Category: Business

BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the largest Ethereum-focused digital asset treasury firm, sped up its crypto purchase pace as chairman Tom Lee sees growing signs of the crypto “mini-winter” ending.

The firm reported Monday it acquired 101,627 ether ($ETH) last week, its largest weekly haul since December 15. The purchase, worth roughly over $230 million at current $ETH prices, lifted BitMine’s total holdings to 4.97 million $ETH.

The move comes as most digital asset treasuries — except Michael Saylor’s bitcoin-focused Strategy (MSTR) — have slowed or halted buying in recent months. BitMine remains among the last large-scale buyers of ether-focused treasuries, continuing to provide a steady source of demand for $ETH.

BitMine’s total crypto and cash holdings stand at $12.9 billion. In addition to its $ETH treasury, the firm holds 199 bitcoin, $1.12 billion in cash and equity stakes including investments in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings.

Chairman Thomas Lee said the firm sees signs that the recent downturn is nearing an end, pointing to $ETH’s rebound and broader market dynamics.

“Bitmine has maintained the increased pace of $ETH buys in each of the past four weeks, as our base case $ETH is in the final stages of the ‘mini-crypto winter,’” Lee said.

He added that ether has risen sharply from its early February lows and has outperformed equities since the start of the Iran conflict, supported by demand tied to tokenization and AI-related use cases.

BitMine has also continued expanding its staking operations. The firm has staked more than 3.3 million $ETH, or about two-third of its holdings, generating roughly $221 million in annualized revenue.

South Korea’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone, have announced that they have added the KernelDAO (KERNEL) token to their delisting watchlist. This decision follows a joint review process aimed at enhancing investor protection.

Upbit stated in its announcement that this decision was based on two main reasons. The first is a security incident or potential attack risk that occurred in the wallets or distributed ledger infrastructure managed by the project and has not yet been fully resolved.

The second reason was that a comprehensive review of the project’s overall business model, sustainability, and development process revealed potential risks for users.

Exchanges emphasized that assets placed on the watchlist will be subject to stricter scrutiny for a specified period. During this process, criteria such as the project’s level of transparency, technical advancements, and community communication will be closely monitored. It was stated that if the necessary improvements are not made as a result of the review, the KERNEL token could be completely delisted.

Experts say that these coordinated steps by major stock exchanges in South Korea increase market discipline and aim to protect investors against risky projects. In particular, recent increases in security concerns and discussions about project sustainability have led stock exchanges to tighten their listing policies.

*This is not investment advice.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) added 34,164 bitcoin to its treasury over the past week at an average price of about $74,395 per coin, for a total cost of roughly $2.54 billion, according to a Monday filing.

The purchase brings the company’s total holdings to 815,061 $BTC, acquired for approximately $61.56 billion at an average cost basis of $75,527. With $BTC currently trading at around $75,000, Strategy’s stash is currently break even. Strategy is the world’s largest publicly-listed bitcoin holder. It began acquiring $BTC as a balance sheet asset in 2020.

Last week’s acquisitions were funded by $2.2 million raised through sales of the company’s preferred stock, Stretch (STRC), and $366 million from common stock offerings.

MSTR shares are down more than 2.5% in pre-market trading.

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, continues to expand its presence in the UK.

At this point, Coinbase recently announced the launch of its cryptocurrency-backed lending service in the UK.

Coinbase stated in a press release that users in the UK can borrow in $USDC using Bitcoin ($BTC), Ethereum ($ETH), and cbETH as collateral.

Users can borrow $USDC by offering $BTC, $ETH, or cbETH as collateral. Accordingly, Coinbase allows users to borrow up to $5 million in $USDC in exchange for other crypto assets through Morpho on Base.

The service is offered through Morpho, an open-source lending protocol built on the Base network.

According to the announcement, users can access the borrowing feature in the Coinbase app’s “Borrow” section by selecting an asset as collateral and specifying the amount of $USDC they wish to borrow. Morpho then transfers the loan to the user’s Coinbase account within seconds, where it can be converted to British pounds or transferred.

According to the statement, there is no fixed repayment schedule, and borrowers can repay their loans at any time.

“…There is no fixed repayment schedule, and users will always have the flexibility to choose when they repay their loans.”

