Bitcoin continued "incredible" 2022 bear market repeat behavior as sellers kept control over BTC price rebound attempts.

The exchange integration gives Western Union’s dollar-pegged token access to crypto market liquidity as payment providers accelerate their adoption of stablecoins.

SpaceX's ambitious IPO could reshape market dynamics, but high valuation and profitability challenges pose significant risks for investors.

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Blanche's nomination signals a DOJ pivot towards traditional crime, potentially reducing federal focus on crypto-specific enforcement.

The post Trump to nominate Todd Blanche as permanent attorney general, cementing crypto-friendly DOJ shift appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

XRP and SWIFT are often presented as rivals in the race to modernize global payments, but a recent argument suggests otherwise. Rather than a winner-takes-all battle, the latest developments point toward a financial environment where traditional banking infrastructure and blockchain-based settlement systems operate side by side. That perspective raises an important question: is the long-running XRP versus SWIFT debate already outdated, or are banks quietly building a different model altogether?

XRP VS SWIFT: The Wrong Battlefield

To understand the argument, it is necessary to separate messaging from settlement. According to James Dula, much of the discussion surrounding SWIFT’s latest cross-border payments initiative misses a crucial distinction. While the network recently rolled out a single framework with over 50 banks, offering faster processing and better transaction tracking, its core function remains unchanged.

SWIFT functions as a communication layer between financial institutions. It transmits payment instructions, confirms transaction details, and coordinates activity across borders. However, sending a message is not the same as moving money. The actual transfer of value still requires a settlement mechanism capable of completing the transaction.

This distinction is why Dula argues that the latest announcement does not automatically place SWIFT in direct competition with XRP. In his view, the real challengers emerging from the blockchain sector are interoperability and messaging protocols such as Axelar, LayerZero, Wormhole, and Chainlink. These networks focus on transporting information and coordinating activity between systems, making them closer competitors to SWIFT’s communications role than XRP itself.

Viewed through that lens, the debate changes dramatically. Instead of asking whether SWIFT can replace XRP, the more relevant question becomes whether messaging networks and settlement assets should even be competing for the same position within the financial stack.

Banks Are Building Both Routes

That shift in perspective becomes even more significant when examining the institutions involved. Dula highlights that many of the banks participating in SWIFT’s new framework already maintain relationships with Ripple or have explored blockchain-based payment solutions linked to its ecosystem.

Major global names such as JPMorgan, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, and Santander have all been associated with digital asset research, blockchain experimentation, or payment modernization efforts. Their involvement on multiple fronts suggests that financial institutions are not necessarily choosing one system while abandoning another.

Instead, banks appear increasingly interested in combining technologies that solve different problems. A messaging network can coordinate transactions, provide compliance information, and create standardized communication channels. A separate settlement layer can then handle the movement of value with greater speed and efficiency.

This emerging model challenges the idea of a direct war between XRP and SWIFT. Rather than replacing one another, both could occupy different positions within a broader financial architecture. 

The implication is clear. If Dula’s assessment is correct, the future of international payments may not be defined by a single victor. Instead, banks may be constructing a hybrid network where traditional infrastructure and digital asset technology work together, creating an entirely different route than many observers expected.

BitMine Immersion Technologies is moving deeper into the public-market crypto treasury trade, filing for a preferred stock offering that could help fund additional Ethereum purchases and validator infrastructure. The structure puts the company closer to the capital-markets model popularized by Michael Saylor’s Strategy, but with ETH rather than Bitcoin as the core reserve asset.

The Norwalk, Connecticut-based company said it intends to offer 3,000,000 shares of 9.50% Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock in a public offering registered under the Securities Act. The preferred shares carry a stated amount of $100 per share, implying a potential $300 million stated-value issuance if sold at that level, though the company said the deal remains subject to market and other conditions.

BitMine Files Yield Offering As It Builds Ethereum Treasury

BitMine framed the proceeds broadly, but Ethereum sits at the center of the filing. The company said it intends to use net proceeds “for general corporate purposes, which may include the acquisition of additional ETH and other digital assets; the expansion of the Company’s staking and validator infrastructure, including through MAVAN; working capital; strategic investments aligned with the Ethereum ecosystem and broader digital asset adoption; and/or repurchases of the Company’s common stock under its share repurchase program.”

BitMine has committed to ETH as its primary treasury reserve asset and says it is using native protocol-level activity, including staking and decentralized finance mechanisms, as part of that strategy. In 2026, the company launched MAVAN, or Made-in America VAlidator Network, as dedicated staking infrastructure for BitMine assets.

