Memecoins often thrive on hype, yet they can lose relevance just as quickly when attention fades.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao’s (CZ) recent wallet activity initially fueled speculation across the memecoin market. He later clarified the transfers were routine, not valuation‑related.
Rather than making a statement about token valuations, he simply cleared thousands of unsolicited donations by sending them directly to the burn address.
In a post on X, CZ noted,
Source: X
This move permanently removed roughly 1.1 billion donated memecoins from circulation, including transfers of 700 million and 400 million tokens shown in the wallet activity. However, the broader market impact remains limited because these assets already had little utility or liquidity.
Source: X
Instead, the transaction underscores how speculative narratives can quickly overshadow routine wallet management. Ultimately, sustainable valuations will continue to depend on genuine demand rather than symbolic token burns.
Memecoin demand remains fragile
CZ’s decision to burn unsolicited memecoins also reflects the broader challenges facing the memecoin sector. While new narratives occasionally attract speculative inflows, sustained demand has remained weak since Bitcoin’s October 2025 peak.
As Bitcoin [$BTC] plummeted, investors began reducing their exposure to riskier assets. This led to cumulative Binance memecoin net volume declining to -$1.21 billion.
This suggests that rather than accumulate for long-term growth, traders increasingly view memecoins as assets to exit during uncertainty. Unless risk appetite improves, capital will likely continue concentrating in stronger cryptocurrencies.
Source: Dakforst on X
As a result, this leaves memecoins vulnerable to lower liquidity, sharper volatility, and shorter-lived recoveries.
Rather than signaling isolated selling, the persistent outflows point to a prolonged risk-off environment across the sector. Although Robinhood Chain briefly revived interest in newer tokens, that momentum failed to reverse broader capital rotation.
Without consistent buying, memecoins will stay driven by short‑lived narratives rather than durable demand.
Final Summary
Memecoins remain driven by speculation, with CZ’s burn carrying limited market impact.
Bitcoin [$BTC] weakness continues weighing on memecoins, as persistent capital outflows keep the sector in a prolonged risk-off environment.
Two teleoperated robots work as a team to perform a laparoscopic gallbladder removal during a pre-clinical trial (Picture: University of California San Diego (UCSD)/Cover Images)
The world’s first operation performed by robot surgeons has been successfully carried out.
Researchers say the breakthrough could one day allow specialists to carry out life-saving procedures from hundreds of miles away, helping patients in remote communities, disaster zones and military field hospitals.
The human-shaped robots completed two gallbladder removal operations during a preclinical trial on large animal models.
One procedure saw a robot operate alongside a human surgeon acting as an assistant. In the second, two humanoid robots worked together as the surgical team.
The research, published in the journal Nature, was carried out by engineers and surgeons at the University of California San Diego.
Nicknamed ‘Surgie’, the robots stand around 5ft tall, weigh just 27kg and use standard surgical instruments, meaning they could work in existing operating theatres without the specialist facilities needed for conventional robotic surgery systems.
A human-robot team made up of a humanoid robot and a human surgeon acting as an assistant successfully performed a gallbladder removal (Picture: University of California San Diego (UCSD)/Cover Images)
Professor Michael Yip, one of the study’s senior authors, said the technology could help tackle a growing global shortage of surgeons.
He said: ‘There is a shortage of surgeons alongside growing patient needs, which leads to longer wait times, reduced access and greater healthcare disparities.
‘Remotely operated and autonomous humanoid robots have real potential for expanding access to critical surgeries that patients would otherwise not receive.’
Conventional robotic surgery systems can weigh almost 1,800lb and require specialist operating theatres and large support teams.
The researchers say humanoid robots are far cheaper, more compact and could be deployed in under-resourced hospitals or temporary medical facilities.
Dr Shanglei Liu, who remotely controlled one of the robots during the trial, said: ‘It’s a fraction of the cost and it takes a fraction of the space in an operating room. So it’s easy to deploy anywhere from rural areas to the battlefield, and even to space.’
Ryan Broderick, MD, controls a robot during a gallbladder removal procedure (Picture: University of California San Diego (UCSD)/Cover Images)
The robots mirror a surgeon’s hand movements using a teleoperation system, allowing procedures to be performed remotely.
The team says the technology is still in its early stages. The robots needed several recalibrations during surgery and the operations took much longer than those carried out using existing robotic systems.
