financial networks like Bloomberg.

Institutional Capital Rotates Out of Crypto Into Artificial Intelligence

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

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

Crypto Treasury Inflows Collapse by 95% in May

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

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

Latest Cryptocurrency Prices

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

Ethereum Fails to Hold $2,000 as Bitcoin Plummets

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

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

Why is the Crypto Market Crashing Today?

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

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

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

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

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

Key Technical Indicators to Watch:

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

Bitcoin Price Slips Below Psychological $70,000 Support

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

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

Why Is Bitcoin Crashing? Two Major Catalysts

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

1. MicroStrategy Breaks Its "Never Sell" Stance

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

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

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

Bitcoin Prediction: What Is the Next BTC Support Level?

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

A Zcash vulnerability could have allowed double-spending within the network's flagship privacy pool, though no exploitation occurred.

MoonPay's new desktop app connects AI assistants to crypto wallets and blockchain services through a graphical interface.

The fallout from Saylor’s first Bitcoin sale in years keeps spreading, while Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren want crypto out of your 401(k).

The vulnerability in Trezor's TROPIC01 Secure Element chip was uncovered by an audit carried out by the Ledger Donjon team.

The pardoned ex-congressman allegedly bet against his own State of the Union appearance while publicly hyping it.

Michael Saylor defends Strategy's 843K BTC war chest with 'Back to Work' cry as Bitcoin flushes $792 million in leverage.

XRP’s historical data suggests that the asset may face further price declines this month as June proves to be one of XRP’s weakest-performing months.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson explains what might be at stake amid economic challenges facing the ecosystem.

Barry Silbert brings back his viral 1% Bitcoin market cap prediction for Zcash (ZEC) as institutional inflows into Grayscale spike.

Despite initial reports, Zcash is fine and didn't go through shutdown and had no issues with block production.

Key Takeaways

• The ride-hailing company is eliminating 23% of positions within its People and Places department, impacting under 1% of its 34,000-person global team
• New President Jill Hazelbaker is spearheading the reorganization just three weeks into her expanded leadership position
• Remote employees impacted by changes must adhere to the company’s three-day office attendance policy implemented in June 2025
• UBER shares declined 2.9% Tuesday, dropping to $71.33 before news of the organizational changes emerged
• Management emphasizes artificial intelligence played no role in the workforce reduction decisions

The transportation technology company is implementing workforce reductions within its People and Places department, removing 23% of roles from the unit responsible for human resources, talent acquisition, office operations, and company culture initiatives. The downsizing impacts under 1% of the organization’s 34,000-employee base globally, with executives emphasizing that artificial intelligence considerations didn’t factor into the decision.

Uber Technologies, Inc., UBER

Jill Hazelbaker, recently elevated to president and chief corporate affairs officer three weeks prior, is steering the reorganization efforts. Her portfolio now encompasses safety operations and the People and Places division alongside her existing responsibilities for marketing, policy development, and corporate communications — an expanded mandate following the departure of previous leaders managing those areas earlier this year.

Hazelbaker addressed impacted teams directly in an internal communication. “Parts of the organization have become too complex and fragmented, with overlapping responsibilities, unclear ownership, and teams operating too far from the businesses and partners they support,” she stated candidly.

The workforce reduction primarily focuses on senior-tier roles. Employees in human resources who previously received remote work authorization must now transition back to office environments under Uber’s three-days-per-week in-person requirement that took effect in June 2025.

UBER shares faced downward pressure prior to the restructuring announcement. The stock retreated 2.9% during Tuesday’s session, touching a session low of $71.33 before settling near $71.71. Trading volume reached approximately 24 million shares, representing roughly 20% above typical daily activity.

Wall Street Maintains Optimistic Outlook Despite Recent Weakness

Financial analysts remain confident in the stock’s prospects. UBER holds a consensus “Moderate Buy” recommendation, with analysts projecting an average price target of $104.68. Goldman Sachs maintains a $115 valuation target, Needham positions at $109, and Piper Sandler recently upgraded its target to $105 alongside an Overweight designation. Among 40 covering analysts, 29 recommend buying the shares.