The comparison with Saylor’s Strategy comes from the financing mechanism. Strategy built its Bitcoin treasury model not only through common stock and convertible debt, but also through preferred equity products (STRC and STRF) designed to attract yield-oriented investors while raising capital for digital asset accumulation.

BitMine is now applying a similar template to Ethereum: issue a yield-bearing security in the public markets, use the proceeds flexibly, and route part of the capital toward a crypto treasury asset with institutional-market packaging around it.

The preferred stock itself is structured as a cash-paying instrument. BitMine said the Series A Preferred Stock will accumulate cumulative dividends at a fixed rate of 9.50% per year on the $100 stated amount, whether or not dividends are declared or funds are legally available for payment. “Regular dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock will be payable when, as and if declared by BMNR’s board of directors, out of funds legally available for their payment, weekly in arrears,” the company said. “Declared regular dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock will be payable solely in cash.”

The filing also includes a penalty mechanism if dividends are not paid on schedule. Any unpaid accumulated regular dividend would itself begin accumulating additional dividends, compounded weekly. The compounded dividend rate initially equals 9.50% plus 5 basis points, based on a weekly regular dividend period, and increases by another 5 basis points for each subsequent period until paid in full, capped at 15% per year.

BitMine will retain redemption flexibility. The company can redeem the preferred stock in whole or in part for cash at 110% of stated amount during the first 18 months after issuance, 105% from 18 months to three years, and 100% after three years, plus accumulated and unpaid dividends. It can also redeem all outstanding preferred shares if the total remaining falls below 25% of the original issuance, or if certain tax events occur.

Holders also receive protection in the event of a “fundamental change.” If such an event occurs under the certificate of designations, preferred shareholders can require BitMine to repurchase some or all of their shares for cash at the stated amount, plus accumulated and unpaid regular dividends.

BitMine has applied to list the preferred stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BMNP. If approved, the company expects trading to begin within 30 days after the shares are first issued. Moelis & Company and Cantor are acting as joint lead bookrunners.

At press time, Ethereum traded at $1,793.

A Casascius coin tied to 25 BTC moved this week, converting a 2011 physical Bitcoin artifact into spendable BTC during a broader market selloff.

Galaxy Research identified the item as an S1-COIN-25 Casascius physical Bitcoin, a large-denomination piece from the era when Bitcoin could still be handed across a table as a loaded coin. The reported alert valued the 25 BTC at about $1.78 million at the time.

The on-chain sequence is more precise than a simple cash-out. The watched address received a 25 BTC output in block 156,413 on Dec. 7, 2011. It later accumulated small dust outputs before spending its funded outputs this week.

The first 2026 spend landed on June 3 at block 952,159. That transaction spent 25.00002187 BTC from the address and returned 24.98998 BTC to the same address after fees and dust handling.

A second transaction on June 4 at block 952,267 moved 24.98996629 BTC to a SegWit address, leaving the watched address with no balance.

The event proves a status change rather than a confirmed sale. Bitcoin, once attached to a physical collectible, became spendable via a normal wallet path. The chain shows movement away from the old address without any evidence of an exchange deposit, custodian route, or sale.

What the Bitcoin blockchain shows

The June 3 transaction matters because it exposed activity from an address that had carried its original 25 BTC output since 2011. The spend returned most of the value to the same address, so a one-line address history can overstate what changed.

The June 4 transaction completed the visible move. The final spend sent 24.98996629 BTC from the watched address to bc1qn5snfwq447vge9ynnz66xqm9kpam9eu34z52dk. The fee was 1,371 sats.

After that, Blockstream's address view showed no remaining balance. The holder's reason remains unknown, and the available record ends with a transfer to another Bitcoin address.

That boundary matters for market interpretation. Old coins moving can look like holder behavior during a selloff, while the available data only establishes transfer to a recipient address.

CryptoSlate applied a similar standard to Mt. Gox-linked wallet movements, treating the first transfer as a warning light until later routing showed more. The same discipline applies here, where the next useful signal is onward routing.

For now, the address history supports the following conclusion: a long-dormant, Casascius-attributed 25 BTC address became active, then sent nearly all of its remaining balance away from the original address.

Casascius attribution and on-chain proof do separate jobs. The visible chain proves the key was used. Galaxy-attributed secondary coverage supplies the label that makes it a physical-coin event.

Keeping those layers separate preserves the cultural hook without turning a tracker alert into more certainty than the record can carry.

A move from an old address becomes supply-only if subsequent routing points to a venue where coins can be sold or financed.

Until then, the strongest verifiable signal is a custody transition. A private key once hidden in a physical object has been used, and the BTC now sits outside the original Casascius-attributed address.

