The U.S. Senate is delaying a vote on the Clarity Act, a landmark crypto market structure bill, until lawmakers return from their August recess next month.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) confirmed with The Block late Thursday that the Senate is pushing back a procedural vote for the Clarity Act until September.

“Well, the Dems are insistent on no Clarity vote. Anyway, I worked with sponsors of the bill,” Thune said. “Senator [Cynthia Lummis] was great, and we’re getting that queued up first thing when we come back.”

The Senate is set to leave on a month-long recess starting on Friday and will be back in Washington in mid-September for a few weeks. Attention is likely to be focused on, and will increasingly shift, to elections in November — leaving the few weeks in September pivotal to passing crypto legislation.

A source familiar with the matter said Senate Democrats were reluctant to take the vote due to its potential political implications ahead of the midterm elections and the crypto industry’s growing influence.

The delay gives lawmakers several more weeks to try to secure the 60 votes needed to advance the bill when the Senate returns in September, the source added.

The legislation would require Democratic support to clear that threshold, while Republican support for the bill has also wavered. If the Clarity Act clears the Senate, it would have to go back to the House for a vote before being sent to President Donald Trump’s desk.

“While this isn’t the result any of us hoped for when we began the week, the fight is far from over,” said The Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone in a statement. “The next few weeks, we will continue to work to find the last pieces of common ground needed to set up a successful vote when Congress returns in September.”

Crypto Council for Innovation CEO Ji Hun Kim said the delay is “disappointing” but the direction has not changed. “Our efforts will not stop here. CCI will keep working with Senators on both sides of the aisle, their staff, and the Administration until the Clarity Act is signed into law,” Kim added.

Contentious issues

Several contentious issues have slowed the bill’s progress over the past year. One early flashpoint was how to regulate stablecoin rewards, which allow users to earn interest on deposited funds. The debate quickly evolved into a broader clash between the crypto industry and the banking sector. In May, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon blasted Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong as “full of sh–,” in an interview with Fox Business.

Ethics concerns have also loomed over negotiations, particularly as Trump’s cryptocurrency holdings and business interests have expanded. His crypto ventures — from the launch of his memecoin to his family’s ties to World Liberty Financial — are now estimated to be worth millions of dollars.

Trump is now weighing the latest ethics proposal from Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), which includes language that would allow state attorneys general to enforce a provision that would prohibit public officials and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets. It also includes language requiring him to divest from crypto-related businesses, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Concerns over illicit finance have also remained a recurring sticking point. Some lawmakers argue the Clarity Act does not provide law enforcement and consumer protection agencies with sufficient tools to police illicit activity, a characterization the crypto industry strongly disputes.

The story has been updated to include CCI’s comment.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#ClarityAct #CryptoRegulation #CryptoLaw #USSenate #DigitalAssets #CryptoNews #Bitcoin #Ethereum #Blockchain #Stablecoins #Web3 #Cryptocurrency #USPolitics #CryptoMarket #DigitalAssetRegulation

#MiCA #EU #CryptoScam #CryptoRegulation #Crypto #Blockchain #DigitalAssets #CryptoExchange #CyberSecurity #Fintech #CryptoNews #Europe #ScamAlert #Web3 #Regulation

Fortitude Mining Holdings, Inc., the Zcash mining subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, has completed its acquisition of a 12.5 megawatt facility in Prosser, Nebraska, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

This comes about a week after Fortitude announced it was bringing a 12 MW mining facility in Grand Island, Nebraska, online. That Nebraska facility was called Fortitude’s first self-developed mining site.

The Prosser site will be Fortitude’s third in Nebraska and adds to its owned power portfolio of more than 60 MW across seven sites in South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, and New York.

“The acquisition of our Prosser Facility is a significant step forward in scaling our owned-and-operated portfolio,” Fortitude CEO Andrea Childs said. “By pairing targeted acquisitions like Prosser with our own greenfield development, we are building a vertically-integrated platform designed to maximize the value of every megawatt we own.”

Fortitude said it funded the acquisition entirely using cash on its balance sheet of about $6.25 million for the property and improvements. However, the sticker price was reduced by a $985,000 hosting deposit credit and a $465,500 credit from the sale of about 1,400 T21 miners, resulting in a net cash outlay of approximately $4.7 million.

The deal includes the land, building, and an on-site 67 kV substation, as well as a 90-day construction warranty plus assigned manufacturer warranties. Owning the property will help Fortitude maintain long-term cost control and operational flexibility, according to CFO Erik Ellingson, who noted it was already listed as an “operating asset” that was “generating revenue at close.”

Prosser is estimated to provide low, stabilized power costs of approximately $0.045 per kWh, a rate that Fortitude previously said could reduce its mining costs to around $40 per ZEC (ZEC).

DCG spun Fortitude out of its Foundry bitcoin mining subsidiary in late 2025. Fortitude is planning to go public through a proposed merger with HeartSciences, and expected to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker TUDE pending approvals.

Last month, Fortitude announced plans to acquire 9,000 Bitmain Antminer Z15 Pro miners for roughly $31.5 million, a move that could boost its Zcash mining capacity by 145%.

ZEC is trading at about $488, according to The Block’s price page. The cryptocurrency jumped from about $40 in September to a recent high of nearly $699 in November, before losing ground. The token is up over 94% over the last six months, up about 5.6% over the past month, and down 4.4% year-to-date, per TradingView

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Zcash #ZEC #CryptoMining #DigitalCurrencyGroup #DCG #Fortitude #Blockchain #Crypto #Mining #Nasdaq #Bitmain #Antminer #CryptoNews #Nebraska #DataCenter

Exchange operator CME Group is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to overturn a staff decision that conditionally approved Nasdaq PHLX’s proposal for cash-settled bitcoin index options, arguing that the contracts should fall exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

In a July 29 order, the SEC granted CME’s petition for review and kept the approval stayed while the full Commission considers the challenge. Written statements supporting or opposing the approval are due Aug. 24. The order does not indicate whether the commissioners agree with CME’s arguments.

Nasdaq first announced plans for bitcoin index options with CF Benchmarks in 2024. The proposed contracts differ from the options already trading on spot bitcoin ETFs, as the underlying instruments for those options are securities. Nasdaq’s contracts would instead reference an index tracking bitcoin itself, creating the jurisdictional issue at the center of CME’s challenge.

CME and Nasdaq did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Block.

CME disputes jurisdiction

The SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets approved Nasdaq’s proposal through delegated authority on May 22; however, Nasdaq could not begin trading the options without first obtaining exemptions from the CFTC.

The CFTC exemptions Nasdaq needs would allow would allow Nasdaq PHLX (formerly the Philadelphia Stock Exchange) to offer the contracts under concurrent SEC and CFTC oversight and permit the Options Clearing Corporation to clear them without registering as a CFTC-regulated derivatives clearing organization.

However, CME argued in its petition that bitcoin is a non-security commodity and that options based directly on its value are commodity option swaps under the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction. The exchange operator said the CFTC cannot use an exemption to give that jurisdiction to the SEC, nor can the SEC assume oversight of a product with no securities-related features.