The company’s latest quarterly results demonstrated Q1 2026 earnings per share of $0.72, surpassing analyst expectations by $0.03. Top-line revenue reached $13.20 billion, marking a 14.5% increase compared to the prior-year period. Management issued Q2 2026 EPS guidance ranging from $0.78 to $0.82.

Technical indicators show the stock’s 50-day moving average positioned at $73.68, with the 200-day moving average at $78.28 — both exceeding current price levels.

European Market Expansion Advances

Independent of the internal restructuring, the company has been advancing its European operations. Recent announcements include robotaxi collaborations with WeRide and AVOMO in Madrid — marking its inaugural joint European market entry — plus a Munich initiative involving Autobrins and Nvidia.

The transportation platform also expanded its ownership position in Careem via a $100 million acquisition, bolstering its presence in that geographic market.

Regarding operational expenses, the company established a $1,500 monthly ceiling per tool for employee AI coding software after exhausting its full-year AI technology budget within a four-month timeframe.

Citi reaffirmed its Buy recommendation on UBER this week, sustaining positive investor outlook concurrent with the autonomous vehicle partnership announcements.

The post Uber (UBER) Stock: How People Division Restructuring Impacts Investors appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• CEO Dylan Field offloaded 174,430 Class A shares on May 29, generating $4.36 million at a weighted average of $25.02 per share.
• The transaction occurred through the Field 2024 GRAT Remainder Trust using a pre-established Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement from August 2025.
• Shares of FIG declined approximately 5% on Wednesday, coinciding with a broader tech-software sector retreat that saw the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF drop 3.5%.
• While the stock has plummeted 79% year-over-year, Figma delivered impressive 41% revenue expansion to $1.16 billion with gross margins approaching 80%.
• Wall Street analysts have trimmed price targets, including Stifel to $25, Piper Sandler to $30, and RBC Capital to $28.

Shares of Figma (FIG) tumbled approximately 5% on Wednesday after securities filings disclosed that CEO Dylan Field executed a $4.36 million sale of Class A common stock earlier in the month. Trading activity showed the stock hovering near $23 in the wake of the disclosure.

Figma, Inc., FIG

According to regulatory documents, Field unloaded 174,430 Class A shares on May 29 at a weighted average transaction price of $25.02, with individual sale prices ranging from $25.00 to $25.11. The divestment was executed via the Field 2024 GRAT Remainder Trust, with A7P Trust Company serving as the designated trustee.

This sale was conducted under a predetermined Rule 10b5-1 trading program — referred to as the “Field Diversification Plan” — that Field established in August 2025. Such arrangements enable company insiders to sell shares on a scheduled basis without concerns about trading on material non-public information.

Prior to the transaction, the trust converted its 174,430 Class B shares into an equivalent number of Class A shares, following standard procedures defined in Figma’s corporate governance documents. After completing the sale, the trust’s Class A holdings were fully liquidated.

Field maintains substantial ownership in Figma. He directly controls 37,987,566 Class B shares and has additional indirect holdings through LLL Investments LLC (14,754,517 Class B shares), the Field 2021 Descendants Trust (1,122,908 Class B shares), and the Field 2024 GRAT Remainder Trust (348,859 remaining Class B shares).

Tech Software Sector Weakness Amplified Decline

The stock’s downturn wasn’t an isolated event. On the same trading session, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) retreated 3.5%, surrendering some gains after climbing more than 25% during the previous month. Fresh anxieties surrounding AI-driven disruption have triggered some investor repositioning away from software equities.

Figma’s stock performance has been particularly challenging. FIG has cratered 79% over the trailing twelve months, with shares trading around $23 at present.

Wall Street Lowers Expectations Despite Strong Fundamentals

The analyst landscape has shifted more cautious. Stifel reduced its price objective to $25, highlighting AI-related uncertainties. Piper Sandler brought its target down to $30, emphasizing margin compression risks. RBC Capital adjusted lower to $28, focusing on valuation concerns. Oppenheimer continues to rate the stock as Perform.

Separately, activist investor Findell Capital Management has pressed Figma to streamline operations and reassess board oversight, particularly following Anthropic‘s introduction of a rival design platform.

