Category: Business

While Bitcoin investors’ expectations for a new upward trend in the short term are weakening, the leading $BTC has deepened the negative sentiment in the market with its sharp drop in the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin’s price has fallen by more than 5% in the last 24 hours, dropping to $67,312. This brings $BTC’s total loss over the past week to over 12%. The price has fallen below the $68,000 level for the first time since April, and is trading approximately 46% below its all-time high of $126,080.

Among the reasons for the selling pressure in the market is the Bitcoin sale carried out last week by Strategy, a company known for its Bitcoin-focused balance sheet strategy. The company sold 32 $BTC, worth approximately $2.5 million, marking its first Bitcoin sale since 2022. However, the amount sold is quite limited compared to the company’s approximately $57 billion worth of Bitcoin assets.

On the other hand, the ongoing outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs are also undermining investor confidence. Bitcoin ETFs have experienced net outflows for the past 11 trading days, with a total capital outflow exceeding $3.4 billion during this period. As a result, the net fund flow into US spot Bitcoin ETFs has turned negative since the beginning of the year. In other words, the amount of money flowing out of ETFs in 2026 has already exceeded the capital entering them.

Investors who took positions in the futures markets expecting a rise also suffered heavy losses. According to CoinGlass data, approximately $600 million worth of Bitcoin long positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours.

Across the cryptocurrency market, a total of $1.24 billion in positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours. Of this, $1.12 billion consisted of long positions, while short position liquidations amounted to approximately $124.85 million.

*This is not investment advice.

The cryptocurrency market is enduring a sharp narrative shift, but the real growth is happening away from the spotlight, according to the co-founder of Solana-native yield protocol Solstice Labs.

Ben Nadareski argued that the industry’s biggest asset is experiencing structural confusion in an interview with CoinDesk onvTuesday.

“Bitcoin is going through a bit of an identity crisis right now,” Nadareski said. “It’s not the store of value, like gold, to the masses. It’s also not the speculative investment vehicle that everybody was really attracted to. While bitcoin and the core assets go through their identity crisis, quiet players in the DeFi industry are growing rapidly.”

Decentralized finance’s “silent” growth is heavily challenged by ongoing exploits, according to Nadareski, a flaw he blamed on developers frequently building innovative code while completely ignoring the core responsibilities of managing capital.

“They don’t quite realize you’re now also a financial asset manager if you’re working in DeFi,” Nadareski stated. “That doesn’t mean you’re in tech. That means you’re building tech in financing, which adds two aspects of risk to the market.”

OpenZeppelin co-founder and former CTO Manuel Aráoz said “DeFi is not safe anymore” last month noting that AI coding agents have made smart contracts fatally vulnerable.

Drift Protocol and Kelp Dao were hacked by North Korean cybercriminals in April in two exploits that drained nearly $600 million from the two lending crypto pools. In February 2025, Bybit suffered a $1.46 billion attack, described as the biggest hack of all time.

Nadareski said that to bridge this trust gap, DeFi platforms must hold themselves to traditional banking standards, implementing real-time proof of reserves and automated multi-signature time locks rather than relying on unproven code layers.

DeFi principles

The entry of legacy banking giants does not mean crypto natives have lost the space, Nadareski said. Instead, he pointed to market structure where Wall Street uses faster digital rails for its operational back offices, while decentralized platforms preserve direct user access.

“The convergence is already among us. The institutions have been coming for years and now they are here,” he highlighted.

Winning platforms will be those that accommodate large financial entities while maintaining low fees and equal access for everyday retail users. Since its launch, Solstice has scaled past $500 million in total value locked (TVL) from over 40 institutional allocators, including Galaxy Digital and Susquehanna.

Solstice has also unveiled a strategic partnership with big-data analytics platform ApexE3, which is backed by Consensys and Tensorix.

Treating decentralized networks as a financial utility rather than a tech playground is the only path forward, according to Nasareski.

“Expect more out of DeFi than you do TradFi,” he concluded. “The average retail end-user anywhere in the world should expect 10 times more of an output of transparency, trust, and optimization of their capital.”