CME also argued in its challenge that the Division of Trading and Markets exceeded its delegated authority by adopting a novel interpretation of Section 717 of the Dodd-Frank Act. It asked the full Commission to vacate the approval, warning that the decision could open the door for securities exchanges to list options or futures tied to other non-security commodities under SEC rules.

CME said in its petition that the SEC’s approval of the options would let Nasdaq’s product directly compete with CME’s offerings and could impose new regulatory costs on CME’s exchanges and clearing business.

Proposed options are tied directly to bitcoin

The proposed contracts, which would trade under the ticker QBTC, would track the CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index divided by 100. The underlying index is calculated every 200 milliseconds using order-book data from qualifying bitcoin-dollar markets. The options would be European-style, meaning they could be exercised only at expiration, and would settle entirely in U.S. dollars rather than bitcoin.

The final settlement value would use the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate New York Variant, also divided by 100. That once-daily benchmark is based on bitcoin-dollar transactions during the one-hour window ending at 4 p.m. New York time.

Nasdaq has argued that the options would allow holders of spot bitcoin ETFs to hedge or modify their exposure on a national securities exchange and within the same margin regime as their ETF positions.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#SEC #CFTC #Nasdaq #CME #Bitcoin #BTC #BitcoinOptions #CryptoRegulation #CryptoNews #DigitalAssets

The Russian government has issued a decree banning crypto mining and participation in mining pools in Moscow, the surrounding Moscow region, and parts of the Kursk region from Aug. 15 until the end of 2032.

The more than six-year ban will expand restrictions aimed at curbing the crypto mining industry’s pressure on local electricity networks. The decree, Government Decree No. 936, was dated July 25 and published on Russia’s official legal information portal on Friday.

The decree covers the capital city of Moscow and the entirety of the surrounding Moscow Oblast. It also applies to eight municipal districts in Kursk Oblast and the city of Lgov.

The measure finalizes a proposal published by the country’s Energy Ministry in late June, which included an explanatory note that said the affected territories could face electricity shortages if the mining activities were not prohibited year-round.

Mining consumes estimated 1 GW on Moscow grid

The energy minister for Moscow Oblast, Sergei Voropanov, previously estimated that crypto mining can account for roughly 1 gigawatt (GW) of power consumption across the city’s grid, according to Interfax.

Voropanov also said at the time that the combined capacity of data centers in Moscow and Moscow Oblast could climb to 3.6 GW by 2032, or about 17% of the grid’s projected maximum load capacity, though that includes all data center usage and not just crypto mining.

The new decree expands a regional approach Russia began pursuing in late 2024, when officials moved to ban mining in multiple energy-constrained regions, including parts of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory. Some of those restrictions remain in force through 2031, while others only apply seasonally during periods of higher electricity demand.

Russia has otherwise taken steps to formally regulate the crypto mining industry nationwide rather than ban it outright. President Vladimir Putin signed legislation in 2024 allowing companies and entrepreneurs listed in a special registry to mine crypto, while unregistered individuals may only mine crypto within established electricity consumption limits.

In July 2025, Russian authorities rolled out a national registry for crypto mining equipment, intended to identify operators, measure their electricity consumption, and improve tax enforcement, The Block previously reported.

The Moscow regional ban comes as Russia continues developing a broader regulatory framework for crypto. The State Duma passed landmark legislation last month that, if enacted, would allow regulated retail crypto trading while retaining the country’s ban on using crypto for domestic payments.

The decree also comes days after a Russian court transferred BitRiver founder Igor Runets from house arrest to pre-trial detention as he faces charges of fraud on an especially large scale committed by an organized group. Investigators allege that Runets and the mining firm were involved in an equipment deal with energy conglomerate En+ that caused 1 billion rubles, or about $12.5 million, in damages.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Russia #Bitcoin #CryptoMining #Mining #BTC #Blockchain #CryptoRegulation #Energy #CryptoNews #DigitalAssets

Coinkite published a security advisory on Thursday, warning of an ongoing issue affecting seeds generated on Coldcard Mk3 devices.

“Out of an abundance of caution, Coinkite is warning all users who generated a seed using a Mk3 on version 4.0.1 (March 2021) or any subsequent version that their funds may be at risk,” the crypto hardware maker wrote.

Coinkite said the issue exists through firmware version 5.0.3, which is the final release that supported the Mk3. “Mk4, Q and Mk5 are not affected based on our early analysis of the issue,” the company said.

Users who applied a BIP-39 passphrase to an affected Mk3 seed face limited exposure, Coinkite added.

594 BTC

The advisory post followed multiple online and social media reports earlier on July 30 of bitcoin being drained from users’ Coldcard wallets. According to a report from Atlas 21, approximately 594.5 BTC ($38.3 million) was swept from 500 single-signature addresses in a coordinated series of transactions spanning Bitcoin blocks 960188 to 960191.

While Coinkite has not confirmed the link between the theft and the security issue, some blockchain experts have associated the drains with weak entropy in seeds generated on Coldcard Mk3 devices.

Bitcoin developer James O’Beirne wrote on X that users whose bitcoin was secured by a single key generated on a Coldcard Mk3 between 2021 and 2023 — without dice rolls, a passphrase, or multi-signature — need to move funds as soon as possible. While Coinkite’s early analysis excludes Mk2 and Mk4, O’Beirne said those models may also be affected.

Separately, Clay Garrett of Block’s engineering and security team wrote that the company identified an additional set of transactions that could form part of a Coldcard-related drain.

“There are 695 earlier transactions with the same full fingerprint that transactions in the known set had,” Garrett said. “These transactions moved another 488.10957948 BTC. If this is part of the same attack, it’d bring the total to 1,082.58680432 BTC.”

Recommendations

In its latest advisory note, Coinkite recommended that Mk3 users create a strong, unique BIP-39 passphrase on the device and move funds to the resulting wallet.

As an advanced option, users may generate a replacement seed on an empty Mk3 running firmware 4.1.9 via the dedicated dice-roll path, entering at least 99 independent rolls of a fair six-sided die. This method hashes the roll sequence directly and does not use the device’s random-number generator.

Coinkite said the preferred long-term approach is migration to a new seed generated on an unaffected Coldcard model. The team advised: “When migrating to a new key, calm and care should be applied. Rushing a wallet migration can create a more immediate risk than the issue you are trying to address.”

The exact cause of the security issue has yet to be confirmed by the team. “We are continuing to investigate. More details will follow,” Coinkite added.

#Bitcoin #BTC #Coldcard #Coinkite #HardwareWallet #CryptoSecurity #CyberSecurity #Blockchain #CryptoNews #Animalverse

The site impersonated the Flare Network and FXRP projects, timed to their launch, and a fourth suspect is overseas under an Interpol red notice, police said.

#XRP #Ripple #CryptoScam #StakingScam #BlockchainSecurity #FlareNetwork #FXRP #CryptoFraud #DigitalAssets #CryptoNews

Russia’s Federal Security Service has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with aiding terrorist activity and placed him on an international wanted list over the messaging platform’s alleged failure to remove content used to coordinate attacks inside Russia, according to Interfax.

The FSB said Wednesday that Durov was charged under the Russian Criminal Code, which covers assistance to terrorist activity, per the Interfax report. Reuters separately reported that the agency had issued an international warrant for his arrest.