Despite the equity’s steep decline, Figma’s operational performance remains robust. The company achieved 41% revenue expansion to $1.16 billion while maintaining gross profit margins near 80%. First-quarter revenue surged 46% on a year-over-year basis, exceeding analyst projections by $17.4 million. Company leadership attributed the strength to seat expansion and accelerating AI feature adoption.

InvestingPro analysts anticipate Figma will achieve profitability this year following recent quarters in the red.

The post Figma (FIG) Stock Drops 5% Following CEO’s $4.36 Million Share Sale appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• Alphabet initiated an $84.75 billion capital offering designed to accelerate artificial intelligence infrastructure development
• Monthly active users of the Gemini application exceeded 900 million in May, representing a year-over-year increase of more than 125% from 400 million
• The company’s paid subscription base expanded to 350 million users, and AI Overviews delivers content to over 2.5 billion monthly users
• The Google Cloud division’s contract backlog grew by approximately 100% quarter-over-quarter, surpassing $460 billion, with over half anticipated for revenue recognition within two years
• The tech giant reduced Gemini operational costs by 78% while expanding processing capacity to 3.2 quadrillion tokens per month

Alphabet is doubling down on artificial intelligence with unprecedented financial commitment.

On June 3, 2026, the technology behemoth unveiled an $84.75 billion capital-raising initiative focused on bolstering its AI capabilities and infrastructure. The comprehensive offering consists of Class A and Class C common stock priced at $355.20 and $351.80 per share respectively, alongside Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock valued at $50 per depositary share.

Alphabet Inc., GOOGL

Shares of GOOGL were changing hands near $361 during the announcement window, experiencing a modest decline of -0.19% during that trading session.

The company anticipates generating approximately $17.8 billion in net proceeds from the common stock components, with an additional $16.6 billion expected from the preferred share segment after accounting for underwriting discounts and associated expenses. The comprehensive fundraising strategy encompasses a $40 billion at-the-market program and a $10 billion private placement transaction.

Closing dates are scheduled for June 4 for the Class A and Class C offerings, while the depositary shares are set to close June 5.

Gemini’s Remarkable Expansion

The standout performance metric capturing market attention centers on Gemini’s explosive user acquisition. The application achieved 900 million monthly active users during May 2026, representing substantial growth from the 400 million recorded during the corresponding period twelve months earlier. This constitutes a greater than two-fold expansion within a single year.

The paid subscription segment reached 350 million users. Meanwhile, AI Overviews, Google’s artificially intelligent search result summaries, now serves an audience exceeding 2.5 billion users monthly.

Simultaneously, Alphabet achieved a 78% reduction in per-query serving costs for Gemini while dramatically increasing scale. The organization currently processes 3.2 quadrillion tokens monthly throughout its ecosystem. The anticipated launch of Gemini 3.5 Pro is scheduled for June, succeeding the November deployment of Gemini 3.

Cloud Division Shows Explosive Growth

The Cloud business unit is demonstrating comparable strength. The contracted backlog experienced near-doubling growth on a sequential quarterly basis, climbing beyond $460 billion. Alphabet projects that more than 50% of this pipeline will convert to recognized revenue over the subsequent 24-month period.

During the first quarter, the company executed double the number of contracts valued between $100 million and $1 billion compared to historical averages. Current enterprise customer demand is outpacing available infrastructure capacity.

Alphabet maintained its annual capital expenditure forecast at $180 billion to $190 billion for 2026, while signaling to investors that capital allocation will escalate further throughout 2027.

The company’s current market capitalization stands at approximately $4.37 trillion. The stock trades at a price-to-earnings multiple of 27.34.

The post Alphabet (GOOGL) Stock: $85B Capital Raise Powers AI Expansion as Gemini Reaches 900M Users appeared first on Blockonomi.

The online gambling industry is no longer defined by a single style of platform. For years, players had to pick a side. On one end were the traditional operators built on regulated markets and familiar payment methods. On the other were the crypto-first casinos that grew quickly by offering speed and a more modern feel. Bet365 leads the first group. Stake.com leads the second. Both have huge user bases, and both have shaped what players expect from an online casino in their own way.