But the researchers believe the technology will improve rapidly, pointing out that early robotic keyhole surgery once took six hours but can now be completed in around 30 minutes.
They hope humanoid robots will eventually work alongside surgeons, helping deliver specialist care to patients wherever it is needed.
Ether.fi [$ETHFI] has posted a sharp decline as capital outflows across the broader market drive much of the fall.
The asset recorded a double-digit loss in the early hours of Tuesday, extending its price to a low of $0.384 on the chart. Outflows continue to dominate, yet the market is already flashing early signs of a possible recovery and leaves room for a rally to still stretch higher.
Capital exits $ETHFI’s on-chain economy
The steepest hurdle facing $ETHFI’s price over the past day has been the on-chain capital exit.
Total value locked (TVL), which gauges the strength of on-chain capital through the deposits and withdrawals moving through the protocol, shows that roughly $54 million has left the market.
The metric slid from $3.212 billion to roughly $3.153 billion, signalling that retail holders are exiting the market, likely on concerns over rising volatility.
Source: DeFiLlama
On a protocol level, the asset has held up decently, with earnings—the profit that remains once incentives are stripped out—reaching $1.34 million and already nearing half of the $2.79 million generated in June.
The pattern suggests the recent sell-off reflects a reaction to market sentiment and not a structural bearish trend. That sentiment traces back to the notable decline the crypto market absorbed over the past day, when it shed around $8.61 billion in total capitalization.
Perpetual contracts keep bears in play
The clearest gap in the market emerges from $ETHFI’s perpetual contracts, which show that bears still hold some strength after an 11% decline dragged open interest to $62.26 million.
That gap stems from an imbalance in liquidations, with market data revealing a wide disparity between long and short liquidations. Over the past 24 hours, long traders have lost roughly 40 times more than short traders.
The liquidation data shows short traders lost just $2,210 against $89,680 for long traders across the same period, and the uneven spread points to the strength of the bears.
Source: CoinGlass
On lower timeframes, the liquidation disparity widens further, though the capital lost this time around remains minimal.
The liquidation heatmap offers no clear directional bias for the asset, instead showing fairly evenly distributed clusters.
These clusters mark areas on the chart where buy or sell orders sit, and clusters resting above the price usually act as sell zones that pull the price toward them and force selling, while clusters below reverse the dynamic and force buys once the price drops into them.
For now, there’s no decisive direction, leaving momentum to dictate the next price move.
Rising long volume hints at $ETHFI accumulation
While liquidations remain skewed in favour of the shorts, activity on the long-to-short ratio points to rising accumulation.
At the time of writing, the long-to-short volume ratio on the chart shows more long volume in the market, pushing up to 1.02. A continued climb would imply that buy interest still lingers in the market.
Source: CoinGlass
Whether that offers a sufficient basis for a shift in direction remains unclear. The broader crypto market that shaped the sell-off sentiment has begun cooling, and a strong chance remains that $ETHFI benefits from the turn and recovers, flipping momentum against the sellers.
Final Summary
Ether.fi’s token fell 10% after roughly $54 million left the protocol, moving in step with a broader crypto market that shed about $8.61 billion in a day.
Buying activity is quietly picking up and a calming market could give $ETHFI room to bounce back.
UPDATE: Writer E. Jean Carroll has been paid a damages amount of $5.63 million as part of her successful lawsuit against Donald Trump, after the president exhausted his appeals.
According to an entry in the docket of federal court in New York, the funds were transmitted to the law firm representing Carroll on Monday.
“The Eagle Has Landed,” Carroll wrote on her Substack page on Tuesday.
A jury awarded Carroll $5 million after ruling that Trump was liable for sexual abuse and defamation. It stemmed from a 1996 incident at a Manhattan department store, where Carroll claimed that Trump sexually abused her. Trump has denied the allegations, but Carroll also sued for defamation after his claim that she was spreading falsehoods.
Trump appealed, but the Supreme Court declined to take up the case last month. That left in place the verdict, and a judge ordered the funds released from a court escrow account. The figure paid includes interest, although it is slightly less than some earlier estimates.
Trump is also appealing a verdict in a separate proceeding, in which a jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million after finding him liable for defamation.