Why a Physical Coin Still Matters

Casascius coins occupy a strange place in Bitcoin history because they turned a purely digital bearer asset into a physical object. The original site describes pieces with their own Bitcoin address and a redeemable private key sealed inside.

The Casascius FAQ explains the tamper-evident hologram and the rationale behind making a physical Bitcoin as a proof-of-concept and conversation piece.

That design created a trade-off outside ordinary wallet custody. Leaving the hologram intact preserves the object as a loaded collectible. Peeling it gives the holder control over the BTC, but changes the item from a funded artifact into a spent collectible.

The owner is choosing between numismatic scarcity and direct wallet liquidity. That choice makes this move more distinctive than a dormant wallet transfer.

A standard wallet can sit idle for years and then move without changing its form. A Casascius redemption changes the nature of the thing itself.

The coin can still exist as a physical object, but its main economic value has shifted back to Bitcoin on-chain.

CryptoSlate covered a larger version of that tension in 2025, when a holder unlocked about $10 million from a rare Casascius bar. That case also forced a choice between keeping a scarce, loaded relic and redeeming the BTC.

The current 25 BTC move lands differently because of timing. Bitcoin was already under pressure, and old-wallet activity carries a sharper edge when leverage is unwinding.

CryptoSlate's Bitcoin price page shows BTC near $63,000 on June 4, down 5.7% over 24 hours, 13.8% over seven days, and 22% over 30 days.

At that snapshot price, 25 BTC is worth about $1.58 million, which is already below the $1.78 million recently reported in the Galaxy-attributed alert.

Routing, Not Folklore

Bitcoin fell from $71,765 to $67,895 on June 2, triggering about $394 million in one-hour liquidations as leveraged long positions unwound.

That selloff makes any movement from old BTC addresses feel more consequential than it would during a calm rally.

The cultural signal and the trading signal are different. The cultural signal is clear: one of Bitcoin's early physical storage formats appears to have rejoined the ordinary liquidity layer.

The trading signal remains unresolved. The watched BTC has left the original address, while the available data leaves open whether it will be sold, stored, pledged, or moved again.

Casascius redemptions connect the Bitcoin of forums, holograms, and physical experiments with the Bitcoin of ETFs, market-cap dashboards, and institutional liquidity.

A physical coin from 2011 can sit untouched for years, then become on-chain BTC in a market where every old coin movement is scanned for supply pressure.

It is a small event compared with Mt. Gox balances, ETF flows, or miner selling, but it is vivid because the holder had to alter a collectible to make the BTC liquid.

The next signal is simple. If the June 4 recipient address routes funds toward an exchange, custodian, mixer, or known liquidity venue, the signal moves from culture and custody into market supply.

If it stays parked, the event remains a clean example of Bitcoin's long memory: old keys, old objects, and old storage habits can still wake up when the asset around them has become a global market.

The post A 2011 physical Bitcoin loaded with 25 BTC was just unlocked during the $62k selloff appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin is enduring a multi-front assault on its spot market liquidity as exchange-traded funds, short-term speculators, and cryptocurrency miners simultaneously distribute assets.

This coordinated selling pressure has drained market demand at the fastest pace since the 2022 collapse of the Terra/Luna ecosystem.

As a result, BTC's price has tanked 12% over the past week, pushing the top crypto towards the $60,000 level amid heavy hedging activities from market traders. BTC is exchanging hands at $64,036 as of press time, according to CryptoSlate's data.

Yet, this spot-market flush has created a structural paradox that could still catapult BTC's value.

The volume of selling has twisted the derivatives market into an increasingly lopsided shape where a record wall of short positions now anchors the market.

However, while traditional spot indicators point downward, any pause in selling could spark a mechanical short squeeze and turn the traders betting against Bitcoin into the forced buyers who fuel its next rally.

Bitcoin ETF exodus runs after the AI trade

The primary driver behind Bitcoin’s recent price weakness is a sharp reversal in institutional capital flows. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recently logged a 13-day streak of consecutive liquidations between mid-May and early June.

According to Galaxy Research, these funds shed 59,351 BTC, pulling roughly $4.33 billion out of the market.

Over a seven-day window, the funds lost $2.78 billion, representing the worst such outflow on record for Bitcoin. The bleeding continued over a 10-day window with $3.06 billion in outflows. The 14-day window saw $4.21 billion exit the market, while the 20-day trailing window recorded $5.42 billion in outflows, shedding 73,080 BTC.

Galaxy Research noted this 20-day period is the single largest outflow window by both dollar value and total Bitcoin volume on record.