A new name is now showing up in conversations about which platform to try next. ZunaBet launched in 2026 with a crypto-first build, more than 11,000 games, a full sportsbook, and a loyalty program built around dragons. This article takes a closer look at how Stake.com and Bet365 compare, and why ZunaBet has quickly become one of the most talked-about new platforms in the space.

The Two Giants Players Already Know

Stake.com has built one of the strongest names in crypto gambling. It supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other major coins, and its brand grew on the back of a fast platform, a clean interface, and a sportsbook that gave esports as much weight as traditional sports. Major sponsorships with sports teams and well-known creators have made Stake one of the most visible names in the space. For a lot of crypto-savvy players, it is the first stop.

Bet365 took a very different route. It started in UK sports betting and turned into one of the largest gambling operators in the world. The sportsbook is the core of the platform, with deep markets and one of the best live betting setups around. Casino games, poker, and live dealer products came later. Payments stick to cards, bank transfers, and a small list of e-wallets. Bet365 only operates in regulated markets, where it works inside strict local rules.

Both platforms have earned their spot. Stake fits players who want speed, crypto support, and a modern feel. Bet365 fits players who want a regulated, fiat-based experience tied to a long-established brand. The space in between, where crypto meets a massive library and a fully developed sportsbook, is exactly where newer platforms are starting to break through.

A Quick Look at ZunaBet

ZunaBet runs under Strathvale Group Ltd and operates on an Anjouan gaming license. The team behind it has over 20 years of combined industry experience, but the platform itself is brand new and built from scratch for a crypto-first audience.

The size of the library catches the eye right away. ZunaBet carries 11,294 games from 63 providers. The list of studios includes Pragmatic Play, Hacksaw Gaming, Yggdrasil, BGaming, and Evolution. Slots take the largest share, while RNG table games and live dealer rooms cover the rest. Few crypto casinos come close to that kind of variety.

The sportsbook gets the same level of attention. It covers football, basketball, tennis, NHL, and other major sports with deep markets. Esports get equal focus, with markets on CS2, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Valorant. Virtual sports and combat sports finish out the lineup. Players move between casino games and sports bets in one account, without bouncing between sites.

Crypto vs Traditional Money

Payments are where the three platforms separate most clearly.

Bet365 runs entirely on traditional banking. Cards, bank transfers, and a few e-wallets handle nearly every transaction. These methods are familiar but slow. Withdrawals can take a few business days. Some banks flag or block gambling-related payments. Players in certain regions are stuck with very limited options.

Stake.com is crypto-first and supports a healthy list of cryptocurrencies. Withdrawals move quickly, fees stay low, and the whole flow feels lighter than going through a bank.

ZunaBet pushes the crypto-first model even further. It supports more than 20 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT on multiple chains, Solana, Dogecoin, Cardano, and XRP. There are no platform processing fees, and withdrawals usually clear in minutes. Anyone with a wallet and an internet connection can play, no matter where they live. That kind of access is hard to match with bank-based systems.

For players who already use crypto in their daily life, this setup feels natural. Gambling becomes one more use case for the same digital wallet they already use for trading, payments, or savings.

Loyalty Programs: A Real Point of Difference

Each platform handles loyalty in its own way.

Bet365 uses a standard rewards system. Players earn points based on wagering and unlock perks like cashback and free spins. It works, but it follows the same template most traditional VIP programs use.

Stake.com runs a more modern rewards model with rakeback, weekly bonuses, and rank-based perks. It is especially popular with active players and has played a big role in the brand’s fast growth.

ZunaBet built something with more personality. Its loyalty system runs on a dragon evolution theme with six tiers: Squire, Warden, Champion, Divine, Knight, and Ultimate. Each tier brings better rakeback, starting at 1% and reaching 20% at the top. Higher tiers also unlock more free spins, with up to 1,000 available at the highest level. VIP club access, double wheel spins, and a mascot named Zuno tie everything together.

The 20% rakeback at the top tier is one of the highest in the industry. The bigger draw is how the progression feels. Climbing through dragon tiers is closer to leveling up a character in a video game than tracking points on a card. That kind of design lines up well with how younger players already engage with the apps and games they use outside of gambling.