Perpetual futures are beginning to break out of their origins and emerge as a broader asset class beyond crypto, according to a new report from TD Securities.

The bank said recent regulatory developments in the U.S. and growing institutional demand are helping transform perpetual futures, commonly known as “perps,” from a niche crypto instrument into a market structure that could eventually span commodities, equities and private-market investing.

“PERPs are no longer just a crypto product. They are becoming a broader market-structure product,” TD Securities wrote.

Perpetual futures differ from traditional futures because they do not expire. Instead, they rely on funding-rate mechanisms that keep prices aligned with underlying markets. The contracts have become the dominant trading vehicle in crypto, accounting for roughly 80% of global digital asset trading volumes, according to TD.

Momentum accelerated last month when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) allowed bitcoin perpetual futures to trade on prediction market platform Kalshi. Around the same time, Coinbase (COIN) announced plans to launch U.S. equity-index perpetual futures and moved closer to connecting American customers with offshore perpetual futures markets.

The report argues that institutional demand is expanding beyond cryptocurrencies. Hyperliquid (HYPE), the largest decentralized perpetual futures platform, now offers contracts linked to commodities and private companies. The exchange has become a venue for trading pre-IPO contracts tied to firms such as Cerebras and SpaceX, allowing traders to speculate on valuations before public listings.

Hyperliquid’s growth is also beginning to test the traditional role of exchanges such as CME Group in price discovery.

TD pointed to trading activity during the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict earlier this year, when commodity markets were closed for the weekend but Hyperliquid remained open. According to the report, notional volume in oil-linked perpetual futures on the platform grew from roughly $25 million to more than $550 million by the third weekend of trading. Hyperliquid also priced in about 80% of the subsequent move in West Texas Intermediate crude before CME’s market reopened.

“The significance was not just the volume, but price discovery happening before traditional commodity markets reopened,” TD wrote.

The trend extends beyond commodities. TD said Hyperliquid’s pre-IPO perpetual futures tied to companies such as Cerebras and SpaceX have become an early test of whether blockchain-based markets can help establish valuations before stocks begin trading publicly.

That growth has drawn scrutiny from incumbent exchanges. TD noted that ICE and CME have pushed regulators to examine Hyperliquid’s oil-linked products while simultaneously exploring similar offerings themselves, highlighting a growing battle between traditional and crypto-native market infrastructure.

TD expects commodities to be the next major growth area for perpetual futures, with oil, gold and copper among the most likely candidates. As regulators move toward creating a formal U.S. framework for the products, the bank said the larger question is whether perpetual futures can retain their appeal once they are brought under tighter oversight.

The cost of running artificial intelligence hardware has opened an unexpected way for AI firms to cut outgoings while allowing individuals to make money from their home technology, according to Titan Network.

The internet infrastructure company said its software pools unused computing resources and rents it out as a “decentralized cloud” to AI companies, who pay less than they would if buying capacity from large, centralized providers.

Powering AI is big business. The software requires massive computing resources, and the data centers consume huge amounts of power to run the machines and cool the buildings. Many bitcoin mining companies have those setups and a number, including MARA Holding (MARA) and Riot Platforms (RIOT), are pivoting to serve the rising demand. On Monday, Alphabet (GOOG) said it planned to raise a whopping $80 billion to spend on AI infrastructure.

“We have two of the top 10 AI companies in the world using our products to realize 75% cost savings on their infrastructure,” Konstantin Tkachuk, founder and chief strategy officer, said in an interview at the Proof of Talk conference in Paris.

The company now has 4 million connected devices worldwide and clients including Tencent, Alibaba, and the AI video platform Kling AI, Titan Network said. About 1 million devices are online at any one time.

Titan is not the first project to try lowering costs by aggregating unused computing capacity in what’s known as a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) system. Unlike platfoms such as Aethir and Akash Network, which target spare cycles on institutional servers, Titan says it uniquely links to private citizens.

“Titan has broken the code no one else has been to before, enabling regular people to make money from the up-and-coming AI data infrastructure industry,” River Davis, Titan’s creative director, told CoinDesk.