Industry executives view this as a macroeconomic realignment rather than an internal failure of the digital asset class. Traditional capital markets are currently routing approximately $400 billion into artificial intelligence infrastructure over a six-month window.

Michael Saylor, chairman of Strategy, said:

“This is a capital rotation, not a Bitcoin impairment. Capital markets are funding the AI buildout at historic scale. Volatility creates opportunity.”

Jeff Park, an advisor at Bitwise, echoed this sentiment. He suggested traders are tapping their Bitcoin allocations to fund the market’s upcoming “hot ball of money” trades, shifting liquidity to chase tech firms like SpaceX and Anthropic.

Moving forward, Park noted, this correlation breakdown will itself become the fuel for future market moves.

Speculative panic and miner capitulation

As institutional support softened, retail and short-term holders entered a phase of outright capitulation.

CryptoQuant data shows that overall Bitcoin demand, which is a combination of the speculative and spot market purchasing, contracted by 501,000 BTC over the past month.

At the same time, short-term BTC holders are driving the most concentrated loss-driven transfers of the year.

Over a 24-hour window, these holders moved 53,800 BTC directly onto exchanges. CryptoQuant researchers highlighted the critical split: 100% of these coins moved while at a loss, while profit-side inflows collapsed to zero.

This means that these underwater buyers are choosing to liquidate their positions directly into market weakness rather than wait out the volatility.

Historically, CryptoQuant noted, peaks in loss-driven inflows from short-term holders cluster around local capitulation events. They mark weak hands, flushing out, and supply transferring from over-leveraged late entrants to higher-conviction holders.

Adding to the overhead supply, BTC miners are also moving coins. CryptoQuant noted that on June 2, Bitcoin miner inflows to the Binance exchange spiked to 24,716 BTC, surpassing a previous February peak by 6.8%.

CryptoQuant researchers pointed out that large miner inflows do not confirm immediate, open-market selling. Miners frequently move coins for strategic purposes, including hedging, liquidity management, or internal treasury rebalancing.

However, concentrating this volume of Bitcoin on a single exchange means miner-held supply has moved directly adjacent to market liquidity.

If these inflows remain elevated in the coming days, traders may interpret the data as a sign of renewed miner distribution.

The supply absorption puzzle

This relentless selling creates a structural puzzle when contrasted with long-term accumulation data. While short-term speculators flee, veteran investors are aggressively absorbing the overhead supply.

Brian HoonJong Paik, CEO of the Bitcoin-focused firm Smash Fi, pointed out that long-term holders added 200,000 BTC to their wallets this month and now control 16.3 million BTC, which is sitting near their all-time high holdings.

Paik said:

“The people who have held Bitcoin the longest are not selling into this weakness. They are buying your panic.”

Yet, the sheer volume of coins hitting the market indicates a massive change of hands.

CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju noted that historically, bear markets conclude only after the spot price falls below the realized price. This metric places the current average investor cost basis around $53,000.

Reaching that level, however, should theoretically prove difficult given the wall of institutional capital that has entered the market.

Ki Young Ju broke down the math to illustrate the scale of this absorption: Since January 2023, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) bought 711,206 BTC and sold only 32, effectively locking up 711,174 coins.

Furthermore, since Bitcoin traded at $63,000 in March 2024, spot ETFs absorbed an additional 509,102 BTC, while Strategy acquired another 650,706 BTC.

In total, institutions swallowed 1,240,808 BTC, yet the spot price remains anchored at the same level.

For context, total global exchange reserves hover around 2.7 million BTC, and Satoshi Nakamoto’s estimated holdings equal roughly 1 million BTC.

Despite the market absorbing a supply shock larger than Satoshi’s entire stack, the price remains suppressed.

This dynamic highlights that while traditional long-term holders and institutions accumulate heavily, an unusually motivated cohort of sellers continues to cap any upward momentum.

BTC's coiled spring set-up

While the spot market paints a picture of exhaustion, the derivatives market has transformed into a coiled spring. The rush to short Bitcoin during this slide has created a top-heavy leverage structure.

Data from analytics firm Alphractal shows a dramatic 72-hour shift in the global liquidation map. On the first day of the flush, the market sat at 66% short-heavy.

By day two, it reached 76%. By day three, the market shifted to an extreme 89% short bias. The metric now pits $98.3 billion in short positions against a $12.2 billion long stack.

The short-to-long ratio sits at 8.06x. Because the market has already washed out most leveraged longs, limited downside risk remains on the chart. The downside magnetic level at $61,054 holds just $1.3 billion in long liquidations.