The Welcome Offer

The welcome bonus is one of the easiest ways to compare platforms. Bet365 offers welcome bonuses tied to a single deposit, usually with wagering rules that take effort to clear. Stake.com puts less focus on a big upfront bonus and leans more on ongoing rewards and rakeback for active players.

ZunaBet leans hard into the welcome package. It spreads the offer across three deposits, with a total value of up to $5,000 plus 75 free spins. The first deposit gets a 100% match up to $2,000 plus 25 spins. The second adds a 50% match up to $1,500 plus 25 spins. The third closes things off with another 100% match up to $1,500 plus 25 spins. Combined, that works out to a 250% bonus across the first three deposits, which is well above the industry average.

Why ZunaBet Feels Built for the Next Generation

The strength of ZunaBet is in how the pieces fit together. Crypto-first payments. A massive game library. A real sportsbook with deep esports coverage. A loyalty program with character. Each piece points to the same kind of player. Someone who already lives online, manages money in digital wallets, follows esports, and wants a casino that feels modern and a bit fun.

Stake.com appeals to a similar group with its own style. Bet365 serves a more traditional side of the market. ZunaBet sits between those two worlds and combines the speed of crypto casinos with the size, depth, and design that newer players expect from a 2026 platform.

A Look at What Is Ahead

Stake.com and Bet365 are not going anywhere. Both have strong brands, large user bases, and proven products. They will keep serving the players who prefer their approach.

But the bigger picture is shifting. Crypto has gone mainstream. Esports betting is now a major category. Players want speed, choice, and platforms that feel alive instead of stuck in an older model. ZunaBet was built with those expectations in mind from day one rather than added on top of an older system. It is still a young platform, but it has already become one of the most talked-about launches of 2026. For players asking which platform to check out next, ZunaBet is fast becoming the easy answer.

The post Crypto Power Meets Traditional Strength: How ZunaBet Stacks Up Against Stake.com and Bet365 appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Tether launched a Visa card that offers up to 6% cashback in XAUT on eligible purchases.
• The card allows users to spend fiat globally while earning rewards in tokenized gold.
• Tether partnered with Fasset to issue the card across parts of Asia and Africa.
• The card converts USDT into fiat at the point of sale for transactions.
• Each XAUT token represents one fine troy ounce of gold held in reserve.

Tether announced a new Visa payment card that rewards users in its gold-backed stablecoin XAUT. The company said the card enables global fiat spending while offering up to 6% cashback in XAUT. Tether confirmed it partnered with fintech firm Fasset to issue the card across select markets.

Tether Partners With Fasset to Launch Gold-Backed Rewards Card

Tether said the card will run on the Visa network and support payments at merchants worldwide. Cardholders will spend fiat currencies while earning up to 6% cashback in XAUT on eligible purchases. The company stated that the reward structure links daily spending to tokenized gold holdings.

Tether partnered with Fasset to issue and distribute the card in Asia and Africa. Fasset operates as a digital asset off-ramp provider in several emerging markets. In 2022, Fasset raised $22 million in Series A funding to expand its services.

Tether confirmed that the card also converts USDT into fiat at the point of sale. Users will fund transactions with USDT, and the system will process payments in local currencies. The company said this feature connects stablecoin balances with traditional payment infrastructure.

The firm stated that the card integrates tokenized gold into routine consumer payments. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the initiative connects stablecoins and tokenized gold with global transactions. He added that users can hold gold-backed assets while spending through established payment networks.

XAUT Structure and Reserve Details

Tether said the card includes an automatic round-up feature on transactions. The system will round up spare change from each purchase and allocate the excess funds into XAUT. The company confirmed that this mechanism invests fiat amounts directly into its gold-backed token.

XAUT represents one fine troy ounce of physical gold held in reserve. Tether stated that each token corresponds to gold stored on a London Good Delivery bar. The company offers XAUT through TG Commodities Limited, a Tether subsidiary.

According to company data, XAUT has a market capitalization of about $2.6 billion. Tether reported that it holds approximately 24 tons of gold backing XAUT reserves. The company publishes reserve information on its official website.

Ardoino stated, “Through this initiative, we are connecting stablecoins and tokenized gold to real-world payment systems.”