Coinbase’s UK lending product service launched a year after it introduced crypto-backed loans in the US in January 2025. The initial US offering allowed customers to borrow up to $100,000 (currently $5 million) in $USDC using Bitcoin as collateral. This service is available across the US, excluding New York. Starting with Bitcoin, the lending service has now expanded to include Ethereum, XRP, Dogecoin (DOGE), Cardano (ADA), and Litecoin (LTC).

Coinbase also added that it plans to expand access to cryptocurrency-backed loans to more countries in the near future.

*This is not investment advice.

Bitcoin ($BTC), which surged on Friday following Iran’s reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, climbed above $78,000.

However, this rise was short-lived. Bitcoin fell again as the US did not lift the blockade despite the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and in response, Iran attacked a US merchant ship.

Bitcoin, which had fallen as low as $73,000, rose again to over $75,000, while Coinshares released its cryptocurrency report stating that there was a $1.4 billion inflow last week.

“Cryptocurrency investment products saw an inflow of $1.4 billion. This marks the third consecutive positive week and the strongest figure since January. With the improvement in risk appetite, Bitcoin surpassed $76,000.”

Bitcoin ($BTC) Continues to Remain Strong!

Looking at crypto funds individually, inflows are concentrated in Bitcoin. $BTC experienced inflows of $1.11 million, while the largest altcoin, Ethereum (ETH), saw inflows of $328 million.

Looking at other altcoins, $XRP experienced an outflow of $56.2 million after strong weeks. Besides $XRP, Solana (SOL) also saw an outflow of $2.3 million, while Sui (SUI) experienced an inflow of $2.2 million and Chainlink (LINK) saw an inflow of $5.3 million.

“Bitcoin saw $1.11 billion in inflows, bringing total inflows since the beginning of the year to $3.1 billion. Breaking above the $76,000 level represents a significant technical development after two months of sideways movement.”

There was a modest inflow of $1.4 million into Bitcoin short positions. This indicates that demand for hedging, albeit limited, continues.

Ethereum experienced its strongest week since January, seeing inflows of $328 million and bringing its total inflows since the beginning of the year to $197 million.

On the other hand, $XRP Solana recorded outflows of $56 million and $2.3 million respectively.

Looking at regional fund inflows and outflows, the US ranked first with an inflow of $1.49 billion.

After the US, Germany ranked second with $28 million in inflows, while Canada came in third with $8.3 million.

These inflows were followed by Switzerland being the only country to experience outflows, with $137.8 million.

*This is not investment advice.

Market dynamics continue to paint a bullish picture for bitcoin even as Iran-related developments and DeFi hacks dominate headlines.

U.S.-listed spot ETFs pulled in $663 million on Friday, the most since Jan. 15. Total inflows reached $996 million last week, up from $786 million the week prior, according to data source SoSoValue. This points to strong institutional interest in the largest cryptocurrency.

For a meaningful price rally to emerge, it’s a trend that needs to be sustained.

“ETF flow regimes provide a secondary read: Sustained inflows signal structural demand, while intermittent flows indicate tactical positioning, with consistency mattering more than magnitude,” said Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN, in an email.

Bitcoin is trading just above $75,000 after hitting highs above $78,000 on Friday, according to CoinDesk data. The prices has largely held steady over the past 24 hours. Similar patterns are evident in ether (ETH), $XRP ($XRP), Solana ($SOL) and other major tokens.

DeFi platform Aave’s AAVE token has dropped 1% to $90 as the protocol faces collateral damage from the weekend hack of KelpDAO. The DeFi dominance rate, which measures the share of DeFi coins in the total crypto market value, has held flat at around 3%.

“The pressure on the leading cryptocurrency is linked to negative reactions in stock markets to news about Iran, which has reduced risk appetite. BTC has lagged significantly behind equities in recent days, building potential but not yet moving to realize it,” Alex Kuptsikevich, the chief market analyst at FxPro, said in an email.

According to the latest reports, the U.S. attacked and seized an Iranian cargo ship attempting to bypass restrictions on Iran’s ports.