Conversely, the upside is heavily clustered with short liquidation triggers. A modest upward move opens up three waves of forced buying: $2.1 billion at $72,201; another $2.2 billion at $80,293; and a final $2.0 billion layer resting at $82,630.

According to Alphractal, short sellers have stacked more than $6.3 billion in sensitive liquidation triggers between 15% and 32% above the current spot price.

The closest structural analog to this dataset occurred in November 2022, when the same metric printed an 84% short-heavy reading. Over the following 11 sessions, Bitcoin surged approximately 24%.

Bitcoin currently faces undeniable spot pressure from miners, panicked retail traders, and fleeing ETF capital.

However, by over-allocating into bearish trades, the market has set a mechanical trap.

The underlying selling pressure remains real, but the resulting structural imbalance means that the slightest pause in spot distribution could easily trigger a violent, upward cascade powered entirely by the traders betting on Bitcoin's decline.

The post Bitcoin’s selloff is creating the short-heavy setup that could reverse it fast appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Michael Saylor conceded that the recent Bitcoin selloff reflects a rotation of capital toward AI rather than weakness in the pioneer crypto itself.

He pointed to roughly $4 billion in Bitcoin ETF outflows since May 14, with the king of crypto trading near $64,000 at the time, down about 4% on the day and nearly 49% below its October 2025 record.

Michael Saylor Reframes the Bitcoin Selloff

Saylor argued that capital markets are absorbing enormous sums to fund AI infrastructure. He put the figure at about $400 billion over six months across data centers and chips.

Analysts peg 2026 capital budgets at the largest US tech firms above $600 billion. That scale gives his rotation argument some footing.

He cast the ETF redemptions as temporary repositioning, not a structural problem. MicroStrategy holds 843,706 Bitcoin at an average cost near $75,702, per Strategy’s record Bitcoin holdings.

That average now sits well above the market price. With Bitcoin near $64,000, the 843,706 coins are worth about $54 billion against a cost basis near $63.9 billion.

That leaves MicroStrategy about $10 billion underwater on the largest corporate Bitcoin treasury. The loss is unrealized, yet it pressures a stock that trades as a leveraged proxy for the token.

The strain is already visible. A June 1 filing shows Strategy sold 32 BTC to fund preferred-stock dividends, its first sale since 2022. The move was small, yet it showed those obligations now drawing on the same balance sheet.

“Capital markets are funding the AI buildout at historic scale: ~$400B over 6 months. Bitcoin ETFs have seen ~$4B of outflows since May 14, pressuring $BTC. This is a capital rotation, not a Bitcoin impairment. Volatility creates opportunity,” Michael Saylor indicated.

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The Dot-Com Echo

The framing carries an irony, give Michael Saylor rode the same dot-com wave that once broke his company.

MicroStrategy peaked at $333 on March 10, 2000, the day the Nasdaq Composite also topped out. The stock then fell from $260 to $86 on March 20, a one-day drop above 60%.

That restatement erased about $66 million in revenue and turned reported profits into losses. Saylor and two executives later paid roughly $11 million to settle fraud charges, without admitting wrongdoing.

Analysts at PFR Capital now explore a possibility where Saylor could rattle markets again.

“In March 2000, MicroStrategy…changed its revenue recognition method…investors started doubting the revenue, profits, accounting quality, and so on of other companies. What happened after that, everyone knows. So you could say MicroStrategy single-handedly crashed the entire market. 26 years have passed. Will MicroStrategy be able to replay its market-crashing magic? Let’s wait and see,” PFR Capital’s Jayson Hu posed.

The parallel is imperfect, however, since the 2000 collapse stemmed from accounting. The current bet rests on transparent, on-chain purchases.

Still, leverage and concentration leave MSTR shareholders exposed to sharp swings.

Competing Reads on the Outflows

However, not everyone shares Saylor’s calm. CNBC’s Mad Money host Jim Cramer weighed in as the selling spread. He had touted doomed “new economy” stocks days before the 2000 top.

“Saylor suboptimal move roiling Crypto. Some wags pondering it was only up in the 90s because of Saylor… Seems extreme but it is all i hear,” he noted.

Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas described the stretch bluntly, while noting lifetime ETF inflows still top $55 billion. May marked the heaviest Bitcoin ETF outflows of 2026.

The split reflects a broader trend, with hedge funds rotating away from Bitcoin as AI narratives draw liquidity.

The post Michael Saylor Calls Bitcoin Selloff an AI Rotation as MicroStrategy Sits $10 Billion Underwater appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Anthropic says its own AI is now accelerating AI development, an early signal of recursive self-improvement. Internal data shows Claude authored more than 80% of the code merged into the company’s production systems as of May 2026.