According to the FSB, the case relates to Telegram’s alleged failure to remove channels, chats and bots that it said were used by Ukrainian special services, terrorist, and extremist organizations to coordinate acts of sabotage, terrorism, mass killings, and cyber fraud within Russia.

Telegram, an encrypted messaging platform founded in 2013, has more than 1 billion users and is widely used by both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Block reached out to Durov and Telegram for comment.

Meanwhile, the charges mark the latest escalation in Russia’s long-running dispute with Telegram. Interfax reported that the platform has been fined more than 100 million rubles ($1.3 million) this year for failing to remove content prohibited under Russian law. Russia has also continued restricting Telegram’s operations while promoting its state-backed MAX messaging service.

Durov, who holds Emirati and French citizenship, was previously arrested by French authorities in 2024 over allegations that Telegram failed to adequately counter criminal activity on its platform and did not sufficiently cooperate with law enforcement requests. Durov denies wrongdoing.

In June 2025, French authorities allowed him to travel to Dubai for a second time, though under temporary travel restrictions. Durov slammed the arrest as “legally and logically absurd” and said French authorities have failed to find wrongdoing on Durov’s part.

The latest development comes as Telegram has expanded its digital asset strategy. Earlier this month, Durov said the company plans to roll out a native non-custodial GRAM wallet to Telegram’s roughly 1 billion users, following the June rebranding of The Open Network’s native token from Toncoin to GRAM as Telegram assumes a larger role in the ecosystem.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Telegram #PavelDurov #Russia #CyberSecurity #Privacy #GRAM #Blockchain #CryptoNews #TechNews

#Kalshi #Polymarket #PredictionMarkets #Crypto #Blockchain #Regulation #Web3 #CryptoNews #US #Animalverse

Ondo Finance, focused on tokenizing real-world assets, has launched the Ondo Network, a new execution layer designed to combine centralized exchange-like speed with non-custodial trading and onchain settlement.

The new network is being announced publicly for the first time, Ondo CEO Ian De Bode told The Block. He described it as the “evolution” of Ondo Chain, the company’s previous blockchain.

Asked whether the Ondo Network is effectively replacing Ondo Chain, De Bode said it is “the implementation of what we originally set out with the Ondo Chain.”

“I’d frame it more as an evolution, but we will not be running the Ondo Network and the Ondo Chain in parallel,” he said.

Why Ondo changed course

Ondo originally planned to build a full blockchain through Ondo Chain to bring real-world assets onchain. However, while developing the Ondo Perps exchange and speaking with customers, the company concluded that execution, rather than settlement, was the main bottleneck.

According to Ondo, traditional blockchains perform execution, verification, and settlement on the same ledger, providing durability and trust but making them too slow and transparent for high-performance trading. The Ondo Network instead separates execution from settlement and verification while keeping users in control of their assets.

“The Ondo network is a new type of architecture that tries to land at a different configuration so that privacy is enabled by default, execution speed can rival centralized exchanges, while still maintaining the self-custodial design, verifiable fairness and permissionless access that makes blockchains so powerful,” De Bode said.

Asked how verification and settlement work under the new architecture, De Bode said a decentralized network of attestors determines which code the secure hardware enclaves are allowed to run, effectively verifying that the approved code is being executed. Asset transfers currently settle on Ethereum, with support for additional public blockchains planned.

“Over time, the network will also commit the settled state to public blockchains to allow for a durable and immutable record (similar to how Lighter does it). Right now, that record only lives within the enclaves,” De Bode said.

Ondo said the network is general-purpose and could support applications beyond perpetual futures, including spot markets, lending, structured products and non-financial applications that require fast, private and verifiable execution.

Ondo Perps is the first application built on the network. The platform offers 24/7 perpetual futures tied to equities and commodities, with tokenized real-world assets supported as collateral.

ONDO token

The launch does not change the role of the (ONDO) token, De Bode said. He said it remains the governance and ecosystem token for Ondo’s real-world asset and markets infrastructure.

“As the Ondo Network decentralizes (more attestors, watchers, economic security), ONDO is what will sit at the center of incentives and governance for that layer,” De Bode said.

The ONDO token is currently trading at around $0.40, making it the 41st-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of nearly $2 billion, according to The Block’s ONDO price page.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Ondo #ONDO #RWA #Tokenization #DeFi #Ethereum #Blockchain #Web3 #CryptoNews #Animalverse

World Foundation, the nonprofit organization behind the World protocol, has raised $52.5 million in new funding through a strategic sale of its WLD token, with all purchased tokens subject to a one-year lockup.

The “first close” of the token sale was led by Pantera Capital and included Bain Capital Crypto, WLD treasury company Eightco Holdings (Nasdaq: ORBS), Selini Capital, Susquehanna Crypto and other investors, World Foundation said Friday. It is not clear whether the foundation plans additional token sales beyond the first close. A spokesperson declined to comment to The Block when asked.

Notably, the foundation said the WLD tokens sold in the transaction “are intended for use within World Network and do not represent investment interest or rights to profits or returns.” The spokesperson said this means the WLD purchased by investors does not represent an equity interest in Tools for Humanity, the for-profit company behind the World project.

The new funding will be used to expand World ID technology for organizations, consumers and AI agents globally, the foundation said.

Scaling World ID

The token sale comes as World marks three years since launching into production and shifts its focus from building the network to expanding the use of World ID.

World enables people to verify they are unique humans through a one-time Orb verification that creates a World ID without revealing their identity. The foundation said the World ID is stored on a user’s phone and relies on advanced cryptography and anonymized multi-party computation, developed and open-sourced by the foundation, to preserve user privacy.

“The need for Proof of Human is becoming acutely clear with the acceleration of AI development, and we see this in the influx of enterprise traction,” Pantera Capital general partner Cosmo Jiang said in a statement. “We’re excited to continue supporting World’s mission at this inflection point in its growth.”

World said the rapid rise of AI agents is increasing demand for technology that can distinguish humans from machines online. Without proof-of-human infrastructure, it said sectors including digital advertising, online dating, voting systems, creative marketplaces and video communications could face growing challenges from AI-generated content, synthetic identities and deepfakes. The foundation also pointed to the release of World ID 4.0, which it said is designed for enterprise-scale integrations and enables developers to build additional credentials within the World ID stack using zero-knowledge proofs.

World ID is already being integrated with platforms including Zoom, DocuSign, Okta, Vercel and Tinder, according to the foundation. It also said more than 39 million people have joined World Network, including more than 18 million who have completed Orb verification. Since launch, users have generated more than 475 million World ID proofs, referring to instances where people use their World ID to verify they are human when accessing applications or services integrated with the network.

Growth and regulatory scrutiny

World was originally conceived by Sam Altman, Max Novendstern and Alex Blania with the goal of enabling people to prove they are unique humans while preserving their privacy in the age of AI. World Foundation now oversees the protocol’s governance, ecosystem grants and network operations, and said it aims to make the protocol economically self-sustaining over time through fees paid by applications using the network rather than by individual users.