He added that the structure gives users options to hold and invest in gold-backed digital assets. The company confirmed that the card rollout will begin following regulatory and partner approvals.

The post Tether Launches Visa Card Offering 6% XAUT Cashback appeared first on Blockonomi.

Trying to spot a leading cryptocurrency whose price remains in green territory on a weekly scale is not an easy task given the major collapse that the broader market has experienced over the past several days.

Internet Computer (ICP) is one of the few gainers, while certain analysts believe its valuation could reach much higher levels soon.

What’s Next?

Despite Bitcoin’s 11% weekly plunge and Ethereum’s 10% drop, ICP is up 3% over the same period and currently trades just north of $3. Its market capitalization has risen to almost $1.7 billion, making it the 53rd-largest cryptocurrency.

Among the main reasons for the ascent is the advancement related to the Internet Computer ecosystem. The popular X account BSCN revealed that the protocol has processed 7.2 million transactions in the last month, more than any other chain. Solana comes in second with less than 3 million.

ICP’s positive performance has drawn the attention of traders and analysts, prompting a wave of optimistic predictions. X user Crypto Tony, for instance, argued that a reclaim of $3.15 could open the door to a long position up to $3.50 and $4, “while we hold above.”

JAVON MARKS noted ICP’s cross above $3, seeing a potential for a 220% explosion towards $10. Such a rise wouldn’t be unprecedented for the asset, since in its early days it briefly hovered beyond $400.

Prior to that, X user Nehal also gave their two cents. The analyst observed ICP’s price trajectory to estimate that a confirmed breakout above the descending resistance around $4.50-$5 could trigger a substantial rally toward $8-$12, with $16+ possible if momentum accelerates.

“Rejection at resistance could send price back toward the $2-$2.50 support zone,” they added.

Abandoning Exchanges

The recent shift from centralized trading venues toward self-custody methods reinforces the bullish forecasts mentioned above. According to CoinGlass, exchange outflows have outpaced inflows in recent days, indicating that investors are in no rush to sell their holdings.

Meanwhile, ICP’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) remains in neutral territory but has been gradually nearing overbought levels, which usually precede a price correction. The technical analysis tool measures the speed and magnitude of recent price changes, with values ranging from 0 to 100. Ratios above 70 signal that a correction could be on the way, while anything below 30 is considered a buying opportunity. As of press time, ICP’s RSI stands at around 62.

The post Internet Computer (ICP) Defies the Crypto Carnage: Can It Explode to $10? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

[PRESS RELEASE – Bratislava, Slovakia, June 3rd, 2026]

Cryptocurrency service crypto4me, operated by licensed crypto-asset services provider Madison Six j. s. a., has introduced Recurring Purchases (DCA), a new feature that allows users to set up automatic monthly cryptocurrency purchases. The service is designed for people who want to buy crypto regularly without repeating the same process manually each month, whether they are making their first steps in digital assets or already have experience with the market.

Recurring Purchase allows clients to choose a monthly amount, select one or more cryptocurrencies and define how the purchase will be funded. Once the plan is active, purchases are carried out automatically in monthly cycles according to the selected settings. Users can also modify, pause or cancel the plan, keeping control over both the frequency and structure of their purchases.

The feature became available in mid-May and follows the earlier introduction of crypto4me’s cryptocurrency packages, which allow users to gain exposure to selected groups of digital assets through pre-built strategies. With Recurring Purchases, crypto4me is expanding its service with a tool focused on convenience, regularity and easier day-to-day use.

“Many people are interested in cryptocurrencies, but they do not necessarily want to go through the same purchase process every month or constantly decide when to make the next step. Recurring Purchases make this easier by allowing users to set their preferences once and adjust them whenever needed. It is a practical feature that reflects what crypto4me is built around – making access to crypto simpler, while keeping the user in control,” said Miloš Mázor, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Madison Six.

Before confirming a recurring purchase plan, users see an overview of the selected amount, cryptocurrencies, fees and payment details. The aim is to make regular cryptocurrency purchases more transparent and manageable, without adding unnecessary complexity to the process.