PREVIOUSLY: A federal judge ordered the release of around $5.8 million held in an escrow account to writer E. Jean Carroll after the Supreme Court declined to take Donald Trump’s appeal of a jury’s judgment that he was liable for sexually abusing and defaming her.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan issued the order on Wednesday, despite efforts by Trump’s attorneys to hold off on the disbursement as they pursue a rehearing before the Supreme Court, which declined their petition last month. Those rehearings, though, are very rare.
The funds represent a jury’s $5 million judgment, plus interest, after a 2023 trial. The funds were held in an account controlled by the court for more than three years.
After Kaplan’s most recent order, Trump’s legal team filed an appeal.
The jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store in 1996, and later claiming that her allegations were false.
In a separate proceeding, a Manhattan jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in damages after finding Trump liable for defamation. Trump’s legal team is appealing that verdict to the Supreme Court as well.
Kaplan wrote, “In the last analysis, defendant has been stalling this case for years. A jury unanimously concluded that he sexually abused and defamed plaintiff and awarded her damages accordingly. The judgment on that verdict has been upheld on appeal. En banc rehearing has been denied. The Supreme Court has denied certiorari without dissent. It is time for him to ‘do equity’ and pay the judgment.”
A federal court has set a hearing for Friday to consider an emergency motion filed by a dozen state attorneys general to at least temporarily halt Paramount‘s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts was assigned the case earlier on Tuesday. Pitts was appointed to the federal bench by President Joe Biden.
The hearing will be at 10 a.m. PT. The court also set a deadline of noon on Thursday for Paramount’s opposition to the TRO.
The states want the judge to rule by July 22, warning that the company would otherwise close the transaction after that date. The date is around the time that the European Union is expected to issue its decision on the transaction, with the U.S. Justice Department having already cleared the deal.
Amid growing speculation around OnePlus’s exit from key international markets, a new report claims that the brand’s withdrawal from the US and Europe is set to be confirmed this week.
OnePlus has been a key Android brand for enthusiasts in the US and other regions, but the company has struggled to find a footing outside China and India. In April, following several reports of a shutdown in the US, OnePlus North America told PCMag it is “evaluating its regional roadmap and product strategy.”
The evaluation now seems to have reached its conclusion. Citing sources, German outlet WinFuture reports that OnePlus’s parent, Oppo, will announce the brand’s wind-down in the US and Europe later this week.
Unboxing the OnePlus 15R
As part of a strategic overhaul, Oppo is expected to narrow OnePlus’s focus to just budget-friendly devices in China and India, while expanding its own footprint in Europe, the report adds. The transition already appears to be in play, with OnePlus’ German site currently nudging some customers toward Oppo devices.
WinFuture wasn’t able to confirm the reason behind the changes. The outlet reports that even OnePlus wasn’t discussing it behind closed doors.
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For US customers, the rumored move would mean no new OnePlus smartphone releases going forward. Existing OnePlus users, however, need not worry. The brand told PCMag in April that “all users’ after-sales support, software updates, and rights commitments are fully guaranteed.”
OnePlus’s last major US release was the OnePlus 15. The device faced a major delay last year due to the US government shutdown. The FCC finally cleared the phone in November, and OnePlus began shipping it in December. The OnePlus 15R landed earlier this year, but OnePlus’s biggest 2026 release, the OnePlus 15T, has yet to arrive in the US.
About Our Expert
Experience
Jibin is a tech news writer based out of Ahmedabad, India. Previously, he served as the editor of iGeeksBlog and is a self-proclaimed tech enthusiast who loves breaking down complex information for a broader audience.
New television production and distribution outfit RoseBerry Media has launched Epis, a mobile-first global streaming service aiming to bridge the gap between traditional TV and streaming and the growing business of mobile-first microdramas and vertical video.
Epis (short for “episodes”) bills itself as the world’s first premium vertical streaming service. It is launching with more than 100 titles across various formats, from reality TV and true crime to drama.
The line-up includes vertical originals including Two Marys; The Swindler and the Billionaire Murder, a true crime format from Silvio Productions of Israel, known for its Shadow of Truth format on Netflix; and the comedy-drama series Revenge Is a Dish from Lime Pictures, the British outfit best known for its hit soap operas Hollyoaks and The Only Way Is Essex.