Tools for Humanity is the for-profit company behind the project’s hardware and software development. It has raised roughly $240 million in venture equity to date, and World Foundation, which, along with its related entities, has previously raised $200 million through sales of WLD tokens. Including the latest token sale, the project has now raised about $492.5 million in total funding.

Since its launch, the World project has faced privacy and regulatory scrutiny over its biometric identity verification model. Authorities in jurisdictions including Spain, Kenya, Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong and the Philippines have investigated, restricted, suspended or fined aspects of the project’s biometric data collection over privacy, consent and data protection concerns, while World has said it continues to engage with regulators as it expands globally.

The WLD token is currently trading at around $0.37, giving it a market capitalization of about $1.31 billion. The token is down roughly 2% over the past 24 hours

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#WorldNetwork #WorldID #WLD #Crypto #Blockchain #AI #DigitalIdentity #Web3 #CryptoNews #Animalverse

Crypto trade association The Digital Chamber is taking Illinois to court over its decision to pass a law imposing a 0.2% tax on digital asset transactions, a move that has become highly controversial in crypto circles.

On Tuesday, the organization filed a complaint in a circuit court in Illinois accusing the state of singling out digital assets in that they are being taxed differently because of the technology.

“Today we are asking the courts to protect consumers and our members and stop this unfair tax in Illinois,” said TDC CEO Cody Carbone in a statement. “Taxes should be carefully considered, not only for the revenue they produce but for the fairness of those being taxed. That was not the case here as the provision slipped into legislation the night before the bill’s final consideration.”

The Digital Asset Tax Act was signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker as part of the state’s FY2027 budget planning last month. The tax is scheduled to take effect in January 2027. The crypto industry has been quick to criticize the measure, with some calling it the “most punitive digital asset tax in the country.” Industry groups have also raised questions about how the law will be implemented in practice.

TDC has more than 250 members globally, including Anchorage Digital, Chainlink Labs and ICE, owner of the New York Stock Exchange.

In the 32-page complaint, TDC said it is not looking for special treatment, but wants the “equal treatment of economically identical property regardless of the technology through which ownership is recorded, transferred, or settled.”

Illinois’ tax could also float over to other states and affect other areas, TDC said.

“If Illinois may impose a special transaction tax because commerce occurs through blockchain infrastructure, other States could impose similar taxes on commerce conducted through artificial intelligence-enabled settlement systems, cloud-based payment networks, or any future form of electronic commerce, while leaving economically identical transactions conducted through older technologies untaxed,” TDC said in its complaint.

TDC is asking the court to declare the new Illinois law “void and unenforceable” because it violates the U.S. Constitution and to grant relief.

At the federal level, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Michael Selig has lambasted Illinois over its new tax, adding that lawmakers there have “slammed the brakes on technological progress.”

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#DigitalChamber #Illinois #CryptoTax #DigitalAssets #Blockchain #CryptoRegulation #Web3 #CryptoNews #USCrypto #Cryptocurrency

The UK Parliament’s cross-party group for digital assets has launched an inquiry into banking access for the country’s crypto sector.

The Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) — chaired by Lord Vaizey of Didcot and Labour MP Gurinder Singh Josan CBE — announced the probe on Tuesday.

The group aims to examine difficulties crypto businesses face in opening and maintaining bank accounts in the UK, as well as restrictions some UK banks have placed on crypto-related transactions.

“The APPG has heard consistent reports from crypto and digital asset businesses that they face difficulties accessing bank accounts and banking services,” the group said in the statement. “Access to banking services is fundamental for any legitimate business, and where unnecessary barriers exist they have the potential to hinder growth, investment and innovation.”

Ongoing crypto reform

The inquiry will also examine international approaches adopted in jurisdictions including the U.S., Hong Kong, Australia, and the EU.

The APPG is inviting written evidence from the banking, payments, fintech and crypto sectors for six weeks — from July 21 to Aug. 31. The group plans to publish a report on findings and recommendations to the government thereafter.

This comes weeks after the publication of the UK’s new crypto regulatory framework and aims to assess whether these barriers risk undermining the government’s ambition for the UK to become a global leader in digital assets.

“With the publication of the UK’s new crypto regulatory framework, now is the right time to examine whether any remaining barriers could undermine that ambition as the regime comes into force next year,” the group said. The framework is scheduled to take effect on Oct. 25, 2027.

New Prime Minister

The inquiry coincides with a major political shift in the UK on Monday, as Labour Party’s Andy Burnham takes office as prime minister.

Burnham announced his intention to scrap the previous government’s digital ID scheme, redirecting resources toward cost-of-living measures. Local experts said abandoning digital IDs will leave the UK lagging globally.

Stefan Deiss, co-founder and CEO of The Hashgraph Group, said in a statement that stepping back from the idea of a single, centralized government managing every citizen’s digital ID was the right decision, but the country should not discard the idea entirely.

“The technology has moved on, and there’s now a better way: credentials held in a secure wallet on the citizen’s own phone, not on a state server,” Deiss said. “Burnham has promised a government that works for ordinary people. Identity that citizens genuinely own is precisely that. Pause the old model, but don’t lose the ambition.”

Burnham also named John Healey as chancellor of the Exchequer — the top finance official of the country.

Jonathan Herbst, Global Head of Financial Services at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, said that the new chancellor will likely ensure that ongoing financial reforms are delivered in a predictable and coordinated manner.

“For internationally active firms, the UK’s attractiveness depends not just on the substance of the rules but on the stability of the regulatory environment,” Herbst said. “Areas such as capital markets, fintech, digital assets and sustainable finance will continue to be important tests of that commitment.”

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#UK #Crypto #DigitalAssets #Banking #Blockchain #Fintech #CryptoRegulation #Web3 #Innovation #CryptoNews

“The Digital Credit Capital Framework is a genuine course correction,” CryptoQuant said. “To complete that shift, Strategy still needs to define two things: a systematic model for timing bitcoin purchases, and a disciplined framework for selling into strength. Until then, the pivot still has room to improve.”

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Strategy #MichaelSaylor #Bitcoin #BTC #CryptoQuant #BitcoinTreasury #InstitutionalInvestment #DigitalAssets #CryptoNews #Blockchain

PayPal shares fell 1.1% in after-hours trading after closing up 2.18% on Thursday.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#PayPal #Stripe #AdventInternational #Fintech #MergersAndAcquisitions #Payments #BusinessNews #Stocks #PYPL #Reuters

Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ruben Gallego secured Senate approval by unanimous consent for a resolution declaring that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried should not receive executive clemency, formalizing the chamber’s opposition to any presidential pardon or commutation.

The resolution states that “under no circumstances” should SBF receive executive clemency, including a pardon or commutation, while affirming the Senate’s commitment to the rule of law and the integrity of the U.S. financial system, the Senate Press Gallery reported on Wednesday.

The bipartisan measure was introduced on June 17 after Bankman-Fried petitioned for a presidential pardon earlier that month. Lummis said the former FTX executive was trying to avoid the consequences of his conviction. Gallego said he had “shown no remorse” and continued to portray himself as a victim.

Bankman-Fried was convicted by a jury in November 2023 on seven criminal counts tied to the exchange’s collapse and was later sentenced to 25 years in prison. Federal prosecutors described the case as one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history, with American customers losing more than $8 billion.