About crypto4me

Crypto4me enables the purchase of major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ether and SOL. In compliance with the strict conditions of the European MiCA license, the company ensures the highest standards of security for trading and the storage of cryptocurrencies in wallets, as well as additional measures such as multi-factor client authentication, encryption, and regular penetration testing.

The crypto4me service is operated by Madison Six j. s. a. As of December 18, 2025, the company holds authorization to provide cryptocurrency-related services, granted by the National Bank of Slovakia under number 100-001-025-213 in accordance with the MiCA regulation*. At the same time, based on this license, the company is authorized to provide cryptocurrency services on a cross-border basis throughout the EU/EEA.

More information for clients: crypto4me.eu

More information about the company: MadisonSix.com

Contact: support@crypto4me.eu

* Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2023 on markets in crypto-assets and amending Regulations (EU) No 1093/2010 and (EU) No 1095/2010 and Directives 2013/36/EU and (EU) 2019/1937.

Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and may carry an increased risk of losing your investment.

The post Crypto4me: Recurring Purchases Mark Crypto as Regular Financial Asset appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin has suffered a decisive breakdown from its multi-month rising channel, triggering a sharp sell-off that pushed the price toward a major support cluster around $65K. The rejection from the 100-day moving average and the inability to reclaim lost support levels suggest sellers remain in control in the near term, although BTC is now approaching an area where demand previously emerged.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily timeframe, Bitcoin has invalidated the ascending channel structure that guided the price action for several months. After failing to hold above the channel’s lower boundary, BTC accelerated lower and lost the 100-day moving average around $73.5K, which had acted as an important dynamic support throughout the recovery phase.

The breakdown below the $73K-$74K region confirms a bearish structural shift and increases the probability of a deeper correction. The asset is currently testing a key support zone around $65K-$66K, marked by a notable horizontal demand area that previously triggered strong buying interest.

Any recovery attempt is likely to face significant selling pressure between $70K and $73K, while a broader relief rally could target the former channel support and the 200-day MA near $80K-$82K. If the current support fails to hold, the next major demand zone appears around $59K-$62K, which aligns with the lower blue support area visible on the chart.

BTC/USDT 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart provides a clearer view of the breakdown. Bitcoin consolidated beneath the former support region around $73K-$74K before sellers regained control and initiated another impulsive leg lower. The recent price action resembles a textbook breakdown and retest sequence.

Following the rejection from the highlighted pullback region near $71K-$74K, Bitcoin experienced an aggressive liquidation-driven decline toward the $65K support zone. The current reaction from this area suggests buyers are attempting to defend the level, but the market remains vulnerable while trading below the broken support cluster. For bulls to regain momentum, Bitcoin would need to reclaim the $71K-$74K range and establish acceptance above it.

Failure to do so will likely confirm a pullback and could leave the market exposed to additional downside pressure, with the $65K support acting as the final major defense before a potential move toward the low-$60K region.

Sentiment Analysis

The 3-day liquidation heatmap highlights a significant concentration of short-term liquidity above the current market price. This liquidation cluster is located around $70K, with additional dense pockets extending toward the $75K region. This positioning suggests that, after such an aggressive decline, Bitcoin may eventually attempt a relief bounce to target overhead liquidity. Markets frequently gravitate toward high-liquidity zones, especially after major liquidation cascades have cleared nearby long positions.

However, the heatmap also shows that most of the attractive liquidity currently sits above price rather than below it. This creates the potential for a short-squeeze recovery toward the $70K-$75K region if buyers successfully defend the $65K support area. For now, the broader trend remains bearish following the channel breakdown and the loss of the 100-day moving average.

The $65K-$66K zone is the key level to monitor. Holding above it could allow Bitcoin to stage a corrective rebound toward overhead liquidity, while a decisive breakdown would likely open the door for a move toward the $60K-$62K support region.

The post Bitcoin Price Analysis: What’s Next for BTC After 11% Weekly Crash? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The leading cryptocurrency has been in a clear decline lately, with its price tumbling well below $70,000.

Certain analysts and well-known financiers think the bottom during this cycle has yet to be reached, while waning institutional interest in the asset intensifies fears of a more substantial sell-off.