When big companies pay to use the network for data tasks like web scraping, data collection, or content delivery, Titan sends 80% of those corporate earnings directly to the people providing the devices and internet bandwidth, who have downloaded a browser plugin or some specialized software.

The project said it has already captured roughly 5% of the AI data market in Asia.

Jake Claver recently suggested that Ripple’s stablecoin $RLUSD could become one of the strongest drivers of $XRP adoption.

Claver, who serves as the Chairman of Digital Ascension Group (DAG), insisted that $RLUSD actually benefits $XRP despite concerns that the stablecoin competes with $XRP as a bridge asset.

Key Points

• Jake Claver suggests that the Ripple stablecoin $RLUSD could become one of the biggest catalysts for $XRP adoption.
• He expects thousands of stablecoins and tokenized assets rather than one dominant global stablecoin.
• Multiple stablecoins may lead to fragmentation and create a need for a neutral bridge asset.
• $XRP acts as this neutral bridge asset, posing no counterparty risk with no central issuer.
• $RLUSD is not competing with $XRP but helping institutions enter the $XRP Ledger ecosystem.

$RLUSD and $XRP Working Together, Not Competing

According to Claver, many people misunderstand the purpose behind $RLUSD. Some believe Ripple launched the stablecoin because $XRP was unable to fulfill its role.

However, Claver suggests that the opposite is true. He believes $RLUSD could help expand $XRP’s use by bringing more institutions into blockchain-based financial systems.

To him, the future of finance will depend less on retail investors and more on how banks, governments, payment companies, exchanges, and large businesses use digital dollars and other tokenized assets.

Claver noted that as those organizations enter the space, $XRP may have an important role to play by helping move liquidity between different networks and financial products.

Tokenization Could Change Global Finance

Claver noted that tokenization is one of the biggest financial infrastructure changes. He expects a wide range of assets, including real estate, U.S. Treasuries, stocks, private equity, commodities, insurance products, carbon credits, and debt instruments, to move to blockchain networks.

The market pundit mentioned a forecast from the Boston Consulting Group that estimates tokenization could become a $16 trillion market by 2030. Claver believes this figure could end up being too low because tokenization solves several long-standing problems in traditional finance.

Today, real estate transactions can take between 60 and 90 days to settle. Cross-border payments often take several business days, private equity investments can lock up funds for years, and securities markets still rely on delayed settlement processes. He also highlighted the roughly $27 trillion held in Nostro and Vostro accounts to support international liquidity.

According to Claver, tokenization can improve these systems by allowing near-instant settlement, fractional ownership, global access to liquidity, and better connections between markets. It also makes capital programmable. This can lead to new financial applications.

Major institutions such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan, Visa, and Mastercard are already exploring tokenization in 2026. However, as more assets become tokenized, liquidity will become fragmented across different stablecoins, tokenized deposits, money market products, tokenized Treasuries, and regional settlement assets.

Why $XRP Could Benefit from a Growing Stablecoin Market

Claver noted that he does not believe the future will be dominated by a single stablecoin. Notably, he expects thousands of stablecoins and tokenized deposits to emerge as banks, governments, fintech firms, and exchanges create products that suit their own needs.

For instance, Bank of America is issuing one stablecoin while Citi launches another. Meanwhile, tokenized Treasury funds and regional payment networks could operate on separate systems. With more of these products emerging, it becomes important to move value between them efficiently.

Claver believes interoperability will become one of the biggest challenges in this environment. Since institutions generally prefer to use their own assets rather than those issued by competitors, they will need a neutral way to move value between systems.

That is where he believes $XRP can play a major role. Instead of replacing stablecoins, $XRP could help connect them by acting as a neutral bridge asset that routes liquidity between different networks.

When $RLUSD is one asset among many, that risk stays small and contained.

Make it the thing everything routes through, and suddenly that one company is a single point of failure for the whole system.