The disclosure came from the Anthropic Institute, which paired previously unreported internal data with public benchmarks. The findings point toward a future where AI systems could design and build their own successors.

Anthropic Data Points to Recursive Self-Improvement as Claude Writes 80% of Its Code

Before its in-house coding agent rolled out in February 2025, Claude wrote only low single-digit percentages of merged code, the report states. That share now exceeds 80%.

The output gain is steep. Anthropic’s typical engineer merged eight times as much code per day in the second quarter of 2026 as in 2024. The human now directs and reviews while Claude does the writing.

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The Judgment Gap is Closing

Anthropic runs the same test on every model. It hands the AI code that trains a small model and asks it to run faster. Claude Opus 4 averaged a 3x speedup in May 2025.

By April 2026, its Mythos Preview model reached 52x. A skilled human needs four to eight hours to hit 4x.

Research judgment is harder to automate. Shown a session before a researcher took a wrong turn, Mythos Preview picked a better next step 64% of the time, up from 51% for Opus 4.5 in November 2025.

“Claude-written code was somewhat worse than human-written code at Anthropic in late 2025, is roughly at parity today, and we expect it to be strictly better within the year,” read an excerpt in the report.

Why it Matters Beyond Anthropic

The company frames the trend as a possible path to recursive self-improvement, where AI builds its own successor.

It cautions that Claude has not yet shown the research taste to choose which problems matter most.

The stakes are commercial too. Anthropic recently submitted a confidential IPO registration and has built its brand around safety.

Faster development also feeds the broader crypto industry AI pivot, where autonomous AI agents in crypto execute trades and on-chain tasks.

The curve continuing to bend or flattening into an S-curve will decide how soon, if ever, AI starts building its own successor.

Elsewhere, reports also indicate that Anthropic’s sector rival, OpenAI, is seeing remarkable progress with its own AI, ChatGPT, said to be registering growth of its own.

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The post Anthropic Admits AI Is Learning to Build Better AI Faster Than Expected appeared first on BeInCrypto.

On June 3, Mastercard, the leading payment company, announced that it is increasing settlement options by integrating its connections with various blockchain networks like XRP Ledger (XRPL).

The main purpose of this announcement is to introduce settlements that can be executed at any time of day. This integration will support money transfers that need to be executed on the same day.

Mastercard’s Master Plan for Always-On Payments

According to the press release, the leading payment network will add new settlement options. By using these new options, users will be able to process transactions on the same day, be it a weekend, or a holiday.

These options will provide support for both traditional fiat currencies and stablecoins. Stablecoins are digital assets pegged to underlying assets like USD, which are issued on the blockchain network. Amid positive regulatory developments in the U.S., the Fintech sector is rushing to integrate this blockchain-based digital asset.

By expanding new capabilities, Mastercard’s partner will be able to handle their cash transactions in a better way. It will give them a flexible option to settle transactions. Also, there will be no disruption to the existing system.

Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president, Blockchain & Digital Assets at Mastercard, stated in the press release, “The next phase of stablecoin adoption is about real-world utility, especially in settlement, where timing and liquidity matter most. By introducing intraday and weekend on settlement options across our global network, we’re expanding how partners manage liquidity and operate in an always-on digital economy while maintaining the trust, resilience, and safeguards they expect from Mastercard.”

Jack McDonald, senior vice president, Stablecoins, Ripple, said that, “Mastercard’s move into on-chain settlement is a landmark validation that blockchain technology is ready for the world’s most critical payment infrastructure. RLUSD’s inclusion in Mastercard’s global settlement network reflects growing demand for trusted, regulated stablecoins built for real-world financial use cases on public blockchains like the XRP Ledger.”

This initiative will help Mastercard’s partners to manage their money in more effective ways by giving them more options to settle their transactions. During this, it will not affect existing processes. The new options are created for various use cases, including cross-border payments, treasury operations, and payouts.

According to the official announcement, Mastercard will integrate support for popular regulated stablecoins, such as Circle’s USDC, Paxos-issued PYUSD, USDG, USDP, Ripple’s RLUSD, and SoFiUSD.

The platform will leverage various blockchains to boost stablecoin operations, including Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Canton, Tempo, and XRP Ledger.

Kash Razzaghi, chief commercial officer, Circle, said, “Mastercard’s expanded settlement capabilities help meet that need, offering greater choice in how value is transferred and settled. We’re proud to support these efforts through USDC and help advance the use of regulated stablecoins in global payments.” 