Meanwhile, traders are actively building short positions, betting against a breakout. This could fuel a “short squeeze” if prices hold steady, forcing traders to cover bearish bets and potentially pushing spot prices higher. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”

What’s trending

• The $292 million Kelp exploit: how it happened, and what it means for DeFi (CoinDesk): Aave saw about a $6.6 billion drop in total value locked on the protocol as users yanked assets following the incident, raising “bank run” concerns. The token linked with the protocol fell about 15%.
• Hack at Vercel sends crypto developers scrambling to lock down API keys (CoinDesk): The incident is drawing scrutiny because Vercel underpins front-end infrastructure for many crypto apps and is the primary steward of Next.js, one of the most widely used web development frameworks.
• Hormuz traffic at standstill as U.S. vessel seizure widens risk (Bloomberg): Commercial traffic through the strait is at a virtual standstill after a brief reopening over the weekend ended with the first U.S. seizure of an Iranian vessel. A fragile truce is due to expire at the end of Tuesday.
• Stocks are back at records, but bond investors haven’t joined the party (The Wall Street Journal): While the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes are at all-time highs, worries about lasting damage to Middle East energy infrastructure have kept longer-dated oil futures well above their prewar levels.

Today’s signal

The chart shows weekly price swings in solana ($SOL), with each candle showing a full week of trading activity, including the opening, closing, high and low prices.

One level stands out: $95.16, the low registered in April.

$SOL has remained below that level for 11 consecutive weeks after dropping below it in early February. In technical analysis, a level that previously acted as “support,” a price floor where buying interest tends to emerge, often becomes “resistance” once it is broken. That means traders who previously bought around that level may now look to sell if prices revisit it, limiting upside momentum.

The fact that $SOL has not yet climbed back points to a sustained bearish sentiment and potential for deeper losses. The next major support is seen directly at $50.

A strong move above that level, backed by a surge in trading volumes, is needed to invalidate the bearish outlook.

The crypto market is trading back in familiar territory following a short-lived spike to its highest point since early February on Friday.

Bitcoin is trading a hair under $75,000 while ether ($ETH) is at $2,300, both significantly lower than Friday’s highs of $78,300 and $2,460.

One reason for traders to be bullish is that the bitcoin futures market on the CME, a venue favored by institutions, closed at $77,540 on Friday and opened at $74,600 to create “CME gap” that spans 3.8% to the upside. A similar gap occurred last week and was filled before the end of the day on Monday.

The first steps have been taken: Bitcoin’s gained 1.5% since midnight UTC, suggesting sentiment is warming following a volatile weekend.

The market tumbled over the weekend as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz came to a halt after opening on Friday. The renewed closure led to a jump in the price of crude oil from $78 to $88 per barrel.

This weighed on risk assets, with Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures both down by 0.59% since midnight.

Derivatives positioning

• Marketwide, crypto open interest (OI) held steady near $120 billion over the past 24 hours. Trading volume, in contrast, jumped 30%, suggesting a surge in activity without a corresponding increase in new positions. That potentially points to increased turnover, short-term positioning or traders rotating risk rather than deploying fresh capital.
• OI in solana (SOL), bitcoin , ether ($ETH) and $XRP ($XRP) held largely steady. OI in HYPE futures declined by 3% alongside as the price fell, pointing to capital outflows. Elsewhere, OI in AVAX and SP 500 perpetuals rose by 6% to 10%, respectively.
• OI in $AAVE futures surged to a record high of 3.46 million tokens as collateral damage from the weekend exploit of KelpDAO led to rapid withdrawals of from the Aave lending platform.
• Funding rates tied to $BTC, $ETH and several other tokens flipped negative, indicating a bias for short positions that would benefit from a price drop in these tokens.
• $BTC and $ETH options on Deribit continue to trade pricier than calls in a sign of lingering downside concern.
• Block flows featured bias for $BTC call spreads, which are directional bets, and ether straddles, a volatility play.

Token talk

• The altcoin sector was rocked by a $292 million exploit of Kelp DAO’s rsETH token over the weekend, leading to contagion risks across the DeFi market.
• Total value locked (TVL) on Aave dropped from $26.5 billion to $17.5 billion as a result, with the exploit sparking fears of bad debt hitting Aave’s WETH pool, triggering heavy withdrawals and a liquidity crunch.
• Aave’s token, $AAVE, rose 2.2% on Monday after tumbling 22% on Saturday.
• The bitcoin-dominant CoinDesk 20 (CD20) Index advanced 1% on Monday, outperforming the altcoin-weighted CoinDesk 80 (CD80) and the DeFi Select Index (DFX), which are up by 0.6% and 0.9%, respectively.
• One particularly volatile token is celestia (TIA), which remains 3.9% down over the past 24 hours even after surging by more than 4% since midnight.
• CoinMarketCap’s “Altcoin Season” indicator is at 36/100, demonstrating investor preference for bitcoin following Friday’s short-lived breakout.