Despite his conviction, SBF has continued to argue that FTX and Alameda Research were never insolvent and that the exchange could have met customer withdrawals following its November 2022 liquidity crisis. He accused FTX’s bankruptcy lawyers and new management of forcing the company into bankruptcy and “decimating” the business.

Bankman-Fried and his family have also sought executive clemency from President Donald Trump, though Trump said in January he had no plans to pardon the former FTX executive.

Separately, Bankman-Fried withdrew a motion seeking a new trial after telling U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan that he did not believe he would receive a “fair hearing.”

The motion had been filed in March by his mother, Barbara Fried, on his behalf, without prejudice to renewing it after his direct appeal and related request for reassignment are resolved.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#SamBankmanFried #SBF #FTX #Crypto #USSenate #CynthiaLummis #RubenGallego #CryptoRegulation #CryptoNews #Blockchain

South Korea is developing a new law for managing state-owned assets to accommodate new asset classes, including cryptocurrencies.

The country’s Ministry of Finance and Economy said during Wednesday’s primary briefing at the President’s Blue House that it will establish the “National Asset Basic Act” to update the government’s asset management system.

The ministry explained that the existing State Property Act, established in 1950, was designed for the real estate-centric asset structure of that era.

The framework will encompass new asset classes, such as intellectual property and virtual assets, while strengthening the specialized management and development of state assets by category, the ministry said.

Under the new framework, South Korea aims to shift state-owned property management from a legacy focus on preservation, sale, and basic development to a model centered on value creation.

At Monday’s State Council meeting, the ministry reiterated its commitment to growing the local blockchain and digital asset economy, despite placing stronger emphasis on AI development.

It outlined plans to foster the blockchain economy as part of the country’s economic growth strategy for the second half of 2026. These include further development of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) project and the Digital Asset Basic Act, a legal framework dedicated to the local crypto and stablecoin sector.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#SouthKorea #Crypto #DigitalAssets #Blockchain #CryptoRegulation #CBDC #Stablecoin #Web3 #Tokenization #CryptoNews

Tweet volume for the keywords “Bitcoin” and “Ethereum” has fallen to fresh 12-month lows, with Bitcoin mentions down to roughly 130,000 and Ethereum to around 40,000. That level of attention hasn’t been seen since 2020, back when institutional interest in crypto was still nascent.

The tweet volume metric serves as a rough proxy for retail mindshare, tracking how much the general public is talking about these assets rather than how much capital is actually flowing into them.

The current reading is notable less for the absolute level, and more for the comparison point. 2020 marked the pre-institutional era of crypto, when neither Bitcoin (BTC) nor Ethereum (ETH) had meaningful Wall Street attention, spot ETFs, or corporate treasury allocations.

This has now flipped. Retail attention, as measured by social chatter, has round-tripped back to 2020 levels even as institutional involvement has moved in the opposite direction, with tokenization now a headline topic at major conferences and on traditional finance press releases.

While this can be seen as institutional adoption decoupling from retail engagement, low tweet volume has historically coincided with periods of price stagnation or drawdowns. There is hope that price action and infrastructure development no longer require the same wave of public attention that drove prior cycles, but retail involvement has made for better stories.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Bitcoin #Ethereum #Crypto #InstitutionalAdoption #CryptoETF #Tokenization #Blockchain #BTC #ETH #CryptoNews

Pakistan’s top crypto regulator called for digital assets to be assessed individually under Islamic law after meeting with a prominent scholar whose recent fatwa broadly rejected purchases made with cryptocurrency.

Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Chairman Bilal bin Saqib said Saturday that he held a “constructive discussion” with Mufti Taqi Usmani about digital assets and the continuing debate over their Sharia status.

Saqib said the two agreed on the need to protect Pakistanis from “fraud, exploitation, and financial harm,” but argued that blockchains, stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets and other digital assets represent different technologies and use cases that should not be evaluated as a single category.

“They merit careful technical assessment alongside rigorous Shariah examination, rather than being viewed through a single lens,” Saqib said in an X post.

His comments followed the circulation on Friday of a fatwa issued June 10 by Usmani and several other scholars affiliated with Darul Ifta at Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi. The ruling said cryptocurrencies do not qualify as “maal,” or wealth, under Sharia and described them as fictitious numerical entries recorded in an account.

The fatwa explicitly applied its reasoning to USDT and other crypto tokens. In response to questions involving books and an online course purchased using cryptocurrency, the scholars said the transactions were invalid and that the buyer did not acquire lawful ownership of the products.

It directed the purchaser to return the books and delete the course materials rather than use or transfer them. The ruling’s inclusion of both physical goods and digital services gives it a broader scope than a prohibition limited to speculative crypto trading.

Saqib did not say that Usmani had revised his position following the meeting. Instead, he called for continued engagement among religious scholars, regulators and industry experts as Pakistan develops its approach to emerging financial technology.

The dispute has direct implications for Pakistan’s developing crypto framework. The country’s parliament passed the Virtual Assets Act in March, making PVARA a permanent federal regulator with powers to license exchanges, custodians and token issuers.

Firms seeking licenses must ensure their services comply with Sharia law under the guidance of a committee of Islamic finance scholars. That process could allow regulators to distinguish between instruments such as unbacked cryptocurrencies, fiat-backed stablecoins and tokenized securities — the distinction Saqib emphasized following Saturday’s meeting.

The fatwa, by contrast, treated USDT alongside other crypto tokens when assessing whether cryptocurrency constitutes recognizable wealth. The disagreement therefore turns partly on whether products using blockchain infrastructure can be separated according to their underlying assets and economic functions for the purposes of Islamic finance.

Pakistan has rapidly expanded its digital asset plans since early 2025. PVARA previously invited regulated international crypto firms to apply for local licenses, citing an estimated 40 million users in the country.

Binance and HTX received preliminary clearances in December, although neither clearance permitted the exchanges to begin operating. The Finance Ministry also signed a non-binding agreement for Binance to advise on tokenizing up to $2 billion in sovereign bonds, treasury bills and commodity reserves.

Saqib has separately said Pakistan plans to launch a sovereign stablecoin, while the government previously announced plans for a state-held bitcoin reserve and allocated 2,000 megawatts of electricity for bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence data centers.

Saturday’s discussion signals that the religious classification of those products may become an important part of how, and whether, those initiatives proceed.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Pakistan #Crypto #Sharia #Fatwa #Blockchain #Stablecoin #Tokenization #DigitalAssets #CryptoRegulation #IslamicFinance

Polymarket has filed to offer margin trading in the U.S., which could allow users of the prediction market platform to bet on events with a fraction of the usual capital required upfront.

According to the National Futures Association’s BASIC system, Coming Home GBA LLC has filed applications for futures commission merchant (FCM) registration and related approvals via PM Derivatives LLC.

PM Derivatives LLC submitted the main filings — for FCM, NFA Member, and Swap Firm registration — on July 3. Coming Home GBA is an affiliated entity of Polymarket, Bloomberg reported earlier. To fully enable leveraged trading on the platform, Polymarket would also need approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The Block has reached out to Polymarket for further comment.