Stablecoin Soars Above $320 Billion: Visa, PayPal, CashApp Lead Adoption

After the approval of the GENIUS Act in 2025 and the ongoing development of the CLARITY Act, the overall stablecoin market has witnessed impressive growth. The overall market capitalization of stablecoins has soared to around $320 billion, according to DeFiLIama.

According to Visa’s official report, the annual transaction volume soared above $33 trillion in 2025, which was more than the transactions recorded by major card networks such as Visa and Mastercard.

Major financial companies are integrating stablecoins to enhance their digital payments, cross-border transactions, and other services. Visa has also expanded its stablecoin settlement platforms to work on various blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Stellar, and Avalanche. Visa is also supporting stablecoins such as PYUSD and USDG. PayPal has rolled out its own stablecoin, PYUSD, which allows users to send and receive anywhere in the world. Cash App, a platform owned by Block, has recently announced that it is adding support for USDC across various blockchains. 

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, plunged 3.3% before the opening bell in the U.S. market on Tuesday, currently trading at $68,836. The sell-off can be linked to several catalysts, including geopolitical tension, ETF outflow, and institutions selling. Market data also highlighted cascading liquidation and breakdown below key support as additional pressure in the Bitcoin price correction.

Key Reasons Why Bitcoin Price Extended Correction below $70k

Within a month, the Bitcoin price has tumbled from $82,458 to its current trading value of $69,336, accounting for a loss of 15.74%. Consequently, the asset’s market cap dropped to $1.39 trillion. The pullback gained its momentum due to a couple of reasons, mentioned below:

Institutional Demand Weakens Amid 11-Day ETF Selling Streak

A primary catalyst behind this directional downtrend is constant outflow from the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), indicating a slowdown in institutional demand and direct selling pressure. The market suffered 11 consecutive trading days of net outflows heading into June, draining a massive $3.45 billion in liquidity from the system. This has shaken the reliable institutional buy wall that had previously sustained higher prices.

Middle East Tensions Trigger Risk-Off Sentiment in Crypto

Another factor that triggered a sudden shift in market sentiment is escalating geopolitical tension in the Middle East. Just yesterday, Iran announced that they are ending all negotiations with the U.S., following the constant violation of ceasefire agreements, including Israel’s attack on Lebanon.

The decision pushed Brent crude oil futures back to $95 per barrel on Monday, triggering energy inflation concerns and a more hawkish rate decision from the Federal Reserve.

Michael Saylor-Led Strategy Sells 32 BTC Worth $2.5 Million

In a recent regulatory filing, Michael Saylor-led Strategy disclosed the sale of 32 Bitcoin valued at approximately $2.5 million. The amount sold is just a fraction of the company’s massive 843,000 BTC reserves, the largest corporate Bitcoin holding in the world to date. 

Although the sale was relatively small, it caught market participants off guard because it was Saylor’s first Bitcoin divestment announced since 2022, which created uncertainty among investors used to the firm’s accumulation-first mentality.

Mt. Gox Wallet Activity Sparks Fresh Selling Pressure Fears

Bitcoin linked to the Mt. Gox bankruptcy estate was reactivated after 116.3 BTC worth of about $8.25 million was moved from a dormant cold wallet to a wallet address where transactions are processed. 

The on-chain data also showed there was a smaller transaction launched to cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp, which is seen as a sign of a larger fund transfer. The most recent transfer comes as the continuity of the trustee’s role to manage the repayment of creditors, with around 34,500 BTC remaining in estate-controlled wallets. 

These transfers are being closely followed by market participants, as former transfers to Mt. Gox reserve addresses have frequently been followed by inflows of bitcoins to exchanges, increasing the circulating supply of the tokens.

Bitcoin Price Breakdown Below a Multi-Month Recovery Trend.

Today, the Bitcoin price plugged 3.3%, triggering a long liquidation of roughly $270 million, according to Coinglass data. This price drop offered a suitable follow-up to yesterday’s breakdown below a support trendline of the channel pattern in the daily timeframe chart. 

Since early February 2026, the Bitcoin price activity resonated within the channel’s two parallel trendlines, maintaining a steady recovery trend. However, the recent breakdown suggests that the previous recovery acted as a temporary relief rally before the sellers regroup to extend the prevailing downtrend.

With sustained selling, the Bitcoin price could slip to $65,204, followed by its next support at $59,867.

Standard Chartered’s head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, has outlined three specific scenarios that stand between Bitcoin and a new market low — a sobering analysis arriving as Bitcoin trades near $62,562, its lowest level since the February lows, and ETF outflows reach historically severe levels, according to a CoinDesk report.