$XRP has no issuer. Nobody mints it or can switch it off

12/21🧵

— Jake Claver, QFOP (@beyond_broke) June 1, 2026

$RLUSD Could Help Bring Institutions into the XRPL Ecosystem

Claver said Ripple launched the $RLUSD stablecoin because institutions often prefer stable and predictable assets over more volatile cryptocurrencies.

Many institutions must follow strict compliance rules, accounting standards, and audit requirements. As a result, they feel more comfortable holding dollar-backed stablecoins than holding digital assets with fluctuating prices.

Claver says this makes $RLUSD an important entry point. It allows institutions to begin using blockchain infrastructure without immediately taking on crypto market risk. Once they start operating within the $XRP Ledger ecosystem, they can gradually explore additional services and opportunities available on the network.

$RLUSD launched in December 2024 and has already reached approximately $1.6 billion in market capitalization within about a year and a half. Claver called it one of the fastest-growing stablecoins in the industry.

He stressed that this growth did not come mainly from retail traders, meme coin speculation, or yield farming programs. Instead, institutions, enterprise settlement systems, and regulated liquidity use cases have driven much of the stablecoin’s expansion.

How $RLUSD and $XRP Could Create a Long-Term Growth Cycle

Claver suggested that if $RLUSD continues growing and compounds at 100% annually over the next five years, its market capitalization could reach roughly $48 billion to $50 billion.

However, he argued that market cap is not the most important measure for institutions, as transaction volume matters more. A stablecoin with a $50 billion supply can support trillions of dollars in annual transactions when institutions continuously reuse the same liquidity.

If $RLUSD becomes used for tokenized securities, cross-border payments, treasury management, derivatives collateral, institutional decentralized finance, foreign exchange settlements, and payment corridors, transaction activity on the $XRP Ledger could become much larger than the stablecoin’s market cap.

Notably, institutions may first use $RLUSD for settlement and treasury purposes, but they could later expand into tokenized securities, debt issuance, tokenized funds, instant trade settlement, and real-time collateral management.

According to Claver, this process creates an important cycle. In this cycle, $RLUSD adoption brings more institutions to the $XRP Ledger. As more institutions arrive, more assets become tokenized, and more stablecoins enter the network. This growth increases liquidity fragmentation, which raises demand for interoperability.

As interoperability becomes more important, $XRP’s role as a bridge asset grows. Greater $XRP liquidity can reduce slippage, improve efficiency, and support larger transaction volumes. These improvements can attract even more users and institutions, creating a cycle that repeats over time.

Hyperliquid ($HYPE) has emerged as one of the most liquid trading venues in the crypto market, attracting growing interest from hedge funds and institutional investors as capital rotates away from bitcoin and ether, according to Joshua Lim, global head of markets at FalconX.

The decentralized derivatives exchange, which launched its $HYPE token last year, has become a significant source of trading activity for FalconX clients. Lim said demand for Hyperliquid products has grown as investors search for opportunities beyond the largest cryptocurrencies.

“For things like $HYPE, where there’s broad consensus that it’s an allocatable asset, there’s a ton of liquidity. It’s not hard to trade it,” Lim said in an interview. “$HYPE is probably on some days more active than Ethereum for us.”

The comments come as bitcoin and ether (ETH) have struggled to attract fresh inflows while investors focus on a smaller group of alternative crypto assets. Lim said FalconX expects major cryptocurrencies to remain range-bound over the next few months because of macroeconomic uncertainty, ETF outflows and competition from other speculative investments.

“What it is translating to is actually implied volatility, so the price of options is near all-time lows,” Lim said. “People don’t think bitcoin and ether are going to move very much.”

Instead, traders have been moving into assets tied to emerging themes such as artificial intelligence (AI) and decentralized trading infrastructure.

“The altcoins are moving a lot,” Lim said. “That’s where the speculative money is going. It’s into things like $HYPE and Zcash (ZEC) and Venice (VVV). AI-associated tokens are performing very well.”

Hyperliquid’s appeal extends beyond its token. Lim said hedge funds are increasingly using the platform’s derivatives products because they provide access to markets that are difficult or impossible to trade elsewhere.