Red Days for the ETFs

Several hours ago, BTC dropped to nearly $65,000, its lowest level since March this year. The analyst Ali Martinez recently predicted that slipping below the $71,300-$73,000 range could lead to a decline of that magnitude, while X user Ted envisioned a deeper crash to as low as $55,000.

Of course, Peter Schiff also added his name to the pessimists. The well-known crypto critic and gold proponent forecasted a major collapse to $20,000 if BTC breaks $50,000. In his view, such a catastrophe would shake the conviction of the long-term HODLers and cause them “to finally throw in the towel.”

Recent netflows in spot BTC ETFs serve as a warning that conditions for the primary cryptocurrency could worsen in the near future. Over the past 12 days, outflows have surpassed inflows, suggesting that institutional investors (such as pension funds and hedge funds) have reduced their exposure to the asset.

This, in turn, has prompted ETF issuers (BlackRock, Fidelity, and other financial giants) to sell real BTC, adding even more downward pressure on an already fragile market. It is important to note that spot Bitcoin ETFs have not experienced 12 consecutive red days since their launch.

The rising amount of BTC stored on centralized exchanges is another concerning factor. There are now more than 2.72 million coins held on such trading venues, the highest point since March. The development doesn’t guarantee a further price crash, but it does increase selling pressure.

Is the Bottom Close?

Another popular X user who touched upon the matter is bee. They believe that BTC is in the final stage of the bear cycle, yet this doesn’t rule out an additional decline. The analyst forecasted a plunge to $47,000-$51,000 by October this year, after which the bulls are expected to regain control.

For their part, Max Crypto noted that BTC’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) has dropped under 30, which has historically been followed by a bottom and a subsequent rally by nearly 40%.

The post 12 Days of Red: Are Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs Signaling a Deeper Price Collapse Ahead? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

[PRESS RELEASE – Mahe, Seychelles, June 3rd, 2026]

Whale.io is excited to announce the official launch of The Whale Printer, an on-platform staking system for the native $WHALE token. The feature enables eligible token holders to lock $WHALE for fixed periods in exchange for predetermined token rewards.

The staking system is structured around three lock-up periods, each associated with a fixed multiplier and corresponding annual percentage yield (APY):

$WHALE Staking Yields

Whale Printer offers three straightforward lock periods with impressive returns:

• 90 days (1.2x multiplier) — 107.8% APY
• 180 days (1.5x multiplier) — 129% APY
• 365 days (3x multiplier) — 200% APY

Multipliers are fixed at the time a staking position is created, providing predefined reward terms throughout the selected lock period.

Whale Printer Reward Pool

All rewards are paid from a dedicated pool of 20 billion $WHALE, representing 20% of the total token supply. The pool does not replenish. When it is exhausted, The Whale Printer closes permanently and no new staking positions can be opened. This creates strong incentives for early participants while ensuring long-term sustainability and real value accrual for $WHALE stakers.

How to Stake $WHALE on Whale.io

To participate, $WHALE tokens must be available within a Whale.io account balance. Staking positions can be created through the token page by selecting a token amount and preferred lock period.

The system supports up to 10 concurrent staking positions per account, each operating independently with its own allocation, lock period, and completion timer. The minimum staking requirement is determined by platform parameters. Early withdrawal is not available for active staking positions.

Why Stake $WHALE

$WHALE serves as the native utility token of the Whale.io ecosystem. According to the project, token distribution has occurred through platform gameplay, missions, and user activity, without allocations to private sales, presales, or venture capital participants.

Whale Printer expands the token’s functionality by introducing a staking mechanism that distributes rewards in $WHALE based on selected lock periods and predefined reward structures.

Whale Printer is now available through whale.io/token

About Whale.io

Whale.io is a leading online crypto casino and sportsbook. The platform features exclusive Whale Originals games, blockchain-integrated rewards, massive cashback, and a strong emphasis on transparency, community ownership, and on-chain verifiability. With $WHALE as its native utility token, Whale.io continues to build one of the most rewarding ecosystems in crypto gaming.

To discover the future of Whale.io Casino and $WHALE token users can:

Read more on whale.io/token

Visit Whale socials: https://linktr.ee/whalesocials_tg

The post Whale.io Launches Whale Printer: $WHALE Token Staking appeared first on CryptoPotato.