The analysis from one of the most closely watched institutional voices in crypto arrives as the broader market absorbs a brutal string of data points. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $1.42 billion in outflows for the week ending May 29 — the third-worst weekly result in history — with total outflows over the preceding three weeks exceeding $4.21 billion, per Bitcoin Foundation’s tracking of ETF flow data.

Bitcoin has simultaneously fallen to the lower boundary of the Power Law corridor, a long-term valuation model that plots price against time on a logarithmic scale, with the Power Law Oscillator dropping to 4.4% — meaning Bitcoin is priced cheaper than 95.6% of historical readings relative to its long-term trend.

The Three Conditions For The Bitcoin Price

According to CoinDesk’s report of Kendrick’s analysis, the three “ifs” that could tip Bitcoin toward a new market low center on the intersection of macro forces, institutional flows, and market structure — rather than any crypto-specific catalyst. The first is whether ETF outflows continue accelerating beyond current levels, removing the institutional demand layer that has been the primary structural support for Bitcoin since January 2024.

The second is whether the Federal Reserve’s June and July meetings deliver a hawkish surprise — specifically if the dot plot fails to signal rate cuts, removing a key tailwind the market has been pricing in. The third is whether Bitcoin dominance — currently above 60% — breaks below the 52–54% range, a level that historically signals broad-based crypto selling rather than Bitcoin-specific rotation, per Standard Chartered’s prior framework as reported by CoinDesk.

The Contrarian Signal Inside The Warning

Kendrick’s three-ifs framework is not a straightforward bear call — it is a risk-mapping exercise from an analyst who remains constructive on Bitcoin’s year-end trajectory. According to CoinDesk’s report, Kendrick told clients directly: “I think when we look back at the end of 2026 with BTC at $100k and ETH at $4k we will say this was the buying zone we all wanted.” The bank’s year-end Bitcoin target remains $100,000, per its February 2026 revised forecast — a level that would require a 60% recovery from current prices.

The observation that Bitcoin is trading near its 200-week simple moving average is central to Standard Chartered’s framing. Previous bear markets ended around the same moving average, per CoinDesk’s chart analysis — a historical pattern that, while not a guarantee, supports Kendrick’s view that the market may be closer to a bottom than a breakdown.

This development marks a critical juncture for Bitcoin in the current cycle. Standard Chartered’s three-condition framework offers both a warning and a map — and the next few weeks of ETF flow data, Fed signaling, and dominance metrics will determine which scenario actually plays out.

As of this writing, Bitcoin trades at around $62,562, testing levels that have historically preceded either a sustained recovery or a final capitulation flush.

Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

Crypto analyst Crypto Patel has made a bullish case for Solana, explaining why it is time to start paying attention to the crypto asset. This came as he noted that SOL has printed 8 consecutive red monthly candles for the first time in its history. 

Why It Is Time To Start Paying Attention To Solana

In an X post, Crypto Patel stated that Solana had just printed 8 consecutive red monthly candles in its existence and that this is worth paying attention to. He reiterated that this has never happened and then cited the 2021 bear cycle to explain why this could be significant for SOL. The analyst noted that back then, SOL crashed to around $8 after it topped at its all-time high (ATH) of $260 in November 2021. 

Crypto Patel mentioned that the 2021 bear phase also produced 9 red monthly candles, but that they were not consecutive. The 9th red candle is said to have marked the exact bottom at $8. Following the bear market bottom, SOL then went on to record a brand new ATH near $295 over the following years. 

The analyst noted that the current setup appears different and arguably stronger, with SOL forming 8 consecutive red candles, from a high of $253 down to a low of $67, and now the 9th monthly red candle is forming. He said that market participants have to wait for this month’s close before confirming anything, but that history has provided a familiar map. 

Crypto Patel further explained that if the 9th candle plays out as in the last bear cycle, it would signal a potential macro accumulation zone. He highlighted the $80 to $50 zone as the accumulation range to watch if the price extends lower. Meanwhile, if the fractal repeats itself, the analyst predicts that SOL could rally to a new ATH between $500 and $1,000. 

SOL Likely Heading Back To $67

In an X post, crypto analyst Jack Adams stated that he is almost certain that Solana is heading back to retest between $67 and $58 once more before it reverses to between $120 and $175 this year. He also mentioned that, based on the SOL/BTC and ETH charts, the crash should happen quickly rather than a slow bleed with regard to the buy zone. 

Meanwhile, the analyst declared that the key monthly zone is within reach before the next bull cycle happens. He made this statement based on the previous monthly wicks and the area where it got heavily rejected earlier this year. SOL has notably suffered one of the largest crashes as the Bitcoin price extends its decline. 

At the time of writing, the Solana price is trading at around $70, down over 5% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.