“They’re very good at launching things early,” he said, pointing to Hyperliquid’s pre-IPO perpetual contracts tied to companies such as SpaceX. “We have hedge funds who there’s no other way to really trade that in a liquid way.”

The growing interest in Hyperliquid reflects a broader bet that crypto-native trading infrastructure can expand beyond digital assets. The platform generated about $800 million in revenue in 2025 and has steadily broadened its product lineup from crypto perpetual futures into tokenized stocks, commodities and prediction-style markets.

Grayscale has argued that Hyperliquid’s long-term significance may lie less in the $HYPE token itself and more in its potential to serve as a 24/7 trading venue for a wide range of financial assets. Regulatory developments remain a key uncertainty, particularly because the platform currently restricts U.S. users, but supporters increasingly view Hyperliquid as a test case for how blockchain-based markets could compete with traditional exchanges in the future.

Bitcoin price fell below $70,000 for the first time since April 7 as crypto markets faced renewed selling pressure. $BTC dropped roughly 3.8% to 4.9% during the session, reaching intraday lows between $69,325 and $69,690 before recovering slightly.

The decline came as traders reacted to a mix of geopolitical tension, which caused nearly $800 million in leveraged positions to be liquidated across the broader crypto market, according to data from CoinGlass.

The move also followed a Trump-style post shared by the @TrumpTruthOnX commentary account, which called for Iran to admit defeat and sign “Documents of Surrender.” The post said Iran should acknowledge that its navy was “resting at the bottom of the sea,” that its air force was “no longer with us,” and that its remaining military should leave Tehran with weapons dropped and hands raised.

The post also criticized major U.S. media outlets and Democrats, saying they would portray Iran as victorious even under a surrender scenario. The message drew attention as traders monitored U.S.-Iran talks, military exchanges, and the future of shipping access through the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S.-Iran Tensions Add to Market Stress

Bitcoin’s drop came as negotiations between the United States and Iran remained unstable. Iran’s negotiating team reportedly paused communication through mediators, while military exchanges continued to test a fragile regional ceasefire.

President Donald Trump said negotiations were continuing “at a rapid pace” and expressed hope that a deal could reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Reports also said delays were tied to requested changes in a draft agreement and Iranian concerns over past U.S. compliance.

Iran also demanded a halt to expanding Israeli military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon as part of the conditions for a final peace agreement with the United States. The regional tension added to risk-off trading across crypto markets.

Bitcoin supply in loss also rose to about 40.6%, showing that a large share of circulating value is now held below its acquisition cost. Historical data shows that past cycle lows have formed when this metric moved into higher loss zones, though each new cycle has required a lower loss threshold than earlier ones.

Source: CryptoQuant

The current reading shows market stress, but it has not yet reached the upper band that has marked some past accumulation zones. Bitcoin remains below its former support at $71,305, while $68,589 is the next near-term level traders are watching.

ETF Outflows and Equity Rotation Weigh on Crypto

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their 10th to 11th straight day of net outflows, with total withdrawals estimated between $2.97 billion and $3.5 billion during the streak. The outflows added pressure to Bitcoin as institutional demand weakened.

At the same time, U.S. equities continued moving higher. The S&P 500 pushed above 7,600 points to record levels as investors continued buying artificial intelligence-related stocks. That shift showed capital moving toward traditional equity markets while crypto remained under pressure.

Bitcoin also failed to follow other risk assets higher. $BTC moved near $69,631 on Bitstamp while major stock indexes advanced. The divergence added to the view that crypto markets were facing their own liquidity and positioning pressures.

Source: X

Trader Ardi said the loss of $72,500 was important because Bitcoin had broken multiple support levels across different timeframes. He said the next major liquidity area was around $68,700 unless $BTC quickly reclaimed the lost range.

Indicators have also pointed to weakness after Bitcoin fell through another Timescape level. The trading resource said the $68,000 to $69,000 range would be the next test. It also said a further decline could bring the 200-day simple moving average back into focus.

$BTC Loses $70,000 Support, What Next?

Bitcoin’s fall below $70,000 came after the asset broke several major short-term technical levels. The price lost the lower boundary of an ascending channel that had supported its recovery through April and May.