The Epis platform will also feature several TV formats adapted for vertical viewing on mobile, including the BBC 3/Netflix dating format Sexy Beasts, produced by All3Media’s Lion Television, in which contestants don beastly makeup before pairing off in an effort to find romance trying to find romance; You Can’t Kill Me, adapted from Fremantle‘s Channel 4 true crime miniseries The Fall: Skydive Murder (2024); and House in Flames, a vertical adaptation of the Fremantle-produced Channel 5 thriller Heat (2023), starring Danny Dyer.
RoseBerry said it is planning more than 25 original vertical productions for this year.
RoseBerry co-founder and CEO Guy Hameiri said epis is founded on the “simple belief” that mobile-first vertical entertainment can be premium entertainment. “Audiences have changed how they consume content, but they have not stopped wanting great stories,” he said. “With epis, we are bringing together world-class creative talent, proven television IP, original productions and advanced technology to create a curated, mobile-first service for audiences who want stories worth watching, whether they have five minutes or fifty.”
Epis is keen to distinguish itself from Microdrama apps such as ReelShort, DramaBox or FreeFlow with its focus on premium, “TV quality” productions and formats. RoseBerry has signed deals with several traditional TV players, including Fremantle, Banijay, All3Media, A+E Global Media, and Cineflix Rights to repurpose selected shows from their libraries for premium vertical services.
While Epis will operate as a stand-alone service, RoseBerry is also positioning the app as a testing site, a place where producers can try out vertical formats, adaptations, and monetization models in real time, with an eye to licensing them to vertical video feeds on other premium sites, such as Netflix Clips or Disney+ Verts.
“It gives us and our partners a DTC [direct to consumer] destination, a testing and data analysis ground and a source of audience intelligence, while supporting a broader studio model designed to help the industry create, understand and monetise premium vertical television across multiple distribution windows,” said Hameiri.
Timed to the Epis launch, RoseBerry has appointed Gidon Katz, the veteran TV exec behind the launch of the Peacock and Now TV streaming platforms, to its advisory board.
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday signed SB 168 into law, giving first-time EV buyers up to $3,500 in instant rebates at the dealership.
The MyFirstEV program will roll out later this summer, and it will be part of the state’s larger zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) agenda. California will allocate $135.5 million to the program, and participating automakers will match the state’s investment.
The instant rebates apply to both new and used EVs. On new cars, first-time buyers can get up to $3,500 off vehicles with an MSRP of up to $50,000. On used EVs, they can receive up to $1,750 off vehicles priced at $25,000 or less.
The $50,000 cap vanishes for EV manufacturers headquartered in California. That means buyers will be able to claim the rebate on higher-priced Lucid and Rivian models, but not on those from Texas-based Tesla. Those interested in getting the rebate on a Tesla will have to choose eligible sub-$50,000 versions of the Model 3 or Model Y, Electrek reports.
These are preliminary estimates. The final list of eligible vehicles won’t be known until California announces the participating companies. The California Air Resources Board tells Reuters it hopes to announce the partnering automakers next month.
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California’s new EV discount arrives close to a year after President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill killed the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. Gov. Newsom, a Democrat, didn’t miss the opportunity to take a swipe at him. “Donald Trump is doing everything in his power to pollute our air and surrender the clean car industry to China on a silver platter. California is putting its foot on the accelerator,” Newsom said in a statement. “No one can stop Californians from choosing vehicles that are better for their wallets and better for the air they breathe.”
About Our Expert
Experience
Jibin is a tech news writer based out of Ahmedabad, India. Previously, he served as the editor of iGeeksBlog and is a self-proclaimed tech enthusiast who loves breaking down complex information for a broader audience.
On Monday afternoon, an unidentified marine animal bit a person in the Foster City Lagoon near Shearwater Isle, according to the Foster City Police Department.
“Based on the initial assessment, the injury is consistent with a bite from a small marine animal,” police said in a news release. “At this time, the exact species has not been confirmed.”
While efforts are made to keep bay marine life out of the lagoon, the possibility always exists for creatures to make their way into the body of water, according to police.
Police are coordinating with other agencies and plan to provide updates if more information becomes available. In the meantime, people are being asked to report any “unusual marine animal activity.”
“Thank you for your cooperation in helping keep our community safe,” police said in the news release.
The lagoon, which serves as a drainage detention basin, spans 212 acres and has an average depth of about 6 feet, according to the city’s website. Swimming, along with boating and fishing, is permitted.