Meanwhile, rival platform Kalshi is already further along. In March 2026, Kalshi’s affiliate, Kinetic Markets LLC, received NFA approval as a registered FCM and Swap Firm, positioning the platform to offer margin trading.

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In June, the two major prediction market platforms each posted record monthly trading volumes. Kalshi saw $33 billion in volume last month, while Polymarket and its U.S. entity had nearly $14 billion combined, according

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Polymarket #PredictionMarket #MarginTrading #CFTC #NFA #Kalshi #Crypto #Blockchain #Web3 #CryptoNews

Hyundai Card announced Thursday that it has completed its first proof-of-concept (PoC) testing of stablecoin-based cross-border remittance with Tether and Avalanche.

According to the press release, the PoC processed a real remittance between Hyundai Motor Company’s U.S. and Mexican entities using the USDT stablecoin on Avalanche.

Specifically, Hyundai Motor America converted $20,000 into USDT, which was transferred to the Mexico office and converted back into dollars. This entire process took approximately seven minutes, whereas traditional interbank transfers would take three to four hours.

“What makes this particularly meaningful is that the PoC was conducted in connection with actual intercompany settlement needs between Hyundai Motor’s overseas entities, not as a theoretical blockchain experiment,” a Hyundai Card spokesperson said.

Hyundai Card led efforts in regulatory review, legal and tax checks, internal control considerations, and the design of the remittance structure, according to the release. Blockchain payment infrastructure company Axiym also participated in the PoC.

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Next phase in Europe

Later this month, Hyundai plans to begin its second PoC, which will be conducted between Hyundai Motor’s entities in Europe. Visa and USDC issuer Circle will participate in the second round.

The second PoC will involve real-world stablecoin remittances based on various local currencies other than the U.S. dollar, and aims to verify the cost efficiency of stablecoin money transfers.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Hyundai #Stablecoin #USDT #Tether #Avalanche #USDC #Circle #Visa #Blockchain #CryptoNews

A federal judge has denied Kalshi’s request to block New York from enforcing its gambling laws against the prediction market platform amid its ongoing battle against state regulators.

In a Tuesday ruling, Southern District of New York Judge Analisa Torres denied Kalshi’s motion for a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit filed by the prediction market platform against the New York State Gaming Commission. Kalshi has since appealed the decision to the Second Circuit.

The dispute primarily centers on whether Kalshi’s sports-event contracts fall under federal regulation or state gambling laws. The state gaming regulator argues that the contracts violate state gambling laws, while Kalshi contends that the federal Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) preempts those laws.

“[The] Court finds that New York gambling laws as applied to Kalshi’s sports-event contracts are not preempted by the CEA and Kalshi has not, therefore, made a clear or substantial showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits,” Judge Torres wrote in the order.

The judge noted that the CEA still allows states to regulate certain related issues arising from trading swaps and other financial products on designated contract markets.

“Given that the power to regulate gambling is a traditional police power exercised by New York, the Court also declines to interpret the CEA’s grant of exclusive jurisdiction as leaving ‘no room for supplementary state legislation,'” Torres wrote.

The judge also said that nothing is preventing Kalshi from obtaining a license under New York law.

“Although complying with New York gambling laws imposes an additional regulatory requirement on Kalshi, that requirement is not squarely contrary to federal law. Kalshi’s attempt, therefore, to avoid that requirement is unavailing,” said the judge.

The Block has reached out to Kalshi for further comment on the case.

Sports law attorney Daniel Wallach wrote on social media platform X that the latest ruling will likely affect Kalshi’s ongoing battle with over a dozen other U.S. state regulators.

“Major, major loss for Kalshi in the financial capital of the U.S., with likely knock-on effects in other cases,” Wallach wrote.

CFTC v. states

Kalshi, federally regulated under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, continues to fight U.S. state regulators seeking to ban sports-event contracts.

Last month, a Michigan judge issued a temporary restraining order against Kalshi, blocking the platform from offering sports-related event contracts in the state.

Kalshi also sued the state of Illinois last month over its new law establishing a regulatory regime on prediction markets, imposing a 0.2% charge on the value of digital asset transactions or services provided to Illinois customers.

In April, the CFTC sued New York to block state enforcement against CFTC-registered exchanges. The agency is seeking a declaratory judgment that federal law grants it exclusive authority over event contracts, according to its statement.

Kalshi remains the largest prediction market platform in the world in trading volume, ahead of rival Polymarket. Kalshi’s monthly volume reached $33 billion in June, while Polymarket and its U.S. platform saw a combined $13.95 billion, according

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Kalshi #PredictionMarkets #Crypto #Blockchain #CFTC #Regulation #SportsBetting #Web3 #Fintech #CryptoNews

Bernstein maintained its Outperform rating and $36 price target on TeraWulf (WULF) after the company signed a $19 billion, 20-year lease with Anthropic and sold its majority stake in the Abernathy joint venture to a Fluidstack-led investor group.

The lease covers 401 megawatts of IT load at TeraWulf’s Justified Data campus in Hawesville, Kentucky, and delivers better economics than Bernstein had modeled, with an average annual yield of $2.4 million per IT megawatt, compared with the firm’s earlier $1.9 million assumption.

TeraWulf signed the agreement on Monday, in a deal expected to generate about $19 billion in revenue, The Block reported.

A shift to direct customer leases

Bernstein flagged the two transactions as a change in TeraWulf’s business model toward full ownership, direct customer relationships, and complete operational control.

The Anthropic lease is TeraWulf’s third AI deal, joining earlier agreements with Core42 and Google-backstopped Fluidstack. The 20-year term is the longest signed by an emerging AI infrastructure player among diversifying bitcoin miners, most of whom are still securing 10- to 15-year base contracts, according to Bernstein.

TeraWulf’s AI orderbook now stands at roughly $27 billion in contracted revenue against about 839 megawatts of IT load, spanning deals of 10 to 20 years, Bernstein said.

The Anthropic contract carries two five-year renewal options that could extend it another decade. Also, the firm expects initial capacity to come online in the second half of 2027, with full delivery by early 2028.

The Abernathy exit

TeraWulf agreed to sell its 50.1% stake in the Abernathy JV for $530 million, a roughly 18% return on the $450 million equity stake it invested, according to Bernstein.

The joint venture was established in October 2025 to develop a 168-megawatt data center campus in Abernathy, Texas, with Fluidstack as both partner and anchor tenant. The buyer group is led by Fluidstack.

Payment comes in three installments, including $250 million within 14 days of signing, $150 million by the end of 2026, and the remaining roughly $130 million by April 30, 2027, subject to adjustment.

TeraWulf plans to redeploy the proceeds into fully owned AI infrastructure buildouts, Bernstein said.

Model largely unchanged

The improved Anthropic yield is offset by the loss of Abernathy JV income, leaving Bernstein’s steady-state estimates little changed. The firm raised its CY30 adjusted EBITDA estimate by about $43 million after both adjustments.

Analysts expect net AI revenue to climb from $209 million in CY26 to $1.7 billion by CY30, a compound annual growth rate of 70%. Bernstein also projects TeraWulf’s HPC EBITDA to grow at a 94% CAGR over the same span, reaching $1.5 billion by CY30, with margins stabilizing around 85%.

The firm values TeraWulf at 21 times one-year forward EV/EBITDA on its CY30 steady-state estimate, discounted to a target enterprise value of $25 billion, arriving at the $36 target after adjusting for $6.6 billion in net debt.

TeraWulf controls about 3.6 gigawatts of power assets across New York, Kentucky, and Maryland, a runway the firm expects to support 250 to 500 megawatts of new critical IT load each year, according to Bernstein.

The analysts flagged customer concentration as a downside risk, noting the orderbook rests on a handful of tenants that the company will need to diversify over time.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#TeraWulf #Anthropic #AI #DataCenter #HPC #BitcoinMining #Crypto #Technology #CryptoWhaleData

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published his takeaways from an updated version of the network’s draft long-term roadmap, describing the multi-year “Lean Ethereum” effort as a near-total rebuild of how the network operates.

In an X post Saturday, Buterin wrote that Lean Ethereum “is not a single one-shot upgrade” but a series of improvements arriving over three or four years. Still, he called it “the third major iteration” of Ethereum, on par with the Merge, adding that “almost every major piece of the protocol will be replaced.”

The post follows a meeting of Ethereum researchers in Berlin in late June, Buterin said. The revised plan is published at strawmap.org, the draft roadmap that Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake introduced in February, which outlines seven network upgrades through 2029.

The changes Buterin listed touch nearly everything: how the network confirms transactions are valid, the cryptography protecting it from future quantum computers, how quickly transactions become final, and how the chain stores its data. He said the transition can happen without breaking existing apps, writing, “We’ve done this before (the Merge), we can do it again.”

Buterin also gave the effort a timeline marker, saying Hegota, currently slated as Ethereum’s second upgrade of 2026, is probably the network’s last thematically “pre-Lean” fork. In other words, nearly every upgrade after this year will be part of the rebuild.

A cheaper way to store data

Buterin identified the storage changes as “probably the single most disruptive part of the plan.” Today, Ethereum keeps all of its state data, from token balances to exchange contracts, in a single, expensive-to-maintain format; the plan would keep that system for the most complex applications while adding a new, cheaper tier for simpler ones.

As an illustration, he described a possible Ethereum in 2030 where the new storage tier holds 50 times more data than the old one. The emphasis extends the case Buterin made in March for restructuring how Ethereum stores state.

Most tokens, NFTs, and DeFi apps could use the cheaper tier, Buterin said, while complex systems like Uniswap’s exchange contracts would stay on the existing one. No app would be forced to move, but he said migrating would be “very cost-effective”: a token redesigned for the new system could see transaction fees fall by more than 10x.

Quantum safety and privacy move up in priority

Buterin said quantum safety has “shifted up a LOT in priority.” The concern is that future quantum computers could break the cryptography securing today’s blockchains, and the roadmap calls for replacing every vulnerable component before that becomes possible.

The most pressing piece, he said, is finding a quantum-safe design for blobs, the temporary data storage that Layer 2 networks rely on to keep their fees low. Buterin said that work has become urgent and has already been underway for months.

Privacy received similar billing. “Privacy is no longer an afterthought, it is a first class goal,” Buterin wrote, saying new features are now designed from the start around the question of how private transactions would work through them. The stance extends a push he has led through efforts like the foundation’s Kohaku wallet framework.

Both themes sit among the strawmap’s five “north star” goals, which include a quantum-proof network secured for the long term and private ETH transfers built directly into the base layer, rather than left to third-party apps.

Replacing Ethereum’s engine

Buterin also revisited the long-term push to move past the Ethereum Virtual Machine, the software environment that runs every application on the network. He named RISC-V and leanISA, two alternative computing formats, as the most likely replacements, though he acknowledged that outcome is “still far away.”

His stated ideal is a network that runs entirely on the new engine, with the current EVM kept around as a translation layer so that existing apps continue to work untouched. A more efficient engine would make it far cheaper to mathematically prove that transactions are valid, a core requirement of the Lean Ethereum design, and easier to build privacy features directly into apps, he said.

In March, Buterin sketched a gradual path to get there: introduce the new format for limited internal use first, then let developers write apps in it, and only retire the EVM at the end.

The idea has been contested since Buterin first proposed a RISC-V swap in April 2025. Researchers at Offchain Labs, the core developer behind Arbitrum, argued last November that WebAssembly is the better choice; it did not appear among the contenders Buterin listed Saturday.

Timeline pressure

Buterin said Ethereum’s capacity will keep rising steadily over roughly the next five years, with a large gas limit increase, meaning more room for transactions in each block, expected in the Glamsterdam upgrade. Glamsterdam, originally expected in the first half of 2026, has yet to activate, with Hegota scheduled to follow.

The post arrives about a week and a half after the Ethereum Foundation concluded a restructuring that cut 54 staff, roughly 20% of its workforce. Buterin closed by writing “Ethereum is CROPS,” a reference to the censorship resistance, open source, privacy, and security properties he has said should define the foundation’s narrowed focus.

Ether (ETH) was trading at roughly $1,780 as of Sunday afternoon Eastern Time, down about 1% over the past day, according to The Block’s Ethereum Price page.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Ethereum #ETH #VitalikButerin #LeanEthereum #Blockchain #Layer1 #Web3 #Crypto #Innovation #CryptoNews

Bitcoin, ether, and altcoin deposits to exchanges have surged, a pattern that has historically signaled periods of higher volatility across the crypto market, according to CryptoQuant.

Bitcoin (BTC) deposits to exchanges climbed to nearly 49,000 BTC on June 30, “a rare extreme” seen only four other times this year when daily deposits approached 50,000 BTC, Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, said in a report. He said previous spikes of that size were followed by sharp increases in price volatility and directional moves.

“At these inflow levels, the market is absorbing a large volume of bitcoin being repositioned to exchanges, a pattern that has historically preceded significant directional moves,” Moreno wrote.

The recent increase in bitcoin deposits is being driven primarily by large holders rather than retail investors, Moreno noted. He said the average bitcoin deposit to exchanges doubled from about 1 BTC to 2 BTC, indicating whales and institutional investors are moving larger amounts of bitcoin onto exchanges.

Historically, spikes in average deposit size have been a more bearish signal than high deposit volumes alone because they reflect “deliberate repositioning” by larger market participants, Moreno said, noting that such moves have been a reliable leading indicator of downward price pressure.

The spike in bitcoin deposits to exchanges coincides with bitcoin testing the critical $60,000 support level, which, if breached, could take bitcoin toward its realized price of about $53,000, Moreno said. Bitcoin is currently trading around $62,180 while U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs logged $221.7 million in net inflows on Thursday, breaking a 10-day outflow streak, according to SoSoValue data.

Ether and altcoin deposits to exchanges also rise

The trend is not limited to bitcoin. Ether (ETH) deposits to exchanges also climbed above 1.25 million ETH in late June, which Moreno said is consistent with elevated selling pressure. He added that simultaneous spikes in bitcoin and ether deposits have historically signaled a broader market risk-off move rather than weakness in a single asset, increasing the probability of higher volatility across the crypto market.

Altcoin deposits have also risen sharply. The number of altcoin deposit transactions reached nearly 45,000 earlier this week, the highest level in almost two months and “a historical inflection-point signal for prices,” according to Moreno.

He said a similar spike occurred before bitcoin fell from about $82,000 in early May to below $58,000 in late June. “With the threshold being breached again while bitcoin tests $60,000 support, the current configuration closely mirrors the pattern that preceded the prior leg down, warranting heightened caution from market participants,” Moreno said.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Bitcoin #Ethereum #BTC #ETH #CryptoQuant #OnChain #Crypto #Volatility #Altcoins #CryptoNews

Bitcoin traded above $61,000 on Thursday, clawing back some ground after tumbling to a 21-month low earlier in the week, according to The Block’s prices page.

U.S. spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds recorded a net outflow of $296 million on July 1, according to data compiled by The Block.

The Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF posted the largest single-day inflow among the group at $36.3 million. Spot ether (ETH) ETFs fared better, taking in a net $14.8 million, led by BlackRock’s ETHA at $36.6 million.

The moves follow The Block’s report that spot bitcoin ETFs shed $4.5 billion in June, their worst month since launching in January 2024, with BlackRock’s IBIT alone accounting for $3.55 billion of it.

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Accumulation signals

Glassnode analyst Chris Beamish wrote that long-term holders have returned to accumulation after an extended period of distribution, with buying activity broadening across wallet cohorts, including smaller holders and entities holding 100 to 1,000 BTC.

More bitcoin is now held at a loss than in profit for the first time in this drawdown, with about 10.83 million BTC underwater against 9.22 million BTC still in profit, Beamish wrote.

Bitcoin long-term holder net position change | Image: Glassnode.
He pointed to a bid-heavy Coinbase orderbook and increasingly supportive dealer gamma positioning near current prices as signs of stabilizing structure, even as leveraged traders on Hyperliquid have pushed net long exposure to its highest level in the observed period.

Options traders, meanwhile, are paying up for downside protection, with the put/call volume ratio climbing to its highest reading in a year. Rising implied volatility points to the early stages of a bottoming process, Beamish wrote, though he cautioned a final capitulation-driven volatility spike “cannot yet be ruled out.”

On the macro front, Beamish cited the Federal Reserve’s fourth consecutive rate hold in June under new Chair Kevin Warsh, whose hawkish tone has pushed rate-cut expectations out to 2027 at the earliest.

The seller that won’t quit

A separate analysis from Bitfinex argued the selloff is being driven by crypto-native sellers rather than macro conditions.

Treasury yields fell, and the S&P 500 closed the quarter at a record 7,449, up 9.6% on the year, yet bitcoin still retreated to retest its cycle low — the fourth time this cycle that falling yields have coincided with a falling bitcoin price, according to the note.

Bitcoin’s cycle low first came in at $58,000 on June 25, was retested on June 30, and gave way further to $57,800 at the start of the third quarter, Bitfinex analysts shared with The Block.

The June 26 quarterly options expiry, the third-largest in history at $10.6 billion in bitcoin and ether notional, reset the options book without rescuing the price, per the note.

Bitcoin still trades below the “gamma flip” near $68,000, a zone where dealers hedge in ways that amplify rather than dampen volatility. The 25-delta skew registered a put-dominant 5.2%, which Bitfinex flagged as “elevated fear.”

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Bitfinex tied the pressure to two buyer complexes, turning sellers at once. Spot ETFs booked a seventh straight negative week through June 26, with $1.79 billion in net redemptions — the second-worst week on record — led by BlackRock’s IBIT, whose average holder is now near 40% underwater, Bitfinex said.

Separately, Strategy’s board authorized the sale of up to $1.25 billion in bitcoin on June 29 to fund a dollar reserve and service its obligations, as the STRC preferred dividend steps up to 12% from 11.5% for record dates on or after July 1. MSTR now trades around 30% below the value of the bitcoin it holds, its first sustained discount since it began accumulating in 2020, according to the note.

Bitfinex pointed to the aggregate realized price —the average acquisition cost of all circulating supply —at about $53,000—roughly 9% below spot and historically the line marking full capitulation.

The firm wrote that the “realized-price hold is the strongest structural argument the bull case has,” adding it is “support only till the mechanical sellers allow it to be.”

Ethereum’s fragile bounce

XS.com’s Simon-Peter Massabni wrote that ether has rebounded from lows near $1,500 to trade around $1,600-$1,620, calling it technical bottom-fishing rather than a confirmed reversal.

Spot ether ETFs have now posted seven straight weeks of net outflows totaling roughly $1.18 billion, he wrote, with an eighth losing week possible.

Massabni said ether’s short-term outlook “remains cautious,” with a hold above $1,500 and stabilizing ETF flows needed to open a path toward $1,700 to $1,800; a break below $1,500 could extend the downtrend further.

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Macro: all eyes on jobs data

Capital.com’s Kyle Rodda wrote that U.S. tech stocks weighed on Wall Street to start the third quarter even as the broader market advanced, with ISM manufacturing data showing easing price pressures and Fed Chair Warsh suggesting inflation may have peaked.

Traders pared the odds of a Fed rate hike this month to 28% from roughly 33% earlier in the week, according to Rodda.

He flagged Thursday’s non-farm payrolls report, released a day early ahead of the July 4 holiday, as the bigger test. Economists expected 111,000 jobs added with unemployment steady at 4.3%, but the figures came in at 57,000 and 4.2%, respectively. Oil fell to its lowest level since before the U.S.-Iran war, Rodda added, after President Trump signaled openness to extending ceasefire talks beyond the 60-day deadline.

Capital.com’s Daniela Hathorn wrote that markets opened the second half of the year cautiously despite eased geopolitical tension from the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, with attention on whether the labor market justifies a higher-for-longer Fed stance under Warsh.

At the ECB’s forum in Sintra, Warsh said, “If anyone thought we’d be happy with inflation above 2%, they will be disappointed,” according to Hathorn. She wrote that USD/JPY’s pullback from multi-decade highs above 162 looks more like profit-taking than intervention, with the broader trend still favoring dollar strength on Fed-BOJ policy divergence.

The case for looking past the rotation

Hashdex CIO Samir Kerbage argued that crypto’s underlying thesis is strengthening even as investor attention is focused on AI stocks and a wave of IPOs.

Crypto ecosystem transactions hit an all-time high in the second quarter; stablecoin transaction volume in the first half of 2026 has already exceeded all of 2025; and tokenized real-world assets have grown by more than 60% this year, Kerbage said.

He added that “when it comes, it tends to move quickly,” referring to a rotation back into crypto, and advised advisors to size positions for the cycle rather than mistake a temporary rotation for a structural breakdown.

Exchange reserves are at a seven-year low near 2.21 million BTC, and long-term holder supply sits at a record 16.3 million BTC, according to Bitfinex, with no distribution footprint from that cohort yet.

At publication time, bitcoin changed hands around $61,500 and ether traded near $1,664, The Block’s prices page shows.

Ref: https://paykalken.com

#Bitcoin #BTC #BitcoinETF #Crypto #HODL #Blockchain #Markets #Investing #DigitalAssets #CryptoNews