According to crypto analyst Ali Charts, $BTC also moved below the 100-day simple moving average, which is often used as a medium-term trend marker. A break below that line can show that short-term momentum has shifted away from buyers.

Source: X

Another key level lost during the sell-off was the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement near $71,305. That area had acted as support, but it may now become resistance if Bitcoin attempts a rebound.

The latest chart data showed $BTC hovering near $69,944, with immediate support around $68,589. A daily close below that level could increase the chance of a move toward $65,230. If selling continues beyond that range, the wider downside level sits near $59,789.

On the upside, Bitcoin would need to reclaim $71,305 to reduce immediate bearish pressure. A stronger recovery would require a move above $74,020, which lines up with the broken channel support. Higher resistance levels remain near $77,887 and $82,811.

The leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin ($BTC), fell below $70,000 for the first time since April.

While rising war tensions, inflationary pressures, ETF outflows, Strategy’s sales, and short-term investor selling all contributed to this decline, analysis companies analyzed the latest situation in $BTC.

According to analysis by on-chain analytics firm Swissblock, Bitcoin’s fall below the $72,000 level, which represents the average cost floor for short-term investors, has increased the risk of further decline.

The analysis firm noted that the market interpreted the price consolidation around $70,000 as an accumulation phase for a bull run, but Bitcoin ultimately failed to maintain this support.

At this point, Swissblock analysts stated that the market is now about to move from a correction and consolidation phase to a phase where the downtrend will continue.

In context, analysts note that Bitcoin is at a crossroads, facing either a renewed bull market or the entry into a prolonged bear market.

In conclusion, analysts added that Bitcoin needs to remain above the $72,000 region, which is the investor cost floor, to regain bullish momentum.

Additionally, on-chain analytics firm Santiment noted an increase in transactions above $100,000 as the Bitcoin price dropped below $70,000.

Accordingly, Bitcoin transactions worth over $100,000 reached 10,095 in a single day, the highest level in the last six weeks. This marks the highest daily volume of such transactions since April 22nd.

Santiment interpreted this pattern as a strong signal that historically indicates whale accumulation.

In another analysis, Santiment stated that stocks have recently outperformed cryptocurrencies, with cryptocurrencies lagging behind.

He argued that this situation signals an extreme shift in market sentiment and that capital currently held in equities could soon flow back into the crypto market.

Santiment noted that capital tends to move from crypto to stocks when stocks offer higher returns and lower volatility. However, Santiment argues that this pattern is not permanent. According to Santiment, the current narrative that stocks dominate the market signals extreme stock-related FOMO and crypto-related FUD. At this point, Santiment added that the market often moves contrary to the expectations of most investors, which could be interpreted as bullish for crypto.

*This is not investment advice.

The leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin ($BTC), fell below $70,000 following a downward trend seen in recent weeks and yesterday’s $BTC sale by institutional bull Strategy.

As $BTC fell below $70,000 for the first time since April, the percentage of investors experiencing losses also increased.

CryptoQuant analyst Julio Moreno states that the loss in $BTC supply has reached 40.6%, meaning that 40.6% of the total supply is at a loss.

Nevertheless, the analyst says that Bitcoin has not yet hit its bottom.

According to the analyst, citing CryptoQuant data, the percentage of Bitcoin supply that is at a loss has risen to 40.6%.

However, according to Moreno, this ratio may not signal the bottom of the market. At this point, the analyst stated, “Based on past data, this ratio is still not enough for us to see that the price has bottomed out.”

Analyzing historical data, Moreno noted that since 2015, major market lows have typically occurred when this indicator reached the upper limit of its long-term downtrend line.

The analyst noted that while in previous bear markets a bottom required more than 60% of the supply to be out of reach, this threshold has consistently decreased in subsequent cycles.

While the current 40.6% level indicates significant market stress, Moreno stated that it has not yet reached the bottom, historically considered the best buying opportunity.

Finally, the analyst suggested that if the Bitcoin price weakens further or moves sideways, the percentage of supply at a loss could retest this critical trend line.

*This is not investment advice.