In the world of creators, authenticity reins supreme. A genuine connection to a topic or concept can be the difference between a show or channel that resonates with audiences — or one that viewers will pass by.
That’s true for creator content on YouTube, and it’s increasingly true for branded content too.
Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry know a thing or two about that. As the hosts of The Colin and Samir Show, they cover the ins and outs of creators and the creator economy every week.
Now, for their latest project, they are bringing a dose of what they talk on their show to life in a tangible way, via a partnership with the automotive brand Lexus.
The duo will host Colin & Samir Start Over, a series that sees them traveling across the country in the Lexus GX 550 and Lexus RZ 550e, reconnecting with the outdoors, and trying new things to inspire their creativity.
And, yes, there is a personal inspiration. Both Colin and Samir lost their houses in last year’s L.A. fires, and that shock ultimately inspired the concept they brought to Lexus.
“I think it was this moment of true reflection of, okay our entire routine has been completely shaken up. Were we doing what we wanted to be doing? Were we living every day the way we wanted to be living it?” Rosenblum says in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “And when we had the opportunity to pitch Lexus, we thought, can we pitch an experience that is new and different and takes us out of our routine?”
“There’s a level of authenticity that is a part of this campaign that’s just like the actual moment in our life, and what we were desiring was reinvention,” Chaudry adds. “Having this dramatic of a thing happen in your life, you’re just faced with this premise of what now? Who am I now? And we were really honest about that with our audience. We have multiple videos on our channel that address this moment for us, and this question of reinvention. And we just told that story to the Lexus team and said, what would I do with a car right now? I would drive around and do a bunch of things that I want to do to explore my creativity again, and get out of L.A. and just go on adventures.”
As it happens, Chaudry also had another connection to Lexus: During the pandemic, he auditioned for a Lexus commercial. “I was miserable at it. I didn’t know anything about it,” he recalls. He spoke about the experience on their podcast, which a YouTube partner manager listened to.
“Just based on the timing, Lexus was looking for creators to work with, and looking for creators with an authentic connection to Lexus, and beyond the fact that I auditioned for the campaign, it was also the first car I ever drove, was my mom’s Lexus, and I talked about that as well, and so I was very publicly talking about this funny audition story with Lexus, and it just sparked something, a connection in our partner manager’s head, as that request came from the other side of Google and asked us if we would want to pitch something to Lexus,” he said.
The duo also worked with Creative Works at Google on the project. The in-house consultancy is in the business of connecting brands and creators on campaigns, a business that Kevin Babcock, the head of creative partnerships for U.S. Creative Works at Google, says has been booming in recent years.
Our team is always looking for great partnerships between creators and brands to bring them together to to really achieve a brand’s marketing objectives, and the partnership with Lexus has been a great one over the years,” Babcock says. “So, when the opportunity was flagged to us, actually by Colin and Samir’s partnership manager at Google, Andrew, we thought actually the timing really aligned really well to initiatives that Lexus was asking us for support on.”
“At Lexus, we believe meaningful progress comes from the courage to evolve and the pursuit of new experiences,” adds Lisa McQueen, senior manager of Lexus marketing. “Our partnership with Colin and Samir reflects a shared commitment to reinvention, thoughtful storytelling, and creativity with purpose. Through this series, we’re exploring how the journey itself can inspire new perspectives and shape what comes next.”
Lexus will roll out new episodes of Colin & Samir Start Over throughout the year, and the pair hope that it stands on its own as something their fans will want to watch.
“We wanted to make something that felt very native to YouTube that used a lot of the same storytelling tactics that we’ve used in our videos, even down to the initial hooks,” Rosenblum says. “We thought a lot about the first line of every single asset, so that if someone’s sitting down watching YouTube on their TV and an ad plays, we’re getting their attention.”
And as chroniclers of the creator economy themselves, they are hoping that it could even inspire some other brands and creatives to participate.
“I think it’s just like a really fun and abundant time, and there’s going to be a lot of experimentation and I think there’s going to be a lot of good creative that comes out of this,” Chaudry says. “I couldn’t be more excited for creators to have a new outlet on the platform to tell stories, because not every creator, not every idea fits into what you are distributing as a distribution platform. This content is different for us, it’s a variation of what we make, but to express ourselves in this way in this context is really fun, and I think more creators want to